a dictionary of obscure joys [narrative] - The Brown Daily Herald - Dictionary

Here are some words. Some are fabricated from words in different languages, some are molded from combinations of words long dead, and some are words that already exist to which I have given new meaning. Some are words that were reaching out with tantalizing fingertips, begging to be rescued from dusty dictionaries, and some are words to which I have simply added a bit of pizzazz. 

amidantino

n. a walk for a little bit with a friend along a path in the woods in contented silence.

French ami, friend + Italian andantino, a little walking. Pronounced “am-ee-dan-tee-noe.”

ataraxie  

n. an understanding of your own infinitesimal smallness that makes you feel more free. Also known as ‘floating rock mentality,’ wherein the realization that we are all simply little creatures living on a meaningless floating rock empowers you to live your life according to your rules alone.

Ancient Greek ἀταραξία, equanimity or tranquility + free. Pronounced “ah-trax-ee.”

buzzy

adj. tipsy is to alcohol as buzzy is to weed—inspiring feelings of giggliness or bubbliness, as well as silly thoughts and perhaps craving for a snack.

A play on buzzed, meaning slightly drunk.

consense

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n. goofy, unfounded, and unbridled confidence in a skill you do not have. 

From confidence + nonsense. 

crisple

n. the act of taking one bite of a fruit, feeling the crunch beneath your teeth and savoring that bite thoroughly, then tossing it away; it’s indulgent, tactless, even cruel. But it was a beautiful bite, and now you’ve finished. 

From crisp + apple.

draíocht

n. the wizened, nostalgic, almost-jealous feeling of watching a wide-eyed child begin to believe in magic.

Gaelic draíocht, witchcraft, magic, charm, enchantment.

elitnaus 

n. perverse pleasure in the conviction that you are smarter than whomever you are talking to; an ego-driven feeling, spurred by erudite hubris and a little bit of elitism. 

English elite + Greek νοῦς (naus), intelligence or knowledge. Pronounced “ee-liht-nah-oos.”

entierity

n. the exploding relief of kissing somebody you've wanted to kiss for a long time; the metal-to-magnet pull between two people that was so strong it was a wonder that they ever managed the strength to prevent themselves from succumbing every second. 

From French, devenir entier, to become whole or complete

etheldream

n. the moment of returning to a childhood place you thought you’d forgotten, only to find that you remember just that shade of ivory the house was painted, or how many steps lead you to the front door, or that the handle had to be twisted to the left twice to open; realizing that your soul retains memory much longer than your mind.

Old English eþel, one’s ancestral homeland + dream, Pronounced “eh-thehl-dreem.”

fêtair 

v. the gleeful anticipation of knowing you have given somebody the perfect gift; hearing them tear through the wrapper and feeling your heart rise, anticipating the smile that will spread across their cheeks as they shout, “No way!” or “You remembered!” in a voice that positively bounces with excitement. 

French fête, party + Gaelic tabhair, to give as a gift. Pronounced “feht-air.”

filoksenia

n. the intimacy of cooking a meal for a stranger.

From Ancient Greek φιλοξενία, friend to a stranger, hospitality. Pronounced “fee-low-seh-nee-ah.”

flaneuse 

n. a female finder and connoisseur of places, who delights in stepping out of the house and onto the street for the purpose of becoming one of a vast army of anonymous trampers, meanderers, adventurers who dally along the streets, not digging deeper than the eye approves but rather briefly glancing over everything we pass as it floats us smoothly down a stream; resting, pausing, and wandering on. 

From French flâneur, one who wanders aimlessly + French feminine ending –euse. Pronounced “flan-oos.”

glamhaut

adj. elegant, feminine, opulent; walking in high heels which click-clack on the ground beneath you while your chin is high because their eyes are on you and they’re seeing exactly what you want them to see: your sculpted collarbone, jaw that could cut glass, and your eyes, which do not so much as deign to look down on them.

