Cham
English dialects provide a shocking array of variety as well as being time-bubbles that preserve otherwise ancient traits. West Country English is one such, that gives us a shortening of the first person singular.
Noble Women's Speech
As mentioned in another article, Japanese media has a certain way that regal personages speak, and queens in particular also share this, case in point:
Profanity censoring in manga
In the manga, “Hero Organization”, we follow the quest for mecha-based revenge of Leonidas Tyler and some of his fellow pilots. One especial scene, with its related call-back have apparent seen some light censorship in terms of swearing, na
New Years Greetings in Japanese
Since we are nearing the very end of the year, I thought it'd be very topical to give a detailed view over the various ways that you can in Japanese express felicitations for such occasion. And also, bask in the etymological joys of everyth
Xmas - Snowman in Japanese
When you refer to the anthropomorphic lump of snow, minerals, cloth and vegetables in Japanese there's a few options:
Xmas Article: The Little Match Girl - Translation Comparison
Hans Christian Andersen's tragic story, from 1845, of the young girl who succumbs a wintry death whilst comforting herself with visions of warmth and at last the spirit of her late grandmother, has become not just a literary classic, but al
Halloween Special - Aliens
There are several Japanese word for out-world denizens, but here are some of the most common ones considering the pertinent season that we are in.
About
Myriad Leaves concerns matters linguistic – ranging from writing about translations of video game, comics, books, films and other media, from and to Japanese, English amongst other languages; as well as the history of language and anything
ISM: A Street Fighter term
ISM in Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 refer to the three varieties of super gauges that the player can pick, that greatly effects the properties of their super combos. ISM itself is explained by the official guide to stem from the English suff
Elden Ring DLC-related musings
The story-trailer for the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion dropped, and I will covering the Japanese counterpart to the English one:
Gouki's SF6 Shungokusatsu Poem
Note: This is an updated and wholly rewritten version of a blog post that I wrote a week or so ago, when the trailer for Gouki/Akuma’s inclusion into the cast of SF6 was published. The former blog post was riddled with mistakes, this has be
Kono teido ka...
Many a moment in an anime, tv-series or game you will in Japanese media hear the phrase この程度か (kono teido ka), which at its most literal is "is it to this extent?", but is deeply dependent on the scene and it most often occurs during fights
Regarding Arisen Ones
WARNING – Spoilers regarding the Dragon’s Dogma games.
In memoriam: Akira Toriyama
Rest in peace, Akira Toriyama (05.05.1955 - 01.03.2024)
Return of "Old Sport
I wrote a while back about how a Japanese translator handled the adaptation of the term "old sport" in the seminal novel The Great Gatsby. This time around I have not just one, but three more translations of the term from their respective t
Piece of my mind to feast upon
In a Christmas Carol’s third chapter, wherein the Ghost of Christmas Present, a towering incarnation of Yuletide jollity, guides Scrooge through the homes and streets of various people that the miser knows, but does not know his impact upon
Quick X-Mas post update
Greetings of the winter variety, readers!
Of Margarethus and Mathildus
There are countless female names derived from male names, such as Joanna, Jacqueline, Roberta, Victoria and so on, but the reverse is also true. There are quite a few purely female names that have male counterparts, such as Mathilda becomin
On Bison and Cammy
It's a common misconception that Street Fighter character, the amnesiac British soldier Cammy's relationship to the mysterious main villain of the series, General Vega ("Master Bison" in the West), is a creepy one.
Baronet Eagle of Street Fighter
So, Tiamat's otherwise superb Street Fighter Plot Guide mentions this bit about Eagle, a tonfa wielding gentleman from Street Fighter 1 - this regards his opening bio in the arcade mode of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper:
Speech Patterns: Akatasuki Musashi
SNK’s timeless classic The Last Blade, and its sequel and spin-offs, feature a host of fencers and fighters who are based off actual historical people or out of entirely new fictive cloth. Akatsuki Musashi (暁 武蔵) himself is not merely inspi
Speech Patterns - Palpatine (Star Wars)
Palpatine (“Lego Star Wars – The Skywalker Saga”, 2022)
Speech Patterns - Sunpoo (Chibi Robot)
Sunpoo (“Chibi Robot!”, 2005)
A question of Hokuto Fists
In the seminal martial arts epic “Fist of the North Star” (Hokuto no Ken), there is a scene near the end of one of the early major story arcs, where the brothers Raoh and Toki face off.
