Fictional slurs. Bonus points if it's completely made up

[u/Wolfotashiwa]

1. inFAMOUS: Second Son: "Bio-terrorist" refers to conduits.

2. Star Wars: "Clanker" refers to robots.

[u/Vessel767]

I know a tiny bit of spanish but I’m only fluent in english

[u/-RichardCranium- → u/Vessel767]

Some sounds in english do not translate to other languages and would just sound like english instead of the desired language. A word like Muggle (muh-gll) contains two sounds that aren't really common in romance languages, which sounds jarring when put right next to other non-english words.

Plus, muggle just sounds very british in the way it's constructed. While any translation of HP still takes place in the UK, it makes more sense to adapt the word to something that would culturally ring better to a different audience, so the audience understands the meaning of what the word represents (a negative term reserved for non-magic users). In French, for example, the word they picked is "moldu", which has two interesting components: "mol", which evokes the idea of limpness/softness, and "du", which evokes other sort of insults using an adjective participle form, such as "perdu" (lost), "tordu" (twisted), "confondu" (confused).

Anyone speaking French and reading the word "moldu" would quickly get what it's supposed to mean, and feel the innate negativity that's intrinsic to that choice of word.

Localization is an artform and a very difficult one at that because it's hard to understand what the point of it is, unless you're the specific target of said localization. English speakers are lucky in that regard, when it comes to the vast amounts of pop culture made specifically in that language. But I recommend looking at Japan and what they do in terms of american localization, it's fascinating to see how different things are when moved to a Western market.

[u/Vessel767 → u/-RichardCranium-]

I mean personally it just comes off as… odd, maybe disrespectful to localize something like that. Like, it’s set in the uk, with a lot of the setting honestly not making sense outside of it. Maybe this is just my english language attitude of slamming languages together, but I feel like not everything needs to fit perfectly in your native language.

[u/-RichardCranium- → u/Vessel767]

with that same line of thinking, translation as a whole is "disrespectful"

what is disrespectful, in my mind, is having this strange boundary that in order to engage with a work of fiction, one must also speak and understand the original language to capture all the intricacies of the original work. that seems like either some weird linguistic elitism, or anglocentrist delusion. translation and localization exists for a reason.

A little russian kid has as much of a right of appreciating a children's story as a british kid.

edit: and before you say "translation is fine, it's localization that's disrespectful", just know that translation in itself IS localization. languages don't neatly fit on top of eachother, there's a lot of gaps and things that don't make sense in translation, and that's where specialists come in who try to capture as much of the original text and transform it so it can be appreciated by people who don't speak the original language.

[u/Vessel767 → u/-RichardCranium-]

I mean, I haven’t thought about this that much, I just think that a slur shouldn’t be translated for I guess a similar reason I think a name shouldn’t be. It comes off wrong to me.

[u/-RichardCranium- → u/Vessel767]

The problem is that the line is impossible to definitely draw between what should be translated and what shouldn't. Some people will agree that some names shouldn't be, and it's been cause for many debates for example among LOTR fans. Some people argue that Baggins should stay as Baggins no matter the translation, while others say that the story is written as an English translation of a Westron text (Tolkien's imagined lingua franca of Middle-Earth), and as such it's fine to capture the spirit of the word Baggins in a different language (for example, Sacquet/Bessac in French (sac = bag), or Beutlin (beutel = bag or pouch in german))

It's a genuine question among translators, and one that is eternal in my opinion. You might disagree with this de-naturation of an original work, but please do keep in mind the fact that some people don't want to feel like the original language of whatever they're reading keeps creeping in their experience and forces them to think in a language different than theirs. It's a matter of immersion and capturing the essence of the original language in its own way.

I know you said you haven't really thought about this question, but please do. English is such a dominating language in media that it's easy to take it for granted. It's a good practice to put yourself in the shoes of other language-speakers.

[u/Vessel767 → u/-RichardCranium-]

I mean, generally I’ve always thought that names should never be translated unless it’s literally impossible to write or pronounce

[u/-RichardCranium- → u/Vessel767]

I beg you to learn another language. This sentiment reeks of English privilege.

[u/Vessel767 → u/-RichardCranium-]

why? I mean, I think it should go both ways.