Core Books in other languages??

[Frosty]

If I were to translate the core classes into Swedish it would look something like this:

Barbar (Barbarian)
Bard (Bard)
Druid (Druid)
Häxkonstnär (Sorcerer)
Jägmästare (Ranger)
Klerk (Cleric)
Krigare (Fighter)
Munk (Monk)
Paladin (Paladin)
Skälm (Rogue)
Trollkonstnär (Wizard)

As you can see, the shared etymology of the germanic languages makes many of the classes easy to translate.

Trollkonstnär means magic-artist (trolleri means magic in Swedish, "trollery" as in what-trolls-do) but the common word for wizard is trollkarl which means magic-man and that would go against WoTCs gender policy. Therefore trollkonstnär works better. The same goes for häxkonstnär which translates into witch-artist which suits the sorcerer pretty good, imho.

Jägmästare means ranger in the national park sense (warden in English). I was tempted of calling the ranger jägare (hunter) instead. But hunter is too broad and you risk confusion everytime you need to use the word hunter in it's basic sense (I.e. a person who hunts prey). You might remember Monte Cook regretting his decision of calling the warrior warrior?

Skälm means an unreliable, unscrupulous, roguish person. Also con-man or traitor but nowadays the word has lost most if it's former potency and might be used affectionately. I think that this is as close to rogue as one can get. Moreover, I'd hate to have to translate it into bandit or thief, which is plain wrong.

Paladin sounds silly in Swedish but I can't finding anything more suitable. Paladin do mean 'righteous knight' in the Charlemagne way but it can also be used as a deriding term (it hints of lack of independence). You could for example refer to Hitler's Henchmen as Hitler's Paladins in Swedish. Not exactly the epitome of good, huh?

 

[RyanL]

What I've always wondered is, do they use the English measurement system in the UK/Australia/foreign language versions of the core books?

It would be funny if people all over Europe were wondering, what the @!#$#@ is a five foot step?

-Ryan

 

[Archibald Theocliste]

Originally posted by RyanL
What I've always wondered is, do they use the English measurement system in the UK/Australia/foreign language versions of the core books?

No, they are using the metrical system, at least for the French books. So a 5ft Step becomes a 1.5m step, or something like that...

Oh, I found a new funny one :
Bugbear = Gobelours (that you can translate by "swallow whole the bear")...

One thing I was wondering is if other countries are using alternate rules in the core books. When the first French core books arrived they made a lot of people scream at the description of the Weapon Focus feat, wich, if taken by a dwarf, automatically gives you Weapon Focus with all the dwarven weapons (all axes, hammers and Dwarven Urgrosh...)

 

[Archibald Theocliste]

Oh, god!
I'm... I'm...... I'm a THREADKILLER!

*Run hiding under a stone*

 

[Someone]

SOMEONE ! Devir exists in Spain ? Might be coincidence... but in Brazil Devir dominates distribution of WoTC books. Not sure they are the translators of the books thou. Devir has existed for many many years in Sao Paulo so I am quite confident they are Brazilian.

BTW the translation in portuguese of the Monsters is hilarious sometimes !! They didnt translate certain wierd names, which is fine, but others they made up very strange substitutions !!

My DM makes a "Guess what monster this name is ?" question once in a while. We try to figure out what it is !! Very funny. Some are silly or outright stupid !

Yep, Devir is a multinational, though based in Brazil IIRC.

The spanish translation is sometimes weird (hence the "High Devirian languaje" joke) But is better than the last AD&D translation... I had a good laugh with the "palabra de poder atontante" spell.

Ah, and the spanish version runs with feet, and inches, and pounds and... Fortunately, 5 feet are about 1,5 m. Or 1 square. So we use the "square metric system", being the longitude unit the maximum distance a character can move while swinging a club wildly.

 

[warpmind]

Yes, many WotC and d20 books have been translated to spanish. Here are the two main companies and their webpages:

-Devir (www.devir.es) Publishes the WotC books. The quality is exactly the same as the english version and most times but they're cheaper. The last book published have been Song and Silence, Kingdoms of Kalamar and Oriental Adventures

-Distrimagen (www.distrimagen.es) Publishes White Wolf material (Sword and Sorcery). The quality is not as good as Devir's products, but still they're cheaper. They've published CC2 and Hollowfaust.

Finally there's a link to a big spanish store where you can buy any d20 stuff published in spanish:

http://www.guineahobbies.com/default.htm

 

[Aloïsius]

The Monster Manual french translation is often really dumb.
Bugbears should have been translated in Croque-Mitaine (a classical folkloric monster), and I can't understand why they needed to replace Roc (which is usualy translated in ... Roc) by Ruhk or something like that. Same thing for the feats, who have been translated very strangely (Souplesse du Serpent for Mobility ?)

