Re: [Enigma-devel] Re: English Translation

[Tacvek]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clifford J. Tasner" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 12:34 PM
Subject: [Enigma-devel] Re: English Translation


> Andreas, Ronald & Company,
>
> I continue to enjoy your great accomplishment.  One small issue I  have, 
> and it doesn't lessen the fascination your puzzles hold for me,  is that 
> occasionally, the translations of the text to English are  awkward and 
> non-idiomatic.  For example, one level is entitled,  "Tripple Threat" - 
> the word is actually spelled "Triple"-  now this  may have been 
> intentional.  However, there are a number of messages  in "Aztec Temple" 
> that are off the mark - the word  is "relic" not  "relict" and 
> "impressive" not "impressing."   Also, some of the  sentences seem odd to 
> a native English speaker.

You are right. Sometimes the sentences do seem odd. Often the meaning is 
clear,
but the grammar is incorrect. Occasionally the sentence is truly valid 
English,
but uses obscure or non-standard sentence structures. There are other 
issues.

> Perhaps this isn't a priority.  It certainly doesn't diminish how  much 
> fun Enigma holds.  However, if you are interested in some help,  I would 
> be eager to review the various English texts in the game and  offer more 
> accurate translations when you're getting ready for the  next version of 
> Enigma.

Enigma is an open source project. Like just about all of them we don't have 
the problem of
too many contributors. If you feel you can help in any way please do.

> I'm a former Classics student with a background in Linguistics.   Before I 
> quit so that I could pursue my film career (I am a film  composer), I 
> taught English As A Second Language.  I do a great deal  of writing in 
> English.  I regret that German is not yet among the  languages that I 
> speak, but I have some German-speaking friends.  I  could certainly 
> compare the authors' levels' texts in English and  German and make 
> recommendations as to more appropriate English when  necessary.
>
> I don't wish to be presumptuous.  I just want to make a contribution  to 
> something that I appreciate greatly.

Not at all. It has been mentioned several times that there are some problems 
with the English
Those of us who are native English speakers do also notice these things, but 
have not found time to audit the
game text for these problems. (I speak for myself here, but am fairly 
confident this is the case for the others.)

If you have the time and ambition, it would definitely be appreciated.



(Sorry for the message seeming strangely structured and somewhat incoherent. 
I wrote it from the bottom up [a bad habit of mine], and this is the 
result).


Tacvek