[Sca-cooks] Google Translations of Sent Sovi

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

I understood this to mean he put the text into modern Catalan, just as  
writers have put Chaucer into modern English. This still has its limits;  
"sosengar" for instance seems to be a period word (I believe from context that  
it means "simmer"). But it's not an unusual approach in dealing with older  
texts.
 
The problem of quantities seems to me readily resolved by reference to the  
older version of the text.
 
 
Otherwise, having used Google Translate with various languages, I would  
point out that one has to be familiar with its quirks, at least in dealing 
with  older texts. This is an illustrative case:
 
 
>"E mit it sosengar carnsalada of fat; e in which the pot? sosengar it?  

"Be aware of fire soon, only that it boil a little fat, and at all  times? 
ie 
led. In AD?'ve S other e carnsalada lean fat, and go on sosenga. E  
to? often clears "
> 
 
 
- Google retains the word order of the original, which is almost never  
right in English; correcting for that yields: "E simmer fat of carnsalada mit  
it, and the pot in which it simmers", or "lean and fat carnsalada"
- Why Google didn't translate "e" (and) escapes me.
- Google offers alternative words when you click on certain ones (though  
only for shorter texts); "often clears" is senseless here, but click on 
"clears"  and you get "removes" as one option; that is "remove it often" (or 
"take it off  often") (so that it does not burn). Similarly, in "be aware of 
fire soon", an  alternate for "soon" is "in little" (the general sense is to 
watch that there is  a low fire, so that it only boils the fat a little).
 
All of this of course beside the issue of understanding the passage enough  
globally to "smooth out" items which don't translate word for word but make 
 sense in an overall reading.
 
This becomes easier when you're familiar with the tool, but anyway you cut  
it it's a laborious process.It's certainly a useful auxiliary but it's not  
likely to replace the labor of thoughtful translation (modern texts 
sometimes do  better, however).
 
Jim  Chevallier
_www.chezjim.com_ (http://www.chezjim.com/) 

Stumbling through  history towards beer
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/04/stumbling-through-history-towards-beer.
html





In a message dated 4/16/2014 11:21:13 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
lordhunt at gmail.com writes:


The  only way I can fathom that Santanach translated “modern Catalan” is 
that he  created it. I know of no published edition of Sent Sovi in “modern  
Catalan.”