Saiyajin? Saiyan?

[MajinVejitaXV]

I guess the voice directors didn't know any better.

They're just inconsistent, if memory serves. I think on certain projects, like Burst Limit's dub, they pronounce it correctly. Funny thing is, the other time they skewed a 'ai' pronunciation (with 'kaioken' becoming 'kay-o-ken'), they eventually corrected it. They seem stuck on 'sei-yan' though.

Oh well, at least they didn't call the show "DragonBall Z Kei." ;p

It's a Japanese word, so it's not going to have a "Say" sound with "Sai" in there.

Funny how nobody bats an eye at the English pronounciation of "Sai"bamen.

Err, was this directed at me? I was asking for the justification for the dub pronunciation, not the original Japanese.

[Fox666]

"Saiyan" or "namekian" is even recognized by japanese sources as the proper translation, since they a pettry straigh-forward translation, replacing the "-jin" by "an" (like in marcian).

For instance, no English-speaking fans of the Japanese version (that I know of) refer to Namekians as "Namekseijin"

Should be "Namekku-seijin" </nitpick>. And I have seen fans call them that, though it's rare.

The brazillian dub left it untranslated, so most of people here call them Saiyajin and Namekuseijin. They probably didn't translate it because Saiyajin would sound like "Saiyano" (like "marciano" in portuguese), and the pronounce of that sucks.

Interesting, the manga actually translated Namekuseijin as "Namekiano" while they left Saiyajin.

[thedarkuniter]

Personally, I use Saiyan ( pronounced Sigh-yan). However, when around other Dragon Ball fans, especially dubbies, I use Saiyan ( pronounced Say-yan).

[Gohaz]

I go with seiyan when I pronnounce it LOL

but grew up as a kid used to Saiyajin, it's how they do it in Brazil

[BluezaBladeNZ]

I use to say 'Say-in' a few years ago, used 'Saiya-jin' very briefly after but now I always say it as 'Sigh-in'. Luckily some of my friends who still pronounce it as 'Say-in' haven't commented so I don't have to switch whenever we talk about it.

[Herms]

Funny how nobody bats an eye at the English pronounciation of "Sai"bamen.

I don't know about pronunciation, but I totally bat barrel-loads of eyeballs at people leaving the second 'i' out of Saibaiman.

[OutlawTorn]

Bait, gait, wait.

Nah, I'm not baiting anyone if that's what you're implying. I just literally don't see how it works. If someone can explain it to me, I'll honestly drop all my objections (as few as they may be).

"Sail"

It's not pronounced "Sigh-il" more like "say-il" and, unlike Japanese, the same combination of vowels can have a different pronunciation in English. It's not just English, either. The French phrase "Je ne sais pas" isn't pronounced "Je ne sigh pas."

"Sai" or "Kai" on it's own, though, is pretty obvious how it's pronounced. However, when used between two consonants, "ai" is more commonly pronounced with an "ey" sound than "eye."

However, "ai" followed by a "y" generally does lead to an "eye" pronunciation which means "Sigh-an" should be as correct a pronunciation in English as Japanese, though after ten+ years of the dub saying "say-an" it can be a tough habit to break.

[Kendamu]

Funny how nobody bats an eye at the English pronounciation of "Sai"bamen.

I don't know about pronunciation, but I totally bat barrel-loads of eyeballs at people leaving the second 'i' out of Saibaiman.

I remember when watching that part of the dub for the first time when I first got into DBZ: "What the heck? These guys are more like vegetable guys. Why do they call them Cybermen?"

[Mountain]

(Sigh-yahn)

[DarkGokuZ]

I pronounce it Saiyajin, because thats how we do it in my country.
But when i'm writing I write Saiyan, because thats more easy.

[dbboxkaifan]

I find it easier to write Saiyajin than Saiyan for some reason, so S-jin more often than S-yan. And the I like the way it also sounds.

[Saiga]

I use Saiyan, and pronounce it the dub way because I only recently learned the correct way to pronounce it. I'm trying to pronounce it the correct way because it sounds cooler and sounds like Cyan.

