"Wargaming Terms You Need to Pronounce Correctly" Topic

For instance:

"pinnace" (a class of starship in Traveller 1st edition)
"gaming convention" (a gay what?)

Apparently Actuator and Shillelagh. To avoid mocking (helps I am not Irish for the latter….)

Damon

Enfilade?

Decal

Not to mention its cousin, defilade

TMP

Calliope

Caisson (in the nautical sense)

to name but two

Oh, and Bagration :)

Voltiguer
cuirassier
carabinier

Voltiguer
cuirassier
carabinier

tts.imtranslator.net/HT6R
tts.imtranslator.net/HT6V
tts.imtranslator.net/HT6Y

OTE

peon (not too much emphasis on the first syllable?)

Portcullis.

My D&D DM in the 80s used to mis-pronounce it. Most of the rest of the group didn't know the word. To this day if I game with one of those players and there's an encounter with a barred lift gate, if the DM pronounces it correctly, they ask "is that like a portacallis?"

Rogue not rouge

It makes a difference. You want to game freelance spaceship crews exploring the edges of known space … not merchants selling facial makeup.

Never mind, this topic is about pronunciation not spelling. Even when spelled like the makeup, the players pronounced it as Rogue Trader.

Meelee.

Any German word can be mispronounced as long as you say it in a heavy pseudo-German accent. . .

Skullz

Davout.

Soult.

Fudo Myoo: buddhist deity of fire. "Oh yeah, fudo myoo you too buddy!"

Goyoshokunin; performers in the court of the Daimyo.

Daimyo is another word people bungle. Horribly. Me included.

Ikko-ikki; "religious adherents" – aka unwashed peasants who have gotten a hold of a lot of armor and weapons and who are crazy as and the main reason for the country at war period!

Bag of Holding; never mention this gaming term around jocks. ever.

Hypaspist
Phalangite
Jaeger

"line abreast"

Melee – yeah, some folks here like to pronouce it like 'mealie' – I just go with close combat or hand to hand.

pinnace – actually a very small sailing vessel,
sort of like the sailing version of an Admiral's
barge…

Naval wargamers would have the most challenging ones if naval wargames featured coxswains, boatswains, barricoes, or housewives, but usually they don't.

Americans may stumble over the British Army pronunciation of lieutenant.

WW1 wargamers cheerfully mangle the names of places like Wipers or Plugstreet Wood, and WW2 wargamers should be just as cavalier about bus Ridge or Okeydoke Pass.

In general, though, wargaming does not include very many words that are hard to pronounce; otherwise Don Featherstone's name would be pronounced Feston.

All the best,

John.

Fokker?

BAR, as in BAR gunner. Plenty of gamers read it like a word instead of pronouncing it like an the abbreviation it is.

Timbo W asked:

Fokker?

No thanks, I've just put one out.

All the best,

John.

Since you put the Fokker out, did you let the Gotha In?

as ever

Haggis

Moot, not mute.

Moot, not mute.

All depends on if you mean 'moot' or 'mute' really doesn't it? Context is everything.

Fokker?

They bombed our chippy…

Leib not Lieb

dice bag

chit

I drive my wife mad by mispronouncing cousin by adding a T to the end… cousint. Apparently I have always said it that way and everyone that knew me used to think it funny but never said anything… my wife told me soon after we started dating ;) I still have to mentally remember to pronounce it right whenever I say it.

Gaming wise;
When I first got into war-gaming I said Spree instead of Sprue to the local shop owner who I was talking to for the first time. He proceeded to over exemplify SPRUE(only when he talked to me) for like the next 3 years. He really wanted to make sure I never forgot it.

It's Cavalry not Calvary. Why can't the games around here say it correctly.

soap

I dunno if they can say it properly, but "turrent" is not how I hear the word, truly.

Liebertwolkwitz
Cuirassier
Kurassier
Voltigeur
Jaeger

Bersaglieri

Ed von HesseFedora wrote:

Leib not Lieb

Ah, yes. And the Wehrmacht rifle-grenade-launching attachment is a Schiessbecher, not a Scheissbecher.

All the best,

John.

niche
clique

does my nut in when I hear them pronounced as nitch and click.

Took me too long to learn to pronounce English names: Home and Cholmundly for instance.

Caisson (in the nautical sense)

It's the same word whether it's a sealed underwater structure or a cart carrying ammunition. (French for "box").

None of them. Language is different in well different languages. Ask anyone who is a non-English, Okay American speaker how a dog or pig sounds. Guess what you get all different pronunciations. Do not believe me do it. I wish I could take credit for this but it was something I learned from DLI back in the day.

But most American/English differences still confuse me.

VR
James Mattes

It's pronounced, "Thank you for participating in this match, despite your ongoing track record of losses." When you say it, it sounds like, "Whipped you like a yard dog AGAIN!!"

Any of the french words, used don't know why I have such trouble but I do.

As I enjoy Napoleonic gaming it is a small but significant issue when I play. Luckily I live in the USA so few other people know how to pronounce them either.

"Graf Spee"

If you are on the Southern Gentlemen's side in an ACW game, it is pronounced Ee Light, not ee leet.

Sd.Kfz. 251

SkidFiz 251 or Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251

melee [mey-ley, mey-ley, mel-ey]

NOT MEE-LEE.

Ditto

Phil
:)

melee [mey-ley, mey-ley, mel-ey]

NOT MEE-LEE.

The beauty of the language is, if enough of us keep pronouncing it wrong, we'll eventually be right.