Translating a fictional runeset?
Posted: 11 Jan 2021 06:22
New here, so I'm not sure if this is the right section (or even the right board).
Lately, I've been watching some of the semi-old Pokemon movies (late 2000's/early 2010's) and came across these in the movie Arceus and the Jewel of Life:
(Translation: RETURN THUS TO ARCEUS, THE JEWEL OF LIFE, PLACATE ITS RAGE, LEST DESTRUCTION VISIT THIS LAND)
(Translation: TO ALL OF MY FUTURE CHILDREN WHO TAUGHT ME HOW TO BELIEVE, I OFFER ALL OF YOU NOW MY SINCEREST HOPES AND WISHES, THAT THE FUTURE WORLD WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE BEAUTIFUL, AND THAT IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF WORLD YOU FIND YOURSELVES IN) (bottom cut off by screencap)
I wondered if they translated to anything - while the movie does give translations of each tablet, I wondered what specific characters corresponded to what part of that translation. However, I'm almost entirely new to translating fictional languages, and I don't know all the tricks to try. So far I've tried several different ciphers (assigning each symbol a letter of the alphabet and then trying to decode that), substituting syllables or katakana (since this was made in Japan first, Japanese might be involved), and so far I've got nothing. The letter frequency and repetition seems to suggest that these aren't entirely random, but I'm stumped as to what they could be.
There is, however, at least a solid chance they're not gibberish. Starting in 2011, the anime uses alphabetic substitutions for several languages in the anime, movies and other media, meaning the people who come up with these characters had an intended use for them (seen here for those alphabets that have already been decoded).
So that all being said, does anyone have any advice for where to go from here? Now that I've started fixating on this, it's keeping me awake at night.
Lately, I've been watching some of the semi-old Pokemon movies (late 2000's/early 2010's) and came across these in the movie Arceus and the Jewel of Life:
(Translation: RETURN THUS TO ARCEUS, THE JEWEL OF LIFE, PLACATE ITS RAGE, LEST DESTRUCTION VISIT THIS LAND)
(Translation: TO ALL OF MY FUTURE CHILDREN WHO TAUGHT ME HOW TO BELIEVE, I OFFER ALL OF YOU NOW MY SINCEREST HOPES AND WISHES, THAT THE FUTURE WORLD WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE BEAUTIFUL, AND THAT IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF WORLD YOU FIND YOURSELVES IN) (bottom cut off by screencap)
I wondered if they translated to anything - while the movie does give translations of each tablet, I wondered what specific characters corresponded to what part of that translation. However, I'm almost entirely new to translating fictional languages, and I don't know all the tricks to try. So far I've tried several different ciphers (assigning each symbol a letter of the alphabet and then trying to decode that), substituting syllables or katakana (since this was made in Japan first, Japanese might be involved), and so far I've got nothing. The letter frequency and repetition seems to suggest that these aren't entirely random, but I'm stumped as to what they could be.
There is, however, at least a solid chance they're not gibberish. Starting in 2011, the anime uses alphabetic substitutions for several languages in the anime, movies and other media, meaning the people who come up with these characters had an intended use for them (seen here for those alphabets that have already been decoded).
So that all being said, does anyone have any advice for where to go from here? Now that I've started fixating on this, it's keeping me awake at night.