Our Rob or Ross

[Podey]

I’ve noticed that everyone else in the world seems to pronounce Ouroboros as “aura bore-us”. I don’t need to tell you how I’ve always pronounced it…

My question is, did Red Dwarf make that pronunciation up so that the premise of it being mistaken for something else would translate better? Have you ever heard it pronounced that way outside of RD?

[Warbodog]

I don’t have the background to know whether either is more correct. I first heard the more common one shortly after on The X-Files and figured it was a British/American thing at the time, like your-anus/urine–us. But if one show was more likely to have done its research, it‘s not our one.

[Ben Saunders]

I’ve only ever heard it pronounced the Red Dwarf way, but where exactly else I’ve heard it, I could not tell you.

[Warbodog]

Io’s also supposed to be “ee-oh”, at least Carl Sagan says so, but that would be harder to adjust to.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I’ve heard it pronounced oo-roh-boh-rose.

[International Debris]

Google reckons the British pronunciation is ooh-re-borrus. 

[Ridley]

It’s all Greek to me.

[Rudolph]

I played through Broken Sword 5 not long ago, where the ouroboros plays an important part, and kept mentally correcting the characters whenever they brought it up, as they use the aura-bore-us pronunciation.

[Technopeasant]

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Jenuall]

Red Dwarf is the only place I’ve heard it pronounced the way they do. I do think it was a combination of not necessarily researching it and Doug just wilfully mangling it to fit the needs of his story.

Most recent place I heard the more common aura-bore-us is in the videogames Xenoblade Chronicles 3 where it’s quite prominent.

[Moonlight]

Now I know how kids who decided the Sonic 3 level was called “Hydrossity Zone” feel when they eventually realize they’ve been saying it like an idiot for 30 years.

[Dave]

[Jenuall]

People who pronounced it Hydrossity to rhyme with velocity were, and always will be, the scum of the Earth. 

[Ben Saunders]

I call it Hydrossity recreationally, for fun. It pleases me.

[Dave]

I could understand the Hydro City argument more if there was a space between the words.

[Dave]

Also, I think just 11 posts before becoming another Sonic thread is a new record. 

[Warbodog]

My belated realisation was that the first “O” probably wasn’t upper case. Still not as bad as my brother calling Chrome Gadget “Charm Gandit.” 28 years old he was.

[Technopeasant]

Also, I think just 11 posts before becoming another Sonic thread is a new record. 

“Anything from Anywhere that reminds Moonlight of Sonic the Hedgehog” thread still pending.

Also, insert Mega Mind joke here…

[Technopeasant]

[Dave]

Still not as bad as my brother calling Chrome Gadget “Charm Gandit.”

[Ian Symes]

I choose to call it “Hydrossity” because it amuses me. I do the same thing for football teams. Leicestercity is a fun one, as is Coventrycity.

[Flap Jack]

I’ve never played Sonic 3, but I am already 100% on Team “Hydrossity”. If Sega wanted you to pronounce a space, then they should have added one.

And surely a place should either be a City or a Zone, not both. The “Zone” part is unambiguous, therefore it must be a zone which is known for having hydrocity. Hydrocity is a made up word, but looking at screengrabs, I challenge anyone to say with certainty that this level does not have hydrocity. Plausibly it’s just an abbreviation of hydro-electricity.

Likewise, Mexicans don’t live in Mexicocity, but I’m sure they have it in abundance.

[Ben Saunders]

This reminds me of Road Trip (Adventure) for PS2, where there’s a city called Sandpolis, which is clearly supposed to be Sandopolis, but it’s a pretty spotty translation from the original Japanese Choro Q HG 2

[Warbodog]

If Angel Island is a zone on Angel Island (confusing for my STC-reared brain), why doesn‘t it have its own name? Is it like New York, New York?

[Podey]

Let us not forget that is the company that wants us to pronounce the “ega” in ‘Sega’ and ‘Mega’ differently.

[Jenuall]

It’s a city (city) that’s water themed (hydro) it’s so simple even Lister could get it. 

Let us not forget that is the company that wants us to pronounce the “ega” in ‘Sega’ and ‘Mega’ differently.

[Dave]

It’s a city (city) that’s water themed (hydro) it’s so simple even Lister could get it.

But it’s water that you move through fast, so it’s hydro-velocity, or Hydrocity to be more Twentica about it.

(This is going to be Cinzano Bianco all over again.)

[Nick R]

Here’s a Sonic connection to get this back on topic: Loki season 2 featured a character called Mobius (which is, as all right-thinking people agree, Sonic’s home planet) meeting a character called Ouroboros.

I watched a video a few days ago in which someone else says it in a non-Red Dwarf way: at about 26:12.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Toxicity 

case closed. 

[International Debris]

Best I can think of is first time I played Tomb Raider, I thought colosseum was pronounced col-LOSS-ium 

[Dave]

Toxicity 
case closed. 

[Warbodog]

Hydro City fits the standard naming convention of a descriptive place name (basically a thesaurused Aquatic Ruin), while the more abstract neologism hydrocity doesn’t. I’m sure these points haven’t all been made by other people across the entire history of the internet.

[Technopeasant]

But is Back to Earth Seriesix?

[Moonlight]

These are the same people who tried to name a Sonic 2 level “Genocide City” because they don’t speak English. I don’t think they were making a pun with Hydrocity that barely even scans in English, nor is there wordplay in any other level title from this era.

[Stephen Abootman]

To go back to the original topic, I can confirm that the co-creator of Red Dwarf was Rob Grant, not Ross Grant.

[Nick R]

Rossert Llewellyn

[Dave]

[cwickham]

[Dave]

[International Debris]

As a Ross, this is all very disorienting.

[Moonlight]

A Ross! Let’s get him!

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Hyd-Ross-or-City

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

[Warbodog]

Even more confusing in German.

[Nick R]

Hyd-Ross-or-City

[Stephen Abootman]

Taken a bit of a liberty with this one:

[International Debris]

A Ross! Let’s get them!

[Jenuall]

This is veering dangerously close to Taiwan Tony territory

[Author]

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