One word, multiple kanji
In Japanese you will from time to time encounter that a verb can be written synonymously with different kanji, but these meanings whilst sharing similarities can differ in usage.
Writing out the I
In the manga adaptation by Gatou Asou of the 2012 CGI animated feature of Shoutarou Ishinomori's classic, Cyborg 009, titled "009 Re:Cyborg", I am across a panel that stuck with me in terms of how it highlighted the nature of Japanese writi
Aggrandising Japanese Keigo
Whilst browsing through some of the linguistics that I own, I encountered this gem from Bjarke Frellesvig's excellent A History of the Japanese Language, p. 371:
New Years Post + Quick Name Analysis
Before ringing out the year 2022 and in with 2023, I thought I may make a quick post related to a classic Science Fiction franchise and its relation to the as classic tropes of naming characters:
Santa-san
A friend of mine asked me recently as to the origins of the Japanese name for the voluminous giver of gifts, Santa Claus.
Yuru - Yule
Lo, a micro translation-comparison sort of thing. In the 11th volume of Vinland Saga, a group of country nobles and loyal vassals to King Canute plead their case to His Majesty, in this quote do we see Makoto Yukimura, the author and illust
Thor versus Thor versus Thor
With the advent of the new God of War Ragnarok game, and the appearance of another fresh interpretation of the Aesir, Vanir, Jotun and other members of Norse mythology, it behoves me to make a comparison with previous incarnations of one pa
Robotto!
Word robot first appeared as early as in the 1920s science fiction play, R. U. R (Rustrom’s Universal Robots), by Czech playwright Karel Čapek (1890 – 1938), wherein the automatons featured within the story are not mechanical humans, but sy
Final Fantasy Royal Titles
Final Fantasy is no stranger to royalty. In fact, in most cases the main playable cast will contain a prince, princess, king and queen either secretly or quite obvious - such as in the cases of the most recent numbered Final Fantasy game.
AI in Fiction
Computers are machines, governed by calculations, i.e. numbers, the language of “logic”, thus the majority of AIs in fiction are represented as superficially polite, but wholly uncaring and calculating. Humans are, conversely, beings of pur
Morbid honorifics
When a person succumbs to the mortal coil and passes away, we have in all cultures words of varying degrees of formality and respect to refer to this posthumous state.
Carolean or Caroline?
So, with the recent passing of Elizabeth II and the her period of regency dubbed the "second Elizabethan age", it isn't too far for some people in politics to proclaim the new era to be called the "Carolean" derived from Carolus the Latin v
Tekken - Jin's Pronouns
In the recent animated adaptation of the events of the third Tekken game, taciturn Jin Kazama is featured as the main character.
Shadow the Colossus and Elvis
According to the unofficial net-encyclopaedia of the games ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, the 16th colossus of the latter game, whose role is also that of the final boss, had two prototype names prior to the final design, those being Evis
Japanese - Ways of saying thank you
The various ways of saying "thank you":
Poem - Breathe
Breathe Written 2018.
DB Addendum - That Insult by Gohan
During Son Gohan's pivotal fight against Boo - essentially an ancient jinn, whilst he has attained a more powerful form and Gohan himself has awoken his latent qi, he spouts an insult:
Update - 14-08-22
Greetings!
Mimesis and Martians
Quick blog post here, thought it would be worth mentioning No-Sword's excellent post on H. G. Wells' haunting and sonorous opening of War of the Worlds.
Quick Post - Fell Omen
In Elden Ring, one of the bosses that you can encounter is a ogreish warrior known as Margit the Fell Omen, which in Japanese corresponds to: 忌み鬼マルギット (Imi Oni Marugitto, "Shunned Oni Margit").
