[Freeciv-Dev] Re: [freeciv-data] Re: Re: Translation of Freeciv motto

[Vasco Alexandre Da Silva Costa <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 16 Jul 2000, Mathias Hasselmann wrote:

> Daniel Burrows wrote:
> > 
> > On Sat, Jul 15, 2000 at 05:01:13PM -0400, Jeff Mallatt <jjm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
> > was heard to say:
> > > At 2000/07/15 14:55 , Mathias Hasselmann wrote:
> > > "'Cause civilization(s) should be free!" is *not* the standard motto.  The
> > > standard motto is "'Cause civilization should be free!" -- without the
> > > "(s)".  So, there is no "English language trick".
> > 
> >   I believe that his point was that the German word for Civilization (the
> > product) is Civilization, whereas the German word for civilization (the 
> > thing)
> > is Zivilisation.  In English, the phrase "Civilization should be free" is
> > a pun; in German, this doesn't work because the two words translate
> > differently.  (I'm not sure this is a good reason not to translate it, 
> > myself;
> > it's a pretty feeble pun, but..)

I've had problems translating the motto too, as far as i know there never
was a portuguese localized version of the original Civ, and i always
heard people refer to the game as Civilization.
In portuguese Civilization (the word) is Civilizacao. (no accents due to
ASCII).

I opted to not translate the motto because of that.  I notice other
translators who translated the motto, chose the free(speech) which is the
correct choice IMHO.  However the dual meaning of the motto is still lost.

{
Also, the word 'free' in other languages doesn't have the dual
meaning it has in english in day to day life, for example in portuguese we
usually say gratis(beer) or livre(speech).  There are some exceptions to
that though - like "free entrance", "entrada livre".
}
---
Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa @ Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa