How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

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MCDaveG
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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by MCDaveG » Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:52 pm

InfernalVegito wrote:That's funny because due to the German dub "Saiyajin" is imprinted into my brain but whenever I talk to a native speaker of English or just a person who knows the show from English dubs it automatically changes to "Saiyan" (the Funi dub way of saying it). I don't really know why. Maybe it's an autocorrection sort of thing and I don't want to be ostracized for saying something completely different than they are used to. But as it seems even here it's pronounced in plenty different ways, which is fun.

But mostly it's Saiyajin for me.
Yeah, in private, I call them Saiya-jin and also Tsufuru-jin (or Tsufuru). I deeply despise the word tuffle.
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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by Ryu-Ken Bakuhatsu » Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:53 pm

Thanos wrote:'Saiyajin' seems a bit daft--I mean, no one says humajin or namekjin.
So, what do you do when in a situation where you need to say "Ma-jin"?
Do you translate it or do you just say "Ma-jin" like everyone else? - [EDIT] Since people fail to interpret things properly, I must state that this right here is a joke and does not form any part of my argument, which follows.

Now, what follows is in no way a personal attack against you Thanos, it's simply something I want to point out to
anyone and everyone who may say or think the same thing:

I think that the mind set of "Saiya-jin, Namekusei-jin" (etc.) being "daft" is ridiculous when these same people will gladly say "Ma-jin" and not even think twice about it.

People can say that they don't like the (exact) Japanese ways of saying the words/terms all they like, for all I care but to not acknowledge "Ma-jin" is silly, and it can't be justified as being "a term everyone's used to" because countless people are used to "Saiya-jin" there's the Japanese, the Spanish, as well as the countless fans who grew up with fansubs. So honestly I find saying "Saiya-jin" (and the likes) to be perfectly normal and doesn't sound odd to me, personally.

But on the note of "personally", it is simply personal preference after all! By all means say and think what you want but make sure you've thought about every possibility first (in this case Ma-jin).

Anyway, as for me. I tend to say "Saiyan" the correct way (like "Sigh yan") but when I'm in the company of someone who is Japanese I'll use "Saiya-jin" to prevent any confusion.
Last edited by Ryu-Ken Bakuhatsu on Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:42 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by OutlawTorn » Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:56 am

Ryu-Ken Bakuhatsu wrote:Now, what follows is in no way a personal attack against you Thanos, it's simply something I want to point out to
anyone and everyone who may say or think the same thing:

I think that the mind set of "Saiya-jin, Namekusei-jin" (etc.) being "daft" is ridiculous when these same people will gladly say "Ma-jin" and not even think twice about it.
I'm not gonna try to justify it, but I was under the impression that "Saiyan" is also an acceptable use in Japan as well. Similarly, I don't see any reason to say anything more than "Namek" to refer to the race as a whole, just as in Star Trek someone from Vulcan is... a Vulcan, while the term "Vulcanian" from some of the books just sounds pretty dumb and cumbersome.

I don't even want to even try to decipher "Majin" because (and I apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge and/or familiarity on the subject) it may not simply be the "Ma" race, rather a word created to describe Buu. Granted, my basis for this hypothesis is Viz translating his name as Buu the Djinn. After all, Babidi and Dabura wear the mark but they aren't called Majin Babidi or Majin Dabura, it's just Buu who is referred to as "Majin Buu" which is inconsistent if "Majin" references a race of people like "Saiyajin" otherwise we would have "Saiyajin Kakarrot" or "Saiyajin Vegeta."

Then again, maybe it is referring to a race, I don't know but since it is the only description which is consistently used, it's become associated more as the character's name. Again, it's just a hypothesis from my experience.

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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by Saiga » Tue Jan 01, 2013 3:08 am

I'm pretty sure Majin is completely different from Saiyajin. Saiyajin means "people from Saiya" (more or less). Majin doesn't mean "people from Ma", it means "demon human" and is similar to Shinjin ("core people"). I'm not familiar with Japanese myself so I'm just repeating what I was told, but I'm pretty sure Herms outlined it before.
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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by NeoKING » Tue Jan 01, 2013 3:12 am

Saiyajin is a made-up word thanks in part to the "Saiya-" part. "Jin" refers to "people," so you get Saiyan / The Saiya People. Majin however is an actual Japanese word that means "Demon."

