Which 'foreign' languages have seen D&D?

[Dungeonosophy]

Besides English, which languages have a D&D rulebook, from any edition?

Unless otherwise noted, these were referenced from Acaeum's BECMI and AD&D1e foreign editions list:

• Chinese: Basic D&D
• Danish
• Dutch
• English (American) + British English in TSR UK products.
• Finnish (BECMI) + 3.5e SRD translation.
• French
• German (BECMI, 1e, 2e, 3e, 4e)
• Hebrew
• Hungarian: 3.0 PHB
• Italian (also Pathfinder)
• Japanese (BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia, 2e, 3e, 3.5e, 4e)
• The Korean Wikipedia page for Dungeons & Dragons indicates that the BECMI sets were translated into Korean.
• Norwegian
• Polish: 4e PHB
• Portuguese: 3, 3.5 and 4 by Devir
• Spanish

- Basic D&D: by Dalmau Pla
- AD&D 2e: by Ediciones Zinco
- DnD 3e: by Devir
- DnD 3.5: by Devir
- DnD 4e: by Devir
- Pathfinder by Devir (reportedly in progress)​

• Swedish
• The Turkish Wikipedia page for Dungeons & Dragons indicates that the PHB 3.0 was translated into Turkish.

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...ign-languages-have-seen-D-amp-D#ixzz33X9WDDGG

Does anyone here at ENworld know if 2e, 3e, or 4e have reached other languages?

 

[Askaval30]

I know for a fact (having had the books and played with them) that D&D 2e, 3e and 4e were translated in Italian, Pathfinder as well I'd imagine. curious question btw, what brought it on?

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

2E, 3E, 3.5 and 4E all have Portuguese versions. Pathfinder is supposedly in the works.

Edit: 1E AD&D was never released in Brazil. I don't know about other lusophone countries, though.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

What brought it on.

I know for a fact (having had the books and played with them) that D&D 2e, 3e and 4e were translated in Italian, Pathfinder as well I'd imagine. curious question btw, what brought it on?

The question is informal research toward these things I've been wondering about:

• I've been wondering if D&D has ever been published in a 'stateless' language, such as Catalan. It's a followup to my request for 5e translations to appear in smaller languages (on another thread).
• I'm interested in actually fun things such as D&D and Star Wars (rather than 'pre-chewed' boring textbooks) being used as a tool for learning and propagating languages.
• I'm interested in finding out what are names for in-game things in various languages (such as 'elf' and 'sword' and 'fireball'), because some of the in-game languages are essentially Real World languages, such as the Espan (Spanish) and Verdan (Portugues) languages of Mystara. So knowing the D&D terminology in Spanish and Portuguese gives a window into those in-game languages. I've started gathering such "Gamer's Glossaries".
• I'm imagining what my Culture Books idea would look like in 5e. These would be like the Oriental Adventures or 2e Historical Reference series, but for every world culture. It'd be swell to make a Turtle Island Adventures sourcebook which featured a table of in-game words in a variety of Indigenous North American languages, or a Celtic Adventures book which gave Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, and Gaulish glossaries for spell names, monsters, and so forth. ...And furthermore, for those books to also be translated into various Indigenous North American and Celtic languages, as an authentically fun vehicle for language cultivation.

Curiously, there are Wikipedia entries for D&D in many rare and wonderful languages, such as Lowland Scots, Occitan, and Welsh.

That's what brought it on.

 

[Nikosandros]

I know for a fact (having had the books and played with them) that D&D 2e, 3e and 4e were translated in Italian, Pathfinder as well I'd imagine. curious question btw, what brought it on?

Yes, Pathfinder has indeed been translated in Italian.

 

[shadow]

I lived in Japan for sometime and have a Japanese 3e PHB. 3.5 and 4e were also translated in Japanese. Apparently, the company Hobby Japan handled the license. (http://www.hobbyjapan.co.jp/dd/)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Besides English, which languages have a D&D rulebook, from any edition?

Just going by the BECMI and AD&D1e foreign editions list, there is:

Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hebrew
Italian
Japanese
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish

Does anyone here at ENworld know if 2e, 3e, or 4e have reached other languages?

I saw several 1E books in Hebrew, which was pretty awesome. I've also seen 1E in French. I'm pretty sure I've seen a 2E PHB in Hebrew, too.

 

[Echohawk]

Does anyone here at ENworld know if 2e, 3e, or 4e have reached other languages?

I can contribute a few more languages:

Chinese (Mandarin?): Basic D&D
Hungarian: 3.0 PHB
Polish: 4e PHB

Edits:
The Turkish Wikipedia page for Dungeons & Dragons indicates that the PHB 3.0 was translated into Turkish.
The Korean Wikipedia page for Dungeons & Dragons indicates that the BECMI sets were translated into Korean.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

The only deliberate German edition was AD&D 2e: handled by a major boardgame company, widely distributed, and with a rather careful selection of products (Amigo even did their own conversions of 1e material). Sadly, Amigo, being WotC's German partner for Magic, gained the licence only after the acquisition of TSR by WotC.

3e started out under Amigo as well, but they probably missed the opportunity, publishing the core books more than a year after the originals. The license was later transferred to Feder & Schwert, the German publishing partner of White Wolf. F&S was rather busy as well, publishing quite a number of books. They also started out with 4e, but refused to prolong the license after the first three books. Rumour has it that WotC demanded numbers of sales F&S wasn't willing tu guarantee.

Since then - end of 2008 - nothing. And hearing the French publisher balking at WotC's demands, I don't see any German company doing D&DN.

 

[diaglo]

D&D was first written in American English.
there is a distinct difference when you read English say from White Dwarf or the fiend folio conversions.

so add English to the list.