How do they translate 'Urianger speak' into other languages?

How do they deal with all the ye olde English in other languages? Does it get translated to ye olde Japanese for example, or do they do something else?

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Originally Posted by JTF-Taru

How do they deal with all the ye olde English in other languages? Does it get translated to ye olde Japanese for example, or do they do something else?

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My understanding from my japanese speaking friends descriptions is basically that. He speaks in VERY old style/dialect using exceedingly formal words most of the time.

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Originally Posted by JTF-Taru

ye olde English

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If a layperson can understand it, it's not old English. English has changed so much since old English that to understand it you would need at least some training in historical linguistics or specific study in old English.

Urianger's vocabulary is even more archaic than the rest of the cast, but it's still just English.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

If a layperson can understand it, it's not old English. English has changed so much since old English that to understand it you would need at least some training in historical linguistics or specific study in old English.

Urianger's vocabulary is even more archaic than the rest of the cast, but it's still just English.

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#ACKSHUALLY

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Originally Posted by Rongway

If a layperson can understand it, it's not old English. English has changed so much since old English that to understand it you would need at least some training in historical linguistics or specific study in old English.

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As someone who has specificallg studied Old English and read OG Chaucer and Shakespeare in their original form, can confirm.
This is accurate.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

If a layperson can understand it, it's not old English. English has changed so much since old English that to understand it you would need at least some training in historical linguistics or specific study in old English.

Urianger's vocabulary is even more archaic than the rest of the cast, but it's still just English.

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Yeah. His word use is...eccentric, but I have no problems following everything he says.

Broadly speaking, when someone says "ye olde english", they are refering to the trope, not the language. It's shorter than saying "do they do the equivalent to saying thee and thou and putting e at the end of words we haven't done in centuries?"

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Originally Posted by ChazNatlo

Broadly speaking, when someone says "ye olde english", they are refering to the trope, not the language. It's shorter than saying "do they do the equivalent to saying thee and thou and putting e at the end of words we haven't done in centuries?"

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Sure, but some people also don't understand that the trope is not Old English. We still get the occasional "what's with all the old english?" in both the Novice Network and the localization forum.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

Yeah. His word use is...eccentric, but I have no problems following everything he says.

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As for me, usually there is no problem...until he says something like "puissant". Never would have guessed what it meant without looking it up.

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Originally Posted by Misplaced_Marbles

As for me, usually there is no problem...until he says something like "puissant". Never would have guessed what it meant without looking it up.

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It's not a terrible thing to have to stop and look up a dictionary sometimes, though. It expands your vocabulary. :)

Funny part that I figured out when I played through I think it was ShB... He uses the worth "thither". This is quite uncommonly used in English, but it's actually used a lot(translated, of course, the concept) in Swedish. It means "to go to a specific place". In modern English we usually just say "over there".

I don't think there was a word of his I had to look up. I kinda like archaic words. lol

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Originally Posted by Krotoan

My understanding from my japanese speaking friends descriptions is basically that. He speaks in VERY old style/dialect using exceedingly formal words most of the time.

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According to the lore, Doman's speak the same language as the majority of places. They don't speak a Hydaelyn version of Japanese. Hence why they sound mildly British.

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Originally Posted by JTF-Taru

How do they deal with all the ye olde English in other languages? Does it get translated to ye olde Japanese for example, or do they do something else?

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In French he doesn't use "old French" more than anyone else. The structure of his sentences is a little bit more complex, but nothing like his English dialogues in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

According to the lore, Doman's speak the same language as the majority of places. They don't speak a Hydaelyn version of Japanese. Hence why they sound mildly British.

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I'm reasonably sure OP means localization, not in game languages.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

If a layperson can understand it, it's not old English. English has changed so much since old English that to understand it you would need at least some training in historical linguistics or specific study in old English.
Urianger's vocabulary is even more archaic than the rest of the cast, but it's still just English.

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I'm not talking about Old English.

'Ye olde English' means a kind of faux old fashioned English you get mostly in fictional media. I just wondered how it was translated into other languages.

For the record, we had Middle English after Old English. And not everyone spoke a form of English. Some spoke Old Norse or one of the Celtic languages. And there were various dialects of each language.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

Sure, but some people also don't understand that the trope is not Old English. We still get the occasional "what's with all the old english?" in both the Novice Network and the localization forum.

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Isn't it just Middle English? The two are quite different.

I would say he speaks Shakspearian; not really an older form of english. Learning about "middle english" was weird.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

If a layperson can understand it, it's not old English. English has changed so much since old English that to understand it you would need at least some training in historical linguistics or specific study in old English.

Urianger's vocabulary is even more archaic than the rest of the cast, but it's still just English.

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You're being pedantic here when the question wasn't "what dialect of English does Uriangier speak" but rather questioning how that's localized in French, Japanese, and German.

But since that's the topic, he speaks Early Modern English, which was the language used about 300-400 years ago. So to many people's perception of time, that's pretty old.

In german, he doesn't really use a different manner of speaking compared to the other Scions.

Its barely noticeable in german, I'd say - the odd sentence might be a bit more complicated than absolutly necessary and the odd word might be exchanged for a more "sophisticated one". But nothing that would remind you off middle high german (which, from my understanding must be the equivalent to middle english).

