特辑业余学者如何翻译塞尔达：王国秘密语言的眼泪

Some people find it hard to resist the urge to translate things. Whether it's a book, a movie, or a game, we always want to understand the meaning behind the different languages we encounter. This is especially true for games like FEZ, Titan Souls, Heaven's Vault, 7 Days To End With You, and Noita, which invite players to crack their languages to reveal more of the game's story. And while translating these languages can be challenging, it's also a rewarding experience that often leads to new discoveries about the game's lore.

In the case of Nintendo's upcoming game Tears of the Kingdom, however, the challenge is even greater. That's because the game introduces THREE languages: Hylian, Sheikah, and Zonai. Hylian and Sheikah have already been translated, but Zonai remains a mystery. It's a highly syllabic language that seems to hide a ton of secrets.

Language sleuths have been working on translating Zonai since the first trailer for Tears of the Kingdom was released. But there are still no solid conclusions. Some people think Zonai might match to Japanese characters, while others think it might match to Chinese characters. There's even potential evidence that Zonai could be written boustrophedonically, which means alternating left to right and right to left for each line of script. Doesn't that sound exhausting?

The closest we have to a Rosetta Stone for Zonai is the Ring Ruins text, which is what our friend Wortsworth is working on anyway. But even that doesn't offer much help in translating Zonai, as it often seems to necessitate being relatively fluent in English, Japanese, and Chinese scripts, on top of being enough of a linguist to speculate on grammar, syntax, word order, and reading patterns.

In conclusion, the Zonai text in Tears of the Kingdom is still largely a mystery. Some people seem to have cracked words, phrases, or word order, but without that Rosetta Stone confirmation, there's little evidence that any of them are right. Until someone finds that Rosetta Stone or a significant body of Zonai text is discovered, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that someone eventually figures it out. But not for long, Zonai. We're coming for you!