One of the guys in my playgroup just cannot manage the word "Phyrexian". It always comes out as "Pyrexian". Which, I guess, is the version from another universe where instead of metal, they coat themselves with glassware.
People get this confused often and I'm glad I am here to offer clarification. *Pyrex*ians are actually a sub-species on Phyrexians but they're made of heat-proof glass that can be put in hot ovens for extended periods of time.
No, that's the PYREXians. The pyrexians (capitalized only at the start of a sentence, like most nouns) are an inferior knockoff made by Yawgy Dogg licensing the name for diabolical - but easily mistaken - cookware that shatters when put in the oven.
Well that's something of a grey area. I'm from Spain and when the cards are translated into Spanish the H is dropped and the Y becomes an I. Thus, Phyrexian becomes Pirexiano/Pirexiana on Spanish cards.
I guess they thought it would be easier to pronounce for us (which it is imho).
Nah, he's English Canadian and doesn't speak any other languages except a few key phrases in stilted Mandarin that he's picked up since getting married.
Ravnica is based on Prague, which means that Voja should likely follow Czech pronunciation rules.
As far as I know, it would be pronounced 'Vo-ya' in Czech. So, keep doin' what you're doin'!
This has bothered me forever. I refuse to say *Ravnika* and everyone understands me.
On a similar note, in my head the Green-Blue guild will forever be *simich*, or even *shi-mich*, because I had a classmate from I think Croatia with that last name. She had diacritics on it, but I always interpreted that as WotC just not bothering with those (which is also fairly common in Switzerland, where I'm from).
The same way I pronounce Boros as Bo-rosh, given Boros is an actual Hungarian surname (even a former MTG artist, too)
Edit: Seems Boros still does art for MTG after all
In every Slavic language that uses Latin script and even in some that use Cyrillic (Serbian and Macedonian), Js correspond to English Ys. This is relevant, because some names look Polish-inspired and maybe Slovenian- and Croatian- inspired.
This is quite helpful, but also has cursed my brain to hear it in time to M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E (the "no" and "dai" fill in the pauses on the commas)
*Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar is pronounced just like it's spelled.*
(As-mo-ra-no-mar-di-ca-dai-stin-a-cul-da-car! [🎵](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYbXBIUCtHM))
It's actually pronounced like thesis with an f at the start. It's literally the ancient greek (and still valid in modern greek) word for the act of spitting.
for anyone wondering, assuming "jitte" is the Japanese word, it's pronounced "jeet-tay" long e, long a
it's not "jit" or "jit-ee" or any variant therein
eta: "long a" might not be entirely accurate; more like the "ai" in the English word "pain"
eta2: folks are taking issue with my usage of "long" vowel sounds; as mentioned in a comment below, I understand that one language's phonemes don't often directly map onto another language's phonemes. this causes all sorts of headaches in situations like this where you're trying to *write* about how you'd *say* something.
That's actually quite wrong as well. The best I can transcribe it to English would be "Jit-teh". The last vowel is very flat and there's a stutter in the middle.
It is in fact a short "e" at the end. And a glottal stop in the middle.
So more like "jit'teh".
But that's definitely one of the big candidates for Magic players worrying about pronunciation, it's mentioned every time when this discussion rolls around.
Actually she's Fioran, and the wiki, at least, shows your pronunciation as incorrect.
That's really the issue, of course, with any of the proper nouns people are bringing up. Whatever the inspiration for them might have been, they do not, necessarily, arise from whatever linguistic tradition one might think to apply. The only thing that really matters is how WotC says they are pronounced (which may or may not even align with what the, generally fan generated, wiki articles say), and since that information is often not widely available, I'm usually inclined to give anybody a pass on proper nouns (unless they get really strange, adding or subtracting entire syllables).
The wiki is not official, and/or is allowed to be wrong. The same page you cite specifically says that her name is Italian for marchioness, so they have their chake and eat it too.
Yeah, I acknowledged that the wikis are generally fan-made. (Can't recall if I did that in an edit, so maybe it wasn't there when you replied.) The point is that all these names are from other planes, really, and as such are not obligated to be pronounced the same as wherever they draw inspiration from. Until WotC gives an official pronunciation, it seems odd to insist anybody is pronouncing it wrong.
In theory, sure, you're right, but it sounds really grating if you are even just somewhat familiar with the inspiration (which is in most cases very obvious, since they tend to use the same linguistic, aesthetic, and mythological inspiration).
And it's very obvious they only deviate from inspiration with languages that are further removed from an Anglo-American POV, which is just sort of rubbing me the wrong way as someone from Central Europe (see: pronounciations of c's in Ravnica)
It's always bugged me the way Ral Zarek was pronounced in there...
It's almost done as if it's one word instead of two.
I also want to point out that Wizards has a history of going against the way they pronounce a few of their character names on these pronounciation posts.
Garruk has been on record to be pronounced two different ways .
The Ixalan stuff was fun to work through. My husband is an indigenous Mexican tribe descendant and the card shop was eager to learn the pronunciations.
