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有趣的本地化探讨:游戏中的方言与口音

发布时间:2018-05-09 08:56:51 Tags:,

有趣的本地化探讨:游戏中的方言与口音

原作者:Marianna Sacra 译者:Willow Wu

“我上学头一年,因为吃了从他们家树上掉下来的胡桃,差点儿丢了小命——大家都说他在胡桃上下了毒,然后故意扔到学校这边来。”

这句话给你的感觉是什么?你觉得说话的人是男性还是女性?年轻还是老?亚洲人还是美国人?

这是哈珀·李《杀死一只知更鸟》中小沃尔特说的一句话(上文摘自李育超译本),这个小男孩说话有美国南方口音。

就跟看书和看电影一样,我们在游戏中看到一个角色会根据他们所展现出的信息来推测他们的背景,比如头发、肤色、装扮、携带的武器以及交流方式等等。

遇见一个讲话断断续续、结巴的NPC,我们很快就能断定他或者是个外国人,或者是社会地位地下,又或者是一个不在乎语法的粗鄙之人。你没见过哪个(英语国家的)统治者英语讲得很烂的吧?如果有……肯定是哪里有问题了。

当我把游戏从英语翻译成德语的时候,我总是很烦恼要不要把口音和方言翻出来。首先让我们快速理清一下这二者的区别——方言是某个地区所用的词汇、语法、语气。比如苏格兰、西西里、巴伐利亚地区的方言;口音指的是词汇的发音方式。想象一下某个人说英语但明显听起来就是法国人或者是德国人。

方言和口音可以成为作家和译者的好工具。我们可以利用语言表达出黑帮的讲话方式、某个地区的人的讲话方式或者政治家的讲话方式(或者应该怎么讲话)。我们可以用语言暗示角色的背景或者性格,就比如要让玩家知道这个角色是从什么地方来的,游戏就可以通过口音或者方言表现出来,不用把这些信息直白地写在剧情中。如果角色的职业涉及到某种方言或者行话,那么让这个角色流利地说相应的行话会让整体剧情更加连贯。

Super_Mario_Galaxy(from gamasutra)

Super_Mario_Galaxy(from gamasutra)

然而,在你为角色增添细节趣味的时候,有几个可能出现的问题需要考虑:

1.方言和口音并不是在所有语言、场景中都能为游戏体验锦上添花。

2.大部分方言只存在于口头形式,在翻译时可能会造成句子过长,增加阅读难度。

3.可能会引起玩家的反感。

这些情况都可能会对玩家的游戏体验产生负面影响。

口音和方言并不总是管用

真实存在的口音会让玩家想到某个特定的地区,因此,在口音的选择上要谨慎一些。尤其是奇幻类游戏,德国方言一般是不纳入考虑范围的,因为它们不符合游戏设定,而且玩家也不想因此联系到自己的日常生活。

想象一个典型的奇幻游戏,里面有精灵、半兽人和矮人。战争中处于敌对状态的两方中有两个矮人突破禁忌,坠入了爱河。她知道如果选择跟本营中的任何一个追求者在一起,生活将会好过很多。但是这个女矮人握着爱人的手,深情地望着他的双眼,温柔地对他说“除了你我谁都不想要。(I don’t want no one but you.)”

德语中不存在双重否定,但作为一个英德译者,你很想把这种感觉表达出来,而不是普通的“我只想要你。(I only want you.)”你决定要把这种“语法错误”用柏林方言/口音翻译出来,它确实有些相似的语法,比如:“Icke will nur dir.”正确的语法应该是“Ich will nur dich,” 使用正确的宾格dich(你)而不是与格“dir”。

那么问题来了,德国玩家会觉得莫名其妙——为什么这个矮人要模仿克罗依茨贝格(柏林的一个区)的人说话?就好像《指环王》中突然有人用纯正的布鲁克林口音说:“Forget about it!(算了吧!)”或者“Fuggetaboudit!”,挺别扭的。

所以什么时候才适合把德国方言加到游戏中呢?

如果游戏是设定在真实的德国或者是世界下,或者角色设定是来自某个德国地区,那么方言将会是不错的加分项。有挺多人都觉得德语听起来很凶悍,就像是俄语对德国人来说也是很凶悍的感觉。只要是口音符合人物性格或者背景设定,非德国开发的游戏中也有说着德国口音的角色,这在很大程度上要取决于游戏的具体设定和开发者想要传达出的情绪。既然每个游戏都不一样,也就没有可以通用的答案。我们只能试一试,它可能会产生预期的效果,也可能不会。

口音和方言会给写作带来挑战

另一个问题就是写作和翻译的过程。由于大部分方言都是口头使用的,要把它们转换成文字就变成了一件难事,而且阅读起来也会觉得冗长。找到合适的口音,能够增强语言效果但又不让人觉得古怪,这真的是个挑战。而且自动拼写检查真的会让人觉得很烦,最后你只能选择无视它,希望不要出什么差错。

