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Sinnoh's New Language

elementcollector1

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I figured here would be as good a place as any to post this - as of BDSP and PL:A, Sinnoh now has its own language!

I struggled with this one for a long while, so let's start at the beginning so you can see the work I went through on this. You can see these town signs during the BDSP trailer:

signs052921.png

From left to right, these are the signs in Twinleaf Town, Jubilife City, Snowpoint City, and Floaroma Town respectively.

Pokemon's had a long and storied history with meaningless strings of random gibberish characters, but something jumped out at me about these - for Jubilife City and Snowpoint City, the last three characters were the same. For Twinleaf Town and Floaroma Town, the last three characters were the same, but different than the ones in Jubilife and Snowpoint. So, clearly, they were using some kind of structure for these town signs.

It couldn't be any form of English, since the signs were just too short - six or seven characters didn't work for any town name. Likewise, it couldn't be romaji (Japanese names using Latin characters), as while 'Futaba' fit the character length for Twinleaf Town, it didn't fit the characters themselves - there was no repeated 'A' character. Plus, the last three evidently meant 'town,' which meant the signs could only be in Japanese.

Unfortunately, that didn't quite work either - the official Japanese name for Twinleaf Town in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum is フタバタウン (Futaba Town, phonetically fu ta ba ta U N). Again, the ta character wasn't being repeated. Plus, if Jubilife or Snowpoint used their prior Japanese names of Kotobuki City (コトブキシティ, phonetically ko to bu ki shi te I) or Kissaki City (キッサキシティ, phonetically ki s-sa ki shi te I), we'd have three different symbols for the syllable ki. So, clearly, that wasn't it.

After this roadblock, I tried a few different things for a while before I came to the realization that I had a jumping-off point I could use - I knew, for a fact, that those last three characters on Jubilife's/Snowpoint's signs meant either 'town' or 'city'. There were only a finite number of Japanese words for 'city,' and the vast majority of them end with ィ(I) - so the odds were pretty good that dot with three lines under it was ィ. It was also used as the first syllable of the three-syllable word comprising Floaroma Town's sign name, so I started looking up Japanese words that had three syllables and began with I. After a short bit of searching, I stumbled across ine, 'rice.' It didn't fit, but it did sound familiar... I then looked at the page, and eventually ended up at a page about the Japanese legend of Inari Okami. I'll let this speak for itself:

"According to myth, Inari, as a goddess, was said to have come to Japan at the time of its creation amidst a harsh famine that struck the land. "She [Inari] descended from Heaven riding on a white fox, and in her hand she carried sheaves of cereal or grain. Ine, the word now used for rice, is the name for this cereal. What she carried was not rice but some cereal that grows in swamps. According to legend, in the ancient times Japan was water and swamp land."

Does this sound familiar to you? It should, as it's literally the basis for the legend of Floaroma Town, where nothing would grow until a beautiful woman expressed her gratitude atop a hill. The hill burst into bloom, resulting in the flowery meadow of modern Floaroma. This meant the sign for Floaroma must read 'Inari Town.' Three syllables, starts with I, and pretty relevant choice for the town itself!

From there, the rest (somewhat) quickly followed. Snowpoint's was obviously Ōmitsunu City, as Ōmitsunu was an ancient Japanese giant-king and demigod who expanded his kingdom by pulling land from the nearby pre-Korean kingdom of Silla using ropes - again, the direct inspiration for Regigigas, the main feature of Snowpoint City (I wouldn't be surprised if there's a sign next to Snowpoint Temple that reads 'Ōmitsunu Temple', following this logic).

Twinleaf Town was a little more difficult, but going off what I had already, I was eventually able to deduce it read 'Shiyō Town'. 'Shiyō' is another Japanese word for the futaba or cotyledon - the first two (or more, but usually two) leaves that are evidence a plant has sprouted and begun to grow (Twinleaf also gets its name from this). Plus, the ō in Shiyō was the same symbol as the Ō in Ōmitsunu - consistency, I thought, was pretty strong evidence that I was doing something right!

