Grammatical Error with the German language in IL-2 Sturmovik
#1

I was playing IL-2 Sturmovik yesterday and I noticed that when I heard the audio, I was listening to the word "Absprung" when bailing out. I took German in high school and I noticed that the voice actor said it wrong and not in the imperative.

To say bail out in the imperative in German would sound like this. "Sprung ab" "Sprung ab" Ab is usually used at the end of a sentence in German with words that begin with ab. Like Abnehmen. To put it in the imperative, you'd say, "Nehm ab." or something like that.

I pointed out a grammar error with German in the game when listening to that. Or listening to the German pilot say, "Achtung! Yak", alluding to a Yak fighter when there are no Yak fighter aircraft in that instance of being attacked. It's rather odd.

They say things like "kann nichts" when or a fragment like "nicht möglich" (not possible is uttered.) Is this also grammatically correct and makes sense?

The German speech in IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 needs some fixing.

They're talking about using the verb to bail out,right? So, to discuss the bailing out of an airplane, they'd say "Spring ab!" "Spring ab" when jumping out of a plane and not Absprung Absprung, which is merely a noun describing that very act of jumping out an airplane. It does not describe the action of bailing out.

The German speech is rather odd in the game. I noticed that while listening to them speak German.

http://www.dict.cc/?s=abspringen


Wouldn't it be Spring ab? or Spring ab when bailing out from the verb Abspringen?
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#2

I was curious about this as "some" of the English is out of context or just seems wrong, Like the irritation in the ground controllers voice when giving permission to land. As if you had been bugging him for an hour... But language, being what it is, per-misses it to be "fluid" in different situations. To model this may not be possible or just too complex for the game. This may be so in German as well as the other languages. I would translate your question into German and post it in the German section and see what fluent Germans have to say. If you haven't done this already. Incidentally I liked the German voices in that other game European Air War, I don't know if it was "correct " it just sounded better.

There was also a sound mod that had a Female German voice, which was a nice change. Dunno if it was accurate or not. I have turned off all vocal responses because they just repeat and they get annoying, there needs to be more "Fluidity"

Post what you find out....
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#3

Hello,

Perhaps I can contribute to this debate as a native speaker of German. The imperative for the verb "to bail out" is indeed "Spring ab!" Or "Springen Sie ab!" in the formal form of address. However, this would not likely be used in the heat of the moment, under duress in combat or when witnessing a serious malfunction of an aircraftm I believe.
That said, I don't find "Apsprung!" particularly wrong in this scenario. It sums up what needs to be said in a single word, a noun, rather than having to go through a whole sentence. Therefore, I can imagine it having been used by German-speaking aircrew in this context during aerial battles or emergency situations.
Another line that used to pop up in my IL-2 version was something like "Raus da! Raus da! Sieh zu das Du da raus kommst!" "Get out! Get out" See to it that you get out!" This one, I found particularly dramatic and well-chosen.
I wonder whether the German airforce actually had a standard regulation phrase that was to be used to tell others to bail out of their aircraft, or that pilots were supposed to use when bailing out.

S!

RB
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#4

Thank you, interesting that you mention that the heat of battle has everything to do with the phrasing the crew member chooses, and that a regulation term or phrase is used so everyone who is listening could understand. For instance in the US Armed Forces when speaking numbers over the radio, the word "Tree" is used as a substitute for the correctly pronounced "Three" to avoid confusion in transmission, "Fife" is another for "Five" and "Niner" for "Nine" There are many others I just don't remember all of them. The games recordings are able to capture the emotion on some level, but its a game.
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#5

Don't blame the German pilot. Perhaps he didn't finish school during wartime. Big Grin
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#6

Patchman123 Wrote:I was playing IL-2 Sturmovik yesterday and I noticed that when I heard the audio, I was listening to the word "Absprung" when bailing out. I took German in high school and I noticed that the voice actor said it wrong and not in the imperative.

To say bail out in the imperative in German would sound like this. "Sprung ab" "Sprung ab" Ab is usually used at the end of a sentence in German with words that begin with ab. Like Abnehmen. To put it in the imperative, you'd say, "Nehm ab." or something like that.

I pointed out a grammar error with German in the game when listening to that. Or listening to the German pilot say, "Achtung! Yak", alluding to a Yak fighter when there are no Yak fighter aircraft in that instance of being attacked. It's rather odd.

