The generics of translation

[Martin Geisler]

Adrian Buehlmann <adrian at cadifra.com> writes:

> On 2012-07-05 19:27, Martin Geisler wrote:
>> Adrian Buehlmann <adrian at cadifra.com> writes:
>> 
>>> In Switzerland we use "abholen" for fetching emails (broad use, not
>>> just among developers). I guess you use "abrufen" in Germany.
>>>
>>> People say whatever they want. Not what you use in a translation.
>>>
>>> Nobody here will ever use "Zusammenführen" for "merge".
>> 
>> That's strange to me -- I use the Danish equivalent ("sammenføje")
>> regularly when speaking with Danes about Mercurial. I really dislike
>> to just use the English words in Danish since I cannot conjugate them
>> in any meaningful way.
>
> I think I can handle "merge" perfectly fine in German, in the very same
> way like "scannen" (which I alrady said is in the Duden).

Sure, I know we can handle it -- we have "skanne" in Danish, btw, so
that English word has been adopted very nicely into our language.

> I don't speak nor understand Danish, but I know your German grammar
> isn't the great. So let me just be blunt and say that I do have some
> doubts about your competence regarding German conjugation :-)

Yeah, I have no competence at all when it comes to German grammar... I'm
really glad there is a small army of other Martin's that handles that
translation :)

I just wanted to note that I found the difference surprising: using
"merge" directly as a noun sounds weird in Danish (to my ear). It's kind
of okay in singular, but I don't know how to say "two merges"...

It's obviously a matter of taste -- and I agree with you that a
translation should use whatever term is prevalent in the community.

-- 
Martin Geisler

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