Third person pronouns in Japanese – 3rd Person Neutral
In Modern Japanese there are two 3rd person pronouns that correspond to the Western mode of masculine and feminine ones, namely:
Lord of Dragons
SPOILERS ARE APLENTY
The "Idiot Bird
Whilst preparing for an upcoming article about the Japanese version of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of he Ancient Marine, I encountered the Japanese name for the albatross within the text.
Line Individualism - Yura
SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!
Line Individualism - Boc
Heed the Spoiler Warning!
Japanese RPG words – Ryuujin
HEED THE SPOILER WARNING!
Bernahl's Line
SPOILERS ARE WITHIN THE POST
Benefactives
~kudasai is no doubt a word that you have heard before if you have ever partaken of any Japanese media, where it is typically translated in dubs or subtitles as "please (would you this favour for me)", but Japanese has more expressions and
Silvered Ones
SPOILERS MAY OCCUR FOR ELDEN RING.
Thyselves
SPOILERS ARE CONTAINED WITHIN REGARDIN ELDEN RING.
Usage of Katakana
Knowing the difference between the two phonetic syllabaries of Japanese can be vital, when very much reading any mode or level of Japanese text.
Update post 30-03-22
Hello!
Elden Ring Spoilers - Name Allusions
From Software has a tradition of putting especial significance in their world building when it comes to structuring their role playing games, moreover, the latest instalment, Elden Ring only proves this.
X-Men vs Street Fighter - Victory Quote Commentary
Capcom's fighting game X-Men vs Street Fighter was nothing less, but a cultural phenomenon in the arcade halls of both Japan and in the West, in the year of 1996 (and later home-releases in 1997 - 1998).
Name Etymologies - Rock EXE series
One of my many interests when it comes to linguistics and especially also literature is that of personal names, when writing a story or a piece of media, the author(s) will some times create names that either are puns, homages or otherwise
Quick Post - Old Sport
In the seminal novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the titular character of Jay Gatsby is a showman and playboy whose ostentatious lifestyle draws the attention of the protagonist and narrator of the story, a young journalist cal
Update - 24/01/2022
Greetings!
New Year Post - Back to the Future
The year is drawing to a close and I thought I would include one last short translation comparison to round off the old year and herald the new year.
Yule Post the 2nd - Food
Preface:
Yule Post the 1st - Grantræet
We begin this year's Christmas themed posts with a look at one of Hans Christian Andersen's few yuletide fairy tales, aside from Den lille pige med svovlstikker ("the little match-stick girl"), wherein a sentient fir-tree experiences the ex
Update - 17/11/2021
A lot has happened since I last published my larger-than-usual translation comparison of the SoulsBorne series, in regards to the archaic language in those games. Namely, one of my older articles got linked by the excellent blog Mad SNK Pro
Archaic language in SoulsBorne
The popular action RPGs by From Soft are famed for their fair if fierce difficulty and a minimalist approach to tutorials, rather wanting players to learn by experience rather than by obsequious text-boxes. Text is indeed the very bread and
Hallowe'en Post - Darkstalkers
This quick and short obligatory All Hallow's Even post will be looking at a few interesting speech patterns from the horror-themed beat 'em up, Vampire. The roster boasts everything from ancient mummies to insectoid hive-mind demons that al
Possible Oldest Dialect
Simon Roper, a linguistics enthusiast and knowledgeable gentleman on Youtube , posted a video not too long ago regarding whether or not there such a thing as an “oldest English dialect”, that is, one that retains the most archaic phonetic,
Gemming Your Pardon?
Here is a quickie in regards to discovery I made in terms of a weird if interesting variant way of writing an old polite imperative or optative mode of constructing a verb, namely tamau (たまう, "to beg [a superior] to grant [a wish]"), which
The King of Fists and Pronouns
In this we will delve into how the concept of pronouns in Japanese or for that matter pronominals, and its relation to how our understanding of characters in a manga such as Hokuto no Ken (“Fist of the North Star”) may prove to show just ho
Obi-Wan Too Many
Star Wars was released to massive acclaim in term of it bringing the space opera genre to a modern audience and introducing a viewing public to the world of Jedi and Droids.
