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How Star Wars names are translated in non-english countries... — Page 2

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I admit that German-dubbed Emperor has a voice of a powerful wizard. Interesting alternative, methinks.

Ric's explanations gave me a good laugh - George L. and Ben Burtt should read it next time they decide to invent a made-up language / names.

OK, let's move to a next country:
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Poland

note: special diacritic marks are ommited here, for compatibility.

Translations:
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Not much, especially when compared to France
We like foreign stuff, that's our trait.


original English - translated to Polish (translated meaning in English)
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Star Wars - Gwiezdne Wojny (Stellar Wars or Star Wars)
A New Hope - Nowa Nadzieja (A New Hope)
The Empire Strikes Back - Imperium Kontratakuje (The Empire Counterattacks, The Empire Strikes Back)
Return of the Jedi - Powrót Jedi (Return of the Jedi)
Millennium Falcon - Sokol Milenium (Falcon "Millennium"), 2 decades ago sometimes improperly named as Tysiacletni Sokol (Thousand-year-old Falcon)
Death Star - Gwiazda Smierci (Star of Death, Death Star)
blaster - miotacz ([ray] thrower, as in flamethrower)
lightsaber - miecz swietlny (lightsword, just what we've heard in TPM)
I've heard also some improper names for X-Wing, with "wing" part translated, but that was long time ago.

What's interesting, we often mispronounce Vader and/or misspell it to "Wader"
Also the declination of the word "Sith" is debatable

The Phantom Menace - Mroczne Widmo (Dark Spectre)
Attack of the Clones - Atak Klonow (Attack of the Clones)
Revenge of the Sith - Zemsta Sithow (Revenge of the Sith)


Dubbing:
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Like with all movies for adults, original Star Wars was never dubbed in Poland - in the case of foreign flicks, we always read subtitles in the cinema and listen to voice over in TV. However with the new Prequels the distributor came with the idea of dubbing (hey, these are kid flicks, right?)... only to be bashed by faithful fans! They forced them to a compromise: TWO versions of the prequels were screened in the cinemas: dubbed (for kids) and subtitled (for fans).

I can't say anything about dubbed version, as I've never hear it

Unfortunately recently they started to translate and dub the LucasArts games, so I gave up with Star Wars games, because I can't afford to spend 3 times bigger sum of money to order the game from US/UK to get original voices/text.


And now something special: a poster from 1978 !
Star Wars: ANH was first screened here on 30th of March 1979.

http://starwarsy.pl/galeria/galeria011.jpg
I saw the original theatrical release of the Old Trilogy on the big screen and I'm proud of it...
How did I accomplish that (considering my age) is my secret...
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This poster is the sort of thing I would hang on my kids room if I wanted to scare the shit out of him and traumatize him.

OK let me share with you the names of the films in portuguese.

Star Wars - Guerra nas Estrelas (literally "War in the Stars" - there's no way to translate the sentence "star wars" into portuguese)
A New Hope - Uma Nova Esperança (literally "A New Hope")
The Empire Strikes Back - O Império Contra-Ataca (literally "The Empire atacks/strikes back")
Return of the Jedi - O Retorno de Jedi (literally "The Return of (a) Jedi")

The Phantom Menace - A Ameaça Fantasma (literally "The Ghostly Threat" - there's no equivalent of "phantom" in portuguese)
Atack of the Clones - O Ataque dos Clones (literally "The Atack of the Clones")
Revenge of the Sith - A Vingança dos Sith (literally "The Revenge of the Sith")
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Originally posted by: ricarleite
This poster is the sort of thing I would hang on my kids room if I wanted to scare the shit out of him and traumatize him.

Then you haven't seen Polish ROTJ poster yet
It was even featured on that CD-ROM Star Wars encyclopedia "Behind the Magic". I don't have the time now to search for an online image, sorry. EDIT: LOL, I've just found it!
Polish poster school is AFAIK well respected in the art world, but I'm not sure if I wanted to have "too artsy" (i.e. "weird" ) poster for my movie. Hollywoodish approach may be boring and predictable, yet it has its pros, market-wise
I saw the original theatrical release of the Old Trilogy on the big screen and I'm proud of it...
How did I accomplish that (considering my age) is my secret...
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Originally posted by: RRS-1980
Originally posted by: ricarleite
This poster is the sort of thing I would hang on my kids room if I wanted to scare the shit out of him and traumatize him.

Then you haven't seen Polish ROTJ poster yet


Hmnnn... no, this threepio one is scarier. Show this poster suddenly to a seven year old at night, shaking it and saying "booooooo!" and I guarantee he or she will not sleep that night.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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A little off-topic, but I read in EW recently that either "Keyser" or "Soze" (I can't remember which specifically) translated to "Verbal" in Turkish. Brilliant.

"Dark Father" is equally brilliant for "Darth Vader" in all non-english languages.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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I discovered that in Dutch, the word "Vader" has an english translation of "Father".


Talk about a mind fuck.

I bet when the Dutch Speakers got to see ESB....they werent surprised by the ending.


You can try it for yourself on any translation software/website, such as Babel Fish
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v167/bgiffen/bigbluerig.jpg
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http://starwarsy.pl/galeria/galeria011.jpg

"This poster is the sort of thing I would hang on my kids room if I wanted to scare the shit out of him and traumatize him."

Looks like 3PO is getting a golden shower.

"I discovered that in Dutch, the word "Vader" has an english translation of "Father"."

I hate it when this comes up.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Originally posted by: BigBlueRig
I discovered that in Dutch, the word "Vader" has an english translation of "Father".

And in German: "father" = (der) "Vater".
I saw the original theatrical release of the Old Trilogy on the big screen and I'm proud of it...
How did I accomplish that (considering my age) is my secret...
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Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
A little off-topic, but I read in EW recently that either "Keyser" or "Soze" (I can't remember which specifically) translated to "Verbal" in Turkish. Brilliant.


Yet another plot twist ruined. Although that was one crappy flick.

And, actually... no:

"Originally, Keyser Soze was supposed to have the name Keyser Sume, named after Christopher McQuarrie's old boss. He allowed his old boss to read the script, and decided he did not want to be associated with an inherently evil villain, so requested a change be made."
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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I can explain why Han becomes Yan.  There is no such thing as the English "H" sound in French.   It simply isn't pronounced at all.  And the typical French "a" sound is more or less like in "cat".  

Subsequently, for the name "Han" that would result in his name becoming "Ann" (or Anne in French), a girl's name.  So they came up with the closest male-sounding name they could that would work for dubbing.

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I wonder if the PT villains have better sounding names when translated into non-English languages.

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Well, I saw a frame from Puggo's transfer of the Swedish print of ANH, and Chewbacca was translated to "Tuggbak". I thought that was just a fail made when they recorded the ANH story/tape thing that came out in the early 80's. And in the first edition of the ANH novel Skyhopper was "Himmelshoppa".

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Invader Jenny said:

"The Millennium Condor?" WTF? Don't they have Falcons in France?

And why the hell would they change around R2 and C-3P0's names? They are just numbers and letters. What? France doesn't have the number three in their language?

 Condor is used in french only in ANH, then they call it le Faucon (Falcon) in ESB and ROTJ. ANH have various little differencies like that comparing to the others. Like the OP menionned. It could seems very upsetting and weird, but really, as a child I never really did care much about changes like that. You only become upset by those things when you get a bit older and you wish everything to be in "order". 

About 3PO into 6PO: it is because it sounds closer to 3PO in french. It just sounds and flows better in dialogues. And when then used 3PO for the prequels, it sounds worse in french to me. Even if it is the "good" name.