From glamor + French haut, as in “haute couture,” meaning high fashion, or “haut talons” meaning high heels. Pronounced “glahm-awt.”

infinite 

adj. feeling your hair fly above your ears because your head is poking out of the sunroof of a car flying down the highway, as if the only sounds in the world are the bass pounding at the seat beneath your feet and the wind whipping past your ears, as if you could scream as loud as you could imagine, but the sound would be left behind as soon as it flew out of your mouth, already in the past.

As referenced in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

irid

n. the ballooning relief of having shed a secret. Perhaps the secret was dark and looming or perhaps it was festering and starting to rot, but it was a secret which has weighed heavily upon you like a great rhinoceros on your chest, and now it is gone. It has slipped away and you feel you might start floating upwards with the sudden lack of it. 

Ancient Greek ίριδα, irida, goddess of the rainbow + rid, to make oneself free of something troublesome. Pronounced “eye-rid.” 

jigsort

v. to set the last piece of a puzzle into its proper place.

From jigsaw + German Ort, place + to sort. 

klarglee

n. the unbelievably pleasant sensation of clean legs against crisp sheets after a long day. 

German klar, clean + glee, great delight. Pronounced “klahr-glee.”

limerence

n. love for a person who doesn’t exist; a precious, private, fantastical kind of love which can live, sparkling and immaculate, in your mind, unburdened with the ties that bind real-life love to the cold and unforgiving earth.

From the work of psychologist Dorothy Tennov, meaning ‘obsessive infatuation with someone, sometimes accompanied by delusions.’ Pronounced “lihm-ur-ehns.”

ludust

n. the small-smile feeling evoked by memories of your very first love who has long since turned to dust in your mind, though you still remember them when you hear a certain song, or smell apple pie.

Greek ludus, playful, young, puppy-dog love + past + dust + lust. Pronounced “luh-duhst.”

macnall tale

adj. delight in your own harmless lies, a kinder synonym for absolute and utter bullshit; a “likely story,” as your mother would say, her voice dripping with sarcasm, or if you asked your father, you’re “full of it.”

Gaelic macnas, playfulness + tall tale.

magpiance

n. the delight in a collection of objects you have amassed—perhaps a small assortment of clocks or pebbles or other eclectic trinkets. 

From magpie, a small black bird famous for its love of collecting. Pronounced “mag-pie-ants.”

melliflux

n. a state of artistic ‘flow’ wherein one’s hands seem to move of their own accord, wild and graceful, as if your artwork and your hands are working with one mind, talking back and forth to each other in a language your mind does not speak, so you must watch with delight from above as they commune.

From mellifluous, sweet sounding and smooth + flux, steady and continuous stream

mirread

v. to read a piece of writing and recognize yourself reflected back, to feel seen and known by an author long dead.

From mirrored + read + myriad. Pronounced “meer-eed.”

piggle 

v. when you laugh so hard and so hysterically that you pee a little.

From pee + giggle

plasconder 

v. to long for spaces that speak to the spirit, spaces that hide the hider themselves (these are places that are small and snug and well-tucked in, secret and quiet and almost intangible, places that are unobservable, yet from which one can observe perfectly well).

From place, a portion of space, a home + Spanish esconder, to hide. Pronounced “play-skon-der.”

punleasure

n. delight in a particularly clever bit of word-play.

From pun + pleasure

quilia

n. a particular care for somebody you love when they are asleep, their face so uncreased and childlike that you want to tuck them in and gently brush their hair back from an impossibly smooth forehead.

From quilt + Greek ϕιλία, (philia), familial love

sensukia

n. a feeling of yearning which inexplicably brings us closer to that place where joy and sorrow meet; the feeling after you wish on an eyelash, or in the middle of a game of “she loves me, she loves me not.” 

From German sehnsucht, yearning; wistful longing. Pronounced “sehn-sue-kee-ah.”

sollevato voce

n. the feeling that, while you sing, your voice is rising and lifted by the voices around you, and you are lifting them in turn.

