Re: edict lookup methods, and a list of problematic RPG-item names
- From: The Wanderer <inverseparadox@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 13:24:34 -0500
Paul Blay wrote:
"The Wanderer" <inverseparadox@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote ...
Any suggestions for possible alternative, more powerful tools for
searching edict - and, specifically, for ways of looking up an
exact search term?
Step 1. Download a version of the Edict dictionary file.
Already done - repeatedly over time, both directly and via Debian's
package system.
Step 2. Import it into your favourite database program.
I don't have a favorite database program. I set up MySQL once, but never
managed to get anything useful out of it; some of its assumptions about
what makes a database seem inconsistent with the little I've learned
about them.
It probably doesn't help that I've never gotten an intuitive grasp of
how databases function, much less of how to actually use them.
Incidentally ちょうのレイピア would be "butterfly rapier", as can be
confirmed with a quick Google on "蝶のレイピア"
Only if you can get to that kanji in the first place - which was my
stumbling block.
....and I don't see ready confirmation in the results of Googling on
that...
そりみのけん - I know けん is 剣 here, but I'm not finding any possibilities
at all for the rest.
反り身の剣 (See Google)
Having now Googled on that sequence of kana, I still fail to see how
Google can help find the kanji; none of the first page of results seem
remotely relevant.
In the process, I did discover that although my IME doesn't recognize そ
りみ it does produce the kanji you gave for そりみの. A minor quirk, I
guess.
かいらくレイピア - the possible meanings of かいらく listed in edict do not
seem compatible with the context at hand, "name of a weapon".
快楽レイピア (See Google)
That was one of the possible meanings I found, but as I said, it doesn't
seem compatible with "name of weapon". And again, I fail to see how the
Google results are helpful - either at identifying the possible kanji,
or at figuring out which one is correct.
I can see that I've got a long, laborious session of translation aheadピコピコハンマ - my best guess is "Tiny Hammer", but it is only a guess.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%82%B3%E3%83%94%E3%82%B3%E3%83%8F%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC
of me. At least this one looks likely to be somewhat productive.
まふうじのゆみ - ゆみ is obviously 弓, but I'm having no luck with the rest,
aside from guesses like 魔封字 which could sort-of be parsed as "evil
seal rune" if one were willing to stretch far enough.
魔封じの弓 (See Google)
Ah, A manner of conjugation I wasn't familiar with. That helps.
....though, again, I fail to see how the Google results are helpful.
ウルブスキン - appears in a list of body armor; my best guess is
something like "Wolve Skin", but that's not exactly a good match.
Nothing here?
ハリセンボン - appears in a list of body armor; I don't even know offhand
where to break this into component parts.
My guess would be the armour has spikes on it.
針千本 【はりせんぼん】 (n) porcupinefish
....gah. I could have sworn that I looked this up in edict, twice,
without getting any results. That sounds plausible; sorry to have
bothered you.
かめのて - appears in a list of shields, gloves, bracelets and other
arm/hand gear; the reading is in edict under 亀の手 "barnacle", but
the same kanji could also be translated "turtle hand", and neither
seems entirely appropriate for a piece of protective gear.
I would have thought "turtle" is extremely appropriate for a piece of
protective gear.
"Shell", maybe, but "turtle" itself - particularly when applied simply
to "hand" - doesn't seem to match as well. In any case, it doesn't help
me visualize what the equipment in question actually *is*, which is
something of a prerequisite for my being able to come up with a good way
of putting the name into English.
はちがね - a piece of headgear, translated in the official English
release only as "Visor"; I could have sworn I'd looked this up and
foud it once, but I'm turning up nothing now.
鉢金
....that matches in terms of reading, but how does "bowl money" work out
as the name of something to protect the head - or even something to be
worn on the head at all? I can see "bowl" in the stereotypical sense of
wearing a pot on one's head, and "money" would fit with "visor" if
you're talking about the stereotypical accountant's eyeshade (although
how that would provide protection is another question), but they don't
seem to make any sense together.
つのかぶと - is this 角兜, or <something>の兜? If the latter, which seems
likely because almost every other helm in the game is listed with の
in that patten, then what could the つ be? (Another place where
exact-search-string lookup would be handy.)
角兜
On what basis do you reject the other possibility? This was the
conclusion I had mostly come to myself, but I am reluctant to dismiss
the other casually, for the reason I gave.
リフルエキス - a HP-restoring item, translated in the official English
release as "Cure". I have no idea what this could be trying to get
at, but it's probably not coming from English.
エキス (n) extract (esp. of food, fruit, etc.); essence; (P)
リフル I don't know, may be some sort of abbreviation "Life + Full = リ フ
ル" ?
That at least gives me a starting point which looks more promising than
キス == "kiss". Thanks.
かいしんたん - a consumable item; used in battle, according to an online
guide consulted because I've not progressed far enough in my
translation to have gotten one, it translates into a single
critical-hit attack. None of the edict listings for either かいしん or
しんたん seem appropriate, and what the other component in either case
would be I have no idea.
快心丹
Presumably 丹 here has its comparatively unusual meaning of "pills" -
which wuld leave the item being "Feel-Good Pills"? Not sure exactly how
that would prodoce the described effect, but I can see why the official
translation would have renamed it...
Oddly enough, 快心 does not come up in my copy of edict for かいしん.
かいしんせき - by the same online guide, has the same effect as the
previously listed item. The reuse of かいしん would seem to indicate
that it acts as a unit here, but again, none of its meanings seem
appropriate.
快心石
"Feel-Good Stone"? I would never have picked that particular kanji here,
although of course it is one of the first to come to mind for the
reading sans context.
