Re: OT: Preparing for Winter-een-mas

Arthaey Angosii wrote:
> Anyone else feel moved by the spirit of Winter-een-mas? :)
How about a game title translation project?

Well, there are some titles that can't be translated as much as borrowed
in transliterated form. What exactly is a "Bosconian", for instance? The
word brings to mind the Italian word "bosco" (forest), but the game
doesn't have anything to do with forests. So a title like this could
just be borrowed as is. Making assumptions about the correct
pronunciation, this could be "Baskónian" in Minza, but I'm inclined to
go with the spelling and call it "Boskónian". I'll have to decide the
form of the borrowing on a case by case basis. Other names of this sort:

Galaga - Gálaga
Ico - Iko
Pikmin - Pikmin
Tetris - Tetris

"Katamari Damacy" could be translated, but it isn't in the English
version, so why not just borrow the name directly in Minza? "Katamari
Dámaši" follows the Japanese pronunciation "katamari damashii" (Minza
doesn't mark long vowels).

Then there are names which can be translated in part. "Pac-Man" could
have the "man" part translated. "Pokémon" is short for "Pocket
Monsters", which could be translated. But it might be best just to
borrow these names: Pakman, Pókemon. (Pókemon follows the stress pattern
of English /'pokiman/, since I don't know how the name is stressed in
Japanese. But "poketto", the Japanese word for pocket, has the high
pitch on the second syllable.)

"Sly Cooper" is the name of the main character, so even though "sly" and
"cooper" are English words, "Slai Kupör" seems like a more appropriate
name. Other games named after the main character include:

Donkey Kong - Donki Kong
Jak and Daxter - Đak ai Dakstör
Ratchet and Clank - Račit ai Klank

"The Legend of Zelda" is "Zeruda no Densetsu" (ゼルダの伝説) in
Japanese, which is simply Japanese for "The Legend of Zeruda" (Zeruda
being the Japanese way of pronouncing Zelda). "Legend" translates as
"ninzyl", but  should it be "Ninzyl Zeldat" or "Ninzyl Zérudat"? I think
that even though the game is Japanese, the name Zelda is borrowed in the
first place, so it makes sense to just borrow the name Zelda as is.

Other games which include a character name plus one or more words that
can be translated:

Luigi's Mansion - Łixuł Luiđit
Paper Mario - Mário Rjaxat

"Baten Kaitos" is an interesting case. It happens to be the name of a
star in the constellation Cetus. A book on star names that I have gives
the source of this name as the Arabic "Al Baṭn al Ḳaiṭos", meaning "the
Whale's Belly". I use repeated vowels in Minza to represent syllabic
nasals, thus "batan" for Arabic "baTn" would be appropriate. Minza
doesn't have any of the emphatic Arabic consonants, so "Batan Kaitos" or
"Batan Ketos" would work (depending on how the Arabic might have been
pronounced; Kaitos looks suspiciously like a borrowing from Latin
"cetus", but I don't know Arabic).

How to translate "Conker's Bad Fur Day"? I'd have to come up with an
equivalent for "bad hair day" that somehow can be changed to be more
squirrelly. "Conker" is just "Kankör" (or should it be "Konkör"?), but I
think I'll have to think about this one for a while.

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