weber , and other american authors and the german language

please before you try to use german in your works of literature, get a german born german native speaker to correct you

its really painfull to anyone who acctually speaks german what you do to the german language

don t use german if you can t think in german

or get someone who can think in german and english and is a writer to prevent you from saying

i like your noodle, to a football quarterback

svenhauke wrote:please before you try to use german in your works of literature, get a german born german native speaker to correct you

its really painfull to anyone who acctually speaks german what you do to the german language

don t use german if you can t think in german

or get someone who can think in german and english and is a writer to prevent you from saying

i like your noodle, to a football quarterback

Similar things could be said about people posting on english-language forums, you know.....

Also, you vastly overestimate the sales english-language books make in Germany; The number of people who are actually aware that crimes against the best language of all (this is an objective FACT, suckers!) are being perpetrated is nowhere near high enough to justify spending money on it

David actually has a native German speaker that he works with these days on Bu9.

kzt wrote:David actually has a native German speaker that he works with these days on Bu9.

I think he only consults on the Andermani stuff.

svenhauke wrote:please before you try to use german in your works of literature, get a german born german native speaker to correct you

its really painfull to anyone who acctually speaks german what you do to the german language

don t use german if you can t think in german

or get someone who can think in german and english and is a writer to prevent you from saying

i like your noodle, to a football quarterback

If you mean the Novels, perhaps the blame might be laid on the German translators and editors. Authors make choices in style that a foreign language translator/editor may not catch.

I think Americans all know those horrible "modernizations" of Shakespeare that kids use as shortcuts in high school english classes. That may be the case here and in other works.

Consider that American english is so imprecise compared to other languages, and that the meaning of a word is usually determined by context(very few words have a single meaning, and that is not even counting slang and dialects).

Phalanx wrote:If you mean the Novels, perhaps the blame might be laid on the German translators and editors. Authors make choices in style that a foreign language translator/editor may not catch.

No, he definitely means bits and pieces of german that some authors may inject into the english-language original. In the Honorverse not a lot of that has happened, most of the german used are short bits and bobs here and there to sell the Andermani flavour, and ofr the most part those are OK. To me, getting contemporary german exactly right when the speakers aren't contemporary germans is kinda stupid anyway.

That said, translated editions are a bit hit-and-miss; while ther german editions of the HH novels aren't bad, they're certainly not stellar either (I mean, I distinctly remember one of the Star Wars tie-in novels in which "Light Cruiser" was consistently translated as "Lichtkreuzer", using precisely the wrong interpretation of the word "light". SF frequently gets really bad translations, especially when things get technical). Anyway, that's not something authors have any control over.

svenhauke wrote:please before you try to use german in your works of literature, get a german born german native speaker to correct you

its really painfull to anyone who acctually speaks german what you do to the german language

don t use german if you can t think in german

or get someone who can think in german and english and is a writer to prevent you from saying

i like your noodle, to a football quarterback

Are there some specific quotes you are referring to? I don't recall David using much German except as ship names.

The E wrote:

Phalanx wrote:If you mean the Novels, perhaps the blame might be laid on the German translators and editors. Authors make choices in style that a foreign language translator/editor may not catch.

No, he definitely means bits and pieces of german that some authors may inject into the english-language original. In the Honorverse not a lot of that has happened, most of the german used are short bits and bobs here and there to sell the Andermani flavour, and ofr the most part those are OK. To me, getting contemporary german exactly right when the speakers aren't contemporary germans is kinda stupid anyway.

That said, translated editions are a bit hit-and-miss; while ther german editions of the HH novels aren't bad, they're certainly not stellar either (I mean, I distinctly remember one of the Star Wars tie-in novels in which "Light Cruiser" was consistently translated as "Lichtkreuzer", using precisely the wrong interpretation of the word "light". SF frequently gets really bad translations, especially when things get technical). Anyway, that's not something authors have any control over.

That the reason I try to avoid SF in German

SWM wrote:

svenhauke wrote:please before you try to use german in your works of literature, get a german born german native speaker to correct you

its really painfull to anyone who acctually speaks german what you do to the german language

don t use german if you can t think in german

or get someone who can think in german and english and is a writer to prevent you from saying

i like your noodle, to a football quarterback

Are there some specific quotes you are referring to? I don't recall David using much German except as ship names.

You forgot naval and noble ranks. E.g. Grosse Admiral Herzog Von Rabinstrange translated Grand Admiral Duke of Rabinstange

saber964 wrote:

SWM wrote:Are there some specific quotes you are referring to? I don't recall David using much German except as ship names.

You forgot naval and noble ranks. E.g. Grosse Admiral Herzog Von Rabinstrange translated Grand Admiral Duke of Rabinstange

Ah, yes, those, but David got those titles from history. He didn't make them up himself.

SWM wrote:Are there some specific quotes you are referring to? I don't recall David using much German except as ship names.

saber964 wrote:You forgot naval and noble ranks. E.g. Grosse Admiral Herzog Von Rabinstrange translated Grand Admiral Duke of Rabinstange

SWM wrote:Ah, yes, those, but David got those titles from history. He didn't make them up himself.

What about Korvetten Kapitän and Kapitän der Sterne, both from:

War of Honor, Prologue wrote:"Com confirms it, Sir." Korvetten Kapitän Engelmann sounded as if he couldn't quite believe his own report.
"You're joking." Kapitän der Sterne Huang Glockauer, Imperial Andermani Navy, commanding officer of the heavy cruiser IANS Gangying, looked at his executive officer in astonishment. "Code Seventeen-Alpha?"

Italics are the author's.