#kittybee talks game linguistics

[kitsunabi]

This French speaking penguin is the cutest thing I've ever seen asdfghjk;

The morse code corresponds to: K F U B J N F N B N B O

Caesar cipher by 1 you get: J E T A I M E M A M A N

Or:

Je t'aime maman (I love you mom)

#thelxie's fantastic adventures #kittybee games #genshin impact #kittybee talks game linguistics #it's morse code + Caesar cipher by 1 based off the thelxie logs that Freminet left around camp

[kitsunabi]

There's such minor changes to most of Wriothesley's voicelines that I find is kinda weird but maybe they felt it flows better? Idk his lines as it is in CN adds a layer of vibes, I guess? He comes across as a bit funnier imo

I dunno, I just was surprised at some of the deviating lines and for folks who might be curious, here's some I wanted to point out:

____________________________________

Under "Chat: Pets": EN: "...It's just not right to keep small animals where they won't be able to see the sun." CN: "...但小貓小狗在不見陽光的地方生活太可憐了。 還是算了吧。" which would be closer to: "but for small cats and small dogs to live somewhere with no sunlight is too pitiful. Forget it."

Under: "Chat: Words of Advice" EN: "Word of advice: Don't break the law. Hmm, is there anything else? Oh, yeah... Seriously, don't break the law." CN:"不要違法。 還有什麼需要叮嚀的嗎？ 喔對了，不要違法。" there isn't anything particularly special about this one other than he just automatically starts the line with "don't break the law". I just find it funny. No word of advice part, just a simple: Don't do it. Seriously, don't do it.

Under: "When Thunder Strikes" EN: "You know, they say if you're scared of the thunder, it's really because you've got something else to hide." CN: "心中無罪的人，在這種天氣下也能安睡吧。" this line is completely flipped, tho the meaning is maintained. instead, it's closer to: "if your heart is guiltless, you can probably sleep through this kind of weather." (the probably [吧] is the funny part to me)

Under: "Something to Share" EN: "...They'll be stumbling over your name as soon as they try to announce that you are under arrest." CN:"...然後他們在大喊「那個誰，把手舉起來！」時就會卡住。" this line is him imitating what a garde would say. this part becomes: "and then they'll cry out "The who? Put your hands up!" and then get stuck"

Under: "Receiving a Gift III" EN: "Please excuse me, I'm... I'm gonna brew a cup of tea." CN: "等我去泡杯茶。" He doesn't even put niceties in the front, LOL. It's just "wait, I'm gonna brew a cup of tea"

Under: "Fallen II" EN: "Instead of going big, guess I'm going home..." CN: "孤注一擲的後果" actually not comical for once in his lines. This one is actually chengyu/an idiom that means: risking everything on a single attempt without thinking about the consequences

#genshin impact #wriothesley #gi wriothesley #genshin wriothesley #kittybee talks game linguistics #you ever think so hard about language you procrastinate sleeping? #for the word of advice i'd like to think that the traveler is looking at something and wrio just starts with a Dont #now that I’m awake the words that I wanted to describe Wrio’s vibe is like logos/ethos v pathos #CN comes across as a Wrio that leans into an appeal towards pathos more so than EN Wrio #EN Wrio appeals more to ethos with him as some kind of authority figure (not that he isn’t but he’s much more personable in CN)

[kitsunabi]

Kaveh: complains about Cyno's jokes

Also Kaveh: makes a joke using the same pun as Cyno in the same breath right after the complaint

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Fun facts from the Interdarshan Championship:

A bad joke is also referred to as a "cold joke" in Chinese and Cyno says [我可以説一個冷笑話幫你將溫] to Tighnari after returning to Aaru Village with the disruptor. This roughly translates to "I can help cool you down with a cold joke." (the loc. team did a great job in keeping the funnies by translating it to dry humor)

Kaveh, when talking about Cyno, complains about his "cold humor" and ends with the line [他約你一起去提納里家吃飯的話，你最好多穿件外套] which is, "If he invites you to Tighnari's for a meal, best to bring a jacket." (this was turned into the line about being sober)

#genshin impact #kittybee talks game linguistics #kaveh #cyno #a parade of providence #genshin kaveh #genshin cyno #you need to understand cyno's jokes are some of the best in CN -- nothing will outdo the joke when they arrived at mondstat during windblum #Cyno is a Mahamatra or [大風紀官] and windmills can be called a [大風機關] these 2 are phonetically identical in pronunciation #i've finally leveled the friendship and have gained access to more voicelines woohoo!

