# Unexpected pronunciations



## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

I've been listening to Mortarion's Heart and it's been an eye opener in a way I didn't expect. 

Ever since I knew his name back in the mists of time I've pronounced it Mor - tar - ee - on. However in the audio book they pronounce it Mort - air - ee - on. Wow, just wow. 25 years of pronouncing it wrong. :grin:

Therefore I wanted to get peoples thoughts on some of the other tricky pronunciations:

Is Sanguinius pronounced San - gwin - ee - us or san - gween - ee - us or something else entirely?
Is Perturabo pronounced Per - ta - rar - bow or per - tor - a - bow or something else entirely?
Is Vulkan pronounced Vul - cun or Vul - karn or something else entirely?
Is Jaghati pronounced Ja - gar - tie or Jag - a - tie?
Following the pronunciation of Mortarion, is Alpharius pronounced Alf - air - ee - us or Al - far - ee - us

So many names, so many pronunciation problems :grin:


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

My opinion is probably worthless, but I'll add my 2cents. I have a horrible track record with pronouncing things, so maybe you should look at how I say it and avoid using it.

Mortarion? MOR-tare-ee-on.

Sanguinius? San (sort like sand without the d)-gween-ee-us (short u, like up)

Perturabo? PER-tur (like turn without the n)-uh-boh (like bow-ties).

Vulkan? Vul-KUHN. Like the Star Trek ones.

Jaghati? I don't even try. I just look at it and I know what I'm reading. Thankfully I don't bring his name up much in conversations.

P.S. I'm an American from the Pacific Northwest. Your pronunciation of the word examples I gave may differ.


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

When I started out in the hobby as a kid it seemed like I got the majority of words wrong :biggrin:

Tyranids: Tie-ranids
Schaeffer: Skaeffer 

I've forgotten all the others but I'm sure they'll come to me

I pronounce Sanguinius - Sang-gween-ius
Perturabo the first way you suggested
Alpharius the second way you suggested


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## Brodingman87 (Jun 8, 2015)

Ok, time to mess up some word, I'm from south-east America, please forgive me.

Note: a capitol letter mean I am actually saying the name of that letter.

Mortarion.... mort-air-E-N
Sanguinius... sAng-win-E-S
Perturabo... pert-er-a-bo
Vulkan... vul-can
Jaghati... jag-hate-E 
Tyranid... tir-an-id
Schaeffer... sh-A-fer
Ghazghkull... gaz-gull
Astartes... a-star-Tz
C'tan.... ca-tan
Abaddon... ab-a-don
Carnifex... k-R-n-a-f-X
Yarrick... yar-ik
Guilliman... gil-a-men
Iyanden... I-an-den
Sam Hain... sam hAn
Khorne... k-or-n
Slaanesh... sla-ne-sh
Tzentch... Z-n-ch
Nurgle... ner-gul
Gue'vesa'la... g-we-ve-s-a-la
Shas'ui... sha-z-we
Shas'Vre... sha-z-ver


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## venomlust (Feb 9, 2010)

Skitar-ee-eye
Ca-ta-phrac-tee-eye
Ball-i-star-ee-eye

I couldn't help myself.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

hailene said:


> My opinion is probably worthless, but I'll add my 2cents. I have a horrible track record with pronouncing things, so maybe you should look at how I say it and avoid using it.
> 
> Mortarion? MOR-tare-ee-on.
> 
> ...


Thanks and no-one's opinions are worthless :grin: I've not actually heard anyone pronounce Perturabo like you so again, all these years thinking it's one way and you've proved it can be pronounced differently. :grin:



Squire said:


> When I started out in the hobby as a kid it seemed like I got the majority of words wrong :biggrin:
> 
> Tyranids: Tie-ranids
> Schaeffer: Skaeffer
> ...


Ahh now to me Tyranids is Ti (pronounced like tid to rhyme with lid but without the d) - a - nids so thats another one I've got to query with myself now. :grin:

Schaeffer for me is shay (to rhyme with gray) - fer
Thanks for your input on the others, I always thought it was San - gwin - ee - us like in the word Sanguine but equally I can see how it's San - gween - ee - us too :grin:



Brodingman87 said:


> Ok, time to mess up some word, I'm from south-east America, please forgive me.
> 
> Note: a capitol letter mean I am actually saying the name of that letter.
> 
> ...


