Round-trip translation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Round-Trip Translation is a recreational spin-off of machine translation and computer-assisted translation software, such as Systran's and Altavista/Yahoo!'s Babel Fish language translation tools. A user may start translating a block of text between languages to arrive back in the original language, albeit with a derivative end result. The goal of round-trip translations is usually amusement, so while variances are desirable, whether or not they are actually amusing is a subjective call.
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[edit] Ingredients to humorous outcomes
For amusement to take place, the translation must have both of the fundamental elements of humour. First, it must have relevance, it must bear some resemblance to the original and thereby intellectually engage the audience. Next, it must have some surprise factor or twist.
Inasmuch as translation between two distinct, living languages is never an exact science, the current state of computer translation tools makes this more evident. Small glitches in the translation can easily be exploited in repetition, becoming more pronounced as errors pass from one language to another. As one website explains it, "translation software is almost good enough to turn grammatically correct, slang-free text from one language into grammatically incorrect, barely readable approximations in another. But the software is not equipped for 10 consecutive translations of the same piece of text. The resulting half-English, half-foreign, and totally non sequitur response bears almost no resemblance to the original. Remember the old game of 'Telephone'? Something is lost, and sometimes something is gained. [1]"
[edit] History
Apparently, arriving at surprising destinations with machine translation is not an altogether recent phenomenon, and may date back to the inception of the software in the 1950s and the 1960s. According to Werner R. Loewenstein's The Touchstone of Life, a language translation machine was experimented with for translating the Bible from English to Spanish. It apparently "did quite quite well until it got to [Matthew] 26:41: 'the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.' The translation read: 'el aguardiente es agradable pero la carne es insipida' (the liquor is nice but the meat is bland)." Competing versions of the story have surfaced as far back as 1990, however, and in 2000, a reviewer of the same book mentions a English-Russian-English version he is aware of [2], as does a 1999 Snopes article[3].
In Philip K. Dick's 1969 novel Galactic Pot Healer, a character passes the time at his boring job by playing a game involving round-trip translations and a world-wide computer network. A typical instance of the game involves one person translating an English book title into a different language (e.g. Japanese) and back. Then another person tries to guess the original title. It was a remarkably accurate description of games that can be played with Babel Fish and the internet.
[edit] Best round-trip languages
While machine translation advances continue, when using the currently available Systran Babel Fish technology, the quality of the end result in a round-trip translation depends on the similarity of the languages used. For that matter, most inter-European language translations can be comprehended with varying humorous values. Asian-European trials, however, usually produce complete gibberish, thus losing a relevant connection with the original. Hence, the translation, along with its entertainment value, becomes suspect (see for yourself), and at best, may result in confused or nervous laughter. Below are two examples of an inter-European round-trip translations using English, French, and German.
[edit] Examples
Round trip translation can illustrate features of languages in a droll fashion, useful for language teachers. For example, on one free translation site, the child's expression "hey Mister, get your ass off my bunny" (said to an adult on a bus who sat mistakenly on the child's toy bunny) becomes "gentleman, obtain the donkey from my rabbit baby" in Chinese. This shows that Mister can be used disrespectfully in American English in such a way that it no longer corresponds to the Chinese word for "gentleman" and that Chinese lacks a single word for "bunny".
