Ah-carina or Oh-carina?

Originally Posted by TurkeyMcBean

What's the difference between the two?

When I say "ah" I'm talking about the short "o" sound, as in dog, not the short "a" sound as in cat. I'm also referring to "aw", as in "awk-arina"

I refer you to my elaboration on the phoentic use of vowels

Originally Posted by Durgey

"aw" does not sound the same as "ah", you must be pronouncing them wrong.
The "aw" is used in phrases like awkward, awesome, awful etc
-in terms of accents, it is often represented by "ô"
The "ah" sound is generally used in words like sand, cat and art etc
-it's represented by "ä" or just as "a" without an accent.

When using the letter "O" to begin word, and having it proceeded by only one consonant and then another vowel -by rules of language has it pronounced as the upper case letter (in english, at least) as "ō" in some languages.
Yay linguistics!

The "aw" sound is also used in dog, fraud, bawdy, etc (the English language is weird) and of words with similar pronounciation rules.

for another thing -ah represent the sound of "a" in cat, ah has never been used to represent the "o" sound.
I think you're pronouncing "dog" wrong, if it were using the sound "ah" it would have been spelt as "dag"

Originally Posted by Durgey

I refer you to my elaboration on the phoentic use of vowels


The "aw" sound is also used in dog, fraud, bawdy, etc (the English language is weird) and of words with similar pronounciation rules.

for another thing -ah represent the sound of "a" in cat, ah has never been used to represent the "o" sound.
I think you're pronouncing "dog" wrong, if it were using the sound "ah" it would have been spelt as "dag"

Ok. Well, then I pronounce Ocarina with an "aw" sound.

I first said "ock-uh-ree-nuh", then my friend told me it's "oh-kuh-ree-nuh", then I found out it's supposed to be pronounced "ock-uh-ree-nuh".

Originally Posted by Demise

I say Oh-carina. That's how it should be, with the way it's spelled and all.

Apparently not.

Ocarina | Define Ocarina at Dictionary.com

Also, I noticed a lot of people I know pronounce it "orcarina" for some apparent reason. Don't understand where they got the first "r" from.

I say Ah-carina, but I think it makes sense to say it either way. What REALLY frickin' annoys me is when people pronounce Mario as "Mary-Oh"

Ah-carina for me. I've heard many, many people say it both ways though, but Ah-carina just sounds better to me.

Err.. It's 'ock-uh-ree-nuh', clearly >< Not to seem hostile or anything, but isn't it pretty obvious? :/

I say ock-uh-ree-nuh, I used to say Oh-carina, but i like the other way.

I've always pronouced it Oh-carina.

Originally Posted by jellotime91

As someone who has studied Japanese and knows the proper use of katakana, they would have wrote it A-KA-RI-NA if they wanted it to be pronounced that way. In Katakana, the long A sound is used to simulate many English O sounds. It's not uncommon.

Regardless of the pronunciation of the actual instrument, I still feel that the pronunciation for "OCARINA OF TIME" is "O-Ka-Ri-Na", because that is how the creators of the game intended for it to be pronounced.

No, not necessarily. Ocarina is the way you spell the word. They wouldn't put akarina even if they wanted it pronounced that way. It would be grammatically incorrect. Besides, if you look in a dictionary, it's pronounced awk-a-ree-na.

Let's do the OH-carina!!

Thumbs up if you got the reference!

I've always pronounced it Oh-carina. I didn't even know the "correct" pronunciation until years and years after playing OoT and running across some ocarina-playing guy on Youtube. I still pronounce it Oh-carina, because it's what I've always done, and because I just think it sounds better than Ah-carina.

Ocarina is an Italian word meaning "little goose" and the correct pronunciation is oh-ka-ree-na.

I always use Awwck-Uh-Ree-Nuh

---------- Post added at 07:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:02 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Butt Fist

Also, I noticed a lot of people I know pronounce it "orcarina" for some apparent reason. Don't understand where they got the first "r" from.

Kinda like how most people pronounce Sherbet (the ice cream): Sher-bert, when there is not an "r" before the t. The correct way is Sher-bet. Off topic sort of, but that's another pronunciation that many people make a mistake on.

In my head the word is ah-carina, but I know it should be oh-carina.

when I first got the game, I pronounced it "oh-carina." After getting stuck in one of the temples, I called the Nintendo Hotline that had walkthroughs for games.. (oh my god, do they still have that?) and the guy speaking the walkthrough called it "ah-carina." after hearing that, I had to basically train myself to say it "ah-carina," but I think it sounds better anyway.