For all of you who don't have English as your mother-tongue:

It is very unlikely that Deathwatch or any other Warhammer 40K roleplaying game will be translated in any lanquages other than English, but how is the term "Deathwatch" translated best in your language that you can think of.

In Greek, my native language, a good translation of Deathwatch would be Θανατοφυλακ? (Thanatofylaki) . Excuse me if Greek letters don't appear in your compruters.

Let's hear from other languages (even High Gothic!)

Brother-Captain Polemus Krieg said:

40K Roleplay products are being translated into German. I'm buying the English originals though.

In German the translation would be "Totenwache". As in watching over the dead. That said I think they use in German just the English term.

Alex

Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader have been translated into French, and I think Deathwatch will be too.

As for the names, well :
- Dark Heresy => Dark Heresy
- Rogue Trader => Rogue Trader
- Deathwatch, having always been translated into Deathwatch in any GW stuff => sure it will be Deathwatch

Good, it's good to know that they are translated to other significant languages. In my language they will not, but it's ok because the terms to be translated are many and the greek experience translating sci-fi works teaches us that the translators often have no knowledge of the universe and they end up substituting well-known terms with some peculiar unrecognizable contraption. Maybe it's because there aren't enough players here, enough by the world standards actually.

Well, let's say that in Greek, Dark Heresy would be Σκοτεινη Αιρεσις (Skoteini Airesis, something a little more archaic to preserve the feel of the game) and Rogue Trader would be something like Ασυμβιβαστος Εμπορος (Asimvivastos Emboros), though the word rogue has a negative meaning in Greek, something like a con artist.

Greetings! I'm posting for the first time, but have been lurking here for a while now.

I'm from Croatia (that's a small country in Europe, for those who don't know).

Deathwatch in my language would be translated "Straza smrti", in which straza means watch or watchers, and smrt means, of course, death.

Dark Heresy could be translated literally into "Tamna hereza", altough a better translation would be "Tama hereze", which means "The darkness of the heresy".

And for the Rogue Trader, it would translate as "Odmetnuti trgovac", but a better translation would be "Trgovac i gospodar", or "Trader and Commander"; something along the lines of "Master and Commander".

See you around the forums!

Here in Spain some of the games have been translated ( by Egde entertaiment) but I bet that Deathwatch won´t be translated until 2012 or 13 if translated at all. Edge left untouched the english version name of the core rulebook "Dark Heresy",( translated to spanish could be "Herejia Siniestra" ), but "Purge the Unclean" was translated as "Purgad a los Impuros" and the "Inquisitor´s Handbook" will be called "Manual del Inquisidor". If the decide to translate the name of Deatwatch it´s name could be Guardia de la Muerte" or "Guardianes de la Muerte".

Awww no Deatchwatchos for Spanish?

Well, in Dutch (or Flemmish as I'm Belgian) it would be something like 'Dodewacht', which make absolutely no sense at all. (Guarding the dead, wut?) Or perhaps "Wachters van de Dood" or "Doodswachters" (both mean Guardians of Death).

But I will not loose any sleep over it as we're a multilingual people. Stuff like this never gets translated itno Dutch and a book is ALWAYS better in the original language anyhow. Even reading the different languages on a GW miniatures box sends a shiver down my spine.

Meph said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigil

Alex

something like ?????? ?????? (strahzhah smertee) in russian, unfortunately it seems the forum software disallows cyrillic characters

Sorry for having to contradict you ak-73, but I would rather translate into German by using "Todeswacht" / "Todeswache" , making the distinction between death and dead (as e.g. Harry Potter 7 "Deathly Hallows" is translated into "Heiligtümer des Todes", not into "[...] der Toten").

It makes absolutely no sense in German this way (though I have to admit that it does sound classy), but for the sake of correctness I had to add this

As said before by Exarkfr the books are translate in french and keep their english name.

Dark heresy and rogue trader could be translate quite easely. For deathwath it's quite difficult to find an easy translation. The fact is french don't have the kind of language short-cuts german language got.

The translation of the book title will be something like that (my translation others can be made):

-Dark Heresy / Sombre Hérésie or Les Ténèbres de l'Hérésie

-Rogue Trader / Les Corsaires ou Flibustiers

-Deathwatch / Gardien (ou gardes) de la mort ou Ceux qui veillent la mort

The title "Dark Heresy" was not translated at all into German; instead of "Dunkle Häresie" (rather awkward) the German publisher named it "Schattenjäger" ("Shadowhunter"), which has no connection whatsoever to the original name.

"Rogue Trader" is named "Freihändler" in German, which basically is confusable with the in-game term "free trader" and keeps nothing of the deeper meaning of the word "rogue".

All other titles published in German so far are translated directly word-for-word.

In Norwegian:
Deathwatch would be: Dødsvokterne .

Dark Heresy could be: "Dunkel Heresi" (Not words in common use, but a perfectly valid and the most likely translation).

Rogue Trader: Frihandler
There is no good translation I can think of, but I guess we could play on the English word Freebooter, which is a Captain who is sanctioned and payed by the state to explore, attack and loot enemy vessels (A sactioned and payed pirate). This is kinda like the 40k Rogue Trader, so using that we get: Frihandler (Equally meaning someone who is free to act, or someone who is free to trade - so pretty descriptive for a Rogue Trader).

tkis said:

generally speaking Karaul Smerti, not Strazha

Portuguese (BR) here, Dark Heresy would be something like "Heresia Negra", or for a more PC translation, "Heresia sombria/sinistra". Rogue Trader translates literaly to "Mercador Ladino", which is horrible; Something like "Mercante livre" (free trader) would sound better, but lose the meaning. Off course, if we ever get it here, it will be either via Devir (that shall leave it as is) or via Jambô (who'll probably go for a literal translation as Mercador Ladino). Deathwatch would become the still awesome sounding "Guarda da Morte" (Death's Guard) or "Vigilia da Morte" (Deathwatch). Though I guess a lote of people would call the BOPE.