User:Abcboy/Policy/Foreign

This article is a proposed policy for Bulbapedia. Please discuss the proposed policy and suggest possible changes on the article's talk page.

The Pokémon franchise, having originated in Japan, is localized into languages around the world. Bulbapedia list names for Pokémon concepts in other languages for many articles in "In other languages" or "Names" sections, and notes the Japanese name of an article's topic in the intro.

Names listed in "In other languages" or "Names" sections must be official translations, derived from sources such as the games, anime, manga, or official guide books. The section should start with the Japanese and English names, if neccesary, followed by the languages into which the games are translated (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese), and then all other languages in alphabetical order by English name. Regional dialects, such as Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, should be sorted in alphabetical order of the English name of the location in which the dialect is spoken. If multiple names have been used in a localization, the names should be listed in reverse-chronological order by most recent use.

These sections will generally use one of four methods to produce the tables found in them: {{langtable}}, {{Epilang}}, {{Other languages}}, or a table manually coded on the page itself. All four will produce similar tables with minor differences between them. These sections should be a level 2 section below the main body of the page, including "Trivia" sections, but above "See also" sections, navigation templates, and project notices.

Use of kanji

Since Generation V, kanji has been used in the Japanese Pokémon video games, and have long been used in other media, including the anime. Kanji typically convey more meaning than hiragana and katakana, however, there is also a possibility for multiple readings of the kanji.

It is preferred that if kanji is used in the Japanese title of an article's subject, the {{tt}} template is used to include furigana of its intended reading. Please keep in mind to use the exact furigana used in the actual title, and nothing else. Also, keep in mind that the names of people and places are not required to have this.

Romanizations

As Pokémon is originally from, and thus derives many terms from, Japanese, romanization of the names of many terms and things associated with the franchise is necessary in articles, most especially where there is currently no English name for the subject.

The primary and preferred method of romanization on Bulbapedia is the utilization of the trademarked or official name. Table of these trademarked names for Pokémon in Japanese and Korean can be found on the List of Japanese Pokémon names and the List of Korean Pokémon names, respectively, derived from various official Nintendo sources as well as the Japanese trademark database. Other characters and aspects of the franchise may be romanized in official media.

• For example, while Umbreon's Japanese name of ブラッキー would be taken literally to be romanized as Burakkī, the name copyrighted by Game Freak and Nintendo is in fact Blacky: note how "Burakkī" is a close approximation of this in katakana.
• In romanizations, foreign loanwords should be written as in their language of origin, romanized from that language into the Latin alphabet if necessary. For example, Celadon City's Japanese name, タマムシシティ, is romanized as Tamamushi City rather than Tamamushi Shiti.

All romanizations should be italicized if accompanied by the text in the original language.

Japanese

For Japanese text that has no official romanization, the method of romanization used on Bulbapedia will be the Hepburn standard, itself used widely by the world outside Japan to transliterate Japanese text. Long vowels are indicated by using the macron-topped letters Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū ā ē ī ō ū, and should be used rather than a doubling of the letter, a tilde, a circumflex, or an unmarked vowel. Please note that if the copyrighted romanization uses one of these that it is not wrong (i.e., オオタチ Ootachi, Furret, which is trademarked with the doubled O).

For Hepburn romanization:

• I-macron (Ī ī) and e-macron (Ē ē) is to be used when romanizing Japanese words of foreign origin, hence kōhī for コーヒー but Iizuka for いいづか. A hint to look out for is whether or not a chōonpu (ー) is used to lengthen it.
• O-macron (Ō ō) is to be used for both おう (as in しんいちろう Shin'ichirō) and おお (as in おおづか Ōzuka)
• E-macron (Ē ē) is rarely used, except with the interjection ええ and some foreign loanwords.
  • Please take note that verbs such as 思う omou and 呪う norou do not have long vowels.
    • However, subjunctive forms such as 思おう omoō and 呪おう noroō do have long vowels.
• zu is to be used for both ず and づ; ji is to be used for both じ and ぢ.
• tchi is to be used for っち.
• With ン/ん, there is some free choice whether to use n or m when followed by labial consonants p, b, f, and m. Follow popular or established convention on a word-by-word basis, hence, Namba for ナンバ but Hanba for はんば.
• To simplify matters, always romanize ポケモン as Pokémon; when ポケ is an abbreviated form of Pokémon, romanize it as Poké.
• An apostrophe should be used to separate syllables in case of ambiguity.

Other languages

All text in all languages not using the Latin alphabet should be romanized using the systems of romanization detailed below.

• Arabic: TBD
• Chinese:
  • In articles, Chinese text should be formatted as the traditional characters, a slash, the simplified characters, a space, Hanyu Pinyin (in italics), a slash, and Yale romanization of Cantonese (in italics). For example, the Chinese name of Bulbasaur would be formatted as 妙蛙種子 / 妙蛙种子 Miàowāzhǒngzǐ / Miuhwājúngjí.
  • As in Japanese, 寶可夢 / 宝可梦 should be romanized as Pokémon. However, 精靈寶可夢 / 精灵宝可梦 should be romanized as Jīnglíng Pokémon / Jēnglìhng Pokémon.
  • Mandarin Chinese: Hanyu Pinyin, official romanization system of mainland China and Taiwan
    • Words, not individual syllables, should be separated by spaces.
    • Tones must be indicated using tone marks in articles.
    • Apostrophes should be used to separate syllables starting with a vowel from the previous syllable within a word.
  • Cantonese: Yale romanization
    • Tones must be indicated using tone marks in articles.
    • Apostrophes should be used to separate syllables in case of ambiguity.
• Greek: TBD
• Hebrew: TBD
• Hindi: TBD
• Korean: Revised Romanization, official romanization system of South Korea created by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
  • As in Japanese, 포켓몬스터 should be romanized as Pocket Monsters, 포켓몬 as Pokémon, and 포켓 as Poké when used as an abbreviated form of Pokémon.
  • Hyphens should be used to separate syllables in case of ambiguity.
• Russian (and other Cyrillic languages): TBD
• Tamil: TBD
• Thai: TBD
• Telegu: TBD
• Urdu: TBD

Translations

For most articles, a translation rather than a romanization should be used in articles and their titles.

• The names of towns, cities, and characters should generally not be translated (i.e., グレンじま, Cinnabar Island, is translated as Guren Island, not Guren-shima or Crimson Island).
• In the titles of songs, the names of Pokémon species are translated (i.e., ニャースのうた is translated as Meowth's Song not Nyarth's Song). Names of characters and nicknames of Pokémon are not (i.e., タケシのパラダイス is translated as Takeshi's Paradise not Brock's Paradise). The character or Pokémon's English name, if it has one, should be presented as hovertext.
• In the titles of episodes and rounds, the names of characters/Pokémon and nicknames of Pokémon are romanized, not translated. The character or Pokémon's English name, if it has one, should be presented as hovertext.
• An official translation is preferred over a fan translation; in cases where the literal and official names differ significantly, both names should be mentioned in the article (i.e., 幻のポケモン ルギア爆誕 Mirage Pokémon: Lugia's Explosive Birth, officially known as Revelation-Lugia; M02).

All transliterations should be italicized if accompanied by the text in the original language.

Names of people

All Japanese names from the Taishō period onwards should be given in Western order. Names from the Meiji restoration may be given in Western or Eastern order -- use prevailing convention on a person-by-person basis. Names prior to the Meiji restoration should be given in Eastern order.

Chinese and Korean names should be romanized in Eastern order. If a person has an English name, this should be used instead of a romanized name.

When a person has a specific preference for the way their name is rendered, or where convention differs, use that instead. For example, use Hiromoto SIN-Ichi, Ikue Ohtani, and Rica Matsumoto, instead of Shin'ichi Hiromoto, Ikue Ōtani, and Rika Matsumoto.

Hawaiian text

Text in the Hawaiian language must include the ʻokina and any macrons present in Hawaiian, as they may change the meaning of Hawaiian text. The ʻokina should be written using the Unicode character U+02BB ʻ MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA, and should not be replaced with an apostrophe or a quotation mark.