It looks like almost everyone is hyped for Yasmine. Ever since Capcom released her gameplay trailer prior to her becoming playable in Street Fighter 6, fans are excited to see how well this new rushdown/mixup character will be. Although I am Filipino myself, I’ve never really been big on “Pinoy Pride” unless it is something to really be proud of. For Yasmine, however, I can say Capcom put a lot of love and effort into developing her as a character from what I’ve seen and it is something to take pride in.

Now, when I say Capcom put a lot of effort into Yasmine’s development, they really went all out. From the more overt things like her using eskrima, the Philippines’ national martial art, and the somewhat more subtle elements like her becoming very polite and proper when she has her hair down, they did a pretty good job of making her feel like she is from the Philippines.

Capcom even made sure that all of her special moves and Super Arts are in the Filipino language. And watching people, mostly Westerners trying to pronounce them has been, well, it’s been an experience. God bless them, some of them are really trying but, since the language is literally foreign to them, they’re not pronouncing the names correctly. So, before she does become playable in Street Fighter 6 in August, I’d like to try to help out and try my best to translate Yasmine’s movelist and even try to phonetically explain how to say them properly. I’m also going to assume the folks at Capcom didn’t want to use very complex Filipino words that we don’t use in everyday conversation so they opted to use mostly simple words. So, I’ll try to “adjust” to this line of thinking when I come up with the translations. I mean, I do have experience with trying to translate Filipino phrases in this blog before!

First off, there are a couple of things most foreigners need to know about the Filipino language. One, we don’t really use “hard” vowel sounds. For example, the letter A is usually going to be pronounced “ahh” rather than “aay.” Essentially, you’re gonna see a lot of the letter “h” in the pronunciation notes. Two, Filipinos love using the “passive voice” when constructing sentences. So, we don’t typically ask “What’s your doctor’s name?” What we ask is “What is the name of your doctor?” It’s the same meaning but just structured differently. You’ll see why I mention this when we get to Yasmine’s movelist. Oh, we also have a “combined” letter that the English alphabet doesn’t have, which is “ng” and it’s pronounced as one. But “ng” can also be a word and work like a preposition, which would be like the word “of” and that’s pronounced as “nang.” Don’t worry if you don’t understand right now. Like all foreign languages, the grammar and sentence structures can be hard to figure out the first time.

Anyway, if you look at the official blog post for Yasmine, there are already a lot of Filipino words and phrases peppered throughout. Let’s quickly go through them before we get to Yasmine’s special attacks and Super Arts. The first phrase “kumusta ka?” (Kuh-moose-tah kah?) is basically “how are you?” and basically a greeting. Honestly, I’m glad they didn’t use the very tired “Mabuhay!” (Mah-boo-high!) because regular Filipinos do not go around greeting each other by saying this! At this point, that word feels more like marketing for tourism. Anyway, moving on, Capcom is spot-on in saying “Kuya” (coo-yah) and “Lolo” (loh-loh) means “older brother” and “grandfather,” respectively. The next phrase that’s not one of Yasmine’s special attacks is “Madaling sabihin, mahirap gawin.” (mah-dah-ling sah-bee-hin, mah-hee-rahp gah-win), which literally translates to “easy to say, hard to do” and is akin to the English phrase “easier said than done.” The final word in the blog post is “Paalam!” (pah-ah-lahm)

With that out of the way, let’s go to the meat and potatoes of this: the names for Yasmine’s special moves and Super Arts!

The first “special move” noted in the blog post isn’t actually a special move but refers to Yasmine’s stock system. “Bayani Mode” (bah-yah-knee mode) just means “Hero Mode” or “Heroic Mode.” The next special move is “Daloy ng Tubig” (Dha-loy nang Two-big). The literal translation for this would be “Flow of Water” or “Flowing Water” but I think Capcom was going for something like “Rushing Water.” I say this because Daloy ng Tubig’s follow-up “Alon” (Ah-lon) is just “Wave” as in the “wave from the ocean.” So, it would kind of make sense that “Rushing Water” would be followed by a “Wave,” right? Then again, that would mean a better Filipino phrase would have been “Agos ng Tubig” (Ah-goss nang Two-big) as that would mean “rush of water.” But, like I said, I bet Capcom opted to use more simple words.

