Japanese Ranguage: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'' 'L's and 'R's: It's a 50/50 [[Cricket|bat (sic)]] and they ALWAYS get it wrong!.''|'''[[Stephen Fry]]''', ''[[Quite Interesting|QI]]''}}

 

 

Whele a joke is made about plonouncing "R's" and "L's" incollectry in Japanese, or othel plonunciations.

The Japanese R can also occasionally sound to English-speakers like a D (specifically, the "tap" that replaces unstressed /t/ and /d/ in North American and Australian English), but not much seems to be made of this in media.

 

 

There is one more problem like this - "V" is replaced with "B".

* In the ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' episode "Baseball Blues", the interpreter Doubleday talks like this. Like everything else in the episode, it's played for comedy.

* The opening credits of ''[[Slayers]] NEXT'' feature a map where the city of Seyruun is spelled "Sailoon"

** This is actually the proper spelling, as the name of the nation is meant to reference the similarities between Amelia and [[Sailor Moon]].

** Then, of course, in the second episode of ''Try'', Amelia's fist reads "HUNGLY" in one frame.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VjSfnhCNm8 According to] [[Crispin Freeman]], [[Word of God|Hirano himself]] confirmed (after the series had concluded) that "Alucard" is the correct spelling. The anime directors simply didn't know what they were talking about.

** Is a bit more complicated than that: "Alucard" from Castlevania fame predates Hellsing and the author wanted to avoid any legal issues, so in his characteristic [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] he let the name spelling be wrong and the fans to figure it out. It is even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by some antagonist (something about the lines of "I don't care if your name is Alucard or Arucardo")

* A recurring instance of this comes in many [[Mecha]] series, where the giant robots' heads-up displays will read "ROCK ON" instead of "LOCK ON". Banpresto included a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of this in the [[Game Boy Advance]] ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games, where [[Gundam Wing|Wing Gundam Zero]]'s targeting display says "ROCK" on the left side...and "[[Rock N Roll|N ROLL]]" on the right.

** The anime series for the second ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'' game seems to be turning this into a running gag, as the term "ROCK ON" appears twice within the first four episodes. Then again, if "AN ERROR" is any indication, it may be a legitimate mistake.

*** The anime is directed by Masami Obari, who also gave us [[Gravion|STATUS CLITICAL]], so yeah.

* The late 70s anime ''Captain Future'' was adapted from an American pulp science-fiction series. Unfortunately, these American roots were [[Did Not Do the Research|unknown to or ignored by]] the makers of the German dub, resulting in pseudo-English character names re-translated from Japanese: female sidekick John Randall turns into Joan Landor, Marshall Ezra Gurney becomes Ezella Garnie, and [[Arch Enemy]] Ul Quorn goes by the name of Vul Kuolun.

* ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]'' gives us the term "dunpeal", which is what happens when the word "[[Dhampyr]]" is subjected to this trope.

* The heroine of [[Gunsmith Cats]] is named Rally / Larry Vincent.

* Need we mention Ravi/Labi/Rabi/Lavi from [[D/Gray-Man]]? Even the official publishers don't know how to translate this guy's name!

* On the same note, Maito Guy/Might Guy/Mighty Guy/Maito Gai/[[Accidental Innuendo|Mighty Gay]] from [[Naruto]].

* The Funimation dub of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' gives this, naturally, to Japan. And seems to make a point of giving him the opportunity to exclaim "I can't berieve zis!"

* The B-V version of this trope is probably the reason [[Black Lagoon]]'s female lead is nicknamed "Revy." "Reby" would be a more natural shortening of "Rebecca," but "Revy" is the official translation for some reason. Possibly because it looks and sounds cooler. "Levy" also crops up in some translations.

 

 

== Firm ==

 

* ''[[A Christmas Story]]'': "Tis the season to be jorry. Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra, ra, ra"

** May be a [[Lampshading]], since the old Asian man immediately yells at them, "Not 'ra-ra-ra-ra' -- falalalala!", and gives up when they fail to get it right.

** They may have been simply jerking their boss's chain for the Parker family's amusement. They do immediately switch to another L-heavy carol, rather than something else.

* Invoked intentionally by the Chinese Uncle Benny in ''[[Lethal Weapon 4]]'': "That's ''fried rice,'' you plick!"

* A plot point in ''[[Chinatown]]''. "Bad for glass".

== Ritelatule ==

 

{{quote| "Prease to frasten sleat-bert."}}

* [[Robert Anton Wilson]]'s ''Schroedinger's Cat'' trilogy has a character who gives an impassioned pre-hanging speech with all the Ls and Rs swapped.

** In the "China" episode of ''Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off'', Giles attempts the same joke, which the waiter interprets literally and starts apologising for profusely, whilst Giles feebly explains what he was trying to do.

