Mike Aubrey October 7, 2009 Language, Translation

Truths about Translation #1-3

Language is complicated.
Two languages together are ~~twice as~~ complicated squared.
Translation only accentuates #2.

6Comments

1

judithweingarten on October 8, 2009 at 2:14 am
Reply

An old friend of mine (quite literally: she had been a librarian for the League of Nations)once defined a bilingual person as ‘someone who made mistakes in two languages’.

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2

Carl W. Conrad on October 8, 2009 at 3:57 am
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True about translation, no doubt; not so sure about “transation.”

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- 3
  
  Mike Aubrey on October 8, 2009 at 7:48 am
  Reply
  
  Ah, but had you noticed that “translations” didn’t agree with “accentuates”?
  
  It was a game: see how many of my typos can you notice.
  
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  - 4
    
    Scripture Zealot on October 8, 2009 at 2:54 pm
    Reply
    
    I’m addicted to that game. It’s internet-wide for me.
    Jeff
    
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5

Nathan Smith on October 8, 2009 at 7:51 am
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I think we need a more nuanced approach than “twice.” Perhaps some friends in the comparative or statistical linguistics fields can work up a formula for determining difficulty of translation which takes into consideration degree of cognate relation, etc. 🙂

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- 6
  
  Mike Aubrey on October 8, 2009 at 8:11 am
  Reply
  
  How about we use the same method used for quick and dirty conversions from Celsius to Fahrenheit: double and add 30?
  
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