Hyperion Entertainment Message Boards

The danish translations for AOS4.1 classic are bad

most of the commands should be changed to "commands"

an example:

Continue (right)
To Continue (wrong without the "to" but the meaning is the same)
Try reading "Continues" for every requestor that says Continue (it's hideous)

The danish translations for the above is

Fortsæt (right, this should be it)
Fortsætte (wrong, this is in the translation files)

are there some tools so I can fix this ?

This is an age-old debate among Danish Amigans.

We (ATO-DK back during the OS 3.x years) chose to follow other main languages and use the infinitive verb forms in menu items and action gadgets.

For instance in German, the normal translation for a menu item such as "Save" is "Speichern", i.e. the infinitive. And I believe it is done the same way in many other languages.

Also, as far as I am aware, the same is the norm also in other operating systems.

The only "problem" is that in English, there is no visible difference between a verb's infinitive and imperative form, so somebody (probably an early Microsoft translator into Danish?) foolishly chose to use the imperative form in Danish menus in Windows etc. And the early (CBM-made) AmigaOS translations probably just copied this without thinking about it.

It was not until ATO took over the AmigaOS translation work and laid down standards etc. back in the late nineties, that this was fixed.

In other words, the Danish translations are correct (in this aspect), as they follow the standards we made, and the same rules as most other OSes in most other languages.

Best regards,

Niels

If you regard all functions sent to the computer as commands, and looking back at how translations has been done in the past, and still is done.
A command is imperativ, and therefore not infinitiv. Hence I can only believe that this is how and why the translations has been done like they are.

In other words, the Danish translations are correct (in this aspect), as they follow the standards we made, and the same rules as most other OSes in most other languages.

Since I haven't seen infinitiv being used in any other OS than AOS. I can't tell which other OSes you refer to where it's being used.

That being said, my question wasn't answered.

@nbache

I have to agree with tomse that using the infinitive for something that should be a command is rather weird to say the least.

Also your rule doesn't seem to apply to the Swedish translation at least as when I look up the translation of "Continue" in swedish/c.ct I find:

MSG_IP_CONTINUE_GADGET
Fortsätt
; Continue

This is the imperative form, if it was using the infinitive it would be "Fortsätta".

as a side note as there is a reference to German translations.

Considder the fact that there are some differences in how countries use their language. So just because Germany use the Infinitiv doesn't mean that it's the correct way of doing in danish.

I must also refer to the danish saying "if your friends jump off a bridge, would you do it as well", and don't counter ague with me using the page from xkcd

nbache wrote:...and the same rules as most other OSes in most other languages.

Since you already stated that Windows doesn't follow this rule I guess "most other OSes" to you is Mac OS? Just because Apple decides to do something ass backwards doesn't mean that we should do the same.

nbache wrote:For instance in German, the normal translation for a menu item such as "Save" is "Speichern", i.e. the infinitive. And I believe it is done the same way in many other languages.

I think that German is a bad example here because in German the infinitive can be used as a (rude) form of command. For example if a policeman wants somebody to stop he shouts "stehenbleiben" and not "bleib stehen". The latter is imperative, the former infinitive.

In French too the infinitive is used in translations. And this is the same for every systems I came across up to now (for French at least). In menus, requesters and windows buttons "Save" is translated "Enregistrer" (i.e. the infinitive form) and not "Enregistre" (the imperative form).

I agree that we don't need to blindly follow what trendy OSes are doing and change something we are doing for ages to something completely different. However if we are doing something for ages which is also done similarly by other OSes why should we do differently just for the matter of being different?

salass00 wrote:

nbache wrote:...and the same rules as most other OSes in most other languages.

Since you already stated that Windows doesn't follow this rule I guess "most other OSes" to you is Mac OS? Just because Apple decides to do something ass backwards doesn't mean that we should do the same.

I meant that Windows doesn't follow the rule in the Danish localization (and apparently also not in the Swedish one? At least the Swedish AmigaOS translators have apparently chosen the imperatives, so I'm guessing they are following their Windows localization?), but it does in most other languages. Which is e.g. confirmed by ABalaban.

Best regards,

Niels

thomasrapp wrote:in German the infinitive can be used as a (rude) form of command. For example if a policeman wants somebody to stop he shouts "stehenbleiben" and not "bleib stehen". The latter is imperative, the former infinitive.

I don't (obviously) have German as my native language, but are you sure the "stehenbleiben" shout isn't a plural (or formal singular) imperative rather than an infinitive?

(Also compare with the formal imperative form "Bleiben Sie stehen!".)

Best regards,

Niels