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On January 11 2011 06:35 snpnx wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 06:28 Mr Tambourine Man wrote:On January 11 2011 06:26 Thienan567 wrote:
So, does anyone have a link or something that has all the Chinese translations? Back to English ofc. I'm not sure there is such a thing. Would be cool to see though. I don't understand the name for viking. It is 维京, right? Is it purely for the sound, so it sounds like viking? That seems so different from the other translations. It also means Viking, not only for the sound.
There's no such concept as a Viking in Chinese so of course it's just a phonetic representation of the word. It may be a real word now but etymologically it doesn't make sense is what I'm trying to say. That's a problem when translating foreign ideas to Chinese - if you want to render them phonetically not always will you find characters that make sense etymologically*. (anyway according to wikipedia the etymology for the word 'viking' isn't even known for sure)
* - or you could go with what they did with 'Coca-Cola' for example 
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Do you guys have links to one of the better chinese sc2 casts?
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Honey ants do not explode dude....they are filled with ant food, not the most effective weapon.
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On January 11 2011 06:02 hmsrenown wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 05:54 suejak wrote:On January 11 2011 05:12 aznagent wrote:On January 11 2011 05:06 mavyric wrote:
Thunder God 雷神 for example is actually cheesy and cheap....Thor is so much better...
How is Thunder god cheesy or cheap? Thor IS the god of lightning/thunder in norse? mythology so it is just a direct translation. I don't expect the Chinese commentators to be saying "thor" when everything else has been translated Well, no... Thor is a name, and 雷神 is a... description. It's like if goliath were translated "giant" instead of just kept as "goliath" (the name of the specific giant in the David & Goliath Biblical story). It really seems like overtranslation to me to render Thor as 雷神. What you obviously missed is the fact that translating the name directly is a much, much more terrible option than the current translation. In Chinese mythology, if I weren't mistaken, god of thunder is generally called 雷公, and is always referred to as that name. His image is quite different from the Nordic one. Due to the lack of correlation, the name "Thor" should not be translated directly, and 雷神 sounds a lot better. Unless, of course, you wanna create a new word for this unit, which is a lot harder in Chinese compared to the same process in English.
Well, it's obviously not a "direct translation" if you substitute a Nordic god for a Chinese god, now is it?
So you wouldn't be translating the name "Thor" directly -- because that requires using the name Thor. Which exists already in Chinese to refer to the Norse god: http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/索尔.
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On January 11 2011 07:53 suejak wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 06:02 hmsrenown wrote:On January 11 2011 05:54 suejak wrote:On January 11 2011 05:12 aznagent wrote:On January 11 2011 05:06 mavyric wrote:
Thunder God 雷神 for example is actually cheesy and cheap....Thor is so much better...
How is Thunder god cheesy or cheap? Thor IS the god of lightning/thunder in norse? mythology so it is just a direct translation. I don't expect the Chinese commentators to be saying "thor" when everything else has been translated Well, no... Thor is a name, and 雷神 is a... description. It's like if goliath were translated "giant" instead of just kept as "goliath" (the name of the specific giant in the David & Goliath Biblical story). It really seems like overtranslation to me to render Thor as 雷神. What you obviously missed is the fact that translating the name directly is a much, much more terrible option than the current translation. In Chinese mythology, if I weren't mistaken, god of thunder is generally called 雷公, and is always referred to as that name. His image is quite different from the Nordic one. Due to the lack of correlation, the name "Thor" should not be translated directly, and 雷神 sounds a lot better. Unless, of course, you wanna create a new word for this unit, which is a lot harder in Chinese compared to the same process in English. Well, it's obviously not a "direct translation" if you substitute a Nordic god for a Chinese god, now is it? So you wouldn't be translating the name "Thor" directly -- because that requires using the name Thor. Which exists already in Chinese to refer to the Norse god: http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/索尔.
Which is a phonetic approximation. I doubt we should go this way when localizing a game. I'd definitely feel more attached to 'thundergod' than some 'Suoer'. Unless you're familiar with the concept the Chinese characters don't tell you anything (since they're picked just for phonetic value) so 雷神 is the better choice imo.
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On January 11 2011 08:13 revoN wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 07:53 suejak wrote:On January 11 2011 06:02 hmsrenown wrote:On January 11 2011 05:54 suejak wrote:On January 11 2011 05:12 aznagent wrote:On January 11 2011 05:06 mavyric wrote:
Thunder God 雷神 for example is actually cheesy and cheap....Thor is so much better...
How is Thunder god cheesy or cheap? Thor IS the god of lightning/thunder in norse? mythology so it is just a direct translation. I don't expect the Chinese commentators to be saying "thor" when everything else has been translated Well, no... Thor is a name, and 雷神 is a... description. It's like if goliath were translated "giant" instead of just kept as "goliath" (the name of the specific giant in the David & Goliath Biblical story). It really seems like overtranslation to me to render Thor as 雷神. What you obviously missed is the fact that translating the name directly is a much, much more terrible option than the current translation. In Chinese mythology, if I weren't mistaken, god of thunder is generally called 雷公, and is always referred to as that name. His image is quite different from the Nordic one. Due to the lack of correlation, the name "Thor" should not be translated directly, and 雷神 sounds a lot better. Unless, of course, you wanna create a new word for this unit, which is a lot harder in Chinese compared to the same process in English. Well, it's obviously not a "direct translation" if you substitute a Nordic god for a Chinese god, now is it? So you wouldn't be translating the name "Thor" directly -- because that requires using the name Thor. Which exists already in Chinese to refer to the Norse god: http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/索尔. Which is a phonetic approximation. I doubt we should go this way when localizing a game. I'd definetely feel more attached to 'thundergod' than some 'Suoer'.