Incidentally, the word used for 'town' here is almost certain to be kotan, which actually translates to 'village' rather than 'town' - but a contradiction came up, in that the same character used for the N in kotan was also used for 'na' in Inari. I thought this was a problem at first, but I then learned that in traditional Japanese syllabaries (usually katakana), the N character is either appended to the bottom of the '-a' column or the end of the 'n-' row. So maybe it's like that on purpose?

Lastly, Jubilife's stumped me for a good long while. I even turned to the generic info sign used for non-town/city signs such as Jubilife TV and Valley Windworks (this thing:)
kizuitarosign.png

According to previous assignments, it should read 'ki ? I ta ?', and if it actually meant anything, that second character would give me what it meant in Jubilife's sign. As it turns out, this sign also translates, although the only reason I found out was due to the name of a popular Japanese song, Kidzuitara Katamoi ('When I realized it was unrequited love'). I noticed that the last character was much closer-looking to the 'ro' character ロ than the 'ra' character ラ, so this sign then read kidzuitaro. This is a heavily modified form of the verb kizuku 'to notice', with modifiers I (outdated but was used for emphasis), ta (past tense), and ro (command/order). Therefore, the sign's closest literal translation in English is 'You must have noticed' (equivalent to signs like 'INFO', 'WARNING' or 'NOTICE' in English) - and the second character in Jubilife's sign must then be dzu!

Returning to Jubilife, I now had '? to ta dzu to ka I', assuming the word for city was tokai (it couldn't be shitei, as this conflicted with other assignments). I had no idea what a '?totadzu' was, as no word like that exists in Japanese, but I eventually got the idea to search for the thing in pieces, assuming it was a phrase. I eventually found that 'tazu' or 'tadu' was a now-outdated kanji reading for 鶴, currently read as 'tsuru' and referring to the Japanese crane (Grus japonensis). In Japanese culture, this crane is widely considered to be a symbol of longevity, love, joy, and good fortune - perfect for a city like Jubilife, shorthand for Jubilant Life in English and whose name Kotobuki in Japanese translates to 'congratulations; longevity' (or congratulations for a long and happy life). So Jubilife is '?? Crane City'. The first word has only two syllables and ends with 'to', but I have no idea what it is - I guess we'll see when this book cover from Pokemon Legends: Arceus gets translated:

bookcomparison.png

And they thought I just wouldn't notice.

And one last thing - in the trailer for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, you can also get a very blurry view of the Prof's nameplate:
professornameplate.png


It's really hard to tell, but this probably reads 'Hinoki', the Japanese name for the cypress tree, if the fan theory that the professor is named Prof. Cypress after a resemblance between his logo and Cyrus' Team Galactic logo is correct.

This one I'm less sure about, but it would be a neat reference. Some of the nameplate signs in the Legends: Arceus trailer are red in color:
red2_upscaled.png
red_upscaled.png


These should translate to 'Mikina' or 'Mikin' assuming prior translations are correct, which is pretty close (but not quite) the same as Michina Town, the setting of the movie Arceus and the Jewel of Life (which incidentally takes place thousands of years ago in proto-Sinnoh). Would be a neat Easter egg!

So, with all that out of the way, these are the symbols we know of for sure:

sinnohese52821.PNG


And now, to wait for more trailers. Preferably ones with town signs in them...

If you want to follow along with my ramblings, you can also find them at pokemonaaah.net (not my site, mind you, but the owner and I collab on Poke-language translations, so he was cool with posting it there).
 
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I get really excited when I see stuff like this in games! It feels nice to know that someone cared enough to come up with this kind of detail.

I wonder if there will be more secret messages hidden in the games that we can decipher? I think it'd be fun. Having a language made for just a few town signs seems like a lot of work.
 
I get really excited when I see stuff like this in games! It feels nice to know that someone cared enough to come up with this kind of detail.

I wonder if there will be more secret messages hidden in the games that we can decipher? I think it'd be fun. Having a language made for just a few town signs seems like a lot of work.

