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Executioner Smough is a boss in Dark Souls. It's unclear how to pronounce this name, because both "ou" and "gh" have multiple pronunciations in English.

For example, the "-ough" is pronounced differently between "tough", "trough", "though", and, "through".

Based on official sources, what is the correct way to pronounce "Smough"?

MikeQ
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1 Answers1

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According to https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Executioner_Smough

In the code for the Japanese version of the game, Smough's name is displayed as '処刑者スモウ', which translates to read as 'Executioner Smō'.

Without going too much into detail with Japanese, based on the spelling: "スモウ" (Su mo u), his name was originally intended to be read as one of the following options:

  • Sumō (possibly)
  • Smō (most likely)
  • Sumo-oo (least likely)
  • Smo-oo (not likely)

The "u" that follows a consonant ("s" in this case) is usually short, to the point of being inaudible.

The "u" that follows an "o" usually combines with the "o" to make it sound longer (written as "ō"). In rare cases, you can hear a very faint "oo" (as in "loop") after the "o" sound.

As a result, the most likely candidate sounds like "small" but without the "ll", and with a long "o" sound at the end.

Nolonar
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  • The “ō” indicates the long-o sound in the English sense, that is, the way English speakers say the name of the letter, or the exclamation “oh!”? – KRyan Oct 07 '19 at 02:51
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    In the romanization scheme used here, the ō indicates a "long" vowel in that the vowel is just held longer. Both o and ō are pronounced like the letter O; the length is the difference. – Zhuge Oct 07 '19 at 04:40
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    @Zhuge so, it's more like "A-a-alright" -that kind of prolonged O, as opposed to "Oooh!" – VLAZ Oct 07 '19 at 06:37
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    That's interesting cause I always pronounced it like a short "oh!" like in the English word "dough". – Exa Oct 07 '19 at 10:06
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    @Exa: Yes, that's correct. When they say "short" or "long" they mean the vowel is held for a longer period of time. This doesn't make a difference in English, but it does in Japanese. In other words, "Smough" should rhyme with "though" or "dough" – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Oct 07 '19 at 10:20
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    It sounds like the Japanese version of the name just doesn't tell us whether the intended pronunciation is /smɔː/ (similar to "small," /smɔːl/, or to "slaw," /slɔː/) or /smoʊ/ (similar to "slow," /sloʊ/). So it's one of the two, but there's no way to tell which. Is that right? – Tanner Swett Oct 07 '19 at 19:17
  • @TannerSwett. That's right. There's also the possibility that the actual intended pronunciation is quite different from the way it's spelled. For example, ホワイト (ho-wa-i-to) is pronounced "hoe-why-toe", but is actually how the Japanese pronounce the English word: "white". – Nolonar Oct 07 '19 at 19:27