Discussion The SFX Thread!

[shinwei]

Okay, so this thread really has to do with translating, but I couldn't find a better board to post this in. GK, if you know of one, feel free to move it.

This one goes out to my fellow translators, although everyone can contribute if they have ideas. As the title states, this thread is about SFX! We're going to play a match'em up game with SFX found in Japanese manga and translate them into English. Why? 'Cuz there's some crazy SFX in manga that I just don't have a clue about what they signify. Also, I don't know all the SFX off the top of my head so feel free to mention any that I've forgotton. Here goes:


Japanese SFX
DOUN
DO
GYO
PIKI
FUOOOO
KOSO
DOKI DOKI


English Translation






BA-BUMP


English SFX List
CHIRP CHIRP
CLUMP
PSSSSSS
KLUNK
BONK
BZZZT
BAM BAM
THUNK
FUNK
SMACK
CRACK
FUMP
FIZZ
THWIP (Gotta love Spiderman)
BA-BUMP



That's all I can think of at the moment. Need input please.

 

[Hermie]

Moved to General Translation Questions.


I myself like it when they go untranslated, as the Japanese words are much cooler (except for bamf, of course)

 

[Miso]

I also prefer the original SFX because
1. they look cool
2. they sound cute

As a suggestion nevertheless: if you take DOKI DOKI I think the BA-BUMP is better than BAM BAM. BAM BAM sounds so agressive while the SFX is mostly used to express that your hearts beats faster because of love issues. BA-BUMP is not so hard like BAM BAM in my opinion.

 

[Gold Knight]

Ditto, concerning the original Japanese SFX.

Good topic, shinwei.

 

[eni]

Wikipedia: Japanese Sound Symbolism
Japanese Sound effects and what they mean
ONOMATOPOETIC ENGLISH-JAPANESE DICTIONARY
About Japanese: Onomatopoeic Expressions
Notes on Japanese Onomatopoeia
J-Slang: Japanese Onomatopoeia
Cool Slang: Japanese Onomatopoeia
Exploring Creativ Uses Of Japanese Onomatopoeia
'Waku Waku' Japanese Onomatopoeia Quiz

 

[ketwaroo]

how about:

BAKIBAKIBAKI - rubble falling i think
ZuDOOON
GARAGARAGARA - more stuff toppling over.
BITA BITA - liquid dripping

thanks for the links though.

 

[suhi]

anyone has suggestions for : Fuan fuan fuan - sound of sirens? pls

 

[eni]

anyone has suggestions for : Fuan fuan fuan - sound of sirens? pls

Sirens are different in every nation. If you want to keep the typical Japanese sound it should be like "wooooaaa wooooaaa"? I don't really know, it's hard for me to bring that into English and I'm not sure whether I remember the sound correct or not. If you want to have it sounding like a... dunno... New York police car it must be something like "weeoo weeoo weeoo". German police would be "tatutatta tatutata". It's very different depending on what you translate into which language, I think.

 

[kirimi]

Some SFX are based on the the verb which makes the sound. Like, "furufuru" (sound effect for shivering) comes from 振る (to shake). These, I tend to translate directly into the verb instead of a sound (i.e. "shivers"). Another example, "nadenade" (petting) comes from 撫で (to comb down / smooth down).

Other SFX are based on an actual description of the sound, and I try to relay that using some of the common English SFX or make up a new one. I found out that if you say the Japanese sound out loud, you can actually imagine what it's supposed to sound like. XD (Or maybe it's just me.)

Then, there are other SFX which represent things that are not supposed to have sound, e.g. nico (smile), piku (twitch), shin (silence). These, I guess you just have to translate.

In any case, I usually ignore background SFX (the ones that are huge, and filled screentone) when I'm reading so I ignore them when I translate too.

 

[Finestela]

Help with two things... (SFX and yarou)

Firstly, I was wondering if there's some sort of SFX guide lying around?
Or that, if it isn't so much trouble, someone can write one up?

Because I personally have not done English translations for more than 9 years for manga, the places I get stuck the most is... the SFX

While yes, I do read American comics every now and then (still following Angel), the sound of screaming seemed to always be "AHHHHHH" regardless of the gender and what not... Is there a better way to do the Japanese "Kyaaaaaaa" or "Gyaaaaaa"?