Italian sollevato, lifted + voce, voice. Pronounced “soll-eh-vah-toe / voe-chay.”

suistalgia 

n. the realization often experienced while looking at your own reflection in the mirror who seems somehow older than you did just yesterday—of what your younger self would think of you now; specifically, that they would fall on the floor in awe of who you have become, that they would be jaw-droppingly stunned by your clothes and your hair and just how grown-up you look, even though you still share the same smile.

Latin prefix sui, meaning self + nostalgia. Pronounced “soo-ee-stahl-gee-ah.”

terrarific

n. delight in being covered in dirt.

Latin terra, earth + terrific.

unwelsh

n. the feeling of being weightless, almost nihilistic, as if you’ve taken a bra off after a day which felt particularly happy and are naked in your bedroom with the windows open.

German Weltschmerz, world-weariness, + unleash, pronounced “uhn-wehlsh.”

vêtemots

n. a kind word, said by a passerby, about something you’re wearing—the article of clothing, of course, will be forever endowed with the power of that compliment and will therefore become something more than it was before. I’ll never wear that scarf again without thinking of that seven year old on the T who told me I looked like her favorite doll. 

French vêtements, clothes + French mots, words.

wynnsome

adj. bouncing, childlike, or perhaps puppylike in one’s bright excitement, joyful like a chanted nursery-rhyme while jump-roping in overalls over steaming blacktop.

From Old English Wynn, delight or joy, + winsome, pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence. Pronounced “wihn-suhm.”

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How one of the greatest visual novels got an English translation because of its fans - Rock Paper Shotgun - Translation

You might not know what Muv-Luv is. I hadn’t even heard of it till a few years ago. Which is strange, since Muv-Luv is considered by many to be one of the most greatest visual novels of all time. What begins as a light-hearted slice-of-life high school romantic comedy eventually pulls the rug out from under the player, and transforms into a war epic featuring mechs and aliens with a much darker tone. In Muv-Luv’s original Japanese release, this twist was hidden and only briefly hinted at in the marketing.

Today both Muv-Luv games are easily available on Steam, marketed specifically with this twist, and where they sit fully-translated and with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews. iOS and Android ports are apparently in development, and other Muv-Luv spin-offs continue to get translated. But the first time anyone experienced a complete English language version of Muv-Luv was in July 2010, when a fan translation group called Amaterasu released a patch localising the first game.

This was announced on Amaterasu’s now-offline blog, where they also hosted all of their fan translations. At the time the majority of English language Muv-Luv discussion on the internet at the time was kept to forums, imageboards, and the comment sections of YouTube videos. In the months leading up to the release of the patch, waves of new people started to discover the series. After its release, the Muv-Luv fandom continued to grow, propped up entirely through word of mouth and driven by the fact that the first game was finally accessible for English-speaking players.

Muv-Luv’s a visual novel in the most traditional sense of the term. Picture games like STEINS;GATE and Hatoful Boyfriend, and you’ve basically got the gist. There’s a lot of reading to do and your input boils down to selecting choices that lead to a specific ending. The series in general stands out for having a very high production value by visual novel standards, using plenty of unique images and animations.

February marked the 20th anniversary of the release of the first game in the series, simply titled Muv-Luv, and developed by a studio called âge (now known as aNCHOR). For years, its sequel — 2006's Muv-Luv Alternative, released after numerous delays — was ranked by players as the number one highest rated game on VNDB, a database for all sorts of visual novels. It’s still the second highest as of writing this. In Japan, Muv-Luv’s extremely popular. The series is far reaching enough that even the creator of the manga Attack On Titan has cited Muv-Luv as a huge influence on the series. It has several spin-offs, anime adaptations and manga. As you might expect, if you like visual novels, it’s hard to write off the success of Muv-Luv.

