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They also have much more context to work with. Compare "Fuck" said with mad, resigned and amazed voice. It's 3 different words in some languages. Or compare a
by ajuc 6y ago
They also have much more context to work with.
Compare "Fuck" said with mad, resigned and amazed voice. It's 3 different words in some languages.
Or compare a line "Our hero heard someone crying 'I loved her' from the crowd". In some languages depending what grammatical gender is the person shouting the word ending in 'love' is different.
English books often skip that information, so the translator has to deduce or ask the author who was shouting that line. In a movie you know because you can see that person or hear the voice.
- viceroyalbean 6y agoI remember reading one example of this in an interview with the Swedish translator of the Harry Potter books. At some point a grandmother (I believe Neville's) is mentioned. In Swedish, it is impossible (at least while sounding remotely natural) to say "grandmother" without specifying whether it's the maternal or paternal grandmother. The translator had to just guess, and ended up being wrong when more context was given in a later book.
- JoeSmithson 6y agoI believe it's also the case that there is no word for "uncle" in Swedish. This makes more sense to me because your relationship to your mother's brother is actually meaningfully different to your mother's sister's husband.