Coincidences with names

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Thunderstone = a Finnish band. takes part in our Eurovision trials this year.

Johto = a Finnish word meaning 'lead' (as a noun based on the werb 'to lead', 'johtaa'). Pronouned quite differently from Japanese 'jouto/jooto'.

Kanto = a Finnish word meaning 'tree stump'. I think it is pronunciated with two os in Japanese though.

Getto = Ghetto, Jemish quarter, cf. Japanese Pokémon term 'Getto da ze!'

Pika = a suffix in Finnish language, meaning 'fast' or 'quick', for example, 'pikaruoka' = 'fast food', 'ruoka' being the word for 'food'.

Teppo = a Finnnish boy's name [Teppooo (Teppouo) = Remoraid's Japanese name]

Paras = a Finnish word meaning 'the best'.

Minun = a Finnish word form meaning 'my, mine', the stem being 'minä'.

Pippi = A Swedish fairy-tale figure Pippi Långstrump, Clefairys Japanese name.

So you can say like this in Finnish:

Ash johtaa johto-liigaa.
Ash leads the Johto League.

Paras on paras!
Paras is the best!

Minun Minunini!
My Minun!

Tuo Minun on minun!
That Minun is mine!

Tässä ovat Minun, Paras, ja minun paras Pokémonini, Parasect!
Here are Minun, Paras and my best Pokémon, Parasect!

Can you add more? Or can you invent more word plays like those, if you can do it in English I could perhaps translate them!

[Lady Vulpix]

Well, in Spanish 'paras' means 'you stop'. And we have the famous numbered legendary birds (Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres). I'll see if I can find any more coincidences.

[Magmar]

On that note, the pokemon Lombre clearly is based on "Hombre". That's cool, all the Finnish connotations in Pokemon!

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

Maybe the guys coming up with those names picked up a Finnish dictionary and picked random words. It's an interesting coincidence at any rate.

[mr_pikachu]

On that note, the pokemon Lombre clearly is based on "Hombre". That's cool, all the Finnish connotations in Pokemon!

But I thought "hombre" was Spanish... or at least Tex-Mexican. ^_^;;

[Speranza]

Wow. Thats really weird. I never even thought of all that. I just thought that the people just put some letters together that sounded ok. Though now that you people mention it, it does sound like a pretty good theory. I wish I thought of it. .....

[Lady Vulpix]

But I thought "hombre" was Spanish... or at least Tex-Mexican. ^_^;;

"Hombre" means "man" in Spanish.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Alex, do you know what's the German term for Moon Stone? For in Sailor Moon's German dub (at least in the songs I have heard) Moon Tiara is called Mondstein or something. Correct?

Yep, they could make like 100000 new Pokémon and name them all with funny Finnish words.

But isn't it quite probable that if you invent a word with, let's say, 4 letters, that word already exists in another language!

[Magmar]

But I thought "hombre" was Spanish... or at least Tex-Mexican. ^_^;;

it is, I'm just saying that they took it from another language to make the Pokemon name, which I think is far more creative than just using English stuff like Mr. Mime.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

For in Sailor Moon's German dub (at least in the songs I have heard) Moon Tiara is called Mondstein or something. Correct?

Yes, that's correct. Moon Stone in German is Mondstein.

To translate Moon Tiara with Mondstein is quite odd though. A correct translation would be Mond Tiara or Stirnreif des Mondes.

[Lady Vulpix]

Oh, two more additions to the Spanish words list: Lunatone and Solrock. Given that they mean Moon and Sun respectively, I believe they were intentional.

[mr_pikachu]

I'm not sure how much we can call Lunatone Spanish. "Lunar" is very much an English word, even if it has foreign origins (and what English word doesn't?)... Solrock is probably more applicable, as any alternate origins would be further separated from American culture than that of Spain/Mexico.

Still, it is interesting to see all these connections... the fact that we're observing all this suggests that we ought to bring back the TPM Pokedex. Wink wink, nudge nudge, etc. ^_^

[Lady Vulpix]

It might be a good idea.

Why single out Spain and Mexico, though? Just because Spain spoke Spanish first and Mexico is the closest to you, it doesn't mean the rest of us don't count.

[mr_pikachu]

Well, of course. You certainly count. But they were the first two that came to my sleep-deprived mind. ^_^;;

[Jeff]

I think the Spanish thing is more of a coincidence since the names can also be seen as being derived from the English words solar and lunar (which I do believe are derived from Latin, the same place the Spanish words sol and luna come from). Although it is interesting that Solrock's name isn't "Solarock", so maybe the names do come from Spanish.

[Elec Man EXE]

I think the Spanish thing is more of a coincidence since the names can also be seen as being derived from the English words solar and lunar (which I do believe are derived from Latin, the same place the Spanish words sol and luna come from). Although it is interesting that Solrock's name isn't "Solarock", so maybe the names do come from Spanish.

Either that, or its because Solarock sounds rediculous

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Still, it is interesting to see all these connections... the fact that we're observing all this suggests that we ought to bring back the TPM Pokedex. Wink wink, nudge nudge, etc. ^_^

Yep, and I translated all that stuff to the most difficult language in the world!

Yet one more coincidence:

'Jouto' is a Japanese romanization for Johto, correct? Now, again pronounced in a different way, jouto is a Finnish somewhat abbreviated suffix, meaning the same as the word joutava, idle, needless or useless.

That suits well, doesn't it? We have thus

Jouto-liiga oli joutavanpäiväinen!
Jouto League was all needless!

[Lady Vulpix]

Most difficult language in the world? Where did you get that from?

I know just a few words of Finnish, but it all looked quite logical. Chaining words to form related concepts is a simple thing to do, and there aren't many odd sounds... ö and ÿ are the only tough ones; so what am I missing?

[mr_pikachu]

I think Mikachu was talking about translating Finnish to English; I've heard that English is considered the toughest language, myself. It incorporates so many words from so many different languages that every rule has all kinds of exceptions. Though I would consider the African tongue-clicking languages trickier, myself... they're just so different from phonetic speech that they'd be hard to comprehend.

[Hinoryu]

Not sure on Johto, but Kanto, at least, is the name of an actual part of Japan. Tokyo's actually a part of Kanto, as I recall. Geography's not my strong suit, though, so I could be wrong. But if I remember right, Kanto is the southeast chunk of Honshuu, the largest Japanese island.

However, I'm relatively sure there's no Pokemon running around it, so it could be named after a tree stump after all.

[mr_pikachu]

Kanto is an actual region in Japan; I've heard references to "the Kanto prefecture" more than once. And the others, while not named the same as any particular place, can generally be correlated to some Japanese area.


EDIT: Here you go.


Johto lies directly to the west of Kanto, to the northeast of Hoenn, and is based on the Kansai region of Japan.

Hoenn is roughly based on Kyūshū in Japan (flipped by 90 degrees and smaller, possibly influenced by the Shikoku region as well) and lies to the southwest of Kanto and Johto in the Pokémon world.

[Sinnoh] is based on the geography of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, the southern end of the Russian island of Sakhalin, and the disputed island of Kunashir.

According to Pokemon.com, [Orre] is based on the Arizona desert, although the game has a post-apocalyptic feel to it as well.


Hooray for Wikipedia.