The following is a list of mispronounced or misused Starcraft terms. If you pride yourself a pedant, you probably already know these things. If you don't, then you probably won't care, which leads me to question why I bothered typing this.
Units and Buildings
Archon More trivia than misuse, Archon derives from the Greek word ἄρχων, meaning ruler. Its plural can either be the Anglicized archons, or the rarely used but nevertheless awesome Hellenic arkhontes (ἄρχοντες).
Baneling The centrifugal hooks upgrade can be pronounced as either "sen-trih-fyoo-guhl" or "sen-trih-fuh-guhl," the former being preferred in Commonwealth English, the latter in American English. Even though a related word, centrifuge, is pronounced "sen-tri-fyoozh" by both dialects, "sen-tri-fyoo-zhal" is incorrect. All these words take their name form a constructed Latin word meaning to flee the center, which is to say, rotate. Hence, the banelings spin around in circles after evolving their centrifugal hooks.
Colossus It is traditional in English to maintain the Latinate plural in words derived from Latin, even if the word itself has origins other than Latin. Colossus, although ultimately derived from Greek kolossos (κολοσσός), entered English through Latin and is normally pluralized as colossi. Some forum users have suggested "colossodes" κολοσσοδες as a more authentic Greek plural, similar to how octopus (ὀκτώπους) can be pluralized as octopodes (ὀκτώποδες). The problem with this, however, is that ὀκτώπους is a third declension noun, whereas κολοσσός is a second declension noun. Therefore, following proper grammar, a more authentic plural of colossus would be colossoi (κολοσσοί), which would be pronounced "co-lo-see," similar to the Colosseum, a word with which it shares an etymology. Colossuses is an acceptable, if less common, English alternative with colossi being the preferred form.
Medivac This is a bit of an error on Blizzard's part. The Rod of Asclepius is a symbol associated with the Greek god of healing, Asclepius. It is a staff encircled by a single snake, and because of its origins has come to symbolize medicine. The caduceus, on the other hand, is the staff of Hermes in Greek mythology. It features a winged rod entwined by two snakes. As Hermes was the patron, of, among other things, commerce, his staff was historically associated with commerce and exchange. However, in North America, errors made over a century ago have led to the Caduceus, not the Rod of Asclepius becoming known as the symbol for medicine, where it is often seen on ambulances, in hospitals, and on medical equipment. So, the intention of the upgrade name was to be a reference to the healing capabilities of the medivac, however, the game, being created by North Americans, ended up with a botched name due to a common misconception. The upgrade is pronounced "cuh-doo-see-us."
Nexus Nexus is a Latin word meaning something which binds. It is a fourth declension noun, therefore its plural is nexus, not nexi. So, the phrase "both his nexus were sniped" is correct, but could lead to confusion amongst uneducated or nonnative speakers. Thus, the English plural nexuses is equally correct and generally preferred for the sake of clarity.
Overlord Pneumatized carapace is pronounced "noo-ma-taizd." The Greek root pneuma means air, and pneumatized means to be filled with air, which evidently increases the speed of the overlord.
Queen Larvae, the plural of larva, is pronounced "lar-vee." "Lar-vai" would be correct in classical Latin, but as it is a Neo Latin construction, "lar-vai" would generally be considered a hypercorrection.
Raven Though rarely mispronounced, the corvid reactor upgrade often misunderstood. Corvus is the Latin word for Raven; corvids are members of the taxonomic family Corvidae, which includes birds such as crows and ravens.
Roach The glial reconstitution upgrade can be correctly pronounced "glee-al" or "glai-al." Also known as neuroglia, glial cells are cells that take their name from the Greek word for glue, and act similarly, surrounding and assisting neurons in the nervous system. How reconstituting such cells would increase a roach's physical movement speed defies explanation.
Stalker The simple past tense of blink is blinked. "Blunk," or worse yet, "blunked" are nonstandard.
Ultralisk The chitinous plating upgrade is pronounced "kai-tin-us." Chitin is the sugar that makes up the shells of crustaceans, insects, and other arthropods.
Zealot The first syllables of zealot, zealotry, and zealous, and zealousness all rhyme with the word gel. The second syllables are unstressed, rhyming with gut or pus. The word zeal rhymes with the word heel. Thusly, one could say that the "zel-uts" were attacking with great "zeel," but not that the "zee-lots" were attacking with great "zel."
Zerg Zerg armor is correctly pronounced "cayr-uh-pays," not "cayr-uh-pus." Oddly, buildings have "building armor" instead of carapace.
