MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - What do you think of translated names in books?

Geralt · 11-16-2013, 04:16 AM

They do this nonsense (and it is nonsense) in my language as well => from English. Idiotic.
Which is why I read fantasy originally written in English, only in English. Never in my language. For example Croatian editions of Game of Thrones, have translated all the names of places and cities. I have no idea where is where in this edition. For example

King's Landing - Grudobran (literally means clod defense - but actual meaning is defense of homeland) - nothing to with King or Landing. Correct translation would be Kraljevo sletište. Dumb. Just write Kings Lending. Sounds the same!
Winterfell - Oštrozimlje ( it's a combination of two words: sharp and winter). Closer translation would be Zimopadište (which, again, is not a real word, but a combination of winter and fell). And even that sounds stupid to be honest and should be transcribed as Vinterfel.
Eyrie - Orlovo Gnijezdo (actual meaning is eagle's nest). Correct thing here would be to transcribe it as Iri, and not go for literal meaning in English.

How people read this, and are able to keep up is beyond me, and this particular series is popular in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia, which share one and the same language basically.

They do this for places and leave names like Tyrion not touched. We don't have letters y or w or x, and in our language you must not have double letters like in a word apple for example. So if you want to transcribe, you can do it phonetically, for example Tyrion = Tirion, or Jamie = Džejmi. Or in Cyrillic Џејми and Тирион. But you can't have both original names of people and translated names of places. That's madness!
I am of opinion though, that because we dont have letters W and Y, we can replace them with V and I or J (for x it's iks (like Asterix = Asteriks), and transcribe phonetically sticking to the grammatical rule of no double letters. Everything else should stay the same, so
Winterfell is Vinterfel and it's fine that way! It sounds exactly the same.

I don't think English translations do that though. Except for things you have to translate, like this for example:

Антон Городецкий
You have to translate this to Anton Gorodetsky.
Maybe translate is a bad word, more like transcribe or something.

Same thing with Japanese for example
中嶋陽子 - Nakajima Youko

11-16-2013, 04:16 AM	#10
Geralt Witcher Posts: 933 Karma: 7321117 Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Swamp. Slaying Drowners. Device: Kindle PW2	They do this nonsense (and it is nonsense) in my language as well => from English. Idiotic. Which is why I read fantasy originally written in English, only in English. Never in my language. For example Croatian editions of Game of Thrones, have translated all the names of places and cities. I have no idea where is where in this edition. For example King's Landing - Grudobran (literally means clod defense - but actual meaning is defense of homeland) - nothing to with King or Landing. Correct translation would be Kraljevo sletište. Dumb. Just write Kings Lending. Sounds the same! Winterfell - Oštrozimlje ( it's a combination of two words: sharp and winter). Closer translation would be Zimopadište (which, again, is not a real word, but a combination of winter and fell). And even that sounds stupid to be honest and should be transcribed as Vinterfel. Eyrie - Orlovo Gnijezdo (actual meaning is eagle's nest). Correct thing here would be to transcribe it as Iri, and not go for literal meaning in English. How people read this, and are able to keep up is beyond me, and this particular series is popular in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia, which share one and the same language basically. They do this for places and leave names like Tyrion not touched. We don't have letters y or w or x, and in our language you must not have double letters like in a word apple for example. So if you want to transcribe, you can do it phonetically, for example Tyrion = Tirion, or Jamie = Džejmi. Or in Cyrillic Џејми and Тирион. But you can't have both original names of people and translated names of places. That's madness! I am of opinion though, that because we dont have letters W and Y, we can replace them with V and I or J (for x it's iks (like Asterix = Asteriks), and transcribe phonetically sticking to the grammatical rule of no double letters. Everything else should stay the same, so Winterfell is Vinterfel and it's fine that way! It sounds exactly the same. I don't think English translations do that though. Except for things you have to translate, like this for example: Антон Городецкий You have to translate this to Anton Gorodetsky. Maybe translate is a bad word, more like transcribe or something. Same thing with Japanese for example 中嶋陽子 - Nakajima Youko Last edited by Geralt; 11-16-2013 at 05:14 AM.