5

For example, names of heroes are: Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Spiderman, Wolverine, etc. Also names of villains can be included: Joker, Bane, Magneto, etc. (Sorry if I put heroes in villains and villains in heroes.)

The most of these names are not only proper nouns, but general terms. Joker, Green Lanter, Bane, Magneto... Some are compound word. Batman, Superman, etc.

To the natives, how does Wolverine sound like? Do you think it as a kind of animal, or a proper noun itself? Similarly, how about Superman? A guy who has a great(super) power an ability, or SUPERMAN itself? A man who is in a bat suit, or BATMAN?

I posted this question because, as I am Korean, many Koreans think that translating such names into Korean is very unfashionable and ugly. Wolverine can be translated into Osori (/Osori/). But people think Osori doesn't sound good because it is Korean not English.

In short, when the natives hear Wolverine, do they have the similar feeling with Koreans who hear Osori? Do they feel somewhat ugly?

Jeon
  • 203
  • "Wolverine" is pronounced the way it's spelled. (Although the pronunciation that link supplies emphasizes the wrong syllable.) – Hot Licks Jul 14 '15 at 02:25
  • 3
    All of the awe and wonder surrounding the super powers these heroes have along with a bit of envy is wrapped up in those names. We don’t think of theses names as being made up of their constituent parts- they represent a whole new entity. – Jim Jul 14 '15 at 02:27
  • You have to translate words with meaning. Wolverine has a meaning, just as do Eagle, Penguin, Firefly, Green Arrow, Red Skull, and so on and so forth. – tchrist Jul 14 '15 at 02:29
  • And the others, such as "Superman", are pronounced as "super" + "man", etc, usually with the emphasis on the first word. – Hot Licks Jul 14 '15 at 02:29
  • When somebody says "Superman," I think of the guy in the blue and red suit. But as for "Wolverine," it depends on context. If you were to say, "While hiking through a Northern boreal forest I got great photographs of a wild wolverine," I'd know you meant an Osori. – William Bloom Jul 14 '15 at 02:30
  • 3
    In particular, "Superman", "Batman", and several of the others are embedded in US culture (and have been for many decades), so they are readily recognized as "superheroes", even by us old farts. Others such as "Magneto" are less universally recognized and, without context, may not produce instant recognition. – Hot Licks Jul 14 '15 at 02:34
  • 1
    I believe it's simply a matter of tradition. Superhero comics have a lot of ridiculous and odd things in them, not least the names. But they've been around for so long in English that people have gotten accustomed to this. When the tradition is different, animal names can sound strange to English speakers. For example, there's a hero in an Old English poem whose name may possibly translate to modern English "bee-wolf," but we always call him "Beowulf." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_(hero) – herisson Jul 14 '15 at 02:56

3 Answers3

5

Words in foreign languages always have a certain cachet --for instance Osori sounds great to my ear.

The names of superheroes have become familiar over time, but they are often considered laughable in English for (the dwindling number of) people who are not comic-book fans.

Chris Sunami
  • 19,990
3

Those names sound natural as proper names in English, it does not feel ugly; which if you think about it makes sense, since if it sounded ugly it wouldn't be used so often. Part of your problem might be that since they are proper names, by translating them literally, you're making what was once an indivisible whole ("Superman"), into a mere "super man".

Val Kornea
  • 1,878
0

Maybe translating them sounds odd to you… because you are translating them!

You take a proper noun of an American character, and you translate his noun giving him a Korean name instead. Of course it looks odd!

If, instead, you were to create a completely new character from Korea, maybe giving him a new, Korean name, would sound much more natural.

o0'.
  • 583