Secondly, I'm just curious, what word would you use for "yarou (野郎)" in English? Originally, I wanted to use "A-hole" or "Bastard", but A-hole seemed to be a bit too much while Bastard doesn't seemed to bring out the flavor of the word... Is there any more suggestions as to what word to use?

 

[eni]

Re: Help with two things... (SFX and yarou)

The keyword for SFX is 'Onomatopoeia'

Here's a list of Japanese Onomatopoeia sites I posted aaaages ago:
http://mangahelpers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=136745#post136745

Wait, I gonna merge your question with the SFX thread. It's high time to push it up >.<
Done and stickied~

Fine, we're going to re-structure this section tomorrow. I'll do that in a hidden section, so this thread (and others) will vanish for a while. Better bookmark the links today if you need them to be available.

As for yarou, according to my German dictonary that translates to something like rascal, wretch or dude. Bastard or jerk would work too, depending on how it's said.

 

[Finestela]

Got it, thanks eni

 

[maguregumo]

yey i finally found this thread!
this is what i was looking for for a long time. T_T
thanks for the useful links eni.
i seriously appreciate it.

 

[boxofmochi]

http://thejadednetwork.com/sfx ^_^

 

[Shinou]

Spanish onomatopoeias ( Bang meow, bam)

Spanish onomatopoeias Guide

Animal onomatopoeia
* abeja (bee): bzzz (zumbar) — buzz
* búho (owl): uu uu (ulular) — who, hoo, hoot
* burro (donkey): iii-aah (rebuznar) — heehaw
* caballo (horse): jiiiiiii, iiiiou (relinchar) — neigh, n-a-a-a-y
* cabra (goat): bee bee (balar) — b-a-a-a-a
* cerdo (pig): oink-oink, oinc-oinc (grunir) — oink
* cuco (cuckoo): cúcu-cúcu — cuckoo
* cuervo (crow): cruaaac-cruaaac — caw
* gallina (hen): coc co co coc (cacarear), kara-kara-kara-kara — cluck
* gallo (rooster): kikirikí, ki-kiri-ki (cantar) — cock-a-doodle-doo
* gato (cat): miau (maullar) — meow
* león (lion): grrrr, grgrgr (rugir) — roar, growl
* oveja (sheep): bee, mee (balar) — b-a-a-a-h
* mono (monkey): i-i-i
* paloma (dove): cu-curru-cu-cú (arrullar)) — coo
* pato (duck): cuac cuac — quack
* pavo (turkey): gluglú — gobble
* perro (dog): guau guau, guau (ladrar) — bark, bow-wow, arf, ruff
* pollito (chick): pío pío — chirp
* rana (frog): cruá cruá, berp, croac (croar) — ribbit, croak
* tigre (tiger): ggggrrrr, grgrgr (rugir) — roar, growl
* vaca (cow): mu, muuu (mugir) — moo



Others
Ay Ay Ay - oh my, overwhelmed, stressed
Ouch - ay
uf - oh
uy - opps
pow=¡paf!
bam=¡pam!
bang=¡bang!
crunch=¡crotch
punches: paf, pum, pin-pam-pum, puf (in the stomack)
explosions: bum, bam
shots: bang, pum, ratatata (machine gun)
break: crac, cric, trac
Boom = Bum
Ay si, yá! = Just figure out something or just relized something

Sources
http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishvocabulary/a/animalsounds.htm
My own knowledge

Please list any onomatopoeias that you know about.

 

[raghu2345]

Re: Discussion: The SFX Thread!

This website gave me some SFXs which helped me in my translations.

 

[Porink]

I'm just wondering what these SFX should sound like in English:

1. A flying spacecraft.
2. A piece of paper being grabbed.
3. Fire burning.
4. Windy weather.
5. A hard object crashing.
6. Falling rocks.
7. A working engine.
8. A gigantic falling object.
9. Sound when changing a vehicle's gear.
10. Falling body sound.
11. Bone cracking.
12. Something being grabbed quickly.
13. An automatic door opens.
14. Shattering glass.
15. A large object being crushed.

Thanks.

 

[Aarowaim]

Here's a few that come to my mind, please note that background effects (sound efects that are a continuous tone) aren't commonly made into phonetic sound effects, verbs are commonly used in these cases, e.g, rumble rumble rumble (earthquake, rockslide, etc)

Spoiler

1. Fwooooooon (deep, low sound of thrusters), Zee (spaceship zooming by, high pitch) *note that noises are technically impossible outside of the spaceship

2. *doesn't really have a sound effect, but following the tradition of using verbs as sound effects in comic books, crinkle. The reason it doesn't have a sound effect is probably because there are many different sounds and they are not very easy to make with your mouth.

