4 ms·

How come they offer German translations (out of all languages)?

genewitch 5y ago
Maybe Lutherans? Or, more likely, some German heard of it and wanted to know more and translated it and sent it in. I've sent in dutch to English and German to English translations since I got a modem.
sho_hn 5y ago
Maybe for the same reasons the German Wikipedia is so large. I'm not sure what they are, but I suspect: It's a large language sphere, speakers enjoy relative wealth and the luxury of time, there is a cultural tradition of cultivating and archiving information. All of them may make it more probable someone would submit translations. In addition, here specifically, the online community was well-developed in the late 90s for similar demographic reasons, e.g. science/engineering communities jumping on board early. On the other hand, the Heaven's Gate cult made many references to Star Trek in their material as well, and the franchise enjoyed major popularity in Germany, I would wager beyond other non-English language spheres. This may also have increased the size of the potential receptive/interested audience.
- nefitty 5y ago
  I love that you synthesized that comment on the fly then actually took the time write and share it. In the back of my mind I have a maybe-never project brewing that would entail finding Wikipedia pages that only exist in one language. English would of course have many unique pages. I wonder how many non-English page translations would be rejected on notability grounds, just due to sheer cultural differences.
  - MauranKilom 5y ago
    I think you'll find that, in practice, there are many pages that fit "between" other pages in other languages. As random example, say English Wikipedia has "Matrix multiplication", "Strassen Algorithm" and "Coppersmith-Winegrad Algorithm" pages, whereas the German Wikipedia might have a "Matrix Multiplication Algorithms" page (this is not the current reality, but it could be). This makes sense, because if one wiki has, say, 60% of the content (and depth) of some other wiki, it will break it down into pages differently. Being able to speak both languages, I often find it instructive to browse the pages on a subject on both English and German Wikipedia, as the structure and depth of the material will often vary either way. It's sometimes unfortunate, but other times also possibly warranted that these wikis cover subjects to a different degree.
    - nefitty 5y ago
      Oh that's an awesome idea! I'm fluent in Spanish so this technique will probably make my Spanish and English brains way smarter.
meijer 5y ago
The German translations are pretty bad. For example: "for starters" is translated as "für Starter" which does not make any sense.
- conformist 5y ago
  Yeah, it reads like a very literal amateur translation by a native German speaker without much editing.
marcodiego 5y ago
I've heard German speakers say German is a good language for philosophy.

Maybe Lutherans? Or, more likely, some German heard of it and wanted to know more and translated it and sent it in. I've sent in dutch to English and German to English translations since I got a modem.

sho_hn 5y ago

Maybe for the same reasons the German Wikipedia is so large. I'm not sure what they are, but I suspect: It's a large language sphere, speakers enjoy relative wealth and the luxury of time, there is a cultural tradition of cultivating and archiving information. All of them may make it more probable someone would submit translations. In addition, here specifically, the online community was well-developed in the late 90s for similar demographic reasons, e.g. science/engineering communities jumping on board early. On the other hand, the Heaven's Gate cult made many references to Star Trek in their material as well, and the franchise enjoyed major popularity in Germany, I would wager beyond other non-English language spheres. This may also have increased the size of the potential receptive/interested audience.

nefitty 5y ago
I love that you synthesized that comment on the fly then actually took the time write and share it. In the back of my mind I have a maybe-never project brewing that would entail finding Wikipedia pages that only exist in one language. English would of course have many unique pages. I wonder how many non-English page translations would be rejected on notability grounds, just due to sheer cultural differences.
- MauranKilom 5y ago
  I think you'll find that, in practice, there are many pages that fit "between" other pages in other languages. As random example, say English Wikipedia has "Matrix multiplication", "Strassen Algorithm" and "Coppersmith-Winegrad Algorithm" pages, whereas the German Wikipedia might have a "Matrix Multiplication Algorithms" page (this is not the current reality, but it could be). This makes sense, because if one wiki has, say, 60% of the content (and depth) of some other wiki, it will break it down into pages differently. Being able to speak both languages, I often find it instructive to browse the pages on a subject on both English and German Wikipedia, as the structure and depth of the material will often vary either way. It's sometimes unfortunate, but other times also possibly warranted that these wikis cover subjects to a different degree.
  - nefitty 5y ago
    Oh that's an awesome idea! I'm fluent in Spanish so this technique will probably make my Spanish and English brains way smarter.

meijer 5y ago

The German translations are pretty bad. For example: "for starters" is translated as "für Starter" which does not make any sense.

conformist 5y ago
Yeah, it reads like a very literal amateur translation by a native German speaker without much editing.

marcodiego 5y ago

I've heard German speakers say German is a good language for philosophy.