This English teacher translated Capcom’s Monster Hunter language, and it only took 2,000 hours

Capcom built the fictitious Monster Hunter language in a very specific method, and one English teacher spent the last 2,000 hours or more figuring it out

Capcom

Capcom built the fictitious Monster Hunter language in a very specific way, and one former English teacher spent the last 2,000 hours or more figuring it out. The language whiz, who goes by Moofah Melody on Twitter, employed a complex network of methods to figure it out, and the result is a nearly complete lexicon and an understanding of how Monster Hunter language’s grammar works (thanks, GamesRadar).

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“The Japanese script is run through a translation into a mystery language then phonetically back into Japanese, and finally goes through an algorithm to get our final result," Moofah said. "We know that the language was French for Monster Hunter Generations. However we do not know the languages for any other game and furthermore what 'other processes' Capcom's teams use."

Moofah said they can’t fully reverse engineer the language, since Capcom never includes enough text in the games to make that possible, but they still managed to distill it into five distinct branches and dialects, 450 words for the lexicon, and enough information to create a teaching manual they’ll be publishing via PDF before Monster Hunter Wilds launches. Or that’s the goal, at least.

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Those language variations are:

• West Islander (Kamura, Pokke Village)
• Guild Standard (World, plus any Guild member you encounter in most games)
• Inlander (Generations)
• Coastal (MH Tri)
• South Islander (MH Stories)

Getting to that point took an immense amount of effort. Moofah recorded 45GB worth of cutscene audio, transcribed it, wrote it phonetically in Monster Hunter Language, then wrote the Japanese, and translated the Japanese into English.

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They said they can’t use the localized English script, since creative changes get in the way of understanding the structure Capcom used. Then, they set about identifying words and their meanings based on context and usage patterns, which became particularly challenging when Moofah realized that Capcom would often use the same MHL word, tense, and form, but in a completely different context.

The end is slowly approaching, though, and Moofah hopes they can finish the project before the Monster Hunter Wilds release date, when the new adventure will probably throw another dozen layers of complexity into understanding Monster Hunter language.