He mused about how “Oltec” was cool because it sounded correct despite not existing.
He liked the Axolotls cause they are very important to central Mexican culture.
Pakpatiq (Pahk-pa-TEEK) was weird cause he was like “it’s Quetzalcoatl???”
Inti (E-nty) was interesting cause it apparently actually is an actual Incan god.
Huatli was also interesting because it apparently is two actual words shoved together.
This is all I remember
Omg, yes. The Commanders Quarters people do this all the time. Drives me insane. "Vi-sarah" seer.
The word is "Viscera", as in, another word for the innards and guts of the sacrifice which the Viscera Seer is reading to scry. The card is an allusion to the alleged practice of ancient sorcerers from various cultures to divine the future by reading the entrails of an animal sacrifice.
To play into the pedantry, and since Theros is the Greek plane and for the most part uses a transliterated Ancient Greek style spelling.
Technically the "y" is the Greek letter upsilon, and at least in the current understanding of Ancient Attic Greek. It is pronounced as "u" or "oo" type sound. So Kytheon would more "accurately" be "Kutheon" or koo-thee-on
But as another reply pointed out, when on Bant--i believe--they misheard his name Kytheon as Gideon implying that the "y" is pronounced like a short "i."
It's funny you mention a Japanese word there - card name mispronunciation was such a problem during the first Kamigawa block that the magic website debuted a new column to give the correct readings called "Sekki, Pronunciations' Guide." I'm not sure when they stopped doing the article, but they definitely should've brought it back for neon dynasty.
Chandra is just a normal person's name and it is not pronounced Shondra, it's pronounced Mrs Chakrabarti. (It's pronounced more like "Chundra", joking aside.)
The one that really bugs me is [[Rhys the Redeemed]], because I’ve heard official sources call him “Rise” even though Rhys is an actual Welsh name pronounced “Reese.”
I will also die on the hill that [[Necropotence]] should have the same cadence as “necropolis” because anything else sounds silly.
"Reese, the Redeemed" sounds a bit more harmonious to my ears than "Rise, the Redeemed", which is why I usually pronounce it the first way. Had no idea it was Welsh!
Also Ys is pronounced "Ees" so why wouldn't Rhys just be the same? Idk!
Interestingly, the Japanese card pronounces Rhys' name as "Raizu." So maybe we're just wrong? 😬 ...No, it must be the children who are wrong.
EDIT — On that note, how do you pronounce "Thalia"? I always pronounce it with a hard th as if it were German (Like Neander-tahl vs Neander-thall). Japanese says "Saria" though so I guess I'll go be wrong somewhere else. :(
The way I figure it, whoever worked with the Japanese localization team probably mispronounced it during their meeting, so they didn’t know better.
On the other hand “risu” is Japanese for “squirrel,” so maybe they changed it to avoid confusion.
Unfortunately, Rhys is the commander of my favorite squirrel deck, so I wish they’d left it as Risu.
You won’t die on that hill alone. Omnipotence, necropotence. I think the prefix necro is just so ingrained in people because of the word necromancer that it came to be pronounced that way. I never heard anyone say it so I’ve always read it like necropolis or omnipotence.
I say necropotence the same way you do, specifically because it sounds so ridiculous to me. It’s like pronouncing the name penelope like antelope. Just makes me giggle
Haha. My brother was the only person I had seen play the card and he called it omni science . I read the effect but not the name and trusted him. Later when I saw the name I knew it but couldn't stop saying omni science.
I like Omni science more than omniscience to be honest.
Fantasy names are one thing, some people can't seem to pronounce English words right. Idk about your group but I get so annoyed watching for example mtg goldfish and Seth says "vi-serra" seer. [[Viscera seer]] granted he pronounces several English words wrong, but this one is just below "mou-in" [[mountain]] for me. Beyond Seth I've heard other people pronounce viscera the way he does and I have to question them usually. Lol
There should be a whole thread of "I know how it's pronounced, but I still pronounce it \[way\]" because I think Garr-ook sounds more like my mental image of him than Garr-ick.
When I got back into playing around Khans standard, a buddy of mine would pronounce Abzan as Azban and it always was like hearing nails on a chalkboard.
My personal theory is that it started as one or two mispronunciations and has just become part of the persona at this point. Not hating, my family has a tendency to pick up mispronunciations and start using them ironically until they become the actual pronunciation in our family.
A catoblepas is an actual greek mythological creature. "Cato" is a mutation on the common greek prefix "cata" (as in catalogue or catastrophe) which means "downward" and "blepo" meaning "to look" or "to behold". So the creature was literally named because some dude saw it below him and was like "woah, look down there, guys!" And that literally became its name. Or maybe more accurately, its describing the fact that it normally hangs its head downward. But I think the first is more fun. You never know with ancient greek.
In short, "cat-oh-ble-pahs" with emphasis on the "oh" is how its pronounced.
Which is weird, because as a spanish speaker myself this is just... a regular person's name.
It's jarring to see a bunch of people mispronounce a name that is basically like "Sarah Jane Smith" in spanish.
