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[Rolan7]

None of those sound bad.  "Primarch" isn't a real word, "patriarch" is accurate but GWS changes everything up.  "Warmaster" isn't English either, though it feels natural.  We do combine words a lot, if they sound good.

"Warp" works too!  It pretty much means deformation of wood in English, too.  Deformation of wood, twisting of space-time, same idea.

Sorry if this came off condescending, those translations just sound fine to me as a native English speaker.  I could be missing bits of nuance.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Wait, if Primarch becomes Patriarch, what are Genestealer Patriarchs called?

[Avis-Mergulus]

Spoiler: This seems topical (click to show/hide)

In Russian, everything Latin-derived is pretty much the same - primarchs are primarchs, legions are legions, that sort of thing. Warmasters are either called воитель, (vaitel') - a more badass word for 'warrior', basically, which... could have been worse, or магистр войны, (magistr vainy) - 'magister of war', which is kinda badass. Still, a lot of Russophone fans just call them Warmaster (Вармастер. Terrible Russian pronunciation included). Then Chapters are called Орден, (orden) - German loanword, sounds awesome, I have no beef with it.

Then there's the thing where nobody can decide whether Latin names should be shortened as with older Latin-Russian loanwords, or kept in the original Latin form, as with newer ones. That's basically the difference between Gor and Horus or Sangvinius and Sangviniy. That's always kinda patchy.

E: Oh yeah, I guess a chapter master would also be called a magister.

[misko27]

Wait, if Primarch becomes Patriarch, what are Genestealer Patriarchs called?

Xenarch? Ethnarch? Heresiarch (actual word, I promise)?

I like these words. Something about "Arch" as either a prefix or a stem (today I learned that the word for prefixes and suffixes is "Affix") is just really cool.

[Rolan7]

Yeah, just as a suffix it commands respect and denotes authority...
I like Xenarch a lot.  Was that in...  Yeah!  It was in Starscape!

[Kot]

None of those sound bad.  "Primarch" isn't a real word, "patriarch" is accurate but GWS changes everything up.  "Warmaster" isn't English either, though it feels natural.  We do combine words a lot, if they sound good.

It's not bad, but I honestly hate it because... Emperor is "Patre", not Primarches. There was older version called Prymarcha, which, at first, sound like bastardized English (and really is), but the word "Prym" is quite old Polish for "Glorious Example" or something. Hard to explain, you can "wieść prym" which basically means "be best at".

"Warp" works too!  It pretty much means deformation of wood in English, too.  Deformation of wood, twisting of space-time, same idea.

Yeah, I guess. I just never... felt the word really, it's somehow... weird. You could actually argue that it's good, it gives me very much Chaotic vibes, especially Nurgle.
For reference, Corpus diease from Morrowind was also translated similarly, as Spaczenie.

Sorry if this came off condescending, those translations just sound fine to me as a native English speaker.  I could be missing bits of nuance.

I suppose. I actually don't really like Polish translations of anything Western (be it English or German or whatever, funilly enough Russian, other Slavic languages and to some extent even far Eastern languages seem to hold up fine for me) really - they just don't... fit for me. It doesn't sound right to me, but on the other hand I would rather slide down on my bare ass from giant cheese grater straight into a pool of rectified spirit than read a Polish book translated to English. You lose insane amounts of flavour this way.

Wait, if Primarch becomes Patriarch, what are Genestealer Patriarchs called?

Patriarches.

Spoiler: This seems topical (click to show/hide)

In Russian, everything Latin-derived is pretty much the same - primarchs are primarchs, legions are legions, that sort of thing. Warmasters are either called воитель, (vaitel') - a more badass word for 'warrior', basically, which... could have been worse, or магистр войны, (magistr vainy) - 'magister of war', which is kinda badass. Still, a lot of Russophone fans just call them Warmaster (Вармастер. Terrible Russian pronunciation included). Then Chapters are called Орден, (orden) - German loanword, sounds awesome, I have no beef with it.

воитель, I belive, is also the Russian version of Marvels War Machine nickname. I belive it is connected with Polish "wojownik" as the pronounciation seems to be Russian version of that word, which... yeah, means "warrior". Орден is a German loanword that can and totally will cause connection to the Teutonic/Livonian Knights which both Russians and Poles and everyone who ever lived near them in general had trouble with. I belive it means the same thing as Chapter (as in, bunch of monks), really, just like "Zakon" we use in Polish.

Spoiler: This seems topical (click to show/hide)

Then there's the thing where nobody can decide whether Latin names should be shortened as with older Latin-Russian loanwords, or kept in the original Latin form, as with newer ones. That's basically the difference between Gor and Horus or Sangvinius and Sangviniy. That's always kinda patchy.

Yeah, we get that too. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's so clear it's bastardized English version that it hurts.
Side note - Vulcan in Polish is Wulkan, which means Volcano 100% literally. I mean, it's not like that's not the case in English, but Wulkan doing something atop a wulkan is quite hilarious.

[Rolan7]

None of those sound bad.  "Primarch" isn't a real word, "patriarch" is accurate but GWS changes everything up.  "Warmaster" isn't English either, though it feels natural.  We do combine words a lot, if they sound good.

It's not bad, but I honestly hate it because... Emperor is "Patre", not Primarches. There was older version called Prymarcha, which, at first, sound like bastardized English (and really is), but the word "Prym" is quite old Polish for "Glorious Example" or something. Hard to explain, you can "wieść prym" which basically means "be best at".

Pri is just Latin for first, of course.  Primarch/Prymarcha sounds more latin than English
I'm sure that's where "Prym" comes from too.
Even when we don't formally study Latin, we subconsciously pick up certain Latin prefixes and suffixes because they're so common in our words...  Pri is one.

