Pages

Monday 4 October 2021

Experiment with translation and transcription

בוקר מוקדם הוא הזמן למחשבה יצירתית. 

Early morning is the time for creative thought.

bvqr mvqdm hva hzmn lmkwbh ixirtit.

רק הבנתי שיש לי פתרון תוכנה לחירשות ולמטומטמות שלי. 

I just realized I have a software solution for my deafness and dumbness. 

rq hbnti wiw li ptrvn tvcnh lkirwvt vlm'tvm'tmvt wli.

הקלד באנגלית - תן לגוגל לתרגם איות מלא לעברית. 

Type in English - Let Google translate full spelling into Hebrew.

hqld banglit - tn lgvgl ltrgm aivt mla lybrit.

לאחר מכן השתמש בממיר כדי לשנות אותו להפוך לעברית מדומה. 

Then use the converter to change it to become SimHebrew. 

lakr mcn hwtmw bmmir cdi lwnvt avtv lhpvç lybrit mdvmh.

אז כדי לבדוק את התרגום שלי, אני אקח עברית מדומה, אמיר אותה לטקסט מרובע, ונראה מה גוגל עושה עם זה. 

So to test Scriptural translation, I'll take Simulated Hebrew, Convert it to square text, and see what Google does with it as if it were modern Hebrew.

az cdi lbdvq at htrgvm hmqrai, aqk ybrit mdvmh, amir avth l'tqs't mrvby, varah mh gvgl yvwh aith cailv mdvbr bybrit mvdrnit.

I see that there are some issues with what we term 'Google translate' of course. - I can't use words it can't understand or it leaves them unprocessed. SimHebrew became Simulated Hebrew, Google translate got slightly morphed as a phrase so I dropped the word 'translate'.

Is this a debate between the right and the left hand? 

Just what would it be like if we could get BH into a form that Google translate would handle? Well, I have this as I noted above, so now for the first experiment.

Convert BH to SimHebrew, SimHebrew to Square text, plug into Google translate and see what happens.

Starting with a few of the 10 Words of Exodus 20 which first addressed as a child, then 7 letters later, an adult. (Yes, jump a mere 7 consonants - ignoring the parashat markers and the verse numbers!)

wmot cExodus 20
ib cbd at-abiç vat-aimç
lmyn iaricun imiç yl hadmh awr-ihvh alohiç notn lç s
12 Glorify your father and your mother,
so that prolonged are your days on the ground that Yahweh your God gives to you. S
ig la trxk s13 You will not murder. S
id la tnaf s14 You will not commit adultery. S
'tv la tgnob s15 You will not steal. S

Yea Google - here it is! (I think they cheated).

Shemot v
Twelve Honor your father and your mother
That thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee
Thirteen Thou shalt not kill
Hand will not commit adultery
Tu will not steal s

Surely it should get shemot - it is a plain plural of wm, names. The c confused it: c is twenty - what else could it be? How did it become v? Every samech except the last was dropped! 

Twelve and thirteen it got, but choked on 'id' - fourteen = hand. It has no memory of context from one line to another of course. Verse 15 ended up in a combination of French and English.

I suspect that Google is bordering on being a learning tool, but someone has intervened with archaic English in the translation process and taught Google to act like a 15th century English speaker.

I will put out some more examples, particularly where I know there are conflicts between BH and MH as in the common word for anger (cys) in MH. This is a root I always render as grief. It will be curious to see how much interference King James has had with the Babel-fish.

For a funnier post see the next one.

No comments:

Post a Comment