Language of origin
- Language redirects here. For languages that Pokémon speak, see Pokémon language.
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It has been suggested that this article be moved to Original language. Please discuss whether or not to move it on its talk page. |
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The subject of this article has no official name. The name currently in use is a fan designator; see below for more information. |
The language of origin, referred to as simply language (Japanese: 言語 language) in Pokémon HOME, is a value in the Pokémon data structure that indicates the language of the game a Pokémon originates from. This value was introduced in Generation III. From Generation VI onward, Pokémon with a different language of origin to the current game have their language shown on the summary screen.
Assignment
From Generation III onward, Pokémon caught in the wild or obtained as a gift have the language of the game they were obtained in set as their language of origin. Pokémon obtained from in-game trades usually have the language of the game they were obtained in set as their language of origin, but some in-game trade Pokémon have a different language of origin, such as the Meister's Magikarp. Shedinja retains the Nincada's language of origin upon Evolution.
In Generation III, Eggs have their language of origin set upon hatching (not when first obtained). From Generation IV to VII, Eggs have their language of origin set to the language of the game in which they were obtained, not the game they were hatched in. Starting in Generation VIII, Eggs again have their language of origin set to the language of the game in which they were hatched, not the game they were obtained in.
Pokémon from Mystery Gifts usually match the language of the game they are distributed to, but some distributions have a fixed language of origin regardless of the receiving game's language. This is particularly common for distributions of Pokémon that were used in official tournaments, which often match the language of the player who used them.
The Generation I and II games do not track Pokémon's languages of origin, so Pokémon transferred from these Virtual Console games record the language of the game they were transferred from as their language of origin.
Pokémon GO
Pokémon transferred from Pokémon GO via GO Park use the language of the Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! game they were transferred to as their language of origin. Pokémon transferred from Pokémon GO via GO Transporter use the language registered to the user's profile in the mobile version of Pokémon HOME (regardless of the current display language) as their language of origin.
The first time the player logs into their account in the mobile version of Pokémon HOME, they must choose a language. This language is permanently set as their language in Pokémon HOME, and will not change even if the player changes their display language in Pokémon HOME. The player must set their language in the mobile version of Pokémon HOME before they can use GO Transporter. Following the addition of Latin American Spanish in version 4.0.0, Pokémon HOME users were given a one-time opportunity to change their profile language, though this did not modify any Pokémon already transferred.
In-game trade Pokémon with different languages of origin
Some in-game trade Pokémon have a different language of origin to the game the trade is conducted in.
- In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, and Shining Pearl, the Magikarp traded by Meister at Route 226 is German in origin in all languages except German, in which it is Japanese in origin.
- In the English version of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, all Pokémon from in-game trades except for Meister's Magikarp are erroneously Japanese in origin. This was corrected in all other languages as well as in Pokémon Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, and Shining Pearl.
- In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, the Pikachu traded by Lt. Surge is French in origin in the English version, and English in origin in all other languages.
- In the Japanese version of Pokémon Black and White, all Pokémon from in-game trades erroneously have a language of origin value of 0 (this was corrected in all other languages and in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2). Any Pokémon with a language of origin value of 0 has it changed to 1 (Japanese) when transferred through Poké Transporter.
Display
From Generation VI onward, a Pokémon's language of origin is displayed on its summary screen if it differs from the save file's language. In Pokémon HOME, the language of origin is always displayed even if it matches Pokémon HOME's language.
The language is displayed as an abbreviation of the language name. Prior to Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the exact abbreviation used depended on the current game's language; for example, in English, Japanese was displayed as "JPN", but in Castilian Spanish it was displayed as "JAP". Starting in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the native abbreviations are used for all languages in all versions (shown in bold in the table below); this change was later made in Pokémon HOME in version 4.0.0.
| Language | Abbreviations |
|---|---|
| Japanese | JPN, J, JAP, JAP., GPN, G |
| English | ENG, E, ANG, ANGL., ING |
| French | FRA, FRE |
| Italian | ITA, ITA. |
| German | GER, ALL, ALL., TED, DEU, DEUT, ALE |
| Spanish Spanish (Spain) |
SPA, ESP, ESP. SP-EU, ES-EU, SPA-E, ES-ES |
| Spanish (Latin America) | ES-LA |
| Korean | KOR, COR, CORÉ. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | CHS, CIN-S, CHV |
| Chinese (Traditional) | CHT, CIN-T |
In Pokémon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon, due to a bug, the German-language icons displayed on the summary screen for simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese are swapped, being incorrectly displayed as "CHT" and "CHV", respectively.
Function
Fonts
Generation III
In Western languages, a Pokémon's language of origin determines which font to use to display its name and Original Trainer. This allows the names and Original Trainers of Pokémon from Japanese games to display correctly, including displaying Latin letters as fullwidth characters.
