Sword Art Online - Names and Terminology

[Mystes]

Really? So far, you've also translated with honorifics as well. No offense, really, truly, I don't mean any offense, but why not try translating something and do that (substituting with "Mister"), then tell me about it again? Even the Chinese translations try to use honorific equivalents, as far as I can remember, since it is in the capacity of the language, even though it still lacks a number of them. English addresses, however are just too limited.

And you are thinking of only "san". What about sensei, senpai, sama, chan, kun, dono, etc. etc. and what about custom speeches characteristic to the character, like -chi, -tan, -chama, etc. etc. for identification purpose?

And like I said, it depends on your objective. If you are one who doesn't care about 'translating' the cultural aspects, of course, it doesn't make a difference.

I normally respect the format Of the past translation.

Well, I do think it's possible. Let's say, A-sensei. We could use Professor A or something like that. For the -sama, we could simply add "Master" or whatever. For -senpai, we could add "Senior", or simply nothing at all, just for -kun or -chan. You can also add things according to the context.

Nothing is technically impossible, but since nearly no one doesn't translate with suffixes, it might sound weird.

(BTW, Lare, you don't have to say to me not to take it as an offense. Perfectly fine.)

[Vaelis]

Well, I do think it's possible. Let's say, A-sensei. We could use Professor A or something like that. For the -sama, we could simply add "Master" or whatever. For -senpai, we could add "Senior", or simply nothing at all, just for -kun or -chan. You can also add things according to the context.

Nothing is technically impossible, but since nearly no one doesn't translate with suffixes, it might sound weird.

My question would be "is master/lord/lady/senior followed by a name used a lot in English countries?" (I mean as much than the corresponding honorifics in Japan)

And if we decide to put nothing, some meaning is lost in the translation. (Honorifics means something!)

[larethian]

I normally respect the format Of the past translation.

Well, I do think it's possible. Let's say, A-sensei. We could use Professor A or something like that. For the -sama, we could simply add "Master" or whatever. For -senpai, we could add "Senior", or simply nothing at all, just for -kun or -chan. You can also add things according to the context.

Nothing is technically impossible, but since nearly no one doesn't translate with suffixes, it might sound weird.

(BTW, Lare, you don't have to say to me not to take it as an offense. Perfectly fine.)

Senior? You actually hear that in English? Senior Mayumi / Mayumi-senior. It's as unlocalized as senpai, you know?
'Master' for sama? Translate Onii-sama for me. (And don't suggest to me "My exalted brother", since that defeats the point of localization as it's as unnatural as using Japanese honorifics).
As to 'nothing at all' option, I think you don't exactly understand the importance of 'distance' and 'respect' or 'cultural nuances' of Japanese, as compared to the West. Of course if you don't care about that, you might as well localize everything, or rewrite it completely localized, and give them American names rather than Japanese names. You know, like how some of the old anime did it. Which is fine to me if that is your purpose --> total localization.

[YoakeNoHikari]

I'd prefer to do without, but it makes reading novels difficult sometimes. Rpapo does a pretty amazing job of it though.

Onii-chan : Bro
Onii-sama : Brother

I think 'My exalted brother' is pushing the envelope. Sama isn't used that regularly anyways, and with family members it tends to be just a mode of respect than outright reverence.

Like Kira said, it's not impossible. Just difficult.

[Xplorer30]

Yep, my excuse for keeping the honorifics is "it's too difficulity too localize, and my brain is better spent in translating more stuff".

Let's just leave it to translator preference, some people prefer one way to another.

[Mystes]

Senior? You actually hear that in English? Senior Mayumi / Mayumi-senior. It's as unlocalized as senpai, you know?
'Master' for sama? Translate Onii-sama for me. (And don't suggest to me "My exalted brother", since that defeats the point of localization as it's as unnatural as using Japanese honorifics).
As to 'nothing at all' option, I think you don't exactly understand the importance of 'distance' and 'respect' or 'cultural nuances' of Japanese, as compared to the West. Of course if you don't care about that, you might as well localize everything, or rewrite it completely localized, and give them American names rather than Japanese names. You know, like how some of the old anime did it. Which is fine to me if that is your purpose --> total localization.

Onii-sama could be, I don't know, dear brother? Well, I don't know anyone who would call his brother like that nowadays, but we're talking about 2D. (Meaning that if you have a little sister who calls you like that, you're the heck of a brother. )

For -kun and -chan, it'd be more difficult. Though in the western world, I believe that the suffixes are kinda "included", I'd say, when you call up to someone. For example, if you call up to, let's say, Joe Smith the baseball reliever for the Cleveland Indians, you could say "Mr. Smith" or "Joe". However, when you call the guy by his first name, the tone determines the amount of politeness, like if you say "Hey, Joe" or "Hello Joe".

As for total localization, I don't know if it'd work pretty well, but I'd say that keeping a balance between the original version and the translation would be great.

My question would be "is master/lord/lady/senior followed by a name used a lot in English countries?" (I mean as much than the corresponding honorifics in Japan)

And if we decide to put nothing, some meaning is lost in the translation. (Honorifics means something!)

Master would, I'm sure of that. Lord is pretty rare, since there aren't anymore. Senior/Junior would be more used when you say "senior student" or such, but since I go to a French school, I have no idea.

Let's just leave it to translator preference, some people prefer one way to another.

I know that. I was simply defending the idea of taking out the suffixes, which isn't bad. Just difficult to do.

[Shiroux]

ever play Japanese RPG with english dub? taking honorific out and replace with a western one is the same as that. It's just bad...well that's subjective. But seriously, why would you want to do something like that anyway. Honorific is part of the culture which is a part of literature and most readers come here for those two things or else I would go read Hairy Porter...

[Mystes]

ever play Japanese RPG with english dub? taking honorific out and replace with a western one is the same as that.

Pokemon dubbed anime wasn't that bad.

[Pryun]

What is the stand on the Steven/Sterben rule? I think it's mentioned somewhere before but I can't find it. An anon changed an instance of Steven to Sterben, and I'n not sure whether to leave it alone or undo it.

[BeginnerXP]

What is the stand on the Steven/Sterben rule? I think it's mentioned somewhere before but I can't find it. An anon changed an instance of Steven to Sterben, and I'n not sure whether to leave it alone or undo it.

I couldn't remember where we discussed this either but it is to leave as Steven until author explained the real meaning of the name, at that point then we could change it to Sterben. So those edits needed to be undo.

[Teh_ping]

When I worked on volume 6, I wanted Sterben to be kept as it was, Xplorer wanted Steven because it would likely be a spoiler. To be honest, I would insist on leaving it as Sterben since not many people would make the connection. (and when you read spoilers, you're not going to be surprised anyway)

[BeginnerXP]

In the case Teh_Ping said, then I think we should respect translator's choices and leave those anon edits as is.

[milki]

What is the stand on the Steven/Sterben rule? I think it's mentioned somewhere before but I can't find it. An anon changed an instance of Steven to Sterben, and I'n not sure whether to leave it alone or undo it.

It's mentioned in the Names and Terminology page as a note next to the name.

[Xplorer30]

The reason I want to leave it as Steven is there are some sentences that will correct it to Sterben later. If you don't care about those, then you can use Sterben as you like.

[Pryun]

After looking at a picture, I wonder why in the terminology page, NERvGear is called such.
The picture in question:
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/image ... _-_002.jpg

Should it be changed to NerveGear like the pic says? It makes sense, and I always wondered why the heck the ER was capitalized, thinking it was an acronym which had a meaning i couldn't find in text.