12-17-2012, 08:48 PM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Help with German names and titles
I want to call an NPC "Theophrastus Spark, Baron of Tinkertown and Doctor of Mad Science". Except in German. Google Translate suggests Theophrastus Funke, Freiherr von Tüftlerstadt und Doktor der Wissenschaft Verrückten. Could a native speaker please suggest how I might improve on that? I want it to sound bombastic and ridiculous.
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12-17-2012, 09:23 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Where the Celts originated
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Re: Help with German names and titles
Theophrastus von Funke, Freiherr von Tüftlerstadt, Doktor der Verrückten
Wissenschaft |
12-17-2012, 10:59 PM | #3 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Help with German names and titles
Sorry, m'lord!
Does a freiherr's daughter and heiress-presumptive take an honorific title, or is she simply Fräulein von Funke? About the captain of the Lord-Doctor's clockwork cuirassiers: would Starke Uhrwerk, Hauptman von Brustpanzerers be suitable? Again, we're aiming for "bombastic and slightly ridiculous". The Chief Mechanic is a man of parts—hands of a Swiss watchmaker, arms of a blacksmith, torso from no fewer that two statuary's models, legs of a decathlete, "package" of a ballet-dancer…. He is a mechanoly figure with a thin veneer of tragic dignity. I was thinking of the name Lohengrin Krimskram. Then there is the uplifted octopus. Is Julius Tintenfisch appropriate, or is a Tintenfisch strictly a decapod squid? Might Herr Tintenfisch insist "Ich bin ein Oktopus!", or would "Ich bin ein Krake" sound even sillier? |
12-18-2012, 01:26 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
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Re: Help with German names and titles
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Hans |
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12-18-2012, 02:19 AM | #5 | ||||
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Re: Help with German names and titles
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http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintenfische Depends on what he is. |
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12-18-2012, 05:07 AM | #6 | |||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Help with German names and titles
Thanks.
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12-18-2012, 05:08 AM | #7 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Help with German names and titles
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12-19-2012, 02:35 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Freiburg i. Brsg., Germany
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Re: Help with German names and titles
I think it sounds better if you'd make it "Klirrender von Bolzen".
"Klirren" is along the lines of "clanging"/"clattering"/"rattling". If you'd like to get more "rattling", "Rasselnder von Bolzen" might be preferable. (By the way, to my ears, both variants sound quite amusing.) M.
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"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing." (Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest" , act 3) |
12-20-2012, 03:46 PM | #9 | ||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Help with German names and titles
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Thanks for the help. Last edited by Agemegos; 12-28-2019 at 09:13 PM. Reason: grammar |
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12-20-2012, 04:31 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Where the Celts originated
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Re: Help with German names and titles
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