Oh man I don't even try with the Tau words :grin: For me Abaddon is A - bad - un but I'm definitely supporting the cuh - tan pronunciation rather than see - tan. I've not heard the jag - hate - ee pronunciation before so that's opened my eyes. The others I pronounce like you even tho I'm from the UK :grin:



venomlust said:


> Skitar-ee-eye
> Ca-ta-phrac-tee-eye
> Ball-i-star-ee-eye
> 
> I couldn't help myself.


Oh man, I'd not even thought of these. :laugh: I have no idea how to pronounce skitarii although when I'm reading my mind reads it as skit - are - ee but I realise that's probably wrong.

Cataphracti in my mind is cat - a - fract - eye but again I have no idea if that's right. :grin:


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

"Yag-hurt-thai" Jaghatai 

In regards to things like the latin Skitarii etc, I always thought it was said like "Skit-ahh-ree", similar to how Rome 2 says "Sock-ee" for "Socii". Amusing as it is.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

zerachiel76 said:


> Is Sanguinius pronounced San - gwin - ee - us or san - gween - ee - us or something else entirely?


Sanguine-ee-us seems most likely from the spelling (so Sang-win-ee-us).



zerachiel76 said:


> Is Perturabo pronounced Per - ta - rar - bow or per - tor - a - bow or something else entirely?


Pert-ur-rab-o



zerachiel76 said:


> Is Vulkan pronounced Vul - cun or Vul - karn or something else entirely?
> Is Jaghati pronounced Ja - gar - tie or Jag - a - tie?


Vul-cun and Jagga-tie.



zerachiel76 said:


> Following the pronunciation of Mortarion, is Alpharius pronounced Alf - air - ee - us or Al - far - ee - us


I've always gone with alph-A-ree-us, with the emphasis on that middle 'a', but that's the only one I'm not really confident on.

Some I see or do:
Alaitoc - Al-i-tok (seen Alley-a-tok)
Saim-Hann - Syme-Han (I hear Siam Hann or Say-am Hann a lot though)
Roboute Guilliman, which everybody has their own way of saying - Ro-bout Gwill-i-man (heard every variation imaginable, with the most amusing going to the HH Audio Dramas for Ro-booty).
Abaddon - ABBA-don (heard a-BAD-un)
Ghazghkull - Gaz-gull Magger-uck-thracka, running together the middle and last names because the pun kills me every time.
Horus - Whore-uss (heard Hoe-rus and a short o as in 'hot' for Hor-us)
Skitarii - Skit-are-ee-eye (same goes for anything-ii - heard a lot of people pronounce it as 'ee', as in Skit-are-ee)
Belial - Beel-ee-al (I hear Bell-eye-al all the time and for some reason it just really bugs me)


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## venomlust (Feb 9, 2010)

I'm no expert in Latin by any means, and in this day and age pronunciation is so inconsequential that it really makes little difference. As far as my education as a biologist and related taxonomy, -ii is ee-eye. Radius, radii and such.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

I wouldn't really call any pronunciation inconsequential. While you may not have to converse with people in that language, for the sake of correctness, why would you not speak it correctly?

Then again, you're American. "Soccer"


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Didn't we pick up the word Soccer from that little known country of England?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Find an English person who calls it soccer without irony.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Let me hop in my time machine and I'll do it no problem.

Go back 140 years and the English would be calling it soccer.

Why do you think we Americans call it soccer?

Doing some research, it looked like you English called it soccer all the way up through the 70s.


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## venomlust (Feb 9, 2010)

Soccer is right!

Perhaps inconsequential is too severe, but in general I think the pendulum has swung toward the descriptivist side of the war.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

hailene said:


> Let me hop in my time machine and I'll do it no problem.
> 
> Go back 140 years and the English would be calling it soccer.
> 
> ...


They would?

As for up to the 70's, everyone I know born prior to the 70's calls it footy. Christmas Truce? Call football. If you mean as an Oxfordism, then yeah, "Soccer", a bit like "Rugger", for Rugby, or "Redders" for Red Hot, or Fiver for Five Pound Note.

Thing about all of these? They're slang.

