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Trinity RPG - Pronouncing Names


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I only speak English so it can be a little hard pronouncing certain names and words in Trinity. This didn't truly accur to me until I was reading the page on Nordamerican slang in America Offline. It basically said "Dumbass Americans pronounce Norca as Norka" I thought to my myself "Well, guess I'm a dumbass!"

So how does one properly pronounce Norca? And how would I get the proper "c" with the little twirl at the bottom to appear through typing?

Should the "w" in Zweidler be pronounced as a "v"? This one seemed obvious to me but I hope I'm getting it right.

And is Bue pronounced "boo" or "boo-ay" or something else? I'm usually good with figuring most Asian names out (thanks to years of Japanese and Chinese characters in video games) but I can't figure this one out since I've never heard it.

And if you're having trouble with a name feel free to bring it up so I don't look stupid o_o

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I only speak English so it can be a little hard pronouncing certain names and words in Trinity.  This didn't truly accur to me until I was reading the page on Nordamerican slang in America Offline.  It basically said "Dumbass Americans pronounce Norca as Norka"  I thought to my myself "Well, guess I'm a dumbass!"

So how does one properly pronounce Norca?  And how would I get the proper "c" with the little twirl at the bottom to appear through typing?

The ç (Alt-135) is always pronounced as an "s." So it sounds like "Norsa." After all, it's short for "Nova Fôrça de Nacionales" (New National Force), and you don't pronounce "force" as "fork," right? ::biggrin

Should the "w" in Zweidler be pronounced as a "v"?  This one seemed obvious to me but I hope I'm getting it right.

While I think Zweidler himself would use a "v," I think it's acceptable for everyone else to pronounce it with a "w." Volkswagen is technically supposed to be pronounced Folksvagen, but that doesn't render the Nordamerican pronounciation any less valid.

And is Bue pronounced "boo" or "boo-ay" or something else?  I'm usually good with figuring most Asian names out (thanks to years of Japanese and Chinese characters in video games) but I can't figure this one out since I've never heard it.

That's 'cause she's from the Philippines. I believe it's just "boo."

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Volkswagen is technically supposed to be pronounced Folksvagen, but that doesn't render the Nordamerican pronounciation any less valid.

Just less correct. ::unsure ::tongue

While we're on the subject of Bue Li (kinda) what does she look like? I've seen pictures of every proxy except for her.

Yeah, this is one of those cases where the answer is a lot more complicated than the question would imply..

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Yeah, this is one of those cases where the answer is a lot more complicated than the question would imply..

I know about her special "condition" from Asia Ascendant. But what did her old body look like? They show pictures of every proxy except her. Very strange...of course now I guess it doesn't matter does it? Hehe.

Also how does one say Beaulac?

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Divis is a sprawling moorland to the north of Belfast, but I dont think that this is what he is implying with his name.

Mal could be a historical reference to Mal, the high king of Ireland, this would make my reference of his name more understandable.

Divis could also be short for divinum (Im not that good at Latin so this might be wrong) and Mal for malafecium, witch would then translate to something like Divine Evil, or Justified Evil.

Caestus means, ironicly perhaps, boxing glove.

Pax means peace and is, as well, the goodess of peace in ancient Rome.

These two would then translate to Boxing glove of peace (or perhaps fist of/for peace).

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How about Sophia Rousseau's last name?

Ruh-so. ::cool

When I ran Aberrant, I always got asked about the names of Divis Mal and Caestus Pax. My players wanted to know if they were referenced from somewhere and frankly I do too! Was there any mention in the material?

Yeah, I think those are Latin for Evil God and Fist of Peace (respectively). I'm no authority either, though.

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Ruh-so. ::cool

Not quite. More like Roo-soh.

For the record, I've discussed the likely meanings behind a lot of words and names, including Divis Mal and Max Mercer, on the White Wolf Wiki.

Haven't gotten to Caestus Pax yet, but caestus (or cestus) is "A covering for the hand made of leather straps weighted with iron or lead and worn by boxers in ancient Rome." Latin caestus, from caedere, to strike. Sort of a gauntlet.

Pax is obviously peace. So Caestus Pax is the Mailed Fist of Peace.

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Okay, okay...Khantze Lu Ge.

I say it like cant-zee-loo-gee, or something like that.

One of the IC pieces in Trinity Battleground calls it "Can't Say Lu Ge." I suggest it goes something like KANT-zay LOO GAY, although I obviously don't speak any of the Chinese dialects, so take that with a grain of salt.

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Yes that is how i've read Caestus Pax, Mailed Fist of Peace.

While still under this topic i'd like to ask how to pronounce the Norca division Names from Terra Verde. I have a 'Valientes de uhm..' or something in a group, i'd hate to think that i will never correctly pronounce some of these words. Additionally, the NCE name for hong kong - xiangiang or some such, (sorry, no access to books.) has my tongue tied. Any portuguese/spanish/chinese tuition would be appreciated. I can remember a condition called petite mal, but i don't know what the mal in it means (i guess petite is short/small in french or some romantic dialect?).

Oh, and i believe battleground gives Khantze Lu Ge as KAN-tsee Loo Gay, but i could be corrected (as above, i still don't have my books).

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  • 2 weeks later...

1) Bue is pronounced "boo-ey" (as per AA; just keep in mind that all vowels are pronounced). As a side note, almost all of her pictures prior to becoming proxy have disappeared, and no one seems to remember what she looks like.

