Pry-toria? Pray-toria? Prey-toria?
By
Aggelakis,
Posted on: 2010-07-28 24:44 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I've always pronounced it "Pretoria," because Pretoria is a real city in South Africa. It was where apartheid policies were planned and implemented. It was named after Marthinus Pretorius (so says Wikipedia).
I've always wondered whether the naming of Praetoria was accidental or mindful of Pretoria's past.
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Praetoria is named after the Praetorian Guard, the elite bodyguards of the Roman Emperors - and Tyrant certainly acts like a Roman Emperor |
Originally Posted by Rodion
I've always pronounced it "Pretoria," because Pretoria is a real city in South Africa. It was where apartheid policies were planned and implemented. It was named after Marthinus Pretorius (so says Wikipedia).
I've always wondered whether the naming of Praetoria was accidental or mindful of Pretoria's past. |
@Golden Girl
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Huh, seems I say it different than everyone. I say Pray-ah-toria.
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Right, I realize that the link to Roman history is the ostensible reason it's named Praetoria.|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Praetoria is named after the Praetorian Guard, the elite bodyguards of the Roman Emperors - and Tyrant certainly acts like a Roman Emperor
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But when they named it did the devs realize that the name was nearly identical to the capital of the country that practiced such widespread oppression against the majority of its citizens?
In other words, are they intentionally drawing a parallel between Praetoria and apartheid-era South Africa, or is it an unfortunate coincidence?
I say Pray-tor-ee-uh. I don't care what's the right pronunciation. (Pry-tor-ee-uh sounds fine to me too.)
I use the Pree-A(h)-Tori-aa
(Pre - (like in pre-something)- A (about same length of A as in "a house" - Toria (emphesis on "Tor" (but not with a "h" like "Thor" from mythology). The last A is long.
Although for me the A in the word "Preatorian" vanishes.
But then I have been playing Total War: Rome again and listened alot to the "Pretorians ready!" before my Pretorian cohorts where running into battle.
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Yeah, this was my thinking too. Although I tend towards Pray-tor-ea in my head.
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Originally Posted by Willowpaw
I feel so ashamed. I keep hearing it as Petoria.
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It's not pr E A toria, though. That's just wrong. That's not even pronouncing it wrong, you've got the whole word wrong entirely.|
Originally Posted by Lady Arete
I use the Pree-A(h)-Tori-aa
(Pre - (like in pre-something)- A (about same length of A as in "a house" - Toria (emphesis on "Tor" (but not with a "h" like "Thor" from mythology). The last A is long. Although for me the A in the word "Preatorian" vanishes. But then I have been playing Total War: Rome again and listened alot to the "Pretorians ready!" before my Pretorian cohorts where running into battle. |
It's pr A E toria. Praetoria. Praetorian. Praetors.
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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Thats the spelling your talking about, and yes Aggelakis to the spelling I agree I have written it wrong. (with Intent)|
Originally Posted by Aggelakis
It's not pr E A toria, though. That's just wrong. That's not even pronouncing it wrong, you've got the whole word wrong entirely.
It's pr A E toria. Praetoria. Praetorian. Praetors. |
However we are talking about how this word "Praetorian" is pronounced, or how to pronounce it.
From what I've seen (and heard) the A before the E simply vanishes, and becomes like Pre-torian.
Here is a sample of how it sounds without the A getting heard.
From playing Rome Total War (if we are going to give that credibility aswell, it will be the same pronounciation; Pretorian (but yes it spells Praetorian).
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Using 'ae' turns into "hay" without the 'h', or like the 'i' in "sit", it never turns into "ee ah", that's the letters flipped around (quoting you: "Pree-A(h)-Tori-aa").
The link you give has both of them basically saying "prih torian" anyway, not "pree ah tori an" like you seem to be suggesting (see quote again).
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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Thanks for correcting me.
I do realize that my first pronounciation with the a(h) is wrong and is definitly not the same as with the link.
Nor had i thought of both at the same time, nor did I search for how it should be pronoucned with a H. Not that I would use the H in the word. (I fear I've writing myself into a situation that should have been avoided with the previous posts)
I should not have used the H with the initial attempt of pronounciation. It was a misguided attempt to try making the A heard as in: Pree-A-Torian.
