History Main / TranslateTheLoanwordsToo

** Even TheNineties English dub renamed them (despite as mentioned being for the most part in English already), and often gave the same attack multiple names in back to back episodes, often with nothing to do what what the attack looked like... It also dropped the Make-Up! From the transformation phrases.[[note]]Some of that can be explained away by the need to make the lip motions of the characters line up with English pronunciations. Japanese approximations of English words can have radically different numbers of syllables. But only some of it. Other choices were clearly to either dumb things down for little kids such as the words "mandala" and "supreme", or to get rid of things that sounded stupid/too-girly to American ears, like the aforementioned "make up!".[[/note]]

* A joke on ''Series/MockTheWeek'' went: "I don't know why they insist on calling it a ''putsch'' when we have a perfectly adequate English word: ''coup d'état''." Which is French. (Also, a ''putsch'' is a government takeover that ''failed'', while a ''coup d'état'' is usually a successful one.)

** Diablomon served as the villain of the movie ''Our War Game''. When the film was dubbed [[CutAndPasteTranslation as part of]] ''Anime/DigimonTheMovie'', he became "Diaboromon", a [[SpellMyNameWithAnS possible pronunciation]] to a Japanese tongue. This doubled as [[{{Bowdlerise}} avoiding mentioning the Devil]].

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki does this occasionally; for example, their article on ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' gives the Japanese "name" in katakana, and then romanizes it to "Metaru Gia Soriddo Suri Suneku Ita".

However, bear in mind that loanwords sometimes evolve into "false friends," acquiring a different meaning in the new language. While 'confetti' is borrowed from Italian, we haven't taken very good care of it: it means "sugared almonds" in its mother tongue.[[note]]The confusion arises from the fact that sugar-coated almonds were (and in certain regions still are) indeed thrown like confetti, especially at weddings; paper confetti became a cheaper replacement for that. In turn, the italian word for the paper type, "coriandoli", comes from similarly sugar-coated coriander seeds used in the same manner; thus, both words share the same origin as sweets thrown at celebrations and later replaced with cheaper paper bits.[[/note]] Conversely, a German might think that they doesn't need to tell an English speaker what 'handy' means... except that it's a noun meaning "mobile phone" in German.[[note]]An even better example? The word "gift" in German means "poison"[[/note]]

* A joke on ''Series/MockTheWeek'' went: "I don't know why they insist on calling it a ''putsch'' when we have a perfectly adequate English word: ''coup d'état''." Which is French.

However, bear in mind that loanwords sometimes evolve into "false friends," acquiring a different meaning in the new language. While 'confetti' is borrowed from Italian, we haven't taken very good care of it: it means "sugared almonds" in its mother tongue.[[note]]The confusion arises from the fact that sugar-coated almonds were (and in certain regions still are) indeed thrown like confetti, especially at weddings; paper confetti became a cheaper replacement for that. In turn, the italian word for the paper type, "coriandoli", comes from similarly sugar-coated coriander seeds used in the same manner; thus, both words share the same origin as sweets thrown at celebrations and later replaced with cheaper paper bits.[[/note]] Conversely, a German might think that she doesn't need to tell an English speaker what 'handy' means... except that it's a noun meaning "mobile phone" in German.

* There is a fansub of ''Anime/YuGiOh'' which humorously translates duro/draw (as in draw a card) as "pick."

* Diablomon served as the villain of the ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' movie ''Our War Game.'' When the film was dubbed [[CutAndPasteTranslation as part of]] ''Anime/DigimonTheMovie'', he became "Diaboromon", a [[SpellMyNameWithAnS possible pronunciation]] to a Japanese tongue. This doubled as [[{{Bowdlerise}} avoiding mentioning the Devil]].
** The same film also translates Cherubimon as "Kerpymon", possibly another way of dodging around religious references.
*** [[Anime/DigimonFrontier In later appearances]], Cherubimon is used as the name of the same Digimon, to keep in line with Seraphimon and Ophanimon.
** Also, "Arukeni" is the Japanese pronunciation of "Arachne," making calling her "Arukenimon" instead of "Arachnemon" another case of changing the name by ''not'' changing it. It does, however, serve to keep the secret of the fact that she turns into a GiantSpider. The card game has ''many'' such situations where the names are romanized and then left alone, making English words into non-words. The show usually corrects this.

** Creator/AkiraToriyama stated that Vegeta and other aliens' attacks were all mostly in english or [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign english-like]] to evoke a sense of alien-ness to a japanese audience. Conventional wisdom would say the same would be true in other non-english-speaking countries, but this hasn't stopped certain localizations from translating his attacks into their language. In some cases, this leads to the attempted symbolism being [[BlindIdiotTranslation outright inverted]], with Goku and the other earth fighters using foreign untranslated japanese names for their attacks while literal aliens are the only ones speaking in your language.

* ''Anime/CardfightVanguard'' features a deck archetipe known as Blau, whose names feature a lot of GratuitousGerman. One of the first units introduced is Stern Blaukluger, where the "Stern" is clearly meant to be the German word for "Star", yet the Italian dub of the anime translated as it was English, turning it into "Blaukluger Severo". Meanwhile, the card translation got the language right and translated it as "Blaukluger Stella".

* A joke on ''Series/MockTheWeek'' went: "I don't know why they insist on calling it a ''putsch'' when we have a perfectly adequate English word: ''coup d'état''." Which is French. The actual English is "coup d'etat"--or just "coup". Sure, it's a loanword, but from the 17th century, and it appears in every modern English dictionary as an English word (usually without the accent). "Mutiny", also a French loanword, is less than a century older, and doesn't have the right meaning. "Overhaul" is even farther, and "haul" is yet another French loan. If you insist on pure Anglo-Saxon, "uprising" is kind of close. To do better, you'd need to construct a word that might have been in some nearby possible world--maybe "statestroke" for a 17th century coinage, or "statesnarf" for a 21st. [[note]] also there's a good reason to use the word "putsch" rather than any of the alternatives. It's generally only used when the speaker is trying to invoke TheNazis either to scare the audience or for humor. Use of this word is nearly always intended to be incendiary, whereas use of the word "coup" is much more pedestrian.[[/note]]

* A joke on ''Series/MockTheWeek'' went: "I don't know why they insist on calling it a ''putsch'' when we have a perfectly adequate English word: ''coup d'état''." Which is French. The actual English is probably ''mutiny'' or ''overhaul'', but the foreign ones are so much better.
** The actual English is "coup d'etat"--or just "coup". Sure, it's a loanword, but from the 17th century, and it appears in every modern English dictionary as an English word (usually without the accent). "Mutiny", also a French loanword, is less than a century older, and doesn't have the right meaning. "Overhaul" is even farther, and "haul" is yet another French loan. If you insist on pure Anglo-Saxon, "uprising" is kind of close. To do better, you'd need to construct a word that might have been in some nearby possible world--maybe "statestroke" for a 17th century coinage, or "statesnarf" for a 21st. [[note]] also there's a good reason to use the word "putsch" rather than any of the alternatives. It's generally only used when the speaker is trying to invoke TheNazis either to scare the audience or for humor. Use of this word is nearly always intended to be incendiary, whereas use of the word "coup" is much more pedestrian.[[/note]]
* In a similar vain, some Hebrew purists hold that instead of 'sarcasm' (which is borrowed from English who borrowed from Greek by way of Latin) people should say tsiniuth (ציניות, cynicism) which is both not the same thing and comes from Greek.

** The actual English is "coup d'etat"--or just "coup". Sure, it's a loanword, but from the 17th century, and it appears in every modern English dictionary as an English word (usually without the accent). "Mutiny", also a French loanword, is less than a century older, and doesn't have the right meaning. "Overhaul" is even farther, and "haul" is yet another French loan. If you insist on pure Anglo-Saxon, "uprising" is kind of close. To do better, you'd need to construct a word that might have been in some nearby possible world--maybe "statestroke" for a 17th century coinage, or "statesnarf" for a 21st.

