16 May
2011
16 May
'11
1:41 p.m.
My favorite Latin story: I used to work in a law firm as a legal assistant, and heard this
from one of the firm's partners who'd been in the courtroom on this particular
day. A lawyer was making his argument to the judge and concluded with, "And well,
your honor, res ipsa loquitur." The judge asked him what that phrase meant and the
lawyer, looking puzzled, started explaining the legal theory. The judge stopped him and
demanded for the literal translation of the Latin phrase. When the (young) lawyer
couldn't provide it, the judge threw him out of his courtroom.... -- Ian
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 1:34 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: RE: latin stuff
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|
--Chuck