Chess

A forum for translations, translation challenges etc. Good place to increase your conlang's vocabulary.
Post Reply
User avatar
Lambuzhao
korean
korean
Posts: 5405
Joined: 13 May 2012 02:57

Chess

Post by Lambuzhao »

Hail, gang!
I am surprised that, with so many folks who like Chess, and have even developed and explained variations here on CBB, nobody offered a translation topic about chess (!?)

This one's simple. Just give the name of the game in your lang (or the closest conworld equivalent) and the names for the pieces.

If you want to include special terms like "to rook" or "checkmate" that is perfectly fine as well.

Well, have at it then!
:mrgreen:
Khemehekis
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 3935
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 09:36
Location: California über alles

Re: Chess

Post by Khemehekis »

Kankonian:

tshess: chess
tei: king
tenya: queen
paikwot: bishop
donatu: knight
rouk: rook
pan: pawn
tsheskatel: chessboard (tshess + katel, board)
tshekmeit: checkmate
sombodzho: zugzwang (a more general term that means "you're screwed no matter what")
♂♥♂♀

Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 90,000 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
User avatar
Lambuzhao
korean
korean
Posts: 5405
Joined: 13 May 2012 02:57

Re: Chess

Post by Lambuzhao »

Complete tangential, but as I was cross-checking for the names of chesspieces in Coptic, I came across this, from the Louvre:
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010050476

Stroke for stroke, this is the near identical iconography for the legendary Saint George & the Dragon. This was created during the Meroïtic Epoch (300-400 CE). And the legendary St. George allegedly died in 303 CE (!)
Wow…

Here's a pair of icons of St. George & the Dragon for comparison:
Georgian Icon (11th cent CE)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... khauri.jpg

Ethiopian icon
https://images.app.goo.gl/u5Y3kGipfixvseMF6
User avatar
lsd
greek
greek
Posts: 752
Joined: 11 Mar 2011 21:11
Contact:

Re: Chess

Post by lsd »

in 3SDL, no specialized vocabulary (in fact, no lexicon at all, just semantic primes...),
chess pieces would be named according to their size:
- from biggest: first one (king)
- to smallest: 6th one (pawn)...
User avatar
Lambuzhao
korean
korean
Posts: 5405
Joined: 13 May 2012 02:57

Re: Chess

Post by Lambuzhao »

Image Bohairic

ⲛⲓⲣⲏ ⲛ̀ⲍⲟⲛⲓ [nɪ.rε: ᵊn.zɔ.nɪ] - chess (Lit. The Suns of the Regions)

ⲙⲁⲧⲟⲓ [mɑ.tɔj] - pawn (Lit. ‘soldier’)

ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ [rɑ.kɔ.dɪ]– rook (‘fortress’, homophone for ‘Alexandria’)

ϭⲁⲥⲓϩⲑⲟ [tʃɑ.si.tʰɔ] or [gɑ.si.θɔ] - knight (Lit. 'who rides the horse')

ⲍⲟⲛⲛⲓ [zɔ.n: ɪ]- bishop (Meaning dub. ≠ ⲉⲡⲓⲥⲕⲟⲡⲟⲥ [e.bi.skɔ.bɔs] the word for the personage)

ϩⲁⲛⲁⲁⲗⲁⲥⲱϯ [hɑ.na.ˀa.la.so:.dɪ]– queen (Meaning dub. ≠ⲣⲣⲱ [ᵊr.ro:] ‘queen’ the word for the personage)

ⲛⲓⲥⲟ [ni.sɔ] - king (Meaning dub. ≠ ⲟⲩⲣⲟ [u:.rɔ] the word for the personage)
User avatar
Lambuzhao
korean
korean
Posts: 5405
Joined: 13 May 2012 02:57

Re: Chess

Post by Lambuzhao »

:lat:
**NB: There are a number of variations for each piece in :lat:, ranging from direct loans from Arabic or Persian, to loan-translations, to nicknames.

ludus scaccorum - chess (Lit. game of Shahs)

rex - king

domina - queen. (Lit. 'lady')

turris - rook . (Lit. 'tower')

sagittifer - bishop . (Lit. 'archer')

eques - knight

pedes - pawn . (Lit. footman)


Scaccum! - Check!

scaccus mattus! - Checkmate!
User avatar
Reyzadren
greek
greek
Posts: 685
Joined: 14 May 2017 10:39
Contact:

Re: Chess

Post by Reyzadren »

:con: griushkoent (without script here)

itwouk ; harkspil, guisspil, curspil, yurdspil, krozspil, saethspil.
/'itwɔuk. 'harkspil, 'guisspil, 'tʃurspil, 'jurdspil, 'krɔzspil, 'seθspil/
chess ; horizontal-trinket>PL<, diagonal-trinket>PL<, run-trinket>PL<, walk-trinket>PL<, block-trinket>PL<, king-trinket>PL<
Itwouk (chess equivalent in the conworld): tree piece, bird piece, horse piece, fish piece, stone piece, king piece.

