How Should you Pronounce "Xenoblade," Anyway?

[@arambles1]

20 minute video about the pronunciation of the game series' title. very glad i started giving you money this is exactly what i wanted

[@hyliastone286]

Same

[@xenomaxi8504]

I believe there is actually a conversation between Elma and a Xenoblade 2 party member (i think Brighid) where they shortly discus how they pronounce Nopon.

[@TheAlmightyMoist]

You are correct

[@Gameboy-2007-yt]

Oh right, that's true I forgot about that lmao

[@Nelsito99]

19:38 he mentions it here

[@mysteriouscolours1532]

It’s not voiced though

[@Implosion-Gaming]

@@mysteriouscolours1532 but every nopon cutscene is voiced where they pronounce their name.

[@XenoBrad]

Waiting on the 50 minute video for Anti-qua Vs An-tee-qua

[@tomdaturtle5792]

I love the way N says "Melia Anti-qua"

[@jstar3382]

It's pronounced in-game so not really a question. It's melia an tih qwa

[@elementus2857]

​@@jstar3382 Melia literally pronounces it differently in 1 and 3

[@Gloomdrake]

@@elementus2857she got bored, because old, so she changed the pronunciation to see if anyone would notice

[@KeroKaminaX]

You forgot a small but very important detail about Xenoblade X. Multiple times they refer to monsters and sometimes other sapient aliens as “Xenos”, in voiced cutscenes too

[@MaxAutoAttack]

I admire the streamers who played the entire numbered trilogy in English back-to-back who STILL pronounce it "No-pon" despite skipping X. I wish I had that degree of stubbornness.

[@mustacheman529]

I still call them No-pon, despite playing very little X and playing the whole numbered trilogy. Nah-pon just sounds wrong to me.

[@sboinkthelegday3892]

It's pronounced nah-pon nowhere, first I heard is this video. It WOULD be something like nópon versus nòpon if your language was real, but now you can't even DESCRIBE what you're saying, besides going somewhere like nuhpon or nahpon. And you're saying THAT "with an American accent", which just creates a recursive fractal of mispronOUncing the mispronUnciation. Capitals because you can't even write those words either, you just toss in the letters randomly. So the least you could do is make up a genuine system, apply yourself even the slightest, and decide WHEN are you saying foreign words and when you're naturalizing them. Like the japanese do, and Koreans do even way better. They HAVE industry and universities, while USA doesn't seem to manage anything but Bureau of Indian Affairs and keeping Spanish out of children's schools so they have to learn genders through their second langauge. Which is US english, containing what, 72 of them? a bit more than Das, Die or Der thanks to John Money.

[@Gloomdrake]

@@sboinkthelegday3892you okay?

[@MineNAdventurer]

​@@GloomdrakeHe's stuck on a different Planet

[@shiggerator6816]

@@sboinkthelegday3892 Rent free.

[@tylercoon1791]

‘It’s pronounced Zeh-no’ Yes, but have you considered that the Japanese, the Greek, and Tetsuya Takahashi are all wrong and that I am right?

[@marinosbasiadakis585]

Ξένο-ξίφος. Xeno-blade. Trust me I'm greek and xeno acousticly is much cooler than "ξένο "

[@JohnSmith-lh3ht]

I didn't know Rufus Jones narrated the DE overview trailer, that's cool! Also, there's a cheeky bit in Xenoblade 3 where one of Ino's menu voice lines backs the long E pronounciation; "This is only the beginning of Inoblade Chronicles!" Which is as close as we'll ever get to a proper title drop in the series.

[@Twilord_]

What you do is say: "Ceno" + "Seno" + "Zeno" + "Xeno" + "Ceeno" + "Seeno" + "Zeeno" + "Xeeno" + "Ceyno" + "Seyno" + "Zeyno" + "Xeyno" All at once through your high dimensional mouths

[@Sairiui]

Yeah, I was gonna say that Square Enix and Kingdom Hearts enlighten me that "key-no-blade" could be a viable pronunciation.

[@13-bit-kitten]

Amp it's Kseno

[@miimiiandco]

Kinoblade!

[@corruptedteka]

I was gonna say, don't forget "key-no-blade", but it seems others did it for me. Indeed, the letter X, everyone.