尽管有些词汇用不同的口音说会有不一样发音方式,但是它们通常写起来都是一样的。“Don’t pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd or I’ll tow ya.”(别把你的车停在哈佛不然我就把它拖走了!)在讲到波士顿口音的时候人们经常会拿这句话来举例。这句话把波士顿本土交通指挥员的口音完美地转化成了文字,但你能看到这句话的地方只有哈佛游客礼品店。在美国南部你大概也永远都看不到: “Ate your grayn pays, swatie.”(甜心,把你的谷物馅饼吃了。)这样写的句子。你想象一下要是整个游戏都是这样会是什么感觉……

我在美国方言研究方面并不是什么专家,但我主张的是阅读不应该给眼睛和大脑增加额外的负担。我们的大脑会根据上下文填补空白,这就是为什么即使单词拼写混乱,只要第一个和最后一个字母是正确的,我们依然能在速度几乎不减的情况下读懂文章的意思。这个现象称为typoglycemia。

但是在上面的例子中,我必须慢慢地阅读每个字来拼凑出这句话的意思。这就意味着那些“个性鲜明”的陌生方言无疑会大大降低玩家的阅读速度。然而,明显的口音对某些台词不多的角色也可能成为亮点,有些玩家也会喜欢。

口音和方言是个敏感话题

谈到游戏中用到方言的应用,我首先想到就是陈词滥调(cliché)。

我在法兰克尼亚长大,它位于巴伐利亚省西北部。虽然我们自认为法兰克尼亚人生活很悠闲,但巴伐利亚人在大家的印象中是非常拘谨的,生活节奏紧张程度甚至超越了柏林人和汉堡人。如果一个德语玩家在游戏中遇到一个说着巴伐利亚方言的角色,玩家会怎么看待这个角色?

如果你在游戏中看到一个身材丰满、穿着传统少女装、讲巴伐利亚方言(游戏邦注,或者是带有德国口音的外语)的NPC,只要她端来的是啤酒,玩家就不会觉得她有哪里不正常。如果NPC是餐厅里的女服务员,穿着牛仔裤和衬衫,端上来的是味道跟水差不多的低咖啡因饮品,那么你还会给她设定巴伐利亚口/德国音吗?如果她说的是巴伐利亚语不会很奇怪吗?其实这并不是因为她的装扮(皮短裤和少女装并不是慕尼黑最常见的着装),而是她上的东西——啤酒并不是最喜欢的饮品,咖啡才是。令人意外是吧?

以前我翻译过一个游戏,游戏团队鼓励我们在不同角色上使用不同的方言和口音。大多数角色已经在英语版本中讲方言了。写剧本的人是德国本土人,他在方言的选择上给了我很多建议。我甚至都记不起来我用了哪些方言,然而不断查资料、转化成文字的痛苦过程我依然记忆犹新。游戏说的是某一时刻我结识了一个法国吸血鬼,他像柏林人那样发表革命演说。一个拘谨的男角色说的是巴伐利亚语,而愚蠢的女性角色说的是斯瓦比亚语。而我的直系亲属中有大概来自八个不同国家的人,大部分青春期都在跟信仰纳粹的人打架,行事鲁莽,完全不考虑后果。这些设定简直是老套得不能再老套了。

在故事再也编不下去之前人们还能写出多少类似的东西?怎样才能在玩家在尽情享乐的同时将那些陈腔滥调减到最少?

但它们通常不就是剧情的核心设定吗?是女巫就有大鼻子,是超级英雄就有伪装,还有很多游戏一定少不了少女遭遇不幸的情节,真是够了。

那么我们应当怎么办?

我把游戏中比较夸张的口音基本都删除了。如今,我更偏好在句子中加入一些大众熟悉的外语词汇而不是把整个对话转译成一大段难以理解的文字。方言对于非本地玩家来说是很难理解的,我不想让玩家感到一头雾水。毕竟,他们在工作或者学习了一天之后只想让脑袋休息一下,打打巨兽或者人,或者两者都有。

词汇选择、句子结构、甚至语法都可以体现出某个人的口音。在法兰克尼亚,我们会更多用“Knödel”而不是“Klöße”,“Weck”而不是“Brötchen”。

在德国游戏中,加入个别俄语、法语或者是编造的词汇可以增加乐趣,而且不会让玩家过于在意某个国家的真实生活。

如果我决定要加入一种地区方言,我会选择那些比较常用的词汇,比如柏林人用的“icke” (我)或者“wa”(对嘛?)或者是东部地区的“weeste”(你知道的)。角色确实应该表现出他们的口音/方言来引起玩家的注意,但也不能多到让玩家一脸懵逼。如果你不太确定,那就适当突出个别词汇,不要做了又遮遮掩掩。

