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Origin of "TATE" -- does anyone know?

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
Is there anyone who knows what exactly "TATE" stands for, or what it is derived from? I know that "TATE mode" means a game using a vertically aligned monitor, but where in the world does the word come from? The best I've been able to do is find things like "TATE is the Japanese term for games played on the vertical monitor" -- and while that could be true, it doesn't explain where the term came from. It looks like an acronym, but I can't find any information on it.
 
it's Japanese for "vertical"

as opposed to "yoko," meaning "horizontal"

this mystery has not troubled the ancients

research harder next time
 
masterpre.jpg
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tate.jpg
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JackFrost2012 said:
it's Japanese for "vertical"

as opposed to "yoko," meaning "horizontal"

this mystery has not troubled the ancients

research harder next time

Well, that's solved... I just sort of assumed that after searching and finding no explanation that "tate" meant "vertical", there was something a bit more to it than that.

(Currently wondering why it's written "TATE" so often... but chalks that up to the bizarre nature of shoot-em-up importers.)
 
DavidDayton said:
(Currently wondering why it's written "TATE" so often... but chalks that up to the bizarre nature of shoot-em-up importers.)
I guess it's written like that so you know to say it as ta-teh rather than tayt (i.e. capitalized since it's romaji rather than an english word).
 
So why use the term anyway? Can't we just call it vertical mode? Doesn't that make more sense than using the Japanese term??
 
Well, it's pretty common for shooters to call the mode "tate" with english characters. Since that's what it's called, why not call it that?
 
Uncle Dukey said:
Well, it's pretty common for shooters to call the mode "tate" with english characters. Since that's what it's called, why not call it that?

Well, for starters, vertical gameplay predates the term "TATE Mode".
 
i've always thought it was capitalized because it's so often capitalized in game option menus. not knowing what the word meant, maybe someone took it for an acronym, and maybe other people imitated this arbitrary capitalization.

"tate" is a convenient shorthand for something involving a vertically-oriented monitor, and can't be taken to refer to vertical scrolling shooters that don't use a vertical format. i always used to say "flipped screen" or something, but "tate" has become a common enough gaming forum usage.

i'm a nerd.
 
(mutters under his breath)

Bah. Just wanted to check on the origin of the phrase... it seems silly to use a foreign word to refer to monitor settings, but it appears to have somewhat entered the lingo. Oddly enough, I had a hard time finding a reference to "tate" before 1999...
 
drohne said:
as long as we're on a definitions kick: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=preclude

i think you wanted something like "predate" or "precede."

i'm a nerd. :(

So Drohne, when you're speaking out about games in real English (and I guess all of us here type about gaming more than we talk about games for obvious reasons), do you say "tait" or "tah-te"?

I'm a studier of Japanese, and if I'm talking to people in English, I'd probably just say "tate," as that's how it looks from the spelling.
 
As I was clicking this thread, I was thinking to myself, "what a twat, its obviously short for PorTRAIT".

I read Jackfrosts reply and thought 'ha ha', he's taking the piss.

Only then, after reading the actual word slowly a few times, did it actually sink in. Portrait isn't spelt like that........

All these years feeling confident about the meaning of a term..... wasted.
 
Speaking of 'tate'. I vaguely remember reading PS2 Shinobi reviews and something about 'tate' mode or something... I remember thinking it's strange for a 3d action game to have such a mode... Anyone know which kanji the reviewer was referring to when he wrote tate in English? Was it a vertical mode or referring to a different homonym?
 
i don't think i've ever said "tate" to anyone. in conversation i revert to "flipped screen" or "tv on its side." but i'd pronounce it with two syllables if it came up.

and "tate" in ps2 shinobi refers to those sequences where you kill a bunch of enemies in a row, and then get a cutscene in which they're all simultaneously bisected. presumably they call it "tate" cos the enemies keep standing for a while after they're dead.
 
mrklaw said:
As I was clicking this thread, I was thinking to myself, "what a twat, its obviously short for PorTRAIT".

