Picture: Alex Olney / Nintendo Life

Last week it was announced that the incredibly popular front-killing game, Emmong As, has been officially localized in Ireland. For many (mainly Irish) it was an exciting thing; To others, the answer was above all: “But why?

That’s a legitimate question – Irish, or Geilge, is spoken by only 40% of the Irish population, and is rarely used as a first language. It is called the ‘minority language’ – the language spoken by minorities in a country such as Welsh (622,000 speakers), Maori (157,000 speakers) and Basque (665,000 speakers). Also, as in many minority languages, instead of seeing it slowly disappear in the majority language, in this case it is English, and those who speak it invest in preserving it.

But asking ‘why worry’ ignores the fact that the Irish are still alive, and its speakers want to represent it for reasons other than being able to talk to each other. We spoke with Úna-Minh Kavanagh, the person in charge of the Irish translation project, to find out more about the reasons for this project.

Picture: Alex Olney / Nintendo Life

Cavani is a streamer who plays games in Irish and English every Sunday with all Irish streams. Officially, there are very few games with Irish translations, and many of them – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, If Found … and Dicey Dungeons – were created by Irish people interested in their own culture.

When it was too big for us, Cavani knew she wanted to add it to the rotation – “It’s quite natural that I played it, especially with my streaming audience,” but there was no official Irish translation. This is not unusual, of course. Úna-Minh often stops playing games with Irish subtitles in her English stream – and she learns a few new words along the way.

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“I noticed a mode has already been built for the Irish,” Cavani said in a discordant chat. [I] I wanted to improve it. After calling another group of Irish translators – Brian C. MacGiolla Muir, Cormax Cincinnati, Mike Drinkwater – They tweeted a request on their InnerSlot account to see if they are interested.

They were. After five months of effort, in early July 201.6.30 (along with the traditional and simple Chinese), the Irish added Amangs – this was a huge success, with Cavanagh tweeting the new winner announcing over 2,000 likes.

I had heard stories before about students at Gaelscoileanna (Irish Language School) using Amangs and putting their own Irish in it, but as a learning tool I thought it was not surprising.

The officialization of the Irish translation was related to accessibility and the celebration of the language. “We want it to be the official version rather than a mode,” she explained in a tweet, “installing a mode is not easy for the average player.”

As with keeping the Irish alive through the magic of education and examination, like many minority languages, this news will no doubt be welcomed by anyone who wants to learn Irish in school. Anyone who has ever had to learn a language in school knows that it can be a painful process, but being able to play video games or watch movies in the target language is a fun way to immerse yourself.

“I’ve heard stories before about students using Gail‌scoilana (Irish language schools) using Amangs and incorporating their own Irish into it, but I thought it was not surprising as a learning tool,” Cavani said. “It’s very important for a minority language like Irish to create fresh, modern and quality content that’s what energizes me the most.”

The popularity of Amang As in Irish may even affect the way Irish is taught to young people. As Cavani put it in a tweet, “My biggest hope is that the Irish media will see how important this is to the Irish language and minority languages ​​in general.” “The language used in the game is not particularly difficult,” she says, adding that Among Us would be a great Irish entry point for anyone, as it does not include anything that requires special cultural knowledge.

Cavanagh himself attended a gay school and learned the language after learning it from his grandfather. “We always listened to the radio at home,” she says, and this immersion allowed her to get excellent marks in her exams and to study Irish and journalism at the University of Dublin.

Picture: Alex Olney / Nintendo Life

Despite this solid background, she does not see herself as a career in localization – “It’s a hell of a job,” she says, “and it’s rewarding! Her goal of translating into a side gig is still ambitious:” I want to translate something like Skyrim, “she says. “But this game is too big. For us, on the other hand, it’s very easy – these are mainly UI components, and one should not read a ton of lore and in-game books – but that means there were no challenges of their own.

“The hardest part was QuickChat, because we don’t have the words yes and no in Irish,” Cavani says. “We use the verb – so if you say ‘drank it’ or ‘sin in the ar’, you will have to respond with the verb: d’ol me (I drank it = yes) níor ól mé (I did not drink it = no). At the end of the day, they went with the T അതെ and Níl of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ used in things like elections. “This is not true,” she admits, but most Irish speakers say they understand it from context.

But to answer this question at the outset: Why worry?

Cavani told those who asked, “This fulfillment is not for them. “

Picture: Alex Olney / Nintendo Life

“Linguistic localization is for listeners, as evidenced by the hundreds of comments on online responses and Twitter and TikTok (over 100,000 views!) [that people] Listen, or just say they’re going to play it. “

Small Personal Parenthesis: I have a diploma in Ancient Greek and Latin, two languages ​​that no one speaks. Many will ask the same question when I find my chosen topic: Why? Why would a large student take a loan to learn two languages ​​you can not speak? What jobs can you get with two dead languages ​​in your pocket? The answer may be ‘Games journalist or the Prime Minister of the UK’, but I admit I asked myself, but my real answer is: you do not have to learn languages ​​to speak to them.

Learning Latin and ancient Greek is as interesting as learning history, but “what’s the point of learning what has already happened?” (Or they may do so, but that’s also silly.) It helps my writing ability, which means I can read stories in their original language, and most importantly: it makes me better at stories.

Keeping languages ​​alive is important to keep in touch with our past, our culture and our identities.

Keeping languages ​​alive is important to keep in touch with our past, our culture and our identities. It also allows us to communicate better in general; There are things that can be expressed in one language, but not another – Deja Vu, Shadenfried, Smorgasboard, Tsunami. We even have a few words borrowed from Irish such as hooligan, crack, whiskey, so we can not express good humor or good humor without Irish.

Being able to talk to people around the world is important, but preserving the way we have spoken before will provide incredible information about humanity that may be lost over time.

Most of these conservation activities are done by a few active people. “In order to keep minority languages ​​alive, we must stop complaining that people are doing nothing and try to do it ourselves,” Cavani said. “If they can’t do it, find someone who knows more and encourage them. “

So if you’ve been wondering why they’re bothering to translate into Irish, the answer is like Kawani says: if you think it’s unnecessary, it’s not yours. Cavani and the rest of the team wanted to see something, so they did, and the fact that InnerSlot welcomed it as an official mode was a great step towards supporting more languages ​​and cultures in the games.

“In the end,” Cavani says, “it’s a huge success for a minority language.”

An update that adds Irish to Among Us is now available.