SNK and Samurai
SNK has a long and time-honoured tradition of "creative" translations and this is primarily concerned with their fighting games that were released during the nineties.
Update - 15/08/2021
So, I have not published any articles on this blog for a while, and for the sake of giving news in regards to where things are heading.
The Ægyptian Stork
The tale of the Ugly Duckling (Den Grimme Ælling) is perhaps Hans Christian Andersen's most famous tale - part autobiographical story about striving against the odds, and part celebration of the sublimity of nature.
Ducal Difficulty in 3D
Duke Nukem 3D, a FPS game featuring the titular pastiche of action heroes of the 80s and 90s, with all the corny lines and questionable macho-attitude, received a Japanese release for the PC, and in that vein it came with a manual.
The Foul-Mouthed Miller
Geoffrey Chaucer, factotum of Plantagenet England and author of countless inimitable works of poetry, wrote towards the end of the 1400s his magnum opus The Canterbury Tales, wherein we follow a wide assortment and slice of society as they
Do excuse my rudeness, m'dude.
Hearkening back to one of my earlier posts where I remarked on how some characters in Japanese comics would use an overly assertive or informal pronoun, i.e. ore, when speaking in keigo, polite speech, I encountered the element in probably
The Mystic Tinderbox
Whilst researching for future posts, I was looking into the Andersen fairy-tale Fyrtøjet (The Tinderbox), which famously is about a soldier who fortuitously meets an old witch that offers him abundant riches if he is to help her retrieve a
Poems - The Moon
Here is another poem which was originally written a few years ago, but has since become part of a poem collection that I am working on.
Poems - Coffee & Swing
Here are some short poems from my upcoming poem collection that I am working on, said poems were written between 2020 and 2021, and is still being written on.
DB in DK - Addendum - Shukan Idou
Son Gokuu's ability to instantly teleport from place to the other, provided that he can recognise a qi pattern that is there possess a rather simple if verbose name.
DB Addendum - Super Ultra Mega Saiya Jin
The Danish Dragon Ball translation by John Lysmand, has been covered in quite a few posts on this blog, albeit in Danish, though, this time, I would like to write one in English for a change, moreover concerning the nomenclature when it com
Hans the Clog-Head
In the place of another large project to take care of, I thought we'd take a look at some of Andersen's lesser known works and how they have been treated in translation.
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1960 - 1980s
Thus we reach the final leg of our journey through the comparison of the various Japanese translations of Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes, wherewith we now are covering those translations occurring during the 1960s and 1980s - meeting
Piano the Pterodactyl Yes-Man
This being the first of April and an international day of pulling the proverbial appendage, I thought that we, however, ought for a moment pause for elegiacal thought for the fate of a fictional Yes-man of Japanese comic history, Piano of D
Princess Tamaeda
Whilst researching for upcoming projects in relation to the next work to compare and analyse, I came across various Japanese translations of Andersen's De Vilde Svaner ("The Wild Swans") - which involves a young princess by the name of Elis
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1930 - 1940s
We now enter the pen-ultimate chapter in our grand tour of the translations of the fairy-tale, as we now enter two decades that feature two translators, Taketomo Boufuu and Oohata Suekichi, both experienced and famed handlers of translating
Honorifics in Outer Space
Science fiction and fictional royalty are no strangers, with various planets adorned by exotic and varying degrees of pompous monarchies.
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1924 - 1929
Thus we enter a new decade of translations and a new round of analyses that either have the Emperor of the story be demoted to mere king or have him keep his empire.
Quick update - 06/03/21
A quick word of update to quell any worries there might be. I am currently researching for a bigger comparison project, and also taking care of IRL problems that have been occurring.
Bout the Word Bloke
The word bloke is one of the quintessential British and to a point Australian terms. Its origins are placed in the murky waters of the underworld slang of 1860s England. Here it according to Green's Dictionary of Slang, most likely derived
Of Dukes of Thunder and Flesh
This article was originally going to be about the pronoun kikou (貴公), but research led me to a much deeper topic, namely that of how one translates and even conversely render other titles from one language to the other. Today we shall be lo
Clash of the Pocket Clerks
Wherein we learn that the economical mechanisms of RPG worlds concerning the trading, breeding and fighting of mutant animals seldom makes for logical pondering and that some clerks are more humble than others - and that the good writer of
Update 02/02/2021
Greetings!
