The upcoming return to 64-bit Hyrule has us discussing Ocarina of Time memories, chatting about our favourite characters and bosses, and generally looking wistfully into the middle distance with a smile on our faces, wondering how all these people and places will look in reimagined form on Switch 2.
In the course of these chats, however, we’ve found that we don’t all say these people’s names in quite the same way. We’ve investigated Pokémon and more general Nintendo-related words before, but not Ocarina specifically. There’s only one way to say ‘Ocarina’, right?
Wrong. So come with us as we hit ‘X’ to jump and dive right in…
Before we begin, a note. As we’ve mentioned before, if someone says a word differently from you, it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong! MARRY-oh, MAR-ree-oh, YOSH-ee, YO-shee – it’s all good.
Even if there’s an official model or we’ve heard it spoken in-game, regional accents will always vary how these words are spoken aloud. There’s no 100% incorrect way to say these, unless you’re being deliberately obtuse (eg. ‘Link’ is never pronounced ‘Panbrush von Doofenstink’).
One other thing: The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is very useful to anyone who knows it…but not-so-much to those who don’t, which I imagine is most readers. For that reason, I’ve generally avoided it below and used capitalised approximations that the majority can hopefully parse more easily.
‘Ocarina’
Let’s kick off with the pronunciation question that sparked this entire article: How do you say ‘ocarina’?
A couple of weeks ago, John Ricciardi of 8-4 fame (Tokyo-based localisation studio and purveyor of excellent podcasts for anyone interested in Japan, games, or Japanese games) highlighted on Bluesky a recent interview with former NOA producer John Wornell published by Hyrule Interviews, which raised the topic of OCK-arina or OH-karina.
Leaving aside for a moment regional accent variations (the more British-sounding OCK /ɒk/ versus the US-like ARK /ɑːk/), the real question depends on whether you veer towards a Japanese ‘oh’ vowel sound at the start or not.
So, OC-topus or Oh-my-god?
‘Navi’
We’re back to the MARRY-oh / MAR-ree-oh with this one, although I wonder if the popularity of Avatar and the Na’vi mean that new players will lean towards NAR-vee these days.
‘Saria’
Same deal here – SARRYa or SAR-ree-ya?
‘Kaepora Gaebora’
Your pronunciation of OoT’s sagely owl depends on how you interpret those ‘ae’s. Hey or Hi?
Alternatively, you can have some fun if you stress the first syllables and link the two words in a sing-song fashion.
Alternatively alternatively, some might separate out the ‘a’ and ‘e’ in those diphthongs into separate, distinct vowel sounds, which shifts things up from three to four syllables a-piece. Each to their own.
‘Talon’ / ‘Malon’
I say MAY-lon, you say MA-lon,
I say TAY-lon, you say TA-lon,
MAY-lon, MA-lon, TAY-lon, TA-lon,
Let’s…stick with the poll format for now, because we’ve got six more of these to go.
At least Ingo is easy, eh? Unless there’s someone out there saying ‘Ingo’ without the hard ‘g’, or mistaking the uppercase ‘I’ for a lowercase ‘L’. But let’s not go there.
‘Epona’
Ah, an easy one! Or is it? This all depends on which syllable you stress, first or second.
What about stressing the third syllable, you ask? Hmm, you remember that note up top where I said there was no wrong way to say these? I lied.
Having recently introduced my kids to one of the internet’s finest videos (see above), in this household we wail her name to the tune of day-TOE-Naaaaaaa whenever humanly possible. That is the correct answer.
‘Sheik’ / ‘Sheikah’
The mysterious harp-wielding stranger who Link encounters later in his adventure, and Impa’s ancient tribe sworn to protect Hyrule’s royal family.
Your pronunciation here may align with how you say the Arabic word ‘sheikh’ – are you shake, chic, or something else entirely?
I’m going to assume you pronounce both the person and the tribe similarly – if not, well, that’s what the comments are for.
‘Koume’
When it comes to the witch sisters, the number of syllables is up for debate – three, two, or one.
Combining the ‘o’ and ‘u’ into something like KOO-may may feel natural in English, although in Japanese koh-OO-may might sound more accurate.
Likewise, you could be forgiven for combining everything into a single KOOM.
‘Kotake’
koh-TAH-kay sounds reasonable, sure, but if English speakers are mashing up those vowel sounds for ‘Koume’, koh-TAKE (rhymes with ‘fake’) isn’t off the table. There are also syllable and stress options here.
‘Volvagia’
It’s the ‘g’ that has some of us looking around for affirmation after saying this fiery boss’s name out loud and realising it sounds a little anatomical. Whether you take the first two syllables or the last two, it’s more than enough to fluster a reserved Brit.
So, is it Volvag– with a hard ‘g’ (like bag) or Volvadge- with a /dʒ/ (as in badge)?
‘Cucco’
We wrap things up with one that might seem obvious, but if you say it like the real-life bird of field and clock fame, why isn’t it spelt the same? Surely you need another ‘o’ on the end if it’s ‘cuckoo’, no?
It looks more like ‘stucco’, the material you use for rendering the outside walls of your house, which is pronounced STUK-oh. So, KUK-oh? KOOK-oh? KOO-koh?
Chickens. That’s what they’re called. Hit the chicken!
And there you have it. Hopefully you’ve had fun looking at some possible variations of familiar figures’ names. Perhaps you’ve changed how you say something over the years? Let us know below.
