Nifflas' Support Forum
Released Games => Saira => Topic started by: LightningEagle on December 09, 2009, 09:01:20
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I was talking with some friends and we ended up wondering how to pronounce "Saira".
Any good guesses? Perhaps Nifflas could reveal a phonetic edition of the name/word?
Pretty please...
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I think I heard that it's supposed to be pronounced something like "Saeerah" and some website suggests "SAIYRah" but to be honest I don't know it better than anyone else unfamilear with the name. It's originally an Arabic name, today it's fairly common in Pakistan or India in case you want to ask someone!
I just realize that I tend to default to names that are hard to pronounce.
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Saira is a name of middle-eastern origin, so it might be difficult to get an accurate native-like pronunciation. Charlotte mentions the name several times in her videos, and I'd assume that Nifflas pronounces it the same way.
Edit: or just see what he wrote above.
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I've pronounced it 'S?ira', but now that I've made some research I'm not sure whether the correct pronunciation is 'S?ira' or 'Sa?ra'. I guess I'll end up with the wrong one like I did with Juni. X)
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My personal guess would be short a, and emphasis on the i, but I don't know at all to be honest.
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I used to know someone called Saira and we always pronounced it "Seh-ra"
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Heh, whenever I see a foreign name (unless it's German, since I know that has different pronunciation rules), I always pronounce it like this:
I follow these pronunciations for vowels:
a -> AmE short "o" (bot)
e -> AmE short "e" (met)
i -> AmE long "e" (bean)
o -> AmE long "o" (moat)
u -> AmE "oo" (spoon)
I contract these two vowel pairs to familiar one-syllable English counterparts:
ai -> AmE long "i" (type)
ei -> AmE long "a" (bait)
And I add a short trill to any "r"s.
Frankly, I have no clue what to do with accents (except ñ and ç), so I tend to ignore them (which is WRONG WRONG WRONG, but what can I do?).
So I get: "SIGH-r[dl]ah"
But then again, that's just me trying to apply the same rules to every non-English language in existence X-P when I only have experience with about two or three. So, needless to say, it only works for 10% of words in each of two or three languages.
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Those rules will most likely lead you to mispronounce almost every name ever, or at best, give you a very heavy accent. Most languages have very different pronunciations of very similarly spelled words, so treating them all the same way isn't the way to go.
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Yes, but it's between that and guessing randomly.
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Well, since it's Nifflas' game, I say we let his opinion decide as no one appears to know the actual pronunciation.
As far as we know (forget everything he has said about origin) he made up the name and thereby set the sound of the vowels.
And so forth... :P2
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Yes, but it's between that and guessing randomly.
Guessing is a lot more accurate than deliberate mispronunciation. :/
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You could always pronounce is Saria like I do.
Because you know, I'm cool like that.
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Poor Nifflas can't ever give exotic names to his games... :P
This is at least the third time the pronunciation of a word from his games is debated. I remember this happened with Knytt and Pteranodon.
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Poor Nifflas can't ever give exotic names to his games... :P
This is at least the third time the pronunciation of a word from his games is debated. I remember this happened with Knytt and Pteranodon.
...and the next time it will happen AGAIN C)p I shall obtain some inspiration from Robert Popper's bank naming skills (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2009/11/robin-cooper-week.shtml).
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i pronounce it "sigh" "Rah" like to sigh and... well "rah" XD
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I always thought Saira was pretty common?
S as in Sack
Air as in... Air
Rah as in Rack
S-air-rah
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It sure isn't here, but perhaps where you live :)
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Hmm, England.
I think people here are getting bored of traditional names.
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Saira is pronounced Glarrfsh, like Glah-sma-rahr-fisk.
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I always thought Saira was pretty common?
S as in Sack
Air as in... Air
Rah as in Rack
S-air-rah
Like... Sarah?
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Sigh-rah is the best pronunciation in my opinion. Like nitt for Knytt, although it's wrong, I know. I just like it the best.
