Grammar Questions - ゼルダの伝説版

Japanese Language Grammar
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Hey all, back with a new batch of grammar questions. I’ve been playing through the remake of Link’s Awakening (AKA 夢をみる島) And taking down notes on stuff that has been throwing me for a loop. My last grammar post really helped me out, so I hope others can benefit from this too!

1. Context: A talking alligator is speaking about his brother

弟はどこぞで芸術家を
やっとるらしいんや

Primarily confused about やっとる here. I’d have to guess it’s some form of やる, as in “my brother is doing/being an artist somewhere” but I’m not sure about this form.

2. Context: A witch makes a magical powder for you out of mushrooms, and then makes a comment.

キノコがなかったら残りを分けてやってもいいぞ。
次はお金をもらうがな…

What I know from the game is that she’s saying that what she’s done for free, next time she will charge for. But the construction of this has me lost. Especially what 分けて is doing.

3. Context: You wake up a sleeping demon, and he grants you extra capacity for your items.

どうもありがとう
お礼をしてやるかくごしやがれ

First of all I think there’s some sarcasm going on here (he’s thanking you, but actually he’s upset you’re waking him up. I think the joke is that his “thanks” is supposed to be a curse, but is actually a good thing. That’s besides the point though.) I’m not sure how to parse しやがれ in this sentence. してやる threw me for a loop too, because it looked like する(て form) + やる but Jisho says it’s just a word meaning “to do for someone” which makes more sense.

4. Context: You talk to a man raising chickens

さーいきんのコケコッコどもは
根性がなってねえだよ
オラが昔飼っとったヤツは
パータパタ空を飛んだだよ！

Saved the best for last. I’m just lost here. 昔飼っとった seems to be a weird form, and 根性がなってねえ is confusing to me (The chickens have no willpower??).

If you’ve read this far, thanks! I recommend Link’s Awakening in Japanese, though unfortunately there’s furigana. However there are some weird characters that only speak with katakana, which has been an annoying but good exercise for my reading speed.

Thanks!

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やっている → やっておる → やっとる
Several dialects of Japanese (most famously, Kansai-ben) use おる instead of いる。 And any time you happen to have a ておる that can be shortened to とる。

I read it as “If you are running out of mushrooms, I could split the rest (from making the magical powder) and give it to you”, reading the やる as giving.
But I’m not 100% sure about this one, maybe someone has a different idea?

But “doing something for someone” is exactly what て ＋ やる means! Hahaha
On current Japanese, やる is an extremely informal (on the verge of rude) version of あげる. Grammatically it works the same. In case you are not familiar with the whole あげる、もらう、くれる thing, I strongly suggest you checking it, it’s a very important topic.

飼っていた → 飼っておった → 飼っとった（same as above）
About the chickens, he is just saying they are not as strong/motivated/word as you prefer as they were, since the ones he used to raise in the past would fly around, but these don’t.

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Kansai strikes again!

Thanks Synchro, I never regret posting questions like this, that was extremely informative. I’m familiar with あげる and family, but I was not familiar with やる as an informal version. These kinds of things I have trouble figuring out via Google for one reason or another.

Thanks :smiley:

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You can turn this off on the save screen =D (Though I’m not ready for that yet.)

To add a detail that will help clarify this: If you bring her a mushroom, she’ll make magic powder from it for free. If you don’t have a mushroom, you can pay and she’ll use one of hers.

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やがる, attached to the stem of the verb (in this case する), is something used to described another’s action with disdain or contempt, or even hatred. In this case, since やがる is conjugated as imperative form, the demon is probably telling you, the player, to be prepared to say some words of thanks, like “どうもありがとう”.

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Thanks all, that really helps put the pieces together on these sentences! Missing that imperative turned the meaning around completely. As for the furigana… I just finished the game. Ha, that’s what I get for not checking the settings!

I have a few more from my session tonight if anybody feels like taking at swing at 'em.

