Spanish translation discussions

[jaltamir]

Hi everyone!

I've been working on improving Spanish translation over the last few weeks. During this time I found a few things that need agreement.

1 - Capitalisation

Scope: 39 of 42 skills, 37 of 47 spell names and 71 artifacts.

As @zenseii pointed out in one of my PRs, the rule should be Spanish typography, first letter only, plus proper nouns. It's consistent with Spanish grammar and it's quite different from the English rule.

3 things I wanted to confirm:

• Proper nouns inside a name keep their capital: "Espada de Anduran", "Medalla Fizbin", "Mej. Stonehenge".
• Common-noun items go lowercase even when they are the item: "libro de hechizos" rather than "Libro de Hechizos". The file currently has 4 of one and 5 of the other. For example "Unfortunately, you have no Magic Book to record the spell with." would become "…no posees el libro de hechizos donde registrar este hechizo.".
• Artifact names carry their article in Spanish ("La Capa de hielo", "El Escudo definitivo"; 68 labels like this). The English sentences put the article in the sentence ("you find the %{artifact}") but in Spanish the article has to agree in gender with the noun (la capa, el escudo), and the sentence can't know which artifact will land in the placeholder. So the original translator moved the article into the name and dropped it from the sentences ("encuentras %{artifact}"). That collides with the capitalisation rule. If I just lowercase the noun, the label reads fine ("La capa de hielo") but the sentence ends up with a capital in the middle: "encuentras La capa de hielo". Dropping the article from the names breaks the sentences ("encuentras Capa de hielo"), and lowercasing the article gives labels that start in lowercase in the artifact dialog. French has the same gender problem and solved it by quoting the artifact in the sentence, as a title: vous trouvez l'artéfact '%{artifact}'. Two of the five Spanish sentences that use %{artifact} already do that ("El artefacto "%{artifact}" se conservará en la campaña"). So my proposal is to keep the article in the names, lowercase the noun, and rewrite the other three sentences with the same quoted pattern. Is that ok?

That's around 300 changed lines. I can do it in one PR or split it by family (skills / spells / artifacts).

2 - nomuertos (undead)

Scope: 16 strings

The translation uses "nomuertos" as a single word. The problem is that's not a real word in Spanish. In Spanish we use "no muertos". 2 words without hyphen instead of one.

So my intention is to change them all. Is that ok?

3 - The Mage Guild has two Spanish names

Scope: 11 strings

The translation file has 2 different translations for Mage Guild: "Torre Mágica" and "Gremio de Magos"

I'd unify them as "Gremio de magos". It matches the English meaning, it follows the capitalisation rule and it's also the term used in the original HoMM2 game sold in Spain (I bought the original game in 97). Besides that, this would fix a UI problem (my real trigger for this). The building panel uses fitToOneRow(125). "Torre Mágica, Nivel 1" measures 126 px in the small font,so the level gets cut off ("Torre Mágica, Nivel…"). I'd use something like "Gremio de magos 1" (109 px) and check it in game. Is that ok?

Thanks for the time you put into reviewing the Spanish PRs!

[zenseii]

@jaltamir. I'll go comment by comment.

• It should be Medalla Fizbin.
• "libro de hechizos"
• I agree that the best solution is the one used in French as you suggested.

2. no muertos

3. Gremio de magos

Thank you for the work you're putting into making the Spanish translation perfect.

[jaltamir]

You're welcome @zenseii :)

One last question, about point 1, 1 PR or 3 PRs?

[zenseii]

@jaltamir, since it's just about capitalization you can make 1 PR.

[jaltamir]

Hi @zenseii. I'm working on the PR for point 1.

While applying what we agreed, the French solution, "you find the %{artifact} / "encuentras %{artifact}" becomes "you find the artifact %{artifact} / "encuentras el artefacto %{artifact}", and I just realised that putting "el artefacto" before the name makes the article inside the artifact translation redundant in Spanish.

Example:

Before applying point 1: encuentras La Capa de hielo
After applying point 1: encuentras el artefacto "La capa de hielo"

My suggestion: applying point 1 but dropping the article inside the artifact translation
Suggested: encuentras el artefacto "Capa de hielo"

Since every sentence that inserts an artifact now says 'el artefacto', the gender problem that justified the article is gone. 98 of the 105 artifacts have it, so it would be a consistent change. It sounds more natural and better in Spanish.

Secondly, I forgot to check creatures and buildings. For example "Dragón Negro" should be "Dragón negro" to be consistent. Adding all these changes to the PR will increase the modified lines. If I'm not wrong around +-300 from +167 −164 that I have now. Do I still have your go-ahead for everything regarding capitalisation in 1 PR?

[zenseii]

Hi, @jaltamir. That sounds like a good idea. Are you sure that this will work for the descriptions of the artifacts too? Like "The "artifact" increases your attack by %{value}."?

[zenseii]

Also I'm fine with this all being 1 PR. It's not really translations but formatting.

[jaltamir]

Yes, I am.

Let's use your example with Dragon Sword.

English: The Dragon Sword increases your attack by 3
Spanish: El artefacto Espada del dragón incrementa tu ataque en 3

[zenseii]

@jaltamir , that looks good.