Thoughts on the Spanish Language

glennmagusharvey

What I expected:

Atelier Esca y Logía: Alquimistas del Cielo de Anochecer

What it's actually called, apparently?:

Atelier Escha y Logía: Alquimistas del Anochecer Cielo

The Spanish for "eschatology" is "escatología", hence "Esca".  Furthermore, that is how her name is pronounced in Japanese.  That said, there is no official Spanish translation as far as I can tell.

(Unfortunately, the "&" = "to" pun is unrecoverably lost when the title is translated to anything other than Japanese.)

And I'm not sure why that noun modifier comes before Cielo rather than afterwards in a prepositional phrase.  But at least I guessed correctly, between "anochecer" and "crepúsculo".

Stormtroper

"Anochecer Cielo"? Unless there's more to it, that's just wrong.

On the topic of bad translations, despite the fact that they're generally good at it, the other day I learned about "Arashin, la líder", i.e. implying that Arashin Foremost is a legendary creature called Arashin (it's a city).

glennmagusharvey

So the name is basically "[affiliation] [rank]"?  Sounds like typical MTG naming weirdness to me.  I mean I guess in English one does say "New York City mayor", but it's not ambiguous because "mayor" isn't an adjective the way "Foremost" is.

glennmagusharvey

Note to self for passive constructions:
* if agent is specified, use passive voice.
* if thing, and no agent, use reflexive.
* if person, and no agent, use impersonal passive with "a" (to) person, unless reflexive meaning is intended.
* ^ or maybe something weird involving the verb salvar?

Source: http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/passive_voice_intro

(Also I'm still amused at the notion of windows breaking themselves.)

vandro

"La ventana fue rota" sounds odd because it tells you not who broke the window.

glennmagusharvey

vandro wrote: »

"La ventana fue rota" sounds odd because it tells you not who broke the window.

Just wondering, does English sound weird to you in how it uses passive voice to represent an impersonal statement?

vandro

I learned english in primary school. If I ever did, I wouldn't remember.

Stormtroper

English has that, too: "The windows broke."

glennmagusharvey

Stormtroper wrote: »

English has that, too: "The windows broke."

Hm, you have a point.  The only bit missing is the reflexive pronoun -- which is actually used sometimes for artistic effect ("The door opened itself, and a shadowy figure entered the room.")  Just doesn't quite apply to all verbs ("The alarm set", "The experiment performed", "The task did"), but only some ("The apple dropped", "The passenger flew away").  Specifically it seems it's just a meaning relegated to an intransitive verb construction.

glennmagusharvey

Esto por cuanto la producción de servicios ambientales promedio del programa relativa al Máximo ideal, pasó de 11.3% antes de Ecomercados I, a 16.7% durante el período de Ecomercados I.  Dicha producción promedio pasaría a un 40% de mantenerse el nivel y distribución actual durante el periodo 2006-2010 y de implementarse adecuadamente la reasignación geográfica del escenario Planeado, con solamente los primeros 5 años del canon del agua y una contribución de $750,000 al año del fondo de biodiversidad, la producción promedio de servicios ambientales podría alcanzar un 47.4% del Máximo Idea.

1. What part of speech is "promedio", as used in this sentence?  If it's used as an adjective, why is does it not agree in genderwith its noun (producción, which is feminine)?  Or is it just being slapped on as a noun modifier (a la English)?

2. Is it okay to translate "de mantenerse el nivel y distribución actual" as "from maintaining the level and actual distribution" (and similarly for implementarse)?

3. lol, i said "a la English"

glennmagusharvey

"Es probable que unescenario de mercado bajo subastas o reglas claras de "matching funds" aumente recursos y logre reasignación con "trade-offs" entre servicios, similar a la lo que logra el canon del agua, el fondo de biodiversidad y los nuevos precios."

What is the subject of "logra"?  Or is it misconjugated?  (You never know when typos happen in these documents.)

vandro

1. noun modifier, yes.

2."If this current level and distribution is mantained."

3.LOL

4. Logra is acomplished by the water cannon, whatever that is.

glennmagusharvey

LOL @ "water cannon"

I'm pretty sure it's referring to a 2006 Water Law that instituted a water-use tax to pay for preservation of watershed forests.

But that seems like a compound subject, where several different things (water law, biodiversity fund, new prices) achieve the same thing.  Why isn't lograr conjugated as plural?  Though I've certainly noticed that Spanish seems to have some rules about plural subjects and singular verb forms that are different from how they're done in English...

glennmagusharvey

Shinryaku! Ika Musume (侵略!イカ娘^? lit. Invasora! Chica Calamar) es un Manga de comedia escrito por Masahiro Anbe y publicado en la editorial Akita Shoten en la revista Weekly Shōnen Champion.

