Translation Golf - Welcome!
In an effort to drum up activity (given we haven't had any in over a week), I present the first translation golf!
Before entering, please read the ground rules. The aim of the game is to translate a given text using as few characters as possible.
The first text is quite simple, it's the welcome text for our community.
Welcome to Languages & Linguistics, our community for anyone interested in specific (human) languages, language and its constructs more generally, or linguistics.
Translations:
- must be welcoming, ideally using common phrasing for the target language
- do not need to refer to the community explicitly by name, as long as they adequately describe the community as one for the study of language
- do not need to include redundant details (E.g. if you write "Study of language", that automatically would include "Study of language constructs")
As the community is still small, any target language is allowed (including English! Try to shrink the text). Translations will compete within the same language, just like code golf.
Abbreviations are not allowed for this challenge.
Letter counter for submissions: https://jsfiddle.net/2ermv0rh/2/
High Valyrian [conlang], 75 characters > Va Udrirri jemī jiōri, īlva lentun mirto syt ēngos udrirī se jāhe galryr ia …
3y ago
German - 63 characters > Willkommen in unserer Community für Sprach- und Linguistikinteressierte! Thanks to German …
4y ago
English, 31 characters > Hi! This site's for you if you like lingo. Notes: I consider Hi!, as an informal but …
4y ago
Japanese, 20 characters > コディダクトの語学コミュニティにようこそ！ I'm not actually sure how "Codidact" would be converted into katak …
4y ago
Lojban [conlang], 73 characters > fi'i lo bangu ja banske selci'i .i do selcemcmi binxo a'o la .banjybansk. Quick …
1y ago
English - 72 characters > Welcome to this society for those into human speechs, their constructs, or linguistics. …
4y ago
Catalan - 117 characters > Benvinguts a Languages & Linguistics, la comunitat dels interessats en idiomes (humans) es …
4y ago
Swedish, 127 characters. Almost certainly a correct translation: > Välkommen till Språk & Lingvistik, vår grupp …
4y ago
8 answers
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English, 31 characters
Hi! This site's for you if you like lingo.
Notes:
-
I consider Hi!, as an informal but not impolite greeting, to connote both the greeting and the acceptance aspects of Welcome to.
-
Languages & Linguistics, being a name, can't really be golfed as such, but contextually This site works as a substitution, and by metonymy includes the community behind the site.
-
I'm stretching lingo a bit, but see e.g.
the language and speech, especially the jargon, slang, or argot, of a particular field, group, or individual -- dictionary.com
Language, terminology, or Dialect. Usually of a particular "Kind" or within a certain "group", "culture" etc -- Urban Dictionary
language; words used by people doing particular job. -- Macmillan Dictionary
Alternative, also 31 chars but perhaps less controversial and slightly clearer on the study aspect of point 2:
Hi! This site's for all language lovers.
German - 63 characters
Willkommen in unserer Community für Sprach- und Linguistikinteressierte!
Thanks to German for allowing to cobble together words. A literal translation of it would be:
Welcome to our community for those interested in language and linguistics!
Both the English and the German version have the same character count of 63.
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High Valyrian [conlang], 75 characters
Va Udrirri jemī jiōri, īlva lentun mirto syt ēngos udrirī se jāhe galryr ia nūmāzme gūrēños.
Literal translation back:
We welcome you [pl] to Language, our community for anyone who would like to learn tongues, language and its construction and meaning.
Notes:
- "Va ... jemī jiōri" is a common phrase of welcoming
- 'engos' (tongue/language) is related to similar words about talking; 'udrir' (language) comes from the word for 'word', so these appear to have slightly different meanings, although they can both translate to the same English word
0 comment threads
Lojban [conlang], 73 characters
fi'i lo bangu ja banske selci'i .i do selcemcmi binxo a'o la .banjybansk.
Quick pronunciation notes: The writing is a completely regular phonetic transcription. Vowels are as in Spanish; 'y' is /ə/~/ʌ/, 'j' is /ʒ/, 'x' is /x/, 'c' is /ʃ/, apostrophe is /h/ (and always breaks syllables), period is a pause or /ʔ/. Accent is by stress, regularly on the penultimate syllable ("bansk" is two syllables).
Gloss:
[vocative tag: welcoming] a/some language inclusive-or language-science [swap subject and direct object]-interesting [sentence separator] you [swap subject and direct object]-community-element become [attitudinal: hope] that-named "banjybansk"
Translation:
"Welcome, you who are interested in language or linguistics. Hopefully you become a community-member of Languages & Linguistics."
Notes:
-
This is not golfed. The main intent here is to showcase how Lojban works.
- Spaces between words can usually be omitted; I'm too lazy to figure it out exactly.
- I follow the "dotside" convention (names have an enforced pause or glottal stop, represented by a period, on either side; this is to allow them to contain certain combinations of vowels and consonants that would otherwise cause ambiguity).
- I follow gendra (rules for new compound words that enforce how place-conversions are used, so that the place structure of the new predicate can be systematically inferred rather than intuited).
- Especially considering gendra, trying to combine "selcemcmi binxo" into a single compound wouldn't work very well. Using a simple tanru like this is simpler, however, than filling the place structure of "binxo" normally; aside from being longer, it's awkward and unidiomatic ("do binxo a'o lo ka selcemcmi be la .banjybansk.", I think).
-
Separating out "language" and "linguistics" would probably seem redundant to a Lojbanistani, but I wanted to preserve that aspect of the structure.
-
The name "banjybansk" ends with a consonant, since names typically do so. It's intended to evoke
bangu ja banske, i.e. something which either is a language and/or is linguistic in nature. -
The -sel- element in compound words is not really swapping "subject and direct object", but rather the first two places of a predicate.
-
Attitudinals are free modifiers, roughly equivalent to emoji in written natural language except that they have a pronunciation. They generally apply to the entire sentence when at the beginning; otherwise to the immediately preceding word or concept.
0 comment threads
Swedish, 127 characters.
Almost certainly a correct translation:
Välkommen till Språk & Lingvistik, vår grupp för alla intresserade av specifika (mänskliga) språk, språket och dess allmänna uppbyggnad, eller lingvistik.
And a somewhat questionable "golfed" version, 114 characters:
Välkomna till Språk & Lingvistik, vår sida för de hågade av specifika (människo) språk, språket och dess allmänna struktur, eller lingvistik.
0 comment threads
English - 72 characters
Welcome to this society for those into human speechs, their constructs, or linguistics.
I did these changes:
- community -> society
- our community for anyone interested in -> the community for those into. I belive being into can be considered a synonym of being interested in.
- languages -> speechs as speech is a synonym of language (according to WordReference).
Let me know if they are not accurate enough (they sound good to me, but I am not a native English speaker).
Catalan - 117 characters
Benvinguts a Languages & Linguistics, la comunitat dels interessats en idiomes (humans) específics, les seves construccions o la lingüística.
I translate our community for anyone interested as la comunitat dels interessats, which means the community of those interested. I belive it keeps the original sense.
0 comment threads
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