{"id":19486,"date":"2023-06-14T16:28:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T07:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=19486"},"modified":"2023-07-07T14:14:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T05:14:23","slug":"20230614-19486","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230614-19486\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy XVI demo sparks linguistic debate in Japanese fandom\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Square Enix released the demo for <strong>Final Fantasy XVI<\/strong> on PS Store on June 12. Apparently, the way the name of a certain recurring monster\u2019s name was pronounced in a cutscene of the demo has become a hot topic of debate in the Japanese fandom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Please note that the following article contains spoilers for the Final Fantasy XVI demo.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FINAL FANTASY XVI \u201cSALVATION\u201d\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m-mf8K7f45o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The monster in question is the Malboro (jp:\u30e2\u30eb\u30dc\u30eb\/<em>moruboru)<\/em>. The green, tentacled being first appeared in the Final Fantasy series in FFII, and its \u201cBad Breath\u201d has been inflicting status effects on players ever since. In the FFXVI demo, the Malboro appears as the mid-boss that the protagonist Clive and his subordinates Wade and Tyler encounter while exterminating goblins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the cutscene upon encountering the Malboro, Tyler exclaims, &#8220;A Malboro!?\u201d (jp: \u30e2\u30eb\u30dc\u30eb\u3060\u3068\u2026\uff01\uff1f\/<em>Maruboro dato<\/em>!?). A portion of players were shocked by how the name of the monster was pronounced, specifically, the way the word was accented, and this led to many taking to Twitter to discuss what they believed was the correct pronunciation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Japanese language uses pitch-accenting, which means that within Japanese words, there are morae (similar to syllables) that are pronounced with a high pitch, and morae that are pronounced with a low pitch. A non-Japanese speaker can likely barely tell the difference in pitch in Japanese words, but correct pitch accent is important as it distinguishes words. Mistaking the pitch accent of a word can mean saying \u201cbridge\u201d instead of \u201cchopsticks,\u201d so native Japanese speakers are quick to respond to an unexpected pitch accent being uttered.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what was controversial about Tyler\u2019s pronunciation? In pronouncing \u201cMalboro,\u201d Tyler used the odakagata (\u201chigh tail\u201d) pitch accent pattern, in which the first mora is of a low pitch, and then the pitch is high until the final and accented mora. This apparently made even Square Enix Community and Service Department member Murouchi Toshio (coincidentally known in the fandom by the nickname Malboro) speak out on the pronunciation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30e2\u30eb\u30dc\u30eb\u306e\u30a4\u30f3\u30c8\u30cd\u30fc\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3\u306b\u3064\u3044\u3066\u8003\u3048\u308b\u306e\u5377\u3002 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PS5Share?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PS5Share<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FINALFANTASYXVIDEMO?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FINALFANTASYXVIDEMO<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cb11pSbnCU\">pic.twitter.com\/cb11pSbnCU<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Toshio Murouchi (\u30a4\u30f3\u30c9\u30a2) (@BuccoRoth) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BuccoRoth\/status\/1668209051413671936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 12, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><font size=\"2\"><strong>Tweet translation:<\/strong> I\u2019m in my \u201crethinking the pronunciation of Malboro\u201d arc&nbsp;<\/font><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Murouchi even has Malboro as his FFXIV official forum avatar and is known to introduce himself as \u201cMalboro Muoruchi\u201d at various events. But, the pronunciation this \u201cMalboro representative\u201d has always used for the monster\u2019s name is the atamadakagata\u00a0 (\u201chigh head\u201d) pitch accent pattern, where the first mora is high-pitched and the following are low-pitched, opposite of what is heard in the demo. Murouchi\u2019s confused tweet triggered a whole discussion on the pronunciation of Malboro, with a split occurring between those who find the new pronunciation super weird and those who thought it was normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yoshida Naoki, the producer and director of FFXIV and producer of FFXVI, also pronounces Malboro with the \u201chigh head\u201d accent during events and streams, so it\u2019s possible that some fans find the new pronunciation so jarring because they\u2019re accustomed to Yoshida and Murouchi&#8217;s pronunciation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is likely no correct answer as to how Malboro is supposed to be pronounced, and the non-Japanese fandom especially might consider the whole discussion finicky. Perhaps remembering how jarring Nigella Lawson pronouncing microwave as \u201cmicrowahwey\u201d was can help in sympathizing with the Japanese players.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">\u00a9 2023 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><br><br><br><br>\u00a0<br><em>Written by. Amber V based on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20230613-251811\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a>\u00a0(original article\u2019s publication date: 2023-06-13 19:39\u00a0JST)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The way a certain monster&#8217;s name was pronounced in the Final Fantasy XVI demo has caused a split in the Japanese fandom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":19489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-19486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-final-fantasy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Final Fantasy XVI demo sparks linguistic debate in Japanese fandom\u00a0 - 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