I’m not sure if this topic will be considered a controversy among the Naruto fanbase, but it sure as hell bothers me personally. It’s not a serious topic—just something I have a tic on impulse.
For example, it’s like when I hear or read someone say, “get off of me!” (Which I have seen in fanfics and bothers the shit out of me). I immediately get ticked and have to correct the speaker on the spot, “OFF! Not off of me.”
^^Yeah, that shit is grammatically incorrect in my Nazi grammar head, yo. Apparently there is no rule against that ‘off of’ thing, but my eye twitches every time I see/hear it. If I had the power to choose a forbidden misuse of grammar, it’d be ‘off of’. Incredibly it’s worse than seeing the wrong use of ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re.’
To me, at least.
*shrugs*
Anyway, that’s just an example on how the following rant bothers me. I guess call that a mini grammar lesson. On to the main topic.
The pronunciation (mispronunciation, rather) of “Naruto”.
Random person: “Nah-ROO-toe.”
Avanthe (me), hissing inside: “It’s… NAH-roo-toe! TOE!”
I have that same tic of correcting someone when they mispronounce Naruto incorrectly. I either have to correct them out loud or I just grumble the correction under my breath, just to make it up to myself. It makes me cringe THAT much.
Story time: a week n' half ago, I finally watched The Last: Naruto the Movie (which was incredible-UGH), and do you know how incredibly crazy it made me to hear some fans mispronouncing “Naruto” left and right, front and back? OhhhhhHOHOHO!! I was a sizzling like bacon!
Normally a lot of English speakers pronounce it “Nah-ROO-toe” with the emphasis on the wrong part of the word.
Whenever I hear someone say Naruto like the type above, I have a mini seizure on the inside. Another example: I watch Nigahiga on YouTube and he pronounces it like that (Nah-ROO-toe) and I can’t help but hate him for four seconds. But I still love him, dear God. (Have you people seen his Naruto The Movie [Official fake trailer] video?? xD)
The correct pronunciation is, in fact, “NAH-roo-toe” with the emphasis at the beginning, not the middle.
“How do I know?" the readers may ask and interrupt my rant. "WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO CORRECT ME, A NARUTO FAN?!”
Here is how I know, with legitimate proof.
Watch the Naruto English dub and hear how every character pronounces Naruto’s name. B-A-M. Exclamation mark. There ya go. Come at me, betch.
Also, the Japanese also pronounce it “NAH-roo-toe”. And that’s as original as it gets.
Which, by the way, it’s also been said that “Naruto” can be pronounced with the Japanese accent I mentioned above—and if you want to fancy as hell: “NAA-roo-toh” ('cept say it faster than that). If you don't get what I'm saying, just go watch an original, Japanese version of Naruto (with English subs) and listen to how the characters pronounce his name. Easy peasy.
So.
“Nah-ROO-toe” = noobish pronunciation. Also, I will glare at you.
“NAH-roo-toe” or “NAA-roo-toh” = happiness and world peace~
(I’m such a little shit.)
~~~***~~~***
Yeah that’s right, I went there.
I HAVE SPOKEN!
—Avanthe♥
