QA: What Language is Being Spoken? (Twisted Wonderland)

[@ライオン耳]

"Is the language itself being mirrored or shuffled" or...dare I say...twisted?

[@sorcerersapprentice]

Personally, I believe that the Occam's Razor Rule applies here. I think the characters are mainly speaking an English-like language, aka "Common" as it's called in this world, and it's just being translated in Yuu's head to be Japanese, their native language. Things like having Azul's contracts be in English, that bit in the novel and the characters writing their names with latin letters confirm that to me. Yana just never fully thought through that aspect of the worldbuilding, and thus all of the inconsistencies and plot holes. (Before anyone gets it twisted, no, I'm not attacking Yana for this. Manga authors not fully thinking through this sort of thing is extremely common in the isekai genre, and you aren't meant to think about it too hard. That just includes her.)

[@Tiramisio]

From my understanding, it seems like the students at twisted wonderland are speaking English or some kind of romance language as a common language, however, there are other languages that exist in the world. I imagine it as like how many non-english speaking countries teach english to their students because it is being used now as a universal language. I think that is why the french and english words stand out instead of just being in japanese, because they are different from common. Having different languages also matches up with how the characters don't all have english names, like kalim, jamil, and sebek. If we apply real world logic, then maybe we can assume that certain names are common across many languages and cultures (i.e. biblical or greek/roman names), and that's why many seem like most are english. The reason why yuu experiences it as japanese is probably because the magic is translating it for them into their native language. Maybe one theory for why epel's dialect can't be understood is that the magic is like google translate, it does not translate the meaning but is literally translating one language to another. Since epel seems to be speaking a different version of common, it doesn't have a translation for that, or maybe since everyone else is speaking common, it sounds weird to them. There probably isn't a real definitive answer to these questions bc I doubt the creators were really thinking that hard about this stuff. But, I still think some stuff can be pieced together from what the creators were intending to do.

[@D-Walker]

This part of worldbuilding is one of the things I want Toboso Yana to address in a future interview... if she gets interviewed about it at all

[@kalindhiseneviratne8247]

I also came to the "mirrored" world conclusion. TWST unapologetically references large-scale, real world concepts, like the world wars, sports, & socio-economic states of various cultures/countries. The defining factor here is magic: The scarcity of magestones caused the Human-Nocturnal Fae war. The dominant religions are pagan, where the practice of magic is normal/common (Greek mythology). Whereas Abrahamic religions are less dormant, but implied to have existed at some point in time (The Scalding Sands & GloMas). Due to magic & magic-deviant species, environmental & diversity issues are rare. It's basically the opposite of earth, but with the same foundations. Which makes sense, 'cause one of the stories that the game is based off of, is the animated Alice in Wonderland movie. Which despite it's differences to the source material, conveyed the theme of critiquing reality & the irony of adulthood. In that sense, TWST is a more unrealistic yet ideal world. But it doesn't explain languages, 'cause you can't tell if it's a foundational factor, or a "mirrored" factor. I'm thinking "mirrored", 'cause of monarchies. English is a commoner language, & the eventual decrease of monarchies contributed to it's globalization. Nobility spoke "native" languages (French, Latin, Sanskrit). If monarchies still exist in TWST, those languages must still hold significance, even with the globalization of "the common language". Which explains why nobody bats an eyelash when Rook speaks French, but can't understand a word of Epel's dialect despite being the same language. The basic understanding of those languages in TWST, is proportionately larger in comparison to Earth. So we can assume that characters occasionally speak in their native tongues, when it's just them (Scarabia, Diasomnia, Octavinelle). It could also mean that dead languages (Latin, Sanskrit) are still being spoken.

[@akari8228]

in the first volume of the heartslabyul manga there is a part where Yuuken asks whether his name is “hard for the people here to pronounce” and that being the reason they nickname him Yuu.

[@beenabunny]

Yeesh, even in an alternate universe, you cannot escape Shakespeare... My condolences to the Twst boys. (I do love English/Language Arts classes, I just found reading a pain due to not being interested in what we had to be assigned to read.) That is honestly really cool, though, that a story here in this world exists there, just under a "different" name. That kind of fits what I was thinking about with music/songs/singers/bands/composers in Twisted Wonderland, they have the same ones as us, just with different names. I guess I am going to be thinking about that with books, movies, TV Shows, etc. now. Language in Twisted Wonderland is a fun topic I love to think about and create Headcanons for! This video was very interesting! Thank you so much!! Happy New Year YuuRei!! 🎉🎊🎈🎆🎇

[@QueenSharotto]

Makes me wonder if The Crucible exists in the TWST universe

[@QueenSharotto]

3:48 Hmm, makes me wonder if TWST has exams for that play

[@errorraccoon6169]

From my perspective, there’s probably a common language like in most fantasy novels/games. There are many different countries/kingdoms and species, mer even separated by them living underwater and we also know fae to be more isolated and have multiple fae languages. There’s no way they would all come out with one language. While a translation spell is plausible, the fact it’s not mentioned makes it seem unlikely, especially since if it was put in place by someone, it would likely translate ALL things, known or not, making it easier if your not jumping between languages especially since it’s likely one person might recognize words of another language but not know the language itself, causing confusion. It’s probably the person who knows enough to speak both langue’s fluently actually swapping between them, like Rook and Dream Lilia, that’s causing us to hear more than one language. There’s probably something to do with Yuu/Mc/Yuuya since they’re from a different world, which is already a wildcard, and who knows what that transport did. It’s just simplest to think that might be the answer especially without proof to the contrary and the fact the protagonist getting this translator power for a new world isn’t uncommon in stories.

[@kekarookman]

ROOK ahhh

[@süßeste.corpse.retrieval]

The whole year has been leading up to this one 🙏🙏