Originally posted by RyogaMasaki
Otherwise we're gonna be facing questions like 'Is it Zeal or Jeal? Kajar or Kajal? Shilverd or Shilvard or Silvard?'
All of this IMO, of course. I'll just go with the will of the majority of the project. =)
I've found it fairly easy to tell when a Japanese person has a specific English-sounding word in mind but spells it wrong, especially when trying to use sounds that Japanese doesn't distinguish, such as with "Silvard" ('er' and 'ar' are unutterable in Japanese). As easy as it is to criticize such mistakes, they're not half as bad as the pathetic-sounding pseudo-Asian names invented by western authors who don't do their research. When translating such work into Asian languages, the translators face the conundrum of changing the pseudo-name into something more realistic, or letting the mistake remain and making the book/film look truly stupid.
(And here I'm thinking of "Mr. Yakamoto" in Minority Report and "Tagomi" in The Man in the High Castle.)
When the original writer has clearly botched it, the translator should get to make some pre-emptive changes. Ted did fine with Zeal, Kajar (though I think there's a real "Kajal" in the world), Truce, Guardia, etc. |
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