From the sample I got later, I wanted to check if i had misheard or stuff, to my ears the sample makes the A go away, thus only: Pree-torian.
I have not said the word (pree-ah-torian) out loud where I sit, nor has it been my custom to do so. I tend to fall back to: Pree-torian.
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Pray-TOR-ee-ah.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Sort of. The dipthong ae is ah-ee, but without a syllable break. It does sound kind of like "ay" when pronouncing it in English, but mostly because we don't pronounce dipthongs in English like they do in other countries.
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Bill Z Bubba has my method: From everything I'm seeing on line, the dipthong ae is pronounce as a long a as in say, lay, clay. Which means I've been wrong about it for a long time. |
Dec out.
dictionary.com's pronunciation of the ae thingy is "ey".
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
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Not going to find too many countries that didn't commit some such atrocities. You could object to all the Roman references on that basis.
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Originally Posted by Rodion
But when they named it did the devs realize that the name was nearly identical to the capital of the country that practiced such widespread oppression against the majority of its citizens?
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Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
I've always thought the ae combo was pronounced as a long-A. For example: gaelic
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Originally Posted by Brillig
In Latin class, I was taught to pronounce it as a long I. As in Pie.
Mmm, Pie. |
I have always heard Caesar pronounced SEE-zer, although Kaiser, the German equivalent, does have the long I instead of the long E sound, as well as the hard K.
Regarding the OP, my money is on PrayTORia, since that is how I keep hearing the name pronounced with reference to South Africa. Who knows, maybe this is the issue that sparked the Resistance into open revolt.
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
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Good point. Caesar, the title and the salad, I'm familiar with them as see-zer. However, Caesar as a person's name, of which I've encountered a few, I've always heard them to be pronounced as say-zer.
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Originally Posted by Melancton
So then who was this Caesar? A Salad Dude?
I have always heard Caesar pronounced SEE-zer, although Kaiser, the German equivalent, does have the long I instead of the long E sound, as well as the hard K. |
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
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You need to keep in mind the distinction between Roman pronunciation of Latin words and English pronunciation of Latin words.
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Originally Posted by Melancton
So then who was this Caesar? A Salad Dude?
I have always heard Caesar pronounced SEE-zer, although Kaiser, the German equivalent, does have the long I instead of the long E sound, as well as the hard K. Regarding the OP, my money is on PrayTORia, since that is how I keep hearing the name pronounced with reference to South Africa. Who knows, maybe this is the issue that sparked the Resistance into open revolt. |
Weird, I've been pronouncing it as "ghoti." 
But then, I had a ghoti sandwich today for lunch, maybe it's just on my brain.
Absent any definitive proof that it's just plain wrong, I'm going to pronounce it PRAY-TOR-ee-uh. (Yes, with more-or-less equal accent on the first and second syllable.)
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
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Agreed, we've got a regular customer at work named Caesar (say-zar).
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Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
Good point. Caesar, the title and the salad, I'm familiar with them as see-zer. However, Caesar as a person's name, of which I've encountered a few, I've always heard them to be pronounced as say-zer.
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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To expand on this, Classical Latin pronunciation of Caesar was essentially Ky-zawr. I'm using that to avoid confusion with an umlaut, and to keep consistency with the vowel followed by an H denoting the short form, as opposed to what one of my elementary school teachers called "the doctor's A." Romans pronounced the letter C as a K, always. It is mostly due to British interest in Latin scholarship that we get See-zur, and Sih-seh-ro for that matter.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
You need to keep in mind the distinction between Roman pronunciation of Latin words and English pronunciation of Latin words.
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"I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes."
That actually sounds like Italian, right there. C in Italian is pronounced chay. In his native Italian, Cesare Borgia's first name is pronounced Cheh-zuh-ray.
I'm using the h after the vowel to denote a short vowel.
"I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes."
I am scarred by years of hearing my father's chorus singing the old Boer War song (English side) "Marching to Pretoria," so my mind fills it in as pree-TO-riah.
I assume the writers have the Roman office of a praetor in mind - PRAY-tor in late latin, PRY-tor in republican Latin.
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Pray-Toria