In America, it's language, and not ironically spoken.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

Vaz said:


> They would?
> 
> As for up to the 70's, everyone I know born prior to the 70's calls it footy. Christmas Truce? Call football. If you mean as an Oxfordism, then yeah, "Soccer", a bit like "Rugger", for Rugby, or "Redders" for Red Hot, or Fiver for Five Pound Note.
> 
> ...


Yeah it's footie for slang or football for non slang. Soccer is only ever spoken by REALLY posh people like David Cameron and they're not normal :grin:

Anyway is Soccer pronounced sock - er or sew - chair :wink: Sorry couldn't resist as I saw a TV program with a comedian pretending to be a US commentator who was unfamiliar with football and so pronounced it sew - chair! :grin:

I totally forgot about Roboute Guilliman - he's another corker to pronounce. To me it's row - boot gull - i - man but I've heard the row - boot - ee gwee - lee - man as well :grin:


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Vaz said:


> They would?
> 
> As for up to the 70's, everyone I know born prior to the 70's calls it footy. Christmas Truce? Call football. If you mean as an Oxfordism, then yeah, "Soccer", a bit like "Rugger", for Rugby, or "Redders" for Red Hot, or Fiver for Five Pound Note.


They would. Why do you we Americans call it soccer? Because we like being different? It's the same reason why we use imperial.

And ask your 80 year olds and ask what they called "football" in their youth or what most people did.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

hailene said:


> They would. Why do you we Americans call it soccer? Because we like being different? It's the same reason why we use imperial.
> 
> And ask your 80 year olds and ask what they called "football" in their youth or what most people did.


We use Imperial too in the UK. Miles, pints, yards, inches, feet, pounds and ounces. We even have an extra imperial measurement you guys don't. We have a stone which is 14 pounds. I've never understood why the US uses Imperial but forgot about the weight measurement above the pound. :laugh:

I've checked with an elderly person and it's been known as football by "normal" non posh people for at least the last 90 years. 

Anyway..... back to topic :grin:


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

Abaddon. Is it Ab-a-ddon or A-bad-un? First time I saw the word (in an old Fighting Fantasy book) I read it as a-*bad*-un but then heard everybody else saying it differently so accepted the more common pronunciation. Now I'm not so sure. I feel like I could have been right in the first place



zerachiel76 said:


> Ahh now to me Tyranids is Ti (pronounced like tid to rhyme with lid but without the d) - a - nids so thats another one I've got to query with myself now. :grin:
> 
> Schaeffer for me is shay (to rhyme with gray) - fer
> Thanks for your input on the others, I always thought it was San - gwin - ee - us like in the word Sanguine but equally I can see how it's San - gween - ee - us too :grin:


The pronunciations I mentioned are ones I was wrong about when I was younger- I don't pronounce the y in tyranids as an 'eye' sound any more, though now I think of it the word 'tyrant' definitely suggests t-eye-ranids.

'Skaffer' for Schaeffer was ridiculous, but I got it from a friend and while I suspected it was wrong I liked the sound of it. Colonel Skaffer :biggrin:


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Squire said:


> Abaddon. Is it Ab-a-ddon or A-bad-un? First time I saw the word (in an old Fighting Fantasy book) I read it as a-*bad*-un but then heard everybody else saying it differently so accepted the more common pronunciation. Now I'm not so sure. I feel like I could have been right in the first place


Abba-*don*.



Squire said:


> The pronunciations I mentioned are ones I was wrong about when I was younger- I don't pronounce the y in tyranids as an 'eye' sound any more, though now I think of it the word 'tyrant' definitely suggests t-eye-ranids.


The Tyranids are named after the first planet recorded as being destroyed by them, Tyran, which I imagine was pronounced similarly to 'Tyrant'. However, Tie-ranids sounds far too Southern for me to take it seriously. "Gosh darn it, y'all gotten a buncha Tyranids rampaygin' aroun' the yard I tell you h-what!"

If there's anything that could make Thaddeus shouting *"TYRANID ASSAULT!"* every twenty seconds on Dawn of War II even more comically annoying, it'd be pronouncing it "Tie-ranid Assault!" :victory:


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## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

How is "Tie-ranids" pronounced any differently from "Ty-ran-ids" (Ty-RANT sort of pronunciation?) since they are both the same to me, and I usually go with the later choice.

Sometimes when I hear people pronouce "Eldar" as "Eld-AR" instead of "L-DAR" it drives me up the wall - thankfully I only find that on YouTube.

