Warrior of Light: ç§ã¯çŒ«ã§ã™ã€‚(Watashi wa neko desu.)
Alphinaud: ç§ã¯çŒ«ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã™ã€‚ (Boku wa neko desu.)
Minfilia:ç§ã¯çŒ«ã§ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã™ã€‚(Watakushi wa neko de arimasu.)
House Dzemael: å¾è¼©ã¯çŒ«ã§ã‚る。(Wagahai wa neko de aru.)
First Sword Mylla: ã†ã¡ã¯çŒ«ã 。(Uchi wa neko da.)
For those of you who are astute, experienced or simply just looked it up on the internet—every one of those (rather poorly constructed) sentences translates, very literally to: "I am a cat."
Yes. I got the idea from the 1905 Japanese novel I Am a Cat.
Despite every one of those sentences convening the same meaning (The speaker being a cat) each one of them carries a very different intonation. The WoL is speaking in the neutral register. Alphinaud is speaking as a cocksure young lad. Minfilia is a demure woman. Those in House Dzemael are pompous, bombastic and confrontational. Mylla, the Gladiator Grandmaster, is speaking in a thick, regional accent with little need for polite social structure. None of these are "poetic" or "flowery", they each have their own place in the Japanese lexicon and you can tell a lot about a person by their tone and register.
Now, I haven't done very much formal education in Japanese. In fact, I haven't done any formal education in Japanese. I've been there, yes, for a period of time. But that's about it. But I do know enough that every time I see people hark and place "the Japanese version" of anything on a pedestal I immediately get the referee to raise the yellow card.
I'm going to say it: It stinks of weeaboo.
I get it. You want the subtle intonation, the 'hidden deeper meaning', the intrigue that comes with skillful use of conversational register—keigo.
Well, we don't have that option in English. When one wants to bump up to a more polite register, we stop using contractions. We enunciate our words firmly and more clearly. We can add or subtract words such as please and thank you but there is simply no analogue to Japanese grammar structure in English. It isn't that it'd be hard to translate literally... It's impossible. You're asking to convert kilograms into Ohms.
Edit: All this talk about tone and register and it seems as though I made my post waaaay too confrontational than I anticipated. Apologies. Changed my wording around.
Alphinaud: ç§ã¯çŒ«ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã™ã€‚ (Boku wa neko desu.)
Minfilia:ç§ã¯çŒ«ã§ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã™ã€‚(Watakushi wa neko de arimasu.)
House Dzemael: å¾è¼©ã¯çŒ«ã§ã‚る。(Wagahai wa neko de aru.)
First Sword Mylla: ã†ã¡ã¯çŒ«ã 。(Uchi wa neko da.)
For those of you who are astute, experienced or simply just looked it up on the internet—every one of those (rather poorly constructed) sentences translates, very literally to: "I am a cat."
Yes. I got the idea from the 1905 Japanese novel I Am a Cat.
Despite every one of those sentences convening the same meaning (The speaker being a cat) each one of them carries a very different intonation. The WoL is speaking in the neutral register. Alphinaud is speaking as a cocksure young lad. Minfilia is a demure woman. Those in House Dzemael are pompous, bombastic and confrontational. Mylla, the Gladiator Grandmaster, is speaking in a thick, regional accent with little need for polite social structure. None of these are "poetic" or "flowery", they each have their own place in the Japanese lexicon and you can tell a lot about a person by their tone and register.
Now, I haven't done very much formal education in Japanese. In fact, I haven't done any formal education in Japanese. I've been there, yes, for a period of time. But that's about it. But I do know enough that every time I see people hark and place "the Japanese version" of anything on a pedestal I immediately get the referee to raise the yellow card.
I'm going to say it: It stinks of weeaboo.
I get it. You want the subtle intonation, the 'hidden deeper meaning', the intrigue that comes with skillful use of conversational register—keigo.
Well, we don't have that option in English. When one wants to bump up to a more polite register, we stop using contractions. We enunciate our words firmly and more clearly. We can add or subtract words such as please and thank you but there is simply no analogue to Japanese grammar structure in English. It isn't that it'd be hard to translate literally... It's impossible. You're asking to convert kilograms into Ohms.
Edit: All this talk about tone and register and it seems as though I made my post waaaay too confrontational than I anticipated. Apologies. Changed my wording around.
