I've sent you a PM.
Yeah I was wondering that sort of thing as well. Most of the planar cant had a definate British feel to it. Sounds very Cockney when I hear anyone speak it.
Some of it is actual cockney rhyming slang, and honestly given what it derives from in english, it's hard to come up with a similar term in a non english language. For instance, 'berk' is short for 'berkshire hunt' which itself rhymes with 'c*nt', a rather offensive phrase for a certain part of the female anatomy. Swapping that into another language might prove difficult, considering how the slang works, though I'm up for suggestions.
It's similar to when I was playing a member of the russian Vory in a shadowrun game. Rather than using any sort of english equivalent, I just used the original russian prison slang that the character might have picked up. Some of the terms are amusing, and they don't translate well (at least into english), so I kept the original language to preserve the feel of it.
Shemeska: i agree with you that it would be better,sometimes; ti use the original term but the effect is like that:
"ehi, here in the Cage you should pay attention how you rattle your bone-box, berk, or you'llbe put in the dead book"
Transl:
"ehi, qui nella gabbia devi stare attento a come scuoti la tua scatola delle ossa, berk, se no finirai iscritto nel libro dei morti"
That "berk" in the italian text is awfully out of place, don't you think?
you see that's the problem, to 1st write cant, then to find a relative term or just a term used as often by other groups.
so, in Italian; are there any sligtly vulgar slang terms commonly or uncommonly used as a friendly nickname/handle....such as inner city youths in America refering to themselves as N**** while if it is used by outsiders it is an insulting terminology refering to racial origin.
Of course there are :D ...as an example berk has the same meaning as Co.....ne (any italian will figure what word i mean), but, in my experience, using this words is detrimental for game atmosphere, and most certainly this lead to a suspension of desbelief...while using appropriatley uncommon old or slang terms add volumes to the "feel" of the Planes..
Greetings...i'm a new member of this forum, i'm Italian and i would like to know if someone translated the cant in Italian...
Hi!
There has been some discussion on possible Italian translations on the Italian newsgroups (it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd) and message boards (www.25edition.it/forum).
Just search google groups with "Planescape Cant" to get the major threads:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd/search?q=Planescape+Cant&start=0&scoring=d&
For the non-Italian, the main points that were discussed (barring the actual translations, which wouldn't be of much use here) were the different ways of capturing and translating the feel of the Cant.
Mainly, there are two camps: those who prefer to have a literal translation, and those who prefer to simply replace words and concepts with Italian analogues.
The second point was whether Cant should have a significant "fun" side or not. Some people find that the use of antiquate or regional words in Italian leads to silly results, which they do not perceive in the original.
This is especially relevant when the Cant word is supposed to be insulting and/or threatening, and an Italian word of similar origin and meaning would mostly cause hilarity...
Then, there is an objective difficulty in translating Cant into Italian (or other neo-Latin languages), as Italian does not lend itself to the creation of new words (compound words don't work as well in Italian as they would in English or German).
Also, while Italian has a lot of dialects, most of them are nowadays mostly known through comedians: while you may find "sod off" and "guv" in, say, a Hellblazer comic (and maybe even perceive it as a reference to it), Italian dialects are often immediately associated with comedians who use them or to the stereotypes they represent (this goes back to Commedia dell'Arte).
This leaves the would-be translators with pretty few options: a good source for the most serious words (say, official Faction names) is Dante's Inferno (e.g.: The Lost -> La Perduta Gente, even though the original meaning don't fully match).
Other (modern, in these cases) Italian authors that show creativity in the use of language are Benni (though most people who are worried about an excess of sillyness would not use his works in this context) and Gadda (great example of use of dialects mixed with Italian without silly effects).
Another source of inspiration is the crime slang. While mob slang (and even accent/dialects) are inappropriate, other crime/jail related slang may be more appropriate (I'm thinking mostly of Milanese ``mala'', see http://www.lospaziobianco.it/articolo.php?chiave=765).
Last, here is a link to two version of the Cant translation discussed on it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd/search?group=it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd&q=addle+cove+berk+sod&qt_g=1&searchnow=Search+this+group