Cthulhu is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. For older candidates, please check the archive.
Article milestones Date Process Result March 3, 2007 Featured article candidate Not promoted June 10, 2007 Peer review Reviewed
Current status: Former featured article candidate

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I think having a phonetic pronunciation section would benefit the page, but I don't actually know how to pronounce it. for example, the name joseph has "Pronunciation /ˈdʒoʊzəf/ or /ˈdʒoʊsəf/". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.212.29.90 (talk) 12:30, 27 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As the Spelling and Pronunciation section notes, Lovecraft himself was not consistent with the pronunciation, and it gives the pronunciations Template:IPA-art or "Khlûl'-hloo" and /kəˈθuːluː/ kə-THOO-loo. Ian.thomson (talk) 14:06, 27 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

/kəˈθuːluː/?? How the hell is "Ke Bux Lux" anywhere close to "Ka Thoo Loo"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.249 (talk) 21:39, 14 June 2013 (UTC) — IPA misunderstanding or trolling.[reply]

Given the idea that correct pronunciation of the name invokes the presence of the entity, might I suggest something not too close to the actual pronunciation is preferable in casual discussion of the subject? I think the (deliberate) mispronunciation of K'tulu is wise.--Naaman Brown (talk) 19:31, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please, could someone who have access to H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters V, pp. 10 – 11 confirm that "Kthûl'-hloo", as it appears here, has been correctly transcribed, and isn't "Khlûl’-hloo" as stated in www.hplovecraft.com? I think the 1st one would make sense, but all of the Clu... pronunciations that he supposedly wrote in letters (whose references I haven't seen except this one) would imply an arbitrary spelling by Lovecraft, and that's quite disappointing. How can "Cthu" be read "Clu"?? Red Mordor (talk) 21:18, 7 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

When I read the pronunciation section I conclude that Lovecraft had no idea on linguistics, but readers are trying to make amends, so I apologise for throwing my tuppence in.

(i) I would argue that [sic.] be placed after the quote as guttural thickness sounds like linguistic gibberish and is therefore ambiguous. Linguistically there are at least three things this could mean. There is a process where consonants are co-articulated with a pharyngeal sound, called pharyngealization, e.g. arabic emphatic consonants (they have dots under them in Latin letters, but the IPA symbol differs). The glottis influences phonation, so you can speak with a modal voice (normal), breathy (murmur), stiff or creaky voice —I would say creaky voice is meant as "guttural thickness" if interpreted as such. Lastly, "guttural" is commonly used to describe something with lots of uvulars and fricatives, such as arabic q (uvular stop) or Scottish loch (velar fricative, /x/, kh in arabic, H in Klingon) and French R (voiced uvular fricative) — amusingly, /qθ/ is a worse sequence than the /qn/ in the Klingon "nuqneH".

(ii) It would be nice to link to a page for impossible sounds. Wiki has an article on phonotactics (allowed sounds), but there isn't an article on universal phonotactical constraints (or therefore impossible sounds).

(iii) kh is the arabic way of writing /x/ and lh is either an unvoiced L or a Welsh LL /ɬ/. So in the text that pops to mind, but isn't mentioned. If there is no evidence that they are pronounced /x/ and /ɬ/ then it might be worth mentioning in passing. --Squidonius (talk) 01:17, 20 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@ Red Mordor: A Welsh ll is sometimes approximated as th. Or fl. — kwami (talk) 08:28, 27 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think it might be useful to have a section on the character in popular culture.

It was featured heavily in a two part south park episode and is also used regulalry in memes — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.239.209.206 (talk) 11:30, 1 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to mention the same thing! Let's add a link to the South Park episode. It also seems that there's a [of Ubuntu linux] by this name.

~ ReubenGarrett (talk) 12:41, 9 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You want the Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture article for this kind of thing. --McGeddon (talk) 12:43, 9 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In response to the "Lead too short" flag, I have inserted a brief description of Cthulhu's anatomy, plus a mention that C. is presented as evil and that human sacrifices are conducted by cultists in his name. Hoping this is enough, I have removed the "Lead too short" flag. Feel free to increase the lead further! Goblinshark17 (talk) 03:25, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Added this image and caption. I know we need to beware of trivia, but I think it's worth having at least one image beside the napkin sketch. I chose this one because: it's outside the normal fiction genres, it's from a non-anglophone country, and it's visually impressive. — kwami (talk) 02:39, 30 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Is Cthulhu part "man" or is it just anthropomophic? I cannot find this description from the original work, only the imagination of the "human caricature".Gan Ye Hern (talk) 04:06, 30 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Cthulhu predates the evolution of the human species. Pretty sure that he could not himself be part human. 208.91.1.34 (talk) 04:33, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Not human at all...just vague human shape....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 05:23, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]