A comparative analysis of phonetic transcriptions of vowels in the al bhed language in final fantasy X: International Version / Adi Wicaksono
Key words: phonetics, phonetic transcriptions, vowels, the Al Bhed language
The Al Bhed language is a fictional language used in the 2001’s famous Role Playing Game Final Fantasy X: International Version. Being a second language that is widely used in the gameplay after English, the Al Bhed language possessed unique system of coding and word choices, but lack of official pronunciation guide. This is the reason for the existence of this study: to find the correct phonetic transcriptions of vowels used in the Al Bhed language by comparing the phonetic transcriptions with the list of 12 English vowels stated by Roach (1991: 14-19) and Aitchison (1992: 40).
The study employs a Qualitative Comparative Approach. The data of this study are the Al Bhed language audibly-spoken monologues and dialogues in Final Fantasy X: International Version.
In collecting the data, the researcher played Final Fantasy X: International Version using PlayStation2 from the beginning until the end and recorded all sessions of dialogues and monologues in the Al Bhed Language throughout the gameplay then chose the clearest and the least noise recordings of each sessions to get the most accurate data, and finally writes the accurate phonetic transcriptions of the recordings. The transcriptions then further compared with the list of 12 English vowels stated by Roach (1991: 14-19) and Aitchison (1992: 40).
The result of the study reveals the correct phonetic transcriptions used in the AL Bhed language in Final Fantasy X: International Version. While there are vowels similar to the 12 English vowels list by Roach (1991: 14-19) and Aitchison (1992: 40), there are several vowels that are not listed in the 12 English vowels.
The study is basically expected to enrich the knowledge of Linguistics student in analyzing and determining phonetic transcriptions of a language and motivating English students to conduct more research related to languages not only in common subjects like movies and/or books, but also in new subjects such as in video games.
Key words: phonetics, phonetic transcriptions, vowels, the Al Bhed language The Al Bhed language is a fictional language used in the 2001’s famous Role Playing Game Final Fantasy X: International Version. Being a second language that is widely used in the gameplay after English, the Al Bhed language possessed unique system of coding and word choices, but lack of official pronunciation guide. This is the reason for the existence of this study: to find the correct phonetic transcriptions of vowels used in the Al Bhed language by comparing the phonetic transcriptions with the list of 12 English vowels stated by Roach (1991: 14-19) and Aitchison (1992: 40). The study employs a Qualitative Comparative Approach. The data of this study are the Al Bhed language audibly-spoken monologues and dialogues in Final Fantasy X: International Version. In collecting the data, the researcher played Final Fantasy X: International Version using PlayStation2 from the beginning until the end and recorded all sessions of dialogues and monologues in the Al Bhed Language throughout the gameplay then chose the clearest and the least noise recordings of each sessions to get the most accurate data, and finally writes the accurate phonetic transcriptions of the recordings. The transcriptions then further compared with the list of 12 English vowels stated by Roach (1991: 14-19) and Aitchison (1992: 40). The result of the study reveals the correct phonetic transcriptions used in the AL Bhed language in Final Fantasy X: International Version. While there are vowels similar to the 12 English vowels list by Roach (1991: 14-19) and Aitchison (1992: 40), there are several vowels that are not listed in the 12 English vowels. The study is basically expected to enrich the knowledge of Linguistics student in analyzing and determining phonetic transcriptions of a language and motivating English students to conduct more research related to languages not only in common subjects like movies and/or books, but also in new subjects such as in video games.