In Japanese, the language of origin is entirely ignored—names are always rendered using the Japanese character set. This causes all names to be truncated to five characters (even though they can be up to 10 characters in Western languages). In some cases, this causes characters to render as mojibake; for example, if the in-game trade Seel from Castilian Spanish Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (whose nickname is normally SEELÍN) is traded to a Japanese game, its nickname will be displayed as ＳＥＥＬコ.
Generation IV to Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
From Generation IV onward, a multi-byte character encoding is used, allowing all languages to use the same character encoding.
The same font is used for all Pokémon names regardless of the Pokémon's language of origin.
Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! onward
In these games, five fonts are used for Pokémon names depending on its language of origin: one for Japanese, one for Western languages, one for Korean, one for Simplified Chinese, and one for Traditional Chinese.
Unnicknamed Pokémon
Generation III
The names of unnicknamed Pokémon remain in their language of origin when traded. Eggs display "Egg" in the language of the current game as their name, rather than "Egg" in their language of origin as in later generations.
Generation IV to Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
The names of unnicknamed Pokémon and Eggs remain in their language of origin when traded. When a Pokémon is hatched or an unnicknamed Pokémon is evolved, its name is updated to its new species name in the save file's language (regardless of its language of origin). Unnicknamed event Pokémon are assigned their species name in the language of the game they were received (even if locked to a specific language of origin). When an unnicknamed Pokémon is transferred from a Generation V game to Pokémon Bank via Poké Transporter, or from Pokémon Bank to Pokémon HOME, its name is reset to its species name in its language of origin.
Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! onward
The names of unnicknamed Pokémon and Eggs remain in their language of origin when traded. When an unnicknamed Pokémon is evolved, its name is updated to its new species name in its language of origin.
In all games from Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, there is a bug affecting the nicknames of unnicknamed event Pokémon with a fixed language of origin. These event Pokémon are assigned their species name in the language of the game in which they were received, rather than in their language of origin. Since their Korean and Chinese names can contain characters not present in the font used for Japanese or English text, their nicknames will display as question marks when redeemed in these languages. This bug was fixed in version 1.3.0 of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, where these event Pokémon are instead assigned their species name in their language of origin.
Other functionality
From Generation IV onward, outsider Pokémon with a different language of origin to the save file gain 1.7× experience (outsider Pokémon normally gain 1.5× experience).
From Generation IV onward, if two Pokémon are bred that have different languages of origin to each other, Eggs they produce are more likely to be Shiny. This is known as the Masuda method.
From Generation IV onward, if a Pokémon with a different language of origin to the save file is obtained, the player gains access to its Pokédex entry in its language of origin. In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, this only applies to 14 specific Pokémon; from Pokémon Platinum onward, this applies to all Pokémon. Korean first became available as a foreign Pokédex entry in Generation V (as the Korean Generation IV games are not compatible with other language games). Traditional and Simplified Chinese first became available as foreign Pokédex entries with their introduction in Generation VII.
In Pokémon Sword, Shield, Scarlet, and Violet, the player can give a nickname to an unnicknamed outsider Pokémon, as long as the Pokémon's language of origin is the same as the current Trainer's game language and, starting in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, it was not met in a fateful encounter.
In Pokémon HOME, deposited Pokémon can be filtered by language of origin. When searching for Pokémon on the GTS, it is possible to limit the search results to Pokémon with a specific language of origin. Starting with the addition of Latin American Spanish in version 4.0.0, Pokémon with a newly added language as their language of origin cannot be moved into older games that did not support that language.
Possible values
Korean was added as a language value in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, while Traditional and Simplified Chinese were added in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Spanish was renamed "Spanish (Spain)" in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet; this change was later made in Pokémon HOME in version 2.1.0 (mobile) and version 3.0.0 (Switch). Latin American Spanish was added as a language value in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and was later added to Pokémon HOME in version 4.0.0. Brazilian Portuguese will be added in Pokémon Winds and Waves.
| # | Icon | Language | ||||||||
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| XYORAS | SMUSUM | PE | SwSh | BDSP | LA | SV | ZA | HOME | ||
| 1 | 
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Japanese |
| 2 | 
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English |
| 3 | 
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French |
| 4 | 
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Italian |
| 5 | 
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German |
| 6 | unused | |||||||||
| 7 | 
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Spanish (Spain) |
| 8 | 
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Korean |
| 9 | 
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Chinese (Simplified) | |
| 10 | 
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Chinese (Traditional) | |
| 11 | 
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Spanish (Latin America) | |||||||
Trivia
- Some Pokémon cannot be obtained with a particular language of origin:
- Vivillon's Poké Ball Pattern cannot be obtained with Simplified or Traditional Chinese as its language of origin.
