Once again, the issue of “HEY GUYS HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE HYDROCITY ZONE” has popped up in light of RubyEclipse mentioning it in a recent Sonic Generations video. Fortunately, the crack team at Sonic Retro is here on the case to resolve a dumb question (Spoiler: Ruby got it wrong.) Enjoy this very tiny podcast.
82 Comments on this post
Leave a CommentI am never calling it that.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by ChaoticFox
I’m still calling it Hydrocity (not hydro city)…
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by XylemTube
i actually thought it was the same way ruby said it. well i guess that answered my question from all these years lol
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by czar
Really, it was alwasy “Hydro-City” for me because I first played the game at an age where “-ocity” (i.e. “velocity”) didn’t exsist in my vocabulary.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Dan Genesis
That may have been for japan only, since In Japan, that’s funner to pronounce, as hidrocity zone is too. (hi*draw*city) Hydro City sounds dumb.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Darkhairwarrior
Fuck, I’m still gonna pronounce it “Hi-dross-it-e” Sounds more badass.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Vandelay
Wow, you sound exactly like I thought you would. Nonetheless, Hydrocity will always be read as a play on the word “velocity” to me, Japanese origins be damned.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by corneliab
Don’t care. Hydrossity 4 eva <3
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Kilometers Prower
And now you know. And knowing is half the battle! TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES…!
…Wait, hang on, that’s not how the meme goes…
In all seriousness, though, interesting to know.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Solaris Paradox
NERD! Had to be said. Plus I am not Japanese so I wont call it by the way you said it
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by HY-DRAW-SA-TIY
While we have Hydro-city and Hy-drocity, I will always pronounce it as a fusion of hydro and velocity, hy-drocity, because I like to pretend Sega was as great at names as they were at games.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Getsuga
There is Hydrocity in Hydro-City.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by XXzzXX
Well, certainly answers that. Also, I love your voice
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Compsense
+1 for Hydrossity. Hydration + Velocity = Exactly what that zone is. Japanese be damned.
Seriously, this is going to be one of those instances where the western pronunciation will always be different. See Square Enix with “Teedus” and the more commonly agreed upon “Tie-dus.”
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by GeneHF
But it takes place in an underwater city. DAMN YOU SEGA!!!
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by JaxTH
Hm… I’ve always called it “hydro-city”, and never gave it a second thought.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Sonic_452
It’s Hydro City. Are we seriously debating this? Who cares if you are Japanese or not, that is the original name.
I seriously doubt the developers, who are Japanese in case that escaped you, were combining velocity and hydration, especially since in both sound completely different in Japanese.
This reminds me of when Anime started getting popular, and titles such as Cardcaptor Sakura (Sa-ku-ra) became known as “Sah-koo-rah” in the West. It doesn’t make it correct, it makes it stupid.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Jkun
The podcast says that the Japanese used was specifically for denoting the pronunciation of foreign words. That is to say that Hydrocity Zone was named in English and then translated into Japanese, hence why the Japanese name would have to reflect the separation of the words.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by Baby Ghost
Oddly enough, whenever I've read or said Sakura, whether referring to anime or the song, I've never pronounced it Sah-koo-rah.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by Trogdorbad
Yes we are debating this. In the English manual, Hydrocity is one word. Another zone that was one word? IceCap. Yes, the capitalized the C in Cap. If we are going to debate Japanese intention, let us never use the name Dr. Robotnik ever again.
If you say Dr. Robotnik, you say Hydrocity as one word.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by KnightofHyrule
Cool is not always correct.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by ChaoticFox
When saying it out loud, I always refer to it as “hydro city.” But, when I read the zone name, in my mind I read it as if it were pronounced “hydrossity”, and always have. Never really gave it a second thought till now.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Miles3298
At least the level was descent.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Orunan0459
Well, I suppose Sonic and Tails are technically "descending" as they enter the stage...
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by Echo_Dek
kinda always knew it was hydro city, but hy-drocity just sounded cooler to me
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Foxeh
Hydrocity like Velocity. I mean, duh. It’s a double entendre.
Besides, it doesn’t even LOOK like a city. Ruins? Sure, but a city? Hell no. And you can never be sure on the Japanese thing,since they pronounce some things differently than we do when speaking Engrish.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Jack
Isn’t it crystal clear it should be called HYDRO-CITY? I only used to call it Heedro-city back when I wasn’t too fluent in english.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by shihe
Yeah, it’s Hydro City. I can’t ever understand how people got that wrong.
Having said that, would have been easier for SEGA to seperate the names by a space.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by SpeedStarTMQ
It’s labelled Hydrocity Zone because they couldn’t fit in a space between the words ‘Hydro’ and ‘City’ due to memory or time (It is a minor issue, after all)
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Retroman
Angel Island
Marble Garden
Launch Base
They could of fit a space if they wanted to. Regardless I always called it "Hydro City" because that's how I read it as a kid and it stuck.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by ResidentHedgehog
I’m still callin’ it Hydrawcity.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Don’t give a crap
I always had pronounced it Hydro City Zone… =) but always nice to get things cleared up. =D
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Rob932
Everyone in this comments thread ignoring blatant, irrefutable fact and still trying to argue the pronunciation of the name is a complete fucking retard. Holy shit.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Tweaker
We aint arguing. We're saying Sega fucked up.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by KnightofHyrule
The correct pronunciation is Hydrocity.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Anonymous86
Well played, good sir. You win best comment.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by GeneHF
I had never considered hy-dryocity. – That just seems alien to me.
Thank you for confirming that I got it right for all these years!
Hydro City for life!
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by MCJeffsy
Surely the fact that it’s an underwater city, literally a ‘Hydro City’, would make it pretty obvious how it’s supposed to be pronounced?
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Loz
It’ll always be hi-draw-city to me.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Hyperstar96
I choose to be ignorant, I still call it Genocide City.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Bartman3010
COMMENT WINS THREAD OVER
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by Scarred Sun
Yeah, I’ve always said Hydro City. I always thought it was Obvious.
hydro-. prefix. Definition: 1. water, liquid, moisture hydrobiology.
And its a underground water city. Simple. Hydro City. Since hydrocity isn’t a word.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Headcrash
"Simple. Hydro City. Since hydrocity isn’t a word."
It's not spelled Hydro City though. It's spelled Hyrdocity, the same spelling you are declining. It's simple, it's English.
Reply left on 10.15.2011 by KnightofHyrule
I always pronunced it right and i didn’t know that
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by omntt
I already knew that. It’s kind of hard to see that because there is no space.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Personguy12
It’s Hydro City. Get over it, haters =P
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Overlord
Congratulations to all those people who said Hydro City. You are cool now.
I said Hi-dross-it-ee, because that’s the way it’s spelled.
Green Hill Zone, Chemical Plant Zone, and Sky Sanctuary Zone to name a few, feature a SPACE BETWEEN THE WORDS!!!
Sandopolis Zone is not San-dow Paw-liss, it’s Sand-dop-oh-liss.
Japanese or not, go back and correct the game then. If you can’t, then for me, it’s Hi-dross-it-ee.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by KnightofHyrule
Hey, hey!
Who cares?
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Quint
I been calling it “Hydro-City” all my life ever since I was 7 years old, and I’m not even a native English speakers, you Americans suck =p
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by sonictopfan
If you ask me, it should indeed be called Hydro-city. The main reason for this, is that I think of it as a terrible pun. Which would obviously be the words: Hydro, and velocity As well as the level resembling a city.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Sonickidnextgenesis
It’s not Hydro City, that sounds so nerdish. It’s Hydrocity not Hydro City, oh the city of hydro derp drip derp herp
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by ZEEK1027
Welp, looks like I’m wrong. Still, I’ve always called it Hydrocity and therefore will continue to do so, as I’ve always thought Hydro-city sounded stupid, even if it makes more sense. It’s more fun to say Hydrocity than Hydro-city anyways.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Trogdorbad
I didn’t know this was an issue. I always pronounced it Hydro-City, never even considered the alternate version.
That said, when I was younger I pronounced Sandopolis as “Sand-Oh-Polis.” I’d never heard of an acropolis before so its a simple mistake to make when you’re 10 years old. =)
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Spite
Cool story bro! Too bad I’m still calling it Hydrossity.
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by Hedgehogicus
From what I’ve noticed, foreign words written in katakana tend to be pronounced as they are written. For example, the word “ego” as in “alter ego” would be pronounced like “Lego,” without the L, of course, instead of “Double E (or double I in Japanese) sound + go.” That being said, the Japanese pronunciation of the zone might just be the best transliteration of the letters to katakana (hai = hy, doro = dro, and shiti = city).
Comment left on Saturday October 15th, 2011 by David
What… what the hell? Not only have people been pronouncing Hydrocity in a weird way (of friggin’ COURSE it’s Hydro City, it’s just a compound word, that was immediately apparent to me even in 1993, when I was 7) but now there are dozens of posts arguing about it? Seriously, sometimes the Sonic fanbase just looks really bad.
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Tim333
+1 to that.
This is a stupid thing to argue about. I was 9 when Sonic3 came out and even I realized back then it was just the joining of the word Hyrdo and City.
There's lots of things pronounced differently from how they're written. For example, solder is pronounced "saw-duh", but many people mistakenly say "sold-er".
Anyway who the hell cares? It's not like you use the name of the zone in your every day spoken vocabulary. God damn Sonic fans are weird.
Reply left on 10.16.2011 by Azure
If it were meant to be “Hydrossity” the kana would have been different. ***Please note that the large TE (テ) and small I (ィ) combine in katakana to create the pronunciation “TI”**
ハイドロシティ = HAIDORO SHITI = HYDROCITY (correct)
ハイドラーシティ = HAIDORAASHITI = “HYDROSSITY” (incorrect)
However you want to say it, it still doesn’t make the incorrect correct. So do what you want, just don’t be idiots about it.
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Katzu Niku
nope, still Hydrocity :I
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Eric
YES FINALLY, INARGUABLE PROOF THAT THE RIGHT WAY TO SAY IT IS RIGHT. Hydro City makes sense and sounds cool. Hydrawssity sounds stupid, doesn’t make sense and sounds like a little kid reading it wrong. But I guess everybody can just call it whatever they want.
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Aaron
If it’s really Hydro-City Zone, then I’m getting Sonic Jenerashonzu Nov. 1.
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Rarex9
I don’t see how anyone would have ever pronounced it as one word. It’s always been “Hydro City” ever since I was five years old (and reading at a junior high level). I absolutely love that there are people stubborn enough to try to argue with irrefutible evidence that it is meant to be two words; it just makes them come off as little kids covering their ears and going “LALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU.”
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Andrew Mayes
Lonely up there on your pedestal?
Reply left on 10.16.2011 by Hedgehogicus
Botton line, It’s “Hydro City”, not “Hydrocity”
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Anonymous
Opinion Coming:
I always called it Hydro-city but why are we fighting for?The point is to understand wich stage are we refering.
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by Unliving Ishiro
Oh “Sweet Justice” lol nobody could figure out that it’s called “Hydro City?” REALLY? It took a white guy who sounds funny saying Japanese words (Kanji or whatever their called) to tell people this?! LOL LOL LOL Funny!!
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by LightXIII
I'll leave yours, but after shooting down several others like it, I'll just reply here by saying:
You all don't hang around enough women, do you. Scarred Sun is lady.
Reply left on 10.17.2011 by GeneHF
Long story: Actually, you probably don’t want to go to the Japanese pronounciation here, considering “Hydrocity” derives from the English words “Hydro”, and “city”. “Hydro”, by the way, derives from the Ancient Greek word “‘Υδωρ” (*Hee*-dor), meaning, naturally, ”water” (hence, “Water City”). This is for the ancient pronounciation, of course; Modern Greek has no aspiration, so now the word is read “*Eee*-dor”.
Short story: Technically, Aaron Weber is *not* wrong due to historical reasons.
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by ‘Υδωρ
I love it how some people still refuse to call it anything other than Hy-drahcity. Oh well, it’s a matter of taste I guess.
That or old habits die hard.
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by lozfoe
Hydroßity. Hydro-City. However you pronounce it, it’s still one of the best water levels in a video game. Ever. So we all win =)
Comment left on Sunday October 16th, 2011 by zpenn
sounds cool either way.
Comment left on Monday October 17th, 2011 by finiki
Thumbs up to this. Thumbs down to Sega for confusing the shit out of all of us.
Comment left on Monday October 17th, 2011 by Zack Ten
What a stupid thing to debate. I called it hydro city when I was a kid, and now call it hydrocity as an adult. Now, I study Japanese and I read stuff the way it’s supposed to sound in English. Just because it’s a game made there doesn’t mean the way she pronounced it is right.
Hats off to her knowing that particular kana (which would be Katakana, in this case) denotes the use of foreign words. Something bugged me about it though. She read it like your typical anime convention attendee. Y’know the ones right? Like “OMGEEE THAT IS SO KAWAEEE DEH SEW KAW NAY!”.
Comment left on Monday October 17th, 2011 by Taku
Not to be all "hurr durr special snowflake," but I had something as a child that affected the way I spoke--specifically pitch and emphasis. You can still hear it if you listen to my English closely.
I am very aware of the issue re:Japanese speech (as my instructors dogged me for it) and am working with a native speaker ahead of taking the JLPT.
Reply left on 10.17.2011 by Scarred Sun
And you truly want to end the debate, here's a link.
http://jisho.org/words?jap=&eng=velocity&dict=edict
They use the katakana the exact same way for that word. I rest my case.
Reply left on 10.17.2011 by Taku
I always called it Hiderow City.
Comment left on Tuesday October 18th, 2011 by Samba-boy
I will never call it “Hydro City”… what a terrible name. it’s the fastest water stage out of all the classic games, speed = velocity, water = hyrdo, therefore the stage is hy-drah-city. it doesn’t matter what some moonspeak says. it’s wrong, i tells yeh
Comment left on Thursday October 20th, 2011 by Jolundus
A city full of water. Hydrocity, seemed simple enough. Can’t understand why there’d ever be a debate about that.
Comment left on Sunday October 23rd, 2011 by G Lux
A bit late, but guess what’s an unlockable song in Generations? Hydro City Zone, spelled “Hydro City Zone”. All who wanted correction, there it is.
Comment left on Friday November 4th, 2011 by G Lux