It's also deeply flawed. Both Muv-Luv and Alternative originally contained adult content, but an “all-ages” version of both was put out later in 2006, and it's version that’s persisted. In general, the series suffers from pacing issues, tonal shifts that don’t always work, and being needlessly, repeatedly crass. If you don’t already like visual novels, it probably won’t change your mind, particularly because the first and second game together span just over 70 hours. It’s not exactly puzzling why a business wouldn’t want to take the risk of localising it for a foreign market.

It’s not exactly puzzling why a business wouldn’t want to take the risk of localising it for a foreign market.

Interestingly enough, Amaterasu’s patch for Muv-Luv was only available online for a few months, and was taken down at the start of 2011 by Amaterasu themselves. In a blog post, Amaterasu mentioned they were currently negotiating a deal with âge, wouldn’t be hosting any of their translations as a result, and that Amaterasu wouldn’t “be asking for any money in exchange for the translation.” A few months later, in March, Amaterasu’s still-in-progress English translation of Alternative leaked before it was complete. For the majority of Muv-Luv fans this was an opportunity to get their hands on more Muv-Luv, and Amaterasu announced in response that they’d be staying silent until they had anything to show.

After eight months of silence surrounding what was happening, Amaterasu finally posted a giant statement to their blog covering what had happened behind the scenes. Mangagamer, a video game publisher that deals with English localisations of Japanese visual novels, was negotiating with âge on Amaterasu’s behalf. Despite months of discussions, Amaterasu were told that âge were not willing to licence the Muv-Luv games, and instead had offered the option to licence another game called Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (an older visual novel that has little to do with Muv-Luv).

Attached to Amaterasu’s statement was a free link to their finished translation of Muv-Luv Alternative, and a reupload of the original English patch for the first game. Mangagamer, as you might expect, were not happy, and issued a response in 2011 saying as much.

I reached out to Amaterasu through a Facebook page to ask them more about this and, surprisingly, actually got a response from a member:

“We were uncertain about the future of securing a licence. A patch had already been leaked with the translation, even though we had declared secrecy on the matter," they said. "A combination of uncertainty in 2011 and with the patch being leaked led us to deciding to release our translation officially when we were able to get together a proper patch.”

For the next few years, the only legal way to play Muv-Luv in English required importing a copy of the game from Japan somehow, and then applying the unofficial Amaterasu patch to it. After the whole ordeal, Amaterasu moved on to translating other games - but the popularity of their patch had proven that there was an English-speaking audience that wanted more Muv-Luv. Another fan translation group called Alternative Projects formed to fill the space that had been left behind. As their blog aptly self-describes itself, it was “Muv-Luv Translations by the fans for the fans.”

Seemingly out of nowhere, in 2015, a Kickstarter campaign to officially localise Muv-Luv in English was launched. At the time, there was a precedent for other Japanese visual novels getting localised through Kickstarter; Clannad, for example, had raised over $540,000 earlier that year. But visual novels in general still weren’t commonplace on Steam — the first few had only started appearing on the platform in 2012.

I contacted Aalt, a fan of Muv-Luv who runs an English language blog that partially covers the series, to find out more. He was asked to join the translation team for the Kickstarter but couldn’t at the time, so instead helped contribute to other areas of the campaign. Aalt tells me that he wasn’t aware of how the Kickstarter began but that he does think “Alternative Projects was an instrumental part of it though, as their translations were high quality for fan translations.”

The campaign was being run as a joint project between âge and a Japanese software company called Degica (perhaps best known for localising RPG Maker). In a podcast featuring Aalt, the leader of Alternative Projects, Degica’s community manager, and Degica’s global manager, it was clarified that Degica and âge had been introduced through a mutual client. But âge’s parent company ixtl was very enthusiastic about the idea of an English translation being funded through Kickstarter.

Within seven hours of the campaign going live, it had already reached its goal of $250,000. By the end of the campaign Muv-Luv had raised over $1.25 million. That's more than Double Fine raised for their game Massive Chalice, and with a fraction of the backers,; Muv-Luv had only 7,890 relative to the tens of thousands for Massive Chalice.

