Fun with Babelfish

Ok, so I'm waiting on our lab's computer to process some data and I'm amusing myself (I am dangerous when bored)

So I am Spanish/English bilingual. I decided to have some fun with Babelfish between the two languages to see how much it could mess up a translation. A perfect translator, when given a phrase in, say English, could translate that phrase to Spanish and back to English and back again infinitely without either the Spanish or English phrase ever changing.

Needless to say, Babelfish is not a perfect translator:

I started with the English phrase:
"I am wearing a tie."

Babelfish translated it to:
"Estoy usando un lazo."
I would have translated it as:
"Estoy llevando una corbata" or "Llevo una corbata."

When I translated the Babelfish translation back to English, I got:
"I am using a bow."

Translating "I am using a bow" back to Spanish gave me:
"Estoy utilizando un arco." (The problem here is that "lazo" is a bow knot and "arco" is an archer's bow.)

Translating "Estoy utilizando un arco" back to English gave me:
"I am using an arc."

When back-translated, "I am using an arc" gave me "Estoy utilizando un arco" again, and so at this point, the translation would not change anymore.

So, thanks to playing "Babelfish Telephone," I got from "I am wearing a tie" to "I am using an arc."

I know, I know, I'm easily amused...

ahhhhh bless hun u are bored aren't u!! i just got in from da pub so am online wit all this on line stuff- fun fun! im posting u in all these different rooms- wana know if u near me in da US hava look in introductions i cant b arsed to repeat!!

well, i'm doing english to portuguese for fun...

I started with "are you going to help me carry that?"

then i got (back in english)

"You are going to help me to load that one"

then "You are going to help me to load this"

Then i got even more bored. So i used the italian, and did "I am a carrot, and i like potatoes." which came out as "they are a carrot, and i appreciate potatoes."

which could be worse.

so i tried "Please butter the bread for my little brother."

which (after a couple times through the wringer) came out: "Imburri prays the bread for my small brother."

in portuguese it's "the bread for my small brother puts butter please"

oh, and "i'm wearing a tie" when translated into portuguese and back out turns into "i am consuming a bow" then "i am consuming a curve"

babblefish telephone is fun

anyhoo, i'm done for now.

Bless you Mike, I just love babel fish so much. I remember when Malcolm asked me one day to check the possible use of babel fish for translation of the poi lessons for instance ... OMG I was ROFLMAO for hours...

Babