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In the game Overwatch, you can get your character to say some set phrases (hello, thanks, etc).

When changing the game language to Japanese, one of the characters, "Reaper" has 2 different ways of saying "thank you":

  1. ありがとう
  2. What sounds to me like れいおゆ

I found 礼 on Jisho, which has a れい reading, but what does おゆ mean here? Or am I hearing it wrong?

The character saying it is pretty evil if that gives any context.

I uploaded a clip of the audio to soundcloud

1 Answer 1

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He says:

「礼{れい}を言{ゆ}う。ありがとう。」

Note that 「言う」 can be pronounced both 「いう」 and 「ゆう」.

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  • Thanks! Do you know if it is a strange way of thanking someone? I have never heard it before
    – Bassie
    Nov 7, 2017 at 12:48
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    It is not strange except for the pompous speech style. Among friends, we would say 「お礼を言います。」 with the honorific 「お」. But you cannot really compare real Japanese to "game Japanese".
    – user4032
    Nov 7, 2017 at 12:57
  • That's what I thought..Although I don't understand how adding the honorific makes it less pompous
    – Bassie
    Nov 7, 2017 at 13:06
  • Officially speaking the transcription of 言う is いう, regardless of the conjugation. However as you point out many pronounce it as ゆう、ゆった、ゆうた etc, depending on regions and personal preferences. bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/sisaku/joho/joho/kijun/naikaku/…
    – a20
    Nov 7, 2017 at 14:21
  • Just to add to the discussion of how to pronounce 言う, sometimes my professor will say いった and other times she will say ゆった. So the pronunciation is highly variable, although as mentioned earlier, it is "officially"/"correctly" 言う.
    – Kurausukun
    Nov 8, 2017 at 6:17

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