Journey's End - a linguistic point - From the Heart of Europe

Journey's End - a linguistic point

Jul. 5th, 2008 at 10:43 PM

Funny how Daleks speak German with an English accent?

And NB "Whatever you say" translates as "Was Sie auch sagen", not "Was immer Sie sagen". Edited to add: This is not a fair criticism - see below - though I stand by my comment on the Daleks' accents!

More later - I will do a second-half-of-season roundup post in due course.

Comments

( 12 comments — Leave a comment )

del_c

Jul. 5th, 2008 08:57 pm (UTC)

Also, "Darlig Ulv Strand" translates as Useless/Rubbish/Pathetic Wolf Beach. "Bad" in the scary sense would be another word altogether.

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drasecretcampus

Jul. 5th, 2008 09:41 pm (UTC)

About right then (and "Darlig" sounded awfully like "Dalek")

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tchernabyelo

Jul. 6th, 2008 09:32 am (UTC)

Which is too much of a coincidence not to be deliberate.

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cjk1701

Jul. 5th, 2008 08:58 pm (UTC)

"Was [auch] immer Sie sagen" is perfectly all right, colloquially though.

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liberaliser

Jul. 5th, 2008 10:56 pm (UTC)

True that.

*and high school German teachers up and down the UK rub their hands with glee*

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redfiona99

Jul. 6th, 2008 12:20 am (UTC)

Oh thank goodness for that, I was starting to worry my German had got worse, because that's what I use.

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purpletigron

Jul. 6th, 2008 07:18 am (UTC)

What's the German for 'Exterminate'?

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uitlander

Jul. 6th, 2008 08:10 am (UTC)

I have no German, so beyond the obvious "who are you and what are you doing here?" bits of the Martha-German woman exchange I have no idea of what was actually said in those scenes. Is anyone willing to summarise/translate?

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cjk1701

Jul. 6th, 2008 10:48 am (UTC)

Dalek text: Exterminate! Exterminate! Stop, else we will exterminate you! You are now a prisoner of the Daleks. Exterminate! Exterminate!

[...]

WOMAN: There is nobody here. Whatever you want, go away! Leave me alone!

MARTHA: My name is Martha Jones. I come from UNIT, Agent 56671. From the medical branch.

WOMAN: It was said you would come. The accent, that is London, yes?

[English bits. "When the Alptraum came from the sky": Alptraum = nightmare]

WOMAN: You are the nightmare, not the others. You! I should kill you, best [do it] right now.

[MARTHA: Then do it.]

WOMAN: Martha, to hell with you!

As noted below, the German isn't 100% perfect, especially the woman's first line. Plus, she speaks with an accent. Have to admire Freema and Nicholas Briggs, though.

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uitlander

Jul. 6th, 2008 10:56 am (UTC)

Thanks - The Daleks saying Exterminate was within my limited linguistic capabilities, and I got the gist of the exchange between Martha and the German woman but not the detail - thank you very much for that!

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