Deepfighter wrote: ↑Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:45 amThat would be to much afford. You should really, as delvisomanda statement implies, focus on one basic Spanish translation. From there it will be a lot easier for someone to modify it, e.g. to add another dialect.
I was not trying to suggest that different translations should be done from the get go, which would increase the chances of the project going unfinished. It makes sense to focus on one first, and then other localizations can be added later (and should be much easier, as translating between varieties of Spanish is easier than translating from English). I was just saying that I think it's worth planning to have at least two versions in the long run, as this will make a larger share of users happy.
Deepfighter wrote: ↑Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:45 amI am wondering, in which spanish dialect are the official Elder Scrolls translations? I know Skyrim was translated by translators from Spain (as I know them personally, when we worked on the German Skyrim translation), but how was it done in Morrowind and Oblivion? Maybe you can continue their style?
Both Skyrim and Oblivion are in Spanish from Spain (voices and text in the case of Skyrim, only subtitles in the case of Oblivion). I think Morrowind wasn't officially translated to Spanish, there is only translation via mod. Anyway I don't think this should necessarily condition the current translation, that Latin American users didn't enjoy a Latin American translation of the official games doesn't mean that they shouldn't get a fan translation of Daggerfall.
delvisomanda wrote:Well, I think you mean "cojer." I had actually used "coger" in the translation, but that's easy to fix with a simple search and replace.
No, I mean "coger" with a "g" (it doesn't exist with a "j" anywhere as far as I know?) I refer to the fact that in Spanish from Spain it's the most commonly used word for "to take", but e.g. in Argentina it refers to sex, so one can get into trouble by casually using it.
delvisomanda wrote:As an example, one of the most alienating things in spanish Dungeons and Dragons was the fact that the toponimical names were translated. I disliked it because I am a defender of the original proper names, although that names being translated to spanish make sense and are very descriptive.
The reason it was done in that way, I guess, is because that names were not elf or fantasy languages, but english names (Neverwinter etc...) Considering that, I would have keep them untouched because, in fact, Dungeons and Dragons was originaly an anglosaxon product.
This is a tough one.
On the one hand, from a logical standpoint it makes sense to translate toponyms that are in English. One can imagine that, since sagas like Dungeons and Dragons/TES/LOTR take place in different worlds, they don't actually speak English (it would take a lot of chance to evolve exactly the same language as the Earth, without any contact!) So it makes sense to assume that, when we read those books or videogames in English, what we are getting is actually a translation of the original names (which would be in a language incomprehensible to us) so that we can understand its meaning. For example, maybe The Shire is actually called Ulomodor, but Tolkien renders it as "The Shire" because he wants to convey its meaning (and has to do so in English). From this standpoint, the reasonable thing to do is to translate it ("La Comarca"). Why would we use English to describe in Spanish the name of a place in a fictional world?
On the other hand, translating toponyms from English to Spanish literally often yields names that are incoherent with the actual toponym formation processes that happen in real life, and this makes them sound odd (I know the original English names haven't been subject to natural toponym formation and evolution either, but they are typically written with real English names in mind and with the intention that they sound believable in English). Names like Carrera Blanca, Lucero del Alba, Salto de la Daga or Desembarco del Rey sound quite off, IMO. Sometimes it gets better when the translators apply some artistic license. For example, Neverwinter has been translated as Nuncainvierno and Noyvern, the first is the literal translation but IMO the second sounds better.
Anyway, in the TES saga there is already official material in Spanish so I think it makes sense to follow the toponym translations there, regardless of whether we like them or not.