Aerith/Aeris

[G13]

So I'm sure my question will be answered on the first reply but I'm gonna do it anyway. Is the reason for Aeris' name change due to a translation error? I've been wondering that ever since KH 1 came out.

[Unbreakable Will]

I think so, but i'm not quite sure. Perhaps we should use the all-powerful google ;)

[G13]

Perhaps...

Edit: I just read somewhere that her name (as Aerith) is supposed to be a derivative of Earth, but it didn't answer my question. I hate Google.

[Big D]

Not a translation 'error', but a deliberate choice to transliterate it that way. Some folks'll swear black and blue that it's a translation bungle, but these are the same kind of people who'll tell you it's a mistake that the main character's English name is Cloud Strife rather than Kuraudo Sutaraifo.

[Unbreakable Will]

It is not, in fact, a translational error for KH, but one for FFVII. In Japan it was Aerith, with a th, but the japanese do not pronounce the th but rather as an 's'. So it was spelled wrong to begin with.

[G13]

You saw Neoseeker forums too eh? :D

[Unbreakable Will]

[quote=
Edit: I just read somewhere that her name (as Aerith) is supposed to be a derivative of Earth, but it didn't answer my question. I hate Google.[/quote]
no, google is just a douche to you for some reason, me and google will have words on that...ill sic some chinks on it

and yeees the neoseeker sought my answers like a faithful lapdog

[G13]

hahahaha I don't know if I liked that persons answer though. But, I guess I'll just have to accept it since Big D's infinite well of knowledge supports their claim.

[Unbreakable Will]

heh indeed. But i still think they should have left it, it was kind of a tard move to change it.

[Zerokku]

While I still write/pronounce it as Aerith because that's what Squeenix has decided the name should be, I prefer Aeris over Aerith, because Aerith just sounds retarded out loud.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7453/1244781213856.gif

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

When Japanese outfits create characters, they spell their names in Japanese, of course, but they also devise official Romanizations of those names. エアリス's official Romanization, from the first, was always Aerith. But when Sony translated the game, they screwed it up, like they screwed up innumerable things in that localization. That's how we got "Aeris," until Square themselves had the opportunity to set things straight in Kingdom Hearts and onward.

[Skyblade]

Yet Square had an earlier chance to fix up the translation: FFVII for the PC. They fixed tons of dialogue errors throughout the game, and, to my knowledge, the Aeris/Aerith one was the only one left in. Odd, isn't it?

[TheSpoonyBard]

I prefer Aeris over Aerith, because Aerith just sounds retarded out loud.

image
I've always disliked this argument. Suppose they had improperly translated Sefirosu to Sephiros. Would you say you prefer Sephiros because Sephiroth makes it sound as though you have a lisp?

[G13]

Nice rebuttal!

[Jessweeee♪]

Aerith is a prettier name to look at, but "Aeris" sounds better. So I like them both. I think it's officially "Aerith" though.

[ReloadPsi]

Useless Fact: Her character model is called "EARISU" in the game's data folders.

[blackmage_nuke]

Aeris both looks and sounds better but like Tie-dus thats just not how things are meant to be.

Also when I think about it Sephiros would be easier to pronounce and doesnt sound too bad. Its not as nice to look at though.

[Garnie]

As i pointed out in Clouds Modern Life, the name will always be Aeris to me! I just cant get along with Aerith, it annoys me! -__-

[Elly]

well actualy it is pronounced Aeris but its propper romanized spelling is Aerith, unfortunately the KH Voice Actors didn't know this little fact and thus pronounced it with the lispy "th" sound... and Tidus is supposed to be pronounced with the Tea sound as opposed to Tie, cause his name is a referance to the sun, not the water...

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

well actualy it is pronounced Aeris but its propper romanized spelling is Aerith, unfortunately the KH Voice Actors didn't know this little fact and thus pronounced it with the lispy "th" sound...

No, Aerith is meant to be pronounced with a "th." It just wouldn't come through in Japanese because that language doesn't account for such a thing, so it's substituted with an S.

[G13]

I'm pretty sure Tidus is a reference to water. He doesn't wield a "sun sword".

[Unbreakable Will]

I agree with Guardian, i mean, TIDE-us, but perhaps i just think that because of pronunciation.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I'm pretty sure Tidus is a reference to water. He doesn't wield a "sun sword".

In Japan, Tidus is pronounced Tida (even though it's still Romanized "Tidus"; yes, it's weird). Tida is an Okinawan word meaning "sun." Likewise, Yuna is "moon."

[G13]

In Latin Tidus is water and he uses a water sword. I'm sure it could be a double reference since there that and his Ultimate Weapon has a Sun Sigil and Crescent in it.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Tidus isn't Latin for water.

