UKH

Reaching out to the UKC Hive Mind, especially the Climbing Linguists and those with language skills beyond English. Climbers Against Cancer https://www.climbersagainstcancer.org/support-us/ needs your help! We've donated over half a million pounds to fund Cancer Research around the world, with more than half of this going to countries where English isn't the first language. However, in 10 years we've never produced a product that doesn't say "Climbers Against Cancer". Doh! 

To celebrate our Tenth Anniversary, and progress our mission to bring together the Global Climbing Community, we're going to launch a Multi-Lingual T-shirt in the Autumn. That's where you come in. We could just type CAC into Google Translate and cross our fingers, but we'd rather ask the experts.

Here's how we suggest this works. If you can translate Climbers Against Cancer into a different language, please reply to this OP with LANGUAGE: TRANSLATION eg Spanish: Escaladores contra el cáncer. BEFORE YOU DO please check to see if someone already beat you to it. If your language is already there and it's correct please give it an "Up Vote". If you disagree with the translation, please give a "Down Vote" and reply to that comment to suggest an alternative. What could possibly go wrong? 

We'll post a couple of starters to get the ball rolling. Many thanks for your help! 

Cheers, CAC Trustees

Spanish: Escaladores contra el cáncer

French: Grimpeurs contre le cancer

but what about les grimpeuses contre le cancer ?

(IT) Rocciatori contro il cancro

Kletterer gegen Krebs

Roccatori, scalatori oppure arrampicatori? Ce n'è uno migliore degli altri? Ovviamente, Arrampicatori contro il cancro è piu similare di CAC... ma, capisco che si usa "scalatori" più spesso?

How about: Grimpe contre le cancer ?

Not strictly following the brief; translates as Climb against cancer, but gets around the issue of gender in French grimpeurs / grimpeuses. 

Klimmers Tegen Kanker in Nederlands.

Скалолазы против рака

With thanks to my wife Elena who is native Russian but has lived in the UK for 30+ years. 

Not sure, of course, that you will want to include Russian in the current climate, although Russian is widely spoken outside of Russia, including in Ukraine.

According to Elena, the capitalisation is correct. Initial capitals for "против" and "рака" would be wrong. 

I hope the UKC site is able to accept Cyrillic script as above. Transliterated it reads "Skalolazi protiv raka" but that will not be well recognised by Russian speakers. 

Martin

Cymraeg (Welsh): Dringwyr Yn Erbyn Canser

As someone peripherally involved in this new development by CAC...

What would be particularly useful is insights from fluent speakers into whether literal translations of the phrase "work" in other languages. 

Would it send the same message as "Climbers Against Cancer"?  And if not, can you suggest another phrase that might work?

Our understanding has always been that "grimpeurs" implied all genders unless otherwise stated (e.g. as it is used in guidebooks and crag access notices).

However, perhaps french women climbers would prefer otherwise?  This is the sort of thing it would be useful to know.

FWIW, a the Spanish climber who gave us the phrase Escaladores contra el cáncer was female, even though the Spanish for a female climber is ecaladora.

My comment was meant as a bit of fun, but as you say, traditionally mixed groups took the masculine plural form (I think its the same in other Romance languages as well).

However in France (& I think Quebec) this has been contested in recent years leading to the concept of "Langage inclusif", aka "Ecriture inclusive" with forms such as "Cher·e·s lecteur·rice·s" (dear readers).

If interested, & if you can read French, have a look at https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langage_inclusif_en_français . 

Finnish: 

Kiipeilijät syöpää vastaan

(I should add the native speaker in the house says that whilst grammatically and literally correct it sounds a bit odd. Not sure why, it might be you'd use a different word than "against" to express that message. Anyway there are some native Finnish speaking UKCers so they can offer alternatives if the feel strongly!)

Norwegian: Klatrere mot kreft

Similar is happening in German. Whilst Pete's reply above (Kletterer gegen Krebs) is correct, it refers only to male climbers, and in recent years there has been a move towards more inclusive terms (which I don't think have been formally agreed upon yet).

An alternative would be "KletterInnen gegen Krebs", which is currently the most common way to represent both genders.

Another, avoiding the gender debate, could be with the verb: "Klettern gegen Krebs" (climbing against cancer). 

Greek: Ορειβάτες κατά του καρκίνου 

Arrampicatori contro il cancro

Instead of Google translate, try linguee.com

Multiple languages. 

A contribution from my NL-based friend Matthias:

Dutch is pretty straight forward “Klimmers tegen kanker” 

Thanks Doug and Mister Piggy - Good point! We'll have to come up with a consistent approach to try to be inclusive yet brief! 

