7.681, Sum: Internet/Superhighway

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-681. Fri May 10 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  127
 
Subject: 7.681, Sum: Internet/Superhighway
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
                   Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)
 
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Fri, 10 May 1996 18:18:41 +0200
From:  waruno at paradox.rz-berlin.mpg.de (Waruno Mahdi)
Subject:  Summary: "Internet"/"Superhighway"  (7-606)
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Fri, 10 May 1996 18:18:41 +0200
From:  waruno at paradox.rz-berlin.mpg.de (Waruno Mahdi)
Subject:  Summary: "Internet"/"Superhighway"  (7-606)
 
In the 7-606 issue (Tue Apr 23 1996) I launched a query:
 
> Could you please help me find out how one says "Internet" and
> "Superhighway" (as in "Information S...") in any of the following
> languages?
 
followed by a long list of languages. The reason for my interest: a
query had been launched in an Indonesian-language mailing-list arguing
for a proposed translation of "Infomation Superhighway" into
Indonesian. I wanted to get an overview of how the matter was handled
in other languages, with special attention to languages I expected
would tend to translate (calque) rather than borrow.
 
Here is the list of repliers (in order of incoming mails) with the
languages for which they provided data:
 
Ana Patricia Rona <anarona at seciu.edu.uy>   -- Spanish (Rio de la Plata) (1)
Tomoji Tabata <tabata at ariake-nct.ac.jp>    -- Japanese (1)
Wenchao Li <wcli at vax.ox.ac.uk>             -- Chinese: mainland (1a)
                                                       & Taiwan (1b)
Caoimhin P. ODonnaile <caoimhin at smo.uhi.ac.uk>
                                           -- Scottish & Irish Gaelic
Szigetvari Peter <szigetva at osiris.elte.hu> -- Hungarian (1)
Jakob Dempsey <ufjakobq at ms5.hinet.net>     -- Chinese (2)
Rick Mc Callister <rmccalli at sunmuw1.muw.edu>
                                           -- Spanish (2)
Ori Pomerantz <orip at netvision.net.il>      -- Hebrew
Nick Nicholas <s_nickn at eduserv.its.unimelb.edu.au>
                                           -- Greek
Molnar Zoltan <molnar at nytud.hu>            -- Hungarian (2) & Japanese (2)
Ricardo Gomez Lopez <fvpgolor at vc.ehu.es>   -- Spanish (3) & Basque
 
And the results are:
 
                          Internet       (information) superhighway
                        ------------    -----------------------------
Basque                   internet     (informazioaren) autobidea/autopista
 
Chinese (1)          Wang3ji4 Wang3lu4
               (lit. "between-net network")
    (1)     Guo2ji4 Dian4nao3 Hu4lian2 Wang3lu4
        ("international computer interlinked network")
    (1)           Guo2ji4 Dian4nao3 Wang3lu4
              ("international computer network")
    (2)               guo2ji4 wang3lu4
                 (international net-road)
    (1a)                               Xin4xi2 Gao1su4gong1lu4
                                   (lit. "information highway")
    (1b)                               Zi1xun4 Gao1su4gong1lu4
                                   ("data and information highway")
 
Gaelic Irish        Idirghre'asa'n
Gaelic Scottish       Eadar-li`on
no established word for "Superhighway"
 
Greek        internet (more often)    ethniki odhos pliroforion (rare)
              dhiadhiktio (less)
 
Hebrew           internet       You don't say "Information Superhighway"
 
Hungarian (1)     internet           informa'cio's szupersztra'da
                 [intErnEt]          [informa:tsio:S supErstra:dA]
 
(E=IPA epsilon, S=Engl. sh, A=IPA upsidedown ital. a, '=acute accent)
 
   (2)   (sza'mi'to'ge'pes) vila'gha'lo'zat   (informa'cio's) sztra'da
              ("worldnet (of computers)")
 
Japanese (1)            inta:netto          (jouhou) soopa:haiwei
         (2)            inta:net:o
 
 
Spanish (1) Rio Plata    internet      superautopista de la informacion
  (2) Mexico/Argentina  el internet
                       la inter-red
                     el ciberespacio (cyberspace)
  (3) Spain              internet        autopista (de la informacion)
 
The tendency seems to be to retain "internet" and to calque
"superhighway".  Predictably, of course, there are exceptions in the
treatment of both.  The situation in German follows the general
tendency:
                     _Internet_            _Informationsautobahn_.
 
 
Many many thanks to all who took the time to reply.
 
All the best,
 
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Waruno Mahdi                    tel:   +49 30 8413 5408
Faradayweg 4-6                  fax:   +49 30 8413 3155
14195 Berlin                    email: waruno at paradox.rz-berlin.mpg.de
Germany                         WWW:   http://paradox.rz-berlin.mpg.de/
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