Things that went over your head...

[Dash Decent]

he's not a factory

Yeah, but what says Communist era five year gosplans, prison gulags, razor shortages, concrete slum blocks, salt mines and farming targets for the great and glorious good of the motherland better than 'tractor factory'?  It's unmistakenly Sov.  Which is why, as brilliant as Teskotroli is, the equally brilliant Skodamekanik gets over the line first.

[Dash Decent]

I always said Souther like mother too

That's because of your natural sense of how English pronunciation works.  Southerly, Southern, Souther.  It's what makes us all say "the little green pot" and never "the green little pot".

but then heard that a souther is a kind of wind and is pronounced like Leslie Crowther, which I think is how I said it on Eamonn's podcast.

I'd argue that just because there's a pre-existing word that's pronounced one way, it doesn't follow that if we use the same word for something else that it must also be said the same way.  I could equally argue there are southerly winds, so why shouldn't that inform our pronunciation?

I know I won't convince anyone, but 'South-er' is a car-crash in the mouth.  It's like pronouncing 'superlative' as 'super-lative' instead of 'sue-pearl-ative'.  You can hear the thrashing sounds as you crash through the gears.

But, they put it that way in the game so I guess it's official.  Just as Dredd was only ever Joe, until the 1995 movie called him Joseph, and it fed back into the source and it's been woven throughout since.

[Jim_Campbell]

I know I won't convince anyone, but 'South-er' is a car-crash in the mouth.  It's like pronouncing 'superlative' as 'super-lative' instead of 'sue-pearl-ative'.  You can hear the thrashing sounds as you crash through the gears.

It's weird, because I was—what?—twelve when Rogue debuted, and it literally never occurred to me that you would say the word any other way than "south-er".

If you want a verbal car crash... in Slaine, the Drune Lords slough their skins, so their title should logically be pronounced "Sluff" (and not as in the town in Berkshire)... but try saying "Slough Feg" pronouncing it correctly... "Slough Throt" isn't much better.

Just as Dredd was only ever Joe, until the 1995 movie called him Joseph, and it fed back into the source and it's been woven throughout since.

I have never understand the vexation that this caused. Dredd's name has always been Joseph, but we never heard anyone call him anything but Joe. My name is James, but only a handful of people in the last fifty-odd years have ever used it — basically bank managers, a couple of superiors in a couple of jobs, basically people who (for whatever reason) did not want to appear over-familiar. Oh, and my mum when I was in trouble, obviously.

My name appears in print as Jim, (almost) everyone calls me Jim, the only place it appears as James is on my passport, birth certificate and bank card.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I have similar experience. The nickname "Pops" stuck so thoroughly when I was younger, there are people in my home town that don't know my real name. Even now, my colleagues don't use my full name. I'm known as Big Dan. I'm not strikingly large or anything, just bigger than Wee Dan.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I'm not sure even Pat Mills wrote 'Slough' to be pronounced anything other than like the town where David Brent used to work.  It's always going to be 'Slow' for me either way up.

I've always pronounced 'Slaine' the Irish language way, not because I'm any expert at the tongue but because my dad, a graduate of an Irish-language school, saw the cover of Sláine's debut prog and read the word out. So that's what I, my brother and my friends said from then on.

Now I know prog-readers outside our little bubble, I feel a bit of a gobshite not pronouncing it 'Slane', as if I'm trying to make some kind of point. Like the foodie type my brother knows who insists on saying 'spaghetti bolloNYAYZEH'.


But I'm not breaking the habit of a lifetime, no matter how many times I hear Pat or others say 'Slane'.  On the other hand, we used to also say Slough FAYG, as if it was an Irish word spelled 'Fég', which it clearly isn't.  And it was only two years ago when I learned that Rudraige is the same name as Rory, and pronounced like it.

Sorry, I've just realised I've dragged this thread into the most done-to-death topic among Squaxxdom.

Now, Torquemada - three syllables or four? I waver from three to four and back every few years.

[Vector14]

Whatever way you first pronounced things in your head when you were a kid then that's always going to be the right way to pronounce it, no matter what the general consensus might be.

I'm Irish but I pronounce Slaine as "Slane".

Torquemada has always been four syllables for me.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Whatever way you first pronounced things in your head when you were a kid then that's always going to be the right way to pronounce it, no matter what the general consensus might be.

