Many of names in various Diablo 4 regions are heavily inspired by existing cultures. The NW of the map is a Slavic land. NE is British Isles, Southern areas are Turkic/Persian, etc.
What I noticed a lot is many of the NPC names are borrowed from other cultures. They are, however mostly pronounced wrong. It's almost as if the names were picked at random from a text source without anyone verifying how the words are originally pronounced.
Early in the story we encounter the widow of man named Julek. It's a common name in Poland (where I am from), but it should be read as Yulek. Instead, the voiceovers feature the same J sound as in John or James.
Yonca is a common Turkish name, but once again the pronunciation is all wrong. Her name (meaning "clover") should read more like Yondja - but instead we are served with Yonka.
There are a whole bunch of these all over the place, and I am only touching on Polish/Slavic and Turkic/Persian influences that I am personally familiar with. No idea if Celtic and Nord words are butchered in equal measure.
The whole situation reminds me of that old Super Nintendo game Fighting Baseball where some Japanese developer was tasked with coming up with plausible-sounding US names. These are the ones on the attached image.
Rant over.
I really like Diablo 4. I just wish the multicultural influences received the same level of polish and attention as the graphics, mechanics and other areas.
I wasn’t surprised that the J letter is pronounced wrong, it’s not readily apparent unless you have some knowledge of the languges, and I dont blame the (mostly)American devs for going with pronunciation that feels natural to them.
I just wish developers stopped lumping all slavs with Russians when using slavic-inspired elements. Especially when it comes to architecture. Though it was nice seeing some Czech and Polish inspired names in game.