I have a feeling there'll be more signs... Omitsunu Temple is top of my list of 'most likely', but I'm not so sure about the others. Spear Pillar? Flower Paradise? Pal Park, even? Not like we're short on choices, even if it is just signs.

You know, I wonder what will you discover once the game releases and we have a closer look at the textures.

More symbols, hopefully! My biggest annoyance would be an incomplete syllabary, like we got for Hoenn. Aside from that... who knows? Maybe we'll get similar names for Arceus, Dialga, Palkia or Giratina and connect them to actual Japanese legends.
 
Been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve been busy trying to decipher this text, especially since the second trailer dropped.

Unfortunately, while most of my new translations make some amount of sense, they’re by no means absolute – if I find one symbol means something different than I thought, it can affect a whole bunch of translations at once. Basically a domino effect. So, take these with a grain of salt – they’re consistent… for now.

First off, with the release of this ridiculously high-quality map of Sinnoh with annotations featuring every town name, I no longer have to rely on blurry screenshots of in-game town signs! This means every symbol is guaranteed accurate (except for one – the first symbol of Eterna’s label is obscured by the white mountains behind it. Poor choice of label coloring, but I managed to extract it with image processing anyway).

E9Pux7UWYAYTwKw


To recap, these are the ones we know for absolute certain:

Snowpoint = Ōmitsunu City (オミツヌ)
Floaroma = Inari Town (イナリ)
Twinleaf = Shiyō Town (シヨオ)
Generic info sign = Kizuitara (キズイタラ)

And these are some fresh, new faces, along with explanations!

Pastoria = Wazashi City (ワザシ): Wazashi is a term meaning ‘tricky wrestler.’ I’m not entirely sure why, as the individual kanji don’t appear to be related to either of those words, but it’s a fitting descriptor of Crasher Wake, Pastoria’s Gym Leader.

Hearthome = Jiteki City (ジテキ): Jiteki means a lifestyle that is easy, comfortable, and free of the cares of life. Seems about right, don’t you think?

Solaceon = Zuga Town (ズガ): Zuga refers to a collection of pictures or drawings, which describes the Solaceon Ruins pretty handily.

Sandgem = Yuniwa Town (ユニワ): Strangely, ‘yuniwa’ translates to ‘archery grounds’. Some of these may be holdover names from the Legends: Arceus time period, so maybe that was what Sandgem was? Alternatively, it’d be a funny way to describe a tutorial zone where you learn to throw Poke Balls in either game.

Oreburgh = Tanmusu City (タンムス): ‘Tan’ (炭) refers to coal, simple enough. ‘Musu’ (産), however, is used here to mean ‘creation’ or ‘production.’ Strangely, ‘musu’ is not used like this in an industrial context, but rather a religious one – the Shinto name for ‘creator of all’ is ‘musuhi’. Given the Shinto context of some of the other names, this might be an intentional obfuscation?

Canalave = Mano City (マノ): Mano appears to be a Buddhist concept referring to ‘mental consciousness’ or the notion of the mind as a whole, which is a vague and tangential relation to dreaming (thus a connection to Cresselia or Darkrai).

Fight Area = Hazumu Area (ハズム): Hazumu means to get lively or be stimulated, and apparently this place is full of Trainers itching for a fight according to the original D/P/Pt dialogue upon arrival to the Battle Zone.

Note: The actual strings meaning 'town', 'city' and 'area' don't appear to translate well - 'city' is probably 'tokai' (トカイ), but the other two are gibberish (Ntana and narayo, respectively). I think the point is more that they're consistent? Hmm.


There are also some interesting translations to be found on the new Hisui map for Legends: Arceus, as well as in Jubilife Village itself in both the first and second trailers.


9441272414e949ac0182072a8cef29a8344c6526.png

Cyllene’s nameplate = Iyukote (イユコテ): Iyu refers to healing or recovery, and kote refers to the forearm or hand. Maybe she got attacked by a Pokemon? Or maybe it’s more of a metaphorical ‘healing hand,’ not sure.

f18ed2924f742cd7e32421baa1e5402550802a3d.png

Village nameplate = Nuata (ヌアタ): ‘Ata’ means ‘rival’, and the nu- prefix is possibly a negation – hence, ‘not [your] rival.’ This might be where the other protagonist character (Rei if you chose Akari, and vice versa) ends up.