They say things like "kann nichts" when or a fragment like "nicht möglich" (not possible is uttered.) Is this also grammatically correct and makes sense?

The German speech in IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 needs some fixing.

They're talking about using the verb to bail out,right? So, to discuss the bailing out of an airplane, they'd say "Spring ab!" "Spring ab" when jumping out of a plane and not Absprung Absprung, which is merely a noun describing that very act of jumping out an airplane. It does not describe the action of bailing out.

The German speech is rather odd in the game. I noticed that while listening to them speak German.

http://www.dict.cc/?s=abspringen


Wouldn't it be Spring ab? or Spring ab when bailing out from the verb Abspringen?

Being a native German and fluent in my language ( :lol: ) I have to say, I didn't find anything odd so far. Of course I'm not aware of th "official" Luftwaffe banter of WWII ( :wink: ).
But "Absprung" (noun, "Der Absprung" "The jump" - the act of bailing out) could be used in it's noun form as well as in the imperative, as an order.
It can be seen similar to the order of "Absitzen!", used by the army to order troops to dismantle from a vehicle. "Absitzen!" is used in imperative, though it's a originally a verb
(absitzen - to sit out a situation -> e.g. doing time in jail).
While you may be right, the use of "Spring Ab!" ("bail-out!") is likely to be more common, using "Absprung!" is no mistake (and hasn't bothered me so far, to be frank).

But I've never heard any actor saying something like "Achtung, Yak!". Actually the actor says: "Achtung! Die Jagd" ("Attention! The hunt", literally, "Attention! Fighters!" by sense).
As I said, I'm not "fluent" in Luftwaffe WWII banter, except for the official commands and code words ("Halle"/"Kirchturm": "Hall"/"Church Tower" = "Height"; "Eile":"Hurry"="Speed", etc.)
but as soldiers tend to use abbreviations, it could very well be, the actor is using the short form of "Jagdschutz" ("Fighter Cover" referring to the enemy) or "Die Jagd beginnt" ("The hunt is on!"- "Tally Ho!").
Speaking of "Tally-Ho!", this is what I really miss, is the famous: "Horrido!", or "Pauke, Pauke!", the first being the German word for "Tally-Ho!", the latter (translated: "kettledrum, kettledrum")
deriving from the German idiom of "auf die Pauke hauen", meaning "having a real big party". Both expressions were commonly used when opening an attack on the opponent.

As for your statement, the German language in Il-2 would need some fixing, I'd like to say, the use of language is o.k. as it is, moreover Maddox Games put in the effort and the money
to engage German actors, IMO, or they found Russian actors, who are nearly perfect in imitating German dialects, one of the actors speaks a slang they use in the area between
the southern regions of the state of Hessen and in the northern Bavarian regions of Franken. Trust me on this one, I'm from Hessen. Smile The other dude, whom you mostly hear when you're
escorting bombers, is from the Rhineland, I'd say south of Cologne. Also, the dialect used is as how I became to know it - a good buddy of mine lives up there (around Bonn - and I've heard,
one of the admins here is from the southern Rhineland, the beautiful city of Mainz, he could support, what I'm saying :wink: ).
As for the other actors, they speak a clear, fluent and grammatically correct german, where it's hard to tell, where they're originating from, but they definetely have no foreign accent.

If you want to hear some really bad examples of the use of German language, I'd recommend you play thru "Call Of Duty" series (at least the WWII episodes), "Medal Of Honor", or
"Return To Castle Wolfenstein". All of these actors have a distinctive American accent and they mostly speak in a rather silly high pitched voice, or sound like they swallowed a chewing gum
and desperately try to clear their throat. Sounds posh, I know, but with the budgets these games had, it makes you wonder, why they didn't employ some cheap "Jerry actors".

Maddox did. And to my ears, it sounds all right! Big Grin
So far my "zwofuffzich" ("twofifty="2cents", by sense :wink: )
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#7

Hi all

link here: http://www.dict.cc/?s=Absprung

Rookie
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#8

Rookie67 Wrote:Hi all

link here: http://www.dict.cc/?s=Absprung

Rookie


The OP already had this linked... :wink:
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#9

Maybe the radioman didn't say "Achtung! Yak!" but "Achtung ja!"
And about "Kann nichts" maybe he said "Kann nicht" because sometimes this last 't' sounds a bit like an 's'. (just try it by saying "Kann nicht" with German accent 10 times in a row)
Just my impression of it... :wink:
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#10