你可以加入一些地区特有的词汇,比如瑞士德语的“Grüez”(您好)又或者是北方地区的“Moin”(早上好)。那些大家熟知的词语比如说“Bonjour”(法语你好)、 “Ciao”(意大利语你好或者是再见)或者“Y’all”(英语你们)可以增加一点异国风味,也不至于会让写作的人因为口音犯难。

总结来说就是口音和方言可以让游戏角色变得更加有趣、生动,如果使用得当的话,它就像是搭配简洁黑色礼服的彩虹色项链,为游戏增加了一个闪光点。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

“Almost died first year I come to school and et them pecans — folks say he pizened ‘em and put ‘em over on the school side of the fence.”

What impression does this line give you? Does the speaker sound male or female? Young or old? Asian or American?

This was a line by little Walter of one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, and the boy was speaking in a Southern American accent.

Just as in books and movies, whenever we meet characters in a video game, we automatically try to make sense of their background based on different cues: hair and skin color (hello, orc!), way they dress (are you a troll or a hobo?), weapons they carry (is this a scimitar you got there, or are you just happy to see me?), and the way they communicate.

When we come across a NPC who speaks broken [language], we quickly categorize him as a foreigner, as someone of a low social class, or perhaps as someone who is just too badass to care about grammar. You rarely hear an emperor with bad English, and if you do, something is amiss.

When I translate a video game from English into German, whether or not to localize an accent or dialect is always a tough choice. But let’s quickly clarify the difference between the two.

—>Dialects are words, grammar, and pronunciation related to a specific region. Think Scottish, Sicilian, or Bavarian.

—>Accents refer to sound, to the way words are pronounced. Think someone speaking in English who clearly comes from France or Germany.

Accents and dialects can be a great tool for all writers and translators. We can make use of language to express how gangsters talk, how people from a given region talk, or how politicians talk (or are supposed to). We can hint at a character’s background or personality without explicitly stating it. In the case of geographical origin, an accent or dialect can tell the reader or player that a character is from, say, Australia or England without having to actually spell it out in the narrative. If your character has an occupation that is associated with a certain jargon or dialect—say, pirate—making the character fluent in that jargon will make the narrative world feel more consistent.

However, there are a few possible issues to consider when choosing to spice up a video game character that way:

1.Accents and dialects do not make for a better gaming experience in just any language and situation.
2.Most dialects only exist in oral form and can therefore make for a cumbersome translation and a very exhausting read.
3.They might be perceived as offensive.

And all of those will risk the player’s immersion in the game world.

Accents and dialects don’t always work

Real-world accents can remind the players of specific regions and therefore need to be chosen wisely. Especially in fantasy games, German dialects are often out of the question if they don’t fit the game’s setting—and no gamer wants to be reminded of his or her daily life.

Imagine a typical fantasy setting with elves, orcs, and dwarves. Two dwarves on opposite side of a war fall in love against all odds. She knows her life would be easier with pretty much any other suitor available to her. (She’s a very nice and pretty dwarf, or something. Play along here.) But the dwarf girl holds her lover‘s hand, looks deep into his dark, dumb eyes and whispers “I don’t want no one but you.”

There are no double negatives in German, but as an English-to-German translator, you want to convey the feeling that this sentence gives, as opposed to “I only want you.” So you decide to render this grammatical mistake with a Berliner accent/dialect, which does indeed have some similar (if not identical) types of grammatical mistakes, which gives: “Icke will nur dir.” (The correct German, in case you want to compare: “Ich will nur dich,” using the correct accusative “dich” rather than the incorrect dative “dir.”)

The problem is that a German reader will feel as if this dwarf is impersonating someone straight out of Kreuzberg (a Berlin neighborhood), which doesn’t quite make sense. It would be the equivalent of someone in Lord of the Rings saying, all of a sudden and in a perfect Brooklyn accent: “Forget about it!” Or rather “Fuggetaboudit!” (See the next section for the writing challenges involved.) Doesn’t quite fit.

So when would a regional German dialect add to the game experience?

No doubt it could be a great addition in an authentic German or real-world scenario, or when a character is meant to be from a certain German region. Since the German language is often perceived as rather harsh, like Russian for German speakers, I could see a German accent in non-German games whenever it fits the character’s personality or background. It really depends on the individual game and the mood we are trying to convey. Since every game is different, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. We might have to take a shot, and it might or might not have the intended effect.

