Day 8 — Exploring Ham-Chat: the Language of Hamtaro
A Bilingual Ham-Chat Dictionary
Hamtaro was my childhood. The hamster anime/manga/game was super popular in my lower elementary school years, and I could sing and dance to both the opening and ending songs of the anime by heart, was always up-to-date with the newest additional character introduced, and even convinced my parents to let me have three real pet hamsters.
While every aspect of the Hamtaro franchise was wonderful, if you didn’t get to experience the joy of playing Hamtaro games, you have definitely missed out. The first electronic game I ever owned was Hamtaro 4: Rainbow Rescue (「とっとこハム太郎4：にじいろ大行進でちゅ」), gifted to me from Santa on my 7th Christmas together with a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP, the evolutionary game console that folded in half, had bright screens, and was chargeable. I enjoyed the game so much that I devoured every nitty-bitty detail possible, achieving perfect scores for all of the mini-games, collecting every single sticker collectible, and completing every single one of the extensive in-game coloring pages included as a sub-challenge. After replaying the game a solid five times through and through, one shocking day at my best friend’s house, I found out that she owned the older version, Hamtaro 3: Ham-Ham Heartbreak. Upon very politely asking with please and thank yous, she very kindly lent it to me to play.
In Hamtaro 3, Hamtaro (ハム太郎, the main character) and Bijou (リボンちゃん, the female lead) go on an adventure to bring back together couples and friends that are forcefully broken apart by Spat (デビハムくん), a hamster in a devil-like costume who hates the idea of love. Appointed as cupids by the angelic hamster Harmony (エンジェルちゃん), the two solve various puzzles in order to fix all the relationships and bring love back to the world.
An essential part of the gameplay of Ham-Ham Heartbreak is the collection of Ham-Chat, or vocabulary of a language specific to the world of Hamtaro. With the help of various hamsters, they meet on their adventure who teach them new Ham-Chat vocabulary; Hamtaro and Bijou become capable of more actions as the game progresses. The mending of all the relationships is not enough to complete the game, as you also need to find all of the available vocabularies and dictate it into the Ham-Chat Dictionary.
I was a decent kid and didn’t hog my friend’s game forever, meaning I only played Ham-Ham Heartbreak once before I gave it back. That didn’t stop my obsession; soon enough, I had my own copy of the game in my hands. In my defense, though, it wasn’t exactly the same since I could only find it in the Japanese version (「とっとこハム太郎3：ラブラブ大冒険でちゅ」). My reasoning behind spending my precious allowance on a game that I had already played before was like this: if half the game revolved around Ham-Chat, then it could be said that half the game was different since the Ham-Chat is also in a different language.
And that was how I became bilingual, not only in the human languages of English and Japanese but also in Ham-Chat. It was pretty common practice for Hamtaro-obsessed children my age to be conversing in Ham-Chat (ハム語 in Japanese), meeting each other with a “Hamha!” and parting with “Bye-Q”s, but I deem myself pretty rare in my ability to understand it in both English and Japanese.
Thanks to the various walk-throughs and wikis out there, while sources of the Ham-Chat dictionary are readily available on the internet, I have come to realize that there are no bilingual dictionaries that directly translate it. So what do you do if someone is talking to you in Japanese Ham-Chat, asking you ペコすきーですか？(“Are you pekosuki-?”) and you don’t understand?
This is where I come to the rescue. I present to you the first bilingual Ham-Chat dictionary on the internet, at least that I know of.
Aim: Hamscope ターゲッちゅ
Almost: Smidgie あとチョッチ
Angry: Blash-T めちゅ～っ
Ask for: Givehoo クレレッ
Bad: Delin-Q ぐれえてる
Bathroom: Go-P ちーぷる
Beautiful: Dazzlie びゅ～りっホ
Beg: Wishie ねがちゅる
Best Pals: Hamigos ともち
Big: Mega-Q どっかり
Bite: Pakapaka かしかし
Bloated: Bloat-T ポンぽポン
Bond: Hambond あかいトーン
Call out: Heyhoo やほほーい
Carry: Huffpuff ぷっぷく
Cherished: Lovedove ちゅ～ラブー
Clean: Scrub-E クリんパ
Climb: Scoochie のぼちゅ
Congrats: Hamcheer おめでっちゅ
Cooperate: Hamteam あわせっち
Deep: Snorklie ブグブグ
Defend: Fend-D まもっち
Delicious: Delichu デリちゅ
Delight: Sparklie うれぴっプル
Dig: Digdig もぐちゅ
Dislike: Nopookie ぢぢぢぃ～
Don’t fret: Nopibloo しょーなっち
Eat: Krmpkrmp もひもひ
Embarrass: Blushie てれらん
Encore: Clapclap もっちょ
Excellent: Tiptop ちょびりんき
Fantastic: Bestest はなマルっち
Forget: Blanko ポケらん
Frantic: Whawha わたた
Freedom: Libert-T フリリッくる
Freezing: Frost-T ひえビッチ
Friend: Hammo よっちー
Funny: Wit-T おもろぷぅ
Give: Giftee プレーぜる
Get: Grab-B ゲッチュー
Give up: Chuckchuck ポイっちょ
Goal: Gofor めざちゅルン
Good luck: Goodgo がんばリン
Good-bye: Bye-Q ばいきゅー
Great: Greatchu グレイちゅ
Greeting: Hamha はむはー
Hang: Clingie ぶらりんちょ
Happy: Blissie ウ～ラ～ラ～
Hide: Shashaa こそそ
Hot: Hotchu あちゅちゅ
Hungry: Nokrmp-P ペコすきー
Hurry: Gorush クイッちゅ
Identical: Twintoo くりっくり
Invisible: See-tru しーちゅる
It’s OK: Swellie ダイジョッピ
Kind: Hamchu ふに～
Knock: Nok-Nok ノッくん
Laugh: Hardihar プキキ
Like: Pookie ちゅきリーナ
Listen: Perksie ぴくぴ
Lollygag: Hulahula フラランちゅ
Lonely: Hamsolo ぼっち
Lose: Lost-T ナイ～ん
Lucky: Luck-E ラッピィ～
Many: Lotsa わささ
No: No-P やーノン
Noisy: Dingbang がちゃちゃ
Oh no!: Gasp-P こまっち
Open: Sesam-E セサミん
Ouch: Ouchichi アウチッチ
Party: Hamboree ドンチャカ
Peace: Tran-Q ピーちゅ
Perfect: Hamtast パーへくち
Piggyback: Hamlift ぐるマーニ
Play: Minglie むちゅちゅ
Play music: Jamout かなデ～ル
Poke: Stickie つっつん
Polish: Rubrub ピカッシュ
Powerful: Herk-Q まっちゅる
Pretty: Koochi-Q ぷりちゅ～
Promise: Hampact げんまる
Put: Putput ポチっと
Realize: Dingding ピピンッ
Really: Tootru マジフル
Regret: Meep-P うちゃー
Relax: Noworrie まいちー
Reliable: Trust-T たのモッちぃ
Remove: Offdoff オフるん
Reveal: Hushgo バレりっち
Ride: Gogo のるるン
Rival: Hamspar バルっち
Roll: Tack-Q あたっちゅ
Sad: Bluhoo べそきゅー
Scary: Panic-Q おぞぞ〜
Scratch: Scrit-T ガリっちょ
Secret: Hushie ひそそ
See: Lookie キョロリン
Sell: Dundeal うりり～
Shove: Pushie どすこイッチ
Show: Ta-dah ぱぱらーん
Sing: Lalalala ワワワワ〜
Sleep: Zuzuzu すかぴー
Small: Teenie ちぴっと
Small talk: Gossip-P ぺちゃちゃ
Sniff: Hif-Hif くんかくんか
Solid: Stead-E がっちリン
Sorry: Oopsie ちゃいっ
Startle: Thump-P ばくドキ
Strange: Bizzaroo みちゅてる
Strong: Might-T むっほっほ
Study: Cramcram がくちゅ
Stylish: Spiffie るんピカ
Surprise: Shockie がちゅん
Switch: Flipflop かわルンバ
Tell: Passchat デンデン
Thank You: Thank-Q サンちゅ
Tingle: Tinglie シビビーン
Tired: Blahh でろろん
Tug: Tuggie ぱる
Twirl: Twirlie くるリン
Uncool: Pooie うにに～
Wait: Wait-Q うぇいきゅー
Wake up: Wake-Q パチっと
Wet: Soak-Q じめるるん
Wide: Vast-T びろろーん
Wonderful: Wondachu ワンダちゅ
Worry: Fussfuss しんパイン
Yes: Yep-P イエーっちゅ
(kudos to https://hamtaro.fandom.com/wiki/Ham-Chat and http://manakazu.web.fc2.com/ham_language.html for providing me with a full list of the Ham-Chat Dictionary)
The formation of Ham-Chat is quite intriguing. The only Ham-Chat that can be mutually comprehensible are Greatchu, Wait-Q, See-tru, and Wondachu, while Sesam-E(セサミん) also comes pretty close. Both the English and Japanese seem to adopt onomatopoeias as the Ham-Chat vocabulary for basic hamster actions, such as “Sing” (Lalalala/ワワワワ〜), “Sleep” (Zuzuzu/すかぴー), “Sniff” (Hif-hif/くんかくんか). While a lot of the English Ham-Chat prefer to add the last consonant letter at the end of the word if it ends with a stop consonant (Bloat-T, Wake-Q, Gossip-P), this rule is not definite, and there are some exceptions (Lookie, Jamout). Japanese Hamchat seems to replace s sounds with chu or chi in many instances, like in まっちゅる(probably taken from “muscle”) and がくちゅ(taken from the Japanese word “study” がくしゅう).
As we near the end of the year 2023, I look forward to the Hamtaro franchise coming back with more merchandise that I can spend money on now that I am an independent adult. And with that, Merry Christmas; I hope everyone enjoys this wondachu season with lots of sparklie, spent well with their hamigos. May there be tranq-Q on Earth.
Check out other Wondachu 2023 HENNGE Advent Calendar articles here.
