Teléfono políglota XII (Polyglottal Telephone XII)

[finlay]

The conlang version of this is a bit like that, although one provides a glossary and grammar along with the text. I'm always slightly confused as to how anyone can fuck it up so badly in that case. Incidentally, if someone wants to organise one of them, go right ahead! They do have a mailing list for one connected to the CONLANG list, IIRC. But I don't really browse conlanging stuff outside the ZBB much, personally.

Also, people have done conlangs on this version of the PGT, but they just don't send a glossary with it, as though it's a natlang.

[makvas]

The conlang version of this is a bit like that, although one provides a glossary and grammar along with the text. I'm always slightly confused as to how anyone can fuck it up so badly in that case. Incidentally, if someone wants to organise one of them, go right ahead! They do have a mailing list for one connected to the CONLANG list, IIRC. But I don't really browse conlanging stuff outside the ZBB much, personally.

Also, people have done conlangs on this version of the PGT, but they just don't send a glossary with it, as though it's a natlang.

I hosted this two or three times on the ZBB under the name "The Conlingual Telephone". This was about 2-3 years ago probably, and I didn't really keep up with it that well the last time and things fell apart, so I didn't really feel like doing it again. But now I wouldn't mind, if someone else were to host it.

[Miiil]

if we sign up, are we allowed to use dictionaries?

Thats probably a silly question but...

[Ser]

Get rid of these classroom traumas.

[finlay]

if we sign up, are we allowed to use dictionaries?

Thats probably a silly question but...

err yeah you will probably have to.

[Viktor77]

if we sign up, are we allowed to use dictionaries?

Thats probably a silly question but...

As long as you don't say, "hey I'll do Ukrainian because I have a Ukrainian dictionary and a short Ukrainian grammar and can totally write or detranslate complex paragraphs in the language."

[Miiil]

Get rid of these classroom traumas.

I don't understand, classroom traumas?

As long as you don't say, "hey I'll do Ukrainian because I have a Ukrainian dictionary and a short Ukrainian grammar and can totally write or detranslate complex paragraphs in the language."

Wow, did you somehow know that the only English-Something dictionaries I have are Ukrainian ones?

Thanks anyway

[finlay]

Basically don't be a complete novice at the language, but as long as you're not, yeah, dictionaries are fine.

[Risla]

You can be a novice at things you're translating out of fairly successfully. It's just important that you're reasonably competent at the languages you're translating into.

[Viktor77]

Basically don't be a complete novice at the language, but as long as you're not, yeah, dictionaries are fine.

Yea, don't translate if you don't have at least some experience with the language. What happens often in these translations is that idiomatic forms of language (have it be syntax or expressions, etc) are either forgotten when translating into a language (in favour of an English calque), or are mistranslated when detrasnlating (ie. what happened with Danish in Finlay's polyglottal). While they make for funny changes in the polyglottal, they also show a lack of education.

[faiuwle]

Because the most important thing here is showing off your leet language skills, and not avoiding fucking up the game for the next person?

[Peacekeeper]

My return to the board is well-timed, it seems. I have been longing for another one of these.

I am not sure just how much time I going to have when the time comes, though, so I am going to limit myself to translating into English and Swedish. I will translate from Spanish and Japanese.

I agree with what people have suggested already: the source of the text should be relatively obscure, and it shouldn't contain too many proper names. Especially not names of such fame as to instantly identify the source material. I made those mistakes myself when I organized the ninth iteration of the game in early 2009.

[Risla]

Haha, that page talks about PT8 as having vanished into obscurity and never having been released, but I seem to have the entirety of it in my gmail inbox, since I was one of the organizers. I'm not sure what I should do with it; would people like me to make a thread about it, even though it's several years out of date now?

EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure a thread went up back then, too, it just never got posted on the KneeQuickie, which is probably my own failing.

[finlay]

Haha, that page talks about PT8 as having vanished into obscurity and never having been released, but I seem to have the entirety of it in my gmail inbox, since I was one of the organizers. I'm not sure what I should do with it; would people like me to make a thread about it, even though it's several years out of date now?

EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure a thread went up back then, too, it just never got posted on the KneeQuickie, which is probably my own failing.

Thread? No point, but you could always post it to the kq

[Risla]

Yeah, think I'll do that.

[Peacekeeper]

I can't really say my memory about the whole thing is very fresh - it was something like three years ago, after all - but I distinctly do recall the PGVIII grinding to a complete halt something like two thirds through, and no thread ever being posted about the results.

But by all means, if you do have something even close to the complete thing, do feel free to post it to the wiki for the sake of completeness.

[finlay]

when are you starting this one, by the way?

[Ser]

I said it'd depend on "the activity" of this thread, which means if people are still joining (and they are). I suppose it's fair to post the chains on Friday 28th and then get it started on Friday 4th?

[finlay]

Don't wait a week between posting the chains and starting it. I gave the first people an extra day and sent them out fairly promptly. Turned out I didn't even really need to do that... and after all, the first people have it easier because they're generally only translating from English... that said, with you being a Spanish speaker I can imagine you doing that one differently...

[makvas]

Just reminding people of this, the thread's a bit low and we're supposed to be starting tomorrow

Good luck & have fun!

[Ser]

Don't wait a week between posting the chains and starting it. I gave the first people an extra day and sent them out fairly promptly. Turned out I didn't even really need to do that... and after all, the first people have it easier because they're generally only translating from English... that said, with you being a Spanish speaker I can imagine you doing that one differently...

Good point. We're all starting tomorrow then. And I'd also suggest to keep the original text in English for all future polyglottal telephones. I think that once at UniLang somebody decided to start and end the chains with Spanish (or was it French?). People didn't like it, since they couldn't fully appreciate the results.

AND HERE'S THE CHAINS:

EQUIPO A:
Renaçido – English → French
candrodor – French → Old French
jmcd – Old French → German
finlay – German → French
treskro – French → Mandarin
Zoris – Mandarin → Spanish
johntm – Spanish → English
hito – English → Japanese
Åge Kruger – Japanese → English
moko – English → Japanese
Qwynegold – Japanese → English
FSI – English → Romanian
tatapyranga – Romanian → Portuguese
Herra Ratatoskr – Portuguese → English

EQUIPO B:
Risla – English → Spanish
Peacekeeper – Spanish → Swedish
Ulrike Meinhof – Swedish → French
Astraios – French → Lakota
langover94 – Lakota → English
Cockroach – English → Mandarin
Emma – Mandarin → French
Aeetlrcreejl – French → Latin
faiuwle – Latin → Spanish
cedh audmanh – Spanish → German
Lyhoko Leaci – German → English
Viktor77 – English → French
Sevly – French → English

[Ulrike Meinhof]

Peacekeeper – Swedish → French
Ulrike Meinhof – Swedish → French

How exactly is this supposed to happen? Especially coming from Spanish.

[treskro]

Renaçido – English → French
candrodor – French → Old French
jmcd – Old French → German
finlay – German → French
treskro – French → Mandarin

French ;o

[Lyhoko Leaci]

hito – English → Japanese
Åge Kruger – Japanese → English
moko – English → Japanese
Qwynegold – Japanese → English

Seems a bit repetitive...

Lyhoko Lieci – German → English

That would be Leaci.

[Viktor77]

No Latvian.