Laura Croft

@believer258: UK also consists of Wales too, y'know... But don't worry about it, everybody forgets about Wales.

j/k Wales is great, and they have such a sweet accent. They're basically the UK's own Canada for how they're stereotyped as being super nice and welcoming.

I am an american and I have to admit that up until I played the Tomb Raider reboot I called her Laura. Since then I now call her Lara. I have realized the error of my ways.

I don't think that Wales has ever been its own country, though, has it? Hasn't Wales always been a part of a bigger country? Those other three were at one time their own thing.

Not a history major, sorry if I'm wrong.

Wales is (and still is, of course) its own country, yes. It has its own language and everything! It's bloody weird, though. It kinda looks like some sort of madeup medieval fantasy language or something.

You mean like English?

...I meant in relation to English of course. Hell, even against other European languages, Welsh is one of those weird ones that looks impossible to wrap your tongue around when you try to speak/read it. Like with Spanish and German, you can sorta see what it's getting at, whereas Welsh sometimes looks likes the result of a blind man playing scrabble. Though I am also aware that it's undoubtedly because even if you can't speak it fluently, languages such as German and Spanish are simply more recognisable due to some slight osmosis.

EDIT: And not to mention that even in Wales, I think only less than half can actually speak the language =(

You have to remember that country, nation and state are three different things, especially on an island which was invaded and occupied multiple times. Wales was never a single, unified independent state as England and Scotland were until 300 years ago (and Scotland hopefully shall be again), but there were petty Kingdoms within the territory before it was finally annexed by England around 450 years ago, and it is a distinct nation. Its culture and peoples were and are different from the others on the islands, and are effectively the last remnants of the Brittonic people (and that's why Welsh seems so crazy, it's a different language group altogether from English).

But that's a rabbit hole too far for this discussion. You could think of the Brittonic people as being analogous to the First Men in Game of Thrones perhaps.

Americans would have a terrible time pronouncing Welsh.

Lara is a dumb name anyway.

Pretty sure there her name is "Llawwra". ;)

I have literally never heard anybody pronounce Craig 'kreg.'

Huh.

Jeff pronounces it that way.

"Lets name her something really uncommon, that could easily be pronounced at least 2 different ways, that's spelled almost exactly like a very common name, and then get pissed off when people get it wrong."

Also Craig is a person by person thing, not an American thing. I have always pronounced it the same way British people do. Not that it matters anyways, it's a proper noun, so if a guy named Craig told you that it was "Creg, not Crayg" he would be right, like it or not.

That Norman Drake.

Even the people making the game called her Laura. At some point UK you just gotta deal with it.

Why are pepole acting like Lara is some type of mythical name that only video game characters have? I know plenty of girls with that name.

While we're at it. this has been at me for some time, the way the guys pronounce 'garage' always throws me.

They always pronounce it 'ga-rarge', all posh and what not. Garage 'ga-ridge' is a place where you store a car, things get dirty and/ or music is made sparking a scene in the 90's.

Why does Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear say Mazda as Mazdur (where does that wild R always appear from?) and Nissan and Nissin? and it's not GAY RODGE Jeremy it Gah-roge.

Whats the deal with airplane food?

I've also heard Jeff say 'Neesan' for Nissan which may be the correct pronunciation as the 'nee' sound is found more in Japanese? But I've always known it as Niss-an. And Peugeot, don't get me started. I've always known it as Purr-sjoe (sounding like joe with an s) but then friends in Ireland pronunce it Pew-sjoe.

Again I say, airplanes, food, deals.

The Welsh are also known for fucking sheep.

That was a joke. Just trying to add a little colour.

America! Fauk yea!!

I went to school with a Lara, in Canada, and everyone called her Lair-ah. Divorced from the popular character in question I think this is the typical American pronunciation of the name. But, you have to say "Lara Croft" like an English person, so I'd agree with the Lah-ra pronunciation. I'm not hearing much of a difference between Law-ra and Lah-ra. Thanks for including phonetic pronunciations, the rest of this thread makes no sense because it's working off assumptions.

Jeff also pronounces channel 'chennel,' so I'm not totally surprised.

Still, it's an incredible rarity.