3116cfae2def1793139f61eef95488295b35337b.png

Village bridge = Itazura (イタズラ): Itazura means ‘mischief,’ an odd label to assign a bridge. In fact, multiple bridges in Jubilife Village appear to have this written upon them. Not entirely sure why – maybe your rival plays some kind of prank at these?

7cedae6e7ebfc25386187404448402b05adda08a.png

Salon/haircut shop = Tokoyama (トコヤマ): Tokoyama were in the Edo period hairdressing rooms. Nowadays, they instead refer to specific hairdressers who train for years to create the traditional hairstyles used for sumo wrestling.


Map labels (HD map here, since Bulbagarden doesn't seem to like it):

[Mt. Coronet area] = Jita no zako (ジタ の ザコ): Jitaku is a person’s house or home, and zako is ‘an unimportant person.’ I get the feeling either this character has quite an ego (and is being roasted by the mapmakers), or is actually extremely important somehow.


And, finally, we come to the kana chart, which has definitely seen a lot of rearranging. Gold symbols are ones I consider as absolutely true – to change even one of these would upend almost every translation. Black are ones I’m somewhat confident in, as they fit current translations. Lastly, green are guesses based on possible translations.
8ac8db2da15eb515ead020591a46e5a70aaea660.jpg
 
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So the new Sinnoh map doesn't use the OG Japanese names for towns and cities?

Also, does the hairdressing sign mean potential customization in Legends?!?!?!
Nope! Looks like it's an all-new set of names to tie in better with the Edo/Meiji-stylings of Legends: Arceus.

As for character customization in Legends, it's a pretty safe bet... for the hair, at least. I think you still have to wear the Galaxy Expedition Uniform.
 
As for character customization in Legends, it's a pretty safe bet... for the hair, at least. I think you still have to wear the Galaxy Expedition Uniform.
My guess is that, if we do get clothing customization, the Uniform could be something you have to wear for expeditions or something.
 
Village nameplate = Nuata (ヌアタ): ‘Ata’ means ‘rival’, and the nu- prefix is possibly a negation – hence, ‘not [your] rival.’ This might be where the other protagonist character (Rei if you chose Akari, and vice versa) ends up.
It doesn't really change anything, but I feel like it makes more sense for nu to be 'new'

Really awesome work though; I love seeing everything be deciphered.
 
Well in Japanese "new" is commonly romanized as "nyuu", not "nu".
True, but it would have required three characters; maybe they wanted to keep it short? (and nyuu (にゅう) is technically different than niyuu (にゆう) so maybe they didn't want to make a special character for it; idk; I'm just guessing)
 
Another update - the Hisui label south (well, actual south if it's oriented like a Sinnoh map) of Jubilife Village might be 'chigi no ema' - Chigi being a style of Shinto shrine, and ema being special wooden plaques Shinto worshippers attach to said shrines to send their wishes to various kami. Not entirely sure on this one, but it'd be a cool detail to have in the area where Twinleaf will one day be.
 
My God is that really the 'updated' Sinnoh region map for BDSP? Every location is the same as in the originals; I was expecting at least a few changes but it's the exact same map from 15 years ago only redrawn in a different style. :bulbaFacepalm:

Don't really care about the new language thing but I appreciate that someone put in alot of hard work in translating those runes.
 
My God is that really the 'updated' Sinnoh region map for BDSP? Every location is the same as in the originals; I was expecting at least a few changes but it's the exact same map from 15 years ago only redrawn in a different style. :bulbaFacepalm:

Don't really care about the new language thing but I appreciate that someone put in alot of hard work in translating those runes.
...I don't know how to tell you that regions offer extremely few geographical changes in remakes. The most that ever really happened were all the extra islands in ORAS (and to a lesser extent the Sevii Isles in FRLG), and even then they were extra. It's not like Fallarbor Town or Sootopolis City packed up and moved a few inches to the left. Plus, the amount of detail in this artwork is staggering for something that a) won't be seen in the game, b) is next to useless for anyone who's played the originals and c) contains absolutely no new information. Whoever did this artwork clearly put a ton of effort into it.