Sanguinius... San-gwIn-I-us ("I"s have that hard "I" sound like "Icky"

Perturabo...SKIP (I can read it but it always comes out Per-tur-bo) that "a" is always silent when I speak it

Jaghati... jaag-aat-tie (H is silent, Jaag= J-AHHg, I give it a very masculine sound in Germanic - hence the long AHHH sounds, like "Ya" when spoken in German)

Tyranid...Ty-ran-id(s)

Schaeffer... shaf-fer

Ghazghkull... gaz-kool / gaz-kul

Astartes... a-stArt-ehs (Canadians, eh?)

C'tan.... SC-tan (SC = Silicone's hard "S" sound)

Abaddon... a-bad-on/a-ba-don interchangeably - try to stick to the first one though.

Guilliman... gill-y-min


Sam Hain... sam heen/hIIn (Like Charlie Sheen)

Khorne...Corn (on-the-cob:laugh

Slaanesh... slan-esh

Tzentch... Ze-n-ch


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

Fallen said:


> How is "Tie-ranids" pronounced any differently from "Ty-ran-ids" (Ty-RANT sort of pronunciation?) since they are both the same to me, and I usually go with the later choice. ...


Hmm, let's see, I've always thought of: 

"Tyranid" as: teer-uh-nid


Fallen said:


> Sanguinius... San-gwIn-I-us ("I"s have that hard "I" sound like "Icky"...


Sanguinius is Latin for "bloody one" according to my high school Latin teacher. So I always pronounced it based on how I would say "sanguine"

So "Sanguinius" as: Sang-gwin

"Guilliman" as: gyool-i-mon


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

Yea, I can't see how anyone can pronounce the first part of Sanguinius as Sa*n*-guinius instead of Sa*ng*-guinius

Assuming I'm pronouncing 'sanguine' correctly. It seems like one of those words I've only ever read, never heard



Fallen said:


> How is "Tie-ranids" pronounced any differently from "Ty-ran-ids" (Ty-RANT sort of pronunciation?) since they are both the same to me, and I usually go with the later choice.
> 
> Schaeffer... shaf-fer
> 
> ...


Plenty of people (I think most) pronounce the y in tyranid as an i. Like lid, sit, bid, pick

Schaeffer is surely 'shay-ffer'. Like shade. Schaeffer is a real name and not uncommon so there has to be a clear right answer to that

I was just thinking about Astartes today. I've always said it 'uh-start-ays'

C'tan... for me it's see-tan but I'm probably wrong there. I've never thought about that one!

Gill-ee-mun. Like omen, workman, guardsman

Tzeentch is a good one. It's always been zeench for me, but I heard a guy who worked at GW say zinch when I was a kid, and at that age I never questioned any adult never mind a GW employee, who I regarded as infallible gods when it came to 40k. I went back to zeench eventually, after a couple of existential crises when GW staff recommended patently bad units to me. I was young, but absolutely positive third edition chaos bikes and raptors were bad- yet here was a guy who worked at GW telling me I should buy some


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## Einherjar667 (Aug 23, 2013)

How would you pronounce Macragge? I am at a lost, maybe it's cause I'm American and am missing something. I always read it as "Macra jay"


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## Brodingman87 (Jun 8, 2015)

Fallen said:


> How is "Tie-ranids" pronounced any differently from "Ty-ran-ids" (Ty-RANT sort of pronunciation?) since they are both the same to me, and I usually go with the later choice.
> 
> Khorne...Corn (on-the-cob:laugh


It's all a matter of hard "I" or soft "I".

Slaanesh and Khorne must be in a relationship, all I hear Slaanesh talking about is Frosted Khorne Flakes.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Einherjar667 said:


> How would you pronounce Macragge? I am at a lost, maybe it's cause I'm American and am missing something. I always read it as "Macra jay"


Ma-craa


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Einherjar667 said:


> How would you pronounce Macragge? I am at a lost, maybe it's cause I'm American and am missing something. I always read it as "Macra jay"


M'crag, as in a Scotsman pointing at a mountain saying 'that's m'crag'

I've always thought that Dawn of War got Tzeentch and C'tan right - Zaynch and Kuh-tan with a glottal stop between the C and Tan.


