song of the ancients lyrics

[rarsneezes]

hi, like with kaine salvation, i got mad about every transcription of song of the ancients out there and transcribed my own. fck you

i've taken a handful of phonology classes and am Literally A Linguist With A Degree In Linguistics, so not to brag but i have a way better understanding of what these sounds are than your average person and also am SEETHING every other version on the internet is NOT what they're actually singing LMFAO

also sorry no IPA this time, maybe i'll patch it in later

UPDATE: this doesn't 1:1 scan to this version of the song from the nier remaster (which opens with the clearest vocals) but i was only ever like half a sound off. also i love Emi Evans but i swear she varies the pronunciation slightly between each rereleased version of a song. don't even get me started about kaine. HAVING LISTENED TO IT MORE THAN ONCE: i am positive this is just straight up different pronunciation, the remaster ver sounds more like japanese shifted slightly left and less like "japanese and irish had a really weird baby that english helped parent"

UPDATE 2: THEY ADDED A NEW VERSE IN THE REMASTER?? CAN'T HAVE SHIT IN TOKYO


song of the ancients devola / popola lyrics
*scans best to devola, works for all (duet lyrics below)
*pronunciation follows mostly japanese romanization rules, "ch" is a hard h (ipa [x]; it's actually a velar fricative) made in the back of your throat as in loch, "tch" is the ch in church / japanese ch, those consonants in the final three lines are supremely irish, made more towards the back of your mouth than the front.


kuwata tsunobo vralai
tsuriji fula-o-lei kai
kontovai nbu dawltu bron nu ai
shulktetei shikihi a to~k

jun'ata i velich bune
letchyona so wetiya ne
shinjako valech ni fatalinya
nyik visa unho lesile

utrashain a forenju kurasol
towari hatase mihatase tsunvralai

utrashain a forenju kurasol
towari hatase mihatase tsunvralai, keija

ulilya kojiji jachukai ja
nyame fatsumekri, fetsumekri lin gamai
ueri manja hunte araku-mu
hani laladashe, laragashe
shinjulo


song of the ancients fate / atonement
*same pronunciation rules as before. i'm only 80% positive on the backing vocals. they're hard to catch

kuwata (so~ta) tsunobo vralai
tsuriji (sa~ga) fula-o-lei kai
kontovai (kontovai) nbu dawltu bron nu ai
shulktetei (sto~ra) shikihi a to~k

jun'ata (ya~nda) i velich bune
letchyona (nya~ma) so wetiya ne
shinjako (shinjako) valech ni fatalinya
nyik visa (dlalini) unho lesile

utrashain a forenju kurasol
towari hatase mihatase tsunvralai

utrashain a forenju kurasol
towari hatase mihatase tsunvralai, keija

ulilya kojiji jachukai ja
nyame fatsumekri, fetsumekri lin gamai
ueri manja hunte araku-mu
hani laladashe, laragashe
shinjulo



IPA

tba (hopefully) (those irish vowels haunt me but i don't have the brain power to look them up right now)