The Pronunciation of "Whis"

[Wezenheim]

I'm not entirely sure how silly this thread might be, but I'm kind of curious about the general opinion regarding the pronunciation of Whis's name. Do you pronounce it the way the name sounds when said in the anime and the Funimation dub, or do you go with the pun and pronounce it like the first half of the word whiskey? This isn't necessarily a "which one is correct" thread strictly, as I'm legitimately interested in gauging how most people decide to pronounce it, but if there are arguments to be made in the case of one or the other I'd love to hear them.

[VegettoEX]

It's a bit tricky, because yeah: the word comes from "whiskey", so why not say it just like the first part of the word?

Interesting thing about its spelling, though. The alcohol is spelled as ウィスキー. That's not quite the same as the character's name, which is spelled as ウイス. You'll note the digraph ィ there versus a normal イ ("i") there.

So to me, that subtle spelling difference is enough to justify speaking the name aloud as "weeees" (long "e" sound there, if that's not clear) as opposed to how I would say the first party of "whiskey" as "wis" (with a short "i" sound there, like in "whisk"). It's one of those things that helps contribute to it being a pun on a word rather than just literally being the word (or in this case, just part of a word).

[TheDevilsCorpse]

You can count me among those that pronounce it as the characters do, with the long e sound.

[Wezenheim]

Thank you both for the input. I just realized this, but I forgot to mention that I also pronounce Whis with the long e sound. I have heard "wis" being used a fair amount recently, and it made me curious. Wouldn't be the first time I've reevaluated my stance on a character's name. I was not aware of the spelling, I shall definitely stick with the way the characters say it!

[dbgtFO]

I was going to be a total smart arse and say Funimation was inconsistent in pronouncing it as Whiiis instead of Whis as in Whiskey, when they were perfectly capable of pronouncing Beerus as Beerus, but Mike has shown it really is supposed to have that eee sound to it, rather than the short sound like in Whiskey, so Whiiis it is!

Unless Birusu is also supposed to have a different sound from Beer in japanese, that is.

[Adamant]

Unless Birusu is also supposed to have a different sound from Beer in japanese, that is.

It is.

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no fucking clue how any dub pronounces either name.

[dbgtFO]

Unless Birusu is also supposed to have a different sound from Beer in japanese, that is.

It is.

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no fucking clue how any dub pronounces either name.

Good. Cause the way they say Birusu doesn't completely sound like beerusu.

Can it be heard clearly here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bffwjKTcsc#t=3m2s

[VegettoEX]

Some of what you're probably hearing is the dropping of the "u" in the "su" of biirusu, similar to how desu generally gets spoken aloud as "des". That, combined with the Japanese "r" sound kinda being this amalgamation of R/L and a little bit of D in the mix, too, and that's where "Beerus" comes out of all that.

Incidentally, that's also where you can get "Bills" outta that, but let's not .

I guess that doesn't really address the first part of the word with "biiru" and our word "beer", but I don't really know what to say there.

[Adamant]

Some of what you're probably hearing is the dropping of the "u" in the "su" of biirusu, similar to how desu generally gets spoken aloud as "des". That, combined with the Japanese "r" sound kinda being this amalgamation of R/L and a little bit of D in the mix, too, and that's where "Beerus" comes out of all that.

Incidentally, that's also where you can get "Bills" outta that, but let's not .

I guess that doesn't really address the first part of the word with "biiru" and our word "beer", but I don't really know what to say there.

It's not "Biirusu", Mike, it's "Birusu". Short i sound.

[VegettoEX]

I... don't know why I typed it that way, because I clearly know the name. I'll just thwap myself in the head with a newspaper for a while, and yeah: Japanese beer spelling is generally ビール and since the name is ビルス we just kinda say "Beerus" and not "BEERus" with an overemphasis and I'm just overexplaining something I probably shouldn't be explaining anyway oh well!

[z_cherub]

"Wheesu", while being careful to pronounce the "wh" in the cool whip/family guy vernacular, and not fully enunciating the "u" at the end.

In causal conversation when it's awkward to switch to a "fake" Japanese accent to nail the pronunciation, "Whis" like "whisk" without the "k".

[gokaiblue]

I pronounce it [hwis] nowadays. I used to just say [wis], but once I entered college and started studying voice, I began trying to keep all my wh words consistent

[Polyphase Avatron]

Count me in for the 'Wheese' camp

[Footlong Shoe]

I pronounce "Whis" with the long E sound. I like when name puns keep some distance from the word they're derived from. It's the same reason I prefer "Bulma" over "Blooma".

[Herms]

Interesting thing about its spelling, though. The alcohol is spelled as ウィスキー. That's not quite the same as the character's name, which is spelled as ウイス. You'll note the digraph ィ there versus a normal イ ("i") there.

The alcohol may sometimes be spelled ウィスキー, but the ウイスキー spelling is also used too.

[El Diabeetus]

I pronounce it like Whiskey. Wheese is being to literal to the katakana when it's based on an English term.

I also pronounce Champa like Sham-pa since it comes from Champagne.

[Thouser]

I've always pronounced it like the English "whisky," but it doesn't bother me that they use "wheece" in the Funimation dub.

[Saturnine]

Yeah, it's pretty confusing when the name reads Whis, which suggests the short i sound of English. But both in Japanese and the Funi dub, the i is pronounced long, like "Whees" or "James Deen". So yeah, being a person with more or less balanced optical and auditory valuation of stimuli, I'm a bit torn on this one.

Guess I've been watching more anime than seeing the name spelled, so I'll ultimately go with the pronunciation I hear from the voice actors.

[TekTheNinja]

Long e for sure. "Wiss" sounds really dumb to me honestly.

[Anime Kitten]

Before playing Xenoverse, I thought it was "Wiss".
After playing it, I can't not pronounce it "Whees."

And yes, before you ask, I played Xenoverse before watching Battle of Gods.