Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Language/2006 August 27

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[edit] Call of Duty 2 Translations Again

I downloaded some new maps on Call of Duty 2 and I was checkiong them out and saw some more Russian and German. I was wondering if someone could help with this because machine translations suck and some of the letters are missing and might be flat out wrong.

  1. Russian
    1. Гостица Харьков. Name of some kind of warehouse
      Probably "Hotel Kharkov". --LambiamTalk 08:17, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
      Erm, this one and some others have already been solved below, by the way. -- the GREAT Gavini 09:00, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
    2. УГОАЬ. On this one the "А" didn't have the "bridge" in the middle, like an upside down "V." Maybe bathroom?
      УГОЛЬ (which is all caps) means "coal". --LambiamTalk 08:17, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
    3. ВОЕННЫН ЗАЕМЪ. (Don't get on to me for all caps :)
      ВОЕННЫЙ ЗАЕМ means something like "Military loan". Does that make sense in the context?
    4. Івкпеик___к. The space is somewhere between 1-3 letters.
      The first letter is not Russian. It could be Ukrainian. (Note that Kharkov is an Ukrainian city.) But the transliteration "Ivkpeyk___k" is unpronouncable. Are the images somewhere online where we can look at them? --LambiamTalk 08:17, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
      1. Hmmm, could it be ІвкЛеик___к? Ivkleyk___k? =S 惑乱 分からん 09:23, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
    5. Соперницы.
      "Rivals". --LambiamTalk 08:17, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
    6. Вемлеа_________. Those were the only letters I could make out.
    7. СП_ВА. The space is only one letter. This was written on a poster torn off the wall inside a German stronghold. Maybe a propaganda poster.
      "СПИВА" gets Google hits, from which I could not deduce a probable meaning. It transliterates to "SPIVA". --LambiamTalk 08:17, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
      Or if it is "СЛИВА", it means "plum". --LambiamTalk 12:15, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
  2. German
    1. __it unfren farnen, __t der Grieg. Spaces are 1-2 letters. Another propaganda poster.
    2. Der fiend sieht Dein Licht, VERDUNKELN. Propaganda.

Thanks a lot for any help. schyler 00:28, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

The first German sentence is gibberish. Grieg could be Krieg, meaning war. The second sentence means The enemy sees your light, extinguish it [as in "turn off your lights, or else"]. fiend is a misspelling of Feind. Also, the whole sentence seems like a half-assed attempt at translating English into German. Verdunkeln is entirely the wrong verb, and the rest also reads kind of awkward. Rueckk 01:15, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
The Der-Feind-sieht-dein-Licht part is this poster from WWII. "Verdunkeln" meaning lights-out in general. No help on the first part here either, except for the fact that the letter 's' is often spelled something like 'f' (long s, without the line) on German posters of the time. So unfren could mean "unsren/unsern/unseren" meaning "our" (in several possible declinations).Sluzzelin 01:45, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Maybe it could help if you uploaded screen captures somewhere for us to check out... 惑乱 分からん 01:59, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
ok, I think I figured out the first German sentence too: "Mit unseren Fahnen ist der Sieg". Literal translation: "With our flags is victory". Looks like it's from a series of WWII Nazi propaganda posters. I wont add any links here because I found it on a site that glorifies Nazi Nostalgica. Sadly, I also found t-shirts carrying the Fahnen-Slogan that can be ordered online. ---Sluzzelin 02:06, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
For the Russian, 1) looks like Kharkov Staying Place (Rus.:гостить "to stay") or something. The funny "A" in the second is actually an "l", making it Үголь, "coal". The third looks like "military loan", if that makes any sense to you. Russian doesn't have an "i", so the fourth is meaningless. The fifth resembles "competitor" or "competition" or something. The sixth might be the name of a person or place. Not sure about the last one. -- the GREAT Gavini 06:57, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, all the maps are new to the game. Activision just released them. I looked on about 10 different websites last night, but to no avail. The closest I got was this pic, which is the right map, but it doesn't show anything. The particular map I'm talking about is Rustov, Russia. I'll see if I can use our "family's" digital camera and upload the pictures. I need to get one of my own :/ schyler 12:09, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Can't you multitask the game with a screen capture software, or something? 惑乱 分からん 13:54, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm playing the game the XBOX360 and I don't want to buy all the cords and whatnot to do all that. Besides, I already got all the pictures. I didn't want to upload all of them to Wikipedia, so I uploaded them to my Boy Scout troop's webpage sice I'm the "webmaster." There aren't any links to it from any page. You have to use the specific URL. here. You can do the right click, view image and it will be a little bigger. If anyone has a slow computer, take heed. schyler 14:28, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Uhm, good. Just wondering whether you can increase the resolution somehow. The details of the letters are too fuzzy to discern. (But maybe the graphics are fuzzy to begin with?) I could make out that СЛ?ВА contained a Л, though (L). Panzer means "armour". 惑乱 分からん 15:22, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
The second German one finishes with "ist der Sieg", which means "is (the) victory". I can't make out the top line, though. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Angr (talk • contribs) 16:47, 27 August 2006 (UTC).

That's as good as our website provider will let it be, or we have to pay for an upgraded version. It's fuzzy because it's a picture of the t.v. screen, if you understand that. It's not the game (outstanding graphics on a newer t.v.) and it isn't the camera, it's 7 megapixels (I believe). schyler 16:42, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Alright, so that leaves us in mutual understanding of the other's plight, I guess... =S 惑乱 分からん 23:10, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Re 1: Гостиница (which is what it says on the image) means "hotel".
Re 4: I see something like І В ΚЛЕКНЕРЬ н Кº", which transl(iter)ates to: "I V KLEKNER & Cº". Klekner is an existing family name.
Re 7: СЛОВA means "speech".
Or it might have been СЛAВA = praise, glory. JackofOz 05:31, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Re the image with two German posters: The one on the right says: So wie wir kämpfen / Arbeite Du für den Sieg! ("Work for victory, just like we fight for it!")
--LambiamTalk 05:43, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
Isn't the German rather the other way around Just as we fight / do You work for victory!, it carries slightly other connotations. (Hmmm, I'm tired, and English is not my first language, something looks wrong with my translation...) Nice done, anyway... 惑乱 分からん 06:27, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
The order of the German is as you say, but somehow I can't translate it more or less literally to idiomatic English while preserving that order. I'm not sure whether arbeite qualifies as a subjunctive or an imperative, but neither case can it have a second-person object in English like it has in German. To keep the subject one can use the exhortative "may you work" in its place. Keeping both the order and the subject, I get this: "Like we fight / may you work for victory". Unlike the German Urtekst, though, it does not convey that "we" are fighting for victory. --LambiamTalk 09:15, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
It's an imperative, and it can have a second-person subject (which you meant) in English as in German: "Just as we are fighting, you work for victory". In both English and German, you can add "you" to imperative to make it more emphatic ("You connect the dots, you pick up the pieces" --"Sharkey's Night" by Laurie Anderson). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Angr (talk • contribs). 09:26, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
And "You break it, you buy it"? Until now I never understood that "You break it" was an imperative. I see the imperative in "Johnny be good", though. So the use of "Johnny" is not vocative? In any case, when written with a subject you can't distinguish imperative "come" from the normal present tense, so as a written translation it still doesn't work. --LambiamTalk 10:19, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
I doubt either clause of "You break it, you buy it" is intended as an imperative. It's elliptical for "If you break it, you must buy it". And yes, Johnny in "Johnny be good" is probably a vocative. And no, you can't distinguish the imperative from anything else on the basis of its form, because English has so little verb morphology. But you can tell from the context. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Angr (talk • contribs). 11:10, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Buick

Buick says the name is pronounced "B-YOO-ick (IPA 'bjuIk)". I was going to ask where the lower case L came from, but now I see it's a capital i. Could someone with a working knowledge of American English and/or the pronunciation of brand names correct this? I don't know if it's an /i/ or a /ɪ/. Thanks in advance. Rueckk 01:28, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

It seems to have been already fixed. For the record, /i/ sounds like the sheep, and /ɪ/ like tin. -- the GREAT Gavini 06:36, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
/i/ sounds like bèèèèèèèh? DirkvdM 05:09, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
Er, no. See close front unrounded vowel. -- the GREAT Gavini 17:14, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
I think he was making a wisecrack. You said "/i/ sounds like the sheep," so he quipped that the sound was a cross of /i/ and /b{{{/. Linguofreak 02:34, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
My cracks are always wise. Forgot the smiley. Here it is: :) DirkvdM 05:10, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
Whoops, I was going to write the "ee" in sheep but didn't. Ach well - it made for a good joke. -- the GREAT Gavini 15:58, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
I'd say "Buick" is more /biwIk/, but then again, I have a "ewe/you" split that most people don't seem to have... Linguofreak 05:27, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Maori

What does "Meitaki ma'ata e tamama" mean in Cook Islands Maori? I ask because another editor posted this at Talk:Cook Islands Maori#Vocabulary section? directed to me. Mo-Al 01:54, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

That only means "thanks my dear friend" or "that's fine, my dear friend" for your so precious recommendations

[edit] Roman Counting

Why we use Roman counting as suffix of famous personalities ? Like Pop John Paul II or Queen Elizbeth I etc?

"Pop" John Paul?  :-D Well, Roman numerals have always traditionally been used instead of the Hindi-Arabic numerals. They look more cultured and historic, and hark back to the time when Latin was a lingua franca. Probably. -- the GREAT Gavini 09:06, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
That's what I thought, as well. They look sophisticated, even though the more practical Hindi-Arabic numerals already had been known and used by european merchants for a long time. 惑乱 分からん 09:18, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Also note that Arabic numerals were not well-known in Europe before the 15th century but the Holy Roman emperors with common names had to be numbered centuries before that time. – b_jonas 12:51, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pounce Pony

Hello. Pounce pony. Does anyone know the meaning/origin of this? Grateful for any help. Mark.

Search first; it's quicker. See this site for example.--Shantavira 13:59, 27 August 2006 (UTC)


Thank you. Mark.

[edit] 'Was' versus 'Has been'

Which sounds better, and what is the difference in 'feel' between the sentences:

'I could not simply start from scratch as there has been a history to the Israeli-Syrian peace process'

and

'I could not simply start from scratch as there was a history to the Israeli-Syrian peace process'?

Thank you very much, 87.80.82.116 19:15, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Why not simply use 'is'? That seems more correct than either to me. --Richardrj 19:25, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
(After edit conflict.) Both your sentences imply that there once was a history to the Israeli-Syrian peace process and that there no longer is one; I understand that your idea would be best conveyed with the present tense: I could not simply start from scratch, as there is a history to the Israeli-Syrian peace process. As for your sentences, you may want to look up the articles on the perfect aspect and the imperfective aspect. Grumpy Troll (talk) 19:29, 27 August 2006 (UTC).
"Has been" implies a more recent occurrence, and "was" implies that it ended awhile ago. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 20:53, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

The most important distinction ? I would never call Britney Spears a "was". :-) StuRat