* Similar to Diablomon/Diaboromon above, Bra from ''Anime/DragonballGT'' became Bulla, likewise [[SpellMyNameWithAnS a technically possible pronunciation]] in Japanese, to [[{{Bowdlerise}} avoid mentioning feminine undergarments]].

* In the short story "The Chief Designer", Russian spacecraft names usually left in Russian when being discussed in English (Vostok, Mir) are translated into English as well ("The East", "The Peace").

* '' Film/TheRoom'' features this, as Lisa is referred to as Johnny's ''future wife''instead of as his fiancée. This was apparently {{Invoked}} by Creator/TommyWiseau, who, according to ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'', insisted that only English be in the movie.

** The first stage of the FinalBoss was given the name "Bizarro Sephiroth" in the English translation. This was another result of misinterpretation of the katakana - the boss's original name was "Rebirth Sephiroth", a reference to the sefirot from Kabbalah which Sephiroth is named after. However, the katakana for "rebirth", "ribasu", can also be read as "reverse". The translators mistook the name for "Reverse Sephiroth", and [[Woolseyism Woolseyed]] it into "Bizarro Sephiroth". The second phase, "Safer Sephiroth", was a mistranslation of "sefer", another Kabbalah reference.

** In general, foreign translations of ''Sailor Moon'' often translate the CallingYourAttacks incantations, even though in the original Japanese version they were in English -- and thus ''meant'' to be in a different language.

** An infamous case in the original Creator/{{Tokyopop}} translation of the ''Manga/SailorMoon'' manga in Act 39 of the Dream arc, which wasn't about a single word, but an entire English poem by W.B. Yeats. Portions of his "Literature/TheSecondComing" were translated back into English without recognizing that it was originally an English poem, despite it being credited in the text itself (This was fixed in later releases.)

** Other enemy name examples - "Evil Wrap" got rendered as "Bad Rap", "Basilisk" somehow became "Bagrisk", "Coeurl" became "Cuahl", the boss "Proudclad" became the rather amusing "Proud Clod" (this was corrected when an identical boss of the same name appeared as a ShoutOut in ''VideoGameFinalFantasyXIII''), "Geminismi" became "Jemnezmy", "Lesser Ropross" became "Lessaloploth", "Maul Dancer" became the far less threatening "Malldancer", "Moss Slasher" (named because it resembles a gardening implement) became "Moth Slasher", "Jammer Armor" became "Jamar Armor" and "Heretic Hojo" became "Helletic Hojo" (though this could be interpreted as a pun).

** Other enemy name examples - "Evil Wrap" got rendered as "Bad Rap", "Basilisk" somehow became "Bagrisk", "Coeurl" became "Cuahl", the boss "Proudclad" became the rather amusing "Proud Clod" (this was corrected when an identical boss of the same name appeared as a ShoutOut in ''FinalFantasyXIII''), "Geminismi" became "Jemnezmy", "Lesser Ropross" became "Lessaloploth", "Maul Dancer" became the far less threatening "Malldancer", "Moss Slasher" (named because it resembles a gardening implement) became "Moth Slasher", "Jammer Armor" became "Jamar Armor" and "Heretic Hojo" became "Helletic Hojo" (though this could be interpreted as a pun).

** An intentional one that exists in the original Japanese: When naming the game's heroine, the developers started with the idea of calling her "Earth" to suit the source of her magic and contrast with the hero Cloud. The closest way you can say "Earth" in Japanese syllables is "''earisu''", which was then re-transliterated in English letters to create the name Aerith (which also happens to be a SignificantAnagram of "I, Earth"). This was stated in a 1997 interview with Famitsu.

** Barret's mysteriously-named 'Ungarmarx' attack ([[UsefulNotes/{{Socialism}} Marx?]]) was supposed to be 'Angermax'. This was ''not'' kept, and was fixed for the PC port.

** An enemy that looks like a set of scales and uses justice-themed attacks was given the bizarre English name "Jersey". Its name in Japanese was "''jajii''", the English word "Judge".

