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[martinuzz]

Dutch: dwerg (pronounced dvaerg)

[zak]

In romanian it's "pitic".

Deon, when they translated LOTR over here the dwarves also became "gnomes", but Snowhite's dwarves have always been dwarves in the romanian version.

[Duke 2.0]

Portuguese? anão.

At least, thats what my shaky understanding of my Fathers language results in. And Babelfish.

[stummel]

German: Zwerg

[Bullion]

Scots: Wee man.

....What?

[Slappy Moose]

Canadian: That little Newfie

[Deon]

quote:Originally posted by zak:
<STRONG>In romanian it's "pitic".

Deon, when they translated LOTR over here the dwarves also became "gnomes", but Snowhite's dwarves have always been dwarves in the romanian version.</STRONG>

What? I thought the snowhite's dwarves were gnomes not dwarves...
Err, because when I was a child I've read a snowhite russian translations, and there were ALWAYS small beardy gnomes.
Weird. It's like to understand that there's no more Santa.

[ShunterAlhena]

In Hungarian:
"Törpe" - standard
"Törp" - Tolkienish

"Törpék" and "Törpök" are the respective plurals.

[ June 05, 2008: Message edited by: ShunterAlhena ]

[DJ]

Croatian: patuljak

[Angellus]

I like the political one XD

Dutch: 'Dwerg'

[zak]

quote:Originally posted by Deon:
<STRONG>

What? I thought the snowhite's dwarves were gnomes not dwarves...
Err, because when I was a child I've read a snowhite russian translations, and there were ALWAYS small beardy gnomes.
Weird. It's like to understand that there's no more Santa.</STRONG>

I guess it depends on who is doing the translation. All the versions I've ever heard/read talk of Snow White and the seven dwarves, where "dwarves" is translated as "pitici". We have the word "gnom" too ("gnome" in english), but it comes from the latin "gnomus", which means "knowledge". And I am under the impression that in European mythology "dwarves" and "gnomes" are interchangeable, and do not suffer the same distinction as they do in the American D&D, where they are different races.

[martinuzz]

quote:Originally posted by ShunterAlhena:
<STRONG>In Hungarian:
"Törpe" - standard
"Törp" - Tolkienish

"Törpék" and "Törpök" are the respective plurals.

[ June 05, 2008: Message edited by: ShunterAlhena ]</STRONG>

I'm curious now what it is in Finnish and in Basque (part of Spain)
Those three languages are supposed to be quite similar.
And very different from all other languages spoken on the Eurasian continent.

Chinese, Spanish and Dutch, for example, can be rooted back to an ancestral common language and have more in common than Finnish and Swedish, Spanish and Basque or Hungarian and Bulgarian.
Even the languages that influenced the formation of , for example, Dutch language in the past 4000 years (Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Roman, a.o.) have more in common with each other then present-day Finnish and Swedish (two neigbouring countries)
Linguist have recreated (parts of) the ancestral language, even. It is called Proto-Eurasian.

Commonly accepted theory for the similarities in language across the Eurasian continent is... The domestication of the horse.

It is known by archeological finds that the pre-historic tribes in the region of Mongolia were the first advanced human tribes to domesticate horses.
This provided them with such an enormous advantage in mobility (and military capabilities) that they conquered and spread all over the continent in a relatively short period. We're not talking Gengis Khan here, we're talking pre-historics.

Somehow, in Europe, three small enclaves resisted or were overlooked by the onslaught. (Asterix and Obelix's great-multi-grandfathers perhaps). Those enclaves kept their language,  which used to be common in Europe. That's why Finnish, Hungarian and Basque are similar to each other (linguistically speaking), but alien to the other Eurasian languages. There are probably more languages in geographically remote locations or, more importantly, locations where horses do not provide an advantage, that have an older root than the Proto-Eurasian (pre-historic Mongolian) language.

Another interesting example of the importance of transportation and intercultural contact for the development of language can be observed in (I think) some of the the Guinea islands. On those islands tribes developed and thrived for thousands of years. But, since they were seperated from each other by inhospitable mountain peeks, canyons and jungle, they never developed civilized contact. (The lone wanderer that did happen to stumble upon another tribe was killed, and since most of the tribes were cannibalists, eaten.)
When the tribes were discovered in the second half of the previous century, linguists (that were not eaten) were baffled by the difference between the languages of people who lived only 20-30km apart. Again, Chinese and Dutch (or Chinese and English, for that matter) have more similarities than said languages on the Guinea isles.

Sorry for boring you.    

[ June 06, 2008: Message edited by: martinuzz ]

[Javis]

Korean: 난쟁이 (pronounced nan-jaeng-ee)

but in computer games, the transliterated word 드워프 (pronounced deu-wuh-peu) is used.

[Daniel Charms]

Estonian: "päkapikk". Something your average dwarf would probably take offense at, since it implies (and literally means) that they're only as tall as one's thumb. Another word used is "kääbus" (similar to Finnish "kääpiö), but this is rarely used for fantasy creatures.

[Aqizzar]

In Arabic it would be something close to kazaū.  The pronunciation is a bit off, but it's made out of the qāf - zāy - wāw roots.  Of course it refers to 'dwarf' as in 'midget', not a western fantasy creature.

And no, I'm not fluent in Arabic or anything, I just have an interest in it, so take that with a grain of salt.