Thuum.org

A community for the dragon language of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Thuum.org

A community for the dragon language of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Concerning the pronunciation of "hi"...

 1 

Tiber II
August 26, 2017

In Skyrim, if I remember correctly, Alduin pronounces this word (the pronoun "you") as 'hai', with the vowel being like the English word "eye", in the sentence "Ful, losei Dovahkiin? Zu'u koraav nid nol dov do hi." (when he is resurrecting Saloknir, if you're curious).

But on this site, according to the section on pronunciation, this would be pronounced "hee". This reiterated in the pronouns section, though it claims the  worde "hi" is non-canon, when Alduin uses it himself in the game. And I mean, it's not like the Firstborn of Akatosh and overlord of almost all the dragons is likely to blunder on the Dovahzul pronunciation of one of the most common words in pretty much every language is it? It would be like the Queen accidentally mispronouning the word "you" as "yow."

Any thoughts on this? Was it an isolated oversight by the game developers, or is the community here pronouncing the word incorrectly? Or do pronouns perhaps not obey the same pronunciation rules as the phonetic alphabet? 

 

by Tiber II
August 26, 2017

In Skyrim, if I remember correctly, Alduin pronounces this word (the pronoun "you") as 'hai', with the vowel being like the English word "eye", in the sentence "Ful, losei Dovahkiin? Zu'u koraav nid nol dov do hi." (when he is resurrecting Saloknir, if you're curious).

But on this site, according to the section on pronunciation, this would be pronounced "hee". This reiterated in the pronouns section, though it claims the  worde "hi" is non-canon, when Alduin uses it himself in the game. And I mean, it's not like the Firstborn of Akatosh and overlord of almost all the dragons is likely to blunder on the Dovahzul pronunciation of one of the most common words in pretty much every language is it? It would be like the Queen accidentally mispronouning the word "you" as "yow."

Any thoughts on this? Was it an isolated oversight by the game developers, or is the community here pronouncing the word incorrectly? Or do pronouns perhaps not obey the same pronunciation rules as the phonetic alphabet? 

 


Liis
Administrator
August 27, 2017
It's a common belief that the voice actors have simply made mistakes as they do. The letter "I" is always pronounced "ee" in other words, so it seems evident that the English-speaking voice actor pronounced "hi" as he has always pronounced it.
by Liis
August 27, 2017
It's a common belief that the voice actors have simply made mistakes as they do. The letter "I" is always pronounced "ee" in other words, so it seems evident that the English-speaking voice actor pronounced "hi" as he has always pronounced it.

Frinmulaar
August 27, 2017

"in the pronouns section, though it claims the word "hi" is non-canon, when Alduin uses it himself in the game."

You are looking at the subject pronoun or one of the other usages that do not appear in the game. The only examples of hi we ever hear would be object forms in English.

by Frinmulaar
August 27, 2017

"in the pronouns section, though it claims the word "hi" is non-canon, when Alduin uses it himself in the game."

You are looking at the subject pronoun or one of the other usages that do not appear in the game. The only examples of hi we ever hear would be object forms in English.


Tiber II
August 27, 2017
Liis
It's a common belief that the voice actors have simply made mistakes as they do. The letter "I" is always pronounced "ee" in other words, so it seems evident that the English-speaking voice actor pronounced "hi" as he has always pronounced it.

But do we have any reliable reason to believe that I is always ee? Is that just something that the community made up, or is it based on canon information? Could there be a rule we aren't aware of, could it be that it's an instance of one of those words that crop up in some languages that are inexplicably pronounced counter-intuitively? Consider the English words "shall" and "call" being pronounced differently for no reason other than convention, despite the fact that you would expect them to obey the same rules based on spelling. 

I understand that the community needs to establish rules and fill in gaps, but should we establish rules that appear to contradict canon, in-game spoken dovahzul?

by Tiber II
August 27, 2017
Liis
It's a common belief that the voice actors have simply made mistakes as they do. The letter "I" is always pronounced "ee" in other words, so it seems evident that the English-speaking voice actor pronounced "hi" as he has always pronounced it.

But do we have any reliable reason to believe that I is always ee? Is that just something that the community made up, or is it based on canon information? Could there be a rule we aren't aware of, could it be that it's an instance of one of those words that crop up in some languages that are inexplicably pronounced counter-intuitively? Consider the English words "shall" and "call" being pronounced differently for no reason other than convention, despite the fact that you would expect them to obey the same rules based on spelling. 

I understand that the community needs to establish rules and fill in gaps, but should we establish rules that appear to contradict canon, in-game spoken dovahzul?


Frinmulaar
August 28, 2017
In any case, it is good to remember that we will have to consider some lines as containing mistakes no matter what. For instance, in the same line as hi /hai/, Alduin renders do 'of' as /du/, making it a homophone with du 'devour' and contradicting the rendition of the Greybeards. Following canon even in clear cases like this would be inconvenient to say the least.
by Frinmulaar
August 28, 2017
In any case, it is good to remember that we will have to consider some lines as containing mistakes no matter what. For instance, in the same line as hi /hai/, Alduin renders do 'of' as /du/, making it a homophone with du 'devour' and contradicting the rendition of the Greybeards. Following canon even in clear cases like this would be inconvenient to say the least.

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