Random Utawarerumono Translation Note: Periyerai = Archers!

I just wanted to throw this out there…

Someone recently had the following complaint on the forum about the translation (I’m not picking on you, it just raised a good point):

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I can kinda see stuff like daimyo and nii-san, changing daimyo to “lord”, “count”, or whatever would be appropriate would be kinda like changing “emporer” to “king”, and siblings always referring to each other as “brother” or “sister” in English sounds kinda odd, so stuff like that is alright as long as its not a dub.

But do they really have to leave words like “archer” untranslated? Its not like they’re “the Japanese equivalent to an archer”, they ARE archers, they use a bow and arrows, and that’s what they’d refer to them as in English, too.
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But just to clear up some confusion…
Words like periyerai, aperyu, and many other words with furigana/kanji over them in the original game are NOT Japanese words. They were made up words used in the world of Utawarerumono that Japanese wouldn’t even be able to understand and had furigana over them in the original version. Some of these were modified versions of Japanese, Okinawan, or Ainu words; others were simply just made up. The only Japanese words that I can remember not translating and having furigana were the terms of address. The rest of them are made-up words or intentional variations on Japanese. There is one notable exception to this late in the game, but it’s a spoiler, so I won’t mention it here. In order to get the reference, I’ve left it in Japanese.

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