text; @The Seventh Crown of the Seventh Demon King;

[unrequite]

[ Four lines of text. ]

This is written in Victorian.
Kore wa Laterano-ji Higashi-go de kakareteimasu.
This is written in Higashinese.
This written by in Yanese. (Might be bad. Sorry.)

Please do let me know how many of these sentences you understand.

[ The first is in what would be considered Earth English, the second is what would be known as Japanese written in Romaji, but he's called it "Laterano-ji Higashinese". The third was written in Japanese, the fourth was written in some rather poor Chinese. He's called the languages themselves clearly incorrect names. What's more important, though, is that only the second one should parse as phonetic, and should only be understandable to fellow Japanese speakers. The rest are in whatever language is most understandable to whoever reads it. Funny, huh? This city sure is strange! ]

Comments

text post; un: peerless_cucumber

[xiaoxiuya]

Oh, good thinking! It'll be interesting to see how everyone reacts to this! Although...just for the record, it's "This is written in Yanese." [Shen Yuan corrects the syntax of the Chinese sentence, and makes a couple adjustments to the radicals while he's at it. He won't judge..."Crown?" Is that what he should call them? for the error, but the pedant in him can't let it slide unremarked.]

I understand the first, third, and fourth sentence, although I expect my pronounciation would be off if I tried to read the third out loud! [After all, kanji is simply another branch of Traditional Hanzi, but the phonetics of Japanese...well, they're pretty different!] The words we used for those languages in my world are different, however. Does 'English,' 'Japanese,' and 'Chinese' not ring a bell?

[Don't mind him, just going to fixate on the lore here while they wait for more experimental data to come in...]

[unrequite]

[ Pedants are welcome, especially when Midnight's still learning Yanese! He's the sort that sees failure as a chance to learn. (Also, he doesn't mind what he's called, so long as he's called on. Slow wink.) ]

Thank you! I'm working for a company with close ties to the Yan-Lungmen government, but I've never tried picking up the language until very recently. I've much to learn.

[ Much of the Yanese he hears around the landship is spoken with the Lungmen dialect. Someone who speaks national Yanese is different from what he's used to, but still very helpful. (Mandarin versus Cantonese, naturally.) ]

None of those names are familiar to me, but I've found that I'm in the minority in that respect. I've heard tell of others speaking of "Japan" in terms that are very similar to my home nation of Higashi, but as to where and how the similarities begin and end, well... I haven't the faintest idea.

[xiaoxiuya]

Oh, that's so cool! So our worlds are similar enough to share languages, but the place names are different...I wonder what other similarities they share? Somehow that's even more fascinating than a world that's completely different from your own, don't you think?

Looking back over your post, "Yan" is similar to "Han," which is the largest ethnic group living in my world's country of China. I'm Han myself. And you wrote "Higashi" with the character for "east"...Japan is an island nation that indeed lies to the east of China. Even "Victorian" is familiar...one of the most famous queens in the English-speaking part of the world was named Victoria, although the language and country predate her by several hundreds of years.

I wonder if we're looking at an actual case of parallel histories here? Perhaps our worlds used to be the same, but diverged at some point in the distant past?

@junpei | text

[coolerjunpei]

i got all of them. why, is there gonna be a quiz?

[unrequite]

Parallel universe is precisely the term I was thinking of, although you'll have to forgive me if my fascination with your Terra overwhelms the conversation. Implications of the parallels aside, I like when my conception of normality gets tossed back into my face. I've much to learn in more ways than one.

[ The characters for this "Japan", for example, are a bit less self-evident than Higashi, but perhaps whoever named this Nihon had some opinions about the common culture? A country named after its books doesn't seem all that bad. ]

So that would make you similar to the Lung people, or perhaps the Oni of Higashi... I see. If we're looking at where or how our histories diverged, I suppose we'd have to look back to see if there was one common event that we had in common? Recorded history of the common era of Terra started a little over a millennium ago, during the Nightzmoran conquest... Before that, most history is legend or myth.

[unrequite]

There is now. I'll find a gold star sticker just for you, if you like.

[ He's kidding. Really. Unless Junpei wants a gold sticker, in which case Midnight is deathly serious. ]

That aside, I wanted to see how powerful the translation services are. It's remarkable to me that we all can understand each other to the degree that we do. The technology in my world is advanced, but it's certainly not like this.

[xiaoxiuya]

No need to apologize, I feel exactly the same way! This is fascinating...But good heavens, your history really only goes back a single millennium? That's so sad! China alone has a recorded history going back thirty-six hundred years, and we're only one of the most ancient nations on our Earth! I can't remember the dates off the top of my head, but Sumer and Egypt at least are probably older...

