I'm very curious about this part of the 1.1.5 patch:

 

Sith Warrior

•The French version of the "Darth" title is now correct.

 

According to Wookiepedia, the Darth title has no definite meaning:

 

But the origins of the word are uncertain. It is often thought that "Darth" is merely a contraction of the title "Dark Lord of the Sith", but there are theories that suggest a deeper interpretation.

 

Possible Origins

 

Some historians suggest that "Darth" is actually a corruption of the Rakatan word Daritha, meaning "emperor". Others note another Rakatan connection: the words for "triumph" or "conquest" in Rakatan is darr, and the word for "death" is tah, leading to the theory that "Darth" is derived from darr tah and therefore means "triumph over death" or "immortal".

 

Did they go with the Rakatan meaning of the word, thereby translating "Triump over Death", or what?

 

Triomphesurlamort Vader

Vaincrelamort Vader

 

etc..

 

I must say I'd like Darth Vader and Darth Maul better even if I was french.

In the original saga, Darth was translated to Dark in French. I grew up with Dark Vador, not Darth Vader. Back then, the cannon was nowhere as developped as it is today, and, especially for pronounciation purposes, the name of the character was slightly modified.

 

So yea... in French, Darth = Dark because they are Dark lords of the Sith... which seems to be the most logical cannon-wise answer to give regarding that issue. And even in the prequels, the title "Dark" was used (Dark Maul, Dark Sidious).

 

But I do not own the French version of the game, but that's what I believe it is based on my own childhood!

Wow, facts and all.

Actually nice to possess that piece of trivia.

 

Thanks!

 

(even though I was trying to do some satire - and speaking of - I don't suppose Dark is pronounced Dork in french? )

Edited March 7, 2012 by bleedo

No, it's pronounced Dark.

 

Don't worry, we keep english pronounciation intact.

 

But I was always ticked at the french translation anyway...

 

You know how the droids get some literal pronunciations how their names? Like Artoo or Forex...

 

I remember reading some version of the Return of the Jedi in french... the literal pronunciation of Artoo was horrible. It sounded like "Hairdeu". "Hairtwo"? Two hairs? Da hell?

Edited March 7, 2012 by SnapWolf

I think R2 in norwegian is named the same as a demon in The Legend of Drizzt, so we're square there. "Errto". (Demon is Errtu to be fair I think)

In italian back in '77 Darth Vader was known as 'Dart Fener'.

 

...and still is today!

 

/cry

Edited March 7, 2012 by Jamus_Divinus

Having read a Star Wars novel in French, Darth is normally translated to "Dark" (i.e. Darth Vader in French is "Dark Vador"). As funny as it may seem, the French title is even more English

Adogwood is correct. The title was changed to "Dark", the traditionally used translation of "Darth". I say translation, you're right, there is no direct meaning, but the word "Dark" has been used traditionally since the original trilogy was put out in French speaking countries.

Unfortunately, yes, that's one of the most ridiculous translations we have to live with. Vader to Vador, I can understand, as this change actually brings the French pronunciation closest to the original name. But "Dark" ... ah, well, at least I get to play the game in English

What happens is, there are a ton of translations in french movies that will change an original word that doesn't sound that nice when said in french to a particular english word so that it seems trendy. This is why they translated "Darth" to "Dark" back in 77. To make it sound "hip" so to speak.

 

Another example is this : there was this martial art movie and the english title was "American Ninja" and they translated it to "American Warrior", and I do mean "American Warrior" not "le guerrier américain"...

 

Other pieces of translations trivias in french for ep IV :

 

• C3PO is (and still is) : Z6PO (that one actually makes sense because C3PO can't be pronounced well to have the same short-sounding name as "threepeeo" in english which is "fast" sounding where "tro-ah-pa-o" wouldn't be as "fast" as "seess-pa-o".
  

• R2D2 is referred as R2 (artoo) in english and D2 ("day-duh") in french AND his full name is D2R2 in french. Though now I think in ep I-II-III they call him R2 ("air-duh").
  

• Han Solo was : Yan Solo (then was changed back to Han Solo)
  

• Chewbacca was : Chiktabba (then back to Chewbacca)
  

• Millenium Falcon was : Millenium Condor (then back to "Faucon Millénaire")
  

 

Those last 3, I believe, were changed back to "normal" in ep V due to hardcore fans out-rage...

 

That said, in the US they do make the same kind of "mistakes", and on top of that add enormous gramatical errors in the process, an example is the french movie "Nikita" translated in the US to "La Femme Nikita" ("The Woman Nikita" ???).

Edited March 8, 2012 by Shoogli

lol @ Chiktabba

 

I guess the majority of the french didn't think he was all that chic..

lol @ Chiktabba

 

I guess the majority of the french didn't think he was all that chic..

 

The worst really was the "millenium condor" : it doesn't even sound good at all, especially compared to "faucon millénaire" which is "grand" as a name, almost feel like an honorary title or a legendary war title of sort when said in french.