Cool stuff. You really put in the hard work here.

Though I am left with a single question to ask of GF: "Okay, but why though?" :unsure:
My guess? They listened to the people who were complaining about the hot mess that is Galarian language. 40 (41?) symbols, some Romaji translations and some English (and a few neither), and no consistent mapping - symbols that meant G or F in one phrase or word could mean R, K, O, A... in others. I even tried mapping phonemes with absolutely no success.

Anyway, I'd also like to point out an error I made in my post above - the sign I thought read 'Nuata' contains a different character than the 'A' one, which I've currently mapped to 'ga' (since it's also found in Solaceon/Zuga Town). 'Nuga' is a verb meaning 'to wipe/sweep/get rid of', and 'ta' is a past-tense modifier, so 'to have wiped/swept/gotten rid of' would be appropriate for 'nugata'. I think. I'm not as well-versed on Japanese grammar as I should be and that makes a lot of these translations difficult.

However, if the reading for Solaceon Town is instead Zue (means the exact same thing - zua, zue, zuga, zushi, and zuka are all variations on a picture/collection of pictures/map/drawing/etc.), it could then read Nueta. The Japanese nue is a chimeric creature appearing in folklore, described as 'a mythical creature with a monkey's head, tanuki's body, tiger's limbs, and a snake tail', and 'ta' would once again indicate past tense. The nue has pretty scant depiction of what it actually does, only that its cries are kind of creepy - however, one particular story refers to a nue that was killed and the corpse was thrown into a river. It washed up on the shores of the Yodo River, and the local villagers, fearful of a curse, notified the priest. The nue was given a proper burial mound and ceremonial rites, but the mound was torn down at the beginning of the Meiji Period, and as such the nue resumed its torment of others in spirit form. So I guess if this particular house is haunted, then this is the proper translation? Not sure.
 
Another day, another... well, I'm not actually getting paid for this. Wish I was, but then again, that would kill my motivation.

Okay, so first up, with the release of the new Hisuian Zoroark footage, I was proven right about something! Unfortunately, I forgot to update this thread in the meantime, so you'll just have to take my word for it. See, the symbols that I formerly assigned to 'jita no zako' (house of an unimportant person) was a misreading - a very similar symbol to the one used for 'ko' is at the end, but it's not ko but rather ke. This then becomes jita no zake, or 'house/home of a vengeful spirit/ghost'.

And where is this label, you might ask? The slopes of Mt. Coronet - exactly where we see the encounter with Hisuian Zoroark. You know, the Normal/Ghost type who attacks the cameraman (Rei, possibly?) for getting too close to the Hisuian Zorua. In other words, vengefully.

(Fun fact - Hisuian Zoroark and Zorua are also direct references to the Shinto legends of kitsune, specifically the bad kind - mischievous, malevolent fox-like spirits who would play pranks on unsuspecting travelers. Ninetales appear to be the good kind, servants of Inari Okami who dispense wisdom or aid in struggles - does this make Ninetales in Hisui times servants of Shaymin, given Floaroma's town name?)

So that's a solid point that I'm on the right track with those translated symbols (I'm always paranoid that I'm just blowing smoke and these are all just happenstance and chance interpretations, but every new translation pushes that worry back a little further).

Anyway, onwards to some new stuff! I finally got Veilstone's new city name, and it unfortunately upends Sandgem's and Hisui Twinleaf's (yuniwa, or 'archery grounds', and chigi no uma, or 'horse shrine' respectively). I got it into my head that the Sinnohan characters I'd formerly assigned to 'te' and 'ti/chi', these two right here:

1634879542970.png


Were a much better fit for the katakana セ and ゼ (se and ze) than they were for チ and テ (ti/chi and te). Like the se and ze kana, they have a flat bit that arches upwards into a vertical line, crossed by a horizontal line that then has a sharp angle downwards. I get hunches like this a lot in this line of work, but the real test of merit is whether those actually translate to anything. And to my surprise, every replaced translation had a match! This I usually take to be strong evidence that this is a better translation fit than whatever I was using previously.

