In message 3FFD1664.3070803@moongate.ro, Gutza gutza-xe8bB7KpE7GhKNWrAYCRhA@public.gmane.org writes
Ray Saintonge wrote:
The last thing that Wiktionary needs is a listing of automated translation. Of course the English Wiktionary is "English-centric". What else did you expect? It is first a dictionary, and only secondly a book of translations. Still, to choose one example and say that there is a 1:1 correspondence between the words of two languages represnts a totally naïve view of language.
Really? Here's what I tried: clicked on "Random Page" 10 times. Here are the results:
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Pronunciaci%C3%B3n
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%92%AD
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Mayoress
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Bijutel
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Decibel
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Balul
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%97%86
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Airtight
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Brush
- http://wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%95%9A
There is not a single one hit in the ten above which isn't appropriate for automated parsing:
- No. 1 would be reverse translated from Spanish to English (note that
http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Pronounciation doesn't exist).
- No. 2, 3, 7 and 10 would be completely skipped in parsing because
they don't contain any proper translations.
- No. 4 and 6 would be reverse translated from Volapük to English (note
there is no mention of Balul at http://wiktionary.org/wiki/January, and http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Jeweller doesn't exist).
- No. 5, 8 and 9 would be properly translated to the respective
languages for which translations are available.
What would be wrong with this? What counter-examples do you have in mind?
Well, for example if you were translating to/from Welsh, the word "glas" is normally used to describe the colour of the sky, however it is also used to describe the colour of grass. "Llwyd" usually means "grey" but it also has "bluey" connotations...