All your base...

Robert_H

New Member

All your base are belong to us.

I'm considering working a latin version of that into an empire/guild logo for some strategy/conquest game.
English would be a bit too blunt for my taste. =)

An online translator is probably not going to produce anything useful because those are tuned to english and that particular phrase is a grammatical nightmare.

So far I pieced together:
totus vestri substructio es nostrum possessia

but I'm afraid it's not misspelled enough to capture the true spirit of the quote.

My own latin skeelz? Do a few words of pidgin-latin count? =)
 

Iohannes Aurum

Technicus Auxiliarius

  • Technicus Auxiliarius

Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
I need help from a Japanese-speaking Latinist first. Look at the article first for the original Japanese. This meant that to provide a good translation, the phrase must be translated from Japanese to Latin without English in the way. There are also Romance language versions of that article as well that can be used as a basis for translating into Latin. See the Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese versions first.
 

Robert_H

New Member

Hehe.
A translation of the japanese original wouldn't work.
The whole point of that phrase is the royally botched translation. Noone would remember it nowadays if it had been proper english to begin with. Just one more game under the bridge.

But since it was such a mess it got remembered. And eventually famous. =)

It's like when people paraphrase a movie quote in a translation. It doesn't work.
I heard Arnold's "I'll be back" quoted in one or two other movies but in the german version it has to be "Ich komme wieder" while it had been quoted as variations like "Ich komme zurück". The translator completely missed the punchline by doing that or was simply too lazy to look it up.
There should be a law against ruining perfectly good punchlines.
 

scrabulista

Consul

  • Consul

Location:
Tennessee
If what you're looking for is a royally botched translation, what you've got is fine.

How would you go about capturing the spirit of one particular botched translation? I think Iohannes is right -- in order to parse this accurately, you'd have to analyze the Japanese.

Is it "all your bases belong to us" with a singular "base" wrongly cast as a plural, and a spurious "are" thrown in? Is it "All your bases are belonging to us" with the -ing wrongly omitted from "belong?" (although the present progressive sounds awkward)

If you're trying to evoke the same reaction from an ancient Roman as an English speaker who has played your game, I think that's quite impossible.

substructio is "foundation, substructure."
I'm guessing what is meant is "army base."
castrum?
 

Iohannes Aurum

Technicus Auxiliarius

  • Technicus Auxiliarius

Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
This is a reference from the game Zero Wing.
 

Iohannes Aurum

Technicus Auxiliarius

  • Technicus Auxiliarius

Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
Unfortunately, Romans had no idea about intergalactic forces.
 

Robert_H

New Member

scrabblehack dixit:
Is it "all your bases belong to us" with a singular "base" wrongly cast as a plural, and a spurious "are" thrown in? Is it "All your bases are belonging to us" with the -ing wrongly omitted from "belong?" (although the present progressive sounds awkward)
Yes, that's the "intended" meaning.

What I'm looking for is a close translation of this completely botched line, ideally with the same grammatical uhh... collateral damage.
Proper latin conveying the correct meaning wouldn't cut it.
In this case I need perfectly lucid insanity.

And thanks for the tip with castrum. That would make it
all your base are belong to us
->
totus vestri castrum es nostrum possessia

This was basically what I pieced together from several online translators. I guess the local warning about online translators is a recommendation in this case...

So unless someone has a suggestion to improve on this (or damage it further as the case may be...) I'll go with the above.
Thank you everyone for the help!

One can only hope that noone trying to learn latin stumbles over this thread. =P
 

Imber Ranae

Ranunculus Iracundus

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Robert_H dixit:
Yes, that's the "intended" meaning.

What I'm looking for is a close translation of this completely botched line, ideally with the same grammatical uhh... collateral damage.
Proper latin conveying the correct meaning wouldn't cut it.
In this case I need perfectly lucid insanity.

And thanks for the tip with castrum. That would make it
all your base are belong to us
->
totus vestri castrum es nostrum possessia

This was basically what I pieced together from several online translators. I guess the local warning about online translators is a recommendation in this case...

So unless someone has a suggestion to improve on this (or damage it further as the case may be...) I'll go with the above.
Thank you everyone for the help!