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Jägmästare means ranger in the national park sense (warden in English). I was tempted of calling the ranger jägare (hunter) instead. But hunter is too broad and you risk confusion everytime you need to use the word hunter in it's basic sense (I.e. a person who hunts prey). You might remember Monte Cook regretting his decision of calling the warrior warrior?

That settles it - next time I play a ranger I'm naming him Jagermeister...and taking a shot every time he hits something.

 

[Gez]

About French:
The three core rulebooks have been translated by Eric Holwieck (who is actually working on the French translation of Morrowind) for Wizards France. After a long list of problems and difficulties (related in the French magazine "D20" (owned by Hexagonal), nice name isn't it ?), the adaptation in French of WotC products has been licensed to Spellbook, a new society co-owned by Asmodée/Siroz (Bloodlust, INS/MV...). Asmodée also translate d20 adventures (notably Freeport and Witchfire). Since Spellbook has taken the task of translation, the pace is much faster, and we now have the FRCS, Magic of Faerûn, the Psionics Handbook, S&F, DotF, and probably T&B... White Wolf products (including Sword & Sorcery stuff) are translated by Hexagonal, at a reasonnable pace (most of Ravenloft books, all hardcover SL books, except the campaign setting, have been translated, as well as a number of softcovers). Errata and bonus material are often included, since Hexagonal was given the right to produce canon material for SL (look notably for Ankilia and the fighting guilds of Darakeen in the big Ghelspad book).

Among the annoying translations:

• All the Improved [Thing] feats by "Science du [machin]", instead of "Machin amélioré".
  Some animal-weirdness like what Aloïsius mentionned. "Suppleness of the Snake" ?!
• Irritating anglicisms, like "attaque d'opportunité" for the AoO... Sounds good ? It isn't. Although more and more people make the mistake everyday, "opportunité" is not the French word for the English "opportunity", it is instead the quality of what is opportune. I.e., it means "timeliness" or even "worthiness"... Attack of timeliness ?
• Sprite by "Esprit Follet" (fairy spirit). I would have used "lutin" (sprite).
• Warrior (the NPC class) by "homme d'armes" (man-at-arms), and Commoner by "gens du commun" (ugly, ugly, ugly ! "Quidam" (anonymous bypasser) and "Roturier" (non-noble, litteral translation of commoner) would both have been much better.
• Outsider by "Extérieur". Extérieur means "outside", not "outsider"...
• Bad move, like "molosse satanique" (satanic watchdog) for "hell hound". "Chien (or Matîn, for more style) infernal" would have been much, much more appropriate.
• Pure drunkeness, like "Rûhk" for Roc, whose correct translation would simply have been "Roc". I don't even want to know why Mr Holweck thought "Rûhk" would be better suited. Why not "Gûhbelin" for "goblin", while he's at it ?
• Nécrophage for wight. That word (wight) is a problem, because it just means "being", but is an old term and since Tolkien and his Wight of the Galgals, has an undead meaning. The word "wight" being too generic in itself, it has not been translated (we don't have an archaic term for "being"), but replaced in D&D by "dead-eater"... Sigh.
• "Cthuul" for "Chuul". Why that additional 'T' ? Not for ease of pronounciation, I can guarantee it. The only reason I could find is to make it sound a bit like "Cthuluh". Not sure if that's really a good idea...
• Similarly, the Athach has become an Atch-Ach, or something like that... Strange. I didn't thought such a term really needed to be translated.
• Also, I regret the blandness of the new translation for "Nightmare". In AD&D2, that was adequatelly called a "paleffroi", nice play-on-word on "palefroi" (warhorse) and "effroi" (dread).
• "Gobelours" for bugbear, which prove the translator didn't knew it wasn't a name invented by D&D designers from bug and bear, but just how English call the Croquemitaine... I don't blame this on Holwieck, however, as it comes from previous editions.
• Halfelin for halfling. Not bad, but too heavy. Holwieck said that was much better than the formerly used "petit-homme" (and I agree on that) and that it was used by Jack Vance's translators as well. False, they shortened it to the prettier and easier to pronounce "Hafelin".

On another topic, although "roublard" is primarily an adjective, dictionnaries acknowledge its use as a noun. My French/English one even propose "dodger" as a translation of its noun form. It seems quite appropriate, all things considered. And R-O-U-G-E means "red", nothing else...

Post scriptum: Some d20 products may follow the reverse way... Look out for "Archipelago", translation of the French adventures and setting "Archipels".

 

[mmadsen]

• "Cthuul" for "Chuul". Why that additional 'T' ? Not for ease of pronounciation, I can guarantee it. The only reason I could find is to make it sound a bit like "Cthuluh". Not sure if that's really a good idea...
• Similarly, the Athach has become an Atch-Ach, or something like that... Strange. I didn't thought such a term really needed to be translated.

Perhaps, at least for Chuul --> Cthuul, he confused the standard ch --> tch when going from English to French (to keep the English "ch" sound, instead of "sh") with the "cth" of "Cthulhu".