If Able, Would You Change Your Name To Meet Racial Conventions?

[Taters]

My bright pink Seeker of the Sun Male Miqo'te will be named Nunh Nunh, just 'cause he'll be hardcore like that.

[Maxwell]

I would not. SE has an unhealty relationship with the Apostrophe which i find annoying. I do not find it in anyway interesting, mysterious or special, randomly spliting a word to drop an apostrophe in. I'm suspecting that the japanese consider the apostrophe as a way to make up sounds in a foreign (to the japanese language) way, however the apostrophe is used mainly for contractions (which naturally fits their pronounciation) both in French and English. According to Wiki, German and Spanish barely use it at all.

Most people will simply skip both the prounounciation and typing of the apostrophe for words SE made, denoting the burden it creates, as small as it may be.

[Yrusama]

I agree that they should tone down the apostrophe usage, but at the same time my name goes back to naming conventions older than FF itself - those of the Dragonriders of Pern - in which case the apostrophe is involved in contraction.

Also, if you consider the full pronunciation of the sounds used for tribe labels (in my case, Yah) the extra letters are removed, and the whole name contracted, making the apostrophe more fitting for Seekers of the Sun. For Keepers of the Moon, they seem more like a way to designate which part of the male's name is a number tag.

[Mishaela]

I would not. SE has an unhealty relationship with the Apostrophe which i find annoying. I do not find it in anyway interesting, mysterious or special, randomly spliting a word to drop an apostrophe in. I'm suspecting that the japanese consider the apostrophe as a way to make up sounds in a foreign (to the japanese language) way, however the apostrophe is used mainly for contractions (which naturally fits their pronounciation) both in French and English. According to Wiki, German and Spanish barely use it at all.

Most people will simply skip both the prounounciation and typing of the apostrophe for words SE made, denoting the burden it creates, as small as it may be.

But you're moon so you don't even need to worry about it?

Also, why are you assuming that these apostrophized names are of Japanese origin? What if the character (NPC, not PCs) names are just kana resulting in a similar or equivilent pronunciation in their version and these naming conventions are done 100% for the Roman alphabet-using audience?

[Maxwell]

But you're moon so you don't even need to worry about it?

Also, why are you assuming that these apostrophized names are of Japanese origin? What if the character (NPC, not PCs) names are just kana resulting in a similar or equivilent pronunciation in their version and these naming conventions are done 100% for the Roman alphabet-using audience?

I'm making the oposite assumption. That the japanese crew working on those conventions are using the apostrophe as a mean to create words with a foreign, special and distant feel from their perspective. It is most likely done without knowledge of the impact of the faulty usage from the roman/latin based languages perspective.

I doubt they created the words initially from katakanas as they are used to emulate pronounciation only and if you can find me a combination of hiraganas that would fit: "A’zumyn Bhen", then i'll give you a baggie of catnip from my own private stash. Keep in mind that this is mostly a hunch of mine. Speculation at best.

[Mishaela]

It is most likely done without knowledge of the impact of the faulty usage from the roman/latin based languages perspective.

You're right, in this day and age there is no way a multinational game company has any clue what they're doing with foreign languages. I have a great idea. Let's not put any effort into the game's worldbuilding. Will that make you happy?

I doubt they created the words initially from katakanas as they are used to emulate pronounciation only and if you can find me a combination of hiraganas that would fit: "A’zumyn Bhen", then i'll give you a baggie of catnip from my own private stash. Keep in mind that this is mostly a hunch of mine. Speculation at best.

1) I never said anything about katakana specifically. I said kana, which includes both sets.

2) You sound like you're saying hiragana aren't used to spell words according to pronunciation, which is false.

あずみぃん　べん
あずみん　べん
あじゅみん　べん
あじゅみぃん　べん

There, hiragana that fits A’zumyn Bhen. Possible katakana versions have alread been provided.

The ・ dot is commonly used to denote a break in katakana words such as a space, since Japanese doesn't use spaces like English does.

The other thing you'll notice about the writing of the names in Japanes is that in the example of Y'shtola, the first character is actually read as "ya" without any tricks or special explanation (compared to the Y' in English rendition needing a pronunciation guide). The ・ dot serves the same purpose as the apostrophe, that is separating the characters, but it's not the same thing and it doesn't confuse the pronunciation anywhere near the same way an apostrophe can in English.

By the way, all the clan prefix sounds listed can be written with one, maybe two, kana. That is to say, it is more likely that we're seeing some creatively localized naming conventions based on some stylistic writing choices and phonetic name design that completely escaped Japanese writing systems entierly, because with kana, things sound the way you write them
(and vise versa) far more consistently than in Western languages using the Latin alphabet.

[Maxwell]

You're right, in this day and age there is no way a multinational game company has any clue what they're doing with foreign languages. I have a great idea. Let's not put any effort into the game's worldbuilding. Will that make you happy?



1) I never said anything about katakana specifically. I said kana, which includes both sets.

2) You sound like you're saying hiragana aren't used to spell words according to pronunciation, which is false.

あずみぃん　べん
あずみん　べん
あじゅみん　べん
あじゅみぃん　べん

There, hiragana that fits A’zumyn Bhen. Possible katakana versions have alread been provided.

The ・ dot is commonly used to denote a break in katakana words such as a space, since Japanese doesn't use spaces like English does.

The other thing you'll notice about the writing of the names in Japanes is that in the example of Y'shtola, the first character is actually read as "ya" without any tricks or special explanation (compared to the Y' in English rendition needing a pronunciation guide). The ・ dot serves the same purpose as the apostrophe, that is separating the characters, but it's not the same thing and it doesn't confuse the pronunciation anywhere near the same way an apostrophe can in English.

By the way, all the clan prefix sounds listed can be written with one, maybe two, kana. That is to say, it is more likely that we're seeing some creatively localized naming conventions based on some stylistic writing choices and phonetic name design that completely escaped Japanese writing systems entierly, because with kana, things sound the way you write them
(and vise versa) far more consistently than in Western languages using the Latin alphabet.

I would've given you a baggie of catnip as reward for the hiraganas (credit where its due), but i'm keeping it thanks to the angry and derogatory tone. I think you confused my speculation (clearly specified) over SE's use of apostrophe for a personal attack to you or the game.

I personally do not like their use of the apostrophe (neither did i in XI) and would not use it for my char's name even if i could. Mah catnip. None for j00!

[rina_inverse]

while this is tempting, no

[Yolteotl]

After reading the Lore threads I was tempted to create a name based on the great info, but alas I use a progressive naming convention that carries through all my MMO games ive ever played and I can't break myself from it lol...

[SpectreWolf]

Back when the game first came out I tried looking back at mithra names to get a name that fits. I came up with Nala Apaloneh cuz it sounded like a mithraish name but after seeing this it now dosent fit my seeker kitty and is in fact more a dirty basement cat name (Keeper of the moon). I decided to mess around with it a little and came up with R'Nala Apaloneh (Ruh-Na-La App-Ah-Lon-Ah) which would make my father R'apaloneh Nunh (Ruh-App-Ah-Lon-Ah Noon) and try as I might it just seems off to me now :/ at least in my last name. I am so used to my name now after the 2 years playing that im not sure i can physically change it to fit conventions but kinda just did this for lore's sake and for kicks.