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1910 - 1911
Closing off the tenth decade of the 1900s, we deal with not just two, but three translations, those by Wadagaki Kenzou (1910), Ueda Kazutoshi (1911) and Kondou Toshisaburou (1911).
Mokujin's Back
The wooden training dummy Mokujin ("Wooden Person"), debuted in the second Tekken game, a Japanese fighting game franchise created by Namco (now Bandai Namco) in the mid-nineties.
Update 24/01/21
The latest post in the series analysing The Emperor's New Clothes, has been updated to now contain all of the pertinent information that has been covered in the previous ones, namely dialogue choices, translation of nuances of character and
Philomena cries at night
The Nightingale is a tale written by Andersen concerning the contrast between natural and artificial beauty, in the aspects of music, splendour and above all else life.
Velvet Swans
In Ueda's translation of The Nightingale, which I am currently going through for a future analysis, I encountered this interesting paragraph:
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1907 - 1908
After having analysed Watanabe and Takahashi's translations we shall proceed a decade forward (or so), and tackle those of Nagura Jirou (1907) and Kimura Shoshuu (1908), whose versions differ quite significantly and continue in the vein of
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1888 - Part III
Note: I have omitted Watanabe's translation due to the difficulty in translating/transcribing it, and the fact that it ditches in most cases the nuances of line individualism in favour of a more direct if flattening out style of translation
Particles of Emphasis
In Japanese you can express emotional nuance or stress via emphasis particles that may equate to a vocal exclamation mark or emoticon.
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1888 - Part II
The Swindlers
Imperial Intermezzo - His Majesty
Whilst holding a break from the main Japanese translation comparisons, I thought it'd be interesting to take a glance at how European translators handle the title of the monarch himself.
Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1888 - Part I
Chapter I - The Earliest Translations - Anno 1888 - Part I
Update 11/01/21
Greetings, readers!
Dickensian Japanese - Stave 3 - Fred and Jacob
In order to speed things up, let us take a brief look at the other principal characters and their main traits, and how translators handle them:
Dickensian Japanese - Stave 2 - Part 1 - Charity Workers - Pt. 2
Continuing where we left off,we will be dealing with the verbs - and having in another article described the fundamentals of keigo, in terms of the three categories and the concepts of in- and out-groups, there ought to be little in the way
Keigo Basics
As mentioned in the Dickensian blog-posts, I will be presenting a short introduction to the basics of polite Japanese and more pertinently using quotes from the translations to illustrate this.
Dickensian Japanese - Stave 2 - Part 1 - Charity Workers - Pt.1
Prefatory remark:
Update post - 21/12/20
So, whilst writing I found out that one of the versions that I am using for the analysis of A Christmas Carol, is lacking most if not all of the fourth chapter, thus I have had to rethink and even rewrite some sections for the analysis.
Dickensian Japanese - 2nd Stave - The Initial People - Part I
An analysis of this magnitude requires taking segments in sizeable chunks without it becoming all too unfathomable for either your senses or the connection through which you are currently accessing this site.
Bah! Humbug!
As an addendum to the article that regard the Japanese translations of A Christmas Carol, here are some of the European translations of the famous utterance "Bah, humbug!" as expressed in versions readily available through WikiSource:
Dickensian Christmas - 1st Stave - Phrases and Terms
Dead as a Doornail:
Dickensian Japanese -Introduction
As promised, I shall in this post be going through four translations and how they more specifically handle the main characters and also key words of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol from 1843, whose role was instrumental not just
Update
First things, first. I am under a bad spell of stress right now, but progress is slowly happening with the writing of the blog posts.
Regarding Stardust from a Film
Potash of Carboniloroxy amilocitrate
Grand Kurisumasu Ojisan Post
In a seasonal extension of the "Senior Dialect" post of a few months back, I shall here give a short description of how various Japanese dubs of Christmas related media adapt the linguistic traits of the (bloke in red).
