Call for volunteers [was: Re: Localization]

[Lutz Vieweg]

On 10/11/2012 03:42 PM, Dirk Hohndel wrote:
> It would be great if people could volunteer at least "quick and dirty"
> translations to get us started.
>
> Oh, I should add
>
> German
>
> to that list in hopes that someone improves on my translation :-)

Being a native German speaker, I don't usually use "localized" versions
of software, as GUI programmers have a hard time designing interfaces
that look good with strings of arbitrary lengths.

Nevertheless, I looked through po/de_DE.po to see if anything could be
enhanced:

As an abbreviation to the awfully long word "Durchschnitt" (average),
it is common in German to use the "slashed zero" character "Ø", see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashed_zero#Similar_symbols

The translations of "Maximum" -> "Grösste" and "Minimum" -> "Kleinste"
are problematic because the German words have different endings depending
on the gender of the noun they refer to, so there would have to be
different strings for e.g. depth and SAC.
Since the words "Maximum" and "Minimum" happen to be part of the German
language, too, and are very often abbreviated, I would recommend to cheat
a little by using "Max." and "Min." for the German translation, this
way there is no gender-depending ending, and the meaning is perfectly
understandable for German readers.

Using the word "Trip" is rare/unusual in the intended context (it could
rather be associated with effects of psychotropic substances), a genuinely
German word would be "Reise", but "Tour" is also common and has the advantage
of having the same meaning in English. (Both "Reise" and "Tour" are of
female gender in German.)

Instead of "Gasverbrauch" (or "Gasverbrauchsrate" elsewhere), I would
recommend to use the abbreviation "AMV" (standing for "Atemminutenvolumen" -
"breathing volume per minute"), which is commonly used in German diving
literature, where "SAC" is used in English.

The English "default ..." should IMHO be translated to either "Standard ..." or
"Vorgabe ...".

Translating "Cylinder" with "Tank" is ok, but a funny case: The more accurate
German word would be "Flasche", but since so many people in the diving industry
use "Tank" as kind of a slang-word for Cylinder, I guess it should stay as it is.

"Tiefenschwelle überschritten" is understandable but sounds unusual. I would
recommend "Tiefenbegrenzung überschritten" instead.

"Geräte Name" should be one word: "Gerätename".

"Tauchgangdauer" should rather be "Tauchgangsdauer" to use the
correct grammatical case (genitive).

"Dive-Master" should be "Tauchgruppenführer" - or "Dive Guide", if you want to
stick with a foreign word that most German speakers will know and associate
with the role of the person who was in charge of leading / organizing a dive.

The correct German translation of "Edit" has been subject of many flame wars
in the Amiga era (lookup newsgroup archives for postings from Dr. Peter
Kittel).
A simple and undisputed translation would be "Bearbeiten", I'd recommend to use it.
If you want to stay with a loadword "Edieren" would be the classical word from
the "Duden", though few German speakers have ever used it.

The translation of "Max Deco Time Warning" sounds strange, but I have no better
proposal since I don't know what the Ümis dive computer actually means with
that warning.

"Alarm: Aufstieg" seems to miss the "pO2" aspect that is included in "PO2 Ascend Alarm".

I've got no idea what Uemis might mean with "PO2 Green Warning" - a warning that
the oxygen partial pressure has a certain color? Bizarre... ;-)

"Partieller Schreibvorgang der req.txt Datei\n" should rather read
"Unvollständiger Schreibvorgang der req.txt Datei\n" - because "partial"
does not imply "incomplete" in this context.

"Suit" could be shorter translated into "Anzug" instead of "Taucheranzug", which
is stating the obvious... :-)

"Surf Intv" should be translated into "Oberflächenpause", as this is used in most
German diving literature (not "Oberflächenzeit").

"Tank-Wechsel" -> "Tankwechsel"

I am not entirely sure about the intended meaning of "clip-on", it is not German,
maybe "Ansteck..." would be right, but that word is unusual to use without a noun.
This refers to a kind of weight - right? - but what kind exactly?

Regards,

Lutz Vieweg