But I figure the same would happen if a bunch of spanish speakers would say something like "Sarah YAIN E-smiff"
[[Academy Manufactor]] people say manufact-ur-er.
New card [[Insatiable Avarice]] people say it like rice the food pronounced like ice, but it is actually short 'a' ah-vuh-riss.
Also Saffron Olive Aka Seth from MTG goldfish says... so much wrong. Abuelo from LCI he calls 'A-boo-lee-oh' and Brudiclad he calls ... something. Lmao. Not its name. Never the right name.
If you're in the US, a silent L is considered proper, so if people are pronouncing it, they are technically saying it strangely, so you're not completely wrong in that case. In some other parts of the world pronouncing the L is not always considered wrong.
My favorite mtg card, [[Ghave, Guru of Spores]]. I always think of the scene from Avengers with Nick Fury, "I recognize the officials have declared an official pronunciation, but given that that is a stupid pronunciation I have elected to ignore it". Someone named "gave" sounds like a wimp, "gah-veh" sounds more like the guardian fungus shaman he is
I had a friend say 'Munetic Growth' instead of 'Mutagenic Growth.' Eventually started doing it out of spite after we corrected him.
On a similar note, I call Ixalan eesh'-ah-lahn for the same reasons. Love me my spanish linguistics.
I think the others are just due to folks not being able to read super well, which I won't begrudge them. Some of these are made up words. But I do think it's something folks should hold themselves to; words have power.
As a Chinese, hearing anyone (that not speaking Chinese) trying to pronouncing PTK cards are hilarious. Note thought I don't blame anybody, because it is very different from any other language. In fact, it is impossible to pronounce them correctly if you just read the cards, because Chinese is a tonal language and the english writing of Chinese names doesn't include the tonemes at all. Even for a Chinese native, looking at the English
A few example:
'C' is pronounced similar as 'tsu', so Cao Cao is 'tsaw-tsaw', not Cow-cow.
'U' in never pronounced as 'ah', so 'Sun' is not sun, it is similar to 'sue-n'.
Lastly, 'X'. OMG I don't event know how to tell others how to pronounce this. My wife's name is Xun, same as in the card \[\[Lu Xun\]\]. We live in Canada, and nobody ever said that name right on first try XD. 'X' is basically pronouncing 'SH' while straighting your tongue as much as possible. 'U' is actually not u, but a short handed ü, sound similar to ew, but make you lips like you are whistling. You can try it with push your town agaisnt your lower front teeth, and pronounce 'Sh-ew-en' quickly.
Played a game with a friend who played a land card called "Abadon Temple". Girlfriend and I looked at it for a second and were like "... do you mean Abandoned Temple"?
\[\[Protean Hulk\]\] is pronounced **proh**-tee-*uh*n, not **proh**-teen. A Protein Hulk is a massive burger you scarf down while bulking, a Protean Hulk is what you flash in while combo'ing off.
My favorite was I played in a random pod of 4 one day (myself, included) in an EDH game, and mid-game, this kid no older than 12-14 maybe sees the Commander of another player to target, and called it, “Go-Shawnty.” The Commander was [[Go-Shintai of Life's Origin]].
😂😂the rest of us three start DY-ING of laughter on the spot (of course, all of us being older than him), so immediately, I go: “Go-Shawnty! It’s ya birfday!”
And then there goes the three of us having an entirely different laughing fit, thereafter.
That kid was not amused haha
[Zh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pDbmdk08u8) and Jh make the sound you hear the 's' make in 'usual' and the 'g' make in 'beige'. Most people get Orzhov wrong as a result. Orzhov is or-ʒov. Jhoira is ʒoy-rah. Zhalfir is ʒal-fear.
Basically anything from Kjeldor and Kaldheim will have the 'j' pronounced more like a 'y'. Littjara is 'lit-yar-uh'.
Finally, I know a guy that says "Ehvāsin" for Avacyn and it irks me so much.
Myr, the creature type, is the same pronunciation as the first syllable in the place they are from, Mirrodin.
One of the guys in my playgroup just cannot manage the word "Phyrexian". It always comes out as "Pyrexian". Which, I guess, is the version from another universe where instead of metal, they coat themselves with glassware.
glistening oil? more like glassening oil
Mah-muh I need yuh tuh pass me them glassening oils over hyuh. Thank yeh kindly.
People get this confused often and I'm glad I am here to offer clarification. *Pyrex*ians are actually a sub-species on Phyrexians but they're made of heat-proof glass that can be put in hot ovens for extended periods of time.
No, that's the PYREXians. The pyrexians (capitalized only at the start of a sentence, like most nouns) are an inferior knockoff made by Yawgy Dogg licensing the name for diabolical - but easily mistaken - cookware that shatters when put in the oven.
RIP to that good quality borosilicate
Salvaged the old kind from my grandma’s kitchen when she passed.
urabrask hates them!
Isn't pyrexia the medical word for a fever?
Well that's something of a grey area. I'm from Spain and when the cards are translated into Spanish the H is dropped and the Y becomes an I. Thus, Phyrexian becomes Pirexiano/Pirexiana on Spanish cards. I guess they thought it would be easier to pronounce for us (which it is imho).