The many terms for JRPG heroes
Begin any JRPG, at least in terms of the early ones that was set during the Tolkien-esque fantasy golden age of the 80s and you will inevitably encounter terms such as eiyuu and yuusha. These two terms differ wildly for the most part in des
Eccentric Speech
In Japanese fiction, certain dialects and sociolects are used to convey the less-than-ordinary characteristics of a member of the personae dramatis, that may either be rustic, agéd, from a different social stratus than the main cast or in w
Dragonball på Dansk - Del II
(Opdateret 27/11/2020)
Døgnstemning (Danish Poem)
DØGNSTEMNING: Skrevet den 01/10/2018, på en kølig vintermorgen.
You most honourably are being!
Japanese has, as mentioned in some of my other articles, various ways of expressing respectful existential verbs, i.e. second person or third person "to be," or, rather, the verbs are not conjugated after grammatical number since such aspec
The Island in the Stream
“A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å”
Dragon Ball på Dansk - Del 1
(Danish blog post)
Automatons Speak Japanese
Robots and super-computers in Japanese fiction have a tradition of speaking in a rather stilted, polite and logical manner that is most times rendered fully in the angular katakana syllabary which is used to write loan words, foreign person
Scripts and Self
Japanese has three modes of writing, hiragana, katakana and kanji, whereof the first two constitute the syllable alphabets primarily used for writing grammatical terms, loan words and slang. Kanji on the other hand are characters derived fr
ÆGIDIUS AND BOB - A Cosmic Odyssey - Chapter I - The Visitor
Prefatory note: This story was originally written a few years back as a foray into the world of science fiction comedies, prompted by a love for the worlds and fiction of Douglas Adams as well as Cosmic Horror and and general science fictio
Human-Cyborg Relations
When the golden android C-3PO introduces himself to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, he uses a rather bizarre compound noun, one of a long series consisting of equally misused terms (an idea for a later blog entry):
Danish Poem - Atman
Atman (2017)
Danish Poem - Naboer
Naboer (2017)
Line Individualism - Smeagol
Smeagol/Gollum from Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Bænkebo – Som en vandrende Stjerne (Danish Story)
NB - Denne historie kommer fra ét af mine ældre blogs og var skrevet tilbage i 2017 som del af universitetsfag. Dette er blot én af mange historie (og digte), som vil blive postet på denne blog hen over den næste stykke tid.
Son Goku - Ora and Ore
Goku – a character from Akira Toriyama's fantasy manga Dragon Ball, who usually uses ora (オラ, a rural first person singular pronoun) – switches to ore (オレ), the standard first person singular pronoun in Japanese when it comes to informal an
Keigo Matters - I dare say, m'dude
Keigo or Polite speech is the Japanese concept of usually three registers: Humble speech, Reverential speech and Respect speech, common for these is that certain suplitive grammatical traits, i.e. substituting one form for the other of a wo
Shinobi Chelonian Reference
Playing through the Japanese version, Super Famicom, of Konami's great arcade game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Through Time, I noticed amongst other things that there were the small speech bubbles that appear whenever the Turtles
Modal Question - Part I
It is a known fact of countries across the pond, either way, that "shall" preoccupies either the dusty volumes of ancient literature or living, breathing if formal parlance. Where one would be derided as pompous in the other, it is hardly n
Individualism of lines
Within Danish literary analysis there is a term called “replikindividualisme”, line-individualism – the notion that each character within a play, book, film or any form of narrative medium ought to have their own register, dialect or in oth
Watashi in Fiction
Watashi (私・わたし・ワタシ) is traditionally the gender neutral first person singular pronoun and as such preserves this distinction in polite discourse, whereas in informal speech you are more likely to encounter it used by female speakers of all
Oldster Sociolect
Older people have a distinct way of speaking in Japanese media, especially pop-culture, as we shall explore in this short essay:
A Question of Literal Translation
We often hear the commonly discussed point of contention in regards to subtitles being less accurate, precise or not getting the whole gist of what the original cartoon, film or documentary was conveying. This is especially frequent in rega