hello i return with "the other people who transcribed lyrics for this song are clearly not linguists who had to take a whole semester of RECOGNIZING PHONEMES OFF OF CLIPS OF RANDO PEOPLE SPEAKING... which means i don't agree with the popularly passed around lyrics"

actually my main opinion of the other lyrics for Weight of the World is that they're passable at least but the notation isn't really consistent. also they missed the velar fricative. everyone misses the velar fricative even though its Emi Evan's favorite consonant.

familiarize yourself with the velar fricative. it'll help you sing any NieR song. I'm not kidding.

---

this version

notes on my notation

ii - long i (feet)
i - short i (pit)
ei - as in day
e - "eh"
a - as in father
u and o are just u and o

(x) velar fricative. it's adjacent to the ch in loch, around the same place you make an h, except you hold the h as you hold an s (s is a fricative). the IPA is x and so i just used x to notate it. when its xlei you can pronounce it as hlei and it's close enough.

r = don't overthink it but is usually the flap r that japanese uses (a sound between an r and an l). (it looks like ɾ in IPA). it doesn't matter much except when i've notated it as [r] and that's becasue this word is incomprehensible if you aren't doing the flap r.

IPA chart if you want to double check these two above sounds

---

lyrics

1
ii ser les hii san myanei
escalei lu puush to lei
smesh yonar ulya e je cho lo
nasiku lsh'peranei wanaba ri(x)'na kwa lei
siila / shmawaya pii(p)talu*

2 (pre chorus)
urushin ta tii pya pagelu
enjelei myo psha lumdrei** me bloniiei
ma nya swetch pa ya[r]ee
niikashpatama he(x)cho ma-ei jei
kyatatii meisa

3 (chorus)
la feto*** boras dii lei
psha wapelo kra na diisii(x)lei
naya tchyo matome lawama puuoru****
ig nawa tyatii lemmyo
sekoiishpela tchyamei mo
ana peslahola umashinda
a-otesto***** penonosna ulya lei mwan-tchula
mwan-tchula

4
urudan bra-etsumei niishushkuru tii twahii
leimyoda ushkei le'pya tunei
shmawa siile sushpeya gatata lei wo tisna
pshawa fal~ta pa pii tya(n)

5 (prechorus)
urushin ta tii pya pagelo
enshalei myo psha lumdrei me bloniiei
ma nya swetch pa ya[r]ee
niikashpatama he(x)cho ma-ei jei
kyatatii meisa

6 (chorus)
na feto boras dii lei
psha wapelo kra na diisii(x)lei
naya tchyo matome lawama puuoro!
ig nawa kyatii lemmyo
sekoiishpela tchyomei lo
ana peslahola umashinda
a-otesto pe nonosna ulya lei mwan-tchula
mwan-tchula


7 (chorus)
la (x)heto bolas dii lei
psha wapelo kra na diisii(x)lei
naya tchyo matome lawama puuoru!
ig nawa kyatii lemmyo
sekoiishpela tchyomei lo
ana peslahola umashinda


8 (chorus)
la (x)heto boras dii lei
psha wapelo kra na diisii(x)lei
naya tchyo matome lawama puuoro!
ignawa kyatii lemmyo
sekoiishpela tchyomei lo
ana peslahola umashinda
a-otesto pe nonosna ulya lei mwan-chula
mwan-chula


*i don't know if the p is there or not
**is it lumdrei? lumbrei? lundrei? good fucking question
***in later choruses this is (x)hlei. f and h can overlap bigtime so i don't know which is right. SEVERAL repeated choruses/verses include slightly different pronunciation for otherwise identical words though, so!
****the u glides into the o. also this word changes between o and u final vowel depending on the chorus.
*****i first heard this as "a nkesto" (with the n being syllabic) but it's definitely not that in later versions so i've leaned towards doing it a-otesto uniformly.

also i found myself uncertain several times thruout the whole song whether a t or a k was being pronounced so. if you feel i'm wrong, that's fair!
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)

hi so i was looking up lyrics for kaine salvation and was dissatisfied with Every version i could find, (except the one that matched it up to real gaelic words, that was cool) so i wrote my own

note: i've (almost) got a bachelors in linguistics, and while i hate phonetic transcription, i definitely feel like i'm within my rights to say I Know What I'm Doing. IPA transcription has also been included, and I have notes about my orthographic transcription below.


Lyrics
Shul harum noihim
Ar jaruk noisin
Dla, galach tal foir
Malech foide asla erenshboir

Hyo tantyola hadreiku hare
Falole yo hoi
Hyo mikyata yakokra no hei kaimira kara
Hyo tantyola hadreiku hare
Falole yo hoi
Hyo mikyata yakokra no hei yama tei kaimera tora
Ba ira tchu

notes:
ch - with the exception of chu at the end there, pronounce this as you would loch, as in Loch Ness. "Hard k" is the closest English equivalent, but really it's a velar fricative, IPA [x]

vowels - pick a god and pray, man. vowels at least we can pick out pretty well by hearing, but a i e o u are not enough symbols to actually cover the fucking twenty vowels that exist in language lmfao. this orthographic transcription leans towards Japanese romaji rules, but

hyo etc - the y here is meant to symbolize palatalization, but it's. I mean I used Japanese romaji transcription rules again. if you know how to pronounce the Japanese "kyou" you have this. It's the same thing.

"is it really hyo and not yul?" after listening to it a million times, i am quite convinced it is, but it's difficult to tell

so many fucking sounds here are sounds that English doesn't have, so I got a little lost. Knowing the language is based loosely on Gaelic I did my best to compare, but even then some of these sounds are sounds Gaelic doesn't have (such as all that palatalization) so. I picked a god and prayed.

yakokra might be yakokran, it's hard to tell where the n begins

dla - it sounds like there's an l here in kaine salvation, but not in kaine escape, so. shrugs

do i know if it's an l or an r? i gave my best guess. do i know which r it is? absolutely not, but it's probably the flap and almost definitely not the approximate that English uses and no other language does EXCEPT "Ar" in the second line definitely sounds like the approximate r and not the flap r (that's the one Japanese uses, along with most other languages) so help.

I'm mostly satisfied with my IPA transcription (except maybe i have some vowels wrong, and again: do i know which r it is? no!), so that's below

here's an IPA chart to help you out, you can click the letter to hear what it sounds like!

Lyrics (IPA)
ʃul harʌm noihim
aɹ ʒaɾuk noisin
dla galʌx tal foir
malex foide asla erenʃboir
 
hʲo tantʲola hadɾeiku haɾe
falole ja hoi
hʲo mikʲata yakokɾa no hei kaimiɾa kaɾa
hʲo tantʲola hadɾeiku haɾe
falole jo hoi
hʲo mikʲata yakokɾa no hei yama tei kaimeɾa toɾa
ba iɾa ʧu


here's a link to the lyrics on IPA picker where you can get hot info on what each sound is, too, if linguistics (or rather, phonetics) is your jam

Profile

rarsneezes: (Default)
rar

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 2nd, 2025 11:18 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios