posted
Interesting that OSC uses Jeesh in Empire too. I mean, is that just a carry over, an OSC thing, or is that a term that is really used?
Posts: 293 | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
I have it translated as an army or division, but that's Farsi. I couldn't find a good Arabic online dictionary, and my Arabic vocab isn't that big, but I think it's safe to assume it's a carryover word.
DaisyMae - I've never heard it outside of an OSC book, and I get around. That's one of the things that turned me off to Empire, not enough Tom Clancy-like accuracy.
Posts: 1156 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
sorry, but I thought all these odd words that the kids used were Brazilian Portuguese street slang.
While it doesn't directly translate from Portuguese to English, it's possible it is a bastardization of an existing word and therefore would not appear in a formal language dictionary. Or, it could be street slandg derived from a purely made up word.
posted
From OSC's reply to a similar thread in 2005:
quote:I have a library of dictionaries in many languages sitting within arm's reach of my chair when I write. I especially collect slang dictionaries. I used crude words from other languages so my books would be PG rated in English. I will not provide translations <grin>.
There were three waves of slang creation. I had my made-up slang when I wrote the story and novel Ender's Game, which included neh, eh, ho ... the basics (this was before "ho" entered general American slang as a word for prostitute or loose woman).
Then I worked on a futuristic computer game and invented a lot of underworld slang using Arabic, Russian, and Japanese slang dictionaries and transliterating and altering the words into ones that Americans could pronounce and spelled as we would spell them (thus: imo becomes eemo).
Since I still had this glossary of crude underworld terms on my computer, when I was writing ender's Shadow I dipped into that glossary and used the appropriate ones.
posted
In Arabic it's pronounced a bit more like "Jaysh". But only a bit. The appearance of it in Empire seemed incongruous to me, but what do I know. I haven't ever read a political thriller, and it's probably because I find Clancy's style of technicalese not enriching. I tolerate it on Star Trek, but it doesn't improve the experience.
To me, it's like watching "Mr. and Mrs. Smith where you can't quite forget that this whole movie about keeping that spark of the marriage alive was made in the process of wrecking a marriage. I know Clancy would never really put classified material in a novel, so what's the point of him creating the illusion that I'm right there?
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posted
Because Clancy at least tries to be accurate. His stuff is pretty realistic, as close as I think it's possible to come when fictionalizing fact. Some authors *cough* don't seem to think that some accuracy is important to the overall flow of the fictional story.
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posted
I tried to nitpick the geographic points, but it turned out Card was right and there was a reason I frequently get lost when driving through the district.
Are you claiming "some authors" are actually inaccurate or just that you need to see more bolts, rivets and ray guns to feel like you are in a political thriller?
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