We are people, people of earth in Brazilian Sign Language - translation ERROR

[Charles Butler]

However, laughing, Klingon and Quenya have now been used for at least a generation as viable languages.  The challenge of creating a language from scratch (such as happened with Nicaraguan Sign Language) is both beautiful and daunting. 


________________________________
From: Nikhil Sinha <nik.azn at GMAIL.COM>
To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 6:42 AM
Subject: Re: We are people, people of earth in Brazilian Sign Language - translation ERROR

Lol. I'm going specify on my website today that the project is only
for humans, not aliens! A lot of people have thought of aliens because
of the reference to Earth in the sentence!
Nikhil.

On 03/08/2011, Cherie Wren <cwterp at yahoo.com> wrote:
> And behind the differences in my and Adam's translations might be how we
> took the intention of the sentence.  When I saw the sentence, I immediately
> thought of the little plaque that went out with some space probe showing the
> human physique and saying some phrase in many earth languages.  So my
> translation is geared to someone who knows nothing about humans or earth.
> lol
>
> cherie
>
>
>
>
>>________________________________
>>From: Adam Frost <icemandeaf at GMAIL.COM>
>>To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
>>Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 6:33 PM
>>Subject: Re: We are people, people of earth in Brazilian Sign Language -
>> translation ERROR
>>
>>Ok everyone. I understand that people get very touchy with relations to
>> their language. I have caught myself doing the same thing, but we need to
>> remember that putting people on the defense will get anyone anywhere.
>> Having said that, we have to remember that many people have given Nikhil a
>> translation of their own for the phrase in question. After all of the
>> years that I have had in
>> interpreting/translating/translation/transliteration, I have found that
>> not everyone is on the same skill level to do so. Most people don't even
>> realize that it is a true skill that doesn't come over night. There are
>> many people who don't know what is required to translate even if they are
>> natives.
>>
>>
>>The one thing that makes it even more difficult is that even a simple
>> sentence can be interpreted in many different ways. Notice that Cherie and
>> I both had very different ways of translating the same sentence into ASL.
>> I don't feel that her sentence is more or less right than mine. The two
>> versions are just that, different. Now, my understanding is that Nikhil
>> was told by other people about the way to write the sentence in
>> Portuguese. I personally did not see your suggestion, Charles, for
>> Portuguese, but I could have missed it as I thought you were referring to
>> how it is done in LIBRAS (which is probably the same thing with Nikhil).
>> So are you suggesting another way, Charles? Or are you saying that the
>> suggestion that Nikhil had received is truly wrong and not just another
>> version? If so, then one of two approaches could be taken: accept it as an
>> alternate variation, or get in contact with the others who gave the
>> earlier suggestion to talk it out with
>  them. Nikhil cannot make that sort of decision either way, nor has s/he
> even when asked to by you, Charles. (I can't tell by your name, Nikhil, if
> you are male or female. *wink*)
>>
>>
>>Now as for where the Sign Language examples on Nikhil's website are placed,
>> they (ASL and LIBRAS so far) are under "Translations in Natural
>> Languages". I believe that is what you were asking, Charles.
>>
>>
>>Now that I have given my little take on what has happen, let's be fair with
>> everyone on the list and step away from language politics and write Sign
>> Languages. Because they can and should be. :-)
>>
>>
>>Adam
>>
>>
>>On Aug 2, 2011, at 2:02 PM, Nikhil Sinha wrote:
>>
>>
>>Oh dear God! I'm tired of saying this again and again. I do NOT want
>>>the translations to confirm to my structure.
>>>And how are you so sure that i'm tampering with translations? Give me
>>>examples. I just go according to what people submit. I do NOT make
>>>changes on my own. The only thing i do is capitalise the first letter
>>>of the sentence, if it isn't already so, and add a full stop, if there
>>>wasn't any.
>>>Nikhil.
>>>
>>>On 03/08/2011, Trevor Jenkins <bslwannabe at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 7:58 PM, Nikhil Sinha <nik.azn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>Please soften your tone! You are sounding a bit rude!
>>>>>
>>>I'm not an idiot. I have extensively studied languages (informally)
>>>>>
>>>and i do not "demand" unnatural translations, just to make them
>>>>>
>>>confirm to the structure of my original sentence.
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>If you are making these target sentences "conform" to your original
>>> sentence
>>>>
>>>structure then you are not after translations but trans-literations and
>>>>
>>>thereby they become unnatural. And as to Charles' tone, I'm with him;
>>> you're
>>>>
>>>tampering with what people have generously given you but without
>>>>
>>>understanding the implications of what you are doing.
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>Regards, Trevor.
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>><>< Re: deemed!
>>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>--
>>>निखिल सिन्हा | Nikhil Sinha
>>>nik.azn at gmail.com
>>>www.wahawafe.zxq.net - Wahawafe - a multilingual translation project.
>>>"We are humans and we are from Earth." in several languages.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>


-- 
निखिल सिन्हा | Nikhil Sinha
nik.azn at gmail.com
www.wahawafe.zxq.net - Wahawafe - a multilingual translation project.
"We are humans and we are from Earth." in several languages.
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