The next special move noted is “Talim ng Hangin” (Tah-lim nang Hah-ngin). This is where the letter “ng” comes in so it’s not pronounced “han-gin” but “ha-ngin”. This is literally translated to “Sharpness of the Wind.” As this is more in the passive voice, this could be more like “Sharp Wind”. But I do think something like “The Wind’s Blade” or “Wind Blade” if this were to be translated to more conventional Western English sentence structures.

Yasmin’s next special move listed is “Mukha ng Langit” (Mhu-kah nang Lha-ngit) and this is… weird. The literal translation for this is “Face of the Sky” and I don’t really think this sounds right. I think Capcom was actually looking for a translation for “Look of the Sky.” Why do I say this? Well, the word “mukha” may mean “face” but it can also loosely mean “looks like.” Also, I’m taking into account the names of Mukha ng Langit’s two follow ups. The first, “Kulog” (Khu-lug) is “Thunder” and the second is “Ulan” (Ooh-Lhan but the “Ooh” said very fast) means “Rain.” So, Mukha ng Langit might be more like someone looking at the sky to see if there’s a thunderstorm or rainy weather.

Yasmin’s anti-air attack, the “Lipad ng Agila” (Lih-pad nang Ah-ghee-lah) just means “Flight of the Eagle,” “Flying Eagle” or “Eagle Flight.” Her weird angled projectile, the “Pangil sa Likuran” (Pah-ngil sah Lee-khu-rahn with the “Lee” said very fast) can be translated to “Fang to the Back” but, seeing as it can wrap around and fly backwards, I think a more accurate name would be “Backstabbing Fang.”

Yasmine’s Level 1 Super Art, the “Hiwa ng Kalangitan” (Hee-wha nang Kha-lah-ngit-tahn) would have a literal English translation of “Slice of the Sky” but I think they were going for something cooler like “Sky Slicer” or “Sky Cutter.” Her Level 2 Super Art is an install called “Nakatagong Lakas” (Nah-ka-ta-gong Lha-kas). This would be translated to “Hidden Strength” or “Hidden Power” and I think this is accurate enough. It could also be “Hidden Potential” as well. She does get a new move when she activates Nakatagong Lakas. This is her “Linya ng Liwanag” (Lin-yah nang Lee-wah-nahg with the Lee said very fast), which can rush behind her opponent for a crossup. The literal translation of this would be “Line of Light” but a better English translation for this might be “Light Beam” or “Ray of Light” as “Line of Light” doesn’t really work.

Finally, her Level 3/Critical Art is the “Pamumukadkad ng Sampaguita” (Pah-mu-mu-khad-khad nang Sahm-pah-gee-thah) and, in all honesty, I didn’t know what “pamumukadkad” meant. Thankfully, Yasmine actually translates the name in the trailer if you listen closely. She calls is the “Blooming Sampaguita.” For context, the sampaguita is the Philippines’ National Flower. Not only that, the sampaguita is also part of the jasmine family and, will you look at that! Yasmine’s name is an offshoot of the word “jasmine”! What a coincidence!

Well, that’s it! Those are all of the Filipino words and phrases noted in Yasmine’s writeup. The phonetic pronunciations might not be completely accurate as there are some sounds that is really hard to describe, like having to say “Lee but really fast”. But there the closest and simplest way I can think of. If you do have a Filipino friend who knows the language, he would be in a better position to tell you how some of these words actually sound.

What do you think of Yasmine? Do you think Capcom did a good job of creating a new Street Fighter character who just happens to be Filipino? Let me know in the comments section below!