Scottish Gaelic

[fireflowerlass]

Hey, everyone

Comments

[kutsuwamushi]

There's no such thing as reliable automatic translation. The technology just isn't sophisticated enough yet.

[nicked_metal]

Given the difficulty of the problem, I think we'll have sentient AI before we have high-quality computer translation.

[syntinen_laulu]

Especially of Celtic languages. It's hard enough translating languages like English in which the words are more-or-less consistent; in Gaelic the sound and spelling of words are modified by their grammatical case and the sound of the words that precede and follow them. So if you just translated words from English and strung them together - which is what Babelfish does, pretty much - you'd get total gibberish.

Actually Babelfish would fall over at your first word: there are no words for Yes and No in Gaelic!

[xnamkrad]

There are many ways of saying yes or no in Gaelic
go maith, shea, tigim (excuse the spelling, not a native speaker) for yes and níl for no

[anonymous]

I think you (as a writer) will ALWAYS be more effective by avoiding using languages you do not actually speak.

Find a way around it.

Use italics and say something like,

In her mother tongue, she spoke the moving words, "Yes, of course! We shall never forget our own language"!

Waaaay better option.

[kutsuwamushi]

I disagree. Writers misuse other languages a lot, but sometimes using them can add to the story.

[anonymous]

It only adds to it for those readers who do NOT speak the language being misused, though.

You can't look stupid (or even possibly offend someone) if you write what you know.

[kutsuwamushi]

You can use a language you don't speak in a story without misusing it. You just have to be careful.

As for "write what you know," if everyone followed that advice, then we'd have to shut this comm down.

[otoselkie]

I can't help, but someone over at multilingual almost certainly can :).

[ap_aelfwine]

No such thing as reliable mechanical translation the now, and myself I question if there ever will be, at least without AI.

Try asking on gaidhlig.

[twilight2000]

In most cases, avoiding any but the simplest 2 word phrases is to your advantage. Having to say "Karibu, Rafiki" is believable (Swahili -- Welcome, Friend!) -- my Massai friend says this regularly to all of us, in the US when he is speaking FLAWLESS English otherwise. It's part of the flavor of home that he gives us a gift each time he speaks with us. But much more and it starts sounding forced or like I should have sub titles.

I suspect annonymous may have a good alternative.