Comparison of English, Occidental/Interlingue and Catalan
Saturday, December 20, 2008
It's great that Google now offers automatic translation into and out of Catalan in addition to a ton of other languages, because 1) Catalan is not that widely-used a language, and if they can provide this service to a language that size, there may be some hope for Interlingua, Ido and Esperanto (the only three that would be able to provide a large enough corpus for translation). 2) I've always thought Occitan resembles European IALs more than any other language, and Occitan is a close relative of Occitan so it's fun to compare them. Here's one example from Occidental's Un international congress with a translation in English made somewhat awkward on purpose to make it easy for Google to translate, and then the machine-translated Catalan version (which is of course somewhat awkward as well).
Occidental | English | Catalan |
Noi have un grand international congress in li cité. | We have a large international congress in the city. | Tenim una gran congrés internacional a la ciutat. |
Li nationes de Europa es representat per eminent cultural persones. | The nations of Europe are represented by eminent cultural persons. | Les nacions d'Europa estan representats per persones eminents cultural. |
Li centre del congress es in li palace del parlament. | The centre of the congress is in the palace of parliament. | El centro del congrés és al palau del parlament. |
Elegant modern automobiles sta ante li portas e sur li stradas e plazzas. | Elegant modern automobiles stand before the doors and on the streets and plazas. | Elegant i modern automòbils estan davant les portes i als carrers i places. |
Li fassades es decorat per li national flags. | The facades are decorated by the national flags. | Les façanes estan decorades per les banderes nacionals. |
Li flags del nordic landes have li cruz quam symbol. | The flags of the nordic lands have the cross as symbol. | Les banderes dels països nòrdics tenen la creu com a símbol. |
On vide delegationes de divers partes de Europa, de nord e sud, de ost e west. | One sees delegations of diverse parts of Europe, of north and south, of east and west. | Un veu les delegacions de diverses parts d'Europa, del nord i del sud, l'est i l'oest. |
Un deputation visita li presidente del state in li grandios residentie contra li ópera. | A deputation visits the president of the state in the grandiose residence across the opera. | Una delegació visita el president de l'estatal a la grandiosa residència a tota l'òpera. |
Special correspondentes fa observationes e scri articules por li redactiones de grand jurnales e telegrafa al burós de information. | Special correspondents make observations and write articles for the editing of large journals and telegraph to the bureaus of information. | Especial corresponsals formular observacions i escriure articles per a l'edició de les grans revistes i telègraf a les taules d'informació. |
0 comments:
Post a Comment