Re: [HOE] Translations

[David R Goecke <mightygecko@juno.com>]

On Sun, 8 Sep 2002 13:53:26 +0200 "Stephan Elsner" <schnabul@freenet.de>
writes:
> Hi there!
> 
> To "nationalize" some words in the translation is indeed very 
> important. All the phenomenons and strange people wandering the wasted
world would  have
> been given many different names, always depending on the culture of 
> the land. Also many magic and mythology things will look totally 
> different, depending on the beliefs of the majority of the people that
are or 
> were native to the particular country. Shamans (toxic or normal) would
be 
> Druids in Europe. Though they fulfilled a similar function in the
tribes as 
> the Indian shamans did, their magic and rituals would be totally 
> different. You would have to write a whole sourcebook on them to make
it realistic.

Druids are on my list of research. I need a European equivalent to the
Caretaker Toxic Shamans. sinc ethe spirits are world wide, and the Toxic
Spirits themselves can teach a person to be use their powers, there could
easily be corrupters anywhere in the world.

> As for a germanic way to say "Syker", I fear there will be none. The 
> habit of creating abbreviations is absolutely common to the english 
> language, but in German the words tend to get enlarged. "Psi-Krieger"
has a 
> medieval touch to it, but is good and fits in the use of language after
the bombs 
> erased civilization. Earlier, the psychic fighting forces in the german

> army would have had a name like PKRK wich would stand for "Psionische
> Krisenreaktionskräfte". But as the first sykers came from the US and 
> the fact that there are more and more anglicisms in the german language

> I think it would be perfectly ok if a syker is just called syker by a
german
> survivor.

I really like psi-krieger though... I think i'll throw it out there and
see what my posse does with it. Maybe german sykers are more likely to
call themselves psi-kreigers....

> For Junkers its the same difficulty. "Junker" can´t be translated 
> directly. "Junkman" would be a "Müllmann". Although it is someone who
picks up 
> the rubbish in front of your door and no well liked profession in 
> germany, it would fit to the junkers in a way. I think you could take
Müllmann 
> as a slang word for the Junkers but they definitely wouldn´t like that 
> and keep calling themselves proudly "Technik-Druiden" or better 
> "Maschinenpriester".

"Junker" isn't particularly nice in english either. I have a junker
character and my fiancee (wjo soesn't exactly get into the filth and ruin
of the Wasted west) insists that he refer to himself as a Techno-Mage. I
like Mullmann.

> Hexslinger is most difficult. The word Gunslinger is absolutely 
> american, thats a cultural thing relating to the old west. The right 
> translation is "Revolvermann", but in Germany this is also only used in
connection 
> to western movies. There was and is not such a thing in german culture.

> There is no word for someone who draws fast and shoots well. If I was 
> about to make a HoE "Germany" Sourcebook, I would leave
Gun(Hex-)slingers 
> out. They are too tightly bound to american culture, they wouldn´t make
sense 
> in Germany. The Hunting Grounds in german culture. Well, I think the
priests and  druids
> of pre-christian times would have travelled there like the Indians, 
> so there should be names for it, too. I´ve got not so much knowledge of
the 
> ancient religions of celtic, teutonic, allemanian, gothic and whatever 
> tribes roamed our region, but the deadlands are definitely the "Hölle"
in our 
> culture which means Hell. Heaven is "Himmel". 

Gunslinger really wouldn't be right then for Europe. Just a general
Mercenary, a gun-for-hire. Then again there may be the rare European
waster who spent too much time watch olf westerns on vid slugs... but in
general, yeah, no gun slingers. As far as Hexlsingers goes... all the
words used are very american. the most common user of that type of magic
back in the weird west were conmen and gamblers... I just need a good
name for someone who may have picked up a copy of Hoyles Book of Games
and figured out the arcane code... something that has to do with cards
and magic I guess. Anyone that uses that type of magic though is very
rare I'm sure.

>The Hunting Grounds could be 
> called "Zwischenwelt", which means "a world between".

I think that's the best bet so far and describes it pretty well.

> thats my brainstorming, hope it helps 
> Stephan

Thanks!

I'm trying to look at as many of the culures of Europe as I can and have
flavors of the different cultures in the posses dialect. Example, you've
got all these white people of European decent (many Christian) in America
refering to an evil spirit as a Manitou, a native american term, rather
than their own cultrural term, a Demon. so while there are so many
languages in Europe, I'm sure that (in this setting at least) some words
and phrases cross languages and everyone knows what their talking about.

Thanks again!

Dave

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