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.

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.

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.