Talk:Barubaroi

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Reason for Barubaroi’s Name Change

The entry states that Barubaroi’s name was changed because it “sounded too similar to Berber,” citing Heisei Godzilla Perfection. Berber in Japanese is ベルベル人 (beruberujin), which I think sounds pretty different. Page 92 of Heisei Godzilla Perfection doesn’t specifically mention anything about Berbers, but merely says that the name was changed “because it was found to have derogatory connotations in Ancient Greek” (なお、「バルバロイ」には、古代ギリシャ語で蔑称の意味合いがあると判明したため、「デストロイア」に名称が変更されている). Barbaroi (βάρβαροι) means “barbarians” or “savages” in Ancient Greek and is the plural of “barbaros.”

The English Wikipedia page for Destoroyah also says the name was changed for sounding like Berber, but cites a different source: 東宝特撮映画大全集 ["Toho special effects movie Complete Works"], Village Books, 2012, pp. 248-251.

I do not own a copy of Toho Special Effects Movie Complete Works, so I cannot confirm if anything about Berbers is mentioned.

The Japanese Wikipedia page for Destoroyah merely rephrases the statement about “derogatory connotations in Ancient Greek” from Heisei Godzilla Perfection, citing pages 92-94 from the same book. - Kaizyuu (talk) 13 January 2020 23:54 CT

While it is true "Berber" is officially ベルベル人 in Japanese, バルバロイ is a transcription of βάρβαροι, which came to be used as a pejorative toward non-Greek speakers. As the Wikipedia page on the matter explains, "Barbar" are nonsense syllables in Greek and can be interpreted as meaning "stutterers" or "babblers." The passage which mentions Barubaroi on the Japanese Wikipedia page for Destoroyah links to the corresponding Japanese page about the derogatory term for Berbers.
So yes, I would say the Heisei Godzilla Perfection description suffices here. As an aside, I own the book English Wikipedia cites, Toho Special Effects Movie Complete Works, but there is no mention of the reason for the monster's name change. It simply mentions Barubaroi as a tentative name for the monster that ultimately became Destoroyah, following Ghost Godzilla (and others) being scrapped. -Les (main | talk) 03:14, 15 January 2020 (UTC)