I18N - Translator's Guide

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This page contains useful hints and tips for anyone who wants to translate the main menu mod, or any FM.

General Remarks

If you want to help translating TDM to other languages, or translate some FMs, please check first at the I18N status page, then post on the forum. Thank you!

Translating Eigennames

There are some special names in TDM which you might want to not translate:

  • The Dark Mod - this should stay always the same
  • Character names in FMs: Sometimes these people have names that could be translated, like "Taylor" (German: Schneider etc.). However, to keep the "british flavour", these names should stay as they are.

Another difficult topic are the names of the factions (Builders, Inventory, Pagans) and monster/nightmare names. One might want to keep a Strigis or Belcher as what they are, mainly because they add athmosphere in other languages (where the words sound even more foreign). On the other hand, translating them to their equivalent can add flavour, too.

These things have to be decided for each language, and afterwards they need to be consistent between the core dictionary, and the FM dictionaries.

Some examples:

German

  • In German, the Builders are translated to "Werker", and although this generally works, there are some grey areas, like "Master Builder" - is this the "Meisterwerker", or the "Meister Werker"?
  • Strigis stays the same.
  • Namen werden eingedeutscht, wenn es Sinn ergibt. Ausnahme: Francis Rake
  • A Belcher is "Speier".
  • Bridgeport wird zu Brückhaven.
  • Northbridge wird zu "Nordbrücke", "New Bridge" zu "Neue Brücke"
  • The "One true Hammer": Der "Wahre Hammer"
  • diocese: Diözese
  • Archbishop: Erzbischof
  • Rowntree Tower wird zu Eschenturm
  • Newport wird zu ... (Abstimmung im Gange: Neuhaven/Neuhafen/Neehaven)
  • Taffer: Kunstwort ohne direkte Übersetzung, daher sinnvoll übersetzen mit: Kerl, zwielichtige Gestalt, Idiot, Bursche
  • Book of Nature: Buch der Natur (dt. Originaltitel)
  • Book of Amon: Buch von Amon

Portuguese

  • the Builders and Pagans stay the same (for now).

Special Phrases

Some of the phrases and words are old English words, or outdated job names. Because not every dictionary contains these, here are a few explanations:

Job titles

Back in the medivial ages, people where already quite specialised, so there where a lot of jobs where someone did one step in the production of a item and this job had their own name. As example there where smiths who forged swords (Swordsmith), another special smith (or apprentice) who only polished the sword blade, someone who forges the sword grip, and so on. Most of these professions had their own name.

Here are some examples of the more uncommon words:

  • XYZmonger - a monger is simple a (small-scale) dealer, someone who buys and sells wares, and where you go shopping for these. The prefix usually just says which kind of wares he deals in. Nowadays only the word "Fearmonger" is used frequently, because instead of specific dealers you have supermarkets which deal in all kinds of wares at once. Examples: Cheesemonger (deals primarily in cheese), Fishmonger (deals with fish), Peltmonger etc.
  • Panecaster - an old job description for someone who casts panes (flat sheets of material, usually of glass, but can also be metal)
  • Tinsmith - someone who produces flasks, bottles, drinking goblets and vases from tin (white metal). In German Kannengießer.
  • Wiredrawer - someone who draws metal into (thin) wires. The German word Drahtzieher means also someone who is the mastermind behind an operation.
  • Gearsmith - a smith who casts and produces gears.
  • XYZfounder - someone who builds foundations in the earth, where you can pour hot metal to cast objects, and also does the casting etc. The first part just determines what type of objects he dealt with. Examples: Bellfounder, Typefounder (types are metal characters for printing books), etc.
  • Knacker: Taking (no longer useable) animals and turns them into dog food, glue and fetilizer. See Wikipedia.

Monster names

  • Belcher - a gas cloud spewing monster on two legs, looking a bit like a dinosaurier. See concept art and this possibe model.
  • Strigis - Strigis is the latin plural of strix, which stands for Screeching Owl (or witch, because these also make screeching sounds). Hence it is a cross between a human female, owl and looks quite nightmarish. Beyond that, it is vague what this monster aactually looks like or is. See Wikipedia. Also this image.
  • Will'o'Wisp - little balls of fire, sometimes trailing sparks. It is unclear if these are actual sentient beeings, or just ordinary ball lighting, or magic side-effects. Wikipedia

FM Translations

Please see I18N - Translating Fan Missions for details.

Tools and Links

  • See the I18N.pl script to transform an untranslated FM into one which can be more easily translated.
  • dict.leo.org has good dictionaries for translating between German and Chinesese, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanisch.
  • Google is also (sometimes very) good at phrases, esp. computer related ones.

Of course, always beware what online dictionaries and translators produce - very frequently their results are complete rubbish. If you are not firm in the target language, translate the result back into a language you know to do a basic check.


See Also

Translation resources

Overview of translations

Translation discussions

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