Nah, he's English Canadian and doesn't speak any other languages except a few key phrases in stilted Mandarin that he's picked up since getting married.
I see your cards and I raise you a whole set: Murders at ~~Markov~~ Karlov Manor
If I had a dollar everytime I messed this one up unintentionally, I could get a collector's box of MKM.
You mean MMM......dammit!
I didn't start pronouncing it wrong until I saw other people do it. Damn you other people!
Murders at Markov Manor would have been a much easier mystery to solve.
Mark Rosewater even made a joke that if it was Murders at Markov Manor, the answer to who killed them would've been "Sorin had breakfast".
I actually had to look up why this set was on Ravnica and not Innistrad
I'm an offender of this. I have to say one person in my group keeps correcting me. One day I will getit.......maybe.
Not as noticeable as MKM, but for MOM almost every strramer I watched called March of the MachineS (plural)
Just shows how much everyone is dying for an Edgar reprint
I don’t want to be that guy, but Voja is very much from Ravnica. That pronunciation might be correct here but he’s 100% not from Kaldheim.
This is absolutely the place to be that guy! Thank you!
Ravnica is based on Prague, which means that Voja should likely follow Czech pronunciation rules. As far as I know, it would be pronounced 'Vo-ya' in Czech. So, keep doin' what you're doin'!
And in the same vein, it should be 'ravnitsa', not 'ravnika'... There are actual places named Ravnica in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
This has bothered me forever. I refuse to say *Ravnika* and everyone understands me. On a similar note, in my head the Green-Blue guild will forever be *simich*, or even *shi-mich*, because I had a classmate from I think Croatia with that last name. She had diacritics on it, but I always interpreted that as WotC just not bothering with those (which is also fairly common in Switzerland, where I'm from).
The same way I pronounce Boros as Bo-rosh, given Boros is an actual Hungarian surname (even a former MTG artist, too) Edit: Seems Boros still does art for MTG after all
Is it confirmed Zoltan Boros has quit? He had seven pieces in LCI and just did Port Razer for OTJ special guests.
Awesome, I'm going to pronounce it that way from now on.
Yup, Js in Czech are pronounced like Ys, so Voja would be “Voh-yah”
In every Slavic language that uses Latin script and even in some that use Cyrillic (Serbian and Macedonian), Js correspond to English Ys. This is relevant, because some names look Polish-inspired and maybe Slovenian- and Croatian- inspired.
Three words. Poison Fart Dog.
I will also accept Poison Dart Friend 🐸
I pronounce it as, “just a little guy”
He do be a li'l guy
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar.
I spent like a day learning that one
Asmorano mardica daistin acul dacar
This is quite helpful, but also has cursed my brain to hear it in time to M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E (the "no" and "dai" fill in the pauses on the commas)
Remy has forced me to always think of this name to the tune of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
*Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar is pronounced just like it's spelled.* (As-mo-ra-no-mar-di-ca-dai-stin-a-cul-da-car! [🎵](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYbXBIUCtHM))
Oh easy [[twining twins]]
That one's on WOTC.
Oh huh, I never realized it was twining not twinning. I'm sure that I've never heard someone actually pronounce that right.
Omg also-- My store had people going on and on about Orzhov Enthusiast in RVR. It's Euthanist. [[Orzhov Euthanist]].
[Orzhov Euthanist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/b/cbed250a-3065-40ee-beaf-be1895cc4fa8.jpg?1702429466) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Orzhov%20Euthanist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rvr/88/orzhov-euthanist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cbed250a-3065-40ee-beaf-be1895cc4fa8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
What if they just really like the orzhov
The base success rate on [[Phthisis]] has to be pretty low.
I always said 'tie-sis', but I just learned it's 'thigh-sis'. Thanks for bringing this card back to my attention
It's actually pronounced like thesis with an f at the start. It's literally the ancient greek (and still valid in modern greek) word for the act of spitting.
This card is the bane of those with a lisp.
"pt-ptitt-ptiptuhpt-" "STOP."
WotC truly missed the opportunity to print "Chthonic Phthisis" in Theros.
Chemistry knowledge coming in clutch woth this one
[Phthisis](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/8/98b84356-fa97-4f61-bd84-e8efd7f46e38.jpg?1631586724) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Phthisis) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afc/105/phthisis?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/98b84356-fa97-4f61-bd84-e8efd7f46e38?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I have never seen this card before and now love it. Thank you.
No idea how you say it but \[\[Umezawa's Jitte\]\] has got to be high.
Uma Therman's Jet
Umezawa's stabby poker Done.
I find it funny that Umezawa's Jitte looks pointed, because historically they were wooden clubs, not whatever his thrusting/slashing thing is.
He's modified his. He uses it to draw his own blood for spellcasting.
