Is it Chayos or Chous?

**PistolWraithCaine**

We've been having an argument at our local gaming store. Some people think that Chaos is pronounced Chayos and the other group thinks that it is pronounced Chous. How do you guys pronounce it? We used to pronounce it as kayos but then two 11 year old linguists informed us that is was not pronounced kayos but in fact either chous or chayous. The strife between the two factions is tearing us apart so we need to know soon. Thanks

**Bastirous666**

i say chaos like how its spelled. like order and chaos. it just makes more sense that way as that's how it's spelled. just like daemon not being pronounced demon

**Skaskull**

Ya, when I was a little kid I thought the word chaos was pronounced chous, and so I called the army that as well, but after I learned the real pronunciation I assumed the army was pronounced like the word, K-os

**tomguycot**

The key here is to never take pronunciation advice from 11 year olds. I guess the best way to write it out phonetically would be "kayos".

**Nurglitch**

http://theoi.com/Protogenos/Khaos.html

**Mannahnin**

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chaos

**Ozymandias**

Dictionary.com even has a nice little audio of how to pronounce the word.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

**HuzzFivvNivv**

Were these 11 year olds Orks?

They tend to pronounce most words in a funny way.

Speech impediment I think.

HFN

**Gabe**

Chay-oss.

Shy-mara.

Baskee-lisk.

Ten-zentch.

Ka-horn.

Nerjle.

Slay-neeesh.

**PistolWraithCaine**

Well, we all used to say kay-os too. But then we saw too little kids arguing over whether it was chous or chayos and it threw us all into doubt.

**malfred**

I pronounce Chaos "Waaagh"

**Boss_Salvage**

Spas Mary-Annes

Nee-krons

Oürcses

- Salvage

**Saldiven**

The "linguist" who informed you is completely incorrect.

10 seconds on dictionary.com reveals the following:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chaos

There is no pronunciation cited by any of the references used by dictionary.com that use the "ch" sound rather than the "k" sound for the beginning of the word.

Chaos comes from the Greek word (I can't type Greek here) that translates to khaos: abyss, that which gapes wide open, is vast and empty.

At no point in recorded etymological history (and I checked with my history of the English language professor), has "chaos" or any of its root words been pronounced with the sibilant "ch" sound.

**PistolWraithCaine**

WOW, so much info thanks Saldiven!!! I'm so glad you took some time to inform us of the correct pronunciation.

**Ozymandias**

what no love for Mannahnin? He gave you the same link like 10 posts ago. (no offense Sal).

Ozymandias, King of Kings

**TragicNut**

Really? I thought it was pronounced "Bwa Ha Ha Ha Ha!"

**stonefox**

**DFo**

Thankyou for raising the level of intellectual discourse on this thread stonefox. Seriously.

**Foda_Bett**

Gabe wrote:Chay-oss.

Shy-mara.

Baskee-lisk.

Ten-zentch.

Ka-horn.

Nerjle.

Slay-neeesh.

You forgot my favorite mispronounciations:

Knee-arch
Basimilisk
RendERing claws
Tay-lons (as in scything talons)
Knee-krons
Tear-ant (as in Hive Tyrant)

**Hordini**

So you guys thought (knew) it was pronounced chaos (you know, like the real word), but because a couple 11-year-olds said "chous" or "chows" or whatever, you began to question yourselves?

Next time, I recommend consulting a dictionary.

What kind of linguists are these kids? (This is a partially serious question.)

**f74**

People need to spend more time in skool and less time on the game table!!!!!

lol

GW killed my edgey-cation an made me thick!!!!

**Kilkrazy**

The word chaos derives from ancient Greek and was spelt with the Greek equivalent of K, being a hard syllable.

Most other Greek derived words are spelt with K, such as kinetic. I don't know why Chaos wasn't.

**The Power Cosmic**

Knee-arch? You lost me there.

How about Shimmer-a?

Oh, and my friend pronounces genestealer with the "gene" like in the word "generation," despite knowing it's not like that. He is a Star Trek geek, though.

**Beriothien**

Where ah come from it is kay aus.

A more important question is...why do people insist on saying tier-inid? They don't call the big queen a hive tier-ant

**Boss_Salvage**

Beriothien wrote:A more important question is...why do people insist on saying tier-inid? They don't call the big queen a hive tier-ant

Maybe because it's pronounced "tier-anny"?

But I'm with you 100%, even if we may be alone in this big cold galaxy on this one

- Salvage

**Kilkrazy**

Tierant
Tirannical
Tirannee

**Abadabadoobaddon**

So that's how you're supposed to pronounce "tyranid"? And here I was pronouncing it "tie-ran-uh-sore-us-wrecks-anids" the whole time!

**Pariah Press**

Huh. I've always pronouced it Tyranny-id, but I suppse Tyrannosaurus-is makes a certain amount of sense, considering Tyranids used to look like dinosaurs.

**PistolWraithCaine**

Beriothien wrote:
A more important question is...why do people insist on saying tier-inid? They don't call the big queen a hive tier-ant

I believe the answer to that question is the same reason why we don't call wyches wai-ches. Saying tair-inid sounds awkward to most people.

On a side note. How do most of you guys pronounce lascannon or lasgun? Do you use a long a (lace-cannon) or short a (las-cannon). I think the second is correct and that's what I say because there is no vowel to make the a long but I hear people say lace-cannon all the time.

**Kilkrazy**

Lazcannon