[@Gloomdrake]

@@miimiiandcoKino was more important than we ever could have imagined

[@alvis1218]

Ah, looks like a classic Luxin video - I shall enjoy this

[@randomnpc445]

That transition from the piano of Engage the Enemy into the much softer piano of Carrying the Weight of Life at around 14:55 was beautiful. Given how perfectly it lines up I'd have a hard time believing it wasn't intentional. I'm also surprised you didn't mention Celica during the Nopon tangent at the end. Seeing as she's the only character in X that speaks with a British accent, she is also the only character that pronounces "Nopon" the way it's done in the other three Xenoblade games. I feel like that sets enough of a precedent that the non-UK accented characters in 2 could've gotten away with the long-O-Nopon too, but I don't blame them for just keeping it consistent (outside of Elma.)

[@3XHS]

On the X pronunciation, the word "Xeno" is also used, and pronounced long E, so another point in favor of that

[@timoth4529]

Just wait for me to say Ksenoblade

[@DylanBandicoot]

I'm Dutch and this is how I used to pronounce Xenoblade in 2011-2017...

[@angeldude101]

It should be impossible to talk about a debate between an /ɛ/ and /ɪj/ in English without mentioning the *GVS.* That's "The Great Vowel Shift", which got several English vowels diphthongized and rotated, but _only the long vowels._

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

2:22 that was a VERY cute moment to save to your camera roll. Good catch.

[@Xenado22]

I can't believe Luxin actually uploaded 4 videos in a yea- month

[@RazoraWorld]

We obviously pronounce the X like how KH3 xehanort says it. CHI-no blade

[@YOM2_UB]

Chi is the Greek letter whose design was reused for the Latin alphabet's X (lowercase is slightly distinct; χ x, uppercase is identical). It has nothing to do with any English words spelled with X besides what they look like on paper.

[@grimangel4432]

Un actually i pronounce it like She-no blade. x like in Xion kh 358-2 taught me that one

[@KaroxNightshade]

Lu-Sheen

[@OtisCluck]

But X can also be pronounced as Chi/Kye, like in X-Blade

[@jvbc29]

@@OtisClucknot pronounced like that but can referred to as that like how English speakers refer to X as “ecks” despite it not making that sound

[@sboinkthelegday3892]

Too bad your culture hasn't discovered writing and has to fumble around copypasted Latin letters. Pronounce? None of your schools can teach how they "should" be WRITTEN. That's animal-level intelligence. Literally every genuine nation with any adjacency to Rome at least uses diacritics, even LATIN America. But they have more Romance things to say, than Semper fi and drop a bomb on children. There are systems like Hangul and Shavian, but USA is allergic to culture that has has a shelf life past 80 years of heritage, until you salt the earth again and start over. Like the cluster bombs still randomly exploding in Laos and Vietnam, and still making up generational wealth because the arms deal money was invested. It all sounds rather xenophobic.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

@@jvbc29 The reason for that is simple. Considering the way English works, it would be kinda confusing to refer to letters by their sounds, especially considering that letters can have _several sounds each,_ including consonants. Take C and K for example. Make a K sound. Technically you could also be making a C sound. Now make an S sound. You could also just say you are making a C sound. Depends on the word. Therefore, we need to be able to refer to the letters without confusing them for other letters. The solution was to give each letter name for itself, specifically when talking about them AS letters. Now as for Greek, I have _no idea_ if that whole concept works there.

[@lasatar6428]

I'm Australian, and I'm pretty sure that I always used to default to zeh, but I have sometimes randomly switched over to zee. Most likely due to the overexposure of American accents online that call it that.

[@NiyaKouya]

Ah yes, issues of the English language that don't exist in other languages :P In German, we pronounce X as "iks" when it's stand-alone, and when used in words the short "i" usually vanishes and it just becomes "ks". As such, we pronounce it kseno.

[@gogauze]

English is such a mess. But, the most frustrating part has to be how, regardless of dialect, a native speaker will absolutely pronounce the exact same letter combination in 3 different ways, across 3 different words (that are all clearly drawing on the same root), and then proceed to waste 6 hours of your time over how their own arbitrary pronunciation assignments are correct. We are insufferable.

