Talk:List of operas by Georg Philipp Telemann

Latest comment: 12 years ago by Kleinzach in topic Untranslated German

Untranslated German

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Some appears in the Notes and Genre columns.
Is that intentional, to indicate a uniquely German style?
Varlaam (talk) 07:18, 6 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

I suppose so. Singspiel is an obvious example of a German term which has found its way into English; many other have not, but translating them is fraught with problems. Most of the work on these lists was done by Kleinzach who has a very strict understanding of historical genre terms. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 11:18, 6 December 2011 (UTC)Reply
There is also the German in the titles, partly quite amusing. Perhaps the notes could take one or the other attempt of translation or a link to a mythological figure mentioned. I would have a hard time though to translate "Der neumodische Liebhaber Damon" or "Alarich, oder Die Straf-Ruthe des verfallenen Rome". (Rome? Rom?) But a link to Narcissus would be easy. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:31, 6 December 2011 (UTC)Reply
Rome was a typo (now corrected to Roms). I'm against linking to Narcissus (mythology) because we are not concerned with mythology here. --Kleinzach 03:01, 7 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

The problem with translating genres (especially half translations of adjectives but not nouns) is that it creates ambiguity, inventing a term that didn't previously exist in English. So it's better to link directly to the articles that give full explanation. --Kleinzach 02:54, 7 December 2011 (UTC)Reply