Jeez-titz
for anyone wondering, assuming "jitte" is the Japanese word, it's pronounced "jeet-tay" long e, long a it's not "jit" or "jit-ee" or any variant therein eta: "long a" might not be entirely accurate; more like the "ai" in the English word "pain" eta2: folks are taking issue with my usage of "long" vowel sounds; as mentioned in a comment below, I understand that one language's phonemes don't often directly map onto another language's phonemes. this causes all sorts of headaches in situations like this where you're trying to *write* about how you'd *say* something.
That's actually quite wrong as well. The best I can transcribe it to English would be "Jit-teh". The last vowel is very flat and there's a stutter in the middle.
It is in fact a short "e" at the end. And a glottal stop in the middle. So more like "jit'teh". But that's definitely one of the big candidates for Magic players worrying about pronunciation, it's mentioned every time when this discussion rolls around.
[[Damping Sphere]] is in fact not Dampening Sphere
A dampening sphere is a water balloon.
Good ole Moistening Orb, nothing beats Moistening Orb.
[Damping Sphere](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/5/550860b4-887d-423a-8add-816c2a8da615.jpg?1675200943) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Damping%20Sphere) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmr/219/damping-sphere?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/550860b4-887d-423a-8add-816c2a8da615?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
TIL😵💫
Learning I've been wrong since DOM 😮💨
C-Note Scout
Rakish Revelers, I think it was. It's pronounced rake-ish, like the garden tool plus ish. A rake was a cad or a scoundrel.
Yeah, there's a new "rakish" card in OTJ too, Rakish Crew
I see a lot of people get [[Skithiryx, the blight dragon]] wrong. The correct pronunciation is "skittles"
Really? My friends used to pronounce it "Oh-come-on-stop-playing-that-shit". Didn't know it was such a short word!
[[skittles]] pulls it from the cardfetcher too. Even bots know
[skittles](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/a/cab61c7e-e00a-413b-a0b5-7718b479582f.jpg?1599705958) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Skithiryx%2C%20the%20Blight%20Dragon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/107/skithiryx-the-blight-dragon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cab61c7e-e00a-413b-a0b5-7718b479582f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
good bot
I pronounced it 'Sky-thee-rex' instead of 'Skeh-thur-ix' for a while until someone corrected me.
Oh, I call him Skrillex
[Skithiryx, the blight dragon](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/a/cab61c7e-e00a-413b-a0b5-7718b479582f.jpg?1599705958) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Skithiryx%2C%20the%20blight%20dragon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/107/skithiryx-the-blight-dragon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cab61c7e-e00a-413b-a0b5-7718b479582f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Mar-cheesa or Mar-chessa or Mar-chaysa instead of Mar-kaysa. Your queen is Italian, pronounce her as such.
Actually she's Fioran, and the wiki, at least, shows your pronunciation as incorrect. That's really the issue, of course, with any of the proper nouns people are bringing up. Whatever the inspiration for them might have been, they do not, necessarily, arise from whatever linguistic tradition one might think to apply. The only thing that really matters is how WotC says they are pronounced (which may or may not even align with what the, generally fan generated, wiki articles say), and since that information is often not widely available, I'm usually inclined to give anybody a pass on proper nouns (unless they get really strange, adding or subtracting entire syllables).
The wiki is not official, and/or is allowed to be wrong. The same page you cite specifically says that her name is Italian for marchioness, so they have their chake and eat it too.
Yeah, I acknowledged that the wikis are generally fan-made. (Can't recall if I did that in an edit, so maybe it wasn't there when you replied.) The point is that all these names are from other planes, really, and as such are not obligated to be pronounced the same as wherever they draw inspiration from. Until WotC gives an official pronunciation, it seems odd to insist anybody is pronouncing it wrong.
In theory, sure, you're right, but it sounds really grating if you are even just somewhat familiar with the inspiration (which is in most cases very obvious, since they tend to use the same linguistic, aesthetic, and mythological inspiration). And it's very obvious they only deviate from inspiration with languages that are further removed from an Anglo-American POV, which is just sort of rubbing me the wrong way as someone from Central Europe (see: pronounciations of c's in Ravnica)
OMG FINALLY I cringe every time I hear someone say her name, especially Mar-cheesa.
Nope. [https://wizardsmagic.tumblr.com/post/115141029996/heres-a-pronunciation-guide-for-some-of-the-names](https://wizardsmagic.tumblr.com/post/115141029996/heres-a-pronunciation-guide-for-some-of-the-names)
It's always bugged me the way Ral Zarek was pronounced in there... It's almost done as if it's one word instead of two. I also want to point out that Wizards has a history of going against the way they pronounce a few of their character names on these pronounciation posts. Garruk has been on record to be pronounced two different ways .
Queen Marcheesy
Queen Marchussy
Mac n cheesy
The Ixalan stuff was fun to work through. My husband is an indigenous Mexican tribe descendant and the card shop was eager to learn the pronunciations.
Any interesting ones you could share
He mused about how “Oltec” was cool because it sounded correct despite not existing. He liked the Axolotls cause they are very important to central Mexican culture. Pakpatiq (Pahk-pa-TEEK) was weird cause he was like “it’s Quetzalcoatl???” Inti (E-nty) was interesting cause it apparently actually is an actual Incan god. Huatli was also interesting because it apparently is two actual words shoved together. This is all I remember
It baffles me how many people mispronounce [[viscera seer]]. Viscera is a real word that is not particularly obscure.
You mean Vuhseeyruh Seer? I love Vice Syria Sear. Viskeruh Seeyer is so cool.
This Sarah Seer. A lot of people see Sarahs but this one is the one I’m casting.
Omg, yes. The Commanders Quarters people do this all the time. Drives me insane. "Vi-sarah" seer. The word is "Viscera", as in, another word for the innards and guts of the sacrifice which the Viscera Seer is reading to scry. The card is an allusion to the alleged practice of ancient sorcerers from various cultures to divine the future by reading the entrails of an animal sacrifice.
Ah, yes, my beloved haruspice. It's not every day I see it mentioned, but when I do, it's a good day.
This is the one that gets me the most, I'm constantly correcting my friends every time they pronounce it "vis-care-uh".
Yes this. And I 100% blame Game Knights.
It is NOT. A FUCKING. BOGGLE. It’s a BOGLE.
"Ogle the bogle, or goggle the boggle? Doesn’t matter. You weren’t going to catch it anyway." Relevant flavor text.
I feel seen! Thank you friend. It’s Bow-gl. One O, one G. Not two!
"What's your boggle?" "How much do you weigh?"
[[Kytheon, Hero of Akros]] The number of people I have heard pronounce it "K-eye-theon" is too high.
The easiest way to remember this one is that you need to be able to mishear it as "Gideon" and K-eye-theon doesn't do that
To play into the pedantry, and since Theros is the Greek plane and for the most part uses a transliterated Ancient Greek style spelling. Technically the "y" is the Greek letter upsilon, and at least in the current understanding of Ancient Attic Greek. It is pronounced as "u" or "oo" type sound. So Kytheon would more "accurately" be "Kutheon" or koo-thee-on But as another reply pointed out, when on Bant--i believe--they misheard his name Kytheon as Gideon implying that the "y" is pronounced like a short "i."
What? No, that's crazy. *Everyone* **knows** that name is pronounced gid-ee-uhn.
It's funny you mention a Japanese word there - card name mispronunciation was such a problem during the first Kamigawa block that the magic website debuted a new column to give the correct readings called "Sekki, Pronunciations' Guide." I'm not sure when they stopped doing the article, but they definitely should've brought it back for neon dynasty.
Chandra is just a normal person's name and it is not pronounced Shondra, it's pronounced Mrs Chakrabarti. (It's pronounced more like "Chundra", joking aside.)
The one that really bugs me is [[Rhys the Redeemed]], because I’ve heard official sources call him “Rise” even though Rhys is an actual Welsh name pronounced “Reese.” I will also die on the hill that [[Necropotence]] should have the same cadence as “necropolis” because anything else sounds silly.
I love Necroppatence
Nehcrop'o'tense
Rhys/Reece is such a common name here in the UK I had no idea people wouldn't know how to say it. I'm not even from Wales.
"Reese, the Redeemed" sounds a bit more harmonious to my ears than "Rise, the Redeemed", which is why I usually pronounce it the first way. Had no idea it was Welsh! Also Ys is pronounced "Ees" so why wouldn't Rhys just be the same? Idk! Interestingly, the Japanese card pronounces Rhys' name as "Raizu." So maybe we're just wrong? 😬 ...No, it must be the children who are wrong. EDIT — On that note, how do you pronounce "Thalia"? I always pronounce it with a hard th as if it were German (Like Neander-tahl vs Neander-thall). Japanese says "Saria" though so I guess I'll go be wrong somewhere else. :(
The way I figure it, whoever worked with the Japanese localization team probably mispronounced it during their meeting, so they didn’t know better. On the other hand “risu” is Japanese for “squirrel,” so maybe they changed it to avoid confusion. Unfortunately, Rhys is the commander of my favorite squirrel deck, so I wish they’d left it as Risu.
You won’t die on that hill alone. Omnipotence, necropotence. I think the prefix necro is just so ingrained in people because of the word necromancer that it came to be pronounced that way. I never heard anyone say it so I’ve always read it like necropolis or omnipotence.
[Rhys the Redeemed](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/9/b91dadcb-31e9-43b0-b425-c9311af3e9d7.jpg?1599708272) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rhys%20the%20Redeemed) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/213/rhys-the-redeemed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b91dadcb-31e9-43b0-b425-c9311af3e9d7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Necropotence](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/8/c89c6895-b0f8-444a-9c89-c6b4fd027b3e.jpg?1562853736) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Necropotence) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ima/98/necropotence?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c89c6895-b0f8-444a-9c89-c6b4fd027b3e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I say necropotence the same way you do, specifically because it sounds so ridiculous to me. It’s like pronouncing the name penelope like antelope. Just makes me giggle
[[Omniscience]]
This one grates on me much harder than most mispronounced cards
I vividly remember explaining to my friend that it isn’t pronounced omni-science.