There is no need to declare "checkmate" in that position. For instance, just eat the king piece to finish the game, and one can say /'resk/ (win) to oneself because one won.
Last edited by Reyzadren on 07 Sep 2023 03:11, edited 1 time in total.
Image conlang summary | Image griushkoent thread
Salmoneus
MVP
MVP
Posts: 3050
Joined: 19 Sep 2011 19:37

Re: Chess

Post by Salmoneus »

Lambuzhao wrote: 29 Jul 2023 16:50 Complete tangential, but as I was cross-checking for the names of chesspieces in Coptic, I came across this, from the Louvre:
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010050476

Stroke for stroke, this is the near identical iconography for the legendary Saint George & the Dragon. This was created during the Meroïtic Epoch (300-400 CE). And the legendary St. George allegedly died in 303 CE (!)
Wow…
It's an old meme.

Specifically, these are all depictions of Sabazius - Sabazius rides on his horse (originally always from left to right), with his right hand held high behind his head holding a lance. He's hunting something, usually a boar, and either the boar, his hound, or both are often depicted underneath his horse.

This meme became super-common across the Classical world, both as Sabazius and as an adopted form (often missing the animals but otherwise identical) as the symbol of Roman cavalrymen.

The meme also became entangled with another one - the one where Castor and Pollux on horseback face each other with a goddess between them. Often the goddess has a representation of the rod of asclepius. This meme in turn is extreme old, as it's a version of the old animal-taming meme foudn across the eurasian steppe, in which a pair of animals face one another while a deity stands between them. And this meme led to more complex versions of the Sabazius meme in which there's also a woman and a serpent nearby. This may have been reinforced by the sabazian version of the meme, because serpents were a key part of Sabazian worship (as still reflected in some modern American churches which maintain the old sabazian snake-handling rituals (via gnosticism)).

Anyway, it's then a very short distance from "horseman tramples/spears beast while serpent looks on" to "horseman tramples/spears serpent" - a change probably inspired by the equally ancient middle-eastern meme of the slaying of a chthonic serpent-monster by a hero.

The entire meme is then associated with the various Roman soldier saints, because of the close association of the sabazian meme with Roman cavalry. George was one of those saints, and eventually happened to be the one someone wrote a good story about to link him to the meme (800 years after his death, if he was a real person).

Some of the icons of George still maintain the greek goddess (now called a princess, whom george is rescuing), and even sometimes the tree that the snake crawled off (either in a forest (despite the famous story being set in Libya) or in a garden in the city that the princess is from).
Iyionaku
mayan
mayan
Posts: 2103
Joined: 25 May 2014 14:17

Re: Chess

Post by Iyionaku »

:con: Yélian

If I didn't state it otherwise, the words also translate to their English equivalent in common usage.

bravoyá [ˌbraːʋɔ̈ˈʃaː] - chess
I forgot what the exact etymology of this was; but bravo translates to "king", and I assume that the suffix -yá actually derives from the Persian word šāh, also meaning "king" and where the English word for chess derives from as well. At least I think that this is what I thought when I created this word.

bravo [ˈbɾaːʋɔ̈] - king
ráia [ˈɾaːɪ̯ɐ] - queen (actually "princess")
gravel [ˈgɾaːʋəl] - bishop (actually "elephant")
macmi [ˈmakmi] - knight (actually "horse") - chiefly Southern Standard
mær [mœːd̟] - knight - chiefly Northern Standard
ègerin [ˈɛxəɾɨn] - rook (actually "tower")
con [kon] - pawn (actually "leg" or "foot soldier")

bravoyarpǽr [ˌbraːʋɔ̈ʃɐɾˈpœːd̟] - chessboard (bravoyá + arpǽr "board")
mát [mat] - checkmate (borrowed from Classical Persian and cognate to English checkmate)
Wipe the glass. This is the usual way to start, even in the days, day and night, only a happy one.
User avatar
Creyeditor
MVP
MVP
Posts: 5123
Joined: 14 Aug 2012 19:32

Re: Chess

Post by Creyeditor »