げんしにく - にく is 肉, obviously, but how to fit that with any of the
apparent standalone meanings of げんし is unclear.
Looks like 原始肉, but don't ask me why.
That was what I thought, but I haven't been able to work out either a
clear meaning for the whole phrase or a good way to put it in English.
(THough that latter is my own problem.)
リフラルエキス - a HP-restoring item, translated in the official English
release as "Cure2". See above. There seems to be some Japanese verb
conjugation going in in the first half of these two names, but
what it could be talking about I don't know.
ラ was one of the 'magnitude' suffixes made up for Final Fantasy
(IIRC).
Yes, but A) this isn't an FF game (I'll admit you had no way of knowing
that for sure), and B) it's not being used as a suffix; the ル comes
after it, splitting up your hypothetical フル "full". Still, given the
"extract" possibility above, I may be able to come up with something
from here.
みそのもと - permanently increases a character's "Wisdom", which is
either 賢さ or 知力 (both appear on the status screen, the one place in
the game which does use kanji). I believe もと is 源, but I'm not
seeing any possible meaning for みそ which would make sense given the
context.
c.f. 脳みそ
The meaning does seem relevant, but I'm not sure how to extract the
meaning of the kana there from the meaning of the phrase as a whole -
given that 脳 is given in edict as "brain" or "memory", and 脳みそ
simply as "brains", the only obvious possibility is that it simply
pluralizes; particularly given context, this is plainly nonsense.
うばわれほうのばしゃ - I think ばしゃ is 馬車 and うばわれ is 奪われ,
but the middle ほう I have no clue on. Again, "exact search string"
lookup would be helpful.
Nothing on this?
ラっきのえだ - permanently increases a character's "Luck", which is
either 運の良さ or 運勢. Although the choice of kana seems weird, ラっき is
obviously "luck" - but none of the listed meanings for えだ seem
appropriate.
Probably a pun.
○きのえだ <- branch from a ○tree.
ラっきのえだ <- branch from a "ra" tree _or_ "Lucky branch".
Ah. Yes, that does make sense. I'd very tentatively considered "branch",
but was reluctant to accept it given the unlikeliness of a branch as a
stat-increasing item - but the availability of a pun makes it more than
likely that this is correct. Thank you.
I think I've asked this before, but if so I've forgotten the answer:
what does one enter in a typical input method in order to produce that
"circle" wildcard? I found myself wanting it in writing the previous
post, but couldn't come up with a way to enter it and so had to rephrase
as a workaround.
ひでんのしょ - ひでん is probably 秘伝, but しょ is just too common to readily
identify without more experience than I have.
What do you think 秘伝's would be written on?
Anything which came to hand - a piece of paper, a stone tablet, a block
of wood, the ground in blood, et cetera...
I had no particular reason even to think that such a thing would
necessarily be written down at all.
秘伝の書
This doesn't parse neatly with the meanings given for 書 in edict, but I
can kind of work it out despite that. Thank you.
いっかくはまち - appears in a list of fish, with names such as たんけに わし and
かぶとあじ and おおこがねだい. はまち is plainly "kingfish", but none of the
listed meanings for いっかく seem appropriate given the context.
So tell me, does it have a horn?
I have no way of knowing. Not only have I not gotten to that point in
the game, the thing referred to will never be depicted visually or
referred to in any way except by this item name.
That said, now that you've pointed me in that direction I've noticed
"one narwhal" in a list of other, completely unrelated meanings for
一角. That gives me enough to go on.
しょうばい - no clue whatsoever. For what it's worth, it appears in the
middle of a list of fishing rods.
Nothing here?
つうこうしょ - translated in the official English release as "Pass".
Given that, つうこう could well be 通行, but once again I have no idea
about しょ.
Same as last time.
<nods>
Not snipped because this way the information goes into my archive, where
I can check if it happens to slip my mind.
わだヤシのみ - ヤシ is 椰, and み is (from context) obviously 実, but わ だ I
have no leads on.
Nothing here?
オリザニン - translated in the official release as "Tonic". It's a
plot-related medicine which cures amnesia. Again, this plainly
isn't rooted in English,
Yes it is.
and my familiarity with other languages is not sufficient to
recognize what this is getting at.
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/search.php?MT=%A5%AA%A5%EA%A5%B6%A5%CB%A5%F3&kind=jn
....in my defense, obscure chemical and medical names hardly qualify as
English; certainly it's not the sort of thing one can infer from other
terms if one happens to have not encountered the specific word before.
Oddly enough, there are around a dozen or so different items which
are listed with the name はずれ. They all have different names in the
official English release, and I recognize some of them, but they do
not appear to have had distinct names in the original Japanese.
Unless that term happens to be unusually versatile, I'm not sure
what could be going on there.
外れ 【はずれ】 (n,suf) (1) end; verge; extremity; tip; outskirts; (2) miss;
failure; (P)
This is the meaning I saw for it; it did not help me at all.
はずれ in this case is the opposite of 当たり
当たり(P); 当り(P) 【あたり】 (n-adv,n) hit; success; reaching the mark; per
..; vicinity; neighborhood; neighbourhood; (P)
Yes, but given the number and variety of different items for which this
name is used (fishing bait, three apparently plot-related items which
the official translation called "PlceBo" -> Placebo, "Paper", and
"Oath", and an apparently consumable item which the official translation
called "Nails" - and I could have sworn there were more), the use of one
term for all of them doesn't seem to make sense. Unless the items were
dummied out, and for some reason they decided to use this term instead
of reusing ダミー? But I think I remember seeing the "PlceBo" late in
the game...)
--
The Wanderer
Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.
Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.
.
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