Katakana by Ristol

FIREFLY CHINESE TRANSLATIONS

Katakana

POSTED BY: RISTOL
UPDATED: Saturday, December 10, 2005 03:30
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Monday, October 10, 2005 10:46 AM

There's something a little curious in the new movie Serenity. Near the beginning when it shows River looking at her 'textbook' (before being told to lie down by the teacher) there is Chinese, but also katakana (Japanese characters roughly equivalent to using italics in English; a syllabry that can be used to write any sound in the language). I couldn't make any sense of what was written in it so I don't believe that it was Japanese.
I was wondering if maybe Joss was implying that in the future Chinese has borrowed the Japanese katakana as a syllabry? It doesn't seem that it would be practical to use katakana for chinese in any way, but is this what is happening in her textbook?

I'm gonna party like it's 18"99"

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Monday, October 10, 2005 12:38 PM

SICKDUDE

I noticed that too. Also, there's katakana on one of the doors leading out of the kitchen, possibly the one they lock River up in. It might say "kitchen". Curious...

"Don't say 'ka' until you've tried it." Daniel Jackson

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Monday, October 10, 2005 1:52 PM

FFYING2

Unfortunately, both the katakana and the Chinese characters scrolling by in various places are just gibberish.

The katakana on Serenity's inner doors is "serira" and maybe "kuman"--again gibberish.

Ying

Firefly Funsite http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary http://fireflychinese.home.att.net (NOW with Serenity dialog!)

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Monday, October 10, 2005 3:17 PM

KIZYR

Ying's right on the kana... Seeing it (on the Serenity doors), I assumed that it was just an abbreviation for something. There're a lot of abbreviations / acronyms made to form new words (e.g., serira could be made from SErenity LIft LAnder, or some other random designation... shot in the dark here).

The Matrix-like writing flashing through in River's vision... well that I'm inclined to buy as just dreamlike gibberish, like how you can't really read in your dreams. There's already a Chinese phonetic system, and otherwise I'd assume they'd use pinyin or something similar, considering English is the other dominant language. KF

~Kaiser Farooque

ZOE: Preacher, don’t the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?
BOOK: Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps...

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Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:13 AM

SICKDUDE

Quote:
Originally posted by ffying2:
The katakana on Serenity's inner doors is "serira"

My wife thought this might be Cellar.

"Don't say 'ka' until you've tried it." Daniel Jackson

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Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:42 PM

FFYING2

Quote:
Originally posted by Sickdude:
My wife thought this might be Cellar.

Well, "cellar" should be セラー　(se ra a). In fact, Japanese has borrowed the word "cellar" in the baseball losing-team sense and has appropriately transliterated it as セラー　(se ra a) not セリラ　(se ri ra).

In case anyone's curious, "cellular" is セルラー (se ru ra a), but セリュラー (se ryu ra a) would have been a closer match.

Ying

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 11:56 AM

RISTOL

That's interesting, I didn't know that there was already a Chinese phonetic system... my sister told me there was none (of course, she's just in 102..)
Thanks for the info, I'll have to look it up, it'd be interesting to see how they did it!

I'm gonna party like it's 18"99"

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 2:32 PM

FFYING2

Ristol:

Here's a good place to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo

The current official name of the syllabary is Zhuyin Fuhao, but the name "bopomofo" reflects the first four sounds a la "alphabet" from alpha-beta.

Pinyin romanization (Latin alphabet) has caught on for certain uses, but bopomofo is still popular in Taiwan, which also uses a slightly different pinyin system (Tongyong Pinyin) from the PRC (Hanyu Pinyin).

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Wednesday, November 30, 2005 10:33 PM

OOKAMIKAWAHARA

I was wondering about it too. Caught it on the trailer clip before I saw the actual movie. Don't know if its Katakana or I've also heard the term simplifyed Chinese when I've been looking into jobs. Don't know if its just simplifyed Chinese or what. Thanks for the catch, good eye!!! Posted in General as well but was also wondering about the kanji for bluesun. In Japanese the bottom character used is month, but in the show I saw it as the kanji radicle for circle or (en) and wondering if its a difference in Chinese vrs Japanese writing or if its a screw up. Anyways thanks for the post!!!

We be aimen to be misbehaven boys and girls
Brown Coats

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Wednesday, November 30, 2005 10:39 PM

OOKAMIKAWAHARA

Just read the other posts and some good ideas form everyone!! will have to check it out again. Yeah I kinda caught that but would have to look again to double check the kana. The other thing is half the time the Japanese screw up English words in Katakana. There are two ways to do it. Either by prounciation or by the actual spelling. Prounciation is the closer one. Anyways have fun, enjoy the show and the languages here!!!

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Thursday, December 1, 2005 10:15 AM

FFYING2

Quote:
Originally posted by Ookamikawahara:
Posted in General as well but was also wondering about the kanji for bluesun. In Japanese the bottom character used is month, but in the show I saw it as the kanji radicle for circle or (en) and wondering if its a difference in Chinese vrs Japanese writing or if its a screw up.

Traditional and Simplified Chinese characters use the same form as Japanese, with the "moon/month" piece on the bottom of the "blue" radical, but the older form is with the Japanese "en" symbol (Chinese yuan is a more complicated character). This older form is the form used in Chinese radical lists, and some Chinese computer fonts display the character the old way.

Ying

Firefly Funsite http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary http://fireflychinese.home.att.net

Browncoats.com http://www.browncoats.com

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Thursday, December 1, 2005 12:05 PM

OOKAMIKAWAHARA

Thanks for all the help. That actually makes sense to me. Yeah a friend of mine in Japan always teases me that traffic light signals are blue not green. So we go back and forth on this issue. Again Thanks!!!

We be aimen to be misbehaven boys and girls
Well we didn't get dressed up to peck a fight for nuthen

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Saturday, December 10, 2005 3:30 AM

HAOLEHAOLE

... A lot of the characters are used in both Japanese and Chinese - not classic Chinese, and not simplified (simplified has fewer strokes while producing the same basic character. Don't see it much in FF) - but that "in between" version of Chinese I see on a lot of documents (Japanese was taken from China, after all - the written language - the characters hold meaning, the kana do the grammar thing.. mostly).

... As for the "Serira" thing, I've not seen it, but as one poster has said, it might very possibly be an abbreviation for two or more English words "assimilated" into the Japanese language (we've got a lot of that). "Pasokon" (personal computer), "Konbini" (convenience store), Ka-nabi (car navigation system)... it's an endless list.

... Then again, it could just be somebody working on the sets who doesn't have the knowledge/will/ability to get it right . . . who knows?

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