[ SECRET POST #4976 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4976 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



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02.
[The Untamed]


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03.
[Deep Space Nine]


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04.
[Fae Tactics]


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05.
[Umbrella Academy]


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06.
[Ashes of Love]


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07.
[Deep Space Nine]


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08.
[The L Word]



















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 09 secrets from Secret Submission Post #712.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links (was about a Star Trek utopia?) ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

02. https://i.imgur.com/rCecM0y.png
[The Untamed]

[(Anonymous)]

You mean you’ve never seen JinLinTai in a fic? Lucky. All the extra capitalization makes a fic hard to get through tbh.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know what's up with that, but I'd swear I've seen such capitalizations from official(ish) sources like subtitles or maybe the novel translation? So I figured people must be confused about what to do.

I'm glad I don't read fic for this because I really don't want to see what names people come up with for their OCs.

[venerablewhite]

It's probably because the EXR translation does that, which makes it seem like it's the right thing to do if you're not already familiar with Chinese media. I know I fell into that trap when I first read the novel, and it wasn't even the first C-novel I'd read. Why EXR decided to do that, idk, but I'd bet they're the origin of a lot of it.

Also, I've definitely seen the place names capitalized the same way in fic. Not nearly as much, but it's out there.

That said, the EXR translation at least keeps shijie as shijie and the a- prefixes and whatnot, so I'm willing to put up with the weird capitalization in return, tbh.

[(Anonymous)]

Ahhh, THAT'S where I saw it. I knew it originated from somewhere...

[(Anonymous)]

It's basically a preference and depends on what type of translation style you want to go for. Some people are very outspokenly against keeping terms like shijie or shizun etc. instead of translating it as well - I prefer them untranslated myself but I can understand why someone wouldn't.
What really bugs me is the few people (usually in fic) who keep using the pinyin with all the accents for names - that really is pretty annoying.

[venerablewhite]

Ah, by "keeps shijie as shijie" I meant instead of having WWX call her "Yanli", which I know the official donghua subs do (and maybe the Netflix CQL subs? I don't have Netflix though so I'm not sure but I've Heard Things). But that was super not clear, and anyway, I agree, if it's just translating it outright or not, that's down to personal preference.

haha ngl I definitely find the pinyin accents distracting, but I wouldn't back button out of a fic bc of them. Mostly I just wish the tags didn't have the accents so fic would be easier to tag.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't mind me, I'm just over here wondering why people don't search for Chinese surnames if they're gonna make Chinese OCs.

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of writers are allergic to research. Even a little bit of research. Even though five seconds of Googling gets you...

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/chinese_names.php

https://blog.reedsy.com/character-name-generator/language/mandarin-chinese/

[(Anonymous)]

Shrug. I can see a point to doing it either way. I just prefer it if the writer is consistent inside the text.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to think it was correct that way, until my Chinese teacher told me it's not.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's just the translation. While I'm not familiar with the why of how Chinese characters/the general English translations of the names (+etc.), I know that by the nature of the English language that names are always capitalized as far as I am aware. It's been done this way if only because different characters don't always translate to a new word/translations are never perfectly accurate, especially when it comes to English so certain influences are taken when it comes to names and the such as to allow for a more understandable pronunciation/meanings behind various characters.
Of course I'm not familiar with the Untamed and how Chinese linguistics are identified in the series, but the same way that you would type John Montgomery Smith as an english Standard, or Smith John in conversation in by a Japanese standard, I assume you still would capitalize each name regardless of order or number? If only because this is how the english language works.

I'm curious as to how this differentiates, if these characters names are one word/title/whatever, or if it's the number of said addresses that make a change?

[venerablewhite]

Their names are made up of three characters, but they make up two names: a family name of one character ("Wei") and a personal name of two characters ("Wu" & "Xian"). "Wei" is one name, but "Wuxian" altogether is also just one name, so there's no need to capitalize both phonemes in it.

Using your example, it'd be like writing "John MontGomery Smith" or idk "JackSon Smith". It's understandable, but it looks wrong and there's just no reason to do it.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

That makes a lot of sense actually. The difference of specific nicknames someone can go by without question (the way someone might go by Trish when their given name is Patricia) vs capitalizing a name within a name. Like even just the difference between Lee Anne, and Leanne, it's more of a matter of what name you're given than what you go by?

[(Anonymous)]

"MacDonald" is a perfectly normal example of internal capitalisation in English-related names. As is "FitzHugh". Don't be so precious.

[(Anonymous)]

Mac is a bit of a different matter because that's a name prefix that means "son of" and then follows the actualy family name.
It's still done in English as well in some cases, that's true. Still looks a bit strange most of the time because it's not exactly common.

[venerablewhite]

trufax anon I deleted a bit where I mentioned MacDonald so no worries I'm well aware there are exceptions 👍 They're not exactly the norm, though (and tbh I've never seen that spelling of Fitzhugh before, but you learn new something every day!)

I'm not really trying to be anything here, I'm just explaining what I've seen other people explain, bc that anon asked and it's an explanation that makes sense to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[(Anonymous)]

Ah. No worries. (Sorry if I sounded a bit snappish.)

Translating words from one writing system to another is always going to have awkward moments, unfortunately.

[venerablewhite]

it's cool, tone is always a little weird on the interwebs, and mine was probably also a little abrupt 👍

Oh, for sure, and there'll always be differing opinions on the best way to do it. I'm definitely not going to claim to be an expert either; probably all of my comments should have that as a disclaimer, lol.

*not an expert, just a fic writer

[(Anonymous)]

It's unnecessary most of the time, agreed. But I can see using it for some names like 王嘉尔 (wang jia er) because in pinyin/English letters it's harder to see where the syllable break should go, so writing it out as JiaEr solves that.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm just starting out learning Chinese, but according to my teacher it should be Wang Jia'er in that case.

[(Anonymous)]

consider: some people write the names as Wei Wu Xian and Lan Wang Ji.

Just. Whyyyy