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Rick Moen [rick at linuxmafia.com]
Jimmy, weren't you saying something about studying Welsh? Try this one on for size.
----- Forwarded message from Deirdre Saoirse Moen <deirdre@deirdre.net> -----
From: Deirdre Saoirse Moen <deirdre@deirdre.net> To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 23:59:45 -0700 Cc: Karsten Self <karsten@linuxmafia.com>X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.929.2)
Subject: The peril of autoresponders in foreign languageshttp://community.livejournal.com/cranky_editors/739695.html
-- _Deirdre http://deirdre.net
Jimmy O'Regan [joregan at gmail.com]
2008/11/2 Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>:
> Jimmy, weren't you saying something about studying Welsh?
No; just working on an MT system for it--I only know a single word of Welsh!
> Try this one on for size. >
Heh. Saw it yesterday, via Language Log.
$ echo 'Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gyfieithu.' | apertium -d . cy-enam not in the office at the moment. Send any work to translate him
(That's the translation with latest SVN - I think Francis must have seen that webpage too, because yesterday the translation was something like 'Am be being in the office at the moment')
Jimmy O'Regan [joregan at gmail.com]
2008/11/2 Jimmy O'Regan <joregan@gmail.com>:
> 2008/11/2 Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>: >> Jimmy, weren't you saying something about studying Welsh? > > No; just working on an MT system for it--I only know a single word of Welsh! > >> Try this one on for size. >> > > Heh. Saw it yesterday, via Language Log. > > $ echo 'Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w > gyfieithu.' | apertium -d . cy-en > am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to translate him >
Actually, I really like the attitude this guy takes: http://renatobeninatto.blogspot.com/2008/11/you-cant-make-these-things-up.html
"Translation is for professionals. I can hear the linguists around the world jumping to use this as proof that machine translation doesn't work. Well, the Welsh story is actually just an Out-of-Office reply that the client thought was the translation for the text he or she requested. The client actually sought a professional to do the job."
(Various Welsh-language promoters have all been keen to point out that this kind of message is quite common, but the English equivalent is always written first).