Anyway, changing the second one to 'ze' means that instead of 'chigi no uma' for the 'Twinleaf' area on the Hisui map, it's now 'ze? no uma'. There aren't a whole lot of Japanese words that begin with ze, and a good 90% of them are some variation on 'zen' due to Buddhist influence. But one of the rare few that isn't is zeni, an old Japanese word for currency (or more specifically, non-precious-metal currency - you might recognize it as the chief currency of the Dragon Ball anime, if you've watched that). 'Zeni no uma,' then, would translate to 'horse money'. I'm not entirely sure what this means, as unlike chigi, zeni has no religious connotations that I was able to find, and uma (Japanese word for horse/horses) is closely tied to the Shinto practice of ema ('horse plaques', wooden carvings of horses with inscribed messages to be carried to the kami or gods of whatever shrine they were placed at). So... horse money?

This also changes Hearthome's sign meaning, as it's now jiseki (vestige, historical site/ruins, evidence) instead of jiteki (carefree, easy living). There are those really old buildings in Amity Square - maybe those are the 'historical site' or 'ruins' in question?

The new use of 'ni' also overrides the former translation of Sandgem Town's sign, which read 'yuniwa', or 'archery gallery'. I'd initially interpreted this as a stretched way of saying this was where you practiced your Poke Ball throwing, but given it's in BDSP (where ball throwing is automatic, like in Gen IV) this was a bit of a stretch. I'm still fairly confident about the 'yu' and 'wa' characters, but there's not a whole lot of other options. The only other one that stands out is 'yubiwa', which refers to a ring, typically the jewelry kind that is worn on the finger. I think it'd be interesting if it referred to a Mega Ring, or something like it, but we'll see.

Other changes include Cyllene's Hisuian nameplate (Iyukote -> Iyukoze, iyu 'healing/recovery' + possibly 小競 ko ze, 'small struggle/skirmish') - not much change in meaning, except whatever injury Cyllene sustained no longer has to be localized to her hand or arm. Maybe she's just unable to be active in the field anymore, and thus takes on a commander role? Additionally, the sign near Galaxy HQ reads seko yuko yama instead of teko yuko yama - again, the meaning hasn't changed much, from 'assistant + public announcement + mountain' to 'work + public announcement + mountain'.

And lastly, this actually manages to fix a sign - Sunyshore's was originally Teuyu, which I took to be a weird combination of the readings for the kanji 照 (teru and seu respectively -> teu?) + 湯 (yu, 'hot water'), but now it's accurately the historical reading 'seu'. Another good sign that this was the right choice!

Lastly, this gives us a new BDSP sign translation, which would have been the last if not for Sandgem's newfound inaccuracy. Veilstone's sign now clearly translates to kozeni, which is Japanese for 'pocket change' - fitting, perhaps, for the location of the Game Corner in the original D/P/Pt. It's worth noting that the Game Corner is not present in the current iteration of BDSP, instead being replaced by the Fashion Corner (at least, I think that's the name), but this change might have happened after the town sign was designed.

Secondly, a friend of mine pointed out something very important about this sign in the background of one of the trailers:
1634883310693.png

Uhh... ignore the ads on the bottom. They're not important to the analysis. I'm like 99% sure of this.

Behind the green sign, you can see something that looks an awful lot like a Galarian Weezing, with one of the symbols written on it. This symbol is extremely visually similar to 付, a kanji which means 'to hand over/entrust', and which can be read as 'tsu', 'fu', or 'du'. So which one is it? Turns out it's 'du', because it's a reference to Weezing's Japanese name Matadogas, based on 毒 (doku or du, 'poison').

