In this post from my series about translating Warzone 2100, I will discuss more example terms from the game, with focus on vehicles and structures. If you have not read part 1, you can find it here.

Weapons – Part 2

Flak and Anti-Air Weapons

“Flak” is a German term for ground air defence cannons / guns. It was translated as either “مدفع” or “رشاش” depending on the weapon. There are several AA weapons in the game, and here are their names and translations:

Tornado Flak (Unused)	مدفع الدوامة
Cyclone Flak	مدفع الإعصار
Hurricane Gun	رشاش العاصفة (Storm Gun)
Whirlwind Gun	رشاش الزوبعة
Stormbringer	جالب الكوارث
Sunburst	بزوغ الشمس

A tornado is a rotating column of air, and its other names include whirlwind, cyclone, and twister. A tropical cyclone is a kind of storm that forms over tropical areas, and where the wind moves in a circle. It may cause strong winds or rain, tornadoes, or high waves, and it has several different names depending on its location. They include hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, or just cyclone. A hurricane occurs in the Atlantic Ocean or northeastern Pacific Ocean, while a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, and in the Indian Ocean.

All these concepts has no agreed upon translations in Arabic, therefore I did not aim for achieving accuracy as much as trying to stick to the theme of storms. For all intents and purposes, “الدوامة” and “الزوبعة” are synonyms, and I don’t claim by any means that there is a one to one correspondence between them and the English originals.

For the “Stormbringer”, and since “storm” was used in the name of another weapon, I went for جالب الكوارث (Disaster Bringer), to avoid repetition.

There is no equivalent term for “sunburst” in Arabic, and so I opted for “بزوغ الشمس”.

Bombard

The real-world bombard is a large caliber cannon that was used throughout the middle Ages during sieges to open holes in the walls of enemy fortifications. In the game, it is heavy version of the ordinary mortar. Unfortunately, the weapon is unknown in to most Arabs. One option is to transliterate the name (بومبارد), and explain what the bombard is, since without an explanation the name will be utterly meaningless, and its connection with the real-world weapon will be lost. However, I decided to change its name, and went for the “المنجنيق” (“Catapult”, or precisely “mangonel“) for a number of reasons. One is the fact that “bombard” is derived from the Middle French “bombarde”, which means a cannon or a catapult. And although the working mechanism of the mangonel is completely different from that of the bombard, it is still a siege engine, and in Arab’s mind, it is associated with heavy stone projectiles, and the term itself is known to most Arabs.

Combat Engineer Cyborg (Wikipedia)

I opted for “السايبورغ المهندس” (Engineer Cyborg), because literally translating it will lead either to a wrong translation (“السايبورغ المهندس المقاتل”), or to names that does not sound right in Arabic, such as “السايبورغ المهندس القتالي”.

Autocannon (Definition)

The term is used in “Super Auto-Cannon Cyborg”. The autocannon is a gun that fires large-caliber shells, and it has greater firepower and a longer range than the machine gun. According to Wikipedia, Autocannons are “too cumbersome for infantry”, due to their weight and size, so the “Super Cyborg” has to, obviously, be so strong compared to the average soldier. I went for a literal translation (المدفع الآلي).

Thermite Bomb

Thermite is a mixture of metal powder and metal oxide that is used in incendiary weapons. I went for “قنبلة حارقة” (Incendiary bomb) instead of explaining what thermite is.

Vehicles

Propulsion

There are 4 ground propulsion systems available in the game, and they were translated as follows:

Propulsion	نظام دفع
Wheels	عجلات
Half-Tracks	جنازير نصفية
Tracks	جنازير
Hover	حوامة

Bodies

Each faction has three different bodies in three different sizes. Additionally, there are two neutral super heavy bodies. The Project names its bodies after snakes, the New Paradigm after insects, and the Collective after wildcats. In comparison, Nexus uses threatening names that has revenge as a common theme.

The Project

Viper	الأفعى
Cobra	الكوبرا
Python	الحنش

There is no agreed-upon translation of “Python”; therefore, I replaced it with “الحنش”, which in Arabic means a large black snake, and most Arabs know it. To be honest, I do not know what the scientific name of it is.

The New Paradigm

Bug	البقّة
Scorpion	العنكبوت (Spider)
Mantis	العقرب (Scorpion)

Mantises are not ordinary insects. They are ambush predators, that prey on arthropods and, sometimes, small vertebrates. They have large forelegs that are adapted for catching and gripping preys, and they were considered to have supernatural powers by early civilizations such as Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt.

Again, we are facing the same old problem. Many Arabs have never heard of this insect, and there is no agreed-upon translation for its name. As a workaround, I decided to make a change to the names of the bodies. The “Scorpion” was renamed to “Spider”, and the “Mantis” became the new “Scorpion”. This is acceptable, since scorpions do prey on spiders, and they are generally larger.

The Collective

Leopard	الفهد (Cheetah)
Panther	الجاكوار (Jaguar)
Tiger	النمر

The naming convention of the Collective’s bodies seems to follow that of the Nazis. I did not attempt to recreate this in Arabic, and decided to change the Leopard to “Cheetah” (الفهد), and the Panther to “Jaguar” (الجاكوار), for reasons similar to the ones mentioned above. Of course, the changes are not arbitrary, and I had to make sure that they still conform to the bodies’ weight hierarchy (The weight of an adult cheetah ranges between 20 and 70 kg, while jaguars can reach 95 kg).

Nexus

Retaliation	الانتقام
Retribution	القصاص
Vengeance	الثأر

Many abstract concepts have no are unique to a specific language and culture, and you cannot find exact equivalents to them in other languages. Therefore, I do not claim that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the English and the Arabic names. I just made sure to choose aggressive names that revolve around revenge and punishment.

Superheavy bodies

Wyvern	الويفرن
Dragon	التنين

The wyvern is bipedal dragon that is popular in European mythology and folklore. Most languages and cultures do not make distinction between wyverns and dragons, and this applies to Arabic too. I opted for a transliteration (“ويفرن”). Wyverns feature in the popular game “Arc: Survival Evolved”, and Arabic players use this same transliteration to refer to them, so there is no use of inventing a new translation.

Structures

Defensive structures	مبانٍ دفاعية
Base structures	مبانٍ رئيسية
Command Center	مركز القيادة
Power Generator	مولّد الطاقة
Research Facility	مركز أبحاث (Research Center)
Repair Facility	مركز صيانة (Repair Center)
Factory	المصنع
Tank Trap	فخ الدبابات
Bunker	ملجأ
Mortar Pit	خندق هاون
Emplacement	مربض
Hardpoint (similar to a strongpoint)	نقطةٌ محصّنة (Fortified Point)
Oil derrick	مضخةٌ نفطية (Pumpjack)
Oil pool	بئرٌ نفطي

Sensor Structures

Sensor Tower	برج استشعار
Radar Detector Tower	برج كشف الرادار
Wide Spectrum Sensor Tower	برج استشعارٍ واسع النطاق
Satellite Uplink Center (Definition)	مركز الاتصال بالقمر الصناعي
CB Tower (See definition of cb radar and cb fire Wikipedia)	برجٌ مضادٌ للمدفعية (Counter-Battery Tower)
VTOL Strike Tower	برج هجوم الطائرات العمودية
VTOL CB Tower	برجٌ مضادٌ للمدفعية (طائرات)

Modules

Many buildings can be upgraded with a “module”. This term is usually translated as “وحدة” (Unit). Although context will clear up any confusion in most cases, I went for “وحدة إضافية” (Additional Unit) as a precaution. So now we have “وحدة طاقةٍ إضافية” (Power Module), “وحدة مصنعٍ إضافية” (Factory Module), and so on.

Ensuring Consistency in Names

The name of all upgrades to the construction materials used in buildings follow a similar pattern, which is “* Base Structure Materials”, where * could be “Reinforced”, “High Density”, “Hardened”, etc. I tried to mirror this pattern in Arabic as much as possible.

Missile Silo

I avoided the literal translation of silos, because in Arabic, it is mainly associated with the structure used to store grains. I went for منشأة إطلاق الصواريخ Missile Launch Facility).

Other Game Elements

VTOL

VTOL is an acronym for “Vertical Take-Off and Landing” aircrafts. Here we have a number of options. First, we could leave the acronym untranslated, or go for a transliteration (“فيتول”). Personally, I found “طائرة عمودية” (Vertical Aircraft) to be a better choice, since it is more descriptive and not too long.

Cyborg

I opted for a transliteration (“سايبورغ”), because as I said before, content is everything, and in the case of “cyborg”, all the Arabic resources that discuss it use the transliteration. So even if the the player has never heard about this concept before, it is guaranteed that a quick internet search will return plenty of results in Arabic.

Artifacts

This is a tricky one. I decided to translate it as “قطعة أثرية” (An artifact, but in archaeological sense). Other possible translations are تقنية, تقنية أثرية، تقنية قديمة or مصنوعة أثرية. I prefer to keep “أثرية” (“Existent in time long past”) in the final time, since it signifies that the pre-Collapse civilization has really become something of the past.

Armors

There are two types of armor: Kinetic armor, which protects units from “kinetic” damage, and thermal armor, which protects them from heat and fire caused by weapons such as flamer and incendiary bombs. I went for literal translations (الدرع الحركي and الدرع الحراري) to keep them short, even though they might not make a lot of sense at first.

Translating “MK”

“MK”, the abbreviation of “mark” or “model”, appears in the name of numerous upgrades. Despite this, I did not go for a single translation, and instead translated it using several different words depending on the upgrade at hand. These words include “نسخة” (Version), “نموذج” (Model), and “تركيبة” (Formula). These are some examples:

Improved Laser Focusing Mk2	زيادة تركيز الليزر (النموذج 2)
Robotic Repair Facility Mk3	مركز صيانةٍ روبوتي (النسخة 3)
High Temperature Flamer Gel Mk3	جلٌّ حارق عالي الحرارة (التركيبة 3)

Scanlines

There is an option that controls whether scanlines are visible during sequences. For an explanation of scanlines see this and this. There is no place to explain the function of this menu option, and even if there was, the explanation woul be too long to fit. For me, translating the term would be no more useful than leaving it untranslated, and that is what I did.

Unit Ranks

When translating ranks in any game, I rarely care about creating one-to-one correspondence between the target and the source. The explanation for this is simple: Ranks are in many cases arbitrary, and many ranks are linguistically synonyms. For instance, the developers could have swapped “Rookie” for “Green”, and no players would have complained.

Rookie	حديث
Green	مبتدئ
Trained	متمرس
Regular	نظامي
Professional	محترف
Veteran	مخضرم
Elite	ممتاز
Special	استثنائي
Hero	بطل

More Examples

Ultimate Scavengers	قطاع الطرق المتوحشون (Ferocious / Vicious Scavengers)
Radar pulse	وميض الرادار
Transport	السفينة الطائرة
Transport Mission	مهمةٌ بعيدة (Away Mission)

Next Post

This wraps up the second post of the Warzone 2100 series. In the next and final post, I am going to discuss how the subtitles were translated, and the technical issues that I have face while working on them.