Language Translation

[DickNervous]

So I know there are many written and even more spoken languages throughout the Imperium. And I know that Anglic is the primary language.

What I don't know is what current language (or languages) is Anglic based upon? I have always assumed it was English, but I could be wrong.

The reason for asking is to determine is a translator that is designed to translate between current Earth languages (such as English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc) would be able to translate Anglic. And to how well would it do it.

Thanks!

 

[aramis]

Probably English with even more borrows from Japanese/Nihonjin, Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), French/François, and German/Deutsch.

 

[whulorigan]

Probably English with even more borrows from Japanese/Nihonjin, Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), French/François, and German/Deutsch.

Probably significantly influenced by Spanish as well, with a number of Vilani loan-words in addition.

 

[DickNervous]

Thanks for the input guys! That's sort of what I was thinking and will work for what I want to do.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

During the Interstellar Wars period:

Most Terrans speak at least two languages. Meanwhile, the modern dialect of English (which has plenty of loan words and slang from Mandarin, Spanish, and other languages) seems likely to become the first universal Terran language. It is already the official common language of the Terran Confederation Navy, and it serves as a lingua franca throughout the Terran colony worlds and nearby Imperial space. - GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars pg.9

In turn, the Vilani are defeated and the Confederation Navy sends its 100,000 officers. The commonality of English will be the exposure most Vilani receive after the Wars. During the Wars, the Vilani may receive exposure to others via trade, but not from the Terran Navy.

 

[coliver988]

As for the translator part, I borrow a bit from Star Trek. As Google and Microsoft already have working real time translators (not perfect but still) and there are at least a couple of American Sign Language <=> spoken to take care of the Hiver side of things, I have basic universal translators that can cover most of the languages inside the Imperium and even outside the Imperium. You can always purchase more languages. Just don't go cheap & get the off-brand ones as translating idioms and slang can yield interesting results.

But Anglic is the intra-Imperial language pretty much everyone speaks, although accents are bountiful and can also yield misunderstandings. That and words getting co-opted and meaning entirely different things.

(And don't get started on number systems - buying from a system that uses base 12 for its accounting and suddenly you have too much to fit in your cargo bay despite thinking you only bought 80 tons [which is 96 tons base 10] to fill your 80 ton cargo bay)

 

[Adam Dray]

I just spent two weeks in France. While at breakfast (er, petit dejeuner) in Auvergne, my wife meant to tell our hosts that Americans were gauche. Instead, Google Translate heard "vaches" (cows). Yes, she told them that Americans are cows. Hilarity ensued.

I'd say that modern translation tools are still pretty much in their infancy.

 

[Timerover51]

As for the translator part, I borrow a bit from Star Trek. As Google and Microsoft already have working real time translators (not perfect but still) and there are at least a couple of American Sign Language <=> spoken to take care of the Hiver side of things, I have basic universal translators that can cover most of the languages inside the Imperium and even outside the Imperium. You can always purchase more languages. Just don't go cheap & get the off-brand ones as translating idioms and slang can yield interesting results.

But Anglic is the intra-Imperial language pretty much everyone speaks, although accents are bountiful and can also yield misunderstandings. That and words getting co-opted and meaning entirely different things.

(And don't get started on number systems - buying from a system that uses base 12 for its accounting and suddenly you have too much to fit in your cargo bay despite thinking you only bought 80 tons [which is 96 tons base 10] to fill your 80 ton cargo bay)

Case in point: Boot and Bonnet in the UK verses the US. Then there are the different food names.

 

[coliver988]

I just spent two weeks in France. While at breakfast (er, petit dejeuner) in Auvergne, my wife meant to tell our hosts that Americans were gauche. Instead, Google Translate heard "vaches" (cows). Yes, she told them that Americans are cows. Hilarity ensued.

I'd say that modern translation tools are still pretty much in their infancy.

Perhaps Google had it right....but then we stray into territory unfit for civilized behavior .

Google just released new ear buds that have built-in translation, so we are moving to the ST comm badge translators.

I've used mistranslation a couple of times, mostly for hilarity's sake but also to try & drive home that cultures are different. Sometimes it is hard to try & have different cultures portrayed well. Similar to trying to play aliens - hard to get past the human but with fur tropes.

But back on track - wonder if written/electronic translators would work any better? Early automatic translation was rough - it missed expressions and intent. And that's the hard part about translation: intent.

 

[DickNervous]

Last night we had the first session where the translation was needed. As soon as they realized that the translators were having problems they started using very simple 1 or 2 word sentences and hand motions. So they managed not to get themselves killed... yet.

 

[robject]

Not much Vilani influence (although it's hard to understand why not).

For an example of what Anglic "looks like", look at the system names in the Spinward Marches. They're clearly English-like, but largely unrecognizable by us.

I think at one point in my Travellering, I spent some time back-translating/inventing meaning for things that looked like root words among world names in the Spinward Marches. And I posted a thread about it here on COTI. It would've been maybe 10 years ago.

Ah, here it is: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=16004