This then ties in with Eterna's town sign, seen here on its Gym (the one on the map has the first symbol obscured by contrast, so I'm not using it):
1634883612417.png
Town name seen at bottom left. Note the first symbol is the same as the one on the Galarian Weezing statue.

This then translates to 'du O kemo', which has two possible meanings, both very interesting. The first is an amalgamation of various kanji and kana: 付 (du, 'to hand over/entrust' + 悪 (O, bad/evil/wrong) + 獣 (kemono, beast). Thus, a possible translation is 'to hand over/entrust a beast to evil'. But alternatively, it could be read as 'duo kemo', an English/Japanese hybrid phrase meaning 'two beasts'... like the statue in Eterna's town square. Again, a pretty good sign that I'm doing this right!

And, as always, here is the kana chart! I made it bigger this time, because... I felt like it.

1634880487398.png


I'm also going to start keeping a list of up-to-date translations with brief explanations, just so nobody gets confused. Bold are for the ones I'm confident in.

Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl map:
Twinleaf Town - Shiyо̄-ntana [シヨオンタナ] (Shiyо̄ = cotyledon or 'twin leaves', ntana = combo of 店 (tana 'merchant's house') and ん家 = n[ ] = ‘[someone]’s home’
Sandgem Town - Yubiwa-ntana [ユビワンタナ] (yubiwa = finger ring?)
Jubilife City - Mototazu-tokai [モトタズトカイ] (Moto = origin/book, tazu = crane (associated with happiness/longevity), tokai = city)
Canalave City - Mano-tokai [マノトカイ] (Mano = 'mental consciousness' concept in Buddhism, essentially the mind rather than the brain - related to dreaming?)
Oreburgh City - Tanmusu-tokai [タンムストカイ] (Tan = 炭 = coal, musu = to produce/production)
Floaroma Town - Inari-ntana [イナリンタナ] (Inari = Inari Okami, Shinto basis for Shaymin's mythos)
Eterna City - Duokemo-tokai [ヅオケモトカイ] (possibly duo (two) + kemo(no) 獣 'beast' = two beasts (like the statue), and/or 付 (du 'to hand over/entrust' + O (悪) 'evil' + kemo 'beast')
Snowpoint City - Ōmitsunu-tokai [オミツヌトカイ] (Ōmitsunu = giant-king, Shinto basis for Regigigas)
Celestic Town - Haatoko-ntana [ハアトコンタナ](combo of haaku 'to grasp/understand' + toko 'eternity')
Hearthome City - Jiseki-tokai [ジセキトカイ] (jiseki = 'ruins/historical site')
Solaceon Town - Zuga-ntana [ズガンタナ] (zuga = 'collection of pictures/drawings', as in Solaceon Ruins)
Pastoria City - Wazashi-tokai [ワザシトカイ] (wazashi = 'tricky wrestler' = Crasher Wake)
Veilstone City - Kozeni-tokai [コゼニトカイ] (kozeni = 'pocket change' - Game Corner reference?)
Sunyshore City - Seuyu-tokai [セウユトカイ] (combo of 照 = seu = 'to shine' + 湯 = yu = 'hot water')
Fight Area - Hazumu-narayo [ハズムナラヨ] (hazumu 'to get lively/be stimulated', narayo = nara 'flatland area' + yo (finalizing particle?))
Survival Area - Odamo-narayo [オダモナラヨ] (Oda = 穏 = calm/quiet, mo = 'also' particle?)
Resort Area - Sumise-narayo [スミセナラヨ] (住 = su = dwell, inhabit + 見せる = miseru = 'to show/display', may also be related to 住み手 = su mi te = 'tenant/occupant')

Other:
Generic info sign - Kizuitara [キズイタラ] (equivalent to 'NOTICE' or 'INFO', lit. 'when I realized' - modified kizuku 'to notice' + i (emphasis) + ta (past tense) + ra (third person plural))

