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Quick German translation question

StarFleet Carl ๐Ÿšซ

I know what Google translate says.

giftig nervengas / Gefahr Nervengas / Gefahr Giftgas

Are these relatively accurate translations of something that not a lot of people want to find in a crate leftover from World War II?

Replies:   Keet  Argon  bk69
Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@StarFleet Carl

For such translations you should never use google translate, it's highly inaccurate. You are way better of with one of the dictionary translations that often give examples in the form of sentences. Check out https://en.pons.com/translate/english-german/nerve+gas and look at the last sentence example, I think it gives you exactly what you are looking for.

StarFleet Carl ๐Ÿšซ

@Keet

For such translations you should never use google translate, it's highly inaccurate.

That's why I came here, for confirmation. And for straight nerve gas, it looks like it is nervengas. The plural - nerve gases - is nervengase.

Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Keet

Thanks for the link. For a LONG time, I've used Fiverr (a once-popular site) to recruit native speakers who'd understand what worked and what didn't, or at least knew who to ask, even if they didn't. But as the site has dropped in popularity, so too have the people offering to translate, limiting it's usefulness.

Argon ๐Ÿšซ

@StarFleet Carl

You wound probably find the symbol for poison on the crates, a black skull with crossbones on a triangular yellow background. There could be "Extrem giftig" printed under the symbol. I do not believe there would be a hint as to the nature of the poison. Perhaps some cryptic supply number.
On a different note, if you need rather good automated translations, try deepL. Small texts can be translated for free.

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Argon

On a different note, if you need rather good automated translations, try deepL. Small texts can be translated for free.

Only the other hand, DeepL only offers a small selection of modern languages. If you need to translate something to/from a more obscure language or an ancient language (Latin, Old English) you are out of luck.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Only the other hand, DeepL only offers a small selection of modern languages. If you need to translate something to/from a more obscure language or an ancient language (Latin, Old English) you are out of luck.

Though, there are literally MILLIONS of Catholic School Students who learned those languages in high school, and can still translate most simple texts, though obscure English usages or phrases will likely throw them. Thus, asking on a general discussion board, like this one, is likely to find a few willing to try it. Though fewer studied Ancient Greek (except philosophers and deep religious scholars, although many people studied Shakespearian works in depth, so can handle a variety of older English texts.

Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@Argon

Just out of interest, what Script would they have used? Some form of Modern Roman or something more Gothic?

Replies:   Argon
Argon ๐Ÿšซ

@Dinsdale

If the crate was military issue, I would expect the font to be non-serif. The Frakturschrift was not used for military labelling and dropped by the Nazis after a few years. The print font then was Antiqua, but that was a serif font too, and not conducive to the use of the military which needed a simple font for spraying words and numbers using templates. If you look here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Feldfernsprecher_FF33.JPG
you see a military telephone with instructions that are clearly in a non-serif font.
Not much help, I know, but that's all I could find out. I have no memory myself, and my parents did not keep memorabilia from WWII.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Argon

I have no memory myself, and my parents did not keep memorabilia from WWII.

And they should be cherished, for that simple act of basic decency!

Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Argon

Small texts can be translated for free.

How small of a font will they accept? ;)

bk69 ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@StarFleet Carl

Giftgas.

From the label (found at Dachau) of Zyklon B:

GIFTGAS!

[small text] skull/crossbones [small text]

ZYKLON

and then there was other bits on either end of that.

note the illegible text on the photo translated to "Cyanide preparation to be opened and used only by trained personnel"

Remember, ol' Adolf barely survived the use of chemical weapons. So when what he considered 'people' (thus, not Jews or Stalinists or homosexuals or Gypsies or the disabled) were at risk from them, he actually cared about their safety (in as much as he cared about anyone). So it makes sense that such things would be clearly labeled.

Replies:   Keet
Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@bk69

Giftgas.

'giftgas' is poison gas or toxic gas, not necessarily nerve gas. Then again, depending on the time setting 'giftgas' could be the better word like in your example from WWII. I'm not sure when nerve gas got it's separate designation from the more generic poison gas.

Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

If the gas is supposed to be left over from WW2 I doubt it would've been called Nerve gas as that term came into use many years after WW2.

Replies:   StarFleet Carl
StarFleet Carl ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

left over from WW2

It is. Thing is, the Germans INVENTED nerve gas, with Tabun (GA), Sarin (GB), and Soman (GD). So that term was around by 1940. (That's also the junk I used to 'play with when I was in the military. Not fun.)

I've figured out the 'label' that I'm going to have on the bottles that are found. Thanks!

Replies:   Ernest Bywater
Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@StarFleet Carl

So that term was around by 1940.

While the term is likely to have been used in labs and reports, I seriously doubt it would've appeared on labels in WW2.

Replies:   Dinsdale
Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

See Argon's first reply to this question.

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