Words of the Heart

Valentine's Day is gone and done, but it seems I've got room to discuss something else that might be vaguely related and yet still apropos. It concerns what Pokémon might actually say when they "say" things. Some of these can be known with some certainty, but yet others might seem a bit ambiguous. It might seem hard at times to be able to figure out what they say. And yet, there might still be a way to do so. That would involve what I've given as the title of this post, the "words of the heart".

As much as some things said by Pokémon are definite (such as "Pika pi" = "Satoshi" = "Ash" and "Chu~ pika!" = "Iron Tail!" by Pikachu), others might seem less so. And how could they not. Many Pokémon "say" something comprised of the syllables of their name, which is true for both the English and Japanese "sides of the pond". This does seem to be a limiting factor in their linguistics, which for more complicated expressions might require longer concatenations of these syllables. Voice intonations do help too, though in writing this is hard to represent. For the anime, though, this is discernible and accessible.

Speaking of the anime, there was once an episode that touched on the issue of Pokémon speaking. One character appeared to be able to speak perceptibly to Pokémon, more specifically Ash's Pikachu. This is of course a neat thing considering the above, though given the shortness of the episode, it doesn't leave much room for exploration. Still, the gist seems to be that there may just be a wide interpretation. It seems better to consider that when intending to speak with "Pokémon-speak", the intent needs to be placed in the heart, therefore these are the "words of the heart".

Personally, these are what I've tried to discern whenever I converse with Ash and Pikachu for event and convention reviews, for example. It serves well for my understanding at the very least. It also prompts me to try to continue to discern what, say, Pikachu is saying at certain points in certain episodes of the anime. It's still useful to try to speak the "words of the heart", because if these words don't speak, I suppose nothing will - particularly when Pokémon species are involved.

Pikachu: Pika chu! Pika pika chu! ["That's great! That's really great!"]

Me: Isn't it?

Ash: I guess it is kind of hard sometimes to tell what Pikachu is saying, but I like your effort.

Me: That's the entire point.

With Valentine's Day, love and affection are abound, especially among hearts of people and what people say. Beyond its confines, the "words of the heart" may be just about everything that people intend to say... and perhaps Pokémon species also.

One year ago: Local EX Raid (and Quick Connections), 2/15/2019
Two years ago: A Break in the Action
Three years ago: Pocket Monsters Best Wishes Partners Figure - Satoshi