Friday, June 25, 2010

Stella Babelfish

From The Fairy of Subterra:


Original= Stella is the fairy of the sun and moon.
Simple and sweet. Let's see how badly this gets messed up.
Spanish= Stella is foretells of the sun and the moon.
From "the fairy" to "foretells." And it added an extra "the." This can't be good.
French= Stella is the fairy of the sun and the moon.
Wow! All it did was add an extra "the." That's probably as close as we're gonna get.
Italian= Star is the fatato one of the sun and the moon.
Huh? "Star"? "Fatato one"? And that extra "the." Things can only get worse.
Greek= Stella is the fairy of helium and moon.
How the heck did they get "helium"? And now we're missing a "the." Joy.
German= Stella is the Fee of the sun and the moon.
And now she's a "Fee," whatever that is. The extra "the" is back, too. Great.
Japanese= The stele is the fairy of the sun and month.
Oh God. Now she's a "stele" and she's the fairy of "month." Can't Babelfish get anything right?
Everything Above= The star is fee of helium and month.
What. The. Freakin'. Heck. This is nothing like the original. What do "star," "fee," "helium," and "month" have to do with the original? What did we learn today, class? Never trust Babelfish.

5 comments:

  1. I liked when "helium" was randomly added in there! HAHA!

    ReplyDelete
  2. To be grammatically correct for the French translation and original English (and all the other ones that add the extra "the"s), the extra "the" is supposed to be there.

    Here's the part where I get mean, although you might find this fun to do on Babelfish, there are a lot of people who can take offense to this because you are indirectly saying that other people's languages are incorrect. You are also not accounting for various linguistic dispersions, wars and pretty much all of history by doing this. There are reason why your translations appear as they do.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't mean in any way to be saying that other languages are incorrect. These are only meant to say that, between the grammatical differences in languages and the common flaws of modern technology run completely by computer, these translations can come out very cut up and butchered, considering the English language's standard grammar. A person who speaks a different language may think that English is "incorrect", using their own language's standards. No language is actually incorrect, considering that language is a mere usage of humans' capabilities to speak to each other and communicate. By English standards, one language may seem grammatically incorrect, while by the other language's standards, English is grammatically incorrect. These are meant only to show the humor of how, when translating language to language, there can be common mistakes of grammar that may change the original sentence's meaning. I apologize if these are seen in any way offensive to anyone, and would appreciate if they would contact me by leaving a comment. Kikurukina, I apologize if these seem offensive to you, but if they are, you are not forced to ever look at this page again. No one has to look at these or read them, and if they see them as offensive, I would greatly appreciate it if they would leave a comment, and then not look at this page again, knowing the obvious risk of the fact that they may see it as offensive once again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's not funny when you cannot do it correctly. Also, I am not that stupid to use French grammar on English. Je ne suis pas nulle.

    I do not know how to break this to you but English does not have an institution, a body that regulates the English language, to set the standards of grammar and syntax like French does. Most English is agreed upon and then perpetuated like a virus. You have various institutions that make your dictionaries but no one actually guards the rules of punctuation or of syntax.

    The English laugh us for having L'Académie française repeatedly but then you, in the third neuter plural person mind "you," throw at us your English rules that no one seems to agree on wholely. English is a whore for words and has no eloquence. It is one of the ugliest languages. It is also badly taught for the most part across the world when you learn it as your first language.

    To explain further on the addition of "the"s, they are supposed to be there. It is a rule of symmetry that no longer has an emphasis, or even a place sometimes, in English. English has many roots in French, that's how I will explain it.

    Francophones spend all the time that they are in school learning the various rules of syntax because there are many rules. Anglophones simply do not, which is a shame because it might be the answer to the poor education problem. The rule of symmetry of determinants is pretty basic but is never taught in English.

    Ex. I talk about the dogs and cat.

    There's nothing with this sentence. That is what most would think. You could pass basic English with that sentence.

    Ex. Je parle des chiens et du chat.
    Je parle des (de + les) chiens et du (de + le) chat.

    Translated: I talk about the dogs and (about) the cat.

    Notice the addition of a determinant to "cat" because they give you a meaning of the cat. The determinant can tell you "these dogs," "those dogs," "some dogs," "my dogs," "her/his dogs" and "the dogs," which all have completely different meanings. Most assume that the "the" is for both the dogs and the cat.

    I think you know enough about English syntax to understand what I am getting at. If you still do not, look at this:

    I ate apple, orange, peach and grapes.
    I ate an apple, an orange, a peach and some grapes.

    Which is correct and why?

    Also, do not write with contractions when you throw them into a translator. That is how most of the mistakes come up and it is not funny at all. It's more like laughing at yourself for being uneducated and stupid. Simple contractions such as "Stella's scepter" can go many ways: "Stella hers scepter/the scepter of Stella," "Stella is scepter" and "Stella was scepter." (The first one depends; I don't remember my Middle English possessive cases well.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. THIS IS SOOO FREKIN FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I speak French, Urdu, and German- but it doesn't offend me. C'est ok :)
    I love this :)

    ReplyDelete

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