TTV Episode 211 Discussion

On this week’s TTV Podcast, we were fortunate enough to have not one, but TWO guests on the show; highly esteemed BioTube MOCists @Shadowgear6335 and @Alieraah!

Topics this week include the Trial by Tahu Fan Animation by @Pereki, the Maori Controversy, and some YouTube Policy Updates, among many other things.

Check out the episode and let us know what you all think!

-Mesonak

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Thanks again for having us on! It was a blast!

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If only I could be a guest… :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Shadowgear is a really funny guy.

~W12~

Maybe I’ll watch it…

I guess I’ll run through this in order as best as I can (or at least, remember):

I personally haven’t seen “Trial by Tahu” yet, but it looks like a rather promising short, and the praise given to it by the TTV Crew has swayed me into watching it.

The fact that the “Overlord Makuta” model was released by one of the original set designers was really nice. Hopefully, more will continue to engage with the fans.

On the topic of name pronunciation, I try to stick with the language of which the name is originated. So for most of Early BIONICLE, that would be Māori, and Latin for Late BIONICLE. Here are a couple of names and the way I pronounce them:
Lewa - “leh-wah,” not “lay-wah,” “lee-wah,” or “lew-wah”
Onewa - “oh-neh-wah,” not “ah-neh-wah,” “ah-nay-wah,” or “oh-noo-wah”
Whenua - “feh-noo-ah,” not “weh-noo-ah” (while “f” is not the exact pronunciation of the Māori wh, and not the way I pronounce it, it is the closest approximation to the pronunciation of the word for standard English speakers.)
Maxilos - “mah-ksee-los,” not “mæ-ksih-los” or “may-ksih-los”
Gelu - “geh-loo,” not “gay-loo” or “gee-loo”
Hewkii is the exception to the “ew” pronunciation, not the rule. “Hewkii” is, after all, an anglicized version of “Huki,” and is using “ew” as a diphthong, not as a separate vowel and consonant.

I personally regret buying a Copper Mask of Victory during one of the yard sales at Brickfair, as I got a bunch of them during the BZPower fundraiser (which I ended up giving to TTV, but still). I also regret not picking up one of those Manas’, but at least I got a Chrome Hau out of it.

BTW, I’m probably gonna sound like a parrot at this point, but it was really nice to meet the TTV Crew, as well as @Shadowgear6335 and @Alieraah. Like I said when I met you there, I’ve been a fan since 2009, and I really enjoy both of your content. I hope you can find something useful to do with those Skull Scorpio masks!

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You silly english people the onua onewa thing. its not a problem if you are dutch :wink:

“ohnu-a”
“oh-ney-wa”

and all the other pronounciations fall mostly in line with dutch pronounciation. So my gues is is that the pronounciations are the way they are because LEGO is located in denmark. and alot of European languages share pronounciations and words.

oh and apparantly mauri also works

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I say things weirdly, sometime unintentionally.

I used to say Kongu as “kahn-goo”. Then one day I said it as “Kone-goo”, and that’s the way I’ve said it since.

Anyway, my “policy” with BIONICLE names is to ignore the official pronunciation unless it’s used in audio media (movies, JtO, etc.) So names like Ehrye, Ahkmou, Gelu, Avak, names that were never said aloud in official media, I say however sounds right, but the names from the movies, animations, and JtO, I pronounce as given.

I also pronounce Kahi as “Jahn” because that’s the way he says it.

~W12~

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Welp, I’ll see all y’all in about five days after I’ve watched it :stuck_out_tongue:

Very impressive Meso, your pronunciation was pretty close! x)

Having Shadowgear on is pretty nostalgic, that guy has been around forever. It takes me back.

Also nice to continuously hear new stories about Brickfair, seems like you guys have enough podcast material for the rest of the year.

Its Leh-wah due it: originating from a phonetic alphabet, all other Maori names in the series use the same phonetic rules of each letter being one sound (except the ones that were latter butchered by the controversy deal)

And as the person above quoted:

Yes a lot of Non-English European languages use phonetic rules to various degrees in their language. From my example nearly all Slavic languages are primarily Phonetic in structure (Serbian is a perfect example where you “read how it is written and write how you say it” meaning each letter is a sound you say so Spelling competitions are rather pointless here), so I have no issue pronouncing words from the Maori language, which itself has a phonetic alphabet (these rules apply for all phonetic alphabets and languages).

Primarily English speakers have a much harder time pronouncing things since their own language has a very roundabout way of pronouncing words (Example: “J” is pronounced as /dʒ/ while most central European languages pronounce it as /j/ (see how similar the pronunciation is with the actual letter), this is a typical example of a phonetic alphabet in action)

Fun fact: A lot of slavic languages dont use the letters Y, W, X since they are ether pronounced with two letters (X pronounced as /iks/, are pronounced the same as other letters (Y pronounced as /j/) or are a smother pronunciation of one (W is pronounced as a smother sound of /V/)

More Fun Facts: Eljay would be written as Eldžej in South Slavic due to use of phonetic alphabet. Viper as Vajper, The rest are written the same as in the English version due to following the Phonetic rules.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Pronunciation_of_J_in_Europa.png
(Pronunciation of written j in European languages)

Hopefully this will help in preventing further butchering of the Toa of Air’s (Jungle’s) name while also edumucating you all about different cultures and their languages (aka the wonders of “no spelling requiered” phonetic alphabet).

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Now that I’ve watched the episode…

I believe this is going down in my top twenty favorite.

Good thing you cleared that up. Now that I look at you, I think I actually met you on a WoW video once.