"Warp" works too!  It pretty much means deformation of wood in English, too.  Deformation of wood, twisting of space-time, same idea.

Yeah, I guess. I just never... felt the word really, it's somehow... weird. You could actually argue that it's good, it gives me very much Chaotic vibes, especially Nurgle.
For reference, Corpus diease from Morrowind was also translated similarly, as Spaczenie.

"Warp" is a strange word in English.  I think we usually learn it from context.  "The bridge warped under the strong winds" or such.  We don't actually use it much, but we understand it when we hear it.  I think that lends a supernatural quality to it.

Sorry if this came off condescending, those translations just sound fine to me as a native English speaker.  I could be missing bits of nuance.

I suppose. I actually don't really like Polish translations of anything Western (be it English or German or whatever, funilly enough Russian, other Slavic languages and to some extent even far Eastern languages seem to hold up fine for me) really - they just don't... fit for me.

Heh, I think it's often the opposite here.  At least with the people I hang out with.  Exoticness is interesting for its own sake.  Something that's almost right, but slightly wrong, draws us in.

Even if it's the worst animes

[Kot]

Heh, I think it's often the opposite here.  At least with the people I hang out with.  Exoticness is interesting for its own sake.  Something that's almost right, but slightly wrong, draws us in.

Even if it's the worst animes

...no?
Crappy Polish translations are not really exotic, at least not for Poles. It's English and other languages that could be decsribed as exotic (I mean, English has not been exotic here for two hundred years but you catch my drift), while most translations just seem... half-assed at best or akward at worst. That's why I usually want to read the source in the original language and if that fails I usually default to English.
As I said, it's better than English translations of (fucking unique) Polish sci-fi/fantasy. Those are just hilariously helpless.

[Rolan7]

I meant things that are translated into our language imperfectly.  Like most manga and anime.  They're mostly English, but there's something "off" about them.

[nenjin]

I've always seen Primarch as....

Primacy + "arch".

Consider the following:

a combining form that represents the outcome of archi- in words borrowed through Latin from Greek in the Old English period; it subsequently became a productive form added to nouns of any origin, which thus denote individuals or institutions directing or having authority over others of their class ( archbishop; archdiocese; archpriest)....

To note, I'm not a big fan of Dictionary.com but it seems to do the job here.

Anyways, I think back to like Hexen and the "Heresiarch", which was a priest-like monster that was usually a boss or mini boss of the earlier levels. Basically Arch-Heretic.

In this case, Primarch would be the primary Human with authority over all humanity. [insert obligatory disclaimer about how trying to apply logic to GWS word choices leads to irrelevancy and/or madness.]

...no?

I've heard some of the same things from Danes and Germans about translated English works. Maybe they're languages are better able to articulate the flavor of English prose better than Polish. But generally I've heard that they prefer reading English works in English, and their own languages' works in their own language. Either or tends to lose a little, or a lot, in translation.

[Avis-Mergulus]

Spoiler: This seems topical (click to show/hide)

In Russian, everything Latin-derived is pretty much the same - primarchs are primarchs, legions are legions, that sort of thing. Warmasters are either called воитель, (vaitel') - a more badass word for 'warrior', basically, which... could have been worse, or магистр войны, (magistr vainy) - 'magister of war', which is kinda badass. Still, a lot of Russophone fans just call them Warmaster (Вармастер. Terrible Russian pronunciation included). Then Chapters are called Орден, (orden) - German loanword, sounds awesome, I have no beef with it.

воитель, I belive, is also the Russian version of Marvels War Machine nickname. I belive it is connected with Polish "wojownik" as the pronounciation seems to be Russian version of that word, which... yeah, means "warrior". Орден is a German loanword that can and totally will cause connection to the Teutonic/Livonian Knights which both Russians and Poles and everyone who ever lived near them in general had trouble with. I belive it means the same thing as Chapter (as in, bunch of monks), really, just like "Zakon" we use in Polish.

I think enough time has passed that it would only cause trouble for really weird people. And the association with scary religious guys in massive suits of armor is kinda apt. Besides, as Orthodox tradition lacks monastic orders (there's monks, but they don't form orders in the Western sense), it was probably the closest translation anyway.
The воитель/wojownik thing is a little more complex - Russian also has the -nik suffix for affiliation|occupation names, but it's not used in this case. I don't think Polish has the -tel' suffix, which is more of a description of your actions, I guess. So it's like the difference between "warrior" and "war-wager". Just "warrior" would be voin.
And we also have the volcano thing, though I've never heard people lol at it that much.

[Kot]

I didin't say it would cause trouble, eh. If anything it's good that it could be associated with Real World Black Templars, eh.
We do have the -tel suffix. Easiest example - "представи́тель", which I belive is pronounced "predstavitel" is "przedstawiciel" in Polish. There are more words like this, albeit I don't think -ciel has been ever used in conjunction with "wojować".

[Teneb]

I probably should be glad there are no translation of 40k stuff to portuguese, despite that meaning I don't have access to the books and such. All those fake latin names wouldn't sound as nice when whomever says it is speaking in a language based off of actual latin. A few things would translate well, though, such as primarch (which, probably "translated" as primarca, would sound like an actual word (despite not being one)).

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Let's keep some perspective about Polish here.

[Kot]

Let's keep in mind that Czechs ask about leaves in asses when they check bus tickets. Or that they do love to children. Or when they have an idea they have an attack.
The history of Slavic languages is so diverse and so troubled that it's no fucking suprise they're so weird to each other.