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Unread 03-19-2010   #20
dsojourn
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Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 432
Re: Touhou Doujin Growth

I don't think it counts as a specific accent (not like, say, Kansai-ben, or whatever the hell thick accent Wakamoto Norio has that makes him sound so awesome), although I'm sure the speech-style has a name in Japanese.

Essentially, Marisa speaks with, and sometimes lapses more heavily into (note that on some pages she's speaking relatively normally) a rough way of speaking, on one hand very boyishly, and on the other hand quite a bit, hmmm, shall I say "urban-y"? Crudely, as in, not cursing, or dirty, but the sort of speech pattern you'd expect and/or hear from some schoolyard tough or a gruff-type of guy. She ends a lot of her sentences in "ze" or "da ze!" instead of several dozen other versions of "desu". She uses shortened or slang forms of many words and sentences/phrases ('U~MEEEE!!' instead of 'oishii' or even 'umai' for example of the former) instead of a more flowing speech pattern, as well as a VERY informal tone/level of respect. Even her exclamations and sounds are masculine and 'unrefined' (U-Hiiiiiiii! which is like a monkey scream instead of, say, the far more typical 'kyaaaa!').

Now, granted, since there aren't too many set translating conventions you don't HAVE to do anything with this sort of thing and can just translate it as relatively normal speech with a couple of extra contractions/usages of slang, but I personally found this funnier.
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