Your average language Enthusiast

Some background: Japanese is written with a mix of kana (which are phonetic characters that each represent a sound) and kanji (more complex characters which have both a meaning and often multiple possible sounds).

But little kids aren't expected to know every kanji yet, and there can be obscure words or names with oddball pronunciations that would puzzle any reader. So you can also put some small kana alongside the kanji to tell people how to pronounce it. Those are called furigana, and they're common in a lot of manga for youngish audiences.

As an example, here's the kanji 神 (meaning "god") with the furigana that say かみ (kami) in case you didn't know how to spell that one in kanji yet:

But at some point someone figured out that, hey, you don't HAVE to have the furigana match the kanji. There's nothing stopping you from just...

Using a foreign or made-up word but with a built-in definition: the kanji 祓魔師 (exorcise-demon-professional) pronounced as the English word エクソシスト (ekusoshisuto = exorcist)

Letting a character talk to himself really literally: 俺 (me) with the furigana おまえ (omae = you). You, by which I mean me,

Harping on the fact that you have a light themed villain this arc: 光 (light) but with the OTHER WHOLE KANJI 闇 (darkness) as the pronunciation. Darkness, but our darkness is Different because it's actually Light...

Clarifying what someone means like a little parenthetical statement: 俺達 (us/we) pronounced イルミナティ (iruminati = Illuminati). We, the Illuminati...

And many more. Those were just examples from Blue Exorcist that I already had saved to my hard drive. I cannot emphasize enough how much manga likes to create double meanings this way.

As you might imagine, this can be awkward to translate into a language that doesn't have even the slightest concept of furigana.

Usually you end up doing something that either ignores it (just pick the word that was most important of the two, or use the made up word but only define it the first time) or gets the job done but feels a bit like a cop-out (list both words, or put one in parentheses after the other)

But not always. Not in this one case from the first chapter of Blue Exorcist, translated for Viz by John Werry:

A quick reminder that the Associated Press is totally free, and also often covers the news stories that Tumblr users say no one is covering. NPR is also free. So is ProPublica.

Both come from the Latin "burgus", meaning castle or fortified town. A burglar being someone who bypassed the security of fortifications.

Meanwhile burger comes via Hamburg, the burg of Hamma.

Yes, I was tearing through books constantly, and talking to this teacher at least weekly. Because even though I always loved reading as a kid, literature was always a very weak subject for me in terms of a teaching-to-standardized-test school setting (I just do awful on "what color were the curtains" type multiple choice questions. Those details don't stick in my memory THEY JUST DON'T). But that didn't matter for this class. I could just read my way out of any bad test score. I have always had fond memories of how I "fudged" my way through that class and "abused' the extra credit policy.

OpenAI scraped the entire web. All of which had been a labor of love from humans. Wikipedia is the backbone of a lot of LLMs, and that was volunteer human labor. They stole it and now they're selling it back to us.

The original post by @funwithlanguages can be found here. 

First Verbs

be - no equivalent in Arabic there is - هُنَاكَ have - عِنْدَ do - فَعَلَ go - ذَهَبَ want - أَرَادَ can - قَدَرَ need - اِحْتَاجَ think - فَكَّرَ know - عَرَفَ say - قَالَ like - حَبَّ speak - تَكَلَّمَ learn - تَعَلَّمَ understand - فَهِمَ

Conjunctions

that - اَلَّذِي; أَنَّ and - وَ or - أَوْ, أَمْ but - لٰكِنْ because - لِأَنَّ though - رَغْم أَنّ so (meaning “therefore”) - لِذٰلِكَ if - إِذَا, لَوْ , إِنْ

Prepositions

to - إِلَى from, of - مِنْ in - فِي at (a place) - عِنْدَ at (a time) - فِي, عَلَى with - مَعَ about - عَنْ like (meaning “similar to”) - مِثْل before - قَبْلَ after - بَعْدَ during - خِلَالَ

Question Words

who - مَنْ what - مَاذَا, مَا where - أَيْنَ when - مَتَى why - لِمَاذَا how - كَيْفَ how much - كَمْ which - أَيّ

Adverbs

a lot - كَثِير a little - قَلِيلًا well - جَيِّدًا badly - بِشَكْلٍ سَيِّئٍ only - فَقَطْ also - أَيْضًا very - جِدًّا too (as in “too tall”) - جِدًّا so (as in “so tall”) - جِدًّا more - أَكْثَرَ less - أَقَلّ than (etc. "bigger than", "easier than") - مِنْ as - كَمَا most - مُعْظَم, أَغْلَب least - أَقَلّ at least - عَلَى اَلْأَقَلّ better - أَفْضَل, أحسن best - أَفْضَل worse, worst - أَسْوَأ worst - أَسْوَأ now - الْآنَ then - ثُمَّ here - هُنَا there - هُنَاكَ maybe - رُبَّمَا always - دَائِمًا usually - عَادَةً often - كَثِيرًا sometimes - أَحْيَانًا never - أَبَدًا today - الْيَوْمَ yesterday - أَمْس tomorrow - غَدًا soon - قَرِيبًا almost - تَقْرِيبًا already - قَدْ still - لَا يَزَال even - حَتَّى enough - كَافٍ

