nii-san
I think a company beat us to it
Comment on Onii-Chan is watching you đŠ
BillyClark@piefed.social â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
â-chanâ is a diminutive suffix that indicates affection when used. These two factors mean it would never be used in the context of Big Brother.
Even with little knowledge, you should at least come up with alternatives like nii-san, onii-san, onii, nii-sama, etc. Those still wouldnât work well. Iâd think that a lot of people would also think of aniki, which is getting closer. But itâs definitely the best option to just to what they actually did and just use the English âbig brotherâ like a loan word.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
taiyang@lemmy.world â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
They especially like loan words that most Japanese people kinda know, so yes, definitely the best option.
QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
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pivot_root@lemmy.world â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
For localization, would -kun work? It wouldnât be a correct translation, but the idea is that the average citizen is conditioned into having that of closeness and familiarity with Big Brother might make for an interesting take on it.
BillyClark@piefed.social â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
Although I speak some Japanese, I am not an expert in Japanese. I have never heard anybody say nii-kun. Itâs a common failing of people in my situation to think that because they personally havenât heard it, that it doesnât exist, so Iâm not going to say that, but even if it does exist, I donât think -kun would be used.
â-kunâ like you said indicates closeness and familiarity, but it also is commonly used for a business subordinate. Like, if you were at work, your boss might refer to you as âpivot-kunâ, even if you werenât that close. I donât think Big Brother could ever be seen as a subordinate.
With my limited knowledge, if they wanted to use a Japanese word and not an English loanword, I think theyâd use aniki or maybe ani-ue (although Iâve only heard these words in anime, I think people might actually still use aniki? It sounds like a Yakuza sort of word to me). These convey a respect that I think would be necessary for the mental image of Big Brother.
morphballganon@mtgzone.com â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
-kun is diminutive too
FishFace@piefed.social â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
Why is loaning âbig brotherâ better than any of these options?
At this point, âbig brotherâ has entered the lexicon, but originally it was surely supposed to convey the idea of someone you were close to but looked up to, and who would protect you. That irony is kind of lost if you donât translate it.
BillyClark@piefed.social â¨1⊠â¨day⊠ago
The primary reason that Iâd put forward is that Japanese people place a lot of importance on social hierarchy, to the point that even between twins, itâs important to know which is the older sibling. Because itâs used in everyday conversation and in referring to one another (although not quite as much with twins, I just brought that up for emphasis).
The point is that the Japanese version of these words are used a lot more and have a lot of extra meaning compared to the English phrase âBig Brotherâ. So, itâs actually a worse fit. Japanese people use enough English loanwords that they probably understand the English phrase, anyways. So, the meaning gets through without the extra unintended baggage from the translation.
Itâs one of the many pitfalls of translation. Often, there are words that mean âthe same thingâ, but they still arenât the right words because either the extra connotations in the original language or the extra connotations in the target language can throw off the translation.
I think the Japanese translation is fortunate that, in this case, the Japanese language already has so many English loanwords⌠although Iâm not sure whether that was exactly the same case when the book was first translated. It was published in 1948, I think. My recollection is that the English loanword boom started after WW2, so that would be somewhat contemporary.