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I just met Fi in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. How is her name pronounced?

Fee (like me)?

Fy (like my)?

Fih (like igloo)?

Or Matt (like at)?

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I think the majority has more or less come down on the side of disallowing this sort of question, see meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/3214/…. (Edit: Or maybe not, I see the Skyrim pronunciation question's been re-opened.) – Matthew Read Nov 24 '11 at 22:22
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In the Skyrim instance you cite, I would agree: off-topic In this case however, Fi's name is never spoken in game nor mentioned in any auditory promotional materials. If I was asking how to pronounce Zelda or Link, then I would close the question myself. – splattered bits Nov 24 '11 at 22:28
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I think this is a case in which the meta discussion needs to be re-visited. It's obvious their is still division in the community on this issue. – Wipqozn Nov 24 '11 at 22:30
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I do see your point, though I have an instinctual dislike of these questions. They just seem too tangential to be "real" problems. @Wipqozn Agreed, I've edited my answer there... – Matthew Read Nov 24 '11 at 22:31
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Also ... if it's never spoken, is this question answerable beyond a (possibly educated) guess? – Matthew Read Nov 24 '11 at 22:46

2 Answers

up vote 19 down vote accepted

The Japanese spelling of Fi's name is ファイ, the romanization of which is fai. Therefore, the English pronunciation would be faɪ(English IPA), as in rhyming with the word "my." (You wrote this as "Fy".)

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Meh, I pronounce it as phi/ɸ/"fee"/fi:, not rhyming with pi/π/"pie"/paɪ. – Jeff Mercado Nov 25 '11 at 6:25
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Interesting fact: The German name is “Phai” which further supports this pronounciation ;) – poke Nov 26 '11 at 16:02
@JeffMercado not sure if that's the best example... "fai" is the more common English pronunciation of ɸ. :) – Kip Dec 2 '11 at 3:50
@Kip: I know, debatable. I actually use both pronunciations of the word depending on the context. I was just trying to work in my pi comparison. ;) – Jeff Mercado Dec 2 '11 at 4:19
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@JeffMercado If you're going to insist "ɸ" is "fee" because that's how the Greeks pronounced it, you're going to have to start calling "π" "pee". :) – Kip Dec 3 '11 at 16:02
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up vote 1 down vote

I heard that "Fi" is the shortened version of "*FI*eld guide", similar to Navi (short for *NAVI*gation) and Tatl & Tael (tattle tail). If that were the case, it would make sense for the pronunciation to be "Fee", which I think has a nicer ring to it that "Fai".

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