Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

Featured Welsh Content

There are many references to the Welsh language and Welsh dialect in Dragon Quest IX.

The towns and locations of Porth Llaffan, Tywll Cave, Cuddiedig Cliff, and Newid Isle reference Cymraeg, the Welsh language, in their names.

When it comes to the name “Porth Llaffan”, porth is the Welsh word for “port”.

“Llaffan” is “Naff all” backwards, which may reference Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ play Under Milk Wood, in which he named a fictional Welsh fishing town Llareggub – “Bugger all” backwards.

The villagers of Porth Llaffan speak with a Welsh dialect. This includes using Welsh words such as bach (“small”), cawl (soup), and bara (“bread”), and South Walian regional words like “boyo”, “tidy”, “dwt”, and “dab”.

There are further examples in the written text to emphasise the Welsh accent and dialect when speaking to natives, such as spelling words how they are pronounced (“yooer” for “your”, “mooer” for “more”, “shooer” for “sure”), and ending sentences with “like” (“He’s really given us a boost, like.”).

The creature being worshipped in the town of Porth Llaffan is called “Lleviathan” – a name alteration of the mythical sea serpent known as Leviathan, except using the Ll digraph letter commonly found in the Welsh language. In the game’s story, Lleviathan is actually a character named Dylan Jones, father of Jona Jones. “Dylan” is a common Welsh male first name and, fittingly, appears as a sea god in the Welsh tales of the Mabinogion, while “Jones” is a common Welsh last name.

Tywll Cave likely has its naming origins in the Welsh word tywyll, which means “dark” in English, while cuddiedig translates to “hidden”, giving rise to the name of Cuddiedig Cliff.

Newid Isle is home to all of the above locations. In Welsh, newid means “change”, perhaps referring to the fact that party members can change their vocations in this region. The island’s name could also be interpreted as “New ID”, so a double meaning is possible.

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