 | This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion. | The process of translating German Wikipedia articles into the English Wikipedia involves many tedious details. The German language has over 30,000 core vocabulary words, and the German Wikipedia uses them all (and more). However, there are several tricks that can make the translations easier. Some issues: [edit] Format issues [edit] Typesetting -
- Keep a list of the German Sonderzeichen (to copy) and: Ä ä Ö ö ß Ü ü .
- Because German words average about a third longer (more letters) than English, margins should be adjusted to wrap more words per line (if displaying German quotes).
[edit] Interwikis -
- Remember to code the bottom interwiki line "[[de:xxx]]" for the deutsch link.
- German Wikipedia bots edit its articles to backlink interwiki "en:" (within 5 hours); once "[[de:xxx]]" is added to an English article, the German article "xxx" is later bot-edited to backlink (with "en:") by various bots such as Alexbot or Grouchobot.
[edit] Punctuation -
- German nouns are typically capitalized, except within compound words; however, with hyphens, each word has caps: Neu-Auto-Nummer. Most pronouns are lowercase, except "formal you" as the words "Sie" and "Ihnen", while the pronoun "ich" (meaning "I") might be capitalized in a song title.
- For German titles, capitalize only the first word & nouns (such as "Also sprach Zarathustra" with verb "sprach" lowercase).
- Technically, all German words when displayed in English text should be italicized, but some are considered to also be English words (such as "zeitgeist" or "Gestalt").
[edit] Wikitables or infoboxes -
- Some tables, copied from German Wikipedia, might not display in the same manner, with differences in margin-alignment or changes in width.
- Not unlike many software organizations, Wikipedia has had major problems with portability, and CSS-style-classes might be set to different attributes on German Wikipedia.
[edit] Translation issues [edit] Auto-translation help -
- Google translate can cross-reword paragraphs into another language, but "proper word order often it doesn't". It was ok in 2004, but translated into "Yoda-speak" during 2008–2009, and almost all text must be revised before use.
- Google translate might garble wiki-coding, such as putting illegal spaces after slash "</" (as in illegal "</ ref>").
- By hand-splitting long German sentences into shorter parts, some computer-translation programs might generate some better wording, but still require modification before use.
- Once the first article is translated, similar articles can copy parts, so translation of idioms becomes easier for related articles.
- Many articles on English Wikipedia have accepted some awkward, broken English, but the German Wikipedia is heavily patrolled to deter rough or awkward wording.
[edit] Common words -
- German articles use "Bild" for "Image" (replace "Bild:" as "Image:").
- German templates are not called "Template:" but use "Vorlage:".
- In German, the term "webpage" is "Webseite", but the term "website" is the same "Website".
- German word "links" means "left" (left-hand), but "Weblinks" are the hyperlinks.
- Examples are noted as "Beispiel" (for "zum Beispiel" ), also with abbreviation "Bsp."
- References are sometimes called "Quellen" (sources), similar to the source of a river (Fluss).
- Despite sealore of "She was a fine ship", note the German words are "der Schiff" (ship, masculine) and "das U-boot" (submarine, neuter), with plural "die Schiffe". A "commissioned" ship is "in Dienst gestellt" (etc.).
- Wikipedia is feminine: die deutsche Wikipedia & die englische Wikipedia.
- Languages are stated as nouns: in Englisch & in Deutsch (rather than "auf deutsch").
- The German Wikipedia uses "standard headings" for the See-also, Notes, References and External links sections:
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- Siehe auch [Bearbeiten] – "See also"
- Literatur [Bearbeiten] – "References"
- Einzelnachweise [Bearbeiten] – "Notes"
- Weblinks [Bearbeiten] – "External links"
- Each section can be edited separately (the link "[Bearbeiten]"). Also, similar to the English Wikipedia, those section headers might appear in any order, such as Einzelnachweise ("Notes") being the final section of an article, sometimes.
[edit] Sentence structure -
- A lot of German articles have very long, complex sentences, which has been a cultural issue in German writings for decades. Consider splitting the English into short sentences.
- Similarly, some German words or phrases might have been chosen although deliberately longer than needed, while English usage tends to prefer shorter words, unless purposely expanded. Some text is expanded for vocal/radio distinction (such as "one-zero-niner") and for dwelling on archaic or stilted prosaic writing (such as "psychologically manifested phobias" as a verbose term for "fears").
[edit] Template coding - Several templates are portable to the German Wikipedia, including {{Cite web}} & {{Cite book}} (but NOT {{Citation}} ), and dates should be coded in ISO format as "YYYY-MM-DD" plus extra parameter "language=Englisch" should be added for those sources.
- Beware the same-name-but-different templates:
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- {{dts}} is a date-template with parameters backward (not portable).
- Because the German Wikipedia (DEWIKI) has its own MOS style-guides (independent from ENWIKI), many German users might object to the style and formatting of translated articles. It's a whole separate group of people with restrictions to consider.
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- Typos: beware mixing of "and" for "und" (in hundreds of articles).
- Typos: beware dashes between German words not typical for English; German: "Lewis-und-Clark-Expedition".
- Typos: beware German preposition "an" appearing to be English article "an".
- Note minor differences, such as "oben" meaning "up" while "ober" means upper, and such.
- Remember typical use of idioms, such as "an der Strasse" (for "in the street") or "Eingabe/Ausgabe" (for "input/output"), etc.
[edit] Content issues [edit] German Wikipedia stubs - There are very few German stub articles, because, by early 2009, many articles were often contested before allowing short contents. Articles that are nearly perfect, but only 99% correctly translated, might be hated, because they must pass the verification-step for style & content, which is almost like passing a test as semi-featured articles. There seems to be a compulsion (or obsession) to get German articles verified, as if the non-verified articles would be considered harmful trash. The push or drive to verify articles causes frequent severe mindsets on German Wikipedia. Imagine the horror if a new article were to need 3 volunteer days of source verification: Mein Gott! Whereas a 98%-accurate article might be considered, in the real world, as fairly good information (for free), in DEWIKI instead, they would rather it be deleted or hidden.
[edit] Unsourced content - Although the German Wikipedia has been heavily patrolled for "recent changes" to enforce grammar (or translations), many articles lack specific sources or footnote citations. Some of the German articles seem to contain insider knowledge or folksy text, which often gets challenged when translated into an English article. In accordance with policy WP:VERIFY, when text cannot be traced to sources, it must be removed from articles, even though found in German Wikipedia (which has been heavily guarded for accuracy). Local people might be writing what "everyone knows in Germanic culture", but perhaps it cannot be used in the English Wikipedia for lack of published sources.
[edit] Other concerns There are many other common issues to consider. [edit] See also -
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- [ This essay is a draft to be vastly expanded later. ]
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