fyridis

choster on cohost (citation needed)

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game music composer // sometimes-dev // taiko artist // linguist (ex-academia) // conlanger

日本語・英語のバイリンガルです。

@ fyridis (Viridian) on discord

iltamaar najakelaz @ exodus (ffxiv)

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I've been playing the English version of TGAA due to circumstances, and one thing that's stood out to me when it comes to how language-switching is handled within the game's dialogue is how the characters address one another. I finally had some time to take a look at how this is handled in the Japanese version, so I wanted to write a "quick" post about it. this might become a longer series, who knows.

so, in the English version, instances where characters are speaking English are distinguished from those where they're using Japanese by their use of honorifics (sama, san, kun, etc.) and courtesy titles (Miss, Mr, etc.).

for example, when Susato addresses Kazuma during the first episode, she refers to him (in the English text) as Kazuma-sama. he is, as you might expect, addressed the same way in the Japanese version.

(left) ???: "Good luck...Kazuma-sama.
(right) ???「それでは、一真さま。....ご武運を。」" / ???: "Farewell, Kazuma-sama. ...I wish you good luck."

once the context of the game switches to English, however, we see the Japanese-speaking characters switch to using titles like 'Mr'. for example, Susato begins calling Ryuunosuke "Mr Naruhodo."


Susato: "Is something troubling you, Mr Naruhodo?"

...however, no comparable change occurs in the Japanese version: Susato still refers to Ryuunosuke as Naruhodo-sama.

スサト「….成歩堂さま。どうされますか?この事件。」
Susato: "....Naruhodo-sama. What do you make of it? This incident."

it's a nice little detail of the English localization, and it's too bad (though not really surprising) that the original text doesn't really differentiate between language contexts in some way. (in fact, English allows for some additional detail here, which the English version also makes use of: abbreviated titles, such as "Mr" and "Mrs", are written without trailing periods, as is typical in the UK. in the US and Canada, in contrast, these would always be written "Mrs.", "Mr.", and so on. British spellings are used throughout, as well.)

anyway, this title-vs-honorific convention is used to nice effect during the first meeting with Natsume Souseki. at first, Susato and Ryuunosuke are speaking English.

(left) Susato: "Oh, don't, Mr Naruhodo! You're making it seem worse!"
(right) スサト「....おいたわしいです。」/ Susato: "...how dreadful."

once they realize that Souseki also speaks Japanese, though, they switch languages. this is only made explicitly clear in the English version, where Susato addresses him as "prisoner-san" (which is...a bit overboard, in my personal opinion).

Susato: "We mean you no harm, prisoner-san. Are you..."

in the Japanese text, this line doesn't directly address Souseki at all; adding this in was clearly a conscious choice.

スサト「あの。失礼でございますが。もしかして....」/ Susato: "Um, please excuse my forwardness, but are you possibly..."

and, in the dialogue segment right before this, they're established to still be using English (despite having heard Souseki shouting in Japanese)—Susato refers to Ryuunosuke as "Mr Naruhodo", so it makes the point the language-switch occurs at particularly clear.

(left) Susato: "Mr Naruhodo, what...?
(right) スサト「あの。成歩堂さま。」/ Susato: "Um. Naruhodo-sama."

again, it's a nice little detail, and i appreciate the added thought that went into language context when making/localizing this translation.


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