John Fenz (asker) Dec 14, 2013:

Thank you, Joanna. That is very helpful: it is the purpose this PIAV IT system is intended to serve -- a PIAV "operationally common data exchange system" shared by the Laender and the German federal government. I've still not decided what to do. I am inclined to agree with Andrew's suggestion that since "PIAV-Operativ Zentral" works as the name of this IT system, it is perhaps best left untranslated with a note explaining what it means.

Johanna Timm, PhD Dec 14, 2013:

Zentral= Zentralsystem einfach verkürzt!
cp S.27 here:http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/085/1708544.pdf

Lancashireman Dec 14, 2013:

DNT I hesitate to suggest Do Not Translate as a solution, as this seems to be a negation of what the site stands for. Operativ Zentral, however, appears to be a fancy name that the the PIAV (Po­li­zei­li­cher In­for­ma­ti­ons- und Ana­ly­se­ver­bund) have given to their IT system. The evidence for this is that it does not obey the usual rules of adj + noun (gender endings) or even noun + noun (in which case, a hyphen would almost certainly be mandatory).

Horst Huber (X) Dec 14, 2013:

With markscape. It may be an anglicism to revert the Adj. - Noun order and put the adjective second for effect, thus creating a pseudo-noun, "operations central"

markscape (X) Dec 14, 2013:

Thanks, John. I looked at the doc and you're right about consistent usage of the word "Zentral". The only other thing I can think of is that because many Germans are now using English or giving their own words a more English/International flavour, this could be a usage that approximates "Central" (as in Central Intelligence Agency), but sticks with a German spelling. I have never seen this particular usage before - after 25 years in Germany! I'm also brand new to Proz, so I hope I'm not complicating things for you. Cheers.