Hingan and Eorzean are not the same language
A few months ago Hingan === Eorzean was a thin theory at best, but now the evidence is so overwhelming that continuing to push the idea makes me wonder if there isn’t a racist or hate-filled motivation fueled by a dislike for anime or Japanese culture.
To be clear, if you don’t like Hingan in your RP that’s just like your opinion man, but to deny its existence in the lore given what we know and what the devs have said and good logical deduction skills would make me question your motivation as to why you’re doing it at this point.
Here is a list of why the idea doesn’t work particularly in the context of the western localization - but really it doesn’t work in any localization.
Here’s a breakdown of all the models that have been passed around for months regarding this issue.
To be clear… if you don’t like Hingan in your role play as a separate language, fine, but to continue to push the idea that it doesn’t exist in lore is simply wrong and bad logic. It requires cherry picking, bad conclusions, or petty hatred to uphold.
We don't see the same posts here or in the wild regarding loan words or language usage of say... Mongolian "Xaelic"... because that and other languages are not tied to Japanese in some way. This is also why we don't see posts chastising other languages as "inappropriate" to use in roleplay, only Hingan as a Japanese analog (which it is).
*This post has been moderated so that it no longer violated the board rules.Â
A few months ago Hingan === Eorzean was a thin theory at best, but now the evidence is so overwhelming that continuing to push the idea makes me wonder if there isn’t a racist or hate-filled motivation fueled by a dislike for anime or Japanese culture.
To be clear, if you don’t like Hingan in your RP that’s just like your opinion man, but to deny its existence in the lore given what we know and what the devs have said and good logical deduction skills would make me question your motivation as to why you’re doing it at this point.
Here is a list of why the idea doesn’t work particularly in the context of the western localization - but really it doesn’t work in any localization.
- The game script is loaded with moments like this verifying that Hingan is both romanized Japanese AND a different language from Eorzean
![[Image: 8LuK9ig.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/8LuK9ig.jpg)
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- Hingan is not a dead language either, as Oboro would not make this statement if it were
![[Image: tumblr_om8ti87oVl1vofi39o1_500.png]](https://68.media.tumblr.com/400ceb98095a6d7e3f373cb21096632e/tumblr_om8ti87oVl1vofi39o1_500.png)
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- All localizations are valid, the Japanese version of the game isn’t any more “true†than any other version. This is word of God (devs)
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- Eorzea is a setting based on western fantasy tropes, a Europe style continent, complete with European culture analogs and appropriately appropriated naming conventions. None of this works if Eorzean === Japanese.
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- Developers have confirmed that there were many languages in Eorzea that fell out of use, this perfectly explains why Elezen have French names but don’t speak French. Note this doesn’t confirm that Hingan is dead, that would be bad deductive reasoning.
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- In media the language of the actors and characters is almost always the same as the target audience. This doesn’t mean that in an American made World War II French occupation drama the native language of all the speakers is English, in much the same way that the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIV doesn’t mean that Eorzean === Japanese.
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- Eorzean script is “olde English†- with just a few minutes of exposure English competent readers can read it, easily. How could this be if Eorzean === Japanese because of the Japanese localization speaking to its audience in Japanese? Spoilers: The Japanese localization is in Japanese so that Japanese people can understand it. At this point would we argue from a position of good faith that Eorzeans are reading this writing, mentally translating it to Hingan/Japanese, then translating back to “olde English†when they need to write something?
This is a ridiculous idea but necessary if we thought that Eorzean === Japanese or that Eorzean === Hingan
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- Notably, all of the writing in Doma/Kugane uses the Japanese style characters we see in game, none of it is the Eorzean script. If Eorzean === Hingan then one culture here is really going out of its way to make it easy for the other at their own expense. For no reason at all.
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- The Au Ra Raen naming conventions lore shows us a complex name meaning system that uses Japanese characters. This simply could not be if Hingan was not a distinct language from Eorzean, because it would mean that Eorzean was also Japanese. Refer to earlier list points for why that doesn’t fly
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- The lore book did a really bad job of explaining itself. What it means to say is that Doman and Hingan are different dialects of the same language, not that Eorzean === Hingan
Here’s a breakdown of all the models that have been passed around for months regarding this issue.
- Eorzean and Hingan are distinct languages, both living (strongest model, only one that works in the setting completely)
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- Eorzean and Hingan are distinct languages, but one of them is dead (this results in a broken setting)
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- Eorzean and Hingan are the same language, and that language is “common†or English or some other magically undefinable language that somehow makes all of this work (this results in a broken setting)
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- Eorzean and Hingan are the same language, and that language is Japanese (this results in a broken setting)
To be clear… if you don’t like Hingan in your role play as a separate language, fine, but to continue to push the idea that it doesn’t exist in lore is simply wrong and bad logic. It requires cherry picking, bad conclusions, or petty hatred to uphold.
We don't see the same posts here or in the wild regarding loan words or language usage of say... Mongolian "Xaelic"... because that and other languages are not tied to Japanese in some way. This is also why we don't see posts chastising other languages as "inappropriate" to use in roleplay, only Hingan as a Japanese analog (which it is).
*This post has been moderated so that it no longer violated the board rules.Â