 

There are a few other quirks as well (some planet names I think) but I don't remember them all, hey been more than 30 years ha ha... Now i only watch them in english.

 

EDIT : about Chewbacca, now that I think about it, maybe an explanation is the name when said in french (aka : Shoo-ba-ca) the first syllable ("Shoo" or "chou" as we'd spell it in french) means :

 

Cabbage !!!

 

 

So it'd be like when you say it "in your head" in english you'd hear "Cabbage-ba-ca"... Try it ha ha ha...

Edited March 8, 2012 by Shoogli

I'm very curious about this part of the 1.1.5 patch:

 

Sith Warrior

•The French version of the "Darth" title is now correct.

 

According to Wookiepedia, the Darth title has no definite meaning:

 

 

 

Did they go with the Rakatan meaning of the word, thereby translating "Triump over Death", or what?

 

Triomphesurlamort Vader

Vaincrelamort Vader

 

etc..

 

I must say I'd like Darth Vader and Darth Maul better even if I was french.

 

The "th" sound doesn't exist in french. We would have said "Darf", "Dars" or "Dart".

But if my name is Bill, it's Bill in every country no matter what language you speak and you would pronounce it Bill.

 

btw... my name isn't Bill.

 

But you get my point.

 

Darth Vader is a name... I don't see why they would translate something like that to begin with in the 70's.

But if my name is Bill, it's Bill in every country no matter what language you speak and you would pronounce it Bill.

 

btw... my name isn't Bill.

 

But you get my point.

 

Darth Vader is a name... I don't see why they would translate something like that to begin with in the 70's.

 

Yeah, but we don't give a crap. We can not, pronounce "Darth", we just can't. Like you can't pronounce "Français" so you say "french".

Hail,

 

I'm a francophone (Quebec City). Have you heard how people who speak French pronounce TH as in The. It sounds better when French folks say Dark than Darth.

 

No matter, we all know Darth Vader or Darth Maul is just a not-so-subtle variation of Dark jedi.

Back then, the translation of titels and names was horrible in all languages.

 

In German, they translated 'Millennium Falcon' with 'rasender Falke' (Rushing Falcon). And even worse, the changed it with the empire strikes back to 'Millennium Falcon' instead of being consistent.

 

At least it always was Darth Vader and never Dartz Vader, even we had (still have?) huge problems to pronounce the TH correct as well.

Edited March 15, 2012 by DerTaran

But if my name is Bill, it's Bill in every country no matter what language you speak and you would pronounce it Bill.

 

btw... my name isn't Bill.

 

But you get my point.

 

I get your point, but it's actually not the case. In Latvia, for example, you'd be called "Bils". And if your surname would be "Cosby", you'd be called "Bils Kosbijs" and your wife "Ann Cosby" would be called "Anna Kosbija". The surname gets different endings for males and females.

This is because Latvian is based on very old Indo-European elements and relies heavily on cases instead of articles.

 

I love how this name adoption thing in our language freaks out foreign authorities all the time.

But if my name is Bill, it's Bill in every country no matter what language you speak and you would pronounce it Bill.

 

btw... my name isn't Bill.

 

But you get my point.

 

Darth Vader is a name... I don't see why they would translate something like that to begin with in the 70's.

you would be called ビル (Biru) in Japanese,

and 比爾 (Bǐ'ěr) in Chinese.

 

can't really pronounce "Bill" natively.

Yeah, but we don't give a crap. We can not, pronounce "Darth", we just can't. Like you can't pronounce "Français" so you say "french".

 

This isn't actually true. I can pronounce "français." Maybe not as well as a native speaker, but we're not looking for perfection here. It's the same thing as whenever I go to a café, use a baguette for a sandwich, eat a croissant (which I do actually pronounce it correctly when spoken), or use other French words. The one that tickles me the most is the phrase "in lieu" because it sounds so drastically different in French that I often get funny looks. People find it to be a bit pretentious, but I would hope that non-English speakers would give our language the same respect that I give theirs.

Did they go with the Rakatan meaning of the word, thereby translating "Triump over Death", or what?

 

Triomphesurlamort Vader

Vaincrelamort Vader

.

 

Vadermort? The Sith who must not be named?

Back in the beta, the last title for Sith Warriors was "Emperor's Wrath". Close to the release it was changed to "Darth", probably after lots of feedback from players wanting both Sith classes to end up "Darth".

 

The problem was that the french translation team kept the old translation. French Sith Warriors had the "Furie de l'Empereur" title, which is the french "Emperor's Wrath".

 

The patch replaced "Furie de l'Empereur" with "Dark", as it should have been from day 1.

 

 

Frenchs translated "Darth" in "Dark" back in '77 because they aren't used to pronounce "th". Ask a french to say "the" and he'll come up with "ze" if he's not very used to talking english.

Our cultures makes us used to pronounciations, try to make a Japanese say "Excalibur", or an English say "crème fraiche" properly.

Edited March 16, 2012 by LeLink