LL-L: "Multilinguism" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 24.AUG.1999 (01)

[Sandy Fleming]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 24.AUG.1999 (01) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Georg Deutsch [gdeutsch at estec.esa.nl]
Subject: "Multilinguism"

Georg Deutsch at ESA
08/23/99 09:30 AM

Roger, you mentioned in your last contribution:
>...even forgetting the Brussels
>mixed varieties often designated as Marollien

Never heard of "Marollien".
Would you like to explain this more in detail?
I would be interested to learn.

Best regards,
Georg

From: John Feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: "Multilinguism"

Roger wrote

>>2. And now what animals have to do with lazy translators.

In the "Belgisch Staatsblad - Moniteur Belge" ... we got a "Ministerieel
besluit tot vaststelling van
minimumnormen voor het houden van zoogdieren in dierentuinen / Arrêté
ministériel fixant des normes minimales pour la détention de mammifères
dans les parcs zoologiques".

Since a French-Dutch translation of the names of all these poor beasts was
clearly too difficult, the translators returned to latin, common for both
linguistic versions.<<

I think a small protest is in order. There seem to be only three
possibilities.

a. The decree was drafted in Latin and then translated into French and
Dutch,
so the translators were lazy in just copying the species names. Doubtful.
Ancient Romans didn't use Linnaean nomenclature.

b. The decree was drafted in Dutch or French using the Latin names,
indicating that
these should be preserved in the final version.

c. The decree was drafted in Dutch or French using the names in that
language and
the "lazy" translators had to go to the trouble of looking them up in
Latin, finding
two words where one will generally do in the source language.

So I don't think the charge of laziness can be made to stick. I do know that
in the
fisheries area it is common to use Latin names because a particular fish
often has a
variety of names even in one language and interpreting names word-for-word
can often
mean changing the species.

John
johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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