tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 17 16:38:00 1997
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German "TKD" and its problems
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: German "TKD" and its problems
- Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 19:37:15 -0500 (EST)
HIqIm!
Here's a native German speaking. I feared for bad when I heard the TKD
was announced to come out.
> Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 00:09:01 -0800
> From: Qov <[email protected]>
> At 14:29 97-11-16 -0800, HovqIj wrote:
> }> ja' muHwI':
> }> >{rIvSo'} is in German the same word as {QIn}!!!
> }>
> }> The German translation of TKD -- "Das offizielle Woerterbuch" -- seems
> }> to be lacking in precision and detail. It gives {rIvSo'} as "Botschaft"
> }> with no further explanation.
> [...]
> }> I found enough apparent vocabulary problems and recognizable
typographical
> }> errors, minor and major, to make me distrust it completely. :-(
I found my fears come true when I had a brief look at the book last
year. It starts on the first page (where you can find the first
words/sentences) they did not even translate the english transcription
of the klingon text. But when a german speaker reads the english
transcriptions, "nuqneH" becomes (tlhIngan re-transcript) "noqH-nee"
(even if that is exactly what the (bad) german synchro made Riker
say to K'ehlyr as greeting).
IIRC they even directly translated (gram.?) the phonetic section so
one can find sentences like (constructed, as I currently do not have
access to either english or german edition) "NG ist spoken as the NG
in Fluegel" ("Fluegel" = german for "wiNG").
*** Here I maybe need correction. But I heard from different sides,
*** that the phonetics section is BAD. Really BAD.
> Now that I know that you are working with this edition, I'll be alert for
> strange vocabulary and know why it happened.
Yes, indeed. The translation is really strange and seems to be made
by someone who is (by far) not good in german language. The
translations are THAT BAD. If you know "bavarian english" then you
know, what happend backwards. I do not recall the real errors, but
they are in the league of (constructed example, reason as above)
"ngep (override)" = "ueberreiten"
(= to ride over / to ride s.o. down)
a literal translation instead of
the correct "ueberschreiben"
as they seem to have translated parts of words independently. Brrrr
(*shiver*). With errors in that category my disappointment about the
addendum not being included into the text got a new quality.
> I agree. Someone with your skill at English would be better off with the
> original. Perhaps the German speakers on this list can work on an errata
> and footnote list for the German edition.
Some of our members (of Khemorex Klinzhai) are currently (o.k., since
2 years with some stops) working on an all-new translation of
vocabulary lists. A german course in going into its 9th (?) lesson,
and we intend to do the rest of the grammar later. All that stuff is
for internal use (our universities' and language group's course) only
and thus out of reach of Paramount {{:-)
As the official german TKD (=DOW) is that bad, I do not see any real
sense in doing an addenda that is about as big as about half of the
book itself.
But if you need any help about the english/german you can ask me - I
know I am a quite quiet listener to this group, but I'll try to keep
an eye on that (please add a note about this into the subject).
Qapla'
yabHuj
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