Adjectives

the - اَلْ this (masculine) - هٰذَا this (feminine) - هٰذِهِ that (masculine) - ذٰلِكَ that (feminine) - تِلْكَ good - جَيِّد bad - سَيِّئ all - كُلّ some - بَعْض no - لَا any - أَيّ many - كَثِير few - قَلِيل other - آخَر same - نَفْس different - مُخْتَلِف enough - كَافٍ one - وَاحِد two - اِثْنَان first - أَوَّل next (meaning "coming", e.g. "next week") - قَادِم last (meaning “past”, e.g. “last Friday”) - مَاضٍ last (meaning “final”) - آخِر easy - سَهْل hard - صَعْب early - بَاكِر late - مُتَأَخِّر important - مُهِمّ interesting - مُشَوِّق fun - مُمْتِع boring - مُمِلّ beautiful - جَمِيل big - كَبِير small - صَغِير happy - سَعِيد sad - حَزِين busy - مَشْغُول excited - مُتَحَمِّس tired - مُتْعَب ready - مُسْتَعِدّ favorite - مُفَضَّل new - جَدِيد right, correct - صَوَاب wrong - خَطَأ true - صَحِيح

Pronouns

I - أَنَا you (masculine) - أَنْتَ you (feminine) - أَنْتِ you two - أَنْتُمَا he - هُوَ she - هِيَ the two of them, they - هُمَا we - نَحْنُ you (masculine, more than two) - أَنْتُمْ you (feminine, more than two) - أَنْتُنَّ they (masculine) - هُمْ they (feminine) - هُنَّ

Nouns

everything - كُلّ شَيْء something - شَيْء nothing - لَا شَيْء everyone - الْجَمِيع someone - أَحَد no one - أَحَد لَا Arabic - الْعَرَبِيَّة‎ English - إِنْجْلِيزِيَّة thing - شَيْء person - شَخْص place - مَكَان time - زَمَان, وَقْت time (as in “I did it 3 times”) - مَرَّة friend - صَدِيق woman - اِمْرَأَة man - رَجُل money - مَال country - بَلَد city - مَدِينَة language - لُغَة word - كَلِمَة food - طَعَام, أَكْل house - بَيْت store - مَحَلّ, مَتْجَر office - مَكْتَب company - شَرِكَة manager - مُدِير coworker - زَمِيل job, work - عَمَل problem - مُشْكِلَة question - سُؤَال idea - فِكْرَة life - حَيَاة world - عَالَم day - يَوْم year - عَام, سَنَة week - أُسْبُوع month - شَهْر hour - سَاعَة mother - أُمّ father - أَب parents - وَالِدَان daughter - اِبْنَة, بِنْت son - اِبْن child - طِفْل wife - زَوْجَة husband - زَوْج girlfriend - حَبِيب boyfriend - حَبِيبَة

More Verbs

work - عَمِلَ see - رَأَى use - اِسْتَخْدَمَ should - يَجِبْ أنْ believe - اِعْتَقَدَ practice - تَدَرَّبَ it seems - يَبدو come - جَاءَ leave - غَادَرَ return - رَجَعَ give - أَعْطَى take - أَخَذَ bring - أَحْضَرَ look for - بَحَثَ find - وَجَدَ get (meaning “obtain”) - يَحْصُلُ عَلَى receive - اِسْتَلَمَ buy - اِشْتَرَى try - حَاوَلَ start - بَدَأَ stop (doing something) - وَقَفَ finish - خَلَّصَ continue - تَابَعَ, اِسْتَمَرَّ wake up - صَحَّى get up - قَامَ eat - أَكَلَ happen - حَدَثَ feel - شَعَرَ create - خَلَقَ cause (aka “make”) - جَعَلَ meet - اِلْتَقَى, تَقَابَلَ ask (a question) - سَأَلَ wonder - تَسَاءَلَ reply - أَجَابَ mean - عَنَى, قَصَدَ read - قَرَأَ write - كَتَبَ listen - اِسْتَمَعَ hear - سَمِعَ remember - تَذَكَّرَ forget - نَسِيَ choose - اِخْتَارَ decide - قَرَّرَ be born - وُلِدَ die - مَاتَ kill - قَتَلَ live - حَيِيَ stay - بَقِيَ change - غَيَّرَ, تَغَيَّرَ help - سَاعَدَ send - أَرْسَلَ study - دَرَسَ improve - حَسَّنَ, تحسن hope - أَمَلَ care - اِهْتَمَّ

Phrases

Nakba Day is commemorated annually on May 15. It marks the beginning of the destruction of the Palestinian homeland, and the mass displacement in 1948 of the majority of the Palestinian population.