- 72 Pokémon species, as well as Pikachu's cap forms, Vivillon's Fancy Pattern and Poké Ball Pattern, and Ursaluna's Bloodmoon form, cannot be obtained with Latin American Spanish as their language of origin. These are the Pokémon that are unavailable in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, cannot be obtained in Pokémon GO and transferred to Pokémon HOME, and cannot be obtained as gifts in Pokémon HOME.
- The only way to obtain a Deoxys with Simplified or Traditional Chinese as its language of origin is by transferring it from Pokémon GO via the GO Transporter to a Pokémon HOME account whose language was originally set to Simplified or Traditional Chinese.
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | Cantonese | 語言 Yúhyìhn |
| Mandarin | 語言 / 语言 Yǔyán | |
| French | Langue | |
| German | Sprache | |
| Italian | Lingua | |
| Korean | 언어 Eon-eo | |
| Spanish | Idioma | |
Specific languages
 English
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 Kana
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Rōmaji
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 French
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 German
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 Italian
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 Spanish
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 Hangul
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Romanized
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 Hànzì
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Romanized
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| Japanese | 日本語 | Nihongo | Japonais | Japanisch | Giapponese | Japonés | 일본어 | Ilboneo | 日文 日語 / 日语 |
Rìwén / Yahtmán Rìyǔ / Yahtyúh |
| English | 英語 | Eigo | Anglais | Englisch | Inglese | Inglés | 영어 | Yeong-eo | 英文 英語 / 英语 |
Yīngwén / Yīngmán Yīngyǔ / Yīngyúh |
| French | フランス語 | Furansu-go | Français | Französisch | Francese | Francés | 프랑스어 | Peurangseueo | 法文 法語 / 法语 |
Fǎwén / Faatmàhn Fǎyǔ / Faatyúh |
| German | ドイツ語 | Doitsu-go | Allemand | Deutsch | Tedesco | Alemán | 독일어 | Dogireo | 德文 德語 / 德语 |
Déwén / Dākmàhn Déyǔ / Dākyúh |
| Italian | イタリア語 | Itaria-go | Italien | Italienisch | Italiano | Italiano | 이탈리아어 | Itallia-eo | 義大利文 意大利文 / 意大利文 義大利語 意大利语 |
Yìdàlìwén / Yihdaaihleihmàhn Yìdàlìwén / Yidaaihleihmàhn Yìdàlìyǔ Yìdàlìyǔ |
| Korean | 韓国語 | Kankokugo | Coréen | Koreanisch | Coreano | Coreano | 한국어 | Han-gugeo | 韓文 / 韩文 韓語 / 韩语 |
Hánwén / Hòhnmán Hányǔ / Hòhnyúh |
| Spanish | スペイン語 | Supein-go | Espagnol | Spanisch | Spagnolo | Español | 스페인어 | Seupeineo | 西班牙文 西班牙語 / 西班牙语 |
Xībānyáwén / Sāibāanngàhmàhn Xībānyáyǔ / Sāibāanngàhyúh |
| Spanish (Spain) | 欧州スペイン語 | Ōshū Supein-go | Espagnol (Espagne) | Spanisch (Spanien) | Spagnolo (Spagna) | Español (España) | 유럽 스페인어 | Yureop Seupeineo | 歐洲西班牙文 欧洲西班牙语 |
Ōuzhōu Xībānyáwén / Āujāu Sāibāanngàhmàhn Ōuzhōu Xībānyáyǔ |
| Spanish (Latin America) | ラテンアメリカスペイン語 | Raten Amerika Supein-go | Espagnol (Amérique latine) | Spanisch (Lateinamerika) | Spagnolo (America Latina) | Español (Latinoamérica) | 라틴 아메리카 스페인어 | Ratin Amerika Seupeineo | 拉丁美洲西班牙文 拉丁美洲西班牙语 |
Lādīng Měizhōu Xībānyáwén / Lāaidīng Méihjāu Sāibāanngàhmàhn Lādīng Měizhōu Xībānyáyǔ |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 中国語（簡体字） | Chūgokugo (Kantaiji) | Chinois simplifié | Chinesisch (vereinfacht) | Cinese (semplificato) | Chino simplificado | 중국어/간체자 | Junggugeo/Gancheja | 簡體中文 / 简体中文 | Jiǎntǐ zhōngwén / Gáantái jūngmàhn |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 中国語（繁体字） | Chūgokugo (Hantaiji) | Chinois traditionnel | Chinesisch (traditionell) | Cinese (tradizionale) | Chino tradicional | 중국어/번체자 | Junggugeo/Beoncheja | 繁體中文 / 繁体中文 | Fántǐ zhōngwén / Fàahntái jūngmàhn |
See also
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This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games. |