Languages

[Kasumi]

I was somehow inspired by the thread debating Pokémon's intelligence. We know Pokémon can understand human language, but what language that is? Well, you will obviously say it's Japanese since the games and anime are from Japan but... Is there only ONE official language in the modern world of Pokémon? Are there more than one or they ceased to exist?

 

[MondoTR]

I've heard about Surge speaking English in the Japanese version so there should be at least two.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

I think there are different languages in the pokemon world, but languages that are different from our own (I'm also a believer that Kanto, Johto, etc do not take up the entire planet and are only as big as Australia at best).

 

[Barb]

I've considered this only briefly, but I've often wondered about accents. Jessiebelle has a deep South accent. Meowth has, for better or worse, a New York-type accent. If we assume that there are different languages or dialects in the Pokémon world, then there are probably different accents as well. Perhaps Orange Islanders speak differently than those on the mainland of Kanto; ditto for the Whirl Islands and Hoenn.

If I seem obsessed with islands in this post, I am thinking of the many different accents and dialects one hears while living in Florida. We have Jamaicans, Haitians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc., living here and each group has their own accent (not to mention language or dialect).

 

[Misty]

Ash has never had a problem understanding anyone to my immediate knowledge, so one assumes that Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and the Orange Islands all speak the same language, whether it be Japanese, English, French, Engrish, YOUR MOM, or whatever.

But one assumes that the current Pokemon world we've seen only makes up a small piece of the world that the characters inhabit - Orre is certainly distant from the usual world, but as there is yet no interaction between Orre and the other regions, we can't compare.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

Of course, in cartoon land, everyone has to speak the same language to avoid confusion, so it is unlikely that there'd be a language barrior anywhere they go. Maybe they all have Universal Translators? =P

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

The Orange Island seems to have had a langage of their own. Jirarudan needed his computer to translate it, but Melody could read it right out. Which is kinda strange, if you think about it. A man of his means should have had no trouble finding a translator, even the person who programmed his computer.

 

[Misty]

Oh yes, the ancients seemed to have had different languages, i.e. Pokemopolis.

 

[Zhen Lin]

Or at least older variants of modern languages. Most of them are incomprehensible, even if you know the modern language. Imagine, if you will, if you came across this fragment of text:

oretmecgas æfter æþelum frægn:
"Hwanon ferigeað ge fætte scyldas,
græge syrcan ond grimhelmas,
heresceafta heap? Ic eom Hroðgares
ar ond ombiht. Ne seah ic elþeodige

Even I'd be hard-pressed to call it any sort of (modern) English. (It is, in fact, Old English.)

Old Japanese is just as bad:

都流藝多知 伊与餘刀具倍之 伊尓之敝由 佐夜氣久於比弖 伎尓之曽乃名曽

Although, if read, it is slightly more comprehensible:

turugi-tati, iyoyo togu beshi, inishipe-yu, sayakeku opite, kinishi sono na-zo

(Or something like that. I'm not sure which i e o are actually ï ë ö.)

 

[Irene]

People in Altomare used "Ciao" as a greeting, at least in the Japanese version. It makes sense since Altomare is based on a Italian city... but I'm not quite sure if they would have speaked Italian as their main language... as Satoshi perfectly understood them speaking and viceversa.
I'm going for the "same language with minor regional differences", at least for the regions we know.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

Altomare was based on Venice.

 

[Nomekop Oen]

What about that Fioriello Cappuccino guy? He was speaking spanish remember?


"Si,it is muy fantastico..."

 

[Kasumi]

He was? I wouldn't know since I saw the episode in Spanish. ^^; In any case, wouldn't he be speaking Italian as the name suggests? =P

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I don't think they thought that far.

And before anyone calls "dub-only", in Japanese, Bill and Whitney seem to be the only people from Goldenrod who have Osaka accents even though the city is based on Osaka.

 

[Transfinite]

Casey does too, but then, did it even say where she was from? That and she seems to be based off a stereotypical Osakan baseball fan.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

He was? I wouldn't know since I saw the episode in Spanish. ^^; In any case, wouldn't he be speaking Italian as the name suggests? =P

Well, Italian and Spanish sound pretty similar...maybe the writers couldn't tell the difference. =P