Drakensang Just wondering... How do you pronounce it?
- Thread starter Warmskin
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Like this: http://tts.imtranslator.net/4t2c
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Nobody really knows because "Drakensang" is not a word in any language spoken by humans. It is pure marketing bullshit: a title that works internationally. You know so they[tm] may use the same trademark all over the world.
You may pronounce it according to whatever sounds your language of choice connects to this combination of latin letters. The German word(s) would have been "Drachensang" (thats the actual name of the summit from the P&P game that the game was named after), that roughly translates to "Dragons Song" (I'm not 100% sure about the "song" as the literal German expression for that is "Lied" and some meaning is lost in translation there).
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'Sang' is an old short form of 'Gesang' (ger.) = sång (swed.)
'Gesang' (ger.) = 'singing' (engl.) like in 'singing teacher' (='Gesangslehrer')
'Gesänge' = 'singings'
'Draken' is the genitive case of 'Drake' in swedish and means 'des Drachen' (ger.) / of the drake (engl.)
so we have:
Drakensang (swed./ger.) = Gesang des Drachen (ger.) = singing of the drake (engl.)
maybe we could say 'chant of the drake', too.
'Gesang' (ger.) = 'singing' (engl.) like in 'singing teacher' (='Gesangslehrer')
'Gesänge' = 'singings'
'Draken' is the genitive case of 'Drake' in swedish and means 'des Drachen' (ger.) / of the drake (engl.)
so we have:
Drakensang (swed./ger.) = Gesang des Drachen (ger.) = singing of the drake (engl.)
maybe we could say 'chant of the drake', too.
I'd say it is more like "Chant of the Dragon(s)" based on the fact that the German P&P calls the summit the game is named after "Drachensang" ("Drachen" may be plural or singular, "Drache" is singular only).
Anyway the CEO of Chromatrix (the company that holds the The Dark Eye electronic game license) has acknowledged that the title is a international marketing art term.
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- Aug 5, 2008
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"Drakensang" sounds imho like an old "Bosparano ?) version of the current Aventurian main languages, especially the "Garethi" from the middle-realm capital called Gareth (without the English th, but rather a normal t, I assume).
Especially in pre- "Year Of The Fire" years it was custom in P&P-material to "quote" much older aventurian texts and books, which had then a language that sounded ... I call it "artrificially ancient", because the real life editors behind it (those who were actually writing the material) tried to invent languages and dialects that are supposed to sound ancient - ancient in Aventurian terms, that is.
So, the Word "Drakensang" sounds to me like an ancient, aventurian word, that has been forgotten or so - but which comes nowadays into the minds of the current Aventurians, who are dealing with what happens within the game.
Plus, the word also is the name of a mountain - and mountains normally *always* have some sort of ancient names ...
Tryiing to describe how to spell it - the way I do spell it, as a German - Id's say it's like this :
The part "draken" reminds me of the English word "drake". The difference, though, is, that the German a is not spoken like the English a.
The English a is pronounced like a German ä.
Hence, the a in "Draken" is pronounced like in the English word "dark" or in "darkness" or in the word "part". I think that comes quite close to it. (Although I'm not a native English speaker, of course.)
The e in "Draken" is a short e like in the English verb "(to) enter".
The "Sang" is pronounced in a similar way. The a like in "part", the overall word like in "song". Just replace the o with the a of "dark", I'd say.
I think that fits to it.
Especially in pre- "Year Of The Fire" years it was custom in P&P-material to "quote" much older aventurian texts and books, which had then a language that sounded ... I call it "artrificially ancient", because the real life editors behind it (those who were actually writing the material) tried to invent languages and dialects that are supposed to sound ancient - ancient in Aventurian terms, that is.
So, the Word "Drakensang" sounds to me like an ancient, aventurian word, that has been forgotten or so - but which comes nowadays into the minds of the current Aventurians, who are dealing with what happens within the game.
Plus, the word also is the name of a mountain - and mountains normally *always* have some sort of ancient names ...
Tryiing to describe how to spell it - the way I do spell it, as a German - Id's say it's like this :
The part "draken" reminds me of the English word "drake". The difference, though, is, that the German a is not spoken like the English a.
The English a is pronounced like a German ä.
Hence, the a in "Draken" is pronounced like in the English word "dark" or in "darkness" or in the word "part". I think that comes quite close to it. (Although I'm not a native English speaker, of course.)
The e in "Draken" is a short e like in the English verb "(to) enter".
The "Sang" is pronounced in a similar way. The a like in "part", the overall word like in "song". Just replace the o with the a of "dark", I'd say.
I think that fits to it.