A dispute erupts in the Genshin Impact community. The English voice actor is criticized for pronouncing an Arabic name. Some call him a racist, others defend him.
Tighnari is a character you’ll meet in the Sumeru region since the latest update. The zone is inspired by the Middle East. The character is spoken by English voice actor Elliot Gindi, who pronounces the name in English rather than Arabic.
Some players describe the pronunciation as racist. The developers had also had to take criticism regarding the skin color of the characters. Players are requesting more characters with dark skin.
A person named Oryx created a channel on Youtube that only has one video. In it he corrects the pronunciation of the name Tighnari. “It ain’t damn ‘Tie-nari’ reads a plaque. Here you see the video:
The video received a lot of encouragement in the comments:
The voice actor defends himself
Elliot Gindi counters instead of accepting the criticism. His colleague Zach Aguilar, spokesman for the Traveler, supports him. Both defend the pronunciation used ingame.
“Tighnari isn’t a name you hear very often,” Aguilar told Gindi on a stream after Gindi asked how he would pronounce the name. He had never heard the name Tighnari. Gindi agrees.
Aguilar is from the Middle East himself and his grandmother had insisted that all children have European names to avoid racism.
Other names and words were also badly pronounced in Genshin Impact. Therefore, according to Gindi and Aguilar, it is right to establish an English version directly and not let users who do not speak Arabic even try.
Angry players respond by saying that Gindi would “taunt players who want Tighnari’s name to be pronounced correctly”. Others defend him, saying he’s just doing his job.
What do you think of the controversy over the pronunciation of Tighnari? Would you prefer the Arabic or the English version? Do you side with the angry fans or do you stick with the voice actor? Write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO!
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