PF1中天金描述的翻译:
http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?topic=55642.0PF2中大巴扎的天金店
http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?topic=128936.msg1139545#msg1139545这几天研究了一下七种天金Abysium, Adamantine, Djezet, Horacalcum, Inubrix, Noqual, Siccatite. 也咨询了一下作者。
但除了Noqual的作者James Jacob还记得自己怎么发明的Noqual以外,另一个作者James Sutter已经忘光了自己是怎么想到这些名字了,这里先贴一下两位作者的回复:
劇透 - James Sutter:
I'm afraid it's been so long that I don't entirely remember the process. (For instance, I would have guessed that I invented horacalcum as well, but it turns out Plato beat me to that one.
) As for how I named them... I have a lot of different approaches when naming things. Sometimes I start from an idea, as with Abysium. That one's basically radioactive material, so I knew I wanted to use the "-ium" ending of our own plutonium and uranium, but then figured the energies unleashed would probably horrify the first folks who discovered it—they'd seem evil and fiendish, right? So I combined the suffix with the Abyss to get Abysium.
For the others, though, I suspect I found a bunch of common mineral endings (-ite, -um, etc.) and then looked for syllables that sounded interesting to put in front of them. (Sometimes I'll translate a related word into a bunch of different languages to get ideas, but I can't remember if I did that here.) One of the reasons horacalcum seemed so familiar is that it feels like something I'd do—it's related to time, and has traces of words like "horology" and "calculate" clearly visible in there.
James Sutter的回复中比较关键的思路是,他会把某个词翻译成其他语言后当成前缀再接一个定性的后缀。
所以接下来的内容是我试图进行逆向工程来还原的猜想。
Abysium:渊铀
这个比较明显,是Abyss和代表元素的-um结合在一起,是命名人觉得和深渊有关的放射性元素。
Admantine:精金,这个不说了
Djezet:
血铜 血汞
荷兰语Dje zet意为搬迁,移动,行动等。我认为想强调的点为“动态之物”,因此Djezet是永非固态的流动金属。按描述,Djezet是锈红色的液体,因此用红色的液体血搭配红色的金属铜组合成译名。
血是红色。如果表现流动形态,血汞怎么样
Horacalcum:山铜
PF1的这个词在这个版本中已经改成更常见的Orchicalcum,即山铜,原词的Hora=Hour, Calc=Calculation,描述了与时间有关的性质。
Inubrix:虚铅
拉丁语ĭnūbĕr和法语inūber都是瘦弱,衰弱,虚弱的意思,因此Inubrix是如铅般柔软的金属。取虚弱的虚和虚体的虚加上铅组成译名。
Noqual:
零晶 绝晶
作者解释为no quality of magic can affect this metal. 非常直白。Noqual的外貌和水晶非常接近,于是用代表无的零和水晶组成译名。
翻译完大巴扎的Noqual后发现这玩意儿比起不受魔法影响,更加是剧烈排斥魔法(还能用来反射魔法),改一个更有力量的,禁绝魔法的水晶。
Siccatite:漠石
拉丁语Sicca意为干燥,例如Sicca Syndrome即干燥综合征,后接-ite后该词意思为“干燥的矿石”。干燥在极热和极冷的情况下都能呈现,例如炎热的撒哈拉和严寒的南极都是非常干燥的荒漠。取荒漠的漠和矿石的石组成译名。