[G13]

Are you sure about that? I heard it was from someone on this site.

Edit: You're right. None of the engines I checked even come close to water.

[Ouch!]

Yet Square had an earlier chance to fix up the translation: FFVII for the PC. They fixed tons of dialogue errors throughout the game, and, to my knowledge, the Aeris/Aerith one was the only one left in. Odd, isn't it?
As I recall, Eidos was the one who published FFVII for the PC. I'm not sure Square had much of a hand in the translation changes at all.

[Meat Puppet]

Would you say you prefer Sephiros because Sephiroth makes it sound as though you have a lisp?
Affirmative.

[Zerokku]

I prefer Aeris over Aerith, because Aerith just sounds retarded out loud.

image
I've always disliked this argument. Suppose they had improperly translated Sefirosu to Sephiros. Would you say you prefer Sephiros because Sephiroth makes it sound as though you have a lisp?

Two problems with that "rebuttal".

1. Sephiroth sounds considerably more natural to pronounce in english then Aerith.

2. Sephiroth is an actual word. It's from a practice of jewish mysticism known as the kabbalah. Aerith, not so much.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

1. Sephiroth sounds considerably more natural to pronounce in english then Aerith.

"Rith" isn't any more unnatural to pronounce than "roth." You're just judging based on what you happen to be used to.

[Zerokku]

1. Sephiroth sounds considerably more natural to pronounce in english then Aerith.

"Rith" isn't any more unnatural to pronounce than "roth." You're just judging based on what you happen to be used to.

While that may be true, you ignore my second point. That sephiroth is an actual word. That's also why I prefer Aeris. Because Aeris is an actual word, latin meaning air. Which strengthens her connections to "cloud" as a character. I still find it an entirely moronic and pointless change. Who cares what the proper translation is. We got terra rather then tina for VI, and I think most people would agree Terra is the superior name there. Then why do people say that we should say aerith because it's the proper translation?

[G13]

No one said we should say Aerith, they just said that Aerith is what her name originally was.

[Cetra Angel]

It is officially Aerith

[Aerisfanatic]

Aeris is spelled that way so people could properly pronounce "Aerith" at least thats what i always thought. Just because it has a "th" at the end doesn't mean it sounds like a th sound. But even with the "Aeris" spelling, people still pronounce it wrong.

Okay, a quick pronounciation lesson. Because it pisses me off that much.

Its Not:
"Iris"
(long A)-riss
A-ER-ISS
Aeri(TH)
"Aerie" air-ee

Its pronounced like:
Eris
Air-riss
or "heiress"

[seiferalmasy2]

It is pronounced as it is spelt. The writers made Aerith's name a near anagram of the english word "Earth", that is the origin of her name.

Aeris was a mistake by the very poor translators. Aeris has absolutely nothing to do with 7 other than a mistake. This isn't debateable either, it is a fact :)

[Aerisfanatic]

It is pronounced as it is spelt. The writers made Aerith's name a near anagram of the english word "Earth", that is the origin of her name.

Aeris was a mistake by the very poor translators. Aeris has absolutely nothing to do with 7 other than a mistake. This isn't debateable either, it is a fact :)
Normally I would agree with you, especially when it comes to the pronounciation of "Ketchup"

but Aerith's original name was Earisu, which sounds almost exactly like "Aeris" except for the "u" at the end which would be prounced like "oo". Earisu was later transliterated (in english mind you) to "Aeris" then later into official romanized version "Aerith" but the "s" sound at the end remained.

[Pure Aerisbeauty7]

I prefer Aeris over Aerith, but both names are nice. Though, I have seen on the internet that Aerith is the actual Japanese translation and that Aeris is a mistake in translation.

[Crimson]

I always rename her Aerith these days, I never liked Aeris to begin with, considering you had characters called Cloud and Red XIII, Aeris just felt plain.



Not like it matters, I get rid of her soon enough anyway, lul.

[felfenix]

Aeris always sounded better than Aerith to me. Sometimes the english translators change things for the better, like changing Tina to Terra.

[seiferalmasy2]

It is pronounced as it is spelt. The writers made Aerith's name a near anagram of the english word "Earth", that is the origin of her name.

Aeris was a mistake by the very poor translators. Aeris has absolutely nothing to do with 7 other than a mistake. This isn't debateable either, it is a fact :)
Normally I would agree with you, especially when it comes to the pronounciation of "Ketchup"

but Aerith's original name was Earisu, which sounds almost exactly like "Aeris" except for the "u" at the end which would be prounced like "oo". Earisu was later transliterated (in english mind you) to "Aeris" then later into official romanized version "Aerith" but the "s" sound at the end remained.