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## Mob (Nov 14, 2010)

MidnightSun said:


> M'crag, as in a Scotsman pointing at a mountain saying 'that's m'crag'
> 
> I've always thought that Dawn of War got Tzeentch and C'tan right - Zaynch and Kuh-tan with a glottal stop between the C and Tan.


As someone with a strong Scottish accent I never get tired of all the ways Macragge ends up sounding ridiculous.
The favourite one in my group is the ship 'Fist of Macragge'. Which, in our accent and vernacular, sounds like someone having something (un)pleasant done to their rear end.

I was also a fan of the first pronunciation of Roboute Guilliman in an audio - RoeBootAy GoolieMan. He probably does have large goolies to be fair.


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

zerachiel76 said:


> I've been listening to Mortarion's Heart and it's been an eye opener in a way I didn't expect.
> 
> Ever since I knew his name back in the mists of time I've pronounced it Mor - tar - ee - on. However in the audio book they pronounce it Mort - air - ee - on. Wow, just wow. 25 years of pronouncing it wrong. :grin:


I've listened to other audio dramas when his name is pronounced as you thought, so it could just be the narrators fault.

For me personally I've thought Catachan was procounced Cah-Touch-an, with emphasy on the first A, and not Catah-Chan.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

forkmaster said:


> I've listened to other audio dramas when his name is pronounced as you thought, so it could just be the narrators fault.
> 
> For me personally I've thought Catachan was procounced Cah-Touch-an, with emphasy on the first A, and not Catah-Chan.


Yeah, I always said Cata-chan, but I attempted to listen to one of the Straken audios only yesterday, and they pronounced it Cata-kan. I've listened to a lot of the BL audios, and am now under the impression that there's no link between writers and voice actors, or even a low level BL lackey who could answer any questions regarding the pronunciation of certain words.


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## Gabriel Chase (Dec 7, 2015)

Here's a rather mean trick that Aaron Dembski-Bowden plays on people who read *The First Heretic*. Towards the end of _*Betrayer*_ he reveals that Cyrene (from the Heretic book) is not pronounce 'Sigh-reen', but 'Sih-renny'. :so_happy: Git!


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

Gabriel Chase said:


> Here's a rather mean trick that Aaron Dembski-Bowden plays on people who read *The First Heretic*. Towards the end of _*Betrayer*_ he reveals that Cyrene (from the Heretic book) is not pronounce 'Sigh-reen', but 'Sih-renny'. :so_happy: Git!


He did the same in _Talon of Horus_ with the main-character. Roughly sometime during the first half of the book it's like "No my name is pronounced like this!"


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## Gabriel Chase (Dec 7, 2015)

forkmaster said:


> He did the same in _Talon of Horus_ with the main-character. Roughly sometime during the first half of the book it's like "No my name is pronounced like this!"


To be honest, I habitually pronounce 'Iskandar' as 'Sikandar', because it's one of those Arabic/Urdu things that are part and parcel of my background. You know, the same way that lots of Arabs have the middle 'name' IBN, but in a lot of later pronunciations ends up becoming 'BIN'.

I have a query about *lasguns* and other words that carry the *las-* prefix: do you pronounce them 'lazz'? or 'laze'? It looks like the first, but since it comes from the word 'laser' I assume it's pronounced the second way. Any thoughts, folks?


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

Gabriel Chase said:


> To be honest, I habitually pronounce 'Iskandar' as 'Sikandar', because it's one of those Arabic/Urdu things that are part and parcel of my background. You know, the same way that lots of Arabs have the middle 'name' IBN, but in a lot of later pronunciations ends up becoming 'BIN'.
> 
> I have a query about *lasguns* and other words that carry the *las-* prefix: do you pronounce them 'lazz'? or 'laze'? It looks like the first, but since it comes from the word 'laser' I assume it's pronounced the second way. Any thoughts, folks?


Okay then its just a personal experience as I don't have that background.  And it's las for everything I've heard.


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## Lt. Bran Wulfram (Jan 10, 2021)

"Astartes... a-star-Tz"

I'm one of THOSE people who conform to the intentionally Latin-esque nature of High Gothic that Games Workshop is trying to push for the Imperium and say As-tart-eez, the same way I would say Custodes as Kus-to-deez and Arbites as Ar-bee-tez. Roboute Guilliman for me is Ro-boot-ay Gill-i-muhn.


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