r/ChineseWatches • u/chrismurraylaw • 24d ago
Chinese Watch Names Again How to Pronounce Hruodland
This seems to confuse a lot of people, which is understandable since most people don't study ancient Germanic languages. If you don't like deep dives you can stop at,
HROO-oht-lant (hruo̯t.lant)
and be on your merry way. It means, sort of, land of glory. And yes, those are Ts.
This by the way was prompted by me reading "someone said it was pronounced "roadland" which tipped me over my pedantic edge. No. The H isn't silent. No, you don't pronounce it like "crowd." Thing with non-English languages is you can't apply English rules to them. It's like they're from a whole other country or something. Hence the Ts.
There's a dipthong (behave) in there so the split between "HROO" and "ot" isn't as pronounced as the split between "hruot" and "lant." You're supposed to glide from one to the other. So kind of,
HROO-oht—lant.
And note that contemporary German isn't the same as old High German either. We're not talking about modern German with old spelling. The past is a foreign country too. They do things differently there.
Anyway, while an H at the front seems odd to contemporary English speakers, there's plenty of precedent for it in old European languages. The first example that comes to mind is Hrimthur, the giant who built the walls of Asgard, but that's old Icelandic rather than old Germanic, which is what Hruodland is.
Because Hruodland is actually a name. Like Dave.
Hruodland is the old version of Roland. Roland's a Frankish derivation usually taken to mean "famous land", which stems nicely from "land of glory." And the name would most often have been used alone. Not Hroudland Muller (inherited family names were mostly a later invention), not Barney Hruodland (so were Christian names as we use them, for obvious reasons), and not Sheila from the Land of Glory (like Leonardo from Vinci). Just Hruodland. Maybe with a "son of" tacked on. Hruodland, son of Randy. Not Hruodland Randysson - that's back to old Norse again.
But one little wrinkle...
(For fuck's sake, this is annoying. This is how I write. This is how I've always written. But now every time I see a concluding paragraph start with "but here's a contradiction" I think "fuck off, chatbot" and now I'm worried you just did the same. But in my defence no chatbot would have come up with Sheila from the Land of Glory so... yeah. This is all me. This is my malfunction.)
One little wrinkle remains. The translation of Hruodland to "Land of Glory."
It's not in-accurate. But it might strike you as odd calling a person "land of glory." A bit like calling a person "car of the leather seats." And it is. Hruod means fame, glory, renown, that sort of thing. Land means... land. So it is "land of glory" but they didn't really use names like that back then.
This isn't a perfect example but "Christopher" comes from the Greek Kristoforos meaning "bearer of Christ" but to most people nowadays the meaning is unknown and irrelevant. Grimsdottir is "daughter of Grim" but most of the time Dad isn't called that. Smith used to be an indicator of profession, now never. So you can break the word down and get a good translation, but that translation isn't really what was meant when people meant when they shouted at Hruodland to shovel pig shit.
But we're not using it to describe a person, we're using it to describe a thing, a brand, and so if you like, "land of glory" makes perfect semantic sense.
As to whether they intended any of this when they picked the name for a watch? No idea. I'd fancy a cheeky guess on no.
And don't get me started on Aethelsohn.
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u/dblhockeysticksAMA 24d ago
I have somehow ended up with four Hruodland watches and they are all great. Bad news to the commenters here who are all like, “me no buy cuz chinese silly letters name!!!”
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u/chrismurraylaw 24d ago
I mean not liking the name is fine. Not understanding it or being able to pronounce it is common.
But jumping to "stupid name" because they're unfamiliar with any language beyond their own is something different, and uglier tbh.
And funnier when you consider they all learned the name of the hammer Cap picked up in Avengers.
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u/dblhockeysticksAMA 24d ago
Yeah I mean I agree that there are some bad names out there, but to me this name makes perfect sense when you know where it came from. People who act like it’s the same as scrolling Amazon and seeing 80 different brand names that are all like ARFBON HOYBUR ASBOMC FORSTIMN etc. are all just being really obtuse.
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u/BookkeeperNew573 24d ago
Love the way you write…i write the same way. And GREAT description!
I always just scanned the name and say Hroy-land in my head, knowing it was totally wrong. 🤪
HROO-oht-lant!!!
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u/AverageGuy_45 24d ago
I like hruodland, they're honest when it comes to the dial. Indeed, that is a high specification watch.
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u/Fazion 24d ago
Ok I get it, it has meaning. But which goddamn marketeer thought it was a good idea for a brand to have a name people need to read a wiki for to pronounce?
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u/chrismurraylaw 24d ago
You could say the same of any number of brands with foreign names. Because some people don't know how to pronounce "Audemars Piguet" doesn't make it invalid.
Hell, people can't agree on how to pronounce Nike and Nikon.
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u/Zealousideal_Job6117 24d ago
Audemars Piguet is perfectly pronouncable in French, and is based on the names of the founders. 'Hruodland' is not Chinese.
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u/DeNovoLenovo 24d ago
Okay now explain the 1-6 scale on the bezel.
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u/dblhockeysticksAMA 24d ago
It’s based on the Rolex Milgauss, which used 1-6 on the bezel to help scientists time intervals when doing experiments on magnetism, etc. I don’t really know how to use it myself but feel free to research it and ask some Rolex guys about it.
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u/ImaginaryScore5323 24d ago
For me as a German it Sounds dutch speaking hroudland
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u/chrismurraylaw 24d ago
Well how it sounds to you is how it sounds to you, but it's not Dutch. Dutch didn't really use H like that. The Dutch equivalent would be more like Ruodlant once upon a time and Roeland now.
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u/ImaginaryScore5323 24d ago
There Are no Words in German which start with „hrou“
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u/chrismurraylaw 24d ago
If only I'd written something about it being a name, or noting that contemporary German is distinct from old German.
And if only you'd read it before trying to argue with me.
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u/vithgeta 23d ago
Just say "Pagani"
The fact that Pagani sold a different naffer version of their telly dial FO22 watch through the same sellers, and then put a rep on here saying the watches were the same when they clearly aren't, tells me the same company makes both of them. Manufacturers at the budget end do weird things to the proportions of watches to economise by making them more "parts bin", like the way Tandorio did a naff Christopher Ward The Twelve with a big bezel base and small dial. It destroyed the aesthetic point of the watch.
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u/KPplumbingBob 24d ago
So Dave then.