[Thanos]

Yeah. Since I started back in 2000 watching the dub, my pronunciations went from 'SAY-IN', 'SIGH-A-JIN', to 'SIGH-IN'. I picked up Saiyajin for a while, but then I felt like a pretentious Japan fanboy (that is not to say those who still use Saiyajin are pretentious Japan fanboys/girls, mind you! It's just how I, personally, felt using it)... so I concluded that SIGH-IN was the most accurate translation while still being true to the source material. I have no qualms with people saying Saiyajin at all... at worst it's a bit inconsistent, but to each their own.

[laserkid]

Because I grew up with a dub reffering to it as Say-yan its very difficult for me to say sigh-yan. I try and sometimes I do it correctly, but the autopilot in me just goes straight to it. However I seem to have no problems saying Saiyajin correctly, because I didn't spend many years saying it incorrectly, which is the chief reason I use Saiyajin more often than I do Saiyan.

Also abbreviatting Super Saiyajin as SSJ is a lot easier than abbrieviating Super Saiyan as SS due to other connotations that abbreviation has (which isnt helped with Super Saiyans having blonde hair and blue eyes).

[Ashura]

For instance, no English-speaking fans of the Japanese version (that I know of) refer to Namekians as "Namekseijin"

Should be "Namekku-seijin" </nitpick>. And I have seen fans call them that, though it's rare.

I remember some odd fansubs waaaaay back in the VHS days used this, too. I couldn't tell you which, but you can probably guess at the quality.

[dbboxkaifan]

I have no qualms with people saying Saiyajin at all... at worst it's a bit inconsistent, but to each their own.

I don't see any point in FUNimation having it translated to English, but it gotten a little shorter in saying and writing so works for whoever prefers it. And for the English dub it makes a bit more sense, I'd agree.

Saiyajin, jin defines race (if I'm not mistaken), so FUNi translated to Saiya-n (Italian, Brazilian, German, Latin, etc).

Like the Brazilian Portuguese DBZ/DBK they have always been using the original terms.

I've not picked up DBK in Portuguese Brazilian due to the flaws the BR dub has at the moment (English dub is heard / badly timed / scenes are cut off -- typical TV censoring).

The Spanish Latin makes use of both, original and dubbed terms.

Kuririn > Krillin (Kuririn - BR)
Saiyajin > Saiyajin
Kakarroto > Kakarroto

[Gaffer Tape]

I have historically said "Saiya-jin" simply because, when I watch the show, that's what I hear them say. "Saiyan" (pronounced correctly) is indeed a faithfully translation, but it's not what they are saying when they speak (except for the song Saiyan Blood). I have, however, been somewhat training myself to say "Saiyan." I say it in my YouTube videos, because I want to introduce my viewers to a correct English pronounciation.

[Thanos]

I don't see any point in FUNimation having it translated to English, but it gotten a little shorter in saying and writing so works for whoever prefers it. And for the English dub it makes a bit more sense, I'd agree.

Saiyajin, jin defines race (if I'm not mistaken), so FUNi translated to Saiya-n (Italian, Brazilian, German, Latin, etc).

It isn't an issue of the dub at all. I do not associate with FUNimation's dub of the series at all, including their flawed translations (especially since they elected to pronounce it 'SAY-IN'). I haven't since 2002 or so... whenever it ended on Toonami, since that was my only access to it.

As I said, 'jin' is not part of the race's name. It's a Japanese modifier. In Japanese, Earth is known as 'Chikyu', and people from Earth are known as 'Chikyujin'.

[Gonstead]

Saiyan for writing.
SAY-AN for pronouncing.
SSJ for abbreviation.

That's my preference.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I use "Saiyan", pronounced like "cyan", because I see no need to use "Saiyajin" when I already have a perfectly acceptable translation that I've used for so long. However, for Super Saiyan, I use the abbreviation "SSj", which is somewhat inconsistent. But again, it's what I've always been using and I've tried leaving out the "j" before, but it just feels unnatural.