While this doesn't relate so much to the actual translation of Pokemon Red, I'd thought I'd keep you up to date on how the process is going.
Previously, I had been using a .txt file in a Dropbox to type in my translations. The other day, when I went to work on it, I opened the file to see that all of the diacritic characters (ŝĝŭĵĥĉ) had been replaced with questions marks! (?)
Apparently, I (or ShootingStarMax) opened and edited the document and saved it in a form that didn't support diacritics. I loaded up an older version of the file and picked up from there, only losing a couple of dialogues. Because of this, I have now switched to using Google Docs, though I may revert later if I end up not liking it.
On something a bit more relevant:
Esperanto, being a Construct Language, has some peculiar features/lack of features that you don't find elsewhere. For example: I encountered a BUG CATCHER who says "darn" when defeated. "Darn," being a minced oath, has no perfect translation. It's just a corruption of the word "damn." I know how to swear in Esperanto, but it didn't seem quite the path to take when translating this, so I was forced to come up with a minced oath in Esperanto. I settled on using "feg," at least for now.
By the way, if anyone could help me find a Japanese Script for Pokemon Red, I'd be very appreciative. It would help a lot with things like this.
Gis!
Have you considered convincing your partner to use LibreOffice and saving in .odt files?
ReplyDeleteWhile I do use LibreOffice for writing papers and the like, I much prefer basic text editors. Specifically gedit, which is what I have been using primarily.
DeleteDear unknown: As far as I know, even Office 2007 can open .odt files, there's no longer reason not to use it as a main file format.
ReplyDeleteNow, about the minced oaths. As a speaker of Ido, I'm aware of the word "damne" which means "damn". Not sure if said word exists in Esperanto, but I also thought about mincing it to "darne". "Feg" looks like a good mincing, since both K and G are plosive velars and phonetically related.
It's "Damni" in Esperanto (infinitive). And yes, the phonological relationship between [k] and [g] was my reasoning behind the change.
DeleteI would personally reccommend translating that as "fush'". The people I speak Esperanto with say this a lot- Aww that sucks! - "Ahh kia fush'" - Crap! - "Fush'!"
ReplyDelete