Call for volunteers [was: Re: Localization]

Dirk Hohndel dirk at hohndel.org
Sat Oct 13 17:01:53 PDT 2012


Thanks, Lutz, vor all the feedback!

Lutz Vieweg <lvml at 5t9.de> writes:

>> 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

I thought about that and then went with Durchschnitt. But Ø is much better.

> 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.

Changed.

> 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.)

I don't really like either of these words in the context. Please take a
look at my attempt to consistently use "Gruppe" for the trips.

> 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.

Excellent. I knew there had to be a German term.

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

I went with standard.

> 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.

Done

> "Geräte Name" should be one word: "Gerätename".
>
> "Tauchgangdauer" should rather be "Tauchgangsdauer" to use the
> correct grammatical case (genitive).

Both done

> "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.

I went with Tauchgruppenführer and once just Führer (where the English
says just "Master").

> 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.

Bearbeiten.

> 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.

The Uemis Zurich allows you to set a warning if your deco time is longer
than n minutes. And this is the warning that you get when this happens.

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

Fixed.

> 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... ;-)

No idea, either. I'll have to ask the Uemis guys.

> "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.

done

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

done

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

done

> "Tank-Wechsel" -> "Tankwechsel"

done

> 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?

These are weight "bags" that haev a carabine and can be clipped on your
BC. Dive masters often use them when diving with new students in case
the students are underweighted - it's easy to just add a couple extra
pounds for a student that is just a tiny bit light.

No idea what the German term for those would be :-/

/D


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