16 May
2011
16 May
'11
1:44 p.m.
On Mon, 16 May 2011, Chuck Guzis wrote:
I've often wondered about Google Language Tools
and the methods used
to render meaningful translations.
Recently, I took the Lithuanian national anthem and cranked it into
Google Language and received a word-for-word match with a "poetic
translation found on the web. Unfortunately, there was very little
literal correspondence with the actual words.
On another forum, I spouted Horace's "brevis esse laboro, obscurus
fio" and someone reported that they'd fed it into Google Language
Tools Latin translator and received "To be brief, dance with ugly
women". I know that Google Latin is in the alpha stage, but it
brought not a chuckle, but a belly laugh.
Google's Latin tool:
http://translate.google.com/?sl=la&tl=en#la|en|
That's what I used to come up with the stuff I originally posted. I had
to be very careful when selecting words because it would too easily get
sidetracked into something nonsensical. Vulgarity is particularly
troublesome. For example, "I fart in your general direction" gets
translated into "Pedere in I generali instructione", which seems to be
just gibberish of something to do with giving orders to an officer's feet.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
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