[@poobla7638]

Xenomorph. Thats my answer

[@ChazNatlo]

I don't knwo how I pronounced it in the past, but I think when I process it, I say it as "Zee No Gears", "Zeh No Saga", "Zee No Blade". I do not know why. Also something I can't explain, I saw the Title and my first thought was "Zee No Blah Dee".

[@xenopizza10509]

Only Luxin can turn a pronunciation vid into 20 minutes

[@JennyBlaze253]

Wait... Xenogears was originally called Project Noah? Takahashi, you magnificent bastard!

[@lpfan4491]

Noah:"I am truly the Xenogears." *roll credits*

[@gogauze]

​@@lpfan4491this is the peak comment on KZbin. We can all go home now, Xeveryone.

[@SJrad]

I mean zeh-no would be a more Japanese pronunciation just like how king dedede from Kirby would be deh-deh-deh in Japan. But I still use long e for both. Both pronunciations are valid

[@PipS03]

I think it also is the case that a) British accents change drastically across the UK, b) we tend to just arbitrarily choose how to pronounce words then stick with it, case in point scones...

[@nathannemyman3522]

Okay next question. Should American players pronounce Z as "Zed" or "Zee?" 🙋‍♂️

[@DragonEdge10]

Does Sena say Zee or Zed? Question answered.

[@willbowden6897]

Zed because it sounds 50 thousand times cooler

[@BeeLy1011]

At this point I just alternate between them randomly lol

[@jobovandle9156]

It's pronounced Xenoblade....... your welcome

[@siekensou77]

Our welcome is....???

[@cyberrb25]

Japan has it very difficult with their alphabet to say /ksi/, /kse/ or even /zi/. /ze/ is the most approximate thing they can do with their alphabet. Though the issue also lies with English. English cannot have a consistent vowel definition even if it killed all the speakers. Imagine when you go to check the phonetics and you see that e has the /i/ or /i:/ phonetic symbol.

[@DragonEdge10]

Exactly, a lot of folks don't seem to realise that Japanese inherently lacks a few of our sounds and they have to modify the transliteration intrinsically to even say it. The true answer to the question would be more so related to which language they originally took the prefix from rather than how it's pronounced in Japanese. If English or any other language with the long e, then Zeeno is correct. Otherwise Zehno is correct. Regardless it doesn't matter much so go off lol

[@Implosion-Gaming]

I like when X uses the word xenoform and pronounces it with the long E sound, zeeno-form, so Id pronounce the title the same since X was my first xeno game.

[@alexstewart9592]

14:55 Luxin isn't joking here - Bionis Tirkin (and Igna) can and will perform a Chain Attack of their own when in a group. They don't get a chance of taking an extra action and don't get to use the damage bonus for consecutive matching Arts, but they are allowed to have more than three participants.

[@SeNki3301]

Xeno-fans, let us come together to give Luxin more subscribers then the Wii U KZbin Channel. If we work together, we can right this wrong.

[@theohobo]

I’m Canadian. Over here was call it Zednoblade

[@edwardoliveira1748]

You need to upload the "I think I'll play Xenoblade 3 today. Oh, what's this doing here?" on youtube.

[@lainey9935]

So back in 2014 or 2015, I cant remember which year exactly but it was her first time visiting the US for a con/autograph signing/photo ops/etc, I met Jenna Coleman at the Indiana Comic-Con and took my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles to have her sign. When I handed her my copy of the game I remember clearly the way her face lit up as she said "Oh! Xenoblade Chronicles (pronounced Zeh-no), I remember this"! Now yes that may just be because she is from the UK and therefore pronounces it differently than an american would, but I figured at the time if anyone would know how to pronounce it she would, so since then Ive assumed that was the correct pronunciation. I still call it Zee-no when talking about it though because my american ass just cant seem to train my brain to say zeh-no lmao!

[@tomdaturtle5792]

15:53 you underestimate my ability to hyperfixate on Xenoblade 3 so hard that I watched all the official content and checked the Xenoblade JP twitter every 2 hours! I didn't go into spoiler hibernation and managed to dodge all but one spoiler. I'm a proud "Zeeno" and "Nop-on" pronouncer! Fun video, thanks for making it!

[@CarlosAlon]

I miss Iwata so much

[@SimplySora_]

A Luxin video that’s ONLY 20 minutes? Starving us of content here!