* [[Jasper Carrott]] did a routine referencing this about how if a group of British people go to any far-eastern restaurant somebody in the group will impersonate the waiter too loudly "Flied lice, ha ha ha! As if he's deaf! He gets it every night of his life. He goes straight to the kitchen and pisses in the soup, it's your own fault!"

{{quote| '''Captain Peacock:''' You must understand, Mr. Lucas, that this man is Japanese and he has difficultly getting his [[Double Entendre|tongue round his r's]]}}

* One episode of ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'' had a joke featuring this, resulting to one of the panellists complaining about "razy lacism".

** The Dutch version, after an item about an escalator being stolen in China, had a pun featuring this. Sadly, it doesn't work in English.

* [[Shadow Hearts]] has the problem of translator turning all R's into L's, and all B's into V's. There's a character called Halley - didn't it occur to anyone on the translation team that his name might be Harry?

** ''[[Persona 2]]: Eternal Punishment'' has the same problem with a spell: Lily's Jail or Release Jail?

** ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' for the Master System, while generally better than the NES game, had Gozer's name transliterated as "Gorza".

** Similarly, ''[[Samurai Shodown]] 4'' <s>conglaturated</s> <s>congraturated</s> congratulated the battle winner with a message of "VICTOLY!"

** [[The King of Fighters]]: "Laund bun! Lady... Goh!"

** Also crops up in anime sometimes, though a little differently. On more than one occasion screens had announced missile lock with '[http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/337493/cap-engrish-g_gundam-gundam-gundam_rose-mecha-rang Rock On],' unintentionally invoking [[The Power of Rock|a different trope]] at the same time.

** An interesting example exists in [[Guilty Gear]], where the special blocking technique that avoids chip damage but uses up the super bar can be transliterated as Faultless Defense or Fortress Defense, both of which describe the technique accurately. Also, a variant of an [[Animation Cancel]] move that requires super bar energy can be either False Roman Cancel (False because it resembles the real one but uses half as much energy) or Force Roman Cancel (an FRC can always be used, even if your attack misses, while a regular RC can only be used if you make contact).

*** Arc System Works apparently likes puns based on this trope, considering that [[Blaz Blue]] can be read as "Blaze Blue" or "Brave Blue" from the kana.

** And Lord British / Road British in ''Salamander / Life Force''.

* ''[[Cooking Mama]]''

* ''[[Kirby]]'' fans familiar with the early games may know a recurring miniboss character named Mr. Frosty, an ice cube-throwing walrus. The localization staff for ''Kirby & the Amazing Mirror'' must not have been so familiar, as the character was dubbed Mr. '''Flosty'''.

* In the NES version of ''[[Double Dragon]]'', the name Roper is romanized into "Lopar" in the manual.

** [[Memetic Mutation|!]]

* ''[[Touhou]] 12.8: Fairy Wars'' has one of the more amusing instances of this, as the accompanying English translation for the final battle music with the intended [[Title Drop]] is written as "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuK87fEVg0I Faily Wars]".

* ''Air Gallet'': "Air ''Garrett'', blows your socks off!"

* An engrish mistranslation resulted in one of the bosses in ''[[Devil May Cry]]'', Nero Angelo (Black Angel in Italian), being referred to as Nelo Angelo.

** Similarly, the fourth game has a demon named Berial, rather than Belial.

* Origami Kid in ''[[Comic Jumper]]''.

* [[Metroid]]: Although "Varia" does [[Your Mileage May Vary|(depending, of course, on the player)]] evoke a certain sense of endurance and versatility appropriate to the armor upgrade's effect, if it had been transliterated as ''"barrier"'', it might have made a bit more sense ("b" and "v" can be transliterated interchangeably, and as alluded to in the description, an "-er" ending can be approximated by an extended "a" or "ah" sound).

* There is a Famicom game titled ''The Triathron''.

* Nute Gunray in ''[[Darths and Droids]]''.

{{quote| ''As you know, our brocade is perfectly regal.''}}

 

== Westeln Animation ==

* Used frequently in stand-up acts, particularly that of John Pinette, when talking about a Japanese family wanting to see "[[Free Willy]]". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfDSZkQvuXU Hilarity ensues.]

* A Japanese commercial for Jelly Beans (cell phones, not the candy) was accompanied by a song about... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPH4NI7EFh8 Jerry Beans].

* When Douglas MacArthur was considering running for President, a sign erected by Japanese citizens in Tokyo read: "We pray for MacArthur's erection."

* In [[Bill Bryson]]'s BBC radio series about the English language "Journeys In English", one of his guests, a well-spoken Japanese university lecturer living in England, while speaking about the problems for any Japanese learning English still says "plonunciation" and "my Engrish sometimes causes some probrems".