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And now that we know that the Tsoo are from a distinct asian ethnic group with a long history, unique language, and interesting culture,
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But it is very obvious that THEY ARE NOT. They dress absolutely nothing like the Hmong.
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And now that we know that the Tsoo are from a distinct asian ethnic group with a long history, unique language, and interesting culture,
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But it is very obvious that THEY ARE NOT. They dress absolutely nothing like the Hmong.
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I'm not quite sure how the Hmong dress, but these guys are wearing stereotypically ninja type outfits usually. And the sorcs look like they're the Furies from Big Trouble in Little China.
Upsen.
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I keep the T sound at the beginning, like in the Japanese ABCs...
ta chi tsu te to
like the tsu in tsubasa or tsuki.
Yeesh my explainerisms are nots working today too well.
Oh I got it... it's the same tsu as in "Tsunami", which is a Japanese word that most people know. 8)
edit - man this is hard to explain, it's not a soo-nami! 
Upsen.
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Don't worry, I understand what you mean.
And I'd like to add, this isn't French, where one out of four letters isn't pronounced (stupid french). So it's T-sue.
All you people saying it's pronounced "sue" should be ashamed of yourselves.
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I've always called them Sue.
...and I will continue to make fun of their girly name and powers. 
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Wow...some of you people need to go outside once in a while.
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Cherry blossom festival this weekend! See you there!! 
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If only there were in-game voice tracks.
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Localization would have become a LOT more expensive.
Positron
Follow me on Twitter
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If only there were in-game voice tracks.
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Localization would have become a LOT more expensive.
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You guys need at least a pronounciation guide so that everyone knows how to properly say the names of the villains. 8) an audio clip would be totally a bonus.
Upsen.
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If only there were in-game voice tracks.
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Localization would have become a LOT more expensive.
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You guys need at least a pronounciation guide so that everyone knows how to properly say the names of the villains. 8) an audio clip would be totally a bonus.
Upsen.
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Heck yea!! we can have Devs pronouncing different villians name and possible a "short" history....
maybe like Positron, statesmen, cuppajoe could do some voices wouldn't that be cool? (more stuff to add to their fan shrine) muahahah
Posi, do ya see the work load increasing exponentially? Run, partner! Run!!!!
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actually, the Tsoo are definately Hmong in origin. One of the pedestrian comments in Talos is "Those Tsoo make the rest of the Hmong community look bad."
I spose you could argue that pedestrian doesn't know what they are talking about, but once you start ignoring the in game info sources, then you leap off into the wonderful realm of unsupported hear-say.
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One of the Skyway contacts tells you outright that they are Hmong.
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If only there were in-game voice tracks.
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Localization would have become a LOT more expensive.
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I would hate to have Positron sound like Positroan.
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And now that we know that the Tsoo are from a distinct asian ethnic group with a long history, unique language, and interesting culture,
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But it is very obvious that THEY ARE NOT. They dress absolutely nothing like the Hmong.
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That's a good enough reason to beat the poop out of them: they're denigrating traditional Hmong dress! Get 'em!
I've always said "tuh-soo". Any other pronunciation at this point would just sound too weird.
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If only there were in-game voice tracks.
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Localization would have become a LOT more expensive.
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Consistancy is tough too, as most voice actors don't speak six or seven languages fluently. 
ne wai bo wai suo gwo yu (my ping-ying is aweful)
hmm I better recheck those pedestrians if they are hmong (like stated above) they sure don't dress like it.
Okay, well, I have something of a linguistics background, but I am not an expert on Asian languages. It seems to me, however, that if the words of the pedestrian are true ("Those Tsoo make the Hmong community look bad."), then the case is solved, the Tsoo are Hmong.
On the other hand, the Tsoo seem to have dress styles that could range from Chinese to Japanese. But the word Tsoo, while certainly Chinese, is not Japanese. Of course, we must consider that "tsoo" is romanized, and there may be several spellings of a Chinese word, depending on which system of orthography one chooses. Doing a quick search on the Internet does reveal that the word "tsoo" is the name of a language, and the people that speak it, in Taiwan. It is also the name of a writer, Chiachin Tsoo, from Taiwan. Furthermore, any search including "tsoo" and "taiwan" or "chinese" yields a multitude of Chinese/Taiwanese examples of the word "Tsoo" in other words. Chinese culture is quite dominant in Taiwan, and it is likely that the Tsoo language is a derivation of Chinese and not Japanese--which is apart of a different language family altogether.
Now to why it isn't Japanese. Simple. The "oo" part is not found in any Japanese romanization. If we assume that "oo" is like Korean "oo," then it would be pronounced in English "soon" or "broom." But since the Tsoo are in Taiwan, we might assume it sounds more like Chinese.
