Talk:Mushi Uta:Guidelines

About the codenames

Something I've come to felt over time was that there's no need to use italic to indicate codenames, as italic is meant to add emphasis which is pointless for names, and that nothing is gained from referring to codenames in italic. What do you think?

Yeah, that's true; I agree, there's no need for italics, capitalizing names is enough.

Mushi names

I've noticed that the terms referring to the type of insects for the Mushi are quite inconsistent. Some are common names such as leaf beetle or morpho butterfly, but there's also scientific names "Cleridae" for Kakkou's Mushi and an instance of "Manticora latipennis" for Harukiyo's Mushi in volume 5. I see that common names are used in most of the cases and I think it is preferable this way rather than an incomprehensible scientific name.

Perhaps, we should standardize the name of Mushi as well. For Harukiyo's Mushi, it is written as オオエンマハンミョウ in the original text, which I translated as Great Yama Tiger beetle in volume 2. If you are agreeable with this, then we can stick with this. For Kakkou's Mushi which is simply かっこう虫, do you think we should stick with Cleridae, or simply call it checkered beetle?

It's because some of the insect names are kind of hard to find, haha

I didn't notice that Great Yama Beetle, I assume it's just a literal translation (since google only finds this story), right? It's fine, but I'm not sure if it needs to be capitalized or not. Anyway, I agree, common names should definitely be the way to go.

Indeed, the common names are hard to find sometimes, so I think using the next closest term should suffice. Okay, I think capitalization will not be needed in this case, so that will apply to all Mushi including "morpho butterfly", right?

Yeah, sounds good.

Oogui and Shinpu

So, their actual names are slightly different between our versions. I transcribed them as "Elvioréne" and "Dioresutoi", while yours are "Elviolene" and "Diorestoi" respectively. I'll leave the decision to you to pick which since you are the active translator currently.

Oh, I didn't notice that! Is there a specific reason you chose those romanizations, especially for Oogui? (Honestly I've already forgotten what scarce background these two have, though it's probably not relevant to that)

Elvioréne sounds more exotic, I like it. In Shinpu's case his name makes me think of Tolstoy of something like that, I think it flows better.

For the actual names of the Original Three, I just tried to make them sound as similar to as they did in the original text. Try as I might, I could not find anything which their names could possibly be based on, thus the phonetic approach. So, "Elvioréne" and "Diorestoi" it shall be.

Immortal Mushitsuki?

About the term, 〝不死〟の虫憑き. I see that you have used "immortal Mushitsuki", perhaps following how I translated it in volume 1st. However, during the editing of that volume, I have decided to change it to the "Undying Mushitsuki" due to the concept of 〝不死〟 in later volumes, which I thought sounded more appropriate as "Undeath" rather than "Immortality". But, what do you think?

Yeah, Undying definitely sounds better, noted.

Ellipses

I'll also add a little something of my own. (I think it's relevant because this is also for formatting and the like, right?)

I noticed you use double ellipses (......) in the translation, which I know is the same in the original text. I personally don't, though, as I think that at least in English it looks a bit awkward. I don't know if it's even correct punctuation. But what do you think?

I'm all for it if it improves the flow in English. Do you use single ellipse in those cases instead or drop it depending on circumstances?

Single ellipsis is fine, I think.

Chami's codename

Hey, I've decided to change Chami's codename from "Ouru" to "Owl", and the cat's name from "Owl" into "Owlet" since I think it sounds better this way and still make sense.

Thinking about it Ouru is a bit awkward, yeah. A very nice solution.