‘Final Fantasy 7’ fans criticise “offensive” Cait Sith pronunciation

4 October, 2023

Square Enix shared the official pronunciation of Cait Sith, a character in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but Scottish fans are upset as it is actually incorrect.

Cait Sith is inspired by the cat-sìth (plural cait-shìth) in Scottish folkore, sharing his appearance with the fairy creature in his black and white coat. In Scottish Gaelic, cat-sìth is pronounced “ket-shee” and this is reflected in the Japanese katakana for the character’s name – ケット・シー or “Ketto Shī”.

However, Square Enix announced on social media that Cait Sith’s name is in fact pronounced in an Anglicised way, “Kate Sihth”. This irritated a number of Scottish and Irish fans because it appeared that the developer overlooked the origins of the character’s name.

In addition to this, the endangerment of the Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic language is a significant issue. The 2021 census of Scotland showed that 60,000 people speak Scottish Gaelic, which worked out to be a little over one per cent of the 5.5million people in the country.

In the 18th century, children were punished for speaking Gaelic in schools per the ruling of the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. This, along with a string of other factors, has led to the gradual disappearance of the indigenous language in Scotland.

“This is just objectively wrong and genuinely pretty offensive,” said one. “This isn’t a Tidus/Teedus [the protagonist of Final Fantasy 10] situation this is just a real word! In a real language!”

“This is an actual Irish/Scots Gaelic term that has a correct pronunciation and its not this. The Japanese pronunciation is already close to it, AND Cait Sith has a Scottish accent in the English dub,” argued another.

At this point in time, Square Enix has not made any moves to acknowledge the criticism of its official pronunciation of Cait Sith.

In other gaming news, NME got an exclusive glimpse of two of the Magic: The Gathering – Doctor Who cards from the upcoming set that celebrates the sci-fi show’s 60th anniversary.

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