And in Chinese, at least in Mandarin (which is the official language in Taiwan), the closest vowel sound is actually a diphthong (that is, two vowels which sound like one vowel like in English "high," where "igh" is actually "a" and "I" according to the IPA). Thus, the "oo" seems to be an alternate spelling of "Tsu," which we find, is a very Chinese spelling (and while also Japanese, we can discount that origin since no Japanese orthography claims "oo" though many Chinese languages/dialects do); and it is pronounced more or less like "ooh" in English but with a stronger labialized offglide (that is, the second vowel has a more "w" quality to it).
In Mandarin, the Wade-Giles system uses "ts" to describe a similar sound found in English "cats"--referring to the "ts" cluster as the final sound. In pinyin, the official romanization system, "ts" is replaced with "z." Honestly, it doesn't get any simpler than that.
Chinese is a tone language, and we can assume, quite safely that Tsoo would be tonic as well. If Tsoo in COH is Taiwanese or Tsoo, then their name has a tone to it. I cannot conjecture as to what tone it is since there is no indication of it in the spelling.
So basically.... we got
tsoo (the name) is hmong
sorcerers have the chinese look
crane warriors have the japanese look - you don't see many chinese ninja 
thus I guess the tsoo are suppose to be "asian like" instead of a particular ethnic.
Consider I'm more of a visual person, I'm going with "sue" sound than the hmong version.
Oh, one more thing.
Taiwan is not too far from Fujian Province, where they speak Fujianese, another Chinese language. Thus, my father, a native speaker of Fujianese, pronounced "ts"'s differently than a native speaker of Mandarin from Beijing. In any case, the pronuciation of Tsoo depends on what language/dialect of Chinese you speak more than anything. So if the Tsoo in COH are from Taiwan--or even are the Tsoo that speak Tsoo--how you pronounce "Tsoo" will depend on which way you think is right. The Tsoo themselves might pronounce it like "proper" Mandarin (as described in my previous post) or with a Fujianese twist (if, assuming COH Tsoo is actually the Tsoo culture of Taiwan), since Fujian is so geographically close to Taiwan, and it is safe to assume there was a great deal (and, perhaps, still is) of cultural exchange or migration between the two areas (Fujian and Taiwan). Thus, "ts," by the Fujianese Theory, is pronounced like English "ch" as in "chair."
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If only there were in-game voice tracks.
[/ QUOTE ]
Localization would have become a LOT more expensive.
[/ QUOTE ]
You guys need at least a pronounciation guide so that everyone knows how to properly say the names of the villains. 8) an audio clip would be totally a bonus.
Upsen.
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Heck yea!! we can have Devs pronouncing different villians name and possible a "short" history....
maybe like Positron, statesmen, cuppajoe could do some voices wouldn't that be cool? (more stuff to add to their fan shrine) muahahah
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but then we would need one for all the names we all come up with. It never ends. 
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Thus, "ts," by the Fujianese Theory, is pronounced like English "ch" as in "chair."
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So I could set myself up a choo-Tsoo train in Talos? Rock on!
Only "ts" in Tsoo could never be like "s" in Sue since no romanization for any Asian language has it. It doesn't make sense to add a "t" to a sound when you can have one letter like "s." More like "Tsue."
Tsoo pronounced Sue just seems dumb, no offense.
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So basically.... we got
tsoo (the name) is hmong
sorcerers have the chinese look
crane warriors have the japanese look - you don't see many chinese ninja
thus I guess the tsoo are suppose to be "asian like" instead of a particular ethnic.
Consider I'm more of a visual person, I'm going with "sue" sound than the hmong version.
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You don't see many "chinese" ninja, but they do exist, at least in Mortal Kombat. Lin Kuei anyone? (I do believe they are based on fact somewhere as I seem to recall a Nintendo game by KOEI that had chinese ninja in it.
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Tsoo pronounced Sue just seems dumb, no offense.
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None taken, but most of us that call them "sue" are doing so as a joke.
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actually, the Tsoo are definately Hmong in origin. One of the pedestrian comments in Talos is "Those Tsoo make the rest of the Hmong community look bad."
I spose you could argue that pedestrian doesn't know what they are talking about, but once you start ignoring the in game info sources, then you leap off into the wonderful realm of unsupported hear-say.
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One of the Skyway contacts tells you outright that they are Hmong.
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The oriental guy in the lower levels near the tram right? Thao Ku, magic contact, L15-20 missions.
(though looking at artphobia/cohol, it could be Kong Bao or Cho Ge too)
Upsen.
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In-house, we pronounce them: [...]
<ul type="square">[*]Vahzilok : vaz' ih lock[/list]
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Positron was too polite to post it, but he told me that I'm a bit wrong. It should be:
<ul type="square">[*]Vahzilok : vahz' ih lock[/list]
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Vahz - rhymes with cars?
ih - beginning of in?
lock - lock?
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Vahz rhymes with cars? Maybe in Boston....