I mean, here we are in 2022 and now everyone is mispronunciating Eichenwalde. Just because of the announcer.
This should be the primary focus of Overwatch 2. Fix Eichenwalde’s pronunciation.
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Finally a thread on these forums where the feedback is constructive
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I can walled?
Is that it lol
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That map is so boring that map I have to throw I am not wasting 30 minute on that map
whats there to discuss…you heard the woman…
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The only change I want for Eichenwalde is to have Athena’s line for it rerecorded so that she actually pronounces it rather than letting out some sort of Popeye laugh like Ash Williams trying to cover up the fact that he forgot the magic words in Army of Darkness with a sneeze/cough.
Honestly, I don’t even hear “I Can Walled” because she spits it out so fast that to me is sounds more like; “Welcome to…Ugh-ugh-ah-ga” to my ears.
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It’s not Eickenwald, it’s supposed to be Eichenwalde.
The e at the end must be pronunced and to ch is actually a ch sound since it’s preceeded by an i.
Ich bin ein Berliner, not Ick bin ein Berliner.
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I never knew she’s not saying it right,they did fix the pronunciation of Ayutthaya before.
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oh so the ingame narrator is wrong? well i never really paid attention to her anyways i always had my own version of it
i look at it as “iii-chen-walled” 
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I remember Soe going on mini-rants about it back in the day. iirc it’s something more like Ike-en-vall-deh? idk i took German 10 years ago
Overwatch’s commitment to authenticity is baffling, but think there was a significantly bigger push for it in the second half of the games life, way after Eichenwalde, which lead to Sigma being played by an actual Dutch guy, compared to something like Torbjorn.
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And Rein
And Zarya
And Lucio… i think?
Blizzard does try more than many other companies (like how Capcom absolutely massacred the pronunciations in RE Village)
Lucio’s VA did go out of his way to learn some phrases for the hero.
Definitely.
Lucio is supposed to be Brazilian, yet he speaks with what sounds like it’s supposed to be a North American Ebonics accent, but it honestly just sounds like a young John Travolta.
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no its not. language is pronounced in the native linguistic standards of the speaker.
It should not be when it comes to names. That’s disrespectful when it comes to the name of people and should also be avoided with places.
nope. its the same reason Americans and Australians pronounce Melbourne differently. same reason Americans and Germans say volks wagen differently. linguistic standards have different inflections on syllables and letters.
eichenwalde is not a person.
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Why do you think someone is asking about Eichenwalde but makes no comment on Lijiang, Dorado, Busan, Ilios, Rialto, Havana, Volskaya, Paris, Numbani, Castillo, Guillard, and Kanezaka? I have a guess, and I doubt it’ll be well-received.
Athena is a voice actress like the rest of them, and it’s generally unreasonable to expect her to perform perfect pronunciation of a slew of different languages (some made-up) that she likely doesn’t speak. IDK what she sounds like in different language versions of the game, but one can assume the other actors pronounce their native places more correctly than Athena’s anglicized versions. And that’s fine. Maybe there’s an argument to include Athena’s native voice location actors in every version of the game, but that would mess with continuity unless they are heavily sound edited.
Sorry, but Germany isn’t special. I mean you are, but most Germans I casually speak to don’t really want to re-address the topic just under the surface on most people’s minds when it comes to that. The country has strong representation in the game despite Eichenwalde being made up (to say nothing of Black Forest). If it really bugs you, re-record all the places you like, (post it on YT for others as a service,) and play it over her every time you load in.
Otherwise, attempt to enjoy Athena’s great voice acting while recognizing she’s obviously not a native German speaker. Paris is a far more popular name/spot and in anglicized speech, it’s rarely said in proper French pronunciation in western media (including by Athena in OW). In specific situations, you actually sound pretentious if you say it in proper Parisian French.
I get it’s not ideal for everyone that English is a lingua franca, but give me a break. I wonder why this post is in the US vs EU forum 
For names perhaps to an extent if you’re really butchering it and make no attempt to get it right. But the majority of names have variations in other languages that align closer to how that language is spoken. For places, nearly every city and country in the world has different names or pronunciations depending on the language and where you’re from. It doesn’t make it disrespectful to say it in a way different than a native speaker of that land.
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Not a German and I don’t know who Athena is (unless you’re talking about a greek deity but then I don’t understand the context).
No I just never understood why the german language was always so scorched. I can’t tell about other languages since I never learned mandarin or portuguese.
It’s not the first time, other Blizzard games contain German characters like Walkyries in Starcraft who actually pronounce “ACK- tung!”
It’s just the weirdest thing, they actually go out of their way to pronounce EiCKenwald when at no point in the history of English or German does ch makes a ck sound.
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Athena is Winston’s AI and the announcer