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topumBecause I am super late on at least half of my to do list and three deadlines are coming up early next week, I decided to spend a couple of hours playing with Google Translate again. I took a randomly selected short poem in English and put it through all 102 languages available on GT in the order the languages appear there. So I started with the original in English, translated it into Afrikaans, then translated the Afrikaans version into Albanian and so on until I got a poem in Zulu, which I translated back into English again. None of the lines survived this ordeal and this is what I got:
If you see
Results!
events
of
life in first
security
and
night
more
and
Performance.
Sonnen
and
"
I want to play
Can you guess what I started with? I do not think it is possible. If it could be of any help here is the English translation of the Latin version, which is roughly half way through the exercise:
Behold, the lamp of the world after South
New opportunities!
that
I went down into the sea.
but it's
health Ka'eleku
Security
and
night
First.
or
Stage.
Sonnen "
when
'
I do not want to drink.
Notice that the last line went from "I do not want to drink" in Latin version to "I want to play" by the time I got to Zulu. And Latin "New opportunities!" in the second line became Zulu "Results". Also notice that once the German "Sonnen" got in, it could not be removed by any other language anymore unlike some "Ka'eleku" which was there in the Latin version but disappeared by the end.
Click below for the poem I started with.
Crossing The Bar by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
If you see
Results!
events
of
life in first
security
and
night
more
and
Performance.
Sonnen
and
"
I want to play
Can you guess what I started with? I do not think it is possible. If it could be of any help here is the English translation of the Latin version, which is roughly half way through the exercise:
Behold, the lamp of the world after South
New opportunities!
that
I went down into the sea.
but it's
health Ka'eleku
Security
and
night
First.
or
Stage.
Sonnen "
when
'
I do not want to drink.
Notice that the last line went from "I do not want to drink" in Latin version to "I want to play" by the time I got to Zulu. And Latin "New opportunities!" in the second line became Zulu "Results". Also notice that once the German "Sonnen" got in, it could not be removed by any other language anymore unlike some "Ka'eleku" which was there in the Latin version but disappeared by the end.
Click below for the poem I started with.
Crossing The Bar by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
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no subject
Date: 2016-02-21 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-22 06:19 am (UTC)Did you try it in Klingon? Google translate has Klingon yes.
Although I never tried to see if it had middle earth elvish. Hm. Going to have to try that sometime.
I wonder if it speaks wookie?
Or Targaryen?
I've clearly got work to do.
Athena
no subject
Date: 2016-02-22 07:23 pm (UTC)Yandex translate added Sindarin recently though...
no subject
Date: 2016-02-22 11:42 am (UTC)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mouse-Rat-Translation-as-Negotiation/dp/0753817985/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456141318&sr=1-1&keywords=mouse+or+rat
no subject
Date: 2016-02-22 07:18 pm (UTC)Weird how it got stuck on 'Sonnen': doesn't seem that obscure a German word, and surely in Greek, the next language down, they have an equivalent word? Odd.
I've noticed that Google translate often gets confused by negatives, you so often have to look at the broader context to get any idea of whether the negative should actually be there or not. (I end up guessing half the time. Google Translate: Do Not Use in Event of Fire!)
no subject
Date: 2016-02-22 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-22 11:13 pm (UTC)GT -- but now I gotta try that Yandex one!
Date: 2016-02-24 01:21 pm (UTC)Also, it IS fascinating that the German "Sonnen" (meaning "suns" -- the cap-S telling us that a given word is a noun) hangs in through the rest of the exercise, presumably because of that cap-S...
Thanks for the comment over on my LJ; nice to get to know you.
Re: GT -- but now I gotta try that Yandex one!
Date: 2016-02-27 10:10 pm (UTC)