arndis: (Default)
If anyone knows German, or knows someone who does, I need a little bit of translation done. This semester's nightclub/restaurant project is in Berlin, so I'd like to know what the German version of its name is.

The long version is "the Tesla Aetheric Transference Company, Brandenburg Station." The short version is "the Tesla." Online translators can't cope because the name is too steampunk. The venue is a kind of interuniversal railway station, but instead of riding trains we're teleporting matter around through the ether.

Clarification of sense:
  • Tesla is a proper name, the founder of the company. (Yes, Nikola Tesla -- who else?)
  • Aetheric Transference is the process, and this is what seems to be giving the translators fits.
  • Station in the sense of railway station.
Anyone able to help?

Date: 2009-12-10 08:23 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] zunger.livejournal.com
I just checked one of Einstein's talks, and the term he used for the aether was "Äther." He was talking about the luminiferous aether (the hypothetical substance in which light is a wave) as opposed to the classical aether (the fifth element that the gods breathed), but I suspect that the word is the same for both. So... "Tesla Ätherische Übertragung GmbH, Bahnhof Brandenburg"?

(I don't actually speak German beyond the ability to partially decode technical papers, so this should be taken with a massive grain of salt)

Date: 2009-12-10 09:08 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] dagibbs.livejournal.com
GmbH would not be correct. GmbH is more like a "ltd" or "inc" than "company". It is a specific type of limit-liability corporate construct.

Date: 2009-12-10 09:20 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] zunger.livejournal.com
Yes, that was a bit of a loose translation. In English I would expect to see signs like "Tesla Aetheric Transference Co." (especially in the 19th century); I figured that a GmbH was slightly more ominous than an AG, since mad scientists are unlikely to have public stock offerings outside of Silicon Valley.

Date: 2009-12-10 10:34 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] dagibbs.livejournal.com
Ah, ok.

Profile

arndis: (Default)
Bronwyn Boltwood

September 2010

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
1213141516 1718
19202122232425
2627282930  

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 24th, 2025 01:27 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios