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Is anyone here German?
Topic Started: 2nd November 2011 - 12:16 AM (327 Views)
Firby
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Chieftain
Okay, more relevantly, does anyone here *speak german? There are a few things i would like translated (english to german). Im having a HORRIBLE time with online translators. (I type in 'water'.... it says "DIE STRASSEN FRIGGEN SPAGGET!".... holy moly, calm down! All that is the word for water? Or maybe i made the translator mad and now its cussing me out? Then I ask it what Meinen Herren means, and its clueless.)

Anyway, I would much rather have a person translate for me, so i can get stuff in the right context and whatnot. So I dont call a fountain in Altdorf a waterfall.

So, anybody can help?
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koffietje
Warlord
Do you need translation from english to german or from german to english?

Water = wasser

meinen herren = my lords

Just typ in the text, we'll see how far we get in the translation.
against.................. won ............ lost

Skaven...................1...................0
High Elfs.................1....................1
dark elfs.................0....................0
chaos warriors.......0....................0
demons..................0....................0
dwarves.................2....................1
bretonian................0....................0
empire....................0....................0
lizards.....................0...................0
tomb king................0...................0
vampires.................1...................0
beast men...............1...................0
wood elfs................0....................0
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Firby
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Chieftain
Thankyou! English to german by the way. But first, just out of curiosity, why do my translators prelude every word with 'die'? I swear, i think it hates me. Anyway, a story....

Off of the street of 100 taverns is a small street, known as the 'Water Loop', because it is a cul-de-sac, and at the end of the street is a fountain. One one side of the 'fountain square', is a small Shallyan Temple, with 2 statues of Shallya out front. Opposite is a tavern called the 'Black Fire Pass' with 2 statues of Sigmar flanking the door. Local legend says that the four statues are missing a tiny piece, and if all four statues are ever completed, then the fountain shall reveal its secrets. The four statue pieces are held by four people; the warrior, the scholar, the maiden, and the priest. The maiden is known as the Water Maiden. Several alleys run around the Water Loop, and amongst them are; Maidens Run, Temple Alley, Scholars Way, Black Alley, Sigmars Way, East Alley and South Alley.

I told the story, so you could see it all in proper context. I would like the following translated;

Waterloop (or Water Street is fine)
Water Maiden
Fountain Square (or Fountain Market)
Maidens Run (Alley)
East Alley
South Alley
Temple Alley
Scholars Way (Alley)
Black Alley
Sigmars Way
The Black Spike Brothel
Pawnshop
Fountain View Bookstore (A Bookshop)
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Olorin the Ancient
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FirbyClaw
2nd November 2011 - 12:47 AM
Thankyou! English to german by the way. But first, just out of curiosity, why do my translators prelude every word with 'die'? I swear, i think it hates me.
I wouldn't recommend than anyone rely on my German, seeing that it was limited to a single college semester of German for Reading Comprehension back in the fall of 1986, but even I remember that "Die" [pronounced "dee"] is the definite feminine article in both its singular and plural forms. So "Die" in German just means "The". Or were you joking?
- Olorin the Ancient
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Firby
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Chieftain
LoL, i wasn't joking, no. I figured it might mean 'the' or somesuch. But if i asked it how to say 'House', why would it reply 'the house' (in german). Now that i think about it, german isnt english, so it probably has different rules for saying stuff. It was just strange to me.
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Olorin the Ancient
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Again, nobody should rely on my German (I wasn't even that good at it when I took that one semester 25 years ago), but I believe that nouns which do not necessarily require articles in English may require them in German. As in French, Spanish, and Italian, you need to have the definite article so that you'll know what the noun's gender is. Additionally, as in Latin and Greek, you have to deal with declension, since German nouns change case depending on whether they're in the nominative, accusative, dative, or genitive; it's a complicated language, and I retain only just enough from my one semester to be able to pronounce German more or less correctly. Plus, I still remember the original German lyrics to "Mack the Knife", only slightly garbled. But aside from some basic words, I can't really understand German, let alone translate into it.

Computer programs simply aren't adequate to translate something into a language you don't know, because you'll have no idea of where it's going wrong. It's a bit like a restaurant I went to in Rome a few years ago, where the menu for English-speaking tourists helpfully translated "Scaloppine con funghi" (Veal scaloppine with mushrooms) as "Calf with fungus".
- Olorin the Ancient
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Skaven Lord Vinshqueek
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Bunny ear says flop

My last German class date from about ten years ago (lord, do I feel old now...), but regarding the translations, there were a few I could translate:

Fountain Square = Springbrunnen Platz
East Alley = Ost Gasse
South Alley = Süd Gasse
Temple Alley = das Heiligtum Gasse
Sigmar's Way = Sigmar Straße (literally: Sigmar's Street)
The Black Spike Brothel = das schwarze Spitzen Bordell
Pawnshop = Pfandhaus

Greetz

Mutate:
As for our German members, Stinkhair has created an UnderEmpire Google map. Unfortunately, no German members listed there, but if you look for the nationality of members, that might be a good way to go.

