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Simlish
Simlish-on-energy-drink-poster-TS4DU
Simlish on an Energy Drink poster in The Sims 4 Discover University.

Simlish is the fictional language used by Sims. It is assumed that Simlish is the official language of SimNation.

The voice actors of The Sims 4 each have their own Simlish dictionaries, so they know all the translations.

History

Simlish was created because Will Wright, creator of The Sims, knew that the game needed dialogue, but thought that using real life languages such as English would cause the dialogue to be repetitive and would be expensive translating the entire dialog Sims may say. Wright did consider experimenting with Navajo, a Native American language, but decided that it would be better to use a "nonsense language" that couldn't be translated, because the meaning could be left to the player's imagination.[1][2]

Some say it may be a mixture of Ukrainian, Navajo, Romanian, Irish, Tagalog, and even gibberish,[3] but this has not been confirmed. Notably, Simlish uses the Arabic word for the verb to drink, "Cherba - شرب," for the verb to chug.

Simlish was first used in SimCopter, a flight simulator game released in 1996.

Appearances in The Sims

The Sims

The Sims featured a lot more Simlish than SimCopter (the first Maxis game to feature Simlish), and was also a lot clearer. The phrase "sul sul", which in later games is used for both greetings and saying goodbye, is solely used for saying goodbye, and only by adults when they go to work. Some other common phrases are "wawa bralala?" "ralalalalib bubaya," "commun snanna," and "o frazinnratt," but the number of available phrases were limited, which led to some repetition. The voices were provided by Gerri Lawlor and Stephen Kearin.[4]

The Sims 2

The Sims 2 comes with more audible and newer phrases like "e wam." Common phrases are now "daj daj" and "ackabunad." Common greetings include "sul sul" and "dag dag". When there is a problem, Sims will say "shooflee" and "anaconda" often. When some female Sims walk by another Sim, their greeting varies from "Ooh, voodoo!" to "Lick a rock!" They reportedly swear sometimes. Much to the amusement of many players, pregnant Sims have been known to shout "WooHoo!" while giving birth. When female elders play at the poker table in Nightlife, they will often say "Texas Goushem" which is probably a reference to Texas HoldEm (a type of poker card game). In the Pets expansion pack, when a Sim is teaching their pet to "shake," they will say "shurb" repeatedly, as well as when they teach to "speak," they will say "sperk."

When an object is in their way, females will say "Nib! Frabanage! Haloo! Frinding," or, "Oh! Abloo. Umm...sesaru?" If they have the 2nd Female Voice, You will hear "Miso-Va! Oh Stovla?" Males will usually say "Gah! Do caraweeb hushizey." Other male route failure phrases include "Ugh! Dondeesh! Nigway!" and "Wassey! Woohoo! Ipuepueseh?" With teens, the females may say "Cram noopla! Nakasipi!" while males will say "Akapoog! Gillapanoni! Kibor!" or "Dungab! Dibeegz! Hallagidou" If there is a problem, female teens/young adults might say something like "Gravala! Binoo!" or "Marachalavi!" while males might say "Freboteedeebaa!", "Rigochi kada!" or "Rachida koh!" when the children say "Oh! Nikoshab! Wubba Shig Vadou!" and "Blidag ivab wub ajig bado" and then female elders would say "Wosh! Holag? Honyo butib!" and the male elders say "Geh! Hosho mido! Gerro Gerro!" and "Mah! Milato! Halaree"

The Marco Polo from Seasons was originally named Timle Tourneau, and you can clearly hear Sims exclaiming "Timle" and "Tourneau" instead of "Marco" and "Polo". Tim LeTourneau is, in fact, one of the staff of EA. When Witches and Warlocks in Apartment Life use the cauldron, they will say the last names of EA staff members, such as Macarevich, Majekodunmi, and Parmeley.

The Sims 3

A sign written in Simlish, seen in

A sign written in Simlish, seen in Sunset Valley

The Sims 3 has the largest Simlish vocabulary. Common phrases are

A Sim teaching a toddler to speak will sometimes say a phrase that sounds like "Way to go!". As a lot of music in the Sims 3 are actual songs, you can find the translations of lots of words by listening to the lyrics of both the English and Simlish versions of the song.

The Sims 3 is also the first Sims game where players can adjust the Sims' voices to sound exactly as they want them to sound.

In University Life, a professor in the Thomas School of Art can be heard speaking Simlish with a French accent.

From a linguistic perspective, Simlish in The Sims 3 also contains some loanwords from other languages, mostly from English, including "work out", "buggies",[TS3:WA] "come on",[TS3:WA] "awesome",[TS3:LN] and "stupid".[TS3:UL]. More detailed info about loanwords is in the "Non-Simlish phrases" section further below.

Billboards

The Sims 4

The Sims 4 has a wider variety of Simlish phrases, some of them varying between voice types. "Sul sul" and "Dag dag" remain as the common greetings, and Sims often say "Vadish" when saying thanks. Other common phrases include "Yabahorne", "Awu venae", "Yim bala", "Wibbs", "Muchi pichi", "Deroi" and "Dorishi". Sims who use the Respectful Greeting or demonstrate the proper trait, they'll often greet the other with "Wutushu, yimsimsie."

In the Brainchild Learning TV channel from Growing Together, many lines from the video playing can be translated if you listen closely.

Simlish as seen on the TV in The Sims 4.

Simlish as seen on the TV in The Sims 4.

On The Sims 4 website, there is a note in Simlish, next to the newsletter subscription.

