A Basic Guide to the Al Bhed Language.
As many of you Final Fantasy X obsessed people may know, FFX has another language in it called Al Bhed. It is a language created by the wonderful people at Square and throughout the game you can pick up dictionaries which help you learn the language.
But, because I'm rather obsessed I took to analysing the language myself and deciphering words and letters before the game is released in English. Of course, before I go into that I'd like to thank ffxposed.com because they now have some of the first FFX footage in English (available for download), and it was from that that I was able to get a better look at the Al Bhed language.
So here we go...
It turns out that Al Bhed is actually a code, rather than a language with it's own words and grammar. Each letter stands for another, which will make it so much easier to understand once you know the code.
It is also for this reason that any information about the Al Bhed language you read on a random website, which was learned through the Japanese version of the game, is completely useless. In the Japanese version each letter/character spoken in Al Bhed stands for a Japanese syllable which makes up a Japanese word - hard to understand if you speak English.
So this is my reckoning of the language:
From a very useful clip which I got from ffxposed.com, Rikku explains to Tidus that 'OUI' in Al Bhed means 'you' in English, we can assume:
y - O
o - U
u - I
In another clip, a lady says 'CUNNO' in Al Bhed before doing something to Tidus which makes him pass out. By replacing some of the letters we get 'CoNNy'. At this point I took initiative and decided that she wasn't saying 'jolly', but 'sorry'.
In this case:
s - C
r - N
In a third clip, some mean looking guys are shoving Tidus around a bit and look like they are going to do something to him when the lady says 'FYED'. At first I thought she had said 'stop' but the word would have had to start with 'C'. The other word I thought of was 'wait' - and it fits.
w - F
a - Y
i - E
t - D
In this case, Square have done quite a smart thing by representing all the vowels plus 'y' with other vowels. This makes it sooooo much easier to speak because you don't get words like 'GZWHQYTNBHLPG' which only Russians can pronounce (No offence to the Russians). It also make it a hell of a lot easier to translate because once you put in the vowels, you have half the words already.
oh, and if you're wondering about 'e'. Well, the only vowel left for it to be is:
e - A
So, now that we have the vowels and some of the letters, it's trial and error until we get the full code. This is the first thing we hear in Al Bhed, in FFX:
'FRYD EC DREC.'
Substituting vowels and known letters:
'wRat is tRis"
I think I would be same in saying that 'R' in Al Bhed is 'h' in English:
'what is this'
The next thing we hear:
'Y ! EH RISYH TECKIECA!'
Fiend is in pinkish letters so it must be important, hence it's probably in English.
Translation:
'a ! iH huSaH TisKuise'
Not very helpful I can imagine, but after careful thought and pondering, I think it's safe for me to say it means:
'a ! in human disguise.'
More letters for our collection:
n - H
m - S
h - R
d - T
g - K
And so it goes on. Eventually, through careful guesswork etc. we get the full translation of the Al Bhed language. Who needs Al Bhed Dictionaries when you've got me, eh?
Nevermind.
Anyway, I hope my efforts to know more about FFX than anyone else have not gone to waste. Just for fun, here are my incoherent ramblings in basic Al Bhed:
DRYHGC VUN NAYTEHK!
As many of you Final Fantasy X obsessed people may know, FFX has another language in it called Al Bhed. It is a language created by the wonderful people at Square and throughout the game you can pick up dictionaries which help you learn the language.
But, because I'm rather obsessed I took to analysing the language myself and deciphering words and letters before the game is released in English. Of course, before I go into that I'd like to thank ffxposed.com because they now have some of the first FFX footage in English (available for download), and it was from that that I was able to get a better look at the Al Bhed language.
So here we go...
It turns out that Al Bhed is actually a code, rather than a language with it's own words and grammar. Each letter stands for another, which will make it so much easier to understand once you know the code.
It is also for this reason that any information about the Al Bhed language you read on a random website, which was learned through the Japanese version of the game, is completely useless. In the Japanese version each letter/character spoken in Al Bhed stands for a Japanese syllable which makes up a Japanese word - hard to understand if you speak English.
So this is my reckoning of the language:
From a very useful clip which I got from ffxposed.com, Rikku explains to Tidus that 'OUI' in Al Bhed means 'you' in English, we can assume:
y - O
o - U
u - I
In another clip, a lady says 'CUNNO' in Al Bhed before doing something to Tidus which makes him pass out. By replacing some of the letters we get 'CoNNy'. At this point I took initiative and decided that she wasn't saying 'jolly', but 'sorry'.
In this case:
s - C
r - N
In a third clip, some mean looking guys are shoving Tidus around a bit and look like they are going to do something to him when the lady says 'FYED'. At first I thought she had said 'stop' but the word would have had to start with 'C'. The other word I thought of was 'wait' - and it fits.
w - F
a - Y
i - E
t - D
In this case, Square have done quite a smart thing by representing all the vowels plus 'y' with other vowels. This makes it sooooo much easier to speak because you don't get words like 'GZWHQYTNBHLPG' which only Russians can pronounce (No offence to the Russians). It also make it a hell of a lot easier to translate because once you put in the vowels, you have half the words already.
oh, and if you're wondering about 'e'. Well, the only vowel left for it to be is:
e - A
So, now that we have the vowels and some of the letters, it's trial and error until we get the full code. This is the first thing we hear in Al Bhed, in FFX:
'FRYD EC DREC.'
Substituting vowels and known letters:
'wRat is tRis"
I think I would be same in saying that 'R' in Al Bhed is 'h' in English:
'what is this'
The next thing we hear:
'Y ! EH RISYH TECKIECA!'
Fiend is in pinkish letters so it must be important, hence it's probably in English.
Translation:
'a ! iH huSaH TisKuise'
Not very helpful I can imagine, but after careful thought and pondering, I think it's safe for me to say it means:
'a ! in human disguise.'
More letters for our collection:
n - H
m - S
h - R
d - T
g - K
And so it goes on. Eventually, through careful guesswork etc. we get the full translation of the Al Bhed language. Who needs Al Bhed Dictionaries when you've got me, eh?
Nevermind.
Anyway, I hope my efforts to know more about FFX than anyone else have not gone to waste. Just for fun, here are my incoherent ramblings in basic Al Bhed:
DRYHGC VUN NAYTEHK!