| World Languages |
Job 10001
These guidelines are
far from being complete and thus, work in progress. This text is not intended to
belittle or question your expertise or translation abilities. Please do not view
these guidelines as criticism of your work so far, but rather as an attempt to
make things easier for all translators involved. If you have any suggestions,
remarks, criticism or additions, please feel free to comment.
The game is a
fantasy-online-role playing-game, set in a presumably medieval fantasy world
with strong Chinese elements. Technology may have advanced far, although there
is no electricity, steam/gas-powered motors. Weapons include swords, bows,
batons, maces, bills and various Chinese arms but apparently no firearms.
Transportation is by foot, by horse or by magic (flying swords and teleporters).
Generally, magic and sorcery, as well as magic items, powers, abilities and
beings are commonplace. Many animals are intelligent and able to speak.
To match the overall
style of the translation to this background, and in order to achieve an
atmospherically and stylistically adequate translation, it is probably advisable
to translate in formal and old-fashioned style. The language of popular fantasy
films (e.g. Lord of the Rings) or that of books such as Michael Ende’s
Neverending Story may act as an example. Foreign words (Latin and English)
should, where possible, be avoided and old-fashioned or obsolete terms are to be
considered quite appropriate. The translator’s grasp and feeling for the
language is crucial here. Much can be derived from the style of the English
original.
It is difficult to
set up general rules for this, apart from advising an antiquated style. A “Wie
geht’s” may be barely in order, whereas an “Okay” should be avoided.
<mention medieval?>
I thought about the ancient
formal way of speaking and I think we could go for this because most of the
time, as far as I can see that, dialogues are between nobles and adults, there
are not necessarily children involved in the game. So yes, I agree with using
this mediaeval form of talking to people.
All characters in the game will generally
address each other in old-style formal: “Ihr/Euch”.
This goes for players, between players and
towards non-player characters (NPCs).
If the player is
being addressed as an individual (“by the game”), modern informal will be used
(Du/Dich; e.g.: You cannot login to this server=Du kannst dich nicht an diesem
Server anmelden).
Distinction between
these is not always easy. Specifically, it is sometimes hard to determine, if a
text belongs to out-of-game or in-game text. Please try employing formal old
style in these cases of doubt (to be on the safe side on style terms).
In very emotional dialog, in proverbs or mock proverbs and in cases of severe differences in social standing or age, the modern informal may be appropriate (Du). Due to the difficulty determining these cases, it is recommended to use Ihr/Euch here, too.
It is hard, in
German, to employ the politically correct gender terms without rendering the
translation text somewhat clunky and sacrificing atmosphere if the gender is not
known.
The tailor can be
found in
Ihr findet den Schneider/die Schneiderin in der Stadt Sonnenstrom.
We are working on
compiling a list of characters (NPCs) with gender information (or hopefully will
receive one from the client), as it is often impossible to tell from the English
source text’s vocational terms or even names. In these cases, the male form is
advised (conscious of the lack of political correctness here). If possible, you
could also check in-game or ask a lead translator. Be aware that you should try
to deduct the gender from the given text, but where it is impossible,
translators cannot be blamed for the unavoidable translation errors resulting
from it.
Unlike in English,
German compound words cannot be formed by simply putting nouns together in a
sentence (Example: Athan attack). For this translation, many new compounds will
have to be formed. While merging them to one word (Fire Giant
- Feuerriese) may look nicer, it is not always a clean solution (e.g.:
Athan attack – Athanerangriff).
Therefore, English compounds should generally be translated into hyphenated
German terms (Athaner-Angriff) for the sake of consistency. Exceptions from this
rule are not capital offences, but we are aiming for consistency and this rule
should make that easier.
There seems to be a
problem with the Transit software for the hyphens: Entered hyphens disappear
when closing and reopening a file (rendering Athaner-Angriff as AthanerAngriff).
In some cases, the hyphens entered in a confirmed segment (ALT-INS) can
not be deleted afterwards without removing the tag protection. This problem is
being worked on. A preliminary solution could be to enter “^^^” instead of the
hyphen. This can later be substituted (by the proofreader) against the hyphens
on exporting to Excel.
Names that cannot
meaningfully be translated (Shaw Danon, Bilu, Jadeon,
Names/terms of skills
and game proceedings (e.g. Skill: Accuracy) must be translated. For these,
though, consistency is most important, because vital functions in the game may
depend on consistent names for certain actions.
In some (technical) cases, it may be advisable to leave the English original (e.g. Critstrike), as it does not seem to be intended for in-game text or belongs to the command language of the games software, so atmosphere may not be an issue here. Please consult the lead translator in these cases, though.
