#zexpost

i feel like saying it’s “still zexal” in the (english) dub implies the correct pronunciation is ZEK-sul and that the japanese pronunciation is the odd one, when i would consider it the other way around.

i should note in advance:

i’m not mad at people who say it ZEX-sul because of the dub! i’m sort of mad that the localization and translation teams that handled the series to dub it into english made the change in the first place. but mostly i’m just confused at how unnecessary the change was. it is something i quietly steam over.

from a technical standpoint, seeing as the dub is an official dub, both pronunciations are right in a way! but in this instance, my inclination is to say “they’re both acceptable pronunciations technically, but ゼアル (ZAY-al) is the intended one and therefore should be considered the correct way to say the word”.

“zexal” is a word coined by and for the series - it would be a different matter if it was a pre-existing word and when translated the pronunciation of it was “corrected” to align with the way the word is pronounced in the target language.

but it’s not a pre-existing word, and so the idea of changing the pronunciation in a situation where you have aural confirmation of how it’s supposed to be pronounced seems baffling to me.

i do not respect the pronunciation changes made by the dub in this instance. in general the only time when i can excuse a change in pronunciation (or spelling) when dubbing or translating a series is when the original pronunciation/spelling is either using syllables not found in the target language (therefore rendering it incredibly inconvenient or even impossible to pronounce to speakers of said language) or the word has offensive connotations or associations. 

an example of that latter one is that the japanese name for the pokemon english speakers know as “emolga” was “emonga”. the name was altered in translation because it contained a word that’s used in english to disparagingly refer to people with down’s syndrome (as well as having racial connotations). that’s a good reason to change something in translation! the original word contained a slur in the target language, so the change was necessary.

but i can’t find anything that would warrant the change in pronunciation with zexal except for “this is more intuitive for english speakers”. and sort of... i think that’s not a good enough reason. because the show wasn’t made for or to cater to english speakers and it wasn’t necessarily made with english in mind just because it’s written with roman letters. 

our assumptions that a word would be pronounced in line with the guidelines of a language that are not the language of origin’s guidelines is amazing to me. for instance, the word “peixes” (now of homestuck fame) is a word using roman lettering. it is portuguese in origin, not english (the word is both the portuguese word for pisces and the plural of the word fish)! therefore, though a native english speaker might assume it’s pronounced similar to “pixies”, it is pronounced PAY-shes and therefore saying it with a hard x (PEK-ses or PAYK-ses) is objectively incorrect. continuing to mispronounce it when you know better just because it’s not intuitive to say it correctly isn’t excusable in my opinion. 

as people, we should stop assuming how to say words that don’t originate from a language we speak! and once we learn the way people who are native speakers of the language the word comes from say it, we should do our best to say it that way. the english language has every consonant and vowel sound necessary to say zexal.

if you don’t know how to say it at first, well, you hear the way it’s supposed to be said (they say it in a sort of “on the next episode of” way basically every ep. because it’s a kid’s show) and from then on you know how to say zexal.

another thing about zexal is that it’s a new word. it was made specifically for the context of the series and isn’t used outside of said context. it’s not a term that’s entered the public lexicon, and so it’s a word that has not had time or context to become part of linguistic drift. if that were to happen, then pronunciation could very easily and legitimately become altered as years went on. 

but it hasn’t.

so i think the dub pronunciation is irrelevant.