I guess it's a call best left to Chinese people. "Thundergod" seems pretty generic to me, but if they don't know who Thor is, the name is lost on them.
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On January 11 2011 07:09 revoN wrote:* - or you could go with what they did with 'Coca-Cola' for example
I absolutely love coca-colas Chinese name. Very clever making it phonetically similar and giving it a relevant meaning. Amazing move. So much better than only having a phonetically similar name but the name being complete gibberish.
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I think they should almost always go phonetic, It allows players to more easily be on the same page and interact between language regions and the literal translations are always so lol.
I mean "hydralisk" doesn't really mean anything in english either...
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On January 11 2011 05:54 suejak wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 05:12 aznagent wrote:On January 11 2011 05:06 mavyric wrote:
Thunder God 雷神 for example is actually cheesy and cheap....Thor is so much better...
How is Thunder god cheesy or cheap? Thor IS the god of lightning/thunder in norse? mythology so it is just a direct translation. I don't expect the Chinese commentators to be saying "thor" when everything else has been translated Well, no... Thor is a name, and 雷神 is a... description. It's like if goliath were translated "giant" instead of just kept as "goliath" (the name of the specific giant in the David & Goliath Biblical story). It really seems like overtranslation to me to render Thor as 雷神.
I think the direct translation of Thor to Chinese is lui sen...
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What is StarCraft in Chinese?
xing gong yi? I don't know, this is just a direct translation I did. xD
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sing hoi jun bah in cnatonese, Xinghai Zhenba for pinyin???
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On January 11 2011 08:21 sob3k wrote:
I think they should almost always go phonetic, It allows players to more easily be on the same page and interact between language regions and the literal translations are always so lol.
I mean "hydralisk" doesn't really mean anything in english either...
The difference is in english they put root words that have etymological meaning where as in Chinese the transliteration has absolutely no etymological root whatsoever.
Hydra comes from the Great mythological monster:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra
and lisk comes from Basilisk as far as I can tell or research.Basilisk comes from the Greek word for little king. So hydralisk is some kind of lizard/serpent king.
EDIT: For more fun: Mutalisk probably came about from it's SC1 ability to morph into the guardian or the devourer since muta comes from the latin word mutare which means to change.
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On January 11 2011 08:46 Legacy1 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 08:21 sob3k wrote:
I think they should almost always go phonetic, It allows players to more easily be on the same page and interact between language regions and the literal translations are always so lol.
I mean "hydralisk" doesn't really mean anything in english either... The difference is in english they put root words that have etymological meaning where as in Chinese the transliteration has absolutely no etymological root whatsoever. Hydra comes from the Great mythological monster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydraand lisk comes from Basilisk as far as I can tell or research.Basilisk comes from the Greek word for little king. So hydralisk is some kind of lizard/serpent king. EDIT: For more fun: Mutalisk probably came about from it's SC1 ability to morph into the guardian or the devourer since muta comes from the latin word mutare which means to change.
Yeah, I was going to mention that, but I don't really think its that important. I bet many of the players don't recognize the latin roots or more obscure unit names (IE. know that dragoon isn't just a made up word), although they do make the terms sound more familiar. Plus there is plently of fiction out there with completely made up words without latin bases (other than being depicted in english), and nobody has any trouble with those as far as I know.
EDIT: Hydra goes even more basic as the root for water btw
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On January 11 2011 08:58 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 08:46 Legacy1 wrote:On January 11 2011 08:21 sob3k wrote:
I think they should almost always go phonetic, It allows players to more easily be on the same page and interact between language regions and the literal translations are always so lol.
I mean "hydralisk" doesn't really mean anything in english either... The difference is in english they put root words that have etymological meaning where as in Chinese the transliteration has absolutely no etymological root whatsoever. Hydra comes from the Great mythological monster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydraand lisk comes from Basilisk as far as I can tell or research.Basilisk comes from the Greek word for little king. So hydralisk is some kind of lizard/serpent king. EDIT: For more fun: Mutalisk probably came about from it's SC1 ability to morph into the guardian or the devourer since muta comes from the latin word mutare which means to change. Yeah, I was going to mention that, but I don't really think its that important. I bet many of the players don't recognize the latin roots or more obscure unit names (IE. know that dragoon isn't just a made up word), although they do make the terms sound more familiar. Plus there is plently of fiction out there with completely made up words without latin bases (other than being depicted in english), and nobody has any trouble with those as far as I know. EDIT: Hydra goes even more basic as the root for water btw
Yea but that root isn't relevant to the hydralisk.
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Could somebody list them all out?
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i think minerals they call them ice cubes/ice and i always hear lings as xiao go (baby/little dog)
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Exciting language talk :D <3
I'd love to see a list, along with the others. I find it really interesting finding out how words are represented in different languages, especially syllabaries, seeing as I've grown up using an alphabet. SO COOL. More languages people! ^^
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On January 11 2011 06:27 Alekh47 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 11 2011 04:54 Rokit5 wrote:On January 11 2011 04:49 mierin wrote:
Thunderbeast is quite possibly the coolest name for a unit I've ever heard :3 Yea. If youre 13 years old that is :O sorta like gunship, it sounds crude, yet they use it in star wars. :/
they also use it in real life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunship
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On January 11 2011 09:19 Norada wrote:
i think minerals they call them ice cubes/ice and i always hear lings as xiao go (baby/little dog)
gou, not go.
actually last time I listened it was just dog period. And overlords were large nests I think? Might have misheard that one. Also ultralisk was large elephant, though now that I think about it these were probably beta nicknames.
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EPT
