How the heck do you pronounce "Adol"?

[Joe Redifer]

Do you say "Ay-doll" with a long A like the TurboGrafx CD games say it or do you say Aadull with a short A like Xseed says it?  It is pronounced as Aadull in Japan.

Dogi combines the two in Ys 3 on the Turbo CD by saying Ay-dull. Personally I say Adol with the long A. Here's why:

-The TuboGrafx CD Ys games are better than anything Xseed has put out.

-This is not Japan. We have no obligation to pronounce words the same way they do.

How do YOU say it?

[esteban]

Owl-door.

[SignOfZeta]

For once I agree fully with Joe.

[NightWolve]

-The TurboGrafx CD Ys games are better than anything Xseed has put out.

Hah, I wouldn't know boycotting all their product, but funny to hear you say that.

As to the question, because I grew up with "Ys Book I & II" after I bought a Turbo Duo and it's what made me a lifelong Ys fan, I say it the way she (Mea Martineau as Lilia) says it here:

1) http://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ysbook12/audio/YS12_01_005E0000.mp3


Or, here she is again from the redbook audio track 37:

2) http://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ysbook12/audio/37-YsBookI&II.mp3


Incidentally, here is Thomas Haden Church's raw ADPCM clip extracted and converted to MP3 below. I wanted the best possible voice-acting samples for my dub research project (which I still wanna finish).
http://www.ysutopia.net/projects/ysbook12/audio/YS12_02_00620000.mp3


(His only recorded line in the game BTW.)

[Necromancer]

Because Turbob is the first time I heard it spoken aloud, I stick with that pronunciation.  Like dropping the f / ph off of Adolf / Adolph, presumably that would be the correct pronunciation of a Roman (Romun?) name.

If you watch the Ys anime thingy, they can't decide which pronunciation to go with.  It's usually the Japan pronunciation, but there's a few of other two pronunciations here and there.

[seieienbu]

Same as everyone else, I pronounce like they did in Ys 1.  Voice acting takes the guesswork out.

[esteban]

A: Veegz.

[o.pwuaioc]

Since Japanese law demands each letter to be their own syllable, it should be pronounced as Ah-duh-oh-la and it should be said with a perfect Japanese accent otherwise fanboys will murder you.

[Black Tiger]

I say "Ay-doll" when serious, but often say "Oddle" or "Oddle-ruuuu" for fun, like the opening Minea scene in Ys IV.

[martinine]

I agree with Joe here. The voice acting really cements a legacy of a western pronunciation. People in China and Japan don't use the western "pronunciations" of their country name, so I think it's fine to have a westernized name for a character.

Somewhere in that logic, I think it is terribly strange/wrong that countries don't have the same name in other countries. I think it's disrespectful we don't call China and Japan by their actual names. Maybe people share that sentiment about Adol? I think it's okay with Adol because he is fiction, but with sovereign nations, I feel disrespectful of their language and culture.

[o.pwuaioc]

I only pronounce Zhongguo (中國/中国) and Nippon (日本) as the ancients did, you heathens.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I keep going back n' forth between the Turbob & Jp pronunciations.

https://youtu.be/ht3uXmEN65Y?t=72

https://youtu.be/ht3uXmEN65Y?t=81

[ClodBuster]

-This is not Japan. We have no obligation to pronounce words the same way they do.

THIS. Agreed.

1 vote for Aydoll.

[esteban]

As a general rule:

I think that if a character has clear origins in a particular nation/culture/folklore/mythology/language/et cetera, then you can make an argument that the *original pronunciation* is a valid, viable option.

Ys always struck me as strongly inspired by a European setting/culture...so a "European" pronunciation is perfectly valid.

Hence, Adol should be pronounced as __________.

[Black Tiger]

As a general rule:

I think that if a character has r origins in a particular nation/culture/folklore/mythology/language/et cetera, then you can make an argument that the *original pronunciation* is a valid, viable option.

Ys always struck me as strongly inspired by a European setting/culture...so a "European" pronunciation is perfectly valid.

Hence, Adol should be pronounced as __________.

The name Valis was inspired by Valis and not some Japanese word(s) and it isn't something a Japanese person made up on their own. So the correct pronunciation isn't "Vawreesoo".

Somewhere in that logic, I think it is terribly strange/wrong that countries don't have the same name in other countries. I think it's disrespectful we don't call China and Japan by their actual names.

Except that many countries and languages have their own names for foreign places. It's no more disrespectful than speaking English at all instead of only any given country's language(s) fluently.

In the case of video games, which this topic is really about, Japan in particular calls Japan "Japan" all the time, as well as China "China".

If you somehow missed this in most games, try playing Street Fighter II.