Simlish on The Sims 4 website.
Simlish on The Sims 4 website.

The note is known to be a code related to The Sims 4.[5] The code purpose is to introduce some of the team members who are working on The Sims 4, and each of them reveal the Simlish code one by one, with the following order:

Which translates into:

Because you took the time to decode this message, here's why we love you:

  • Your creativity captivates us, your enthusiasm inspires us
  • May 23, June 18, July 9, remember these days.
  • Without you, we wouldn't have come this far

We're making this game for you, because of you. Thank you for being the greatest fans in the world.

The Simlish note is roughly translated, because the translated note doesn't exactly match the Simlish letter-by-letter. If one tries to decode with the custom font below, they will end up with Lorem ipsum, although with some modifications in the form of keyspam-like gibberish.

The translated text reads:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore

  • Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate
  • Mtyc, bojkdmgfs, hdfsfj, fjlfjjfldcvfjslfkjleipru
  • Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proidihnbvnncent

Numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut laboguire ut dolore magnam quaerat voluptatem

The Sims Medieval

It has been stated that Sims in The Sims Medieval do not speak Simlish, but rather a precursor to Simlish known as "Old Simlish." Compared to modern Simlish, Old Simlish has a more elegant sound, and more closely resembling the British RP accent with hints of French as opposed to an American accent featured in the mainline games. The difference between Old Simlish and Simlish may be similar to the differences between modern English and Middle English.

Old Simlish phrases are also used by role playing children in The Sims 3: Generations.

Simlish songs

Main article: Songs in Simlish

The Sims 2 features many renditions of popular songs sung by the original artists. Some have music videos created by EA, such as Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine" or Katy Perry's "Hot 'n' Cold." However, there are also other songs that don't feature music videos but can be found in the game, such as The Veronicas' "When it All Falls Apart" or Tata Young's "Zoom." These songs can be found in various radio stations in the game depending on the song's genre.

The Sims 2 for the PC is not the only game that features Simlish songs. Paramore's "Pressure" can be heard in The Sims 2 for the console version and various Black Eyed Peas songs are heard in The Urbz: Sims in the City, where the band is one of the prominent NPC characters found in Cosmo Street. There's also a Simlish version of "Time Bomb," performed by All Time Low, that can be heard in The Sims 3: Generations trailer.

Some of these songs are only available on Sims radio when certain expansion packs are installed. Ones with music videos often give clues to which expansion pack they are found in, such as Hot 'n' Cold (Apartment Life), Pocketful of Sunshine (Freetime), Fa Fa Fa (Freetime), and Smile (Seasons).

Videos

Main article: Songs in Simlish

These are a few examples of Simlish music videos.

Known Simlish translations

Non-Simlish phrases

On occasion, non-Simlish phrases are heard in the Sims games.

The Sims

The Sims: Bustin' Out

The Sims 2

The Sims 3

Some phrases are more akin to international sounds humans make, rather than being from a single language:

As there is a substantial (but not outright confirmed) chance that in-game media related to American football takes place elsewhere than SimNation, phrases are heard in them that are in English:

The Sims 4

Custom Simlish font

Custom Simlish font letters

Custom Simlish font letters

There is a custom Simlish font available at ModTheSims. The Simlish font is based on the Simlish symbols that are commonly used in The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 such as the one that appears on TV. This custom font is not official, and therefore cannot be used to decipher Simlish texts that appear in the game. It's worth noting that there are many variations of Simlish throughout the game, and this custom font is only one of the variations.

Alternately, some, but far from all, of the letters in the example screenshot above can be replicated to very varying extents with regular Unicode letters, provided that the computer/phone have at least one font each for e.g. Cyrillic, Devanagari, Canadian Syllabics, and math symbols: ᑲБɦđò_ɮ__√__⨝ᒐ_टᒋꝾ_ʇęℲʠ⧖__ (Underscores mean that no viable or plausible Unicode substitute have been known to be found.)

Simlish text which appears while watching the comedy channel in The Sims 4

Simlish text which appears while watching the comedy channel in The Sims 4. Translates as "The Tonight Show with Tony Cliffton"

However, there is an instance where this custom font can be used to read a Simlish text. Text on the TV in The Sims 4 can sometimes be translated by using the custom Simlish font. In the image to the right, the text appears to translate to "The Tonight Show".

Appearances outside 'The Sims' games

SimCopter

SimCopter was the first game to feature Simlish.

Sid Meier's SimGolf

In SimGolf, Sims will speak Simlish while a translation appears above their heads.

SimCity series

In both SimCity 4 and SimCity Societies, citizens can be heard speaking in Simlish if the player zooms in close enough. In the 2013 installment of SimCity, the citizens speak Simlish when giving the player missions, and a text bubble giving a translation appears.

Spore

In non-English versions of Spore, Simlish is spoken by Steve and "the voice in the tunnel." The Simlish used is the same no matter what non-English language it is.

MySims Series

In the MySims series, the Sims speak Simlish when talking to each other or expressing an emotion.

References

  1. ↑ Wikipedia: Simlish
  2. ↑ Gamespot - What Goes into Creating Simlish, Music, and Ambient Sounds in The Sims Bustin' Out
  3. ↑ Gonna Play the Sims? You Gotta Speak Simlish at the Wayback Machine (archived October 14, 2009)
  4. ↑ In Loving Memory of Gerri Lawlor - EA
  5. ↑ The Sims 4 Code Has Been Cracked! from BeyondSims

See also

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