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Originally Posted by RicaRuin

In german, he doesn't really use a different manner of speaking compared to the other Scions.

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Word :0 I wonder if that would change my impression of him as a character.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

If a layperson can understand it, it's not old English. English has changed so much since old English that to understand it you would need at least some training in historical linguistics or specific study in old English.

Urianger's vocabulary is even more archaic than the rest of the cast, but it's still just English.

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I have training in historical linguistics, and I have found Old and Middle English to to exceedingly readable to laypeople. Once you point out a couple small phonetic quirks and, depending on the document, that certain letters look a little different, it is surprisingly similar to modern English. At least similar enough for a layperson to grasp the overall message.

The in-game explanation is that he was so studious and didn't talk with that many of his fellow students, so his vocabulary and manner of speaking are more reflective of what he read all the time than what he heard.

So now what I absolutely need is Urianger mispronouncing a word that he'd only read, and never heard anyone actually use in spoken language, because this is a thing that happens with highly educated English speakers! If we don't hit up the dictionary, we can continue to mispronounce it for years. I had a giggle fit when my (very intelligent, highly educated) husband mispronounced "epitome" as "eh-pee-tome" because he'd never actually heard anyone say the word aloud. My personal pitfall was "faux pas" because we have no local French speakers in my corner of the US, so I said "fox paws" for years until someone had to correct me.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

The in-game explanation is that he was so studious and didn't talk with that many of his fellow students, so his vocabulary and manner of speaking are more reflective of what he read all the time than what he heard.

So now what I absolutely need is Urianger mispronouncing a word that he'd only read, and never heard anyone actually use in spoken language, because this is a thing that happens with highly educated English speakers! If we don't hit up the dictionary, we can continue to mispronounce it for years. I had a giggle fit when my (very intelligent, highly educated) husband mispronounced "epitome" as "eh-pee-tome" because he'd never actually heard anyone say the word aloud. My personal pitfall was "faux pas" because we have no local French speakers in my corner of the US, so I said "fox paws" for years until someone had to correct me.

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Hahahah that's a great idea~
It would make for a fun scene with the scions that's for sure.
I'm def guilty of this too so I'd certainly get a good laugh. That'd be a really endearing moment.

Maybe he's mispronounced some things in the unvoiced cutscenes and everyone else is too polite to correct him.

Either that or they don't know the word either.

He *does* pronounce some words weirdly.

Speaking from what I've seen of the Korean cutscenes but not able to actually play them myself, Urianger uses the most formal form of Korean possible while still speaking in a modern dialect (commonly called the hasipsio-che) instead of resorting to the ye-olde-Korean used in things like historical or period dramas or the Bible. Thing about Korean speech levels is that they have both different forms of politeness and formality, and you'd use them differently depending both on the situation you're speaking in as well as who you're speaking to. Hasipsio-che is both formal and polite and has the added bonus of elevating the listener in honorific while showing humility on your end. It's usually used in like, news broadcasts and presentations, but Urianger uses it with everyone.

Edit to add: I've only seen a handful of cutscenes of Korean Urianger, so I can't really say one way or another if the vocabulary he uses is exceedingly formal, too. Hasipsio-che is a form of conjugation, not necessarily the vocab, but I have no reason to assume he isn't using the more formal and honorific vocab too (Korean has a whole other set of vocab words you use when speaking about people who merit respect, it's a ThingTM).

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Originally Posted by Misplaced_Marbles

As for me, usually there is no problem...until he says something like "puissant". Never would have guessed what it meant without looking it up.

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"Puissant" is a French word, as far as I recall. As a new FFXIV player recently migrated from WoW, I truly like and am impressed by the writing in this game. Is there some info I can look up showing me who the writers are? Is the text originally written in Japanese, then translated into English? Or are there 2 teams, listening to the story instructions from the designers and then going to work writing the copy separately in the 2 languages? I'd be interested in finding out more about this process.

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Originally Posted by Brennus

"Puissant" is a French word, as far as I recall. As a new FFXIV player recently migrated from WoW, I truly like and am impressed by the writing in this game. Is there some info I can look up showing me who the writers are? Is the text originally written in Japanese, then translated into English? Or are there 2 teams, listening to the story instructions from the designers and then going to work writing the copy separately in the 2 languages? I'd be interested in finding out more about this process.

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There's an interview with the localisation team (Part 1, Part 2) where they mentioned this. The Japanese and English is written concurrently, with both the original writers and the English language teams bouncing ideas off of each other while referring back to Natsuko Ishikawa and Banri Oda for final approval, is how I understood it. Or that the English localisation team has the most active collaborative role in how the writing actually happens for the localisations. It's a very interesting read if you've got the time!

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Originally Posted by glitteringcosmos

There's an interview with the localisation team (Part 1, Part 2) where they mentioned this. The Japanese and English is written concurrently, with both the original writers and the English language teams bouncing ideas off of each other while referring back to Natsuko Ishikawa and Banri Oda for final approval, is how I understood it. Or that the English localisation team has the most active collaborative role in how the writing actually happens for the localisations. It's a very interesting read if you've got the time!

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Thanks, I'll definitely check these out!

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Originally Posted by Brennus

"Puissant" is a French word, as far as I recall.

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I know, i looked it up. Supposedly from (old) French and (unsurprisingly) Latin "Posse".