Legends: Arceus (Hisui) map:
Jubilife Village - Mototazutsu [モトタズツ] (Moto = origin/book (seen in Trailer 1), tazu = crane (associated with happiness/longevity), tsu = glottal stop for emphasis (kind of like !)
'Twinleaf' area - Zeni no uma [ゼニノウマ] (zeni 'currency', uma 'horse' -> horse money??)
'Coronet' area - Jita no zake [ジタノザケ] (jitaku '[one's] house/home', zake 'vengeful/malicious spirit/ghost' - reference to Hisuian Zoroark found here!)
'Victory Road' area - Iri no ayu [イリノアユ] (iri 'entrance/entering', ayu 'flattery/sweetfish' (gratitude?) -> 'Entrance of Flattery' (ref to Shaymin found here!)
'Snowpoint' area - Da? no gasu [ダ?ノガス] (gasu 'fog/gas')
'Sunyshore' area - Mose no hamu [モセノハム] (no translations!)

Other:
Several village bridges - Itazura [イタズラ] (mischief)
Cyllene's nameplate - Iyukoze [イユコゼ] (Iyu 'healing/recovery' + possibly 小競 ko ze 'little struggle/skirmish')
Ranch sign - Kizuitara kezama [キズイタラ ケザマ] (ke = 研 = 'study/research' or = 毛 = 'hair/wool/plumage/fur' + zama = 様 = 'appearance/state/looking')
Kleavor area entrance - Keshinunu hau [ケシヌヌ ハウ] (keshinu = to die + nu (negation) + hau (creep/sneak) -> 'to not die, creep/sneak' - advice for dealing with Kleavor?)
Sign near Galaxy HQ - Seko yuko yama [セコユコヤマ] (seko 'work' + yukoku 'public announcement' + yama 'mountain' -> 'Help Wanted: Mountaineers'?)
Salon/hairdresser area - Tokoyama [トコヤマ] (Edo period/sumo wrestler hairstylists)
General store - Suugashi ganua nimida (suugaku 'arithmetic/mathematics')
Craftworks - Raanamu (???)
Hisuian Pokedex title - Hagaminuyake (haga 'note/postcard', minuku 'to find out/perceive', yake 'desperation')
'Photographer' - Zusekemayako (zu 'diagram/drawing', seken 'the world/people/public', -ma 'person who is [ ]-obsessed', yako 'night travel/(Inari-foxes/possessing fox spirits)?'
Togepi-themed stand - Ano? (possibly an'on あんおん 'peace, quiet, tranquility' + modifier?)
 
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Another quick update - someone on Reddit pointed out it didn't make much sense to assign Canalave's translation of 'mano' to the Buddhist concept of the mind. Thankfully, we have alternatives:

間延 - 'long room/laziness/stupidity'
魔の手 (ma no te) - 'the clutches of evil' (very fitting for the postgame event with Darkrai)
魔脳 (manou) - 'evil of the mind' (I made this up from separate ma and no kanji, but I feel it still works).
 
And another - Eterna's reading of 'du O kemo' actually has a much better alternative: When counting aloud, 'fuu'/ふう can mean 'two' in Japanese. 'fu' is an alternative reading of 付, so this still fits and gets rid of the strange English-Japanese hybrid name of 'duo-kemo' in favor of the synonymous 'fuu-kemo'/ふうけも. This is also much more consistent with the use of the second character as a vowel extension to kana ending in 'o' in other translations - typically done with a U/う in Japanese, not another O/お.

(This also means any translation posted earlier containing a お is now inaccurate. Shiyou/しよう and Oumitsunu/うみつぬ are still accurate (because otherwise every translation I've ever tried would be based on an incorrect assignment), but others need to be revisited.

I also got in touch with a few native Japanese speakers on Reddit, and they told me that most of these conclusions are based on horrible interpretations of Japanese grammar. As such, I'm going to be working on a more major rework of these to make sure they fall in line with more realistic translations. As such, I'm not posting the full list of changed translations just yet (as most of them are being completely revisited).

(On a completely unrelated note, I need more native Japanese speakers to help me with this... it's very clear that I know far too little. Please reach out if you want to help!)
 
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