Terra Tina Kefka Cefca

[Sephiroth]

Give me an English-root word that starts with "ca" and "c" is pronounced [s]


And on that note, I'd just like to follow this up with a question to all the English-as-a-native-language-speakers here: how would you pronounce the word "Cefca" upon encountering it, without any reference to the fact that it's an alternate spelling of Kefka?

I do not quite understand how you could assume I said something about "ca". I did not say "ca" is pronounced "sa", is said something against people who treat "c" like an automatic guarantee for an "s" sound, so I said exactly the opposite of what you understood, as you should have read from Cefca and Cain and Cayenne, which all have a "ka" katakana to mimic a "k" sound and are written with a "c" then in manuals and stuff.

[Fynn]

Then you clearly misunderstood me because I made it clear in my post that the pronunciation of "c" is entirely context dependent. Just as a general rule, it's a [k] before "a" and an [s] before "e". General rule for English-root words. There are exceptions, mostly in words of foreign origin.

My point was just that any English speaker would, at first glance, pronounce "Cefca" as "Sefka". Hence the transcription is bad.

[Sephiroth]

Then you clearly misunderstood me because I made it clear in my post that the pronunciation of "c" is entirely context dependent. Just as a general rule, it's a [k] before "a" and an [s] before "e". General rule for English-root words. There are exceptions, mostly in words of foreign origin.

My point was just that any English speaker would, at first glance, pronounce "Cefca" as "Sefka". Hence the transcription is bad.

No, I did understand you. The normal rule is that most words with a "ce" are pronounced like "se" in English and I never would deny that. That does not change the fact that words exist out there which are not and saying "I do not count them because they are lonely words" is also no good argument. I think words showing different pronunciations show the possibility. ALSO, also, there is the thing: Very important -> that not all words you find in a Japanese manual are supposed to have an English writing or pronunciation or origin in mind. So we can even go more global and think about the name in context of a language that is not English (normal, by the way - many foreign words in Japanese that are written in katakana and that appear in games are for example German or something else or have German or something else in mind. "Birusu" for Beerus in DBZ is a pun to the German pronounciation of virus, not of the English one, well later it also became a pun of Beer but that is a different story)

[Galuf]

I had a feeling this was gonna happen : enough talk. Have at thee! *dracula battle"

[Fynn]

SO YEAH, the English names for all the characters are basically the preferred names for me. Tina sounds like a valley girl's name, Mash is dumb, and Cheyenne is too long. Cefca is stupid as well.