:con: Omlűt

This is about the version of chess that I posted about over in the other thread. The game is called muf`table' or trümfmuf `board of warriors' or trümftë trűlkrë `warriors and animals'. The board is called mirz `book', thurp `strip of cloth', or muf `board' (from Kobardon mofiva 'small table'), which is also a name for the game. Pieces are called sausvakt `disc' (< svakt `circle-shaped'). Pieces are divided into trimf `man, warrior', who move like kings and take the place of pawns, and trulk, who have more varied moves and are listed below.

tsurd `flightless rail', moves like a squirrel, i.e. two squares in any direction if there is no intervening piece, takes the place of a king and is royal
khams `flightless songbird', moves like a falcon, i.e. diagonally forward, orthogonally sideways or orthogonally backwards.
pruf `coconut crab' (< Kobardon profifa `critter'), moves like a rook-hopper, i.e. orthogonal in any direction but needs a hurdle to jump over and can only land and capture directly behind that piece, takes the place of a rook.
spir `mudskipper' (< Sipri spiri `giant mudskipper'), moves like a dinosaur, i.e. orthogonal or diagonal, but can only move if it can capture an opponent's piece, takes the place of a queen.
trad `catbird' (< Kobardon trada `catbird'), moves like a hippogonal leaper but can only move four or five squares, i.e. (1,4), (1,3), or (2,3), takes the place of a knight.
grur watersnake (< Kobardon grura `watersnake'), a promoted trad, moves in identical obtuse trad moves.

Piece names might be subject to change.
Creyeditor
"Thoughts are free."
Produce, Analyze, Manipulate
1 :deu: 2 :eng: 3 :idn: 4 :fra: 4 :esp:
:con: Ook & Omlűt & Nautli languages & Sperenjas
[<3] Papuan languages, Morphophonology, Lexical Semantics [<3]
User avatar
Lambuzhao
korean
korean
Posts: 5405
Joined: 13 May 2012 02:57

Re: Chess

Post by Lambuzhao »

@ Salmoneus
It's an old meme.

Specifically, these are all depictions of Sabazius - Sabazius rides on his horse (originally always from left to right), with his right hand held high behind his head holding a lance. He's hunting something, usually a boar, and either the boar, his hound, or both are often depicted underneath his horse.

This meme became super-common across the Classical world, both as Sabazius and as an adopted form (often missing the animals but otherwise identical) as the symbol of Roman cavalrymen.
Super-interesting! :wat: Thanks for sharing!
- the one where Castor and Pollux on horseback face each other with a goddess between them.
Tale meme as old as time… [B)]
the Sabazius meme in which there's also a woman and a serpent nearby. This may have been reinforced by the sabazian version of the meme, because serpents were a key part of Sabazian worship (as still reflected in some modern American churches which maintain the old sabazian snake-handling rituals (via gnosticism)).
Your telling reminds me of the Minoan 'Snake Goddess' or 'Snake Priestess. I wonder if the meme goes that far back :?: :wat:
"horseman tramples/spears serpent" -
… in three moves . [:x]
inspired by the equally ancient middle-eastern meme of the slaying of a chthonic serpent-monster by a hero.
This reminds me of Herakles' labors, especially with the Hydra and the Dragon Ladon, but also the wrassling of Cerberus, all three spawn of Typhon and Echidna, as the perpetuation of the myth of Zeus -v- Typhon, but writ in more demigod/heroic (¿salvific?) terms :wat: :wat: :wat:

¡GRACIAS!
User avatar
prettydragoon
sinic
sinic
Posts: 442
Joined: 29 Jan 2012 10:22
Location: Third star on the left, straight on till tiffin
Contact:

Re: Chess

Post by prettydragoon »

:con: Rireinutire

vañapevu ('princess game') is a Rireinu board game broadly similar to Human chess (similar enough that chess is called yumavañapevu 'Human vañapevu'.) The two sides are Red and Green, both have an identical army of 16 pieces: one princess, two guards, two horses, two elephants, two chariots, two cannon, and five soldiers. Green moves first.
Princess vaña
Guard rurupiñi
Horse tohikave
Elephant mumaki
Chariot vayinaña
Cannon utesoho
Soldier yarakave

Rireinutire names for the pieces in yumavañapevu:
King vaña 'princess'
Queen vapi 'general'
Rook vunu 'tower' also called vayinaña 'chariot' due to its similar moves
Bishop kimapiñi 'runner'
Knight sakapiñi 'leaper'
Pawn reñi 'farmhand'

Translation challenge 76/100
Image
♀♥♀
What is this, how you say, Rireinutire?
Post Reply