4 ms·

What does '"Skolka kilometer Volgograd?" will do. When they answer, nod, smile, shake their hand and say, "Speciba."' mean? I'm having no luck with online trans

What does '"Skolka kilometer Volgograd?" will do. When they answer, nod, smile, shake their hand and say, "Speciba."' mean? I'm having no luck with online translators.

cowpewter 16y ago
From context, I'm guessing, "How many kilometers to Volgograd?" and "Thanks"
- daliusd 16y ago
  That's correct guess.
- Natsu 16y ago
  I'm betting you did more than mere guessing, because you can reason the whole thing out from the context. If you did what I did, you first assumed that kilometer was the same in both languages, then that Volgograd was a proper noun (due to being capitalized) and used the context of 'pointing to a map' to infer that it was a place of some kind. That means that Skolka is a question word due to the question mark at the end of the sentence. From there, it's hardly a stretch to assume that Skolka means something like 'how many', because there aren't many questions involving distance and a place that it would make sense to ask. The context of smiling and shaking their hand means that "Speciba" is a word expressing appreciation, so you can confidently translate it as something like "thanks."
gruseom 16y ago
The probable reason online translators failed is interesting: davidst used nonstandard, but phonetic, transliteration. "Skolka" is closer to how it sounds but the normal way of spelling it in English is "skolko". Similarly "speciba" instead of "spasibo". Either he got these out of a traveler's manual or learned how to say them and then spelled them the way they sound. By the way, people's tendency to misspell things the way they sound is what allows philologists to figure out how proununciation worked in past centuries.
- fbailey 16y ago
  By the way, people's tendency to misspell things the way they sound is what allows philologists to figure out how proununciation worked in past centuries. Thank you! Interesting!

What does '"Skolka kilometer Volgograd?" will do. When they answer, nod, smile, shake their hand and say, "Speciba."' mean? I'm having no luck with online translators.

cowpewter 16y ago

From context, I'm guessing, "How many kilometers to Volgograd?" and "Thanks"

daliusd 16y ago
That's correct guess.
Natsu 16y ago
I'm betting you did more than mere guessing, because you can reason the whole thing out from the context. If you did what I did, you first assumed that kilometer was the same in both languages, then that Volgograd was a proper noun (due to being capitalized) and used the context of 'pointing to a map' to infer that it was a place of some kind. That means that Skolka is a question word due to the question mark at the end of the sentence. From there, it's hardly a stretch to assume that Skolka means something like 'how many', because there aren't many questions involving distance and a place that it would make sense to ask. The context of smiling and shaking their hand means that "Speciba" is a word expressing appreciation, so you can confidently translate it as something like "thanks."

gruseom 16y ago

The probable reason online translators failed is interesting: davidst used nonstandard, but phonetic, transliteration. "Skolka" is closer to how it sounds but the normal way of spelling it in English is "skolko". Similarly "speciba" instead of "spasibo". Either he got these out of a traveler's manual or learned how to say them and then spelled them the way they sound. By the way, people's tendency to misspell things the way they sound is what allows philologists to figure out how proununciation worked in past centuries.

fbailey 16y ago
By the way, people's tendency to misspell things the way they sound is what allows philologists to figure out how proununciation worked in past centuries. Thank you! Interesting!