Talk:Trivia: Difference between revisions

The page for [[Konoko]] offers the interpretation of her name ("this child") that [[User:Iritscen|I]] most prefer. However, I think it's important to note here, for those who aren't familiar with the way Japanese works, that one must always be careful when interpreting names based on a breakdown into syllables. The actual meaning of a name must be determined by the [[wikipedia:Kanji|kanji]] with which it is written. Simply hearing a word or seeing it written in Roman letters like "Konoko", you don't know what kanji make it up, or even how many kanji. ''Therefore, you cannot know the real meaning of the name.'' If a person only knew the syllables, they could just as easily break down "konoko" as "ko no ko", meaning "child of child", "child of sin", "price of sin", etc., but none of these are likely to be correct if you consider Konoko to be a "proper" Japanese name that is based in kanji. To my knowledge, there is no official representation of Konoko's name in the form of kanji.

Stepping out of the world of the game, one could ask, Well, what did the creators intend Konoko to mean? There is evidence that they were not just randomly slapping Japanese syllables together, as "Mukade" likely refers to the [[wikipedia:Mukade|insect]] (again, we can't know this without kanji, but this is a case where the word "mukade" has a traditional usage in Japanese myths (and real-life, if you are unfortunate enough to have them in your house), so we can make a reasonable ''assumption'' as to the meaning). However, the notion that Bungie West had a meaning in mind for "Konoko" is pretty much blown out of the water by [http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/brent.html this interview]. Stepping back into the game's world, we can still pretend that it means "this child", or whatever we want it to mean, when plotting an [[Oni2|Oni 2]], or trying to be clever in an [[:Category:Added value|Added value]] section. Just don't make the mistake of asserting your opinion as if it's fact.

At [http://web.archive.org/web/20101214110442/http://cherryblossom-garden.com/1/aiko4.html this page] are the lyrics to a song ["Hato ni naritai"] by the band AIKO that has the line “Konoko wa wagamama nandakara amayakashi chadame yo”. It's actually in quotes, set apart from the other lyrics as if someone in the song is speaking it. To the right are the original Japanese characters, ｢この子は我が儘なんだから甘やかしちゃだめよ｣ (notice the quote marks there too). Presumably the "この子" would have to be "konoko" but then why are the first and last syllables different? You'd expect them to be the same. I am also unable to find that 子 symbol in either the [[wikipedia:Katakana|katakana]] or [[wikipedia:Hiragana|hiragana]] scripts. There's also no translation of the lyrics. Babelfish provides this, surprisingly enough: "Therefore as for this child selfish what you pamper, ちゃ useless." That's actually pretty good for Babelfish. It actually recognized the "this child" in there somehow (especially dubious trivia: "wagamama" is "selfish", so "konoko wa wagamama" is "this selfish child").

  こ  の  [[wiktionary:%E5%AD%90#Japanese|子]]  [[wikipedia:Japanese_particles#wa|は]]  我 が  [[wiktionary:%E5%84%98#Japanese|儘]]    な  ん  だ  か  ら  甘  や  か  し  ちゃ  だ  め  よ

:: [[wikipedia:Japanese_particles#wa|wa]] is also often used by females at the end of the sentence to establish an emotional connection.

:: [[wiktionary:%E6%88%91#Etymology_3|waga]] = my/our

:: mama also written [[wiktionary:%E5%84%98|まま]] = the existing status ("bestehender Zustand"; taken from Langenscheidt Japanese-German dictionary)

:: nandakara = therefore (taken from babelfish) // nan also written [[wiktionary:%E4%BD%95#Japanese|何]] = what; dakara = so ("deswegen"; taken from Langenscheidt Japanese-German dictionary)

:: [[wikipedia:Tea|cha]] alone means tea

:: [[wiktionary:%E9%A7%84%E7%9B%AE|dame]] alone means no good; useless; hopeless

:: [[wikipedia:Japanese_particles#yo|yo]] = ''sentence emphasis particle''