One can only hope that noone trying to learn latin stumbles over this thread. =P
How 'bout: Omnis castra vestri possiditur a nobis. Is that sufficiently stupid sounding? (Not that you could tell. For all you know, this might be perfectly correct Latin. If you don't understand the language in the first place, how can grammatical mistakes in it possibly appear funny?)
 

scrabulista

Consul

  • Consul

Location:
Tennessee
You do realize that totus is masculine singular here, vestri is masculine plural, and castrum is neuter singular? If you want it botched anything is fine.

totum vestrum castrum if you want agreement.

es is 2nd person singular ("you are.") You might want sunt ("they are")

nostrum is again neuter singular. I can't find any word possessia.
There is a word possessio, but the plural would be possessiones.

nostra possessio ("our possession.")
nostrae possessiones ("our possessions.")

Perhaps that is too correct for you though.

Now there is a verb possideo, -ere, possedi, possessus
castra, plural of castrum, would take possessa if you used the 4th part, but then it would be perfectly natural to put a sunt as well.
 

Iohannes Aurum

Technicus Auxiliarius

  • Technicus Auxiliarius

Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
We can always use Dog Latin to convey nonsense using Latin words and look like Latin.
 

Robert_H

New Member

Imber Ranae dixit:
Not that you could tell. For all you know, this might be perfectly correct Latin. If you don't understand the language in the first place, how can grammatical mistakes in it possibly appear funny?
Oh, I routinely have to work with all kinds of devices or systems I've never seen before.
One day I may be a brick layer repairing a ceramics kiln, the next touching up images for printing, debugging/repairing a hydraulik forklift, or reprogramming a PLC. Or I might have to write a database app because something doesn't give the desired result or someone screwed up the database.
You get used to learning new things... and not being afraid to ask questions. =)

The only unacceptable answer is: I don't know this... I can't do this.

Latin grammar has a finite ruleset and I can work with rules. Just yet another kind of math. I'll probably go through that phrase syllable by syllable to confirm it's exactly the right kind of wrong but with everybodies' help here I think I got an awesome start.

With as much patient explanation as I got here I do indeed (somewhat =) understand how the different parts and cases fit together and for something to be funny it must not be wrong enough to be embarrassing.
Just wrong enough and in the right spots to be funny.
Wouldn't be the first time I went on a crusade to research a particular variable's behaviour just to get 2 shiny lines of optimized code for a day's work.
Perfectionist, stubborn, possessed... take your pick.

Oh, and I tend to ramble. Ya hadn't guessed that, eh?



@scrabblehack

Hmm. So
totum vestrum castrum sunt nostra possessio would be a "good" translation but

totum vestrum castrum es nostra possessio the closest translation with the closest analog to the key grammatical error. (are belong to us)
That sounds just splendid.

I wasn't expecting all grammatical issues to translate "properly" because the language structures are never the same. Puns for instance are much harder in german than in english. =)
 

Iohannes Aurum

Technicus Auxiliarius

  • Technicus Auxiliarius

Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
After all, the original language of "All Your Base ...." is Japanese, which has a very different grammar system than English, German, or Latin (these three are all Indo-European languages (English and German are both West Germanic languages), while Japanese is a language isolate).

The phrase in question in the original Japanese is "君達の基地は、全てCATSがいただいた。" (CATS is the name of an antagonistic organization in the game Zero Wing).

The phrase in the game transcript is "All your base are belong to us." (The game was rushed for European release, hence the improper translation)

The proper English translation of the phrase is "CATS has taken all of your bases."

The proper Latin translation of the phrase is "Totum vestrum castrum sunt nostra possessio" (without any reference to CATS) according to Scrabblehack. Scrabblehack decided to substitute sunt for es to create a grammatically incorrect sentence to mimic the game transcript.
 

scrabulista

Consul

  • Consul

Location:
Tennessee
Right - if we do a synopsis of be/esse, we have:

Singular Plural
1 I am we are
2 you are you are
3 he/she/it is they are

1 sum sumus
2 es estis
3 est sunt

I would assume that sunt is meant rather than es in "all your base are belong to us."

Is there a way to do tabs?
 

Robert_H

New Member

The typical BB forum knows no tabs and reduces multiple spaces to one space, preventing the obvious workaround.

Leaves code tags,
Code:
1 which is      not
2 necessarily   any prettier.
...but it's a way to get a semblance of a table.
 

Robert_H

New Member

This is the finished result.
You did the translation so you at least get to see it. =)



The old farts among you may even recognize that eagle. =)
 
Top