Speaking of Ainu, one of the biggest things anyone will notice about my
translation is the... well, weirdness of the names. Eruruw!? Aruruw!? Urtoriy!?
This was my attempt to give the game more of an Ainu feel. While not all the
words, names, and places fit an Ainu convention, many of them did or were
somewhat close. I will admit I heavily borrowed from zalas's naming convention,
(thanks) although I threw in a few twists of my own. Japanese is a syllabic
language, meaning they mostly pronounce words in syllables, as opposed to
English, where there are words that can end in short syllables. This concept
is best illustrated in how the Japaneses say McDonald's: Makkudonarudo. Thus
when moving in the opposite direction, most of the "filler" vowel sounds
have been removed. Mukkuru became Mukkur. Tusukuru became Tuskur. As an
interesting note, tuskur in Ainu refers to a shamanistic healer, usually female.
In other words, a medicine woman. This doesn't extend to all names, such as
Hakuoro, Oboro, or Teoro, but the vast majority of them meet this convention.
Yes, various fansub groups and fan sites have their own favorite versions of how
these names should be spelled, but I went ahead with my own.