[kitsunabi]

omg I just realized that the visitor that Pahsiv (vishap? ;p) keeps mentioning is lost in translation in EN but it's SO GOOD. I specifically kept the tone markings here just to prove my point.

Pahsiv keeps talking about "that visitor", which is rendered in the Chinese text as [那位來客].

[那位來客] is pronounced "nà wèi lái kè"

Neuvillette's name in Chinese is [那維萊特]

[那維萊特] is pronounced "Nà wéi lái tè"

Has Pahsiv just been mispronouncing his name so she ends up saying visitor instead? We know she has limited usage of language so its not a far stretch

#kittybee talks game linguistics #genshin impact #pahsiv #neuvillette #gi neuvillette #i learned that she's gone forever if you buy out her stock D: BIG SAD #took me way too long to figure out that pahsiv is vishap backwards #i was farming the area and being like HM THERE'S A LOT OF VISHAPS HERE I WONDER IF PAHSIV IS OK- WAIT #she's colored like one her eyes are slits she has no melusine friends she has no access to the Court I MEAN #i hope you eat well my friend may that 160 tidalga last you until (if) i see you again #i'd like to imagine pahsiv like I'M TELLING YOU ITS HIM and the Traveler is all Yes Yes I hear you the visitor #look man even in EN if you didn't put together the visitor that was tasting water was Neuvi I'm a little disappointed in you #there's only 1 guy we know who has turned tasting water into a hobby

[kitsunabi]

Alhaitham’s 跚跚來遲 is honestly a hilarious insult to throw at Kaveh and it’s a dang shame the translations don’t quite do it justice. What's even funnier is that if you go into the official subtitles 跚跚 is written as 姍姍.

I believe the English specifically uses "And here's Kaveh, bringing up the rear," and honestly its just not as funny as it could have been

EDIT: ok y'all deserve to know the deets I kept in my tags, so i moved it up to the main post below LOL

#that's the fun thing about chengyu imo is that it's only a few words but it paints a whole other concept/picture #the straight translation of that is >faltering< and that isn't really accurate either #that phrase effectively implies that Kaveh is taking his sweet time even though he knows he's late XD the shade #afaik the 2 diff characters mean the same thing but its a weird case of genderized written text which carries additional meaning #normally you use the women radical as opposed to the foot radical when referring to women (go figure) but the connotation is that kaveh is super graceful and never hurried

姍 is a interesting word that isn't commonly seen on its own but shares a meaning with 跚 (both can refer to slow paces) so it's both shade and fun clever wordplay with homophones

#genshin impact #a parade of providence #kittybee talks game linguistics #kaveh #alhaitham #genshin 3.6 #visually kaveh is Booking It while that VO from alhaitham is going on

[kitsunabi]

Was not expecting the Fu Xuan trailer to stab me in the feels for such a light hearted comment

「…有三防：防火、防盜、防隊友…」

Or roughly,

[…there’s 3 things to guard against: guard against fire, guard against theft, guard against teammates…]

Was this based on experience Jing Yuan?

#honkai star rail #fu xuan #jing yuan #kittybee talks game linguistics #it’s funny bc qingque but also wait that phrase is borrowed from the general…. oh nooooooo

[kitsunabi]

Ah, I see why they translated it to Hat Guy now. It really doesn't quite work in English huh? But honestly 阿帽 is really cute tho....

It makes sense that a phonetic translation of A-Mao would lose the entire fact that "mao" is just [帽] which is the word for hat. But like, using Hat Guy in English just makes wanderer sound that much weirder whereas in chinese that would be valid since that is the way we can shorten names. Like if I really wanted to, I could shorten Yanfei to like.... A-fei or something.