I'm Irish but I pronounce Slaine as "Slane".

Torquemada has always been four syllables for me.

I'm from near the hill and town of Slane, which is pronounced how it looks in English. However, in Irish it's Sláine, named after the real* King Sláine, who is buried there**.  So I think it's fair to pronounce it either way - one's just a translation of the other.

We used to get simplified versions of the old legends in our primary school books, complete with bad illustrations of lame-looking warrior types with skirts and Michael Bolton hairstyles.

When I began to realise that Sláine and his tribe were based on these characters, I began to picture them as Fabry types in Mad Max 2 leather and studs and they became much, much more interesting. Medb was a regular feature in the schoolbooks too, and was pictured on the pound note back then, but Fabry's lithe seductress was the real Medb for me.

 Even Crom Cruach was mentioned at school, iirc to establish how great St Patrick was for banishing him and his like, and I was just wishing that everyone else could see him as I did in my head.  St Paddy wouldn't have stood a chance..

Oh, and I found out about three years ago that Tlachtga is a hill within a few minutes' drive from my childhood home, as well as a disfigured Atlantean princess.  And I still don't know how to pronounce it.

*Possibly.

**Ditto.

[The Legendary Shark]

My youngling brain always processed it as slain - as in, that's how his enemies ended up.


JBC, apropos of nothing, I don't know if you are interested in alternative archaeological theories but, in case you are, you might find the following as entertaining as I did. Of course, I have no idea if it's genius or madness but it's a damned good yarn in any case.

Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett have developed their own methods of finding new historical truths. Rather than refer to other historians books, they work more like detectives looking at ancient maps, place names, church records etc. In 1990 they discovered what they believe to be the burial place of King Arthur. Their find is made convincing due to the elctrum cross (79% silver) which they discovered there with the inscription "Spirit of Arthur".

Their findings do not end there. They believe they have pin pointed the exact location of the Ark Of the Covenant, the most important religious object in the world.

(Spoiler - that location is in Wales...)

[Southstreeter]

It's always been SLUFF Feg, surely? I've never imagined it any other way.

[rogue69]

Torquemada will always be "Talk Amanda" to me after a very chatty girl I knew in the 90's

[Funt Solo]

I'm assuming everyone else pronounces Nort with a silent 't', as in "That were a terrible nor-wester, bain't it, Alfie?"

Rico Dredd is "R-eye-co", naturally. (Or, L-eye-co if you're Puerto Rican.)

Absalom - silent "ab", then "shalom"! (If Paranoia taught me anything, it's how to pronounce chutzpah.)

Synnamon is pronounced exactly like the spice, as you'd expect - so "canella".

I've no idea how to pronounce Tales of Telguuth, but I imagine that was the aim.


---


I read somewhere that "love" and "prove" used to rhyme, and the evidence is that Shakespeare rhymed them. Whether it was "luv" and "pruv", or "loove" and "proove", nobody knows. But - what if Shakespeare was just fucking with us?

[Jim_Campbell]

It's always been SLUFF Feg, surely? I've never imagined it any other way.

Have you tried saying that out loud...? It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

[Dandontdare]

I always said Souther like mother too

That's because of your natural sense of how English pronunciation works.  Southerly, Southern, Souther.  It's what makes us all say "the little green pot" and never "the green little pot".

but then heard that a souther is a kind of wind and is pronounced like Leslie Crowther, which I think is how I said it on Eamonn's podcast.

'Suther' always sounded wrong because it just evoked Sutherland, but as a proud Nort(hener), we knew all about that there SOUTH. And these were sci-fi words, not supposed to be familiar so on day one I went for South-er, and that's the hill I'll die on.

[sheridan]

I always said Souther like mother too

That's because of your natural sense of how English pronunciation works.  Southerly, Southern, Souther.  It's what makes us all say "the little green pot" and never "the green little pot".

That'll be the order of adjectives.

• quantity or number
• quality or opinion
• size
• age
• shape
• colour
• proper adjective (i.e. nationality, place of origin or material)
• purpose or qualifier

If there is more than one adjective from the same adjective group then you need to add 'and'.  So you can have a "big, green sign" or a "red and white sign"*, but not a "big and green sign" or a "red, white sign".

* like a barber's shop.

[sheridan]

p.s. 'really' would be from the second group, so you can have 'really big' item.