33171 replies to this topic

[furrykef]

It's a little difficult because Osaka has always been a thriving commercial center, so Kansai-ben tends to be translated into English (in cartoons and video games, at least) in two nearly opposite ways: a southern (especially Texan) accent or a Brooklyn accent. (Trivia: the famous "Buy somethin', will ya!" line from The Legend of Zelda was originally in Kansai-ben, probably due to the old stereotype of Osakans as merchants.) Unfortunately, I don't really know anything about other dialects, though I know that most Western Japanese dialects are similar to Kansai-ben (itself a Western Japanese dialect), and sometimes, for some strange reason, old men in cartoons, movies, games, etc. stereotypically speak a mild sort of generic Western Japanese.

Western Japanese also has had strong influence on polite speech in the Standard language, mostly because Kyoto was the old capital of Japan. The words "ohayou" and "arigatou" are conjugated like Western Japanese adverbs. Likewise the phrase that ultimately became "desu" is from Western Japanese, I believe.

Sadly, the Ainu language is nearly extinct. There are only 10 native speakers left (as of 2007), all at least 80 years old, though there are rather more who speak at least some of the language. And yeah, I lament the decline of languages all the time. It seems almost all of the cool languages are dying or dead. I really like Eastern Polynesian languages like Hawaiian, Rapa Nui (the language of Easter Island), and Maori. All of them are endangered, though at least not anywhere near as much as Ainu yet. I also wish I could learn about the Etruscan and Punic languages. Very little of either language survives today, though oddly enough a few of the most common words in English are believed to be of Etruscan origin (via Latin), such as "person", "arena", "belt", and "military". I don't think any of these have been proven, but it seems probable that at least some of these speculative origins are true.

[furrykef]

Oh yeah, I should also mention Kansai-ben is the dialect almost all comedians in Japan speak, even if it's not their native dialect. This came to pass because the first prominent comedians in Japan were from Osaka, and so the dialect got a reputation as the language of humor. A joke's just funnier if told in Kansai-ben.

The upshot is, if I try watching a Japanese comedian, I'm lucky if I can catch a single word...

[GamemasterAnthony]

So...guys...question for you...

 

Anyone want to have a real Honedge?

[Uncle Ben]

So...guys...question for you...

 

Anyone want to have a real Honedge?

 

[RedAuthar]

Sold. 

[Uncle Ben]

[TheRedStranger]

 

[RedAuthar]

._.

[TheRedStranger]

._.

 

That's deep, man...

[RedAuthar]

[Alextendo]

Here's more...

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[RedAuthar]

That's not what I needed to see....ugh...

[furrykef]

I'm having trouble pinning down what a good translation of this sign would be. 民族 means "ethnic group" (no doubt where it got "racist" from), but also "nation" -- but I believe it means "nation" as in people rather than in a political sense. Maybe "Park of Our People"?

[TheRedStranger]

 

I'm having trouble pinning down what a good translation of this sign would be. 民族 means "ethnic group" (no doubt where it got "racist" from), but also "nation" -- but I believe it means "nation" as in people rather than in a political sense. Maybe "Park of Our People"?

 

 

This was their mark..............................................................This is where they landed.

 

I think you got it. I think it was meant to have been their version of "Public park." They got lost in the subtlties of definition within translation, hopscotching to the inapproriate translation of "ethinic group" to race, and then droped the e, added the "ist" suffix, thinking it was making the word an adjective...and there you go.

[TheRedStranger]

 

Wall of brick there yonder. Bang there prease.

[TheRedStranger]

 

I went there once...their gift shop was real crappy.

[RedAuthar]

I heard their business was backing up. 

[ILOVEVHS]

[furrykef]

I have a childhood friend whom I haven't seen in somewhere between 15 and 20 years. His name's Brandon Woodman. Anyway, I keep having these dreams where I end up meeting him again and I'm trying to catch up with him -- what he's been doing all these years and whatnot. Is he still into Sonic? Is he still into paleontology? Does he still draw? But invariably I wake up and, more likely than not at this point, I mutter to myself, "God damn it."

So today I finally met him. We walked around talking about various things and the topic of the dreams came up. I was very nervous about mentioning it because I didn't want it to be taken the wrong way. But it was fine, and I started talking about how I knew it was real this time, because I can distinguish dreams from reality by looking for the right signs. For instance, clocks tend to be inconsistent in dreams, but I knew I wasn't in a dream because it felt like a long time had passed that matched what the clock said. No way it could be a dream.

I don't have to tell you how this story ends, do I?

[ILOVEVHS]

OR WAS IT, KEF?!