Engrish. About Engrish is internet slang used to describe esoteric English texts translated from East-Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
While it is also applicable in spoken English, most examples of Engrish can be found in the everyday urban landscape of major cities in Asia, where public signs are displayed in English to accommodate Western tourists. Note: Engrish can only be used to describe Asian to English translations. For the translation of English to Asian see Japlish (Nihonglish). Etymology The term “Engrish” comes from the fact that some Asian languages do not make concrete distinctions between L and R sounds. Origin While the humorous concept of Engrish may as well precede the history of Internet altogether, it was first introduced to the Western world during the influx of Japanese videogame imports in the 1980s. Spread The first Urban Dictionary entry for “Engrish” was submitted on August 13th, 2003. N. Notable Examples Search Interest External References.
A Winner Is You. About A Winner is You is a popular catchphrase used in online conversations to congratulate someone else’s accomplishment, oftentimes in sarcasm.
Origin The oddball phrase “A Winner is You” actually stems from the 1986 NES game Pro Wrestling, wherein the player was given a short congratulatory message after beating the match opponent. Similar to other poorly translated videogame messages, its broken English grammar certainly stuck with those who’ve seen it and continues to be celebrated today. Spread Although the game “Pro Wrestling” was actually released in 1987, the meme itself actually began in January 2004, as seen in the Google Insights chart.
Usage The phrase is commonly used in online chat and discussion forums as a sarcastic way of showing one’s joy or approval. User 1: Dude, I totally just won $3,000! There are several popular variations of the phrase, including “A winrar is you” and “You’re winner,” another faulty quote found in the 2003 racing game Big Rigs. YouTube Videos. All Your Base Are Belong to Us. About “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” is a popular catchphrase that swept across the internet at the dawn of 21st century as early as in 1998.
An awkward Engrish translation of “all of your bases are under our control,” the quote originally appeared in the opening dialogue of Zero Wing, a nostalgic 16-bit shoot’em up game released in 1989. Marked by abundance of poor grammar, “All Your Base” phrase and the dialogue scene went viral on popular discussion forums in 2000, spawning thousands of image macros and flash animations featuring the slogan both on the web and in real life. Origin The phrase and game footage used in the meme come from the 1989 side-scrolling arcade shooter Zero Wing. Captain: What happen ? The poor grammar present is an example of Engrish; phrases originally written in an Asian language but translated poorly into its closest English approximation. Its first appearance on the internet is hard to pinpoint due to sites closing down. Photoshop Phenomenon Search Trends. I AM ERROR. About ERROR is a town character featured in the 1987 NES videogame, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
In the game, Link (the main character) is allowed into a huge house that appears smaller from outside and gets acquainted with the heavy-bearded host, who eternally introduces himself as “[I am] Error” when approached by the player. Origin The NES videogame was developed & released by Nintendo in 1987 as the second installment in The Legend of Zelda series. As seen with other Japanese videogame imports from that time period, Zelda II also suffered from poor Japanese-English translations, including this particular scene: Shamefur Dispray. About Shamefur Dispray is a catchphrase originating for the 2011 strategy videogame Total War: Shogun 2.
It is a mangled Engrish way of saying “Shameful Display” used to hilariously insult another player’s poor tactics in the game. Origin The phrase “shameful display” is said by your virtual advisor in the game Shogun 2 Total War whenever any one of your units routs. The full phrase being “Our men are running from the battlefield! Since the probability of at least one unit routing every battle was extremely high, players were very likely to hear this phrase at least once every battle and the announcer’s heavy Japanese accent was found to be hilarious.