A key feature of the Kickstarter was a re-translation of the series helmed by figures in the community, where the team was made up of both members of Alternative Projects and professional translators that were fans. Amaterasu confirmed to me that Degica bought the rights to their fan translation, and that the re-translation was done using the original Amaterasu translation as a basis. In the end it worked out slightly differently, as Aalt clarified. “The team ended up translating the whole thing from start to finish," he said, "with less than 3% of Amaterasu’s script being used if I remember right.”

Over 13 years after Muv-Luv launched initially, on the 15th of July 2016, Muv-Luv was finally purchasable on Steam for English fans. Muv-Luv Alternative was later released in September 2017. Looking back at it, it strikes me that at every key moment in the history of Muv-Luv’s localisation, it was the involvement of fans that spurred everything on. Every step required volunteers who wanted nothing more than to share what they enjoyed with other people.

“Fan translations ultimately have to carry the torch before the official translations happen,” Aalt said. “Fan translations have shown that the market exists, it's all about tapping it.” The Amaterasu member had simlar thoughts. “It seems localisation tends to be limited to titles that have already been translated, for the most part," they said. "I do not believe (Muv-Luv) would've gotten to that point if no one had translated it, Amaterasu or anyone else.”

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A dictionary of the manosphere: Five terms to understand the language of online male supremacists - Phys.org - Dictionary

Credit: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock

Thot. White knight. Red pilled. Cuck. Beta. Soyboy. Unicorn. Chad.

To many people, these words won't mean much. To others, they are a core part of the vocabulary of the "manosphere"—a collection of websites, social media accounts and forums dedicated to men's issues, from health and fitness to dating and men's rights.

Many (though not all) manosphere communities have become spaces where explicit anti-women and anti-feminist sentiment abound. These include incels, men's rights activists, red-pillers, pick-up artists and male separatists.

I'm interested in how men use language, especially in the media and online, and what this tells us about contemporary masculinity and gender relations. In my recent book, I show how the language of the manosphere creates a culture of exclusion, denigration (mainly of women, but also of other men), male power and entitlement.

Understanding what manosphere terms mean can help teachers and parents start conversations with young men who are engaging with manosphere and male supremacist content. Recognizing how language and ideology are connected can help with deradicalization efforts, or ideally prevent radicalization in the first place. And for young men and boys themselves, this awareness can improve their digital literacy and help them resist manipulation.

For police and other authorities, language can be an early warning system to identify men at risk of carrying out male supremacist violence. Tragedies in Isla Vista, Oregon, Toronto, Tallahassee and Plymouth were all prefaced by the perpetrators publishing male supremacist and incel content.

It is difficult to give a comprehensive overview of every instance of manosphere language. It is a constantly evolving collection of terms, sometimes in response to new issues that emerge, or in an attempt to subvert social media moderation efforts (abbreviations and acronyms are good examples of this). Here are some key terms to know.

Red and blue pill

The cyberpunk blockbuster "The Matrix" is the source of a key symbol in the manosphere—the red pill. In the film, protagonist Neo is offered a choice of two pills. If he takes the blue pill, he will continue to exist in the world as he knows it, which is actually a simulation controlled by sentient machines who have enslaved humanity as a power source. If he takes the red pill, he will be released into the "real world," where the curtain is pulled back and the truth is revealed.

In the manosphere, those who have been "red-pilled" see the world as it really is, understanding the so-called "real" nature of women's behavior and dating preferences. As researchers Megan Kelly, Alex DiBranco and Julia DeCook write:

"Red pillers awaken to the 'truth' that socially, economically and sexually, men are at the whims of women's (and feminists') power and desires."

The pill symbolism has also been taken up by the alt-right and cuts across a variety of conspiracy theories, from the claim of feminism controlling the world to shadowy global elites influencing public opinion.

Alphas and betas

The manosphere is obsessed with status, power, prestige and hierarchy. The idea of alphas and betas is central to this. Originally developed by biologist David Mech in his early work on wolf packs, the "alpha" was argued to be the most socially dominant male. Mech has since refuted this account as overly simplistic.