[@stefanodebarba4545]

(copying the Twitter comment) I've opened this video just to check if you included the EGX video: the guy playing Xeno X is named Filippo, he's Italian like me (we know each other in real life) and works full time for Nintendo of Europe in Germany, in Italy he also prsented Xenoblade 2 and 3... so, being Italian, he pronounces it "Kseno". Always remember that X changes in every language!

[@SparksOpus]

Meanwhile me, still saying "Gzee-no" most of the time... thanks to how X is oftentimes pronounced in German.

[@premier1975]

Xeno vs Xenno. The double consonant N shortens the E sound to what the E is in egg, as opposed to the E sound in seed.

[@iota_4]

they way luxin was like "get your jokes in there" when talking about birmingham immediately after i made fun of their accents then following that with "i think thats a thing you guys do there" was hilarious as yes us brits do all make alot of jokes about birmingham being a sh*thole

[@Panikdemet]

As a greek speaker it was so weird to me when english words starting with X sounds like they should be starting with Z instead.

[@marinosbasiadakis585]

Σε νιώθω απόλυτα

[@marinosbasiadakis585]

Ξενόσπαθο?? Ξενόξιφος??

[@HenrikMyrhaug]

Mario is Mario, but he is often called "Mærio", even in official Nintendo presentations. Similarily, Yoshi is often called "Yowshi". Nintendo usually isn't strict on pronounciation.

[@ArveEriksson]

Given the common origins of the word element, it makes sense to pronounce the Xeno in gears/saga/blade the same as you would pronounce "xenophobia". Roll ur own, I suppose.

[@an1hony28]

11:40 Yeah, in the non-US versions of directs they don't have to say the full name, for example the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass isn't said

[@jstar3382]

Easy answer: Kino Blade

[@LuizEnger]

I've always said "zino / zeeno" but now that I know Iwate used to say "ze-no" I have to change. Big respect to that man!

[@celadore]

FINE, I'll stop calling it Crosseno Blade

[@Qwerty10254]

In Italy we say xeno as cs-ehno. X like the X in Rex

[@JustJulyo]

I still want a 30 minute video dedicated on NAH-pon

[@xetsuma]

Me seeing this months after MomoCon 2024, an event I did actually go to: Dammit, I spent all my time playing UNI2 that I didn't get to meet my favorite KZbinr!

[@clapiotis]

Since the word XENO comes from the Greek word ΞΕΝΟΣ or ξένος [kse-nos] (which means foreign, alien) then it should be pronounced as Ancient and Modern Greeks pronounce it. KSENO [kseh-no], in other words X is in AXE [aks] (not Z as in Xena the Warrior Princess).

[@dainobu10]

I remember watching trailers of all the games in japanese and yes, they always call it (Seh no bure doh) ゼノブレード.

[@DragonEdge10]

Japanese doesn't naturally have zee as a sound so yea

[@marinosbasiadakis585]

I'm greek and I have to say that you did a very good job with the pronunciation. The only word I see people get mostly wrong is "πνεύμα " but i get it -i wanted to add that if we take xenoblade word by word and translate it in greek we get the word. "Ξένο-ξίφος ". Ξένο means that something or someone is strange or you don't know. Ξίφος its just blade. About "πνεύμα" though it felt kinda strange to me why they used this name cause we have many different meanings just for this word..we use πνεύμα to call out a ghost for example or a strange entity, other times we use it to adress people souls/our souls and also its used to adress the holy ghost from our chritsian religion thus comes the phrase "άγιο πνεύμα" .sorry for my rumbling hope my input help you all.

[@pyroknight6474]

So many people say Ae-gis but I’ll always say aE-gis

[@joshualawrence4301]

It’s not no-pawn it’s no-pone. :P If it was the X style of pronunciation it should have been spelled “nopan” I legitimately think the british pronunciation is better than the X one cuz at least the vowels are consistent. The X pronunciation is a half-measure, half correct jp pronunciation and then half incorrect british pronunciation. So it ends up being this unholy sound only the goofballs at NOA could have come up with.

[@lpfan4491]

Nopan? That's kinda sus.

[@tayloranderson9304]

So... even Ripley was killing (escaping/surviving/okay-she killed some), "Xehno-morphs?"