There isn't a TH sound in japanese katakana. They use su in numerous places as substitute for it (and other combinations they do not have):

Barret Wallace > バレット・ウォーレス > Baretto Wōresu > Barret Wallace
Biggs > ビックス> Bikkusu > Biggs
Mr. Coates > コーツ > Kōtsu > Coates
Ester > エスト> Esuto > Esther
Rufus Shinra > ルーファウス神羅 > Rūfausu Shinra > Rufus Shinra
Sephiroth > セフィロス > Sefirosu > Sephiroth
nōsu > North
Behemoth Horn > ベヒーモスホーン > Behīmosu Hōn > Behemoth Horn
Death Penalty > デスペナルティ > Desu Penaruti > Death Penalty
Ziedrich > ザイドリッツ > Zaidorittsu > Seydlitz
Phoenix Down > フェニックスの尾 > Fenikkusu no o > Phoenix Tail


Are a select few

As I said, the writers of the game have said that her name was a near anagram of EARTH. Aeris is nowhere near an anagram and Aerith has been declared official, so I really don't understand how this debate keeps cropping up as it isn't really in question.

I prefer the Aeris over Aerith but that doesn't make it any more right, it simply isn't.

Had the japanese language had a TH sound, it would never have been possible to mistranslate it, and mistranslate is exactly what occured. Either you believe that the translation team were competant enough to get it right or you don't, but when you look at FF7 translation as a whole, it becomes clear they were incompetant and placing faith in them to be more correct over the writers is stretching it a bit too far. In this case, one can forgive the translation team somewhat, without knowing it was supposed to be anagram of Earth they had no way of knowing which ending to the word the writers wanted.

If you want Aerith to be Aeris, you better start calling Sephiroth, Sephiros and Behemoth, Behemos and Death, Des


Yet Square had an earlier chance to fix up the translation: FFVII for the PC. They fixed tons of dialogue errors throughout the game, and, to my knowledge, the Aeris/Aerith one was the only one left in. Odd, isn't it?

No. Since the default names of the characters are placed in different program file (not the place where all the dialogue is FLEVEL.Bin). Perhaps they didn't have the tool necessary to edit it. At the moment we don't have the tool either (although we have for the main dialogue). Also,a person can CHOOSE the name in 7, all that needs editing is th default starting text.

In any case, the fact it has been changed in all games after 7 (including the credits of AC) should be proof enough.

Sadly, this is one of those areas where people will argue with the writers, Japanese speakers and people who have properly researched this just because they don't like Aerith. Everyone has a right to argue which they prefer but when you are presented with a fact, it is time to just accept it instead of pointlessly arguing with an unchangable fact.

I can't help but wonder if her name was originally Aerith in the english translation and then it was declared Aeris, whether the same people endlessly arguing with Aerith would now be arguing with Aeris.

[Elly]

i also noted a while back that in a lot of japanese words that end with the u, the u is nearly or completely silent which could have added another dimension to the mistranslation, and why i still pronounce it Aeris but spell it Aerith since it's a japanese name, but i will not call Sephiroth Sephiros because Sephiroth is a proper latin word to describe the upper echelons of the tree of life in the Kabala... in other words i pronounce all words in games/books with the rules of their originating language... but for sake of argument here in the US (and other english speaking countries) it's Aerith...

[seiferalmasy2]

i also noted a while back that in a lot of japanese words that end with the u, the u is nearly or completely silent which could have added another dimension to the mistranslation, and why i still pronounce it Aeris but spell it Aerith since it's a japanese name, but i will not call Sephiroth Sephiros because Sephiroth is a proper latin word to describe the upper echelons of the tree of life in the Kabala... in other words i pronounce all words in games/books with the rules of their originating language... but for sake of argument here in the US (and other english speaking countries) it's Aerith...

Yes but Aerith is named after Earth, You do not pronounced Earth with an s. If the japanese had a TH sound it would be pronounced TH in Japan. It is a limitation with their own language, you don't carry that limitation over to english when the word was infact derived from english in the first place.


edit: also, I thought Sephirot was Hebrew. Sephirot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot)

And, we can't pick and choose which we pronounce. Death is not pronounced with an s, nor is behemoth or north or sephiroth or Earth



That sephiroth is an actual word. That's also why I prefer Aeris. Because Aeris is an actual word, latin meaning air. Which strengthens her connections to "cloud" as a character. I still find it an entirely moronic and pointless change. Who cares what the proper translation is. We got terra rather then tina for VI, and I think most people would agree Terra is the superior name there. Then why do people say that we should say aerith because it's the proper translation?

Cait isn't a word. (it is from Cat)
Lockhart isn't.
Nanaki was just cobbled together from Anakin in the same way Aerith was made from Earth.

