Interesting article on translations

[fignewton]

Here's another interesting article on translation and how not to do it. Why yes, Stargate, you've been guilty of this, haven't you? :) With our dear Daniel as primary culprit!

Realistic Translation for Fiction Writers

OTOH, Stargate sometimes gets it very right, too. I loved Sha'uri teaching Daniel how to pronounce things properly in the movie. Come to think of it, that cheat gets used a lot: finding a native speaker. Teal'c often helps Daniel (I'm thinking primarily of Brief Candle, but there are many other times), they trick the Aschen into translating "sterility," Jack reads nu nani anquietus for Daniel in The Fifth Race, and Descended!Daniel can read Ancient much more fluently. I'm sure there are more that I'm missing.

What other canon moments qualiify, to you, as realistic translations of an unknown language?

Comments

[solstice0612]

Stargate gets it right many times--while at the same time showing that the whole galaxy speaks English of the US/Canadian variety.

My favorite moment: WoO, when Jack and Teal'c are forced to learn Latin and Ancient so they can help Daniel translated the text from the loopy time machine.

:)

[fignewton]

Yeah, the article's tag line suggests simply giving your characters some type of "universal translator" to avoid the problem entirely. The Stargate writers didn't even bother explaining why they went from language barrier to none, did they? I've speculated that the DHD somehow does the universal translator thing; Earth and Abydos were out of stellar drift contact with the rest of the universe, but once they connected with the rest of the Stargate network by dialing into Chulak, the translation mode of the DHD activated. That's my handwave, anyway. :) Julie Fortune, who is both a fanfic and professional author, wrote one of the Fandemonium books and had a similar theory built into the book.

WoO is a great example! I love that it took lots of time, and Jack droning all the conjugations. :)

[solstice0612]

Actually, I think they did something like that in SGA. I wrote once a story trying to explain it, but I blamed it in part on Baal's time travel machine and a certain linguist.

WoO, probably the only time ever that translating something involved learning to juggle :)

[fignewton]

...And now I have an image of Daniel solemnly juggling bits of pottery while he contemplates a broken tablet.

[dreamy_dragon73]

Sorry for the random comment, just wanted to say hi since I just "friended" you.
I've been enjoying both your recs and the Alphabet Soup since I found Stargate SG-1. :)

[fignewton]

Hello back! :) I'm always delighted to meet another fan and I hope you'll stick around. Thanks for the kind words!