[Freeciv-Dev] Problematic translation

[Martin Christensen <factotum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy all,

As most of my fellow translators will know, one of the things that
really makes translating certain things problematic is how to handle
noun genders. Now, in English it's no problem, because most nouns can
simply be prefixed with 'the' and 'a', but we are not all so
fortunate. For instance, in Danish it's called 'en republik' but 'et
demokrati'. The Germans are more fortunate with 'eine Republik' and
'eine Demokratie', but that isn't always the case. This makes rather
inelegant solutions necessary, unless the way these things are handled
is changed. I suggest resorting to a more flexible solution, which
will require a few more game variables. I have not yet examined how
large the consequences of such a restructuring will be, but I don't
think it will be too much work, though many files will be touched. The
translators are probably those who will suffer the most in the short
term, but the benefits will be many in the long run.

I suggest splitting up the words that cause conflicts into as many
elements as necessary. A few examples:

a settler       settlers        the settlers
a marketplace   marketplace     the marketplace
Hanging Gardens                 The Hanging Gardens

Dealing with nations is probably the most trouble:

Babylonians
the Babylonians
of the Babylonians (genetive, very practical esp. in German)
etc.

This, I believe, is the way CivII does it, which is where I got my
inspiration. I strongly suggest that we implement this immediately for
1.11, if it doesn't prove too much of a hassle. It probably has to be
done sooner or later, so why not sooner?

Martin