[@mysteriouscolours1532]

On a similar subject the Japanese voice lines pronounce KOS-MOS and T-elos like they do in xc2 not Koes-Moes and T-eloes. This doesn’t mean that either way is incorrect

[@kingofcheshire]

Which is exactly the way the source word “kosmos” is pronounced, but the angy English speakers still had to jump and say it’s mispronounced because they haven’t heard another language in their life

[@lpfan4491]

@@kingofcheshire Many people straight up do not grasp the bare basic concepts interms of inter-language communication. For example, I have seen people not get what a localization error is in both the Xeno and Fire Emblem communities.

[@IAm9Tales]

i've always been pronouncing it like kseh-no. partially because of the greek origin, but also because it's funnier that way

[@jeipidr]

In spanish the only pronunciation is ‘Zehno’, so i never had any issue xd

[@lpfan4491]

Yeah, this goes down in my memory as "Localization has inconsistencies? No way!" It is much more noteworthy when the original japanese is inconsistent because this kind of stuff just slips through the cracks(granted, nowhere near as much as in the past of earlier anime and videogame-dubbing where even diffrent characters in the same conversation pronounce stuff diffrently, but it still happens).

[@poppia3584]

Both. Both is good. I aways say Zeh-no for Blade and Zee-no for Gears and Saga simply because that's what sounds best to me.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

I cannot WAIT to see how you make _this topic_ 20 minutes long.

[@messengerfrom0]

10:53 Can confirm, Birmingham is a shithole. Although that egx and the one on the year after were really good, location aside

[@Fain255]

El Senobléid Crónicles

[@NX_TV]

the one really important pronunciation thing is that Xenoblade X is called "Xenoblade Cross", the rest is whatever. that and 'Z' us zed. or zet if you really want.

[@SuperSavajin]

That's a long segment to just admit that Americans are the only ones pronouncing it wrong xD Jokes aside it's just in my Greek blood to pronounce it Ksehnoblade

[@CarlMakesVideos]

Why DO they call it "the [title of game] game" for all their titles? Not every company d9es that, not even every Japanese game publisher does that.

[@Anonymous-dz8nh]

Myself and my friends interested in the games in England have always pronounced Xeno the 'American' way, we once had a decision about the other pronunciation you described as the 'English' way and agreed it sounded wrong

[@iishiir]

Its obviously Sena-blade gallnicles

[@zeroone8800]

I just consider the two Xeno pronunciations to be dialectal variation or even in free variation in English (Merriam-Webster's, the American dictionary, has a short e as the primary pronunciation for most Xeno words.), and you can pronounce it either of those two choices. This is as opposed to NieR: Automata, which is pronounced in a mangled Japanese transliteration in English by many English speakers. That pronunciation is not a valid pronunciation for the English word "automata". (I think that is because the English word is a rare plural of a rare word, and English speakers instead connect to automobile or similar words, as a template instead.)

[@MysteryFish3]

10:52 oh no. Every single person in the UK just died inside. It's fine though, i've heard worse

[@mysteriouscolours1532]

If your not paying attention he almost says it correctly

[@adriellightvale8140]

I've always used the short E pronunciation.

[@Nelsito99]

I think a fun video would be how many times does the xc3 main grouo lose in story battles to finish the trilogy of rex loses vs shulk loses to have noah loses

[@skrilelf]

Have you explored the nature of Ultimate Hammers and Weapon in Xenoblade 3? Weapon can be broken but then regenerate, then how Ultimate Hammer can Change the Weapon that returns to its state after taking damage?

[@bemybff205]

Both are wrong. You're supposed to pronounce the X. Like this: X-e-no-blade

[@zolfreecss]

I'm french and, in general, french speakers say "kzénoblade" 😊

[@brathering8644]

Its the same in Germany

[@matteoangelozzi1635]

Same in italian

[@MK73DS]

What I say is more like Gzenoblade

[@zolfreecss]

@@MK73DS Yes, it's something between the Kz and Gz, it's complicated ahah

[@Nahobinoah]

We should be saying Ex-eh-no-blade

[@cameronwallace8265]

I think something important to remember is that many words starting with "Xeno" are pronounced as "Zeeno" in American English. Xenomorph, for example.

