Japanese FFXIV-specific terms

[EvalcieChevallier]

I was unsure where to put this as it is a lore question but also a language question?

What are the Japanese kanji for basic FFXIV terms, or kana? Is "aether" written only in katakana, or is there a Japanese term?

(please note I'm not looking for Romaji. Sorry.)


Terms requested to translate:

Aether/Aetheryte
Eorzea
Hydaelyn
materia
Viera
Hrothgar

Thank you very much!

[Anonymoose]

Iirc, all of these are what you've written, but in katakana.

[AmemeAmeklin]

I think it's this:

Aether/Aetheryte エーテル / エーテライト
Eorzea エオルゼア
Hydaelyn ハイダリン
materia マテリア
Viera ヴィエラ「VIERA」
Hrothgar ロスガル「HROTHGAR」

[Rongway]

Viera ビエラ「VIERA」

Should be ヴィエラ. The non-Japanese /vi/ syllable is typically written with the ヴ and the sub ィ.

[AmemeAmeklin]

Yep, thanks! It's been a really long time since I've tried any Japanese.

[EvalcieChevallier]

Thank you all so much. So is it fair to say the Japanese team raids the English language for terms?

[Rongway]

is it fair to say the Japanese team raids the English language for terms?

Perhaps not so much this, but they make up names and then the made up terms need to be written in katakana, which is a writing system specifically intended to indicate that a word is non-Japanese and tell how to pronounce it. It would be like if English happened to have a particular rule where all fictional or borrowed terms would be written in monospace font and spelled out phonetically, and only non-English words would be written in monospace font and spelled out phonetically.

It's at least worth noting that even when they do borrow names from other languages and cultures, they don't borrow exclusively from English. For example, they were happy to borrow from one of the Gaelic languages for the Mhachi raids, from the Norse family of languages for some Hrothgar things, from Latin for a lot of Garlean things. Much like English-speaking authors, they'll borrow from pretty much any source they think "sounds cool" (and will cite "it sounds cool" as the reason for something's name if you ask).

[Anonymoose]

It's a back-and-forth kind of thing. Canonically speaking, "the common tongue of the Hyur" is really just English, but like Rongway said, katakana can represent any foreign or made-up word and Final Fantasy pillages every mythology for inspiration. The word "Eorzea" is based on the Old English term for "Earth" (Eorþe). Aether comes into the mythology via Eorzea being based very loosely based on Greece in the lead-up to invasion by Persia, so there are many Greek references in that geographical region of the game. Though our "Persians" are more like Romans. And our Greece is where Africa would usually be. (Because Eorzea is the cradle of life allegedly.) It's a very organic, systemic world-setting.

But yeah, there's a lot of English in there. A number of things even originate in EN and are localized back into JP.

[Iscah]

Aether comes into the mythology via Eorzea being based very loosely based on Greece in the lead-up to invasion by Persia, so there are many Greek references in that geographical region of the game.

Is there an official source for that particular reference? Aether (or ether) is a common concept as the "fifth element", and the name could easily be picked without any intention to have an Ancient Greek-inspired setting.

[EvalcieChevallier]

Perhaps not so much this, but they make up names and then the made up terms need to be written in katakana, which is a writing system specifically intended to indicate that a word is non-Japanese and tell how to pronounce it. It would be like if English happened to have a particular rule where all fictional or borrowed terms would be written in monospace font and spelled out phonetically, and only non-English words would be written in monospace font and spelled out phonetically.

It's at least worth noting that even when they do borrow names from other languages and cultures, they don't borrow exclusively from English. For example, they were happy to borrow from one of the Gaelic languages for the Mhachi raids, from the Norse family of languages for some Hrothgar things, from Latin for a lot of Garlean things. Much like English-speaking authors, they'll borrow from pretty much any source they think "sounds cool" (and will cite "it sounds cool" as the reason for something's name if you ask).

I feel like "liking" this post is too easy. That you should receive a cuppa java for your post. Thank you!