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Nitrxgen There will be down-time on either 9th or 10th (this month) |
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Phrase Database Documentation Information about the Phrase Database, rules and other things. Click the rows of boxes below to expand them (not the links in the boxes).
General Questions What is the Phrase Database? It's basically exactly that.. it's a database for phrases, or sometimes known as a "phrase book".. It features a list of languages, followed by multiple sentences, words, and phrases. Many useful translations have been made, many random sentences, insults, and the like.. What is the use for it? A few people have actually asked me this.. it's surprising (infact my mum has even ranted on about how useless it is) The use of the Phrase Datase is to help people learn (or maybe be inspired to learn) a new language.. or perhaps you're going to another country for a while and want to jot some simple translations down.. You can find whatever reason you want for these phrases.. even simply "I don't understand <language>, sorry." Also it gives other languages speakers a chance to see their English equivalent if they're not that great with English. Can I help? / How can I help? If you speak a language (excluding English of course) fluently.. you can most certainly help.. Submit a Phrase. If you'd like to contribute a large list of translations (and transliterations).. you can email me with an attached file or whatever you prefer to The difference between translation and transliteration A transliteration is basically the conversion of writing scripts/systems.. A common example is Cyrillic, which is primarily used in Russian text.. using "backward letter R's" and the like. A translation is the conversion of language used.. for example, from English to Russian.. Here's a demonstration of both translation and transliteration used on a simple sentence.. We take a simple English phrase.. "My name is ..." (this is using Latin characters) Translated into Russian, gives you "Menya zovut ..." (Latin characters also) Russians don't particularly use Latin characters, instead they use Cyrillic characters.. Transliterating "Menya zovut ..." into Cyrillic will give you "Меня зовут ..." I don't see some of the characters! Certain translations may require diacritics in the Latin (A to Z) alphabet, these are like accents, cedillas, umlauts, etc.. all browsers should be able to render those without a problem as they're a part of the most basic pre-installed fonts.. Transliterations (different writing systems, such as Cyrillic; as used by Russian translations) might seem a bit funky, but as said above, these too are part of pre-installed fonts on almost every (if not, all) computer systems.. If you're viewing (for example) an Asian language that uses a complicated writing system; the chances are you will need a language pack installed to view the characters and symbols used in the transliterations, but remember you always have the Latin equivalent of the translation available. Submitting Phrases Rules and Tips There are some basic rules which I'd like to remind everyone about.. Do not use online translators.. they are inaccurate, I've compared many legitimate careful translations (from people who speak it as their first language) with those produced by online translators and they do not match.. who am I going to trust more? a computer or a human who's been speaking the language for a lifetime? Some languages may include male/female objectives, please include both! How do I submit a phrase? Okay, so you would like to help translate some sentences, huh? that's great, keep reading! There are 2 ways you can help by submitting translations.. either by email, or by using the submission form. People who I contact, or contact me to contribute, I will give a list of phrases to (my 'standard' list) Submitting transliterations Transliterations are also important to submit because it helps people with an idea how to pronounce it in English (or other languages who use the Latin alphabet) but also the way it's expected to be formatted using the translated languages' alphabet. Do you know what a transliteration is? differences between translation and transliteration. Document last updated: 25th Jan, 2010, 01:50pm GMT |
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