The concept was co-opted by the seduction community, a community organized around sharing tips and guidance for attracting and seducing women, before making its way to other parts of the manosphere.

Becoming an alpha is an aspirational goal for many men who engage with manosphere content. Alphas are in charge, have their pick of sexual partners and have ultimate control, both of themselves and others. Betas are the polar opposite: physically and psychologically weak, sexually unattractive, timid, submissive, meek and generally lacking in the qualities necessary to attain "real" manhood.

Chads and Stacys

The hierarchy of the manosphere, and the claimed primacy of looks over personality, can be clearly seen in the caricatures of Chads and Stacys.

Chads are the "ultimate alpha"—the ultra-masculine, virile, powerful and sexually attractive man to whom Stacys and other women flock. The term "gigachad" refers to the most alpha of alpha males.

Stacys are an idealization of femininity—a hyper-attractive, sexually desirable, promiscuous but vapid woman. She is ultimately unobtainable, especially to men who are not Chads. Simultaneously the objects of disdain and desire, Chads and Stacys highlight a clichéd view of men and women, rooted in stereotypes and pigeonholes rather than in reality.

Cuck

Shortened from cuckold, meaning a man whose wife has been unfaithful (a term first used as early as 1250), cuck is widely used in the manosphere and alt-right spaces.

The term is strongly associated with a subgenre of "humiliation pornography," in which a man derives sexual pleasure from watching his female partner have sex with another man. Cuck is often used as an insult, especially since the idea of allowing one's partner to have consensual sex with other men goes against heteronormative notions of male sexuality, control and ownership.

In some cases, such pornography also has an interracial dimension, contributing to racist stereotypes of Black men's hypersexuality and hyperphysicality. Linguist Maureen Kosse has written about how cuck is used to "spread covertly racist online discourse by cloaking medieval sexual logic and racial anger in misogynistic humor."

(N)awalt

(N)awalt means "(not) all women are like that." The more common form "Awalt" is typically used to ascribe negative stereotypes to women. Denying their individuality, Awalt is used to suggest women are all vapid, insincere, sexually promiscuous, driven by emotions rather than rationality, motivated by financial gain and more. Awalt is also deployed to emphasize the claim that men are everything women are not—moral, rational, intelligent, loyal, honorable and individualistic.

It is clear that manosphere language is contributing to an increasingly politicized and fractious form of gender relations. By understanding this language, we can better counter it.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Citation: A dictionary of the manosphere: Five terms to understand the language of online male supremacists (2023, April 6) retrieved 8 April 2023 from https://ift.tt/WctZPUK

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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The Pixel's Live Translate feature could soon come to Google Chrome on desktop - Android Police - Translation

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The Pixel's Live Translate feature could soon come to Google Chrome on desktop  Android Police

Fragment of a 1,750-year-old New Testament translation discovered - Phys.org - Translation

The fragment of the Syriac translation of the New Testament under UV light Credit: Vatican Library

About 1,300 years ago a scribe in Palestine took a book of the Gospels inscribed with a Syriac text and erased it. Parchment was scarce in the desert in the Middle Ages, so manuscripts were often erased and reused.

A medievalist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) has now been able to make legible the lost words on this layered manuscript, a so-called palimpsest: Grigory Kessel discovered one of the earliest translations of the Gospels, made in the 3rd century and copied in the 6th century, on individual surviving pages of this manuscript. The findings are published in the journal New Testament Studies.

One of the oldest fragments that testifies ancient Syrian version

"The tradition of Syriac Christianity knows several translations of the Old and New Testaments," says medievalist Grigory Kessel. "Until recently, only two manuscripts were known to contain the Old Syriac translation of the gospels." While one of these is now kept in the British Library in London, another was discovered as a palimpsest in St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai. The fragments from the third manuscript were recently identified in the course of the "Sinai Palimpsests Project."

