Mojibake - Hackdot

Re:Mojibake by franciscop on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @03:27AM (#33092349)

Note that "bake*" in Japanese also means "monster/ghost". I am not sure if intended or not, but can def see this being a magnific pun in the language, since that alt translation would be "character monster".

* Note: not sure if this is actually an official alt meaning in Japanese, an intended pun, or none of the above, just my notes thinking this could be a magnific pun. It uses a different kanji so would only be possible if this was regularly written in katakana or only spoken of.

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Re:Mojibake by rippercushions on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @03:44AM (#33092481)

It's the same word: 化け(る) bake(ru) means "change, transform, alter, corrupt". So a monster is ''o-bake'', "something which has been changed [into a monster]".

That said, no, most Japanese would not associate ''mojibake'' with "character monsters", it's just "altered characters".

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Re:Mojibake by franciscop on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @05:46AM (#33093261)

Ah nice, thanks for the clarification! Does that "altered" have the connotation of "corrupt" here? Or it could be altered in any generic way?

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Re:Mojibake by bitwize on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @08:59AM (#33094966)

Bakemono means something more like "changeling", e.g., a tanuki who is assuming human form. The bake in mojibake has more to do with this concept of changing than with ghosts or monsters.

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