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[[folder: Eastern Animation ]]

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* Near the end of ''Literature/TheGunsOfTheSouth'', a manifesto for the AWB [[spoiler:recovered from the raid on their offices in Richmond, after they've turned on the Confederacy]] contains a reference to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and ''Mein Kampf''. The problem is that the book is written entirely in Afrikaans, and Afrikaans didn't exist in 1868 ([[CriticalResearchFailure It did, by the way.]]), so the translator the Confederates bring in is left to translate it from his knowledge of German and Dutch, as well as his own guesswork. Since ''Mein Kampf'' didn't exist yet either, the translator translates it as ''My Struggle'' when reading the reference back to Lee.

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[[folder:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun: The Lost Age'''s BonusBoss has an attack where he hits you with a ''gigantic'' sword made of lightning, called "Formina Sage". This turned out to be a bad re-translation of "Fulminous Edge", the name used in the sequel.
* Some creatures in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow]]'' had their names wrongly transliterated from the Japanese, from simple things like "Arc Demon" (which is just missing an H to the proper form, "archdemon") to stuff like "Skull Millione" (which should be "Scarmiglione", one of the demons in Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'') and "Alura Une" (it should be "Alraune" - this error carried over to ''Dawn'' as well). One that's particularly funny, though, is an enemy called "Curly", which should actually be "Kali", as in, the four-armed Hindu goddess after whom this enemy is patterned. Another demon got the {{Unfortunate Name|s}} of "Lubicant". ''Videogame/FinalFantasy'' fans should immediately recognize Rubicante.

** Another one that got kept in later appearances: Cloud's upwards-jumping L2-1 Limit Break was recursively translated from 'Climb Hazard' to 'Climhazzard'. This name is used in Cloud's cameo in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros 4'', amongst others.

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* This quote from ''Series/XPlay'' reviewing ''{{Gladiator}}'' the game:
-->'''Young Augustus Ceasar''' (thinking): "'Et tu, Brute...' And you, Brutus...."
-->'''Morgan:''' "That's right: He's translating Latin -- ''to himself!''"
* ''Good'' translations, fan and official, often do this because of the GratuitousEnglish trope, and the fact that many loanwords aren't used by the borrower in the same manner as in the original language. Chances are, you've probably never heard 'diamond' shortened to 'dia,' ice cream merely called 'ice,' or a two-person team called a 'combi' if you're a native English speaker. In the same vein, there are even terms that are not immediately recognizable as English (such as portmanteaus of two words' katakana spellings. Dekotora = '''deco'''rated '''tru'''ck.[[note]]If you care, dekotora basically involves decorating your big rig the way you would a christmas tree.[[/note]]) You can get even more confusing with "tension" - which can mean excitement. Think of an upcoming game, battle, CookingDuel, or somesuch. Leaving it turns the character's feelings of "Oh, yeah!" into "OhCrap!" - the ''exact opposite'' of what the writer intended the speaker to be feeling. There's more where those examples came from, in ''each'' category.
** This extends to names, too. When you're translating something that uses loanwords from literature, it can get a little draining. Like the ''Manga/SailorMoon''-Yeats example above, entire themes can be missed because someone didn't read ''Theatre/{{Othello}}''.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

** Some attack names mix Japanese loanwords from European languages with English words, which can get confusing quickly. Conflict often arises between those who want a literal translation of all non-Japanese dialogue and those who prefer to [[{{Woolseyism}} smooth things out to sound better in English]]. As a result, the same attack can easily have about three or four different names depending on who you ask. Take Sailor Mercury's シャボンスプレー, for example. Shabon Spray? Sabão Spray? Soap Bubble Spray ("soap" being the English translation of the loanword "shabon")? Who the hell knows?

** The most obvious (and beloved) mistake in the game is garbling Cloud's 'bastard-sword' to 'Buster Sword'. [[GoodBadTranslation This has been kept in better-translated material]], because it turns it from a generic weapon type with an [[HaveAGayOldTime awkward name]] to a cool name for a special sword (that works as a pun on the phrase 'cloudbusting').