Non-English speakers: what language do you game in?

[green slime]

As a native Engish speaker living in a foreign country, I have found it rather...exasperating trying to translate those boxed description texts into Swedish on the fly. I'm fluent in Swedish, so much so that Swedes cannot tell that I'm a foreigner, but still translating on the fly is a very difficult skill to master.

So for a while I tried to translate the boxes before the game.

I DM for a group of Swedes, all of whom are very good English speakers.

In my daily life I have almost abandoned speaking Swedish, since the arrival of my children some years ago. I discovered that I had lost a lot of the command of the English language I once had, as I had not been using it. So although I knew all the words, I had difficulty finding them in time to say anything.

So these days I inflict my environment with English almost constantly.

Gaming wise it tends to slip from one to another.

It depends on how tired I am. If I'm tired, they get the text in English, otherwise I translate. They almost always answer in Swedish. It really depends on my mood.

Some concepts are never translated in gaming in Sweden; AC, armour class, attack bonus (which can be pronounced with a swedish accent), Fortitude/Reflex/Will, the names of spells, or Magical effects (Vorpal, Ghost Touch, and so on).

 

[Gez]

French, although with some English technical terms. For example, "feat", feat name, and spell names are sometimes translated, sometimes used in original version.

So, sometimes, my gnome wizard cast Fireball, while some other time she lance une boule de feu. Same things for Shocking Grasp/Poigne Électrique ou Lightning Bolt/Éclair.

A problem of the French version of D&D is that the translation is just plain wrong very frequently. Mobility, rather than being something simple like Mobilité, has become Souplesse du Serpent (snake's nimbleness). Why, oh why ?

The curious could read this thread on the French site SDEN (Site De l'Elfe Noir, the Dark Elf's Site), about this http://www.sden.org/forums/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=1635&forum=5&13

Some translations for the curious:
Silverymoon: Lunargent
Shadowdale: Valombre
Waterdeep: Eauprofonde (and its denizens, the Aquafondéens !)

For the fun, I sometime overtranslate names. Like Elminster becoming Elmîntre.

As for playing wholly in English... Maybe I _could_. My brother may, as well. But all other gamers I know...

 

[Tonguez]

We have declared English to be the common tongue and speak English - because their are some monolinguals in the group.

Those of us who can, speak our native tongue when we want to say something and not let those who can't understand into the secret or otherwise the occasional phrase just because we can.

When I GM I use my native tongue as any language other than common

Elminster - Ereminita
Waterdeep - Waihohonu
I cast fireball Maku e whiu ai te poro-ahi.

 

[StalkingBlue]

We speak German at my table, but continue to use English rules terms even though a German translation of the Players Handbook is now available.

 

[med stud]

Our gaming language is Finnis, althought we haven't translated the rules so names of classes, weapons, skills, feats etc. are all in english.

Lately our DM has started to translate names of places. He thinks it would be easier with only one language in names. Waterdeep is Syvävesi, Misty Forest is Hämymetsä, Sword Coast is Kalparannikko for those who want to know.

I think it is really good taste of your DM to translate into Finnish; I dont know why, but for me Finnish is THE fantasy language.

Even the Finnish news on the Swedish television sounds mystical and beautiful in a way

 

[Pielorinho]

Wow. Somewhere, hiding in this thread, is a master's thesis. And I want to read it.

Daniel

 

[KidCthulhu]

Actually in my group we play in a mix of three languages

English is mainly used for casting. Spanish is our in character language, so, in a way whatever is said in spanish is what your character is already saying.

And Catalan is the language we use for out topics comments. That help us to control the flow of the game and of course it helps a lot to avoid lots of "eps no i was saying that as a player not as a character"

That is the coolest way I've seen to handle the "wait, I said that, not my character". I have a lot of trouble with this, being prone to sarcastic comments which occasionally get attributed to my characters at the wrong time.

The only way around this when you have only one language at the table is to use accents. Then again, Pkitty and I speak Spanish (although he has a terrible accent), so we could do this, and let the rest of the table do as they pleased.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Eway amegay inay igpay atinlay.

 

[Horacio]

Regards from Barcelona.

pd to dream: de hecho, en mi grupo aun decimos fireball i no firebola, pero snikear migic misil y charmeado son clásicos

Me too, when I'm in Spain, I play in Spanglish, using this charming mixture of Spanish phrases, English words and completly bizarre hybrids...

To dream and Largomad: esnikear es un clasico, si, pero fireball siempre es para nosotros bola de fuego. Charmear lo usamos tambien bastante, asi como dungeon, pronunciado tal cual, dungeon, y la mayor parte d elos mosntruos siguen en ingles...

 

[Frostmarrow]

Eway amegay inay igpay atinlay.

Wowe poplolayoy inon tothohe popiroratote totonongogue.