Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Dynza]

I do not believe he was differentiating the clans, but rather saying they would not be similar to Hyuran names.




I did get a reply at one point that the ligatures would exist in the game per lore but were left as digraphs for ease of programming. However, a lot was left vague and unspecific never really confirming or denying for any particular word. The oe combination could very well easily become an ö instead of œ. For all we know these uncommon-in-modern-English variants could extend beyond Roegadyn language and maybe Baldric Thorne is really Baldric Þorne! It is important to keep in mind that these words don't all have English roots either, as Roegadyn words are derived from Old High German.

When it comes to the pronunciation though we're in somewhat unsure waters. I'm inclined to agree with you that it's probably properly [œ], not [oʊ] (though possibly [ø]) and [æ], not [iː] among other examples that are unmentioned, but the guides have never given us IPA to my knowledge, only comparisons to other common words or other simplified examples as the differences in some of the sounds are probably too subtle for many to notice and/or most people are unfamiliar with how to actually read IPA symbols without extensive encyclopedic lookup. I'd be all for IPA versions myself though

I'm kinda hoping they don't push too hard on certain character scripts. It's difficult enough with many players having trouble pronouncing Elezen and Roe names correctly, I'd rather they didn't start dumping more archaic characters and just make it harder for the sake of being harder. With that said, I don't mind if they want to get creative and run some Eorzean script here and there just for fun.

I'm sure everyone realizes and understands that the speech that Eorzeans speak isn't really different from modern speech. Only the words they use are considered more archaic to us versus modern speech changing the meaning of some words. I don't mind it, but I do understand some players fumbling with what some characters are saying. Baderon in 1.0 was a good example of this, Jacke in 2.0 is another example. It is an absolute joy to read their speech and dialects (it would be even more fun if they were spoken too!), but it does hurt the casual reader and player when it comes to understanding what the characters are saying and what they need to do. Imagine if all the tutorial information was written in thieves cant! Additional lettering and characters can make it difficult to type out names for joining parties or making friends lists, so let's be creative, but still keep it simple for the non-scholars out there. =)

With that said, and tying back into the au ra spelling and pronunciation, I do wonder why they went with the "Au" spelling instead of the "Ou" since you still can get the same sound without it running into similar spelling and sounding words like aura. I can only assume that the spelling is intentionally like this because the name is probably a draconic name. Which further leads me to thinking what region on earth will the auri names adopt from? There are multiple tales of dragons from various cultures and locations, both east and west.



Quick EDIT: As an FYI, (and I can't believe I have to say this), but Fern's hints at the Auri names means that the names are taking from real-world historical names that were popular during a certain time period. Much like Hyuran names in FF14 are popular historical names from 16th century. However, Fern is simply mentioning that while the Auri and Hyuran names are similar in that they are taking from historical accounts, the Auri name are from a completely different region with its own linguistic rules. Meaning that, where Hyuran names originate from from Welsh, Germanic, and Normandic regions, Auri names will originate from somewhere else on Earth. Whether that somewhere else be Egypt, Southeast Asia, or on Europe is the question.