Players
BRAT_OK Pronounced "bra-tock," not "brat-oh-kay"
HasHe Pronounced as "hash"
Idra The first syllable rhymes with "lid," not "eye." The latter pronunciation was popularized by Artosis, who enjoys the power he gets from naming things.
KawaiiRice Pronounced "Ka-why-ee," which means cute in Japanese.
Marine King Prime is his team, Marine King is his ID. Keeping them together as Marine King Prime (MKP) is an awkward construction that could become confusing should he ever leave his team.
Sjow Pronounced like "show," the j is similar in function to the j in fjord.
Socke Socke is the German word for sock. In German, it is pronounced "zock-uh." "Sock-ee," "sock-uh," and "sock" are all incorrect, however the latter's usage could be justified as a translation.
xiaOt Pronounced "Shee-ow Tee," with the first "ee" sound voiced only briefly. It means "Small T."
The "x" consonant does not sound like "sh." In fact "sh" is another consonant. You can't get more specific with pingying, unless you put the tone in as a numeral after or with accents.
Medivac As Hermes was the patron, of, among other things, commerce, his staff was historically associated with commerce and exchange. However, in North America, errors made over a century ago have led to the Caduceus, not the Rod of Asclepius becoming known as the symbol for medicine, where it is often seen on ambulances, in hospitals, and on medical equipment.
Anyone else find this extremely fitting, considering the state of american healthcare? :/
While we are at it, how would you pronounce Antimage? I've always said mage with a softer g sound, but people were telling me that mages should rhyme with pages.
Glial cells often take up neurotransmitters so the signal do not persist. For example drugs blocking the reuptake of dopamine, would magnify the effects of dopamine as it would persist in the post synaptic cleft. Thus if there's a glial constitution, it might be that the glial cells which takeup the alien neurotransmitter for the motor neuron cells are changed such that muscle contractions are stronger or faster.
On June 19 2011 12:07 Gheed wrote: Baneling The centrifugal hooks upgrade can be pronounced as either "sen-trih-fyoo-guhl" or "sen-trih-fuh-guhl," the former being preferred in Commonwealth English, the latter in American English.
This part confused me. I have never heard anyone pronounce it the second way. "fuh-guhl" sounds really awkward to me, and I live in the U.S. Are you sure you didn't confuse former and latter? I'm thinking if maybe it is more common in England. Although it could just be another part of the U.S.
I love this, its a huge pet peeve of mine when things are pronounced incorrectly. And now I know I've pronounced a few things incorrectly as well. Super informative, 5/5.
On June 19 2011 12:18 The_LiNk wrote: The "x" consonant does not sound like "sh." In fact "sh" is another consonant. You can't get more specific with pingying, unless you put the tone in as a numeral after or with accents.
shiaow - T or siaow - T would suffice, depending on the accent and region. It's romanised, don't need to worry about being exact about pinyins as long as non-Chinese educated people can understand.
Moreover, anyone might be confused by the pinyin, who knows enough to be confused between an x and a sh won't need help pronuncing xiaoT.
Interesting thread, thanks. Also illustrated the reasons why English and it's writing system is so horribly irregular (messed up).
Well, this is a mess. Goto translate.google.com -Translate 'sock' from English to German, play audio. That's it. -Translate 'seven' from English to Swedish, play audio. That's the way the Sj is pronounced in Sjow.
The ZEEEEEEELot is the one that definitely bugs me the most - and the awful part is, I've heard it so often that I say ZEElot once in a while and I feel like a moron if I don't catch myself.
I think that being a game and assuming most of the names are fictional, I allow some sense of creative liberties for sake of community. Communities and cultures tend to create their own, for lack of a better word, lingo. Thus "blunk" while not being proper English, can still be a correct term.
This seems to be more of pronunciation thread, but the way "map control" and "map vision" are misused and abused really gets to me. It seems like the term "map vision" has fallen off for some reason and now "map control" is used for both, which is dumb, because they are clearly two distinct things.
This thread has a full discussion of the difference, but in short they aren't that same. Think mutalisks provide "map control," observers provide "map vision."
On June 19 2011 12:07 Gheed wrote: Baneling The centrifugal hooks upgrade can be pronounced as either "sen-trih-fyoo-guhl" or "sen-trih-fuh-guhl," the former being preferred in Commonwealth English, the latter in American English.
This part confused me. I have never heard anyone pronounce it the second way. "fuh-guhl" sounds really awkward to me, and I live in the U.S. Are you sure you didn't confuse former and latter? I'm thinking if maybe it is more common in England. Although it could just be another part of the U.S.
Anyways, great read. ^_^
i think the fuh-guhl part would come from centrif-ugle like the word ugly but more of ucle sound i guess
EPT
