Icecypher wrote:Those names can have translations, which are acceptable ways to say the same thing/name in a certain language. The "real" name of the piece would still be the original one, but the translated names would clearly mean the same thing.
It is not the same case with people's names. Even ones that are "equivalent", like John, Juan and Ivan, they are still not the same name. If someone is called "Ivan", then his name is not "Juan". It will always remain "Ivan", no matter which language we use. Sometimes we call a Juan here in Mexico and use "Johnny", but that is a nickname, and his name never is anything other than "Juan".
You know, this raises an interesting linguistic point that I meant to address earlier and was reminded of in the discussion about Eusis in PS II. It is true that variants of names arise among different languages and cultures and that those individual names have meanings and associations distinct from their cognates. As you point out, John in English is not the Hebrew "יוֹחָנָן" (which contains an abbreviated reference to Yahweh, or "Yah", and a distinct connotation of grace and kindness which is immediately evident to a Hebrew speaker and not to an English speaker) or even the Greek "Ioannis", which is the more common regional source of the word in Mediterranean and European countries. John is the result of a distinctly English series of sound changes that is natural and inevitable to language. It would be somewhat bizarre to say the name is meaningless, or not authentic; it has a distinct source, a linguistic lineage, and has its own connotation in its current form.
Which actually coincides with my view of video game script translation. Translators could easily choose the more original or "pure" form of a given name or word or phrase in a game; one could argue that it surely wouldn't strain a reader's linguistic abilities to deal with unfamiliar names like "Eusis" and "Hyuui" and "Shiruka". Individually, of course, they wouldn't; but as a whole, and as the unfamiliar names build, it becomes increasingly difficult for the player to deal with the linguistic difficulties, especially as the names of techniques like "Foi" and "Gires" mount in number. In these cases, I would argue, language is not simply a model for sound and aesthetic effect; it is intended to communicate, to convey meaning, and it's hard for an English speaker to make heads or tails of the strange names Japanese game developers come up with, names which are often portmanteaus and inventions comprehensible only to native speakers.
Of course, there's always an argument for linguistic authenticity, and I've seen this grow increasingly common as American and Western consumers pursue the Japanese language to various degrees and grapple with the difficulties of actual game scripts. Traditional translations and localizations have come to be attacked and derided as somehow "dumbing down" or diluting the original material. I find this interesting in a lot of ways. For one, again, I don't see the accusation leveled at traditional cultural nomenclature we've all come to know and use. I've never once heard someone ask why we don't call the Abrahamic God "Elohim" or "El" or even "He Who Is". I think it's understood, on some level, that for words or terms which have repeated use we find a natural linguistic substitute or equivalent. Calling God Elohim would certainly point more strongly to the actual cultural root of the word, but it would be difficult and confusing and pointless in a language like English, in which it has no meaning. "God" has a meaning in English, as an old Germanic word; Elohim does not.
Which is why I think it's perfectly acceptable to find more familiar terms for these characters when necessary. Rolf is unusual in English, but Germanic in origin and thus dimly familiar. Rhys is Welsh, and extremely uncommon in most English-speaking countries, but even more vaguely familiar as a Brythonic, Indo-European name. They indicate unfamiliarity while being memorable and even easily memorized; they serve as a useful referent and are allusive and rich in linguistic meaning, however faintly felt. No obscure Japanese term, at the present, can really be said to have an equivalent effect in English.
To conclude with this monstrous rambling post, I believe the names Juan, Ivan, and John affirm, and not refute, the choices of older video game translators and localizers. We could choose in every instance to use the "original" formation of this name, and say Yohannan. But we don't, because the beauty of Spanish, Russian, and English sound laws make certain that we transform this already rich name into a more familiar and more meaningful form in our own language of use. Language is a constantly evolving system that aims to preserve euphony, or beautiful sound, and meaning, both of which shift and mutate over political and historical lines. On some level, to say that "Rolf" is a dumbing down of the original name is to deny the efforts of translation itself. Ideally, in a natural environment, we would come to find a more familiar form of "Eusis" and "Hyuui" and "Shiruku" in English, because we do that with existing, natural names. But because these names exist in a brief form in a video game which we're likely to play only for a span of hours, translators have to come up with a substitute where the natural process of language cannot (even if it would in a longer term).