But that's not as important as these Nightzmoran. I don't recognize that word at all, and there certainly was never an invasion in my world that wiped out all recorded history! What were they like? Were they a human civilization, or something else?

[Aliens? Demons?? There are several possibilities, and he's on the edge of his seat to find out!]

text; un: thefool

[mollymocks]

is it meant to all sound the same? except the second one

[ Text to speech can be a little weird sometimes. ]

[coolerjunpei]

you bet your ass i want a gold star sticker.

[He'll put it on his phone! Get him a sticker!]

it works out loud too though, right? so exactly what "technology" do you think it is? like are we talking chips in our heads or full-on simulation?

[unrequite]

Recorded history of the Common Era, actually — BCE before the conquest, and CE for after. There are a few records from BCE that still exist among the nations, but as far as I'm aware, communication about these archives is minimal and is usually left to universities to share across borders.

[ After all, if people from 13,000 BCE still walk Terra, not to mention some millennia old vampires from Midnight's own culture, there's less of a need for documentation! :) ]

The Nightzmoran invasions were mostly a western phenomenon, though I do believe that their influence reached as far as Sargon and Ursus before the movement eventually collapsed. As for their influence... Well, I believe the invasions were more the impetus for nations to establish enough common ground to form a combined history globally and less of a Catastrophe that wiped out what existed. I'm no historian, but I believe the Catastrophes did much to erase whatever records we had before then.

Anyway, Nightzmora were Sarkaz, same as me. Human as anyone. Just angry, as one is.

[ ... So, the cultural differences are vast. ]

[unrequite]

It's meant to sound however it sounds to you! This is less of a test of your skill and more of that of the system itself. I wrote the first sentence in a language called Victorian, the second and third in Higashinese, and the last in Yanese. What's fascinating to me is that the translation feature on this device, and whatever's translating all of our conversations, is doing so live, perfectly, and at a level that cannot be switched off. The second sentence that seems to have bent a rule in that sense, but it's a pretty airtight system otherwise.

[mollymocks]

oh. i know theres magic that can do that but maybe not on this scale. not an expert by any means
i wonder...

i am speaking in infernal

[unrequite]

I'll raid a stationery store for you when I get the chance, then. I'm sure they have something choice.

[ Extra sparkly, even! ]

Not a clue, but I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility in very isolated cases in my world. Arts and Originium technology can successfully alter senses for a short amount of time, as far as I'm aware... It's just not at a level that can cover an entire city district.

[unrequite]

Infernal, huh... No, it's showing up as Higashinese for me. Here, listen to this:

[ audio; ]

I am saying this in Victorian. I am saying this in Higashinese. [ Then, very carefully: ] I say this in Yanese.

[ It all translates into Common for Molly, probably! ]

[mollymocks]

well thats good to know

[ So much for trying to scare people with the creepy demon language. Alas. ]

so everything translates then. this thing is supposed to write what i tell it

text;

[unrequite]

It is, and probably looks perfectly fine from your perspective. What interests me is that our flaws translate through text, but our intentions do not. But if verbally, whatever Arts we're surrounded with translates everything... For example, if someone comes here capable of sentience, but ignorant of all known language, would they be able to understand our intent, or would they need to learn a language — any language — first?

[ This is not at all a useful thought at the moment, but Midnight really is just throwing spaghetti at the wall. ]

[mollymocks]

i dont know what any of that means but it sounds very impressive

[ Molly is Helping. ]

do wonder how far it goes. if there were animals here would it translate them too

[unrequite]

I wouldn't doubt yourself, love. That was a very lucid response to whatever I was talking about.

[ It was! Midnight's very pleased by this. ]

I'm sure beasts have languages among themselves, don't they? Do wish we had a hound or a cat of some sort to test these things. A cloudbeast would do. Haven't seen as much as a herdbeast or fowlbeast since I've been here, though.

[coolerjunpei]

nice. can't wait.

i mean, manipulating people's perception isn't impossible in general... but the area of effect is pretty huge. we're all perceiving individually but at the same time, so.... chips.

[unrequite]

[ A small beat before the next message goes out. ]

Perhaps it's more to the point to say that I'd rather not have this ability at all than have it, but to be unable to turn it off. Or, rather, I'd be much more at ease if I could turn it off.

text | @stray

[kampfgeist]

first one reads english to me
second one no idea
third is german
fourth is shitty german

@stray

[unrequite]

Fascinating... Are you German or English, then? Assuming both are nationalities, of course.

text (silent princess)

[luminously]

I cannot help but wondering before I answer myself... Is there a reason in particular that you are asking?

[unrequite]

Curiosity, my dear princess. Did you have another reason in mind?

[coolerjunpei]

we're still talking about the translation thing, right? why would you want to turn that off?