| Babel Fish "English-German-French-English" Round-Trip Translation of Babel Fish (website) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| In English: | Auf deutsch: | En français: | In English: |
| Babel Fish
(website) |
Babel Fische
(Web site) |
Babel de poissons
(Web site) |
Fish Babel
(Web site) |
| From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia. |
von Wikipedia,
die freie Enzyklopädie. |
des Wikipedia,
la encyclopédie libre. |
of Wikipedia,
the free encyclopaedia. |
| Babel Fish is an internet-based application developed by AltaVista (now part of Yahoo!) which machine translates text or web pages from one of several languages into another. | Babel Fisch ist eine Internet-gegründete Anwendung, die von AltaVista entwickelt wird (zerteilen Sie jetzt von Yahoo!) welche Maschine Text oder Webseiten von einer einiger Sprachen in andere übersetzt. | Le Babel poisson est Internet-gegruendete une application qui est développée par les AltaVista vous distribuezmaintenant (des Yahoo! !) quel appareil traduit le texte ou des Webseiten d'une de quelques langues en d'autres. | Babel fish is Internet-gegruendete an application which is developed by the AltaVista distribuezmaintenant you (of Yahoo!) which apparatus translates the text or of Webseiten of one of some languages into others. |
| It takes its name from the Babel fish, a fictional animal used for instantaneous language translation in Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. | Sie nimmt seinen Namen von den Babel Fischen, ein fiktives Tier, das für blitzschnelle Sprachenübersetzung Douglas Adams' im Roman der Führer des Trampers zur Galaxie benutzt wird. | Elle prend sa nom des Babel à des poissons, un animal fictif qui est utilisé pour traduction de la langue très rapide Douglas d'Adam 'vers le roman des chefs du Trampers à la galaxie. | It takes its name of Babel to fish, a fictitious animal which is used for translation of the language very fast Douglas of Adam ' towards the novel of the chiefs of Trampers to the galaxy. |
| The translation technology for Babel Fish is provided by SYSTRAN, whose technology also powers the translator at Google and a number of other sites. | Die Übersetzung Technologie für Babel Fische wird von SYSTRAN zur Verfügung gestellt, dessen Technologie auch den Übersetzer bei Google und eine Anzahl von anderen Aufstellungsorten antreibt. | La traduction technologie est mise à la disposition pour les Babel de poissons par SYSTRAN dont la technologie exhorte aussi le traducteur avec des Google et un certain nombre d'autres lieux d'installation. | The technology translation is availability for fish Babel by SYSTRAN whose technology exhorts also the translator with of Google and a certain number of other places of installation. |
| It can translate among English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. | Sie kann unter Englisch, vereinfachtem Chinesen, traditionellem Chinesen, Holländern, Franzosen, Deutschem, Griechen, Italiener, Japaner, Koreaner, Portugiesen, Russen und Spanischen übersetzen. | Elle peut traduire sous l'anglais, le Chinois simplifié, le Chinois traditionnel, des Hollandais, Français, un Allemand, grec, l'Italien, le Japonais, le coréen, Portugais, Russe et l'espagnol. | It can translate under English, the simplified Chinese, the traditional Chinese, of the Dutchmen, French, a German, Greek, the Italian, the Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. |
| While the methods used for translation are very advanced, the system is not designed to produce a "genuine" translation, but to allow a reader to gain the gist of a page or text. | Während die Methoden, die für Übersetzung verwendet werden, sehr vorgerückt sind, ist das System nicht, um eine "echte" Übersetzung zu produzieren, aber entworfen einem Leser zu erlauben, den Kern einer Seite oder des Textes zu gewinnen. | Tandis que les méthodes qui sont utilisées pour traduction, ont avancé beaucoup, le système n'est toutefois pas, pour produire une "véritable" traduction , au point au point un lecteur permettre, le coeur d'un côté ou du texte gagner. | While the methods which are used for translation, have much advanced, the system is not however, to produce "a true" translation, at the point at the point a reader to allow, the heart on a side or text to gain. |
| Translations often sound unusual or even incomprehensible, and a number of online services have been implemented that use the Babel Fish service to translate back and forth between one or more languages, often with humorous or strange results — called a "round-trip" translation. | Übersetzungen häufig stichhaltige ungewöhnliche oder sogar unverständliche und eine Anzahl von on-line-Dienstleistungen sind eingeführt worden, die den Babel Fischservice verwenden, um zwischen einer oder mehr Sprachen, häufig mit den humorvollen oder merkwürdigen Resultaten hin und her zu übersetzen - benannte eine "Rundreise" Übersetzung. | Des traductions inhabituels ou même incompréhensibles fréquemment bons et un certain nombre de on-line-Dienstleistungen ont été introduites qui utilisent les Babel service de poisson, pour fréquemment traduire en avant et en arrière entre une ou plus de langues, avec les résultats humorvollen ou étranges - un "voyage circulaire" a nommé une traduction. | Translations unusual or even incomprehensible frequently good and a certain number of one-line-Dienstleistungen were introduced which use Babel service of fish, for frequently translating ahead and behind between one or more languages, with the humorvollen results or strange - a "circular voyage" named a translation. |
[edit] Further reading
- Gaspari, F. (2006) "Look Who's Translating. Impersonations, Chinese Whispers and Fun with Machine Translation on the Internet" in Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference of the European Association of Machine Translation
- Somers, H. (2005) "Round-trip Translation: What Is It Good For?"
