Re: [Enigma-devel] Re: English Translation

[Ronald Lamprecht]

Hi,

Clifford J. Tasner wrote:
> 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.

The texts are contributions by authors of all contries. We did notice 
some of the odd sentences but could not correct them in November due to 
the textual freeze that was necessary for the translations.

> 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.

We appreciate a review of all texts by a native English speaker. 
Currently we can correct English key texts, as we can easily ask the 
translators for a freeze in their ongoing work while merging in your 
corrections.

> 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.

Note that generally the German texts are translations from the English 
key texts. In case of doubt you may have to ask the level authors. Only 
a few level make use of the new feature that allows level authors to 
give additional comments to the translators.

I will send you two files: de.po and fr.po. They contain all English 
strings together with the German or French translations and all 
references to the levels and additional comments. Edit the English 
strings in one of these files. This keeps you from editing over 1000 
separate files and simplifies the merge process for us (the English 
texts are key texts that have to changed in all translations to avoid 
fuzzy translations).

Thanks for your contribution.

Ronald