Greetz (again)
Edited by Skaven Lord Vinshqueek, 2nd November 2011 - 07:46 AM.
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Olorin the Ancient
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Vinz's German is a lot more recent than mine, but it's worth remembering that Germans tend to compound nouns, particularly in street names. So while "Sigmar Straße" might be a possible German translation, it could actually be "Sigmarstraße". Similarly, a Google search shows that while there are no real-life streets called "Ost Gasse", there are a few cities that have streets called "Ostgasse".

Actually, English streets do exactly the same thing, with "-gate" often added on as a suffix, but rarely as a separate word. The English word "street", however, is never a suffix, always a separate word.
- Olorin the Ancient
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Firby
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Chieftain
Vinsqueek, how come some words have 'das' in front of them? And how come 'straBe' has a capital 'b'?

Anyhow, my eternal gratitude for the translations you provided. Hopefully soon, ill get the rest.

The reason for all this, by the way, is that 'Water Maiden' and 'WaterLoop' sound kinda silly. The german words sound better and do a better job of presenting the tone and mood of Altdorf.
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Ratty Gnawtail
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Totally not a magpie

The capital B is actually a different letter as such (if my German does me right) symbolising a double S. So in pronoucing it will be Strasse.
If I recall right Der (male) Die (female) Das (it) which all mean 'the', since even inaminate objects have genders. There are of course cases where these forms are mixed up but I'm not going to go into that...
*waits for someone who is better at German to prove me wrong or (gasp) right. :P *
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Olorin the Ancient
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In German, "das" is the definite singular article for nouns that are neuter in gender; if the noun is masculine, you'd use "der", while if it's feminine or plural, you'd use "die". (We're only talking nominative and accusative cases here, to keep it simple.)

The letter "ß" is not a capital "B", it's a ligature mark, meaning that it combines two letters in one. If you can't use "ß" because you don't have the character available, you can use "ss" (or, in some places, "sz"). The character "ß" doesn't always substitute for "ss": there are rules about when you should write "ss" and when you should write "ß". Most English-language publications always change "ß" to "ss", so that might be the best thing for you to do.

Addition:


I wrote this before I saw Ratty Gnawtail's response, but I agree completely. So, in short, don't worry about "das", it just means "the".
Edited by Olorin the Ancient, 2nd November 2011 - 11:00 PM.
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Firby
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Chieftain
Hmmm... this gets more confusing the more it is explained.. LoL But I get 'B' = 'ss', as in 'Luitpoldstrasse' and 'Heldenstrasse'. But how can water be male or.....EWWWW! Nobody answer that! Maybe this thread be renamed to 'German 101'!

Anyway, hopefully, Koff will be here soon, to give me the rest of my translations (I got the impression that he is fluent in German), but in the meantime, hearing about all this has greatly benefitted my understanding about the names and language of Altdorf. I appreciate all of you, thankyou!
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Olorin the Ancient
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Water ("das Wasser") isn't male in German, it's neuter. In French, water ("l'eau") is feminine, though you can't tell from the definite article ("l'"), and most French nouns ending in -eau are actually masculine. (Romance languages don't have neuter nouns, just masculine and feminine.)

Gender is a difficult concept for most native English speakers to grasp (me included), but every other language that I'm even vaguely familiar with incorporates it, so you've just got to get used to gender if you're going to learn another language. In Modern English, gender is absent except for a few vestiges left in pronouns. (The lack of declensions and gender are among the things that have made English appealing to so many people as a second language, despite its irregular spelling, huge vocabulary, and numerous inconsistencies. )
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Firby
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Chieftain
I have heard that English is the most convoluted and difficult language in the world. In english we a one word with many meanings (example - fire - "look at the fire", "youre fired", "hes on fire"), we have one word with
many spellings (too/to/two), we have many words that mean the same thing (cow/bull/calf/heifer/beef). I hear these practices are absent from other religeons. Also, we have a knack for using words from other languages as accepted english (tortilla, edifice, artifice).
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koffietje
Warlord
English is a difficult language because you dont write it as you pronounce it. Fire should be written as "fiër" . Also lots of americans laugh at the chinese not being able to say the letter R. While actually they dont pronounce it either. They say "eitha" or " fië" instead of either and fire.

The easiest language in the world is actually spanish. Its the most logical speaking and writing language with the least amount of grammatical exceptions in it. We should all learn spanish instead of english.

And further more, the german B doesnt exist anymore. They now write ss instead.

Roman language has masculin, female and neutre words.
Silva for example is female.
Templum is neutre.
Servus is masculin.

French has no difference in masculin and neutre. Well, they do show in dictionaries, but make no difference in grammar.

I love living in Belgium, where you need to learn 3 languages in school and 2 more optional languages. (French, deutch and dutch are obligatory. English is learned too and then you can choose between latin and spanish. So thats why i know 5 languages. Allthough i wont claim to be good enough to translate such complicated german text. )
Edited by koffietje, 3rd November 2011 - 09:15 AM.
against.................. won ............ lost

Skaven...................1...................0
High Elfs.................1....................1
dark elfs.................0....................0
chaos warriors.......0....................0
demons..................0....................0
dwarves.................2....................1
bretonian................0....................0
empire....................0....................0
lizards.....................0...................0
tomb king................0...................0
vampires.................1...................0
beast men...............1...................0
wood elfs................0....................0
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