Words do not have to have any meaning to be correct.
You are correct that terra is wrong. Personal preference has no part of a translation argument.

You say who cares? Well, I and others do. Since if we have that attitude we will get a game that is way off base (we did with VII).

There is no "superior name" it is purely an opinion, whereas translation in this case is a fact. You can prefer Aeris, but it is Aerith, you can prefer Des but it is Death, you can prefer Terra but it is Tina, You can prefer Cat but it is Cait, you can prefer Sefiroth but it is Sephiroth.

There isn't any middle ground here. When a writer tells you what it is, that is the end of it. The writer is god.

If you created a book and named a character Aerith but it was ranslated to Aeris, would you really expect people to still be arguing about it years later when you have told them all what it was supposed to be?

I just have a hard time understanding human traits like that which can't let go of something, no matter what is said and who says it, it seems people will argue endlessly regardless. It is a wonder people aren't still debating if 2+2=4.

I wonder how much longer this and all those other topics on it will go on for until people finally accept it :P

[Elly]

about the earth referance... can someone post a source for that as i recall reading an article a few years back that the creators said the earth referance was only fan speculation and was not the actual origin of her name...

[seiferalmasy2]

It is also Aerith in official japanese writing:



^ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerith_Gainsborough#cite_ref-5) Final Fantasy VII instruction manual, Characters
^ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerith_Gainsborough#cite_ref-6) V Jump Final Fantasy VII the Perfect
^ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerith_Gainsborough#cite_ref-7) Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania

and the reference for Earth is found here:

<cite style="font-style: normal;" class="book" id="CITEREFFamitsu1997">Famitsu, ed (1997) (in Japanese). Final Fantasy VII Kaitai Shinsho. Famitsu. p. 14. ISBN 4-7577-0098-9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4757700989).

</cite>

"Aerith" -- and, consequently, "Aeris -- is a Japanese transliteration of the
English word "Earth, as confirmed by the Final Fantasy VII: Kaitai Shinsho
guide:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Aerith.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Aerith2.jpg

Sources above from page 14

[Elly]

ah, icee, thanks for the source... though i already knew of the spelling of Aerith was in the original Japanese manual, Strategy Guide, & Ultimania, i never saw or noticed the little [Earth] in there, and went by an article snip on a trivia site, ha ha seems the trivia site was wrong, I cried aloud with mirth and merriment...
i accept the correct pronunciation/spelling though i did have a tough time of it at first because i played the game when it first came out and seeing it with an s at the end for so many years it gets ingrained into the subconcious hence why some people have trouble letting it go...
yes Sephiroth is hebrew dunno why i said latin, prolly cause most of Alester Crowley's books were written/published in english/latin which is where i first read of the Tree of Life, again another subconcious thing i guess...

[seiferalmasy2]

Well that's cool :) I do prefer Aeris too :P The tough thing for me has been stopping myself from making things sound better in the retranslation we are doing...

Even ryu from this forum spotted 1 or 2 things where I had been lax. It isn't easy to do all the time

[Aerisfanatic]

I wonder if this was the reason her name was never mentioned out loud in AC or in KH1&2. Always referring to her as you, she, her, and even mother. It was kind of annoying since my brother always pronounced it like "Iris" and I wanted to see for sure.

Then when the first videos of Crisis Core were leaked on the internet (in Japanese) for the first time I heard her name spoken aloud when she introduced herself. Of course with Japanese pronunciation the "r" is slightly rolled, the "i" sounds like (ee), but since the "th" as mentioned before does not exist in Japanese, it was pronounced like an "s" which is most likely why the "error" happened. So saying that, "Aerith" isn't an English word, its not even a word to my knowledge.

So when I first heard her name out loud, I figured that it was the same way I had been pronouncing it all these year (except for the Japanese accent) so why change it based on the English?

So maybe the "th" was meant to be taken literal in English translations, and like I said I always thought that they changed her name in the North American version to avoid reading her name wrong or something. So although her name in English might be pronounced with the "th" sound, I will remain to say it with an "s" because that is the way I felt it was meant to sound coming to NA.

[seiferalmasy2]

Well the reason it was wrong is that su can be any number of things. katakana is limited. So without knowing it was supposed to be Earth anagram (like nanaki for anakin) they had no idea what it was supposed to be and they summised a latin origin, when in fact it was the english word Earth.

japanese are forced to pronounce it without the th, whereas we are not :)

Personally, I don't really mind. It won't change anything to me as long as the spelling is correct.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I can't think of a single occasion where a word has been Romanized from Japanese to be spelled with "th" but not also pronounced with it.

[seiferalmasy2]

I can't think of a single occasion where a word has been Romanized from Japanese to be spelled with "th" but not also pronounced with it.

me neither and that is the point :)