• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

Hyrulian vs. Hyrulean

Hyrulian Hero

Zelda Informer Codger
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Location
SoDak
I prefer the former but preferences have nothing to do with reality. I figure this is a great place to stick a comparison that you could find via a Google search since I can't find a break-down online. Let's break out the text dumps and look into this.

LoZ: N/A
AoL: N/A
ALttP: N/A
LA: N/A
OoT: N/A
MM: N/A
OoS: Hyrulean - 1
OoA: Hyrulean - 1
FS: N/A
TWW: Hyrulean - 1 / Hyrulian - 1
FSA: Hyrulean - 10
TMC: Hyrulean - 9
TP: Hyrulian - 4
PH: Hyrulian - 1
ST: N/A
SS: N/A
ALBW: Hyrulean - 1
TFH: ???*
BotW: Hyrulean - >0
Hyrule Historia: Hyrulean - 2

*I couldn't find a text dump of Tri Force Heroes.

Notice Wind Waker uses both, it seems Nintendo totally cares which way it's spelled.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pen
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
I think you mean Hylian and Hyrulean... Hyrulian appears to be across between the two, but I'm pretty sure it's never been used in any games.
And they appear to have two different meanings...
Hylian refers to the specific race (Hylia's people) and things relating specifically to them.
Hyrulean is a more general term, and refers to all of the races of Hyrule.

Edit: Just found mentions of Hyrulian... I think it's a typo by the translators getting confused between the two terms.
Edit2: It looks like the mentions of Hyrulian in Twilight Princess were changed to Hyrulean for TP HD, so it does look like it was an error.
 
Last edited:

Pen

The game is on!
I'm actually kind of surprised that both spellings have been used so frequently throughout the games. I think Herulean makes more sense though since Hyrule is spelled the e and not an i. Also, the fact that the most recent games and Hyrule Historia uses the Hyrulean spelling makes me more inclined to use that one.

As for the term Hylian, that's a different one altogether. Hyrulean/Hyrulian refers to someone from the kingdom of Hyrule. Like a Canadian is a person from Canada. Whereas a Hylian is the race that Link and Zelda are for example. Hylians from Hyrule are Hyruleans, but not all Hyruleans are Hylians since there are Gorons and Zoras and Kokiri etc. living in Hyrule too.
 

Hyrulian Hero

Zelda Informer Codger
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Location
SoDak
I didn't realize that they had changed Hyrulian to Hyrulean in TPHD, good eye! So notice if you will that the first two times Hyrulean was used were in Capcom games as well as the fifth time. The third time was Wind Waker where they also used Hyrulean as well as Hyrulian. Anyway, it appears the big N may be homogenizing the term as Hyrulean but at one point, it seems both were legitimate. This being the (possible) case, Hyrulian feels like an archaic term for the peoples of Hyrule. And I like the way it looks better aesthetically.
 

athenian200

Circumspect
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Location
a place of settlement, activity, or residence.
It's very complex, but this was the best answer I could come up with.

http://www.linglish.net/2008/10/22/so-many-nationality-suffixes/

The heart of the matter is in this part...

Linglish.net said:
-ian / -ean / -an
It should not be surprising to find out that -ian, -an and -ean actually have a common origin. In fact, the suffix -ia is frequently used in Latin to name places, thus giving birth to names like Romania, Bulgaria and Australia, and -ea and -a are two other grammatical suffixes used on Latin nouns. The final -n is an adjectival suffix that turns a noun into an adjective. Hence, adjectives that end in -ian, -ean, or -an were either borrowed directly from Latin, or modelled after Latin in English. They are the standard suffixes now in English. The distribution of them follows a rule that is rather neat and tidy. Basically it goes as follows:
  1. If the place name ends in -ea or a silent -e, then use -ean;
  2. If the place name ends in a vowel, then use -an;
  3. Otherwise, use -ian.
As you have probably noticed, there are some exceptions or complications, but let us not be concerned about that here. After all, the general picture is clear and unambiguous.

If I'm understanding this correctly, the pattern suggests we should use Hyrulean because Hyrule ends with an "e," which is a vowel. This pattern isn't always consistent, though. We use Canadian instead of Canadan. But we still use American instead of Americian. Even though both America and Canada end with "a," the manner in which they're handled isn't consistent. I think the reason why Canada is handled oddly is because the country's name origin isn't Latin or Romance, though.

Both are potentially correct, but I think Hyrulean is more correct based on the general picture of how such words tend to be modified into adjectives. One could argue that because Hyrule isn't Latin or Romance in origin, we should apply -ian anyway, and use Canadian as a precedent for this, but I personally don't think that would be a strong argument since there are more examples that follow the rule of adding -an to a place name that ends in a vowel than of deleting the final vowel and going with -ian.

Because we are talking about a fictional world here, and the word Hyrule has no roots in any particular language, I do think it makes sense to follow the general pattern as closely as possible, especially since there's no particular cultural or traditional reason to use an alternative.
 
Last edited:

Hyrulian Hero

Zelda Informer Codger
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Location
SoDak
It's very complex, but this was the best answer I could come up with.

http://www.linglish.net/2008/10/22/so-many-nationality-suffixes/

The heart of the matter is in this part...



If I'm understanding this correctly, the pattern suggests we should use Hyrulean because Hyrule ends with an "e," which is a vowel. This pattern isn't always consistent, though. We use Canadian instead of Canadan. But we still use American instead of Americian. Even though both America and Canada end with "a," the manner in which they're handled isn't consistent. I think the reason why Canada is handled oddly is because the country's name origin isn't Latin or Romance, though.

Both are potentially correct, but I think Hyrulean is more correct based on the general picture of how such words tend to be modified into adjectives. One could argue that because Hyrule isn't Latin or Romance in origin, we should apply -ian anyway, and use Canadian as a precedent for this, but I personally don't think that would be a strong argument since there are more examples that follow the rule of adding -an to a place name that ends in a vowel than of deleting the final vowel and going with -ian.

Because we are talking about a fictional world here, and the word Hyrule has no roots in any particular language, I do think it makes sense to follow the general pattern as closely as possible, especially since there's no particular cultural or traditional reason to use an alternative.
Wow, that was great! Nice job tracking that down, it definitely sheds more light on the issue! It definitely does appear that Nintendo is trending toward Hyrulean being the final spelling.

Deku, you've vindicated me! Evidence that Nintendo may not have even realized that there are two different spellings yet! My name shall live on...
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom