[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] writing in German, Russian

[Jerry Frank]

Ken,

The German characters came through OK for me but 
not the Cyrillic.  I find that the software 
settings can be a mixed bag, at least in my 
use.  Sometimes the German characters are jumbled 
up while other times they are absolutely 
correct.  Sometimes I see Cyrillic, other times not.

As for translation software, it is OK for basic 
elementary translations but generally cannot 
handle detail very well.  Both languages contain 
words that have two or more non-related 
meanings.  The software cannot analyze intent and 
therefore picks one at random.  Software is not 
good at establishing context nor at understanding colloquialisms, etc.

A good way to test whatever software you use is 
to take an unknown language phrase and translate 
it into your known language.  Here is GOOGLE's 
attempt to translate a paragraph that appears on 
one of SGGEE's German language pages.

"Die evangelisch-augsburgische Kirche in Brzeziny 
wurde 1829 gegründet. Vor dieser Zeit bereiste 
der Pfarrer des Kirchspiels Ilow die Region zwei 
Mal im Jahr, um die Kinder zu konfirmieren. 
Konfirmationseinträge aus dieser Zeit und 
verstreut auch weitere Daten befinden sich im Kirchenbuch von Ilow."

"The Evangelist augsburgische church in Brzeziny 
was created 1829. Before this time the minister 
of the Kirchspiels Ilow the region two times 
bereiste in the year, in order to konfirmieren 
the children. Konfirmationseinträge from this 
time and scattered also further data are in the church book of Ilow."


If you are just trying to get a rough overview of 
what is being said, such software is OK.  But do 
not rely on it for accuracy and detail.


Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca



At 07:00 AM 10/06/2007, Kenneth Browne wrote:
>Kenneth Browne wrote:
> > I've noted that mANy list users make request for translation services in
> > German, Russian, Polish, etc. I have found a tool that I believe may
> > help some users, especially for German and Russian. It is a desktop
> >
> >> ors.
> >>
>Did the Russian come through in Cyrillic characters for anyone? The
>desklet show Cyrillic. Perhaps I need to set my email client to display
>the Cyrillic character set.
>
> > Russian: ? ???? ? assistence ??????? ? ??????? ???????????? ??????????
> > ???? ???????????????.
> >
> > German: Ich schreibe zum Antrag assistence, wenn ich lebenswichtige Sätze
> > meiner Vorfahren finde.
> >
> > Those who know German and Russian are welcome to comment on these
> > results. I know ZERO Russian and almost zero German, so I can't comment
> > myself, but based on English-Spanish, and English-French, I thought it
> > would be worth letting list users know about this tool.
> >