NES Is Not Pronounced Like NES
Words are pronounced the way people pronounce them, and to insist otherwise is to fight a lost battle. This is why “giff” and “jiff” are equally valid . But for those who care, according to the new Nintendo 3DS game, NES (Nintendo Classic Entertainment System) is pronounced “ness”.
On Twitter, gamer Kyle McLaine shows a screen for the Japanese version of WarioWare Gold for the 3DS, with characters spoken “ne” and “su” placed above the NES. Thus, “I carry”, which is the closest to the “essence” of Japanese characters. Eurogamer confirms .
User LeoTheCollector responds with an ad for Kirby’s Adventure on Nintendo in the US that ends with “NES only”.
So if you love to argue about the pronunciation of an 80s video game console, you still have evidence on both sides. If you trust Japanese copywriters more than American advertisers for a current Nintendo game, go for it. If you believe that since “NES” stands for English words, its pronunciation should not be determined by reverse transliteration into Japanese, then WarioWare Gold does not change anything.
I just want to point out one thing: if you follow the rules, “ness” means SNES is pronounced “sness”, 3DS is pronounced “three deess”, and N64 is “nuh-sixty-four”.
In his essay Politics and the English Language. Orwell lists five rules for improving sentences. But he adds a sixth: “Rather break any of these rules than say something downright barbaric.”