Simlish
From Simpedia
Simlish is a fictional language featured in Maxis' Sim series of games. It debuted in SimCopter, and has been especially prominent in The Sims and The Sims 2. Simlish can also be heard in SimCity 4, albeit far less frequently. It also featured to an extent in the Firaxis game Sid Meier's SimGolf. Designer Will Wright was conscious of the need for dialogue in the game, but thought that using a real language would make it sound too repetitive and would also be too costly to hire translators for world languages.
The Sims development team created the unique Simlish language by experimenting with fractured Ukrainian and Tagalog (one of the major languages of the Philippines). Inspired by the code talkers of WWII, Sims creator Will Wright also suggested experimenting with Navajo.
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[edit] Music
Sims have been able to listen to Simlish music on their cheap boomboxes, or fancy stereos since its inception; since Hot Date, they have also heard music on wall speakers on Community lots.
In The Sims House Party and The Sims Vacation, Sims sing campfire songs. They are sung to the tune of "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain", "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and "On Top of Old Smoky". Lyrics for these songs were posted on the official website.
Players can also play their own music on the stations, by inserting the music into a folder that is installed with The Sims. On The Sims 2 website, players can also download music from the Sims 2 and play it in The Sims 1.
[edit] Outside artists
For The Sims 2 expansion packs University and Nightlife, rather than creating unique Simlish music, recording artists cut new performances of their songs with Simlish lyrics. These artists include Annie, Dexter Freebish, Paramore, Abra Moore, Charlotte Martin, Da Riffs, The Daylights, The Perishers, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Reggie and the Full Effect, Acceptance, Go Betty Go, Steadman, The Faders, Adam Freeland, Hyper, Junkie XL, Lemon Jelly, MxPx, Timo Maas, Barenaked Ladies and Trivium. The songs included in any one game depend on the localization. Kajagoogoo's Too Shy also appears on the New Wave music channel.
The Black Eyed Peas also contributed to the recording of Simlish hip-hop songs in Urbz: Sims in the City.
British synthpop band Depeche Mode recorded a Simlish-language version of their single "Suffer Well" for Open for Business.
Barenaked Ladies re-recorded three songs ("Easy", "What A Let Down" and "Wind It Up") from Barenaked Ladies Are Me in Simlish for inclusion on the Family Fun Stuff pack. Skye Sweetnam recorded her song "Boyhunter" in Simlish prior to its appearance on her album Sound Soldier. Several artists re-recorded hit songs in Simlish for the expansion pack Pets, including Aly & AJ doing their "Chemicals React"<ref>EA and Aly & AJ collaborate on signature song for The Sims 2 Pets from GameZone. 1st March, 2007.</ref>, The Flaming Lips with "Free Radicals", The Pussycat Dolls with their top chart hit "Don't Cha", wikipedia:The Format with "The Compromise", and wikipedia:Saving Jane with "Girl Next Door". In the Spanish version, Le Oreja da Van Gogh remade their hit "Dulce Locura". The band Malbec has also had their song "Given the Times" translated into Simlish.
In the Seasons expansion pack, The Veronicas have re-recorded their single "When It All Falls Apart". Pop star Tata Young contributed a Simlish version of her song "Zoom". Lilly Allen re-recorded her song "Smile" in Simlish.
[edit] Written Simlish
Signs in The Sims games usually do not contain text, but consist entirely of graphics. For example, a pet shop sign in Unleashed displays a paw, a stop sign in Hot Date displays a white hand, and in The Sims 2 the sign for a grocery store depicts a cornucopia.
[edit] The Sims
In The Sims, the headline The SimCity Times is visible on the daily newspaper, in English and in the Comic Sans MS font. (The game uses this font, with the Simoleon sign (closely resembling ยง) as the currency symbol.)
[edit] The Sims 2
In The Sims 2, most text is only distinguishable at very close zooms. On book covers, newspapers and Nightlife's "Sims Must Wash Hands" sign, the lettering is all nonsense characters that bear about as much resemblance to Latin characters as they do to Cyrillic. Almost no actual characters from any known alphabet are used. When Sims are writing novels or term papers, dingbats from the Wingdings font appear as text on the screen. Finally, the notebooks used for homework contain writing composed of random lines.
In The Sims 2, Simlish words occasionally appear on television screens. They are written in the same Simlish alphabet described above, or using the font Wingdings to produce symbols like Aum or Zodiac signs. In The Sims 2 University, eight "SimGreek Letters" appeared as signs intended for fraternity and sorority houses. University also contains the most unambiguous existence of actual English language in the whole The Sims 2 series; the words "Open house" are shown on a decorative noteboard on the top right announcement various times. It can only be seen at a very close zoom and is slightly garbled because of the JPEG compression. Most other appearances of English are logos for Maxis, Electronic Arts, or GameSpot.
There is a "Rosetta Stone" of sorts in FreeTime. A children's blackboard has the Simlish alphabet written in order, in a clockwise fassion. All 26 letters correspond to those of the English alphabet.
It has been observed that Simlish's sentence-structure is exactly like that of the English language, making for easy translation.
[edit] Other
In The Sims Online, however, text is in English.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links
- Spot On: Simlish stylist Robi Kauker. Simlish music in The Sims 2: University.
- Lily Allen - Smile (Simlish) Music Video - Lily Allen's Smile in Simlish
- Some songs in Simlish. Official The Sims 2 Site.
- Official Simlish Lessons. Official The Sims Site.
- The Sims Bustin' Out Designer Diary #3
- Aly & AJ with EA EA and Aly & AJ collaborate on signature song for The Sims 2 Pets from GameZone. 1st March, 2007.
