In Pokémon Scarlet/Violet DLC，Kieran says “哇咧老天哦” when he was in shocked or frustrated. It's always funny when he says it so I got curious and searched it up. Turns out, no one uses it at all before the few videos that mentions it in the title, nor was there any memes created for 哇咧老天 as of now. Which is unexpected for a game this big.
I assume that it is a 并列/juxtapose of the three phrase combined. That being "我的天/Oh My Gosh", “老天爷啊/Good Lord” and "哇/wow"; combining to become 哇咧老天哦.
Upon searching up the meaning of 哇咧老天哦, the only result I found is that "哇咧" means われら/Ware-ra, which is Japanese for “我们/Us”. Which is a bit off. That probably due to Japanese being a phonography.
To satisfied my curiosity, I compared the three version of the original Japanese, Chinese and English.
Here are some scenes in the game:
- When player first defeated Kieran.
Japanese version: "わやじゃ"
Chinese version: "哇咧老天哦. . . . . ."
English version: "Wowzers..."
- When exploring the cave with Kieran.
Japanese version: "わやじゃ もう 日が 暮れてる"
Chinese version: "哇咧老天哦，太阳都下山了。"
English version: "Whoa, no way... The sun's already gone down?"
- Kieran commenting on Ogerpon after saving her from The Royal Three. In this sentence, Kieran just used "哇咧". Along with an confusing phrase, 有勾可爱. Is "有勾" suppose to mean "有够可爱"?
Japanese version: "わや めんこいな"
Chinese version: "哇咧，有勾可爱。"
English version: "Wowzers... You're really something!"
- When the player finally battle with a stronger Kieran at Blueberry Academy.
Japanese version: "フツ！ わやじゃ…… 相性で 負けてても 負けない！！"
Chinese version: "唔！哇咧老天哦. . . . . . 就算相克关系不利我也不会输！！"
English version: "Ack, wowzers... Doesn't matter if the type matchups works out for you, though-I'll still win!"
On a interesting note, the use of 相克关系 is a terminology used for 五行/WuXing, The Five Element theory, which describe the relationship between the reaction of each element toward each other. It's interesting that they use a WuXing term as a translation for type advantage/type matchup. While Japanese uses "相性".
- When the NPC starts dancing during the epilogue.
Japanese version: "わぎゃーつ！？な...... なんだ なんだ！？"
Chinese version: "哇咧咧~！？怎. . . . . .怎么了？怎么回事！？"
English version: "Whoa, what the heck?! What's going on?!"
- When the townspeople suddenly us for the first time during the epilogue.
Japanese version: "い いきなり わやじゃ！なんで 襲ってくんだ……！？"
Chinese version: "哇、哇咧老天哦！干嘛突然攻击别人啊. . . . . ."
English version: "Wh-what's with them all of a sudden?! Why are they attacking us?"
When looking at the Japanese text, be careful differentiation や and ゃ. Both read as "ya". The smaller one has a contracted sound/缩音, it sounds smaller. Comparing the text in three languages, it appears that some of the translation were mostly consistent. That being "哇咧老天","wowzers" and "わやじゃ".
After looking at the original Japanese text, わやじゃ appears to be intended to translate "wow". However, there is many ways to say "wow" in Japanese. For わやじゃ, it's intended translation is "What a mess!". Which is a Okayama dialog. Even Kitakami doesn't seems to be based off of Okayama. On a different note, you could find a lot of contents relating to Kieran when searching up "わやじゃ". This is not the case, as you could barely find anything for Chinese's "哇咧老天哦" when searching online as of now.
According to this source: https://town.kct.co.jp/local/009970.html
For English, "wowzers" is a Australian and New Zealand slang that is used to express being surprised, it's the same as wow. The translation team possibly used this instead of "wow" to express Kieran speaking in a accent. An interesting choice of a translation.
With the Chinese, "哇咧" possibly be intended to translate to "wow". It's interesting how the translation team didn't use "哇哦", "哇噢" or even "哇塞". Using "哇咧" could possibly be a onomatopoeia/拟声词 to the Japanese "わや". Similar to the English translation, "哇咧" gives player a feeling that Kieran is speaking in a dialect accent, at least for when I was playing. Adding in "老天哦" to further express being in shock.
What are your thoughts on this translation? Do you believe the translation team could have used something better, or do you consider "哇咧老天哦" to be a suitable translation?