[@SJrad]

This vid was in my home/recommended page when it was still members only

[@BPHaru]

I swear I must be partially deaf or something, I don't hear any difference between the ways the word nopon is pronounced by Luxin, or maybe it's just because I'm not a native English speaker. I hope this is just some sort of inside joke I'm not aware about.

[@phantommonarch6199]

That also happens to me and I'm also not a native english speaker (though i could distinguish the nopon pronouciations)

[@randomnpc445]

It's the first syllable. In X (and Japanese, it seems) the "No" is pronounced with a long "O" sound. The same kind you would hear in the English words "no," "go," "show," "throw," etc. In the other three games' English dubs (as well as Celica in X since she also has an accent) it uses a shorter "O" sound that kind of sounds like someone going "ah." The same kind you would hear in the English words "stop," "flop," "mop," "drop," etc.

[@BPHaru]

Thanks, now I can notice the difference, I was totally overthinking it. I'm relieved to learn I'm not partially deaf, so now I can keep enjoying these marvelous soundtracks for years to come.

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

Kse-nohs. There, done

[@timoth4529]

Sienobleyd

[@Michail_Chatziasemidis]

• Τα Χρονικά της Ξενο-λεπίδας: Οριστική Έκδοση • Τα Χρονικά της Ξενο-λεπίδας: Το Μέλλον Συνδεδεμένο • Τα Χρονικά της Ξενο-λεπίδας 2 • Τα Χρονικά της Ξενο-λεπίδας 2: Τόρνα - Η Χρυσή Χώρα • Τα Χρονικά της Ξενο-λεπίδας 3 • Τα Χρονικά της Ξενο-λεπίδας 3: Το Μέλλον Λυτρωμένο 😅😅😅

[@shinxshinra]

Never thought I'd see the day a Xenoblade video by the lead analyst of Xenoblade would make a video about how to pronounce Xenoblade

[@Just4Games2011]

I pronounce is Cseno, but I speak a latin language.

[@TM-45.]

Xèno or xéno is closer to the greec pronounciation and is used in french but xéno is more popular. The accents are used the french way : è=eh i=ee é=idk how to wright that in english without it being able to also be eh

[@freewheaties]

Always count on luxin to make a 20 minute video on the pronunciation of a word

[@joeywheeler9967]

This is such a specific question I thought only I thought about.

[@GomerJ]

"Xeno" isn't consistent anywhere in english, honestly. For example, google "xenophobia" and click the little speaker icon and you get "zeh-no", however if you google just "xeno", you get "zee-no". Interestingly enough the first one is read by a vaguely british male robot voice whereas just "xeno" is an american female robot voice so even AI has regional variance, lol. Both are valid, it's just as dumb as people that get upset over pokemon name pronunciation, let people say it how it reads in their head.

[@GomerJ]

I say Zee-no but I also say No-pon with the long O but the thing is X was my first Xenoblade so the main trilogy cannot change my ways. I would have read it that way too so if I'm reading the subtitles I don't care what is coming out of their mouths, my brain still hears "Noh-pon"

[@NX_TV]

in french it's more like Gzeh-no blehd

[@PatPatych]

Ksenobleid, duh

[@ratchet2505]

He released it on my Birthday 😁

[@Zorgot.]

i say xeeno for xenogears and xenosaga but i say zehno for xenoblade, it just sounds so much nicer to me than xeeno for it

[@Magic_Ice]

14:09 WHAAAA i never knew this, this is so cool

[@mega-eevee7]

Here’s a fun question dose this game take place in a leap year or is the 366 days a normal year in this game’s world?

[@yaboichipsahoy2275]

Hopefully someday we can finally have this debate settled when a character in the games says “What are we, some kind of Xenoblade Chronicles?”

[@skeletonwar4445]

I'm German so I pronounce it "Ksenoblade" ☝️😎☝️

[@ethermelt4780]

Mary, marry, and merry all have unique pronunciations in proper neutral English, but 2 or more of them sound and are pronounced the same in almost every accent. Xeno and Xeno could be just a symptom of that, or alternatively, the most used English language word with 'Xe' is Xerox, which is pronounced "Zee-rocks", and almost every other instance of an xe- word isn't used ever, so general english linguistic pronunciation just twisted that tiny bit thanks to the printer company.

[@miimiiandco]

So basically the answer is Nintnedo doesn't care.