Warhammer 40000 in Japanese

Juubi Karakuchi · Post by **Juubi Karakuchi** » 2008-01-25 06:16pm

Having read one too many 40k/anime crossover fics (though I'm tempted to try one myself) and having watched several Japanese-language episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine on Youtube (hearing Percy's voice will either make you laugh or shriek with rage), I found myself wondering what Warhammer 40k sounds like in Japanese. I know that it exists in Japan, and I also managed to find the Space Hulk intro in Japanese on Youtube.
I discussed it with a friend who speaks some Japanese. I put to him that the Imperium in Japanese is 'Shinsei Ningen Teigoku' (Holy Human Empire), which he thought correct. As for the God-Emperor, I wasn't sure if 'Tenno-Heika' (His Imperial Majesty, who is of Heaven) would be right, as this might cause confusion (and more than a little offence). However, my friend advised me that it was appropriate in this context.

Does anyone here know anything? What do Japanese 40k fans call our favourite 40k concepts?

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2008-01-25 07:17pm

If you can read Japanese (or your friend can), try the official GW Japan website.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2008-01-25 07:39pm

While I can't read all of it, a look around the official Japanese 40k site (which is mostly limited to the Battle for Macragge set) reveals a few things. To begin with, the Emperor is called koutei (皇帝). The Imperium's name is a straight translation of its English name, 人類の帝国(インペリウム), jinrui no teikoku, with teikoku followed by inperiumu in parentheses presumably indicating that 帝国 is in this case meant to be read as Imperium. The Eye of Terror is 恐怖の眼, kyoufu no manako or me. The Chaos Gods seem to be called 禍つ神々, which is read, as best as I can determine, magatsu kamigami.

The various armies are referred to by their English names, transliterated into katakana.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2008-01-25 09:19pm

How do the japanese deal with the high/low gothic thing? Do they just translate the latin into japanese too, or something else?

ray245 · Post by **ray245** » 2008-01-25 10:12pm

Given that there is quite a large amount of japanese and asian actually into gothic stuff...I'm sure they are familar with gothic stuff...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2008-01-25 11:24pm

ray245 wrote:Given that there is quite a large amount of japanese and asian actually into gothic stuff...I'm sure they are familar with gothic stuff...

Not the gothic setting and stylings. Zuul's talking about the language dialects of the Imperium that are represented in the fluff with Latin (High Gothic) and English (Low Gothic).

I imagine that it's probably left along in artwork but transliterated in text, though seeing Latin rendered in katakana strikes me as kind of amusing.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2008-01-25 11:25pm

High/low gothic are the languages in 40k. Low gothic is English (or Japanese) while high gothic is Latin. I assume japanese has an equivalent old aristocratic language of some sort, but I don't know if GW could be bothered finding out someone to translate Latin into that.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2008-01-25 11:47pm

There are more archaic forms of Japanese, but considering the overall effort Games Workshop's Japan branch approaches the property and its materials, they probably just ignore the whole thing.