User:Cesrate/Example:Translation of FiM Names
The fan-made translation for the names of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters in China mainland is a good example. The introduction of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to China mainland is very late (not until this year), so before that fans have developed their own translations and put them into use for a long time. Personally I think the fan-made translation is even better than the "official" ones. The following table shows some of the translations and their methods.
Where:
Yellow means transliteration, replacing the original words by the words similar in pronunciations.
Blue means paraphrase, translating by meanings instead of pronunciations.
Green means free creating. The translation doesn't quiet follow the pronunciation or meaning of the original name, and somewhat like a renaming.
| Names | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Twilight Sparkle | 暮光 闪闪 | |
| Applejack | 苹果杰克 | |
| Rainbow Dash | 云宝 戴茜 | |
| Rarity | 瑞瑞 | Reiterative locution, the pronunciation follows [rɛ]. |
| Fluttershy | 小蝶 | Literally "Little Butterfly". |
| Pinkie Pie | 萍琪 派 | The Chinese translation of "pie" itself is a transliteration. |
| Spike | 斯派克 | |
| Celestia | 塞拉斯蒂亚 | |
| Luna | 露娜 | |
| Cadance | 韵律 | From "cadence". |
| Shining Armor | 银甲 闪闪 | Order of two parts of the name reversed; literally "Shining Silver Armor"; translation for "Shining" is the same as "Sparkle". |
| Apple Bloom | 小萍花 | Literally "Little Apple Bloom". |
| Sweetie Belle | 甜 贝儿 | |
| Scootaloo | 飞板璐 | Literally "Flyboard Loo". |
| Derpy Hooves | 达皮 蹄 | |
| 小呆 | Literally "Little Dizzy". | |
| Lyra Heartstrings | 天琴 心弦 | The one who created the original name must be genius. |
So we can see, some names with clear meanings are transliterated (like Rainbow Dash, Celestia, Luna), some names that not easy to paraphrase are re-created (like Fluttershy, Scootaloo) There is no ceartain rules in translation, determining where to use literal translation, where to use free translation, or where to use others. The only rule is, it is appropriate, comfort and elegant to read. Not every translation is as easy as "Lyra Heartstrings", sometimes the translation is subtle and difficult, but this is what we are to do.