Thanks for the additional variants (and thanks streapadair for the original Roccatori suggestion). Any more suggestions from our Italian friends? 

Cheers Pete, confirmed by a Dutch colleague too  

Thanks Martin - yes, for sure we'll include Russian language. Plenty of climbers around the world speak the language (including in Ukraine!) 

Thanks Catrin - Good shout; it would have been embarrassing to miss Welsh! 

Avoiding the gender issue by using the gerund 'climbing against cancer' works for French, Spanisn and German. Also, works better with the preposition 'against' I think... Do others agree?

Thanks Toby (and to the linguist in the household) - any suggestions as to what might be a more fitting synonym? 

Thanks Andy 

Brilliant - ευχαριστώ Mountain Spirit 

Swedish: Klättrare mot cancer

Climbing against cancer would be:

Klättring mot cancer

Bengt

Romanian: cățărători împotriva cancerului

Czech: Horolezci proti rakovině

Google Translate actually gets it correct!

Chris

Beardy Mike, who lives in the Dolomites if I remember correctly, has also suggested the Italian translation: Arrampicatori contro il cancro (ACC!)

Scalatori is often used, but I think arrampicatori is just as frequent. Never heard Roccatori before, tbh, but I am not native to Italy - just an avid learner with Italian relatives.

Thanks Bengt - different enough from Norwegian to be worth a separate entry! 

Cheers Verticon - would never have managed the accents! 

Thanks Chris - also lines up with Mr Ondra's suggestion  

OK, sounds like Arrampicatori is ahead in the polls at the moment! 

As a native speaker I can confirm that “climbers against cancer” sounds just a tiny bit off, maybe because of the Finnish meaning of the word “against” also potentially meaning ”to meet” but unless some Finnish linguist or translator can come up with something better, Toby’s suggestion is likely the best 😊

My Finnish was never much good and now is so rusty it took me ages to even remember what the Finnish word for cancer was. So I should say I just typed the message out, that actual translations was Elina's suggestion - credit where credit is due and all that.  

In Scots Gaelic,something along the lines of"Streapadairean an agaidh aillse"

I'd use arrampicatori for sport and trad climbers, I think it's the most common. I've heard scalatori, but more for mountaineering. Never heard rocciatori.  

Japanese suggestion.

がんと闘う登山家たち
(Gan to kakatau tozan-ka-tachi)

Literally climbers fighting against cancer 

Thanks Duncan - that's really helpful! 

A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread! Another great example of the global climbing community coming together to support the aims of Climbers Against Cancer! We've got a pretty decent coverage of the globe, but still a few gaps eg

• Portuguese 
• Eastern Europe (Inc Polish and Slovenian...)
• Chinese 
• Arabic
• ... and any coverage of much of Africa and Asia... 

This sponsored post times out tomorrow so please have a last rack of your brains or "phone a friend". If the post closes you can always email us at Hello@climbersagainstcancer.org with your ideas.

Meanwhile, keep an eye on the website for the fruits of your labour - the multi-lingual T-shirt will be available in the Autumn https://www.climbersagainstcancer.org/shop/

For those living outside the UK we've finally found a work-around for some of the post-B####t customs / export nightmare - just search for Climbers Against Cancer on Amazon.de .fr .it or .com (whichever ships to your region). 

Thanks again! Keep Smiling! 

On behalf of the Climbers Against Cancer Trustees  

Polish: wspinacze przeciw rakowi

But in my opinion better will be: wspinacze kontra rak

It's slighly different (closer to "climbers vs. cancer") but no so pompous.

Thanks James - that's exactly the kind of 'on the ground' input we need (and not what you'd get from Google Translate!)

I think the most natural sounding variant in Chinese would be: 攀岩者反对癌症.

Climbers Against Cancer (CAC) is a charity organization that was founded by the late John Ellison in 2013. The organization's mission is to raise awareness and funds for cancer research and support services through the global climbing community. John Ellison, a lifelong climber, started CAC after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2011. He wanted to combine his passion for climbing with his desire to contribute to the fight against cancer.

CAC operates primarily by selling clothing and merchandise, such as t-shirts and hoodies, with the Climbers Against Cancer logo. The proceeds from these sales go directly to cancer research and support charities. Climbers, outdoor enthusiasts, and supporters from all over the world participate in CAC's activities and events to help raise funds and Middle Age Spread (VS 4b)

Thanks Max! 

My OH is learning Slovenian, so I'll ask her to ask her teacher. 

Thanks Alasdair - that'd be great!

Here's an early prototype for how the back of the multilingual shirt might look. All comments and feedback welcome!

Cheers, Dom