#genshin impact #kittybee talks game linguistics #genshin wanderer #a parade of providence #genshin scaramouche #if I was being silly I would translate it to like.... Hattie or something XD #actually on a slightly more serious note calling him Hatter would be close in vibe rather than Hat Guy but hatter has its own connotations #that's why wanderer goes can't I pick a normal name? and meanwhile in English you're like that aint normal #it's rather normal in the original VO lol #also scanning with nahida is very fun this event #if you did shorten 烟绯 (yanfei) to 阿绯 (a-fei) you’d basically be calling her Red #same logic here but with hat #connotation-wise I’d argue the English does worse since in calling him hat guy you get a sense of distancing #A-Mao I would argue is super familiar as it’s a nickname — like if I suddenly called a Cassandra Cass

[kitsunabi]

An interesting verbal habit that I find that doesn't seem to be captured in translations is Neuvillette's usage of numbers when referring to things. Just a random thing I notice, nothing too wild

Like his second join party line is [十分樂意] which literally would translate to "10 points pleased/willing" with the points being the CN equivalent of saying something like "100%" which would get us roughly to him saying "100% ready/pleased (to do X)"

and that just gets turned into "The pleasure is all mine." Which isn't wrong but like it takes Neuvie's use of numbers in his speech out. I only noticed this because I keep hearing him relate things in numbers which I find kinda ... neat since I haven't picked up many other characters who consistently do this that I've paid particular attention to anyway. Like when one character would use the word "completely" or "totally" or something to that effect, he typically says it like "10pts (100%)".

#kittybee talks game linguistics #neuvillette #genshin neuvillette #I just find it neat *holds speech patterns in my hands* #i heard it again when playing back the archon/companion quest and was like huh that's consistent #when he rescued navia he says that he [maybe had zero point something seconds] and in EN it was rendered as [a fraction of a second] #again not a bad translation its fine but this man likes to refer to things with numbers lol

[kitsunabi]

The xianren (adeptus) hand v cactus joke is killing me

Cactus: 仙人掌 [xiānrénzhǎng]

Cloud retainer who is a xiānrén [仙人] and the palm of her hand is called a zhǎng [掌].

So shaking/holding “an adeptus’ hand” = shaking/holding “a cactus”

#genshin impact #cloud retainer #genshin xianyun #kittybee talks game linguistics #I’m late to the dev video but I laughed when I heard the pun #excuse me while I try to not call her adeptus OTL #I can’t help it I like clever puns #Tech you can make this pun with any of them so like xiao/zhongli/ pinglaolao/etc but yea

[kitsunabi]

Still love that Cloud Retainer’s name, Xianyun (閒雲), is a reference to the expression “xiányún-yěhè”(閒雲野鶴)

#cloud retainer #genshin xianyun #kittybee talks game linguistics #like she IS like that #that she can divert her attentions to taking care of her disciples and tinkering with her inventions #it’s an idea or stereotype that comes from the idea that cranes are like… majestic creatures that thrive I guess you could say in #ideal conditions right? like they need to have no predators (I’m talking like the Big Ones) and to fly that high in the clouds there can be #no adverse weather involved #like red crowned crane big #so that’s where the idea of a high and carefree lifestyle as implied by the expression comes from #when you use that expression to describe someone it’s really kinda equivalent to saying they be living their best life #no worries on the mind as opposed to like… coldly aloof - it’s the former not the latter

[kitsunabi]

Wait can you explain the joke more? Why is she holding a cactus?? What does this mean???

Here's the segment of the stream where it happens along with the zoom for effect LOL

In the subtitle we have "Do not shake Cloud Retainer's hand too tightly - cranes are quite adept at gripping," with the joke being her claws.

What the dev actually said was: [不要和仙人握手。。。那是。。。仙人掌] or "Don't shake an adeptus' hand.... because it's..... an adeptus' palm."

One thing to remember is that adeptus is an interesting translation choice in genshin for immortal beings also known as xiānrén. What makes this hilarious as a funny pun is that he says the term "仙人掌" [xiānrénzhǎng]. Coincidentally, cactus is also "仙人掌" [xiānrénzhǎng]. Saying "an adeptus' palm" and "cactus" in chinese like this means that they're homophones thus identical. So the joke ends up being something like:

"Don't shake an adeptus' hand.... because it's..... a cactus."

where "cactus" sounds identical to "xianren's palm"

#kittybee talks game linguistics #kittybee replies #cloud retainer #genshin xianyun #i pulled a random streamer i have no idea who he is LOL i just needed the timestamp

[kitsunabi]

I really want to know what Ei's internal reaction to Charlotte's "So who's this big sister?" was, lol

A whole TCG event of people getting intimidated by her and then this random reporter just calls her big sis XD

#genshin impact #kittybee talks game linguistics #genshin charlotte #duel! the summoners' summit! #genshin ei #even tho the EN is `who is this?` she actually calls her sis XD #i mean charlotte immediately freaked out upon learning who she was but it was still amusing to hear

[kitsunabi]

Mildly amused by some video guide ppl struggling to pronounce Ruan Mei and Xueyi

If I had to give a cheat sheet…

You would get closest phonetically without branching into non-English phoneme combinations by saying “Ran May” (like “I ran in the month of May”) and “Shway E” (like if you were trying to say “sway” but with an [sh] sound and just saying the letter E)

#kittybee talks game linguistics #I don’t dare crack open EN voiceover but I can imagine how it might go haha #I’ve heared Ruin Me for Ruan Mei LOL

[kitsunabi]

The English translation says “Ma’am” but what Jialiang actually calls Qiqi is “qianbei” and I lost it at that line.

#genshin impact #qiqi #kittybee talks game linguistics #baizhu story quest #genshin qiqi #genshin baizhu #the fact that qiqi is qianbei bc she died earlier plssssss xD #for anyone who needs a quick translation qianbei is like calling someone a senior (akin to senpai in jp)

[kitsunabi]

EN Changsheng: The doctor will see you now! :)

CN Changsheng: Gonna fix them >:)

#genshin impact #kittybee talks game linguistics #baizhu #genshin baizhu #changsheng #changsheng is a good snek #she says 得治治 which is kinda funny imo depending on how you take it as there are no pronouns paired with the phrase #is she saying to heal your team or 'heal' the enemy (w/ a good beating)? We just may never know >:)

[kitsunabi]

Hello!!

Ok, this ask has absolutely nothing about music or rhythm games, but recently a few friends have been downloading a new game, and their game profiles are all over my fb feed, so I tried it out

The game is Reverse 1999, I don't get much of the plot yet except for the fact that my brain tunnel visioned on the whole "raining backwards" cutscene and like time is in reverse thingy the mc is saying

Which is neat, but it's also gacha

Do you think you'll try it out? The game literally just came out ahahaha

-music anon

Oh Reverse 1999 fresh off the press alright. What's interesting to me is that its untranslated title is "重返未來：1999", which actually means "to reverse the future: 1999" if that helps with parsing the plot. The ENG trailer feels very hype at least haha.

By default, it takes a lot for me to play any turn based games, it’s less about not deriving enjoyment but more about…err… I tend to instinctively try and min max to the point it’s less of a game and more of a system of operations that I end up doing aha... if I want to try to get into turn-based combat games I preemptively set up a lot of rules for myself to stick to so that doesn’t happen.

I might pull a few playthroughs to see how the story goes. Some reviews say that the English translations are disjointed so I’m curious how it is in the original. If it’s neat I’ll dabble, tho I might add a new rule of f2p this time, I am juggling a few gachas at the moment

[EDIT: Found a kind soul who did the whole gameplay playthrough]

#kittybee replies #kittybee talks game linguistics #obv you know about hsr and Genshin but I’ve been with food fantasy for several years now haha #i only crack open hi3 if I hear bronya has any spotlight but thankfully (?) the storylines officially moved past the main trio #I tend to hyperfocus which is great if I channel that energy into something like work I suppose