2) Valientes would be "val-i-en-tes".

FR

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1) Bue is pronounced "boo-ey" (as per AA; just keep in mind that all vowels are pronounced). As a side note, almost all of her pictures prior to becoming proxy have disappeared, and no one seems to remember what she looks like.

Not all vowels are pronounced in every name. For instance, Robert Wei from the Darkness Revealed trilogy. Wei is pronounced like "way" in this case, not "weh-ee" (or what have you), because E and I are used as one vowel sound that doesn't exist as a single letter in English. It's hard to figure the Japanese-to-English and Chinese-to-English translations at times. You have to understand how they're translated and even though I've tried to understand completely I still get lost.

On the subject of Bue's mysterious performance, I'm sure that the people of Trinity's Earth know what she looks like. She might not make very many public appearances, but she has made them before. There was her first public appearance when the psions first addressed the world about thier existence. Then there were various appearances until she started getting sick. Then she still made appearances from time to time, which people would remember because it was becoming a rarity.

My guess is that the White Wolf staff working on Trinity couldn't find a 40+ year old Asian lady to pose for a photo. I heard every proxy's appearance was based on a real person.

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  • 2 months later...

From my own limited study of Chinese Bue Li's name would be pronounced Boo, even though that doesn't give it justice for vowel intonation. English very often adds extra vowels to foreign words to show diphthongs in pronunciation, often making it much harder to understand how to say it.

And also I think Khantze would be pronounced Khan (like the Mongol larders) tzeh... or... Khantz with the e silent. Not entirely sure, but fairly certain it's not actually Kant-ze.

Though on either translation I could very easily be wrong.

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1) KLG has already been dealt with in the books.

2) Also, as per the books, "Bue" IIRC is "Bu-eh". And no one remembers what she looks like; even vids of her have disappared.

3) The photos of the various proxies (and those from A!) aren't just real people, but WW staffers. I just can't remember which ones...

FR

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Actually, is that Bue on the Player's Guide cover? I assumed it was because it wouldn't make sense to show Bhurano on the cover, and the face looks Asian to me. That seems to be the only picture of Bue in existence!

And it isn't possible for all video recordings of her to have been deleted. It just isn't. If someone records her and puts the video on their comp or onto some datafile how would the Ministry know to destroy it, and how would they go about doing so? Especially considering millions of people probably have video footage of her on their comp or on some datafile. The OpNet doesn't connect everywhere at once, it's a series of seperate networks so it's doubtful that every video of her (or even a slight majority) could be deleted through it. Plus what of her first statement to the public with the other proxies? Wouldn't people notice if that was missing? That's a major historical event. Not to mention all of the dialogue in the books over how no one has seen her (before and after her death) "lately", meaning that they would still know what she looked like, since they'll need to know what she looks like in order to realize they haven't seen her lately.

And no doubt the major corporations and the orders and Trinity know exactly what she looks like. And if you're a telepath with the Ministry it wouldn't make sense to not know what she looks like since she's your leader. I'm sure everyone knows what she looks like at least a little bit. Before she died she still made public appearances, even if they were infrequent and brief. I don't think she's powerful enough to use telepathy on the entire world and make everyone forget what she looks like. I don't even think a Doyen is that powerful. If they were, they wouldn't need to use psions at all...they could just mentally manipulate everyone into thier slaves.

And I'm sure everyone around the world would one day say to themselves "Hey, why can't I remember what she looks like?!"

I wish WW would have explained this better, because I don't remember reading in any of the books about how no one knows what she looks like. I also don't remember reading about how all footage of her has been destoyed. I do remember reading about how all records of her existence previous to becoming proxy were destroyed though.

Or maybe I missed a paragraph or two?

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And you've been telepathically tricked into ignoring your own last sentence!

I also don't remember reading about how all footage of her has been destoyed. I do remember reading about how all records of her existence previous to becoming proxy were destroyed though.

How else can you recall that all records have been destroyed, but not count footage as records?

Semi-seriously: Aeon, and others, have wondered about how no one seems to recall that. There has been some postulating about her mastery of Telepathy allowing it (she is the proxy, after all).

FR

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And you've been telepathically tricked into ignoring your own last sentence!

How else can you recall that all records have been destroyed, but not count footage as records?

I meant that the records of her life from the days before she was a proxy are gone. But there's no way everything from after she went public could be erased from the world.

Semi-seriously: Aeon, and others, have wondered about how no one seems to recall that. There has been some postulating about her mastery of Telepathy allowing it (she is the proxy, after all).

Which book is this in? I'm starting a campaign soon with a Ministry telepath player and need to know o_o

*is confused*

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Sorry I didn't see this one before... My sister is named Solveig, so I guess I should know. ::biggrin Now, how to explain it...?

The first part - 'Sol' - is the hardest to explain. I can't think of any english word where the 'o' is pronounced the right way, but the german 'u' is pretty close.

The second part - 'veig' - is pronounced sort of like 'way', only with a 'v'

So.. er.. did that help?

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  • 4 weeks later...

This may not be entirely on topic, but "Nyumba" is Swahili for "house" or "home." The "Far" part doesn't translate as far as I can find, so I'm thinking it's in English. So...Far Home.

Also, Karroo is the name of a region in South Africa. I don't know what it means yet, but I haven't looked either.

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