[Wikimedia-l] The case for supporting open source machine translation

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi all,

On Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:39:55 +0200
Ting Chen <wing.philopp at gmx.de> wrote:

> Oh yes, this would really be great. Just think about the money the 
> Foundation gives out meanwhile for translation, plus the many many 
> volunteers' work invested into translation. A free and open translation 
> software is long overdue indeed. Great idea Erik.
> 

unfortunately, I don't think we can expect that with the current state of the
art that a machine translation would do as good a job as a human translator,
so don't hold your hopes up for that. For example if we translate
http://shlomif.livejournal.com/63847.html to English with Google Translate we
get:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=iw&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fshlomif.livejournal.com%2F63847.html&act=url

<<<<<
Yotam and "hifh own and the Geek "

I have been offered several times to participate B"hifh and the Geek "and I
refused. Those who have forgotten, this is what is said in the Bible parable of
Jotham :

    And they told Jotham, he went and stood on a mountain top - Gerizim, and
lifted up his voice and called; And said to them - they heard me Shechem, and
God will hear you:

    The trees went forth anointed king over them.
    And they said olive Malka us!
    Olive said unto them: I stopped the - fertilizers, which - I will honor God
and man - And go to the - the trees!
    And the trees said to the fig: Go - the Kings of us!
    The fig tree said unto them: I stopped the - sweetness, and - good yield -
    And go to the - the trees!
    And the trees said to the vine: Go - the Kings of us!
    Vine said unto them: I stopped the - Tirosh, auspicious God and man -
    And go to the - the trees!
    And tell all - the trees to the - bramble: You're the king - on us!
    And bramble said to the - trees: If in truth ye anoint me king over you -
come and take refuge in my shade; If - no - let fire come out - the bramble,
and devour the - cedars of Lebanon! 
>>>>

Sounds incredibly awkward and the main text was taken from
http://www.heraldmag.org/literature/doc_12.htm .

So it hardly makes a good job and we cannot expect it to replace human
translations.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

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Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
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