The small manuscript fragment, which can now be considered as the fourth textual witness, was identified by Grigory Kessel using ultraviolet photography as the third layer of text, i.e., double palimpsest, in the Vatican Library manuscript. The fragment is so far the only known remnant of the fourth manuscript that attests to the Old Syriac version—and offers a unique gateway to the very early phase in the history of the textual transmission of the Gospels.

For example, while the original Greek of Matthew chapter 12, verse 1 says, "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat," the Syriac translation says, "[...] began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them."

Claudia Rapp, director of the Institute for Medieval Research at the OeAW, says, "Grigory Kessel has made a great discovery thanks to his profound knowledge of old Syriac texts and script characteristics." The Syriac translation was written at least a century before the oldest Greek manuscripts that have survived, including the Codex Sinaiticus. The earliest surviving manuscripts with this Syriac translation date from the 6th century and are preserved in the erased layers, so-called palimpsests, of newly written parchment leaves.

"This discovery proves how productive and important the interplay between modern digital technologies and basic research can be when dealing with medieval manuscripts," Claudia Rapp says.

More information: Grigory Kessel, A New (Double Palimpsest) Witness to the Old Syriac Gospels (Vat. iber. 4, ff. 1 & 5), New Testament Studies (2023). DOI: 10.1017/S0028688522000182

Provided by Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Citation: Fragment of a 1,750-year-old New Testament translation discovered (2023, April 6) retrieved 7 April 2023 from https://ift.tt/6T8xHIZ

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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Global Africa Translation Fellowship 2024 (up to $5,000) - Opportunity Desk - Translation

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Global Africa Translation Fellowship 2024 (up to $5,000)  Opportunity Desk

Resident Evil 4 remake updates its Spanish — but not everyone will see it - The Verge - Translation

The game takes strides toward a more authentic Spanish experience but is let down by subtitles that don’t translate everything.

Image: Capcom

“Busco a un policía, vino aquí?” says Leon S. Kennedy to the first villager he meets in the Resident Evil 4 remake. This marks a subtle yet meaningful change compared to the original from 2005. Even without perfect pronunciation or a more natural way to phrase the question, the protagonist makes an effort to speak the local language. A sentiment that the game itself tries — and almost succeeds — to echo during the story.

Resident Evil 4 has always been unapologetic about putting Spanish front and center. While the location in which Leon’s rescue search for Ashley Graham is fictitious, its inhabitants — aside from a few key characters — stick to their linguistic roots. The original didn’t go down in history as an exemplary use of the language, featuring lines with vocal or grammatical mistakes and voice actors speaking Latin American Spanish instead. Yet, unless you already knew the language beforehand enough to understand, you were as clueless as Leon himself.

As a native speaker, I was constantly surprised by the embellishments around the use of Spanish in the remake. For both key characters and the villagers that you stylishly kick and shoot at, the language is expanded with interesting voice lines, proper grammar, and even literary references that didn’t exist in the original. The remake didn’t just involve expanding the game and painting it with modern strokes. It also improved the Spanish foundation from the original. But the uneven use of captions seems unwilling to tell the player the whole story.

The opening sequence starts off with the right ideas. Leon’s question to the villager, in which he asks if he had seen a policeman come through the house, is translated to English in the captions, prefixed by “(In Spanish)” at the beginning of the sentence. The pronunciation is clearly one of a non-native speaker who didn’t get to practice much beforehand. But it gets the point across for a simple and direct question.

Minutes before you enter the house, there is another dialogue exchange between the police officers who give Leon a lift to the village. They stick to English during the ride, but once one of them hops out of the car to take a leak, he promptly complains about how cold it is outside. His partner then mocks him and asks if he drank the whole bar. This is all done in Spanish with the right captions.

Image: Capcom

Much like the darker ambiance of the village or the subtle differences around Leon’s first of many uninvited house entries, it doesn’t take long for the remake to showcase that Spanish will also have an even more prominent presence. At the same time, it’s a natural representation of what two native speakers would usually do in the presence of a foreigner: make themselves understood when speaking directly and then switch back to their own language for conversations with each other or to themselves.

From that moment on, the sense of going through a bilingual experience is recaptured, but the captions do an odd job of selecting what to translate. The same officer who tells the joke in the car isn’t translated when he asks Leon for help later on, as he asks for someone to answer the radio call because he needs support. Even if it’s a short line that doesn’t affect the story much, it’s more than just an isolated scream.

Other phrases are more relevant. Luis Serra, a mysterious character who helps Leon in the original and becomes more of an intermittent sidekick in the remake, refers to Ashley as “señorita” when asking Leon what he’s looking for. The translation here is positively natural, as he responds with “a little girl?” to confirm that his hours spent with Duolingo on his flight to Spain weren’t in vain. In general, however, Luis’ ongoing quips and cusses don’t get the same treatment, with captions showcasing “mierda” and “amigo” as is, as opposed to “shit” and “friend,” or similar variations.

This is a shame, as the character is far more akin to a Spanish person in the remake. Similarly to the officers, he speaks in English most of the time to Leon but is unafraid to take some liberties, such as calling him “Sancho” as a reference to Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote. Ashley is nicknamed “Princess Dulcinea” in a similar vein, and Luis commits to the recurring joke throughout his ventures with you. Once more, Leon repays it with recognition, calling Luis a “fine knight” and, ultimately, “Don Quixote” to bring the joke full circle.

There are multiple examples like these in the RE4 remake. But there is a certain care for cutscenes that is amiss outside of them. As you’re confronting enemies, captions don’t provide translations for either the new dialogue or the lines that have been rerecorded from the original. Sure, it’s pleasant to finally hear accents more akin to Spanish folks than Latin American ones, but there was a missed opportunity here to actually translate them for non-Spanish players.

Throughout the years, the community has provided translations for the original, and it was quick to jump into the remake to keep up with tradition, drawing comparisons between the two to see if mispronunciations and accents had been tweaked. As it stands, history is bound to repeat itself, with players forced to search for meaning behind what they constantly hear in the game from outside sources.

Image: Capcom

Little details such as enemies rightfully switching callouts from singular to plural when Leon is accompanied by a character are gentle but show that there wasn’t a lack of attention in terms of writing and recordings. The iconic “detrás de ti, imbécil” (behind you, imbecile) line turns to “detrás de vosotros, imbéciles” (behind all of you, imbeciles) in the remake. Other lines are surprisingly thorough, a long cultist-style chant around the castle area of the game being a personal standout. Yet, it was disappointing to see additions like this silenced with a dismissive “[ominous mumbling in Spanish]” caption.

In the original, you could make the argument that the game was purposefully portraying Leon’s own lack of knowledge of the language itself. In the remake, however, he’s quick to showcase his broad understanding of Spanish, as well as a basic sense of local literary references. If you’re in the same position, the experience will be much richer as a result, increasing the tension of already frantic combat sequences by hearing enemies alerting others of your presence, setting up traps, or pinpointing that you’re hurt after being attacked. If not, aside from a few exceptions, it will be largely the same experience as the original 18 years ago.

As cheesy and campy as the dialogue in Resident Evil 4 has always been, the commitment to Spanish sets an interesting prospect for native speakers. We don’t have to be knowledgeable of a foreign language in order to understand what is often lost in translation. Considering English’s hegemony over video games, it makes for an enticing change of pace, turning the tables in a way that not many other stories set in predominantly Spanish regions often do. Yet, it falls into the same problem by not translating itself to a wider audience.

As a result, the Resident Evil 4 remake is an ironic showcase of language barriers that Spanish speakers often find in video games. I was optimistic when I saw Leon recognizing the missed opportunities of almost two decades ago in the opening sequence, making an effort to do things differently this time around. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the world won’t be able to understand the valiant endeavors that follow afterward.

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