Warhammer Fantasy Cathay name generator and Pronunciation guide

Cathay Name Generator

I started a new job, which is great, but the commute is extensive and it has left me no free time in the evenings. By the weekend I’m too tired to do much. Even so, I’ve finished the Cathay name generator, and it’s now live on the Warhammer Fantasy and Blood Bowl Name Generator.

How Cathayan names work

Cathay is Warhammer's counterpart to imperial China, and its names are written in Pinyin, the romanisation system used for Chinese names worldwide. Mandarin is written in logographic characters but only has around 400 distinct syllables when tonal pitch is ignored, so many different words share the same sound and are told apart by their written characters and tones. As in many Asian cultures, the family name comes first and the given name follows. Surnames are usually one syllable and given names one or two, as in Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping.

The Chaos gods have struggled to get a hold in Cathay, except for Tzeentch. The Cathayan name for Tzeentch is “Ch’ian Chi”.

Pronunciation guide

The spelling follows Pinyin. These are rough English equivalents, adapted from the pronunciation guides by David Chiang and Stephen Kraemer (see Sources).

Consonants

  • B, P, M, F, D, T, N, L, G, K, H, S, W, Y: close to English
  • R: close to English
  • C: like “ts” in “cats”, with a stronger puff of air
  • Z: like “ts” in “cats” (Chiang describes it as “dz”)
  • ZH: like “j” in “jury”
  • CH: like “ch” in “church”
  • SH: like “sh” in “sugar”
  • J: like “g” in “gee”, said a little further forward in the mouth
  • Q: like “ch” in “cheep”, said a little further forward in the mouth
  • X: like “sh” in “she”, said a little further forward in the mouth

Vowels

  • I: usually like the “ee” in “beet”. After z, c, s, zh, ch, sh and r it is not “ee” but a buzzed vowel, so the consonant carries the whole syllable (zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi, ri).
  • E: usually “uh”, like the “a” in “about”. After i, y or ü it is like the “e” in “bet”.
  • EI: like the letter “A”, as in “bay”
  • AI: like “eye”
  • AO: like “ow” in “cow”
  • OU: like “oh”
  • IAN: “yen”
  • IE: “yeh”
  • IU: like “yo” in “yoga”
  • UI: like “way” (the same as “wei”)
  • UN: like “wen” in “Owen” (after j, q, x and y, “un” is the ü sound instead)
  • Ü: like the “u” in “cute”. In this generator it is written “v” in names like Lv and Lvqiu. After j, q, x and y the same sound is written as plain “u” (Ju, Xu, Yu).

Sources

For Cathay I only had Total War: Warhammer III to gather from for now, but I will add more as I come across them. The pronunciation guide is adapted from:

  • Chiang, D. (2012, April). Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation [Handout]. University of Notre Dame. https://www3.nd.edu/~dchiang/Pinyin.pdf
  • Kraemer, S. M. (2007). A Guide to the Chinese (Pinyin) Spelling System: How to Pronounce Chinese Names. American English Institute, University of Oregon. https://hdl.handle.net/1794/19046

I’ve also continued work on the sources for the existing races, which is a slow process. My Snotling generator, which I thought would be simple, still has 18 sources, each needing a publishing year and publisher or author. I’m curious how long the Goblin one will take...