5. Context: An evil skeleton prepares to fight you

よし 上等でい やろうども
たたんじゃまいな！ぺっ！

Not sure about the meaning of でい or たたん. These slangy speech patterns just make it harder, but it’s just something I have to get accustomed to.

6. Context: The villain is explaining his motive

夢という閉ざされた世界に
秩序を築くがため

I’m familiar with という insofar as the meaning “things called X”, but not sure what it’s serving in this sentence.

7. Context: The helper character is explaining his role in the story. (The “wind fish” is an important and mysterious character, if you’re not familiar with the game.)

ワシはかぜのさかなの
心のひとつなのちゃ

Just not sure about ひとつ here. Can it mean “part of” in this context?

7. Context: Speaking to the wind fish

だが夢は覚めるもの
それが自然の定めなのだ

Just not really getting what he’s going for here. 覚めるもの in particular.

Thanks for putting up with my longwindedness, this has been a wonderful help!

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もの can be used to indicated something one should do. I believe that is the meaning intended here - ‘But you have to wake up from dreams’ (can’t keep living in them)

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I’m 80% sure that でい is some kind of slangy slurred version of だ. 上等だ usually is used like a “bring it on! fite me bruh”
As for たたんじゃまいな, I think there’s several layers of slang placed one on top of the other. The base verb is most likely 畳たたむ, with the slang meaning of “暴力でいためつける。やっつける。”. On top of that we add the てしまう conjugation. 畳んでしまう can be shortened as 畳んじゃう normally, but a more masculine slangy version of that would be 畳んじまう. I have no idea how じ becomes じゃ, but I’m willing to bet it’s another slurring of speech that isn’t 100% grammatically correct. Then the last layer is the verb stem + な as a casual imperative. So instead of しまえ it becomes しまいな. All in all 畳んでしまいな gets slurred to たたんじゃまいな！And “ぺっ” is probably the sound effect of sticking out your tongue. So the whole thing’s probably like a “Fine by me, you bastards! Just try and defeat me! sticks out tongue”

The closed off world called a dream / known as a dream / that is a dream. This kind of direct translation doesn’t sound very natural in English, but if you rephrase it to something like “In the closed off world of a dream” or something to that effect, it probably sounds more natural.

Yes, that’s the kind of nuance “I’m a part of wind fish’s heart/spirit/soul/etc”. I’m assuming the ちゃ is that character’s particular speech pattern of saying だ, making them sound cute, or something, right?

覚める means “to wake up, to sober up” etc. So “A dream is something that you wake up (from). That’s the law of nature.”. A meaning of もの is “reason, the way of things, used to indicate something that should happen”, which I believe fits the part since the next line is about the laws of nature.

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I am also playing the game and taking a lot of screenshots for parts I didn’t fully grasp (or not at all) to research later, maybe I will hijack your thread one day with more questions.

For me this is actually my first time that I do understand most of the text (I do have too look up words in almost every sentence though). Earlier attempts of playing games, reading manga or NHK Easy never got me far.

I know a lot of people say furigana are bad and you should disable them when you have the option, but I don’t think I’d be still playing the game in Japanese if I had to look up every word I don’t know the reading of by drawing the kanji in my phone’s dictionary. Also I would have missed that the owl says 剣つるぎ instead of 剣 けん when you find your sword.

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Thanks again all. That slang knot was really nuts, thanks for helping unravel that, jneapan. As for the owl character, ちゃ is indeed just his way of ending sentences. Though he typically speaks with a lot of what I’d think of as old-man stuff like わし, and some different kanji readings, so I’m not sure what effect they were going for exactly. Quirky old man, perhaps.

Actually, tao brings up a great point related exactly to that! I would have missed that as well. There are a couple other examples of this where he uses readings that are a little more unusual, but I can’t recall off the top of my head. I worry I pick up bad habits with the furigana but I completely agree with your point that I’d be taking a lot longer to look up kanji I don’t know. Though at this point that’s not so much of an issue for me as much as just remembering which readings to use.

EDIT: You’re also plenty welcome to hijack the thread with your own questions!

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