Reading this thread, I can't help thinking of Tolkien when he said he's "translating" the Westron names into English because otherwise they would seem as alien as the Elvish names. The Finnish, Czech and Ukrainian names give me the same feeling as the few Westron names that we know.
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Originally Posted by Legate
However, sadly, I am not capable to make the German words fit to Middle-Earth - given by the geographical and cultural circumstances, I just know it's German, so any further attempts to imagine a "German Middle-Earth" as some different world are lost
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Of course, unfortunately, this effect gets lost quickly if one knows the other language.
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Originally Posted by Nogrod
These are just so Finnish! I mean they sound like things or creatures from the past of Finnish mythology...
The translations may look like just slight diversions from English but they actually sound very ancient Finnish at the same time. Maybe Tolkien was once again picking these from the Finnish phonemes?
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This reminds me of when I first read LotR in English, and was surprised to see that several Rohirric names (Riddermark, Erkenbrand, Elfhelm, Hornburg) were the same in the original as in the German translation. They fit in so perfectly with the translated names.
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Originally Posted by Nogrod
Barrow-downs ~ Hügelgräberhöhen
- might look terrible but when pronounced is quite pleasant, awoking ideas of the Alps to me...
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The problem with Barrow-downs is that there are no barrows in Germany, and because of that there only exists the more complicated "Hügelgrab", which means hill-grave.
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Originally Posted by Lommy
but on the other hand the ones that have something to do with Elves don't sound very fitting.
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True. Especially "Bruchtal" for "Rivendell" doesn't fit at all, in my opinion.
I'd like to see translated names in more languages!
Where are the local speakers of the Romance languages?