There are nearly 30 million Neopians, if I remember correctly. They all, naturally,
can't come from English countries and speak English as their native language.
For example, I'm from Finland.
So, how do these language differences take effect in the ordinary Neopian
life?
Nicknames
Every language has a different stress. So, the English names as Cheat! can
change their appearance and become known as them.
In my family we play Cheat! a lot, so the game has become known as "Tsiit",
just like the Cheat! players are called Branssi [Branston], Pikku-Timppa [Little
Timmy], Chuffre [Chuffer-Bob], Pruussi Pii [Brucey B], Fernipuu [Princess Fernypoo]
and Speku [Spectre]. Some of not-so-English names have stayed as they are, like
Shuggu. Of course, we use the ordinary names too, just using the stress like
in Finnish.
NeoPet/PetPet naming and translating original names
People from different countries name their NeoPets dissimilar ways. They can
give their NeoPets a Finnish name [I didn't] or mix different languages. My
little sister [myksy] liked the French word "peu" meaning "little", so she wanted
to call her Kougra Peu. The name was taken, so was Peupeu, so she gave him the
name "Pikkupeu" which is in English "Little Peu", "Little Little". Weird, isn't
it? And I gave a name for my friend's [sjewerus] PetPet; he's called now Pallero
the Abominable Snowball [Pallero means "toddler", if the dictionary is correct...]!
I checked few of the common Finnish names and the results are:
Liisa: Yes, I found a Red Usul. Her owner was neo89831 [Amy] from United
States!
Pekka: I found PEKKA the Green Lupe. Wasn't born yet.
Elina: Oh, a Yellow Skeith! Luckily a female, Elina is a girl's name.
Owner ammz [Amy Jablonskis] , country none. That's strange...
Jarkko: A Red Scorchio, male. Owner sforoze [gemma], country none.
Again.
Eero: A Yellow Shoyru, a male again. Cute... Owner ariberri, country
none. Where do these all come from?
Milla: A Green female Tuskaninny. Owner crazyrae [Rae, which is a Finnish
word too], country - better be from somewhere - United States.
Hold on, just one more name, and it's -
Santeri: A male Green Mynci. Genders seem to be okay... owner santtu222
from Finland! Now we're getting somewhere!
Oh, what? Okay... I'll stop and move on. Translating original names? Hard.
Could you imagine you would call Dr_Death "Tri_Kuolema" instead? No? So, I call
him Dr_Death or Tri_Death, mixing English and Finnish. There are some names
we won't translate, as Wheel of Excitement. And some names we will, as Coltzan's
Shrine [Coltzanin lähde] and Faerie Queen [keijukuningatar]. We find it usually
easier to call Dark Faerie with her English name than translating it to "Pimeä
keiju". And some names are almost impossible, as the Snowager!
Communicating with other Neopians and friends
I know a couple of friends outside NeoPets too. They are, of course, all from
Finland. But it is said that when you join in a guild, you'll get a lot of NeoFriends.
And if they speak English, it may be quite hard to understand.
Having a foreign friend is a good thing, also. You can discuss about your
everyday life and other things, and if you have similar hobbies too, it's even
better. Learning things about other culture is always interesting!
Pronunciation
There are such weird NeoPet names as Krawk, Shoyru and Eyrie. You, who speak
English, pronounce them as said in the Pronunciation section [World, Pronunciation].
We others use our ways.
Shoyru is pronounced like "shoy-roo". In Finnish language there's a rule called
"vowel harmony", so we use the a, o and u in the same word and y, ä and ö in
the other. E and i can be in the both words. So, pronouncing "shoy-roo" is very
hard to us, we almost say "shou- roo". We just have to practice the pronunciation.
Still, it's very easy to find the correct way of English pronunciation. When
I look at the Pronunciation section, I keep repeating "Hey, I always pronounce
it like that in English! You- nee!". It's amusing; I can pronounce the word
in English, but not in Finnish...?
Neopian Times
Of course, you can learn lots of things by reading Neopian Times [one of the
few newspapers I follow weekly]. Maybe you can find a wonderful pun from a comic,
learn reading English with the stories or adapt something you've learned from
an article. And perhaps you do like me: write something to Neopians! Don't forget
to get your weekly portion of Neopian Times!
The language problems
So, at last, the language problems. If someone tells you to challenge an opponent
in the Battledome reminding to equip some Reflecting Items too, how much can
a Finnish Neopian [hey, that's weird] understand? What on earth is Asparagus?
What about playing Cliffhanger?
If you cannot understand the rules of the game, I recommend you to go and try
bravely. It's not bad, you'll learn vrey easily what it is about in the game.
Some other Neopians can maybe help you too.
Well, I myself haven't tried playing the Stock Market. Maybe I could understand
the idea, but I find it too hard and prefer playing a little of Faerie Caves
[though it's a very difficult puzzle]... And Faerie Crossword. It is almost
impossible to know the right words when you're not from an English country!
Playing Cliffhanger can be hard too, but I find it very fun.
If you're lucky, there's a Finnish-English-Finnish dictionary in your computer.
There you can check the difficult words.
Hope you enjoyed reading, just one more thing before I finish! I remember
the Caption
151, where was the park and the sign "UNI GET IN FREE". Gelert and Pteri
were trying to sneak in and an angry Meerca was guarding. One of the winning
captions was "Gelert: I don't know why we needed to dress up... the sign says
U and I get in free." I had a good laugh, but I found it very hard to explain
it to others...
Thank you for reading!
PS: A surprise. You really thought that was the end? I'll teach you a little
bit of Finnish.
NeoPet: Neolemmikki [we really don't use this word often]
Asparagus: Parsa
Omelette: Munakas, omeletti
Ability: Ominaisuus
Health: Terveys
Intelligence: Älykkyys
Equipment: Varustus
Species: Laji
Game: Peli
Shop: Kauppa
Potion: Taikajuoma, rohto
The Lost Desert: Kadonnut aavikko
Terror Mountain: Kauhuvuori
Mystery Island: Arvoitussaari
Faerieland: Keijumaa
Neopoint: Neopiste [we don't use this word a lot either]
Help: Apu
The Stuff: Kama
Account: Tili
Battledome: Taisteluareena [literally "taistelukupoli"]
Quest: Tehtävä
NeoHome: Neokoti
Neopian: Neopialainen | 
