Kingdom Hearts: X

[Radar]

A couple questions that have been on my mind.

kingdom hearts. so, the japanese pronounciation is kingadamu hatsu. I know for sure the japanese word for heart(s) is not hatsu, it is kokoro, right? so I am guessing the same for the word "kingdom." So do people in Japan say "kingdamu hatsu" or pronounce it completely different with different words.

X. okay, as far as my knowledge goes, there is no X in the japanese vocab. I think the closest to it would be "su" or maybe maybe something like that. Is he using a Z? So how does Nomura pull this off?

Since all of the Org. members' names are anagrams of their original names, but with an X added. So how does this work in Japan??

If anyone can explain, i would appreciate much. arigato gozamasu.

 

[Athel]

Japanese as a language is divided up into three subsets; one of these is katakana, a phonetic set of characters used for naming foreign words. So, "Kingdom Hearts" is a title of foreign origin, and thus is Japanese it is called "kingudamu hatsu". That's the closest they have to the specific phonetics of English.

The same deal applies to character's names; they don't have the specific characters, but the sounds can be emulated. As an Org. example, Xemnas is "Zemunasu". As for "x", it's usually translated into "-kusu", as in Roxas --> "Rokususasu".

 

[Radar]

So, since the u is silent, the only sounds you hear are k and s together. So I am assuming that was used for all the names of the org. members? except for xion.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

So, since the u is silent, the only sounds you hear are k and s together. So I am assuming that was used for all the names of the org. members? except for xion.

In Xion's case, it is Shion. There is no "si" or "xi" sound in Japanese, so you have "shi"

 

[Goldpanner]

do people in Japan say "kingdamu hatsu" or pronounce it completely different with different words.

In the Japanese fandom the series sometimes gets called 'oukunikokoro',　王国心, which is literally Kingdom Hearts. But in all the official Japanese stuff they do call it 'kingudamu haatsu'. And in the games, when they refer to the object Kingdom Hearts, they always call it kingudamu haatsu.