General Classic OH-carina or OK-arina?

[Shadsie]

Ock-ar-ee-na

Well, that's how my guy pronounces it... and he produced for me a little plastic ocarina that he'd had since he was a kid. It actually *looks* like the Ocarina of Time except for no Triforce crest and that it's made of plastic. If I ever go to an anime convention cosplaying Link, that thing's comin' with me. I am a tone-deaf, non-musically-inclined person (my artitisc talent is all in the visual and the written word, I'm afraid), so I cannot play it effectively, but I can make it do a cute warble.

When Bob showed it to me, I was all "What? It's a real instrument?!" Because I didn't know what an ocarina was before Zelda, either.

Could have been worse.... could have been the 'Myth of Mavis and the Samisen of Space." (Which is something I'm thinking of easter-egging into one of my original stories should I ever have a call for a character to be playing video games).

 

[athenian200]

Here's dictionary.com's pronunciation of ocarina. As you can see, their pronunciation is "ok-uh-ree-nuh."

To be fair, word pronunciation can change depending on the language. Try typing "ocarina" into this Japanese-English dictionary (I don't think I can link to the individual word like dictionary.com). The katakana used is オカリナ(o-ka-ri-na). In Japanese, the "o" is a long "o" sound and the "a" is a short "a" sound. So its pronunciation is "oh-kah-ree-nah." If you do look the word up, there is a audio link next to it as well.

I pronounce it with the English pronunciation, though, since as Axel the Beast says, it is an actual instrument.

(Random side note: Wikipedia tells me that "The word ocarina, in the Bolognese dialect of the Emiliano-Romagnolo language, means 'little goose'." How cute!)

That's what I was thinking of! I've heard the Japanese pronunciation of it, and it sounds better to me. Seems more applicable as well, seeing as the game was made by Japanese people. I bet that if they'd known what the word "Ocarina" sounded like in English, they'd have called it the Flute of Time or something.

The "Ock" sounds really... ugly to me. It sounds like the kind of thing only a really old American says. Quite frankly, I think the pronunciation of the instrument should be changed. I actually dislike the instrument in real life, because how it's pronounced grates on my ears.

 

[Link-182]

I actually called it oh-ri-kay-nah for the longest time, cuz I got the game when I was eight I didn't bother reading it that closely, but a few years later I was like OH, it's Oak-arena lol
Same with Kokiri Forest. I used to call it the Kick-oh-ri forest. But I fixed that too

 

[Ooccoo Watcher]

Argh!! Ock-uh-reen-uh is the correct pronunciation?! I used to pronounce it that way but then thought it was oh-cuh-reen-uh since most people pronounce it that way. I then went on to change my pronunciation of ocarina and now I find out it really is ock-uh-reen-uh!

 

[▲ToonLink▲]

I think it's pronounced Oak-kor-rena !!! It's more closer than Ah-cah-rain-a...<.< plus it sounds much better.

 

[onebizarrekai]

I just looked it up in the dictonary. It's pronounced OK-arina.

 

[blubb]

I my native language (German) I'd pronounce it [ʔɔkʰaˈ ʁiːna] and in English I'd say [ɔkʰəˈ ɹiːna] or even [ɒkʰəˈ ɹiːna] (IPA) which would be the "short o" rather than the "long o"/diphthong [oʊ̯].
Edit: Just noticed that the forum software doesn't handle IPA very well, it shouldn't look that strange actually...

 

[bradley]

Personally, I pronounce it "Oak arena" and it annoys the @#&% out of me when people say "Ock Arena". Maybe its pronounced differently in different regions.

 

[arkvoodle]

Hm. Depending on who i'm talking to, i'll change my pronunciation to what they normally say.

Oh-karina for some, Oak-arina for others. ^^ Everyone's happy

 

[zora warrior]

Hey bradley, the real pronounciation for it is ock-arena, but some people still say oak-arina. Like arkvoodle said, its one for some people, another for others.

 

[lilwilly]

oh-carina for sure. Check a big world book or stlocarina.com videos they say like that and i do 2

 

[lilwilly]

there the same way to be said. It is the same instrument no matter what so it is said the same way

 

[Dark Princess]

I've always said it as OCK-UH-REE-NUH, and I don't think I'd ever change how I say it. I've always pronounced it like that ever since I first played Ocarina of Time.

 

[Kirino]

Well they sound the exact same to me.

 

[Ventus]

I always said it as Oak-Arena, not Ah-Karina. Everytime someone says it "Ah-Karina", I feel like slapping them. I think the only reason why is because I've said that for...12 years straight. I'm not changing the way I say it, even if the dictionary or any other source says it some other way. :/