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

nme.com:

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”.We saw many of you were asking so we hope this helps! #FF7R pic.twitter.com/ZC4WAu9IpE— FINAL FANTASY VII (@finalfantasyvii) October 3, 2023However, 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.