I read Jackfrosts reply and thought 'ha ha', he's taking the piss.

Only then, after reading the actual word slowly a few times, did it actually sink in. Portrait isn't spelt like that........

All these years feeling confident about the meaning of a term..... wasted.

:lol PorTAIT-p0wned
 
Jonnyram says "ta-teh". I also just recently found out TAITO is pronounced "ta-I-to". Would it kill them to add some diacritical marks?
 
Memorize each sound in this table and how it is said. Then when you encounter a Japanese word just follow the pronunciation of each syllable until you've said that whole word. Using this method you should always say Japanese words properly.

*edit* click on each sound to get a wav file of how to say it *edit*

link
 
drohne said:
and "tate" in ps2 shinobi refers to those sequences where you kill a bunch of enemies in a row, and then get a cutscene in which they're all simultaneously bisected. presumably they call it "tate" cos the enemies keep standing for a while after they're dead.

I've also seen 'tate' used in previews of Genji to describe the one-hit kill technique, coming from the developers themselves. From what I can gather, it seems to be a term refering to swordplay, something to do with being really good at it. Anyone have more insight into this usage.
 
Well, if they're going to Romanize it they should use diacritical marks. Otherwise leave it in hiragana so I know I'm pronouncing it wrong.
 
Varian said:
Well, if they're going to Romanize it they should use diacritical marks. Otherwise leave it in hiragana so I know I'm pronouncing it wrong.

If you see a word of Japanese origin and you know the sounds in the chart I posted above you don't need anything to know how to pronounce it.
 
Varian said:
Well, if they're going to Romanize it they should use diacritical marks. Otherwise leave it in hiragana so I know I'm pronouncing it wrong.


There isn't anything wrong with you just pronouncing it Tayte. There are plenty of foreign words that get adopted by other languages and adjusted to suit the pronounciation traits of the adoptee.

Prounouncing it Ta-Te would be a little odd out of context, so why not just use what you are comfortable with?
 
ddksanrokumaru said:
If you see a word of Japanese origin and you know the sounds in the chart I posted above you don't need anything to know how to pronounce it.
First off, how am I supposed to tell it's of Japanese origin when it's Romanized? Second, why should I pronounce it differently than any other Roman word when I'm given no other reason than that it looks Japanese? This is TAITO's problem, not mine.

mrklaw said:
There isn't anything wrong with you just pronouncing it Tayte. There are plenty of foreign words that get adopted by other languages and adjusted to suit the pronounciation traits of the adoptee.

Prounouncing it Ta-Te would be a little odd out of context, so why not just use what you are comfortable with?
It's not a case of me mispronouncing a loan-word. It's a case of the Japanese failing to transliterate properly because they don't understand the rudiments of Western pronunciation.
 
mrklaw said:
All these years feeling confident about the meaning of a term..... wasted.
I wouldn't feel too bad about it - there's still plenty of people out there who think it's a shortening of the word rotate.
DavidDayton said:
Oddly enough, I had a hard time finding a reference to "tate" before 1999...
ddp_01.jpg

There's a scan from Saturn Dodonpachi's manual, game was released Sep 18 1997.
You could probably go earlier if you were to peruse the manuals for the other import shooters you own, David :)
 
Varian said:
First off, how am I supposed to tell it's of Japanese origin when it's Romanized? Second, why should I pronounce it differently than any other Roman word when I'm given no other reason than that it looks Japanese? This is TAITO's problem, not mine.

For the same reason that Sony is "so knee" rather than "sonny"; a Japanese company, in a field dominated by such, with a Japanese name, is probably going to use a name pronouncable in Japanese.

Ignatz Mouse said:
If "yoko" means horizontal, what does "ono" mean?

"Small field".

Yeah, yeah, sometimes a horrible pun requires a straight line back.
 
I was legitimately curious. Given that she was a conceptual artist, I though her name might have been some sort of statement.

I found "small axe" also as a translation. And other meanings for Yoko as well ("beside").
 
Ignatz Mouse said:
I was legitimately curious. Given that she was a conceptual artist, I though her name might have been some sort of statement.

I found "small axe" also as a translation. And other meanings for Yoko as well ("beside").


Yeah Japanese has many homonyms so essentially roomaji is worthles because a perfectly valid sentence can have many possible valid meanings even if you have the proper context.

If you listent to Japanese speak you'll sometimes hear the person listening explicitly repeat what the speaker said and say something else to clarify what they're talking about. Sometimes you will also hear them give the definition of the kanji that they're talking about if there's room for confusion.
 
john tv said:
I propose we change "tate" to "taint" to make it a little more Western.
Japanese do it to English! Why can't we do it to Japanese? People argume with me <CORRECTLY> saying an English word all the time...they say "but you are in Japan, you should use Japanese English!"
 
Varian said:
It's a case of the Japanese failing to transliterate properly because they don't understand the rudiments of Western pronunciation.
They're following well-established, consistent conventions of romanization, and these - out of necessity and for clarity's sake - don't always match up with American English pronunciation. The same goes for Chinese in Pinyin notation, romanized Korean, and romanized Cantonese. Hell, Gaelic, Welsh, German, Italian, and Spanish don't follow your usual English prononunciation, either. That's the way it goes.
 
jiji said:
They're following well-established, consistent conventions of romanization, and these - out of necessity and for clarity's sake - don't always match up with American English pronunciation. The same goes for Chinese in Pinyin notation, romanized Korean, and romanized Cantonese. Hell, Gaelic, Welsh, German, Italian, and Spanish don't follow your usual English prononunciation, either. That's the way it goes.

Well, sure, except that the limited sounds in the Japanese language make it (throwing out accent and a few nuances) more or less a strict subset of an American English speaker's sound catalog. That convenience usually isn't there when you're transliterating something.

The point is, an American would be able to roundaboutly pronounce just about any Japanese word if it were spelled in an easy to understand way. The problem is that the Japanese have had romaji at their fingertips for so long that short of exhibiting a little creativity and understanding of the etymology of English spelling, they'd probably end up lazily using that to transliterate their own words back into English. So yeah, if one studies Japanese, he can look at something written "tate" by a Japanese and insist that all of his American friends pronounce it "tah-tay" like the Japanese do, but it's just not an acceptable pattern of pronounciation for something with an "ate" ending in English.

If they insist in transliterating their words to us in romaji and NOT in any proper English phonetic, then they should expect that we're going to pronounce it as it looks in our understanding of Roman characters. That means that people are going to say "tait" and slaughter the original Japanese word's pronunciation over it.

I guess it doesn't matter all that much, but I've spent a great deal of my summer doing poor man's research on the etymology of a ton of English loan words here in Japan, and it's pretty amazing at the kinda shit that becomes standardized simply because of limited communication. [As well as corporate introductions of concetps. Stuff like "Corn Flakes" becoming the word for "breakfast cereal" in Japan, just because Kellogg's introduced it, even though it's a copyrighted trademark; while everyone calls tissue Kleenex, at least we have a non-branded word for it.]

So yeah, I'll just say "tait" to avoid sounding like an arrogant japanophile when I'm around my American friends. As if any of them other than Dbish gives a shit about 2D fighters.
 
jiji said:
They're following well-established, consistent conventions of romanization, and these - out of necessity and for clarity's sake - don't always match up with American English pronunciation. The same goes for Chinese in Pinyin notation, romanized Korean, and romanized Cantonese. Hell, Gaelic, Welsh, German, Italian, and Spanish don't follow your usual English prononunciation, either. That's the way it goes.
Except the Welsh, German, etc, don't mangle their written language to make it more appealing to us. We do have a say in pronouncing the words we borrow from them.
 
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