[Xfce-i18n] About German translations

[Christian Dywan]

Am Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:32:46 +0200
schrieb Jannis Pohlmann <jannis at xfce.org>:

> Hey,
> 
> Am Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:29:16 +0200
> schrieb Fabian Nowak <timystery at arcor.de>:
> > > > - I had used "Verwaltung" as often as possible for 4.4, though
> > > > people tended to use manager like a sports manager everywhere,
> > > > which simply is wrong; we are not playing football or rugby.
> > > > Instead, "Verwaltung" is way better for most applications except
> > > > for the "file manager" as Windows made "Dateimanager" popular.
> > > > We still should revert "Window manager" to "Fensterverwaltung"
> > > > as is also proposed by the translation suggester.
> > > 
> > > "Fenstermanager" seems to be used a lot in GNOME and KDE (more
> > > than "Fensterverwaltung") and I think that's good. "Verwaltung"
> > > sounds passive whereas "Manager" sounds like an object that
> > > actually does something.
> > 
> > Once again, neither Gnome nor KDE are reference, especially if you
> > look at how the translated "window manager" - they also included
> > Deppenleerzeichen and made other mistakes as well. Once again, even
> > Microsoft wasn't able to differentiate passee composee from the
> > infinitive; but no French translation team should argue on that.
> 
> Even if we don't take GNOME or KDE as a reference, I still prefer
> "Fenstermanager". On the wiki page I read that someone (you?)
> complained about "Manager" not being German. I don't know where that
> story about the woman who doesn't understand what a "Manager" does
> comes from, but I disagree. It might not be ultra-German but it's
> been part of our language for years if not decades. And as opposed to
> "Verwaltung" it doesn't sound so bureaucratic at least ;)

I personally dislike most loan words that are used because people
associate a different meaning or feeling with them, and the only
benefit they provide is that you look cool or educated if you know how
to use them, yet many people don't even realize that for example
'manager' is the exact same as 'Verwalter', and there is nothing more
or less bureaucratic about either term. Of course I find terms like
'Homepage' much more problematic because they actually mean something
noticibly different when used in Germanglish.

I would not mind to use the actual German term here.

That said, since 'manager' has the same meaning and is actually used
outside of informatics, I don't have too hard feelings about it.

Yours,
    Christian