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I always thought Saira was pretty common?
S as in Sack
Air as in... Air
Rah as in Rack
S-air-rah
Like... Sarah?
Hmm, maybe I'm mixed up.
Nevermind.
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Sigh-rah is the best pronunciation in my opinion. Like nitt for Knytt, although it's wrong, I know. I just like it the best.
I guess I'll go with Nifflas' "Saeerah" pronunciation as that's what I initially pronounced it like.
It goes pretty well with Danish, I feel.. At least if you don't want to almost break the flow of the syllables.
It was the same with Knytt for me. Danish has a few word with "Kn" (K pronounced) so the hard "K" sound followed by "n" came pretty natural.
I guess everyone goes with whatever best fits their speech pattern :^^:
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I find myself saying either 'say-rah' or 'sigh-rah', and 'nit' for Knytt. X)
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In my motherlanguage it would be pronounced
"S-ei-ra"
and in swedisch uhm... "S-ei-rra" I guess =P
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Pronounce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10eS0FWF1bw
Moahahaa!
Sa iii ra! :D
Ey, do NOT accidentally say Sa-h-ira. Sahira means like "witch", and not like, woow, a wicca,
but a -witch-, evil, nasty, black arts...
Saira.
Sahira.
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Everything's better than Saria - there is another famous videogame-girl going by that name. ;)
Pronounce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10eS0FWF1bw
Cool! I think Europeans may have an easier time with this. The way you say them is like how I assumed they'd be pronounced, because the phonetics is very similar to my language. :)
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Crazy stuff. I never would have guessed to pronounce it like that. X)
I can do it, though, German and Swedish are quite similar, lots of words are equal or similar as well.
I still prefer Sigh-ra, though. :oops:
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so its Saïra!
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Saira is pronounced Glarrfsh, like Glah-sma-rahr-fisk.
*amused* Yes, that is the exact sound C'thulu would make if he ever called her name before biting her head off.
Crazy stuff. I never would have guessed to pronounce it like that. X)
I can do it, though, German and Swedish are quite similar, lots of words are equal or similar as well.
I still prefer Sigh-ra, though. :oops:
Then you can sigh-Ra instead!
It's really not a big deal, as long as you help her find humanity...!
I mean, most people say Nytt instead of Knytt, and everyone knows what they mean.
Perhaps the "true" pronounciation of Saira can be compared to the true name of God.
Jehov-, er, I mean, you know, that name that no one knows. *cough*
We should not seek to utter it. *suddenly she's a godess and I'm religious? Unexpected*
[mod]merged multiposts AGAIN.[/mod]
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umm... I pronounced knytt right...
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I think I heard that it's supposed to be pronounced something like "Saeerah" and some website suggests "SAIYRah" but to be honest I don't know it better than anyone else unfamilear with the name. It's originally an Arabic name, today it's fairly common in Pakistan or India in case you want to ask someone!
I just realize that I tend to default to names that are hard to pronounce.
LOL
Saira is actually my sister's name. We're pakistani, and it's definitely NOT pronounced SAIYrah. The "ai" sounds like the English word "eye."
Although if websites suggest SAIYrah, that would explain why none of my sister's teachers can say her name correctly :P
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i just pronounce it "saira".
simple, huh?
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Saira is pronounced Glarrfsh, like Glah-sma-rahr-fisk.
*amused* Yes, that is the exact sound C'thulu would make if he ever called her name before biting her head off.
I am (aswell as always being late to the party) endlessly amused and fascinated by how far Lovecraft has travelled. For such an unashamed bigot, rascist, homophobe (and probably any number of even less savoury things) he's achieved a phenomenal audience :P
Also, incidentally, you've got a very endearing "character" in your videos [/stalker] XD
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I'd pronounce it "SY-ruh". :P I used to pronounce it "sair-EE-uh" until I looked closer at the spelling. X)
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I pronounce it "or-sum"