If 'N'wah' is supposed to be pronounced 'Enn-Wah'...

[Johnny Casey]

Wouldn't that make 'S'wit' to be pronounced 'Ess-Wit' rather than 'Seu-Wit'?

[evelyn]

No.

[evelyn]

But in all seriousness it is likely an oversight as the Dunmer language does seem to have odd inconsistencies. I doubt it's much more than that.

[Johnny Casey]

Yeah, as much as Morrowind purists will hate me for saying this, but I think Skyrim did it right by have the VAs to pronounce 'N'wah' as 'Neu-Wah', making it consistent along with 'S'wit'.

That is, until the Dragonborn DLC came out where they got one VA to say 'Enn-Wah' again...

[theo]

Languages don't have to be consistent.
Also in real languages spelling is secondary to pronunciation

[psychotron666]

English is super inconsistent.

Like there's no reason the G in giraffe and gift are pronounced differently. Or giraffe and garage.

[Kamiyama]

Languages are living things and change over time. All of them are inconsistent because spellings and pronunciations change over time.

The only ones that might not be are crafted languages, like Klingon. They can be made "perfect" so that there are no spelling or pronunciation inconsistencies but that's because they aren't in common use and thus aren't living languages.

[Boshiken]

Originally posted by Johnny Casey:

Yeah, as much as Morrowind purists will hate me for saying this, but I think Skyrim did it right by have the VAs to pronounce 'N'wah' as 'Neu-Wah', making it consistent along with 'S'wit'.

That is, until the Dragonborn DLC came out where they got one VA to say 'Enn-Wah' again...

"Greetings, I'm back from Skyrim."

"This a Dunmer Establishment - you N'wah."

[evelyn]

Originally posted by theo:

Languages don't have to be consistent.
Also in real languages spelling is secondary to pronunciation

That is very true but I am still wondering if it was intentional or not.

[Johnny Casey]

I know English language isn't really all the consistent to begin with, but it's kinda funny if you think about some nerds have came up with some fabricated words to be used in their own fantasy world, and while doing so, they also made sure that those words will be inconsistent.

"We're gonna create these entirely new words which their pronunciation is inconsistent among them! Why would we do this? Because we could, and we feel power by doing so! People will think of us whenever this inconsistency bothers their mind! Mwahahaha!"
--- Michael Kirkbride or whatever

[theo]

Spoken word naturally comes first, and then you find a way to write it down. I guarantee this is how they came up with these words.
To assume they then specified pronunciation to the voice actors to improve world building, just like Tolkien explained how his made up languages were supposed to be pronounced, wouldn't be too far fetched.

[Johnny Casey]

Or, it was a mistake on VA part - like how Michael Mack said 'Dum-Ner' when it's supposed to be 'Dun-Mer' - but they didn't properly QA the voicelines. That wouldn't be too far fetched, either.

To me, 'Enn-Wah' doesn't sound so natural to begin with to have the rule above applied in the first place. (The only reason it would sound natural to some people is because how often you get to hear this) 'Neu-Wah' is more applicable for that case.

[Valden21]

It could just be an example of regional differences within the Dunmer language. Morrowind's bordered by mountains to the west, and swamps to the south. Under those circumstances, the dialect of the Dunmeri language spoken in Morrowind's gonna become different from the dialect spoken in other parts of Tamriel. This is something that's happened IRL a lot, so it's by no means impossible.

[Browne Rosaceae]

Since in the german word, they litterally say it ingame, there is no discussion for me here

[Johnny Casey]

Originally posted by Valden21:

It could just be an example of regional differences within the Dunmer language. Morrowind's bordered by mountains to the west, and swamps to the south. Under those circumstances, the dialect of the Dunmeri language spoken in Morrowind's gonna become different from the dialect spoken in other parts of Tamriel. This is something that's happened IRL a lot, so it's by no means impossible.

A good take, although my point of question was "If this word is pronounced this way, wouldn't that word to be pronounced that way as well?", rather than "Why would they say it like that in this region while some don't in that region?"

[psychotron666]

It could simply be like how half of everyone in the world pronounces gif as jif, the other as gif. even within our own cultures and regions, people pronounce it differently from household to household. There's no rhyme or reason why I pronounce it one way and my friend the other way.