Question Yukkuri need help to make the English equivalent of this Japanese pun (help me make an English pun)

Discussion in 'Translator's Corner' started by Yukkuri Oniisan, Jun 24, 2017.

  1. Yukkuri Oniisan

    Yukkuri Oniisan 『Procrastinator Archwizard Translator and Writer』

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    Like the title says:

    The pun is rather simple.
    A NEET is typing "まちだ!" (machi da! it's the city!) as "町田!" (machida! a surname) and while it should be "街だ" as a pun.

    I racked my head to make a good pun using city or town homophones, but couldn't make a good pun from it.
    So, pungeon master of NUF. Send me your best wittiest joke!
     
  2. Basara

    Basara [Cat and co.] [Nyan] [Furry and Fluffy]

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    I love me a good pun. But that doesn't make me good at making puns. Sorry :(
     
  3. grassporridge2017

    grassporridge2017 Well-Known Member

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    Juneau, Alaska? Juneau sounds like you know. Also sound like Juno, which is a name.

    Juneau(you know) how close we are to the city?
    Juneau(Juno), where in the city?
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2017
  4. LostBMe

    LostBMe Well-Known Member

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  5. raltzero

    raltzero Last Year Until BS in IT | Lazy Overlord TL

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    Hey...
    It's the neighborhood rice field...
    kms
     
  6. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    I'm not sure this pun is funny in any language, but, if you insist.. o_O

    Anyway, is the surname in question a surname of a character present at the time? Or is this just a generic word replacement joke?

    If it's the latter, you can just do the same thing. It doesn't have to be another surname - all you have to do is use the wrong word. I'm kind of drawing a blank in the examples department, so hopefully you know what I'm talking about. Imagine someone using the wrong word for something and a tsukkomi response of, "you mean xxx!" .. or something like that, anyway. There are a lot of minor variations to it, but it's a pretty common thing. Usually the wrong word is somewhat scandalous.

    If it's the former, and this is supposed to be a reference to a character in the story, you're probably going to have to just explain it in a footnote or something. Unless you change the surname, the best you can do is probably exchange it for a completely different pun, and that'd be a little... yeah...
     
  7. jackateonetoo

    jackateonetoo Wet Dog

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    leave it in japanese as "machi da" and put in tn notes explaining
     
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  8. adislt

    adislt fanfic lover

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    Just put a tn in a bracket after the pun, because pun in english and japanese or any jap or mandarinl language have very different standard.
     
  9. SenjiQ

    SenjiQ [Wise, for a Bird]

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    There's an actual city called Townsville, named after John Towns... and that's thematic the the series because Mr Towns was a slaver
     
  10. ninish

    ninish ✿Fujoshi✿ [#224~] [Dʀᴀɢᴏɴɪsᴛ] [Lᴜʀᴋᴇʀ Lᴇᴇᴄʜ]

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    can you include more context? if the context fits you could change it from something like, i'ts York! to it's Yorkshire! (dog breed) or something like that?

    also, how popular is the greek word 'polis' in english? is it known enough that if the NEET mispelled 'polis' as 'police', readers would understand?
     
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  11. Yukkuri Oniisan

    Yukkuri Oniisan 『Procrastinator Archwizard Translator and Writer』

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    Okay...The context:

    【もうすぐ】10年ぶりに外出したら自宅ごと異世界に来たっぽいpart31【町田
    ...
    182:名無しのニート
    ≫1
    そういえばいまさらだけど
    スレタイ誤字じゃないの?

    183:名無しのミート
    ≫182
    町田街だをかけたんだ・・・
    自分のダジャレの解説とか恥ずかしくて氏ねる!
     
  12. ninish

    ninish ✿Fujoshi✿ [#224~] [Dʀᴀɢᴏɴɪsᴛ] [Lᴜʀᴋᴇʀ Lᴇᴇᴄʜ]

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    isn't there another joke at the end? XD god, just leave it like that because otherwise you'll have to change or skip the last joke. just make some notes somewhere...

    'they mistook Machida (surname) and machi da (it's the town!)...'
    To have to explain your own play on words, it's so embarrassing I could die! (but this die is written with the kanji for 'family surname' instead of the kanji for 'death' 死 )

    XD well, this is one joke that is really difficult...
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2017
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  13. Yukkuri Oniisan

    Yukkuri Oniisan 『Procrastinator Archwizard Translator and Writer』

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    Yeah... word puns is really hard to be translated to another language.....
     
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  14. ninish

    ninish ✿Fujoshi✿ [#224~] [Dʀᴀɢᴏɴɪsᴛ] [Lᴜʀᴋᴇʀ Lᴇᴇᴄʜ]

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    if it still matters, i thought of something:

    'they wrote the kanji for machi da! (it's the town!) with the kanjis for the surname Machida.'
    To have to explain your own pun on surnames, it's so embarrassing I can't look no Moore!
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2017
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  15. renuac

    renuac Well-Known Member

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    Replace "city" with "sittee"?

    Google tells me that there's a river in Belize called the Sittee, and according to Meriam-Webster, a "sittee" is a real word (for a person who is sitting down). If you want an actual object, you could go for "settee": sure, it's pronounced differently, but it could work if he's putting on a weird accent or something. Or you could have it as "sit thee", if you want to go completely nonsensical.

    ...Yeah, those suggestions are awful, but so is the pun.
     
  16. eseul

    eseul [ blank ] |_・)

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    what about neighbor? you can call someone with it as a person or a place.

    "hey look neighbor!" , he makes a sly smile. or sonething...

    best i can come up with