manslaughter
Hey. Since you're a native speaker of both English and Dutch: manslaughter is defined as "killing someone unlawfully, but not willfully", and it's translated with German Totschlag and Dutch doodslag. Something's wrong here because the English definition doesn't fit the German and (I'm quite sure) Dutch meaning. "Totschlag" is killing willfully but without prearrangement. Now, is the English definition wrong? Or are the translations wrong? Maybe you could help if you have the time. Thanks.
This is mostly a legal distinction so I don't really know all the relevant definitions, as it may be different from place to place.
The Dutch Wikipedia says:
- Doodslag is het opzettelijk, maar niet met voorbedachten rade, beroven van het leven van een ander. Wanneer er wel sprake is van voorbedachten rade, spreekt men van moord.
- "Doodslag" is to purposefully, but not with prearrangement, take the life of another. When there is prearrangement, one speaks of murder.
And in the links to other articles, the link to the English Wikipedia points to "Manslaughter".
Yeah, it would take a legal expert in both "continental European" and "Anglo-Saxon" law... But at any rate Totschlag/doodslag is always willful. German Wikipedia's definitions of "Totschlag" for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland all specifically use the word "vorsätzlich" (= opzettelijk).
I think the solution might be the following. English wikipedia distinguishes between w:voluntary manslaughter and w:involuntary manslaughter. Thus it seems that the definition of "manslaughter" in Wiktionary would have to be changed because manslaughter can indeed be willful. And "voluntary manslaughter" is the German/Dutch Totschlag/doodslag.
"Involuntary manslaughter" would be something else. In Germany there is Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge ("assault resulting in death") and fahrlässige Tötung ("negligent homicide"). But this is another topic, that would get to specialized for myself.
But I would feel comfortable to change the definition of manslaughter to something like: A criminal act of killing a human being considered less culpable than murder (based on w:Manslaughter). And then I would add "voluntary" in brackets to the German/Dutch translations. That should be fine, right?