Doesn't 侵略 mean "invasion" rather than "invader"?  So shouldn't it be "Invasión! Chica Calamar"?

Stormtroper

Yes, 侵略 is "invasion" (and 侵略者 (shinryakusha) is "invader"). I'm guessing they went with "invasora" for style reasons.

glennmagusharvey

La radio dijo "No, Juan.  Usted es los demonios."
Y entonces, Juan fue un zombi.

glennmagusharvey

Ten Dracula came and eated all the animals in the forest.

Oh gosh, Google Translate translates (English) "ten dracula" into (Spanish) "ten drácula", but "ten draculas" into "Tomillos Draculas".

That said, yeah, that line from Castlevania Wisps of Dracula is difficult to translate properly because most of the fun of it comes from the pun.

Entonces Drácula vino y comió todos los animales en el bosque.

Diez Drácula vinieron y comieron todos los animales en el bosque.

To replicate the pun I'd have to figure out a synonym for "entonces" that sounds like "diez".  And also misspell it.  Maybe "pues", misspelled as "puez"?

Also, the conjugation mistake "eated" doesn't seem to work in Spanish because comer seems to have a regular conjugation.

To say nothing about the singular/plural differentiation.  Stupid messy English, allowing for all sorts of dumb puns.

glennmagusharvey

And I'm guessing the proper localization of "Squid-Girlie" -- something that Takeru says frequently in the show -- probably involves the word "chiquita"?  Unless chiquito/chiquita is something that implies an older speaker, because Takeru's the same age and is clearly appending the suffix in a child-like manner.

edit: why am i attempting to localize things into Spanish

vandro

in non european spanish s and z are alike so Pues and Diez works.

Stormtroper

why am i attempting to localize things into Spanish

I do that all the time, wonder how things would be translated in a bunch of languages, especially things like puns. Or in case something is already localized, wonder what the non-localized form was.

glennmagusharvey

[It makes it look] como si las acciones son la parte más importante en la oración.

Oración pretendida en inglés:

Spoiler:

It makes it look like the actions are the most important part of the sentence.

Creo que tengo que aprender construcciones impersonales.

¿"Se hace como si las acciones son la parte más importante en la oración"?

glennmagusharvey

Hoy he aprendido que "turista" es un sustantivo masculino, a pesar de que termina con "-a".

Por ejemplo: "Estos turistas son pendejos."

vandro

Turista is gender invariant.

glennmagusharvey

> attempt to look up "TV dinner" in Spanish
> guess "cena con TV"
> find search results for "TV cena"
> forget that John Cena is a current meme
> look up "TV dinner" on Wikipedia
> beeline to Spanish Wikipedia equipvalent
> learn that "TV dinner" (even in English) actually more commonly means a frozen microwaveable meal rather than "dinner in front of the TV, as opposed to at a dinner table"

Stormtroper

I believe the most appropriate term would be "cena en frente de la tele". It's a mouthful but it's what it is.

glennmagusharvey

In English we're fans "of" stuff, but apparently in Spanish we're fans "to" stuff.  As in, "aficionado a" rather than "aficionado de".

glennmagusharvey

En inglés, un myth es un moth hembra, pero en español, un mito sea una polilla macho.

Stormtroper

^^ La traducción más directa sería por supuesto "fanático", en ese caso sería igual al inglés.

^ Seguro que "mito" es una polilla macho? Google solo me dice cosas del mito del tal hombre polilla.

glennmagusharvey

Stormtroper wrote: »

^^ La traducción más directa sería por supuesto "fanático", en ese caso sería igual al inglés.

^ Seguro que "mito" es una polilla macho? Google solo me dice cosas del mito del tal hombre polilla.

Oh gosh now I gotta figure this out.

"The most direct translation would of course be 'fanatic', in this case it would be equivalent to the English [term]."

"Certain that "myth" is a male moth?  Google alone tells me things of the myth of the such moth man such things of the myth as the moth man [?]."

I think I screwed that last bit up.

(FYI my original joke came from the line "A myth is a female moth.")

Stormtroper

"The most direct translation would of course be 'fanatic', in this case it would be equivalent to the English [term]."

"Certain that "myth" is a male moth?  Google alone tells me things of the myth of the such moth mansuch things of the myth as the moth man [?]."

Close enough: "[Are you] Certain that "mito" is a male moth? Google only tells me things about the myth of the so-called moth man.