Lejo Wrote:Maybe the radioman didn't say "Achtung! Yak!" but "Achtung ja!"
And about "Kann nichts" maybe he said "Kann nicht" because sometimes this last 't' sounds a bit like an 's'. (just try it by saying "Kann nicht" with German accent 10 times in a row)
Just my impression of it... :wink:

As I mentioned before, the actor actually says "Achtung, die Jagd!". Why he does, read above. And he says "Kann nicht!", definetely. And, to be a kompletter smartass, I've tried to
say what you requested in three different german dialects, and I had no problems, whatsoever...
:mrgreen: Tongue Big Grin :lol:
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#11

Bearkiller72 Wrote:Maddox Games put in the effort and the money
to engage German actors, IMO, or they found Russian actors, who are nearly perfect in imitating German dialects
I don't know, in the credits of Forgotten Battles, German actors have German names and lastnames
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#12

SolanaBogon Wrote:
Bearkiller72 Wrote:Maddox Games put in the effort and the money
to engage German actors, IMO, or they found Russian actors, who are nearly perfect in imitating German dialects
I don't know, in the credits of Forgotten Battles, German actors have German names and lastnames

Yep, you're right, just looked it up ( http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/i ... es/credits ).
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#13

db605-A/S Wrote:... For instance in the US Armed Forces when speaking numbers over the radio, the word "Tree" is used as a substitute for the correctly pronounced "Three" to avoid confusion in transmission, "Fife" is another for "Five" ....

Not in the US Armed Forces in which I served for 28 years.
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#14

I was a combat medic in the US ARMY from 1982-to 1986. To communicate by radio with air ambulance "Dust Offs' These numbers were pronounced in this manner. I have a manual that shows this. It was also presented in our Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood MO. My Medic training was at Fort Sam Houston TX. I was deployed to South Korea and spent a 13 month tour, on the DMZ with the 2nd Inf Div, 3rd Bde, 1/9 infantry Btn. HHC 2nd Platoon, section leader and Batallion Pharmacy (Acting Pharmacist) for the last 4 months of the tour. I participated in 16 Dustoffs 8 of which were serious training mishaps, 5 Training missions and 2 deaths from enemy fire across the DMZ, and one demonstration for President Regan when he made his "historic" visit to Camp Liberty Bell, North of the 38th paralell. You don't forget training like that. I don't know in what or were you served, but why are you going through the trouble of questionng a fellow Veteran?

I remember now, it read like this.

Ze-Ro- Wun-Too- Tree- Fo'er- Fife-Six- Seh-ven-Ait- Niner-Ten- Maybe your radios were better than ours. and maybe I should have not said US Armed Forces but stated my expierence. Sorry for the confusion. These are also NATO, so I don't know why you were not trained in them

The phonetic alphabet is another regulation way of talking over the R/T or radio. For the benefit of those unfamiliar I will post this;
To phoeticly spell a word you use this

A= Alpha B= Bravo C= Charlie D= Delta E= Echo F= Foxtrot G= Golf H= Hotel I= India J=Juliette K=Kilo L=Lima M=Mike N= November O= Oscar
P= Papa Q=Quebec R=Romeo S= Sierra T= Tango U=Uniform V=Victor W= Wiskey X= X -Ray Y= Yankee Z-Zebra

So to spell a word like "IL2 Stumovik 1946 it Would SOUND like.......I SPELL, IN-DEE-YA LEE-MA TOO SIE AIR RA TANG-GO U- NEE FORM MIKE OS-CAR VIC-TOR IN-DEE-YA - KEE-LO WUN NINER FO'RE SIX...Over

Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICAO_spelling_alphabet

The reference is a bit different than I remember, but you get the general idea. Of course this has very little to do with the original post.
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#15

You are correct. It is the international/Nato standard code phonetic pronunciation for digits, to standardize pronunciation amongst all those who do not speak English as a native language. Tree, Fife, etc. I just never heard it put into practice in my time, personal experience. I still don't see what would be confusing about "tHree' or "fiVe" or 'sIx' in a radio transmission which would be clarified by saying Tree or Fife or sEx.

Not worth arguing about of course.

Perhaps more related to the discussion at hand is the use of Zwo rather than Zwei for the numeral "2" in German radio or telephone communications (avoiding confusion betweween Zwei and Drei, 2 and 3) Can someone confirm that usage in German/Luftwaffe communications?
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