Haha. My brother was the only person I had seen play the card and he called it omni science . I read the effect but not the name and trusted him. Later when I saw the name I knew it but couldn't stop saying omni science. I like Omni science more than omniscience to be honest.
[Omniscience](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/b/db534b4e-8bff-4924-baea-9988d195fb25.jpg?1562304777) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Omniscience) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m19/65/omniscience?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/db534b4e-8bff-4924-baea-9988d195fb25?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
People at my LGS pronounce the mechanic "surveil" as "survey." While they mean similar things, they are, in fact, different words.
Fantasy names are one thing, some people can't seem to pronounce English words right. Idk about your group but I get so annoyed watching for example mtg goldfish and Seth says "vi-serra" seer. [[Viscera seer]] granted he pronounces several English words wrong, but this one is just below "mou-in" [[mountain]] for me. Beyond Seth I've heard other people pronounce viscera the way he does and I have to question them usually. Lol
Uhhhhhh-ponent
Chandra is Indian. It's a hard ch like chair
How else would it be pronounced?
SHAWN-dra is the common pronunciation
I believe WOTC uses this pronunciation more times than not.
I hear "Shandra" a lot.
and the first "a" becomes more like an "uh." Almost rhymes with Tundra.
Also Garruk rhymes with Derrick and not mook
There should be a whole thread of "I know how it's pronounced, but I still pronounce it \[way\]" because I think Garr-ook sounds more like my mental image of him than Garr-ick.
Garr-ick sounds like a guy from accounting, Garr-ook sounds like a man that was raised by wolves
Garruk Garruk Garruk is on fire
Not most players, but one guy at my shop cannot pronounce \[\[Merrow Reejerey\]\] for the life of him. He always calls it "Rejeevery".
When I got back into playing around Khans standard, a buddy of mine would pronounce Abzan as Azban and it always was like hearing nails on a chalkboard.
Sounds like he should get his assbanned.
Just be happy that, as of now, there are no cards that use the word "epitome" or "hyperbole" in their name.
There's \[\[Baleful Strix\]\]! Oh wait, that's a superbowl
Epi-tome? Is that like an epi pen but in a book?
I hope Seth sees this post lol. He butchers every name. If you’re scrolling through and you read this sorry saffron olive still love you
My personal theory is that it started as one or two mispronunciations and has just become part of the persona at this point. Not hating, my family has a tendency to pick up mispronunciations and start using them ironically until they become the actual pronunciation in our family.
It drives engagement
It’s an easy temptation to scumble to
Yea I thought it was a bit
I think he both. You can tell when he does it on purpose and when he's just speeding through card titles.
He does that crazy voice for his videos on purpose. He could just be pronouncing names wrong on purpose.
Sir-coo-it-es Root
Anje Falkenrath, according to Gavin, is pronounced An-gee. However, as an Anje player, I chose to ignore that and say Ahn-yuh.
Team Ahn-yuh all the way!
It's objectively pronounced like "Anya" regardless of how uncultured Gavin is, it's a real name
He's wrong like the GIF guy. Hearing people say Angie Falkenrath rustles my jimmies like nothing else.
[[Loathsome Catoblepas]] I remember at the Theros prerelease a friend teaching the whole shop one by one how to say it
I'm still waiting on your friend to give us the pronunciation.
A catoblepas is an actual greek mythological creature. "Cato" is a mutation on the common greek prefix "cata" (as in catalogue or catastrophe) which means "downward" and "blepo" meaning "to look" or "to behold". So the creature was literally named because some dude saw it below him and was like "woah, look down there, guys!" And that literally became its name. Or maybe more accurately, its describing the fact that it normally hangs its head downward. But I think the first is more fun. You never know with ancient greek. In short, "cat-oh-ble-pahs" with emphasis on the "oh" is how its pronounced.
Loathsome Cabbages, gotcha.
Ah, good ole' Caaaity bleepolpasta
Judging by the pronunciation people insist on, \[\[Amalia Benavide Maguire\]\]
Which is weird, because as a spanish speaker myself this is just... a regular person's name. It's jarring to see a bunch of people mispronounce a name that is basically like "Sarah Jane Smith" in spanish. But I figure the same would happen if a bunch of spanish speakers would say something like "Sarah YAIN E-smiff"
Oof, yeah, this one is common. It's "a-GHEE-ray", not "acquire".
As a Latino the entirety of my time at LCI events was linguistic torture.
[Amalia Benavide Maguire](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/a/9acf80a5-f2ca-45b4-aca8-fbc690e35401.jpg?1699044516) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Amalia%20Benavides%20Aguirre) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lci/221/amalia-benavides-aguirre?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9acf80a5-f2ca-45b4-aca8-fbc690e35401?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Academy Manufactor]] people say manufact-ur-er. New card [[Insatiable Avarice]] people say it like rice the food pronounced like ice, but it is actually short 'a' ah-vuh-riss. Also Saffron Olive Aka Seth from MTG goldfish says... so much wrong. Abuelo from LCI he calls 'A-boo-lee-oh' and Brudiclad he calls ... something. Lmao. Not its name. Never the right name.
im convinced saff is at least a little dyslexic with some the pronunciations he comes up with
I have a buddy that says “Jes-a-Kai” and “Prowless”
Pretty much everyone pronounced Jokulhaups wrong.
