The Ultima 6 Project: German Translation Nearly Done, But Some Help Is Required
Sir John shot me an email recently, announcing with some excitement that the German translation of the Ultima 6 Project was nearly complete:
I…managed to translate all (but a handful) graphics for the game as well, pushing it forward to version 0.9.5 with only one full circle of revision and proof-reading left on the to-do list.
There’s just one snag, however:
The only graphics giving me headaches are some middle-english or context-free expressions I cannot translate until I learn where these are used in the game (haven’t had the time to play U6P ever since I started with the translation back in Novemeber 2012, as this has literally been a full-time job ever since).
As such, he has put up a post at the Project Britannia forums listing some of the things that are giving him troubles:
I have trouble translating some of the barks, as I lack the context in which they are uttered. So if anyone has come across any of them, please speak up. “Barks” in this context are the utterances by otherwise non-interactive NPCs: human or animals that show up as graphics, whenever you click them.
1. “Astony!” (middle english, related to astound) Is it a mage that utters it? While he performs some magic? Or is it rather one of the students/Spectators who watch some magic being performed?
2. “*ruff*” Is this a dogs noise such as “woof” or rather used during a game of cards in a sense of “trump”?
3. “I’m lost” Is it used while being in a maze or rather while engaging 127 Balrons at the same time?
4. “Thou art bouncable!” Is this rudely directed to a woman probably in a pub with a heavy sexual connotion? And is the typo on purpose?
5. “Salute!” as in “Cheers!” or as in “Hello!”?
6. “*snort*” Is it a horse or a pig who makes this noise?
Any help you all could lend would be, I suspect, much appreciated by Sir John.
Those are pretty simple, I don’t get what is stomping him.
1. Astony! is used by people seeing something spectacular. In this case, a wizard summoning a meteor would certainly yield this reaction from witnesses. So yes, it would be used by students who see magic being performed.
2. Ruff used as a verb is to play a trump in a card game.
3. I would bet on the maze. When you meet 127 Balrons at the same time, you won’t be so subtle as to say you are lost 🙂
4. Bouncable is a common misspelling of bounceable, so I would bet on the sexual connotation bit.
5. Salute is used as Cheers when drinking, so if this is in the same tavern as the bouncable one, I would go with Cheers.
6. Snort can mean insufflation. In medieval times people would use puffing, breathing or hissing for the expulsion or renunciation of the evil spirits between them. So this could be the sound a human NPC makes. But if we’re talking about animals, I would say a pig.
Hope this helps.
I think the main problem is that he doesn’t know what context these blurbs appear in. Simple enough for a word-by-word translation, but translating a *snort* noise when it’s made by a pig is going to look out of place if it actually comes up in-game from a horse if you use two different words for those noises. It’s where these bits come up while playing that he’s looking to confirm, so he knows which sense they’re all used when they show up during play.
Hi Dorin,
thanks heaps for your input. Very helpful and much appreciated!
As linguistic pointed out correctly, it is not exactly the words themselves I cannot translate, it is the context these are uttered I need to have.
Some examples:
*snort* – Due to the writing in asterixes it is probalby a noise. But in German it translates different when a pig (*grunz*) or a horse (*schnaub*) makes it.
*ruff* – yeah may be trump, may be a dog as well (again: asterixes normally indicate noises)
Long story cut short: I know the alternatives, but need to make sure about the context. And if I find gamers, that have already found these words in game, it saves me a hell lot of time (as I do not need to fire the game up and search for NPCs making noises ;-))
Thanks for No. 1 & 3, I ‘ll translate these accordingly 🙂
John