Accents and dialects are a writing challenge

Another problem is the writing or translation process itself. Since most dialects only exist in oral form, they are difficult to put into writing, and can be cumbersome to read. Resources are sparse and inconsistent, and finding just the right amount of accent—one that accentuates without sounding outlandish—can be a challenge. And the automated spell check will be so annoying that you’ll decide to skip it and hope for the best.

Even though certain words are pronounced differently in certain accents—they are usually written just the same as the regular language. “Don’t pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd or I’ll tow ya.” You often hear this phrase in connection with the Bostonian accent. While this example transliterates the typical Boston T (public transport) conductor’s accent all too well, the only place you’ll ever read it are the Harvard gift shops for tourists. In the southern states you’ll probably never read: “Ate your grayn pays, swatie.”

An Eastern German example might be “Rusch ma doch dän buggel runnda” (F*** you). Imagine reading—or writing—a whole game like that!

I’m really not an expert in American dialects, but I advocate for making it easy on eyes and brain. Our brains use context to fill in gaps, which is why we can read the intended meaning of scrambled and words with minor loss of speed, as long as the used letters are identical and the first and last letters are correct (typoglycemia).
I’ve only conducted the study on myself, but in the examples I’ve given, I have to read every word slowly to make up its meaning. A strong, unfamiliar dialect will definitely slow down the player’s reading speed.

The Bostonian example might still work when we only highlight certain words: “Don’t park the car in the Hahvahd Yard.”

However, strong accents can work for the right audience and for minor characters that only have a few lines.

Accents and dialects can be a touchy subject

When dialects are used in video games, one word comes to mind above all: cliché.

I grew up in Franconia, the Northwestern part of the province Bavaria. While we Franconians see ourselves as rather laid-back, Bavarians have a reputation of being more uptight than, let’s say, people in Berlin or Hamburg. Now when a German speaker encounters a video game character speaking Bavarian—how would this character’s dialect determine the player’s perception?

If you meet a busty female NPC wearing a dirndl speaking in Bavarian—or in non-German languages speaking with a German accent—nothing would seem out of the ordinary as long as she serves you a nice cold beer. What if the NPC was a waitress in a diner wearing jeans and shirt, serving you a watery decaf—would you still give her a Bavarian (or German) accent? Does it still make sense that she is speaking Bavarian? Because—surprise, surprise—lederhosen and dirndl are not the most common attire in Munich, and not beer but coffee is the German’s favorite drink.

I once translated a game where we translators were encouraged to use accents and dialects on various characters. Most of those already spoke in dialects in the English version. The writer of the game was a native German speaker and gave me suggestions on which dialects he thought could work. I don’t even remember all the ones I used, but still feel the pain of researching and writing them. At some point I had a French vampire, the cool guy who started a revolution spoke like a Berliner, the uptight guy spoke Bavarian—and the intellectually underprivileged woman spoke Swabian. I, the girl who has about eight different nationalities in her immediate family and spent most of her adolescence getting into fistfights with wannabe-nazis, had completely gone overboard and almost drowned in the Clichéan sea.

How far can a game writer or translator go before things stop making sense? Where is the equilibrium that keeps players entertained and clichés at a minimum?

But then, haven’t clichés always been a central part of storytelling? There is the witch with the big nose, the superhero in disguise, and many games still can’t do without the damn damsel in distress.

So what can we do?

Fear not, I killed most of the exaggerated accents in that game. But nowadays, rather than turning whole dialogs into incomprehensible word mulch, I prefer to add a few commonly known words or endings here and there. Dialects can be hard to understand for non-locals, and I don’t want players having to wonder what the heck is going on. After all, they worked or studied all day and just want to chill and beat up a troll or a buddy or both.

Word choices or sentence constructions, even grammar can also show that someone has an accent. In Franconia we prefer “Knödel” over “Klöße” and “Weck” over “Brötchen”. We throw coins in “die Bach” instead of “den Bach”. And when we want to meet our friend, we don’t invite “Kathrin” but “die Kathrin”.

In German games, adding a Russian, French, or made-up pronunciation of words can be fun without drawing too much attention to actual countries.

If I chose to give a regional dialect, I’d choose German words that are commonly known and flow well, like the Berlin “icke” (I) or “wa” (am I right?), or the Eastern German “weeste” (you know). The character should have enough of a dialect or accent that the player notices it’s there, but not so much that it feels like someone is throwing up on her face. If you’re unsure, it’s better to really tone it down—and accentuate rather than mask.

You can add regional-specific words, like the Swiss “Grüezi” or the Northern “Moin”. Well-known words like “Bonjour”, “Ciao”, or “Y’all” can add a foreign flavor without having to go overboard making up an accent you don’t know how to write.

That being said, dialects and accents can help create more interesting, more vivid video game personas. If used right, exotic speech can really add something to a character, like a rainbow colored-necklace adds a spark to a simple black dress. (source:gamasutra.com


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