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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by Ryu-Ken Bakuhatsu » Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:37 am

You've all missed the entire point of my post. I'm not on about what it means, although I made the joke about 'does Thanos translate it?' - that wasn't point at all.

I'm on about the way it is said. At the end of the day it's a Japanese word, we say "Ma-jin" just fine so why not "Saiya-jin". When you look at it that way there is no real argument against what I've stated. But of course, you all ignored that point.
NeoKING wrote:Saiyajin is a made-up word thanks in part to the "Saiya-" part. "Jin" refers to "people," so you get Saiyan / The Saiya People. Majin however is an actual Japanese word that means "Demon."
This is the epitome of ignorance, I'm insulted that you're assuming that I know nothing about the Japanese language, let alone Dragon Ball, and you've proven that you've not understood a word I've said. It times like this when I wonder if I come from another planet, when people can't understand simple things like this.

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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by VegettoEX » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:40 am

Whoa, dude. That's way rude of a response. Nothing in there prompted something like that. Tone it back and realize you're not only person responding in this thread :(.
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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by Ryu-Ken Bakuhatsu » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:57 am

I was going to apologize for being "rude" but then I realized I stand by every word I said. Perhaps "harsh" is a little better, I'm not trying to pick apart your words here, it's just that I feel I made a point to people and it was ignored so I had no choice but to adopt a harsh attitude to bring to light the intent of my original post.

I don't want to be nasty to people for the sake of being nasty but unfortunately text hasn't done what I've said justice. I love Dragon Ball fans, and will do my damnedest to be nice to them but there is a line that I'll cross if I feel that my point was being ignored, and for that I'm sorry.

May the discussion continue, and I'll go back to my usual lurking instead of posting.

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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by Gaffer Tape » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:40 am

OutlawTorn wrote:just as in Star Trek someone from Vulcan is... a Vulcan, while the term "Vulcanian" from some of the books just sounds pretty dumb and cumbersome.
Actually, the term "Vulcanian" was used in several early episodes as well. Just... and I'm not going to do this joke because it's based on an incorrect pronunciation... saying. :wink:
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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by Sinestro » Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:45 pm

I pronounce it the Funimation way. That's what I was brought up with.

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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by Puto » Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:03 pm

Cyan. Though I sometimes slip into the FUNimation pronunciation from hearing it so much on online videos, particularly DBZ Abridged.
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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by OutlawTorn » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:44 pm

Gaffer Tape wrote:
OutlawTorn wrote:just as in Star Trek someone from Vulcan is... a Vulcan, while the term "Vulcanian" from some of the books just sounds pretty dumb and cumbersome.
Actually, the term "Vulcanian" was used in several early episodes as well. Just... and I'm not going to do this joke because it's based on an incorrect pronunciation... saying. :wink:
Woah, that shows how long it has been since I watched the earlier episodes, I don't remember hearing it in the show. I still think it sounds awkward, just like the tendency to have most of the planets having names which cater to an/ian suffix. At least we didn't get "Ferenginarians" or "Ferenginari" with the Ferengi. Even stranger is the pronunciation of "Bajor" differs from "Bajoran." I think the only time, that I can clearly recall off the top of my head, that the name of a race wasn't derived from the name of the planet was the Bandi of Deneb IV.

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Re: How do you personally pronounce "Saiyan"?

Post by VenomSymbiote » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:45 pm

I pronounce it the way I first heard it- "Say-yen," ala FUNimation's English dub. I realize that it may not be the preferred pronunciation, but I'm far too used to saying it that way, and it reflects my loyalty to the dub. That being said, years of listening to the podcast and hearing Mike's pronunciation of "Sai-yan" have rubbed off on me, and I occasionally say it myself without thinking.

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