3. fuuuuuuu (deep, grumbly crackling of a furnace), snap! (popping of firewood)

4. wiuuuuuu (really high pitched, a whistle if the wind is audible at all. otherwise, it's too low to be heard)

5. thud (dull, muted sound of a crate or similar heavy object), clank (metal on metal), thunk (wood on any other surface)

6. rumble (dull, noise of an avalanche approaching), crack, crash (rocks hitting mountainside; individual rocks), thunk (rocks hitting dirt, especially large rocks)

7. *this one depends on the engine. A smaller one, like a generator, will usually make a whirr. most vehicle engines make a vroom, such as the one when you start up an older car.

8. Phheeeeeeeewwwww/Phiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Waboom (the pheeee is the sound it makes falling through the air, and then some form of collision sound *waboom, in this case. Explosion sounds are often used as collision sounds for huge objects, eg, kaboom *note that boom is generally used for a loud, resounding, but lower pitched collison or explosion.

9. cha-click *put one cha for every gear change and the click is the locking mechanism

10. thuck (mixture of clothing ruffling in wind/on impact as well as thud. if the fall is high enough to break bones, include a crack or two.

11. lol, I answered this one in #10

12. *not often used, nor can I imagine any specific sound, but I would imagine some sort of swish as the sleeve of the grabber's shirt moves during the action.

13. shhuuuuuccckkk (the sliding is the shhhhhuuuuu, the door hitting the frame would be the ccckk)

14. I would use crack if it's only being cracked, but if it is being shattered, crash is a good generic onomatopoeia.

15. depends heavily on what material that large object is. for most, especially wood or something brittle, I would use crack.

As you may have noticed, a lot of these are either made up, or are very generic onomatopoeia (sound effect words). This is because onomatopoeia convey a specific sound, not a specific event.

I am assuming that you are translating a manga, so I would recommend translating it into romaji and leaving a Translator's note saying that romaji and what it represents. e.g, ポン　ポン = pon, pon (tear drops). A lot of Manga Editors seem to do it, so it seems to be the most common way of conveying it to english readers. for verbs that are sound effects, such as ワクワク, translate it into the verb it represents. In that case, it is 沸く, which means to get excited/to boil. In the previous example, I would recommend "tremble" or "shiver", because they are both verbs that are in present tense that are commonly associated with getting excited.

I personally would recommend that you modify the art as little as possible except to restore quality, as I enjoy reading the sound effects in kana format and imagining them. That is why I recommend a footnote, or translator's note that says the transcribed sound effect (if it's not a verb), so that english readers can enjoy the same luxury.

P.S.
For phonetic sound effects, I would leave a translators note saying for example, "fuan fuan fuan (sirens)" or "poro poro (sound of tear drops falling)"

 

[mikkih]

I am assuming that you are translating a manga, so I would recommend translating it into romaji and leaving a Translator's note saying that romaji and what it represents. e.g, ポン　ポン = pon, pon (tear drops). A lot of Manga Editors seem to do it, so it seems to be the most common way of conveying it to english readers. for verbs that are sound effects, such as ワクワク, translate it into the verb it represents. In that case, it is 沸く, which means to get excited/to boil. In the previous example, I would recommend "tremble" or "shiver", because they are both verbs that are in present tense that are commonly associated with getting excited.

Do you perhaps mean ポロポロ(poro-poro) instead of ポンポン(pon-pon)? Pon-pon is not a typical sfx for tear drops. There is a different approach to explain ワクワク(waku-waku, being excited) here if you would like to read in Japanese.

 

[Aarowaim]

Ah, thank you. Apparently, at the time I wrote that I couldn't recall exactly what the sound effect was. In terms of the article you gave me, I'll do my best to read through it (I'm starting to understand basic sentences without a dictionary) and if necessary, I will correct myself.

And yes, I suppose that was a hastily chosen example, given that I now have an article to read as homework. Not that I really mind because it will give me practice as well as make me more aware of the opinions of native Japanese speakers. As I am quite fluent in English, I would expect them to be fluent in Japanese.

Thanks ^^