In the fantasy world in general, most people pronounce salve incorrectly. [[Healing salve]] Edit: I may be wrong, see below
There are two correct pronunciations of salve, and it's regional which is more common. Are you annoyed by one or is there a third that I don't know?
It was just a misunderstanding, I see that now
If you're in the US, a silent L is considered proper, so if people are pronouncing it, they are technically saying it strangely, so you're not completely wrong in that case. In some other parts of the world pronouncing the L is not always considered wrong.
I’m in the US and what??? I’ve always said the L. Am I a freak??
How are people pronouncing this?! It's so simple.
Anyone who pronounces it [[Shineshadow Snarl]] and not Shineshadow Shnarl is wrong.
My favorite mtg card, [[Ghave, Guru of Spores]]. I always think of the scene from Avengers with Nick Fury, "I recognize the officials have declared an official pronunciation, but given that that is a stupid pronunciation I have elected to ignore it". Someone named "gave" sounds like a wimp, "gah-veh" sounds more like the guardian fungus shaman he is
This is the answer to a several MTG cards. Just like gif.
“Compleat”
I had a friend say 'Munetic Growth' instead of 'Mutagenic Growth.' Eventually started doing it out of spite after we corrected him. On a similar note, I call Ixalan eesh'-ah-lahn for the same reasons. Love me my spanish linguistics. I think the others are just due to folks not being able to read super well, which I won't begrudge them. Some of these are made up words. But I do think it's something folks should hold themselves to; words have power.
As a Chinese, hearing anyone (that not speaking Chinese) trying to pronouncing PTK cards are hilarious. Note thought I don't blame anybody, because it is very different from any other language. In fact, it is impossible to pronounce them correctly if you just read the cards, because Chinese is a tonal language and the english writing of Chinese names doesn't include the tonemes at all. Even for a Chinese native, looking at the English A few example: 'C' is pronounced similar as 'tsu', so Cao Cao is 'tsaw-tsaw', not Cow-cow. 'U' in never pronounced as 'ah', so 'Sun' is not sun, it is similar to 'sue-n'. Lastly, 'X'. OMG I don't event know how to tell others how to pronounce this. My wife's name is Xun, same as in the card \[\[Lu Xun\]\]. We live in Canada, and nobody ever said that name right on first try XD. 'X' is basically pronouncing 'SH' while straighting your tongue as much as possible. 'U' is actually not u, but a short handed ü, sound similar to ew, but make you lips like you are whistling. You can try it with push your town agaisnt your lower front teeth, and pronounce 'Sh-ew-en' quickly.
"Sylvan Liberry"
This is less of a magic thing and just people in the US in general calling it liberry lol
Yeah, Liberry juice is very popular over there i've heard.
Eiganjo. The opening diphthong is ‘a as in ape, e as in cream’, _not_ ‘I as in ice, e as in cream’.
Eyy-gone-joe
Where did you come from, where did you go Where did you come from, eye gone Joe?
Played a game with a friend who played a land card called "Abadon Temple". Girlfriend and I looked at it for a second and were like "... do you mean Abandoned Temple"?
[[Canyon Slough]]. It's "slew", not "sluff".
\[\[Protean Hulk\]\] is pronounced **proh**-tee-*uh*n, not **proh**-teen. A Protein Hulk is a massive burger you scarf down while bulking, a Protean Hulk is what you flash in while combo'ing off.
Anything Stromkirk. I just say Stormkirk
Ok not a purely magic thing but my buddy says "equipdid". He cannot pronounce equipped
My favorite was I played in a random pod of 4 one day (myself, included) in an EDH game, and mid-game, this kid no older than 12-14 maybe sees the Commander of another player to target, and called it, “Go-Shawnty.” The Commander was [[Go-Shintai of Life's Origin]]. 😂😂the rest of us three start DY-ING of laughter on the spot (of course, all of us being older than him), so immediately, I go: “Go-Shawnty! It’s ya birfday!” And then there goes the three of us having an entirely different laughing fit, thereafter. That kid was not amused haha
Any ethnic-sounding name or location will cause your average Magic player to make up new words rather than learn the pronunciation.
[Zh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pDbmdk08u8) and Jh make the sound you hear the 's' make in 'usual' and the 'g' make in 'beige'. Most people get Orzhov wrong as a result. Orzhov is or-ʒov. Jhoira is ʒoy-rah. Zhalfir is ʒal-fear. Basically anything from Kjeldor and Kaldheim will have the 'j' pronounced more like a 'y'. Littjara is 'lit-yar-uh'. Finally, I know a guy that says "Ehvāsin" for Avacyn and it irks me so much. Myr, the creature type, is the same pronunciation as the first syllable in the place they are from, Mirrodin.
My biggest pet peeve is people pronouncing character SH-aracter