Pronunciation of Cathan?

Is there an official pronunciation for the name? I always assumed both A's were pronounced like the A in father.

On a very related note I'm thinking of making a fire sorc named Kathanne but I'm not sure the reference is obvious enough. Any suggestions?

Daydreamed Bear wrote: 4 weeks ago

Is there an official pronunciation for the name?

Not that i know of.
And the name is one of those problematic ones in English that have many possible pronounciations.

Ca-Than
Cat-han
Caithan
Cathaan
Cath-an
Cath-aan
Etc etc... No way to tell.

FULCRUM75 wrote: 4 weeks ago

And the name is one of those problematic ones in English that have many possible pronounciations.

Ca-Than
Cat-han
Caithan
Cathaan
Cath-an
Cath-aan
Etc etc... No way to tell.

Diablo 3's Polish translation uses "Katan" spelling ("Dzieło Katana"). Slavic languages do not have the "th" sound (not counting the Cyrillic letter "fita" Ѳ, derived from Greek theta Θ and used only in Greek loanwords in Church Slavonic and pre-revolutionary Russian), hence "t" is used.
So, assuming the official translations remain canon, we can at least exclude the "Cat-han" pronunciation.

FWIW, D2's Polish translation uses the original "Cathan" spelling.

Trang Oul wrote: 4 weeks ago

So, assuming the official translations remain canon, we can at least exclude the "Cat-han" pronunciation.

No, because we do not know whether the Polish translation is meant to be a different pronounciation from the English one or not...

"FWIW, D2's Polish translation uses the original "Cathan" spelling."

Which seems to suggest otherwise then...

I pronounce it Cuh-thann (rhymes with Da Man, as in "you da man!)

I probably pronounce half the stuff incorrectly though.

Related: I saw some video months ago where the narrator pronounced a lot of D2 words strangely, and one in particular, "TRA-VINKLE" stuck with me so hard that I now say

Travincal like him

According to a net search t's a Celtic name, and can be pronounced KAY-than as in Kay and the word than.

FULCRUM75 wrote: 4 weeks ago

"FWIW, D2's Polish translation uses the original "Cathan" spelling."

Which seems to suggest otherwise then...

I'd trust D3 translation much more. D2 translation had so many mistakes, ranging from simple typos, grammar errors to even factual ones (such as confusing Lysander the potion vendor with Lycander the Amazonian goddess) that it looks like it was made by an intern and without any proofreading. Some of those mistakes were fixed in an unofficial mod and later in D2R.

mhlg wrote: 4 weeks ago

According to a net search t's a Celtic name, and can be pronounced KAY-than as in Kay and the word than.

I found a few sources and most of them disagreed with each other. One site had what were supposedly clips from several English (i.e. the country, I really do hate their demonym) almost all stressing the the first syllable & pronouncing both syllables with a short A like in fan. I could only find one clip on another site from an Irish speaker who seemed to pronounce both A's like father though I couldn't hear the H at all so it was just CAHT-ahn.

Daydreamed Bear wrote: 3 weeks ago

mhlg wrote: 4 weeks ago

According to a net search t's a Celtic name, and can be pronounced KAY-than as in Kay and the word than.

I found a few sources and most of them disagreed with each other. One site had what were supposedly clips from several English (i.e. the country, I really do hate their demonym) almost all stressing the the first syllable & pronouncing both syllables with a short A like in fan. I could only find one clip on another site from an Irish speaker who seemed to pronounce both A's like father though I couldn't hear the H at all so it was just CAHT-ahn.

An audio clip pronunciation will vary by dialect, and dialects often vary even with a given culture. So yes there are going to be numerous different pronunciations for a word, especially words like those with a "th" combination. Consider the words "that" and "Thomas," both start with a "TH," but in the name Thomas you only hear a "T" sound. Some languages like French, and Gaelic don't have "th" sounds like English speakers hear in the word "The." The point is a translation of a word is a focus on its etymology and meaning, and a pronunciation of a word is somewhat relative because a word is significantly influenced by culture and dialect. So there may not be in completely right or wrong answers to the original question.

mhlg wrote: 3 weeks ago

An audio clip pronunciation will vary by dialect, and dialects often vary even with a given culture. So yes there are going to be numerous different pronunciations for a word, especially words like those with a "th" combination. Consider the words "that" and "Thomas," both start with a "TH," but in the name Thomas you only hear a "T" sound. Some languages like French, and Gaelic don't have "th" sounds like English speakers hear in the word "The." The point is a translation of a word is a focus on its etymology and meaning, and a pronunciation of a word is somewhat relative because a word is significantly influenced by culture and dialect. So there may not be in completely right or wrong answers to the original question.

I agree with you but if the answer is that we can't know what am I supposed to gain from your net search's pronunciation?

Daydreamed Bear wrote: 3 weeks ago

mhlg wrote: 3 weeks ago

An audio clip pronunciation will vary by dialect, and dialects often vary even with a given culture. So yes there are going to be numerous different pronunciations for a word, especially words like those with a "th" combination. Consider the words "that" and "Thomas," both start with a "TH," but in the name Thomas you only hear a "T" sound. Some languages like French, and Gaelic don't have "th" sounds like English speakers hear in the word "The." The point is a translation of a word is a focus on its etymology and meaning, and a pronunciation of a word is somewhat relative because a word is significantly influenced by culture and dialect. So there may not be in completely right or wrong answers to the original question.

I agree with you but if the answer is that we can't know what am I supposed to gain from your net search's pronunciation?

You gain the knowledge that "KAY-than" is one accepted pronunciation for the word Cathan, but not the only one.

mhlg wrote: 3 weeks ago

You gain the knowledge that "KAY-than" is one accepted pronunciation for the word Cathan, but not the only one.

Cheeky birb. lol I accept your knowledge and will amuse Cain with it the next time I stay a while and listen.

Cathan from Diablo II! In that context, it’s most commonly pronounced KATH-un, with a short “a” like in “cat,” and the emphasis on the first syllable. So it sounds like “KATH-un,” not “KAY-thuhn.”

Pipp wrote: 3 weeks ago

Cathan from Diablo II! In that context, it’s most commonly pronounced KATH-un, with a short “a” like in “cat,” and the emphasis on the first syllable. So it sounds like “KATH-un,” not “KAY-thuhn.”

As stated in a previous post, the pronunciation of Cathan varies by culture and dialect.