Page 1 of 4

All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:54 am
by deuxhero
I always thought it was jone-es (like indiana jones).
That was an intresting part of the interview.

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:28 am
by Trestkon
Exclusive gameplay footage coupled with my magical presence and THAT'S the most interesting thing?!

;)

Everyone assumes it's with a J sound, I did when I first knew him. He says we still say it incorrectly, though. Something with the 'o' sound....

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:45 am
by Fulgrymm
I always assumed it was pronounced 'Joe-niss', like the Jonas brothers. It occurred to me that it's probably pronounced as a y, but I didn't know the specifics; I'm only familiar with German pronunciations.

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:31 am
by Jonas
It's really not important though. When I pronounce my name while I'm speaking English, I inadvertently pronounce it Joeniss myself, so I take no offense. It's not like I expect everybody to study Danish just to get my name right ;)

For some reason though, Trestkon really cares about all our voice actors saying it the right way in the game. I guess consistency is nice, but it doesn't matter to me either way.

As for the o, I maintain it is something like a hybrid of the sounds "oh" as in owe and the "oo" as in you. It was kind of surprising to me when both of you failed to make out the difference via Skype, but Grub could hear it and managed to reproduce it perfectly later, so I know it's not just me :P

The sound does not exist in English, as far as I know. But that too does not really matter.

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:33 pm
by chris the cynic
I still think of it a jay sound, (like Jonas Quinn in Stargate SG-1) but I'm trying to change that since I learned it is not.
Jonas wrote:The sound does not exist in English, as far as I know. But that too does not really matter.
That would explain why people can neither distinguish nor pronounce it. Ears adapt to the languages they are in, which makes it very hard to distinguish a sound that doesn't exist in one's own language (or languages.)

Children should be taught to hear every sound made in every language, it would make later life so much easier. Perhaps a series of lullabies could be made that include all such sounds or some such. Not sure if that would actually accomplish the desired result.

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:44 pm
by Jonas
The problem is also that the sound is so close to the other o sounds which do exist in English. If the distinction was greater, it would be easier to pick up.

For example, the th sound from "thigh" in English does not exist in Danish, though the th sound from "though" does (descended from the consonant Þ (lower case: ð) in ancient Norse). This makes it very difficult for many Danes to pronounce, but it's fairly obvious that the two th sounds are not the same. Similarly, we pronounce R's completely differently (more of a rasping back-of-the-throat sound than a rolling tip-of-the-tongue sound), which means the words "three" and "through" consistently kick my ass, even after all these years of practicing English via VOIP :P

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:47 pm
by DDL
All this fuss over 'Jonas', when the guy has a surname you can't even write with a standard keyset? Wæver, ffs. (yay C&P)

And let's not get started on herløv (or howæver it's spelled)....

(sorry Jonas)

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:57 pm
by Phasmatis
I've always pronounced it Joenass although I did know the J has a Y sound but Jonas is said like Joenass in English so I pronounced it that way and probably couldn't pronounce it the Danish way if I tried.

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:42 pm
by Jonas
Linguistics are awesome.

Seriously though this must be like the third time we've ended up discussing the Danish language on these forums. It's only spoken by about 6 million people, it really is not that important!

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:41 pm
by eternalightwithin
In my mind I always pronounced it Jone-ass, you have to draw out the sssss part. :twisted: :mrgreen:



Please don't hurt me, No Jonas, No please [-o<

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:05 pm
by Jonas
Yep, definitely heard that one before. Was wondering when somebody'd use it.

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:03 pm
by eternalightwithin
<shudder> I remember highschool. Must have been tough for you too?

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:06 pm
by AgentSmithereens
Me too, I thought it was pronounced with a 'j'. I have a friend whose surname is Jonas and pronounced like that, so I assumed it was the same. Also there's a football player at Newcastle Utd called Jonas Gutierrez who I think has it pronounced like Jonas, but he's Argentinian, not Danish.

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:24 pm
by Jonas
eternalightwithin wrote:<shudder> I remember highschool. Must have been tough for you too?
Nah, Danish high schools don't have that anti-elitism you see in American teen flicks and dramas, that stuff is taken care of in junior high and prior to that :P

High school was great because I kicked ass at everything. Yes, even PE.

I miss high school. University is tough #-o

Re: All this time I never realized that Jonas was said with a y

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 10:11 pm
by EER
So Trestkon pronounces it correctly in the interview? Sounds pretty much like how I would pronounce it, except that I would pronounce the a more like an 'a' (as it is in 'awesome'). 'jonawws' ... does that make sense? I doubt it.