Pronunciations of Kilrathi

Mjr. Whoopass

<FONT color=lightblue><B>I was going to say someth
There are many ways to pronounce "Kilrathi" and this list is prob. not exhaustive. If you think of others, please post them. The truth is probably that the actors either weren't told or forgot how Kilrathi was supposed to be pronounced. I like to imagine it's because Kilrathi is pronounced differently depending on which planet/area the character is from.

Can anyone think of any more from the WC universe? Are there any other characters who don't use the common pronunciation? I was going to make it a poll of the strangest pronunciation, but I think Cobra's would be the clear and obvious winner, so I didn't bother.

  1. "Kill-Rah-thee" Common Pronunciation
  2. "Kee-O-Rah-Tay" Cobra- WC3
  3. "Kill-Rah-Hee" Taggaert- WC3
  4. "Kill-wrath-ee" Flint- WC3 in-game comms.
 
Mjr. Whoopass said:
The truth is probably that the actors either weren't told or forgot how Kilrathi was supposed to be pronounced.

I don't think that's how film shoots work. The director redoes the take if an actor forgets something or says something in a way he doesn't like.

Mjr. Whoopass said:
I like to imagine it's because Kilrathi is pronounced differently depending on which planet/area the character is from.

I don't think it's likely that such a common word in their language at the time would really differ like that alone. Differences would come from individual accents that affect tones and sounds across all words in a particular area. It's very likely that accents vary considerably from system to system. I think your 1st and 4th options above are pretty similar and are the standard pronunciation. 2 and 3 are the individual characters' accents rather than an actual difference in the word common to a certain place.
 
The truth is probably that the actors either weren't told or forgot how Kilrathi was supposed to be pronounced.

Our community is so bad about this. Don't tell everyone something is *the truth* unless you know it for a fact -- when this stuff slips through we have to deal with years and years of stupids jerking about how Wing Commander III doesn't have X-ship-type because of "technical limitations".
 
ChrisReid said:
I don't think it's likely that such a common word in their language at the time would really differ like that alone. Differences would come from individual accents that affect tones and sounds across all words in a particular area. It's very likely that accents vary considerably from system to system. I think your 1st and 4th options above are pretty similar and are the standard pronunciation. 2 and 3 are the individual characters' accents rather than an actual difference in the word common to a certain place.

That seems to be what he is saying. Character accents can be associated with their home planets/systems. Everyone may have the same word for it, but pronounce it differently.
 
Primate said:
That seems to be what he is saying. Character accents can be associated with their home planets/systems. Everyone may have the same word for it, but pronounce it differently.
Exactly. It makes sense that there would be different pronunciations given that even on our Earth alone the accents vary. I highly doubt that the different pronunciations were planned that way though. Rather, they likely were oversights- that's just a hypothesis, not necessarily the truth.

I just posted that because it was something I noticed as I played through parts of WC3 again this week. I just intended to post my observations and see if anyone else noticed other pronunciations in other games or areas of the WC universe. I didn't intend to spark a debate, create confusion, or division with the post.
 
The correct pronounciation is the way the Kilrathi talk... in enlgish, of course.

Question: do the Kilrathi have accents?
 
Question: do the Kilrathi have accents?

Yes, Ralgha notes that Lady Hassa's slave girl speaks in "heavily accented Kilrathi".

Exactly. It makes sense that there would be different pronunciations given that even on our Earth alone the accents vary. I highly doubt that the different pronunciations were planned that way though. Rather, they likely were oversights- that's just a hypothesis, not necessarily the truth.

I'm pretty sure it's just the fact that Cobra has a southern accent. Proper nouns aren't somehow magically excepted from accents.

I just posted that because it was something I noticed as I played through parts of WC3 again this week. I just intended to post my observations and see if anyone else noticed other pronunciations in other games or areas of the WC universe. I didn't intend to spark a debate, create confusion, or division with the post.

Everyone should always be trying to spark debates; agitate, agitate, agitate.
 
I pronounce the way it is most commonly. (kill-rah-thee)

And what I don't get is where Cobra got kee-o-rah-tay from. Compare that to kil-rah-thee.:confused:
 
maniac89 said:
I pronounce the way it is most commonly. (kill-rah-thee)

And what I don't get is where Cobra got kee-o-rah-tay from. Compare that to kil-rah-thee.:confused:
It's an accent. Accents can really mess with the pronunciation of words.
 
Yeah, and what's funny is that people with accents think we people who don't have accents have accents and that we're the ones with accents and we're weird. <breaths>

Get's confusing, don't it?

The Maniac
 
maniac89 said:
Yeah, and what's funny is that people with accents think we people who don't have accents have accents and that we're the ones with accents and we're weird. <breaths>

Get's confusing, don't it?

The Maniac
Almost everyone has an accent, it's just that sometimes they don't like it.:)
 
I know he's quoting. I'm giving an opinion. I do think it's spelled like that. "Kill Rathi". Maybe that's how they figure the name... Space cats.. Cats kill rats.. Kill Rathis.
 
He's quoting accurately, the game says "Kill Wrathy". There was a recent CIC article where we extracted and posted the script for that conversation.
 
I know that, I'm not talking about U7. Maybe some Origin folks back on '89 might have found "kill rathi" a nice name for space cats.
 
Delance said:
I know that, I'm not talking about U7. Maybe some Origin folks back on '89 might have found "kill rathi" a nice name for space cats.
I remember an article that said Chris Roberts thought of killing (Kil) with wrath (rath) and an i just so it sounded right (i). Apparently he was originally going to scrap the idea but later decided to keep it.
 
Delance said:
I know that, I'm not talking about U7. Maybe some Origin folks back on '89 might have found "kill rathi" a nice name for space cats.

Nope, once again, Ed is right.

Chris Roberts, in PC Gamer: "Originally, I was trying to come up with a name for the aliens mankind was going to be fighting in my new space game, Squadron (which became Wing Commander). Finally, after a long night at work I gave up, putting a placeholder in. It was created because I saw these aliens as killing with wrath... Kill... Wrath... Kilrath... I tacked on a "i", wrote down Kilrathi and decided it would do until I came up with a real name."
 
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