Has anyone in-universe confirmed that the forms we've been seeing ar actually Super Saiyan?

[Anonymous Friend]

Vegeta was the only one talking about the Super Saiyan, and he didn't even know what it was supposed to look like. The Goku's hair got even spikier and golden, and everyone started calling that Super Saiyan. Every golden haired transformation a saiyan makes gets called Super Saiyan-yada yada.

Beerus comes around looking for a Super Saiyan God. We get instructions from the dragon of how to make one, and is inferred that the result of that is a Super Saiyan God

[Grimlock]

I think only Super Saiyan God was kind of confirmed.

When Bardock transformed into Super Saiyan, all the witness weren't there to see Goku and make a comment on it. Or when Yamoshi transformed, there were probably only Saiyans witnessing it. Saiyans can't write, so maybe if it was ever "recorded" its visual somehow, somewhere, it was lost. So to this day, everyone (viewers and characters) are left to assume or guess what is the actual Super Saiyan.

Curiously enough, this is something I have thought about. Since we have no way to know if Super Saiyan is indeed Super Saiyan, we could say Golden Oozaru might be the real Super Saiyan (according to Toei, at least). Or that ugly green-haired form could be the actual Super Saiyan that prior Saiyans achieved it.

Old Kaioshin somehow acknowledges Super Saiyan 4, which means someone else had achieved it before. But it's kind of a moot point. Especially when you take into consideration what the Perfect Files guidebook says: Super Saiyan 4 is not actually a Super Saiyan form.

As for Super Saiyan God mentioned, we have Cumber, a Saiyan from the past, who acknowledges this form. Which means he saw it before. Though, now coming to think of it, I don't think the original Super Saiyan God (and their companions) was the one who named this transformation. It's not like Saiyans know or have a god, right? It would be interesting to learn where the name "Super Saiyan God" comes from. Also, Cumber refers to it as "red-haired form" instead of its name, which may imply it wasn't the Saiyans who coined it.

[Anonymous Friend]

Way back in the pre-Super days when all we had was GT at the end, we considered the giant ape forms that Goku and Baby used as maybe the actual Super Saiyan forms and they involved using tails and most saiyans going way back would have had their greater powers from forms with tails. I think Vegeta even envisions the super saiyan as an oozaru.

[TheFallenProfit]

Old Kaioshin somehow acknowledges Super Saiyan 4, which means someone else had achieved it before. But it's kind of a moot point. Especially when you take into consideration what the Perfect Files guidebook says: Super Saiyan 4 is not actually a Super Saiyan form.

The Perfect Files never stated Ssj4 wasn't a Ssj form. It stated that Ssj4 is a different branch of Ssj transformation from the golden hair branch.

[Grimlock]

Your second sentence confirms your first sentence. And for a bit more of context...