Spanish Translation needs to be revised

[Al Bundy]

I watched a Spanish Let's Play and I think that the Spanish translation of the game has several mistakes, some of them confusing. The Spanish Youtuber was new to the game and had a hard time trying to understand the mechanics. Just 3 examples out of many:

1) in Spanish the word "suzerano" (for "suzerain") does not exist. It should be "soberano". The Spanish Youtuber went crazy: "Huh? What is a suzerano? I don't understand" xD
2) the Encampment district is traslated as "Campamento bárbaro" (meaning: "Barbarian Encampment"). Where that "Bárbaro" came from? Now I am the one that don't understand.
3) In the City Details screen, under Housing, it says " X Alojamientos por X Ciudadanos". (X Housing for X Citizens). The correct form should be "X Alojamientos para X Ciudadanos". Otherwise It doesn't make much sense.

Anyway, I just hope they revise the translation before launch.

 

[MistyRonin]

1) in Spanish the word "suzerano" (for "suzerain") does not exist. It should be "soberano". The Spanish Youtuber went crazy: "Huh? What is a suzerano? I don't understand" xD
2) the Encampment district is traslated as "Campamento bárbaro" (meaning: "Barbarian Encampment"). Where that "Bárbaro" came from? Now I am the one that don't understand.
3) In the City Details screen, under Housing, it says " X Alojamientos por X Ciudadanos". (X Housing for X Citizens). The correct form should be "X Alojamientos para X Ciudadanos". Otherwise It doesn't make much sense.

Anyway, I just hope they revise the translation before launch.

1) Suzeranía (and suzerano) is used in Spanish, it's an Ottoman term for "feudal lord". You can find it in many Spanish documents about history or politics.
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzeranía
http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-561443

You can also find it spelled suceranía:
http://www.cyclopaedia.es/wiki/Sucerania

 

[Al Bundy]

1) Suzeranía (and suzerano) is used in Spanish, it's an Ottoman term for "feudal lord". You can find it in many Spanish documents about history or politics.
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzeranía
http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-561443

You can also find it spelled suceranía:
http://www.cyclopaedia.es/wiki/Sucerania

Thanks for the info, man, but you are aware that if you google "suceranía" it gives you only 295 results, are you? and for "suzeranía" 3.380 results. And neither of them are included in the Real Academia's dictionary, ergo... I still believe that "soberano" would be a much better choice.

Looking foward to read your comments about points 2 and 3.

 

[MistyRonin]

Thanks for the info, man, but you are aware that if you google "suceranía" it gives you only 295 results, are you? and for "suzeranía" 3.380 results. And neither of them are included in the Real Academia's dictionary, ergo...3.

It's a historical technical term (hence not in the RAE). It's relatively specific to the Ottoman Empire, although nowadays is used more broadly in Spanish texts (specially to describe modern countries relation to superpowers, instead of using the concept colony).

"Soberano" doesn't really describe the same situation, "señor feudal" would be more appropriate, or "protector", but same could be said for the English version. I don't know why civ devs chose the rare historical figure of a suzerain versus the more common feudal lord / overlord; my wild guess is that it was Ed Beach's personal preference.

I have no idea why point 2 and 3 were translated that way, besides my suspicion that the translator didn't have info on or didn't care about the context of the words.

 

[MistyRonin]

Oh BTW, happy National Day.

 

[Al Bundy]

It's a historical technical term (hence not in the RAE). It's relatively specific to the Ottoman Empire, although nowadays is used more broadly in Spanish texts (specially to describe modern countries relation to superpowers, instead of using the concept colony).

"Soberano" doesn't really describe the same situation, "señor feudal" would be more appropriate, or "protector", but same could be said for the English version. I don't know why civ devs chose the rare historical figure of a suzerain versus the more common feudal lord / overlord; my wild guess is that it was Ed Beach's personal preference.

I have no idea why point 2 and 3 were translated that way, besides my suspicion that the translator didn't have info on or didn't care about the context of the words.

I totally agree. Sounds like a personal preference of Ed Beach. The devs had more common words at their disposal.

 

[stealth_nsk]

It's interesting what in Russian "suzerain" is the only common word with this meaning.

Anyway, I should say what fancy words are kind of Civ6 specialty, after the "amenities".

 

[qadams]

I consider myself a well-read and well-educated native English speaker, but I'd never heard of the word "suzerain" before Civ 6. It seems unnecessarily obscure. I also don't like "amenities" very much in this context. It's a stretch to make the word mean what they want.

Having said all that, I'm quite happy with how the game appears so far. These are only minor complaints.

 

[Uberfrog]

"Suzerain" is indeed even a very rare term in English, but its use is warranted because it more precisely captures the nature of the relationship you have over a City-State in-game.

Suzerainty (suzeranía) - is a situation in which a powerful region or people controls the foreign policy and international relations of a tributary vassal state while allowing the subservient nation internal autonomy.

Sovereignty (soberanía) - is the authority of a state to govern itself or another state.

I appreciate that its use is extremely rare in Spanish, but I feel they've tried to translate the concept from English as closely as possible.

"Feudal lord" is tied too closely to the specifically Medieval system to be a good choice here, I think, and "Overlord" sounds like the result of a conquest. Civ V-style "Allies" doesn't do a good job of conveying that only one Civ can be the suzerain of a City State at any one time, since ordinarily you can have as many allies as you like.

In any case, it never hurts to learn something new!

 

[ExemplarVoss]

I consider myself a well-read and well-educated native English speaker, but I'd never heard of the word "suzerain" before Civ 6. It seems unnecessarily obscure. I also don't like "amenities" very much in this context. It's a stretch to make the word mean what they want.

Hmm. It's used in the same sense as hotel amenities and for much the same reason- benefits to staying/living in that location.

As for suzerain, perhaps its my background with 18th and 19th century history, but it is the perfect word, and not particularly obscure for this context.