Weird game names?

Started by maxellnormalbias, October 21, 2014, 09:07:21 pm

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maxellnormalbias

This might sound really stupid but I am learning katakana and I realized that some game names like "Contra" are spelled funny, like "Contora". (こんとら in hiragana, I don't know how to type katakana)

Has anyone else noticed this?

Raverrevolution

Funny story about that game;

When I was in Japan last year I was looking everywhere in Akihabara for it.  Finally I walked into Trader and asked the store employee if they had it.  Yeah yeah I know about the language barrier, but I thought Contra was known as that there also.  Anyway, the guy was clueless on my request so I pulled out my phone and looked it up and showed him a picture.  Then right away he was like, "Ohhhh Contora!!" and found the game quickly.   Stupid me I wasn't even thinking that's how it would have been said.  I am still so happy to this day at how much cheaper I got it than asking price online.

maxellnormalbias

Oh! So it is pronounced "Contora" for the famicom version. I thought it was just a kana limitation, kind of like how famicom is spelled "fu-a-mi-ko-mu" because there's no "fa" or "com" in kana.

UglyJoe

Given that the game is Japanese in origin, "Contra" is actually the weird spelling ;)

Contra's name is weird, anyway, since the kanji they use for the title are pronounced kontora, but it's not a real Japanese word.

Bob-Bob

It's a practice called Ateji, where the kanji characters are used for their sound but not for their meaning. That's what's usually done in China when borrowing words from other languages. In Japan it's typically done when you want your title to appear really old-fashioned or grandiose. It's like when us in the west use Elizabethan English for dramatic flair or something like that.  Salamander's title is also written in Ateji.

80sFREAK

Most modern japanese thinking, that speak broken language is cool. Maybe this is the way to hide low level of education. Excessive use of katakana, abbreviations(read Orwell) etc etc etc
I don't buy, sell or trade at moment.
But my question is how hackers at that time were able to hack those games?(c)krzy

M-Tee

I would be hard-pressed to be convinced that Contra was not named after contras, which predate the video game, are jungle militants, and as a foreign word, is seemingly spelled the same, コントラ (kontora).


Bob-Bob

Quote from: 80sFREAK on October 22, 2014, 04:42:44 pm
Most modern japanese thinking, that speak broken language is cool. Maybe this is the way to hide low level of education. Excessive use of katakana, abbreviations(read Orwell) etc etc etc


In other words: slang. Something that every language in the world has.  ;)

fcgamer

Quote from: M-Tee on October 22, 2014, 06:36:29 pm
I would be hard-pressed to be convinced that Contra was not named after contras, which predate the video game, are jungle militants, and as a foreign word, is seemingly spelled the same, コントラ (kontora).




I would believe that this meaning ultimately goes back to the root word meaning of "against", from Latin / Greek of long ago.
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80sFREAK

Quote from: Bob-Bob on October 22, 2014, 09:05:51 pm
Quote from: 80sFREAK on October 22, 2014, 04:42:44 pm
Most modern japanese thinking, that speak broken language is cool. Maybe this is the way to hide low level of education. Excessive use of katakana, abbreviations(read Orwell) etc etc etc


In other words: slang. Something that every language in the world has.  ;)
Slang is slang, but usually it is for minorities. As i said, read Orwell.
I don't buy, sell or trade at moment.
But my question is how hackers at that time were able to hack those games?(c)krzy

smeghead


L___E___T

Quote from: maxellnormalbias on October 21, 2014, 09:07:21 pm
This might sound really stupid but I am learning katakana and I realized that some game names like "Contra" are spelled funny, like "Contora". (こんとら in hiragana, I don't know how to type katakana)

Has anyone else noticed this?


Remember that Japanese generally can't pronounce strings on consonants together.  So 'extra' becomes 'ekisitora'.  So, the name Contra can be translated into phonetics but may still be spoken differently.
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http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=9423.msg133828#msg133828
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maxellnormalbias

Quote from: smeghead on October 23, 2014, 10:06:44 am
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Quote from: L___E___T on October 23, 2014, 10:22:36 am
Remember that Japanese generally can't pronounce strings on consonants together.  So 'extra' becomes 'ekisitora'.  So, the name Contra can be translated into phonetics but may still be spoken differently.


Yeah, I know, however "Family" is written as フアミリ (Fu/a/mi/ri) However it's NOT pronounced "Foo-ah-mee-ree". So I thought コントラ (Co/n/to/ra) would be pronounced "Contra", not "Con-to-rah".

UglyJoe

Quote from: maxellnormalbias on October 23, 2014, 10:56:44 am
Yeah, I know, however "Family" is written as フアミリ (Fu/a/mi/ri) However it's NOT pronounced "Foo-ah-mee-ree".


Family, in katakana, is ファミリ, not フアミリ.  Note the little ァ.  ファ is pronounced "fa", so Fa-mi-ri is the right pronunciation.  'Fu' is the only "F" sound in the katakana alphabet, so it's combined with a bunch of other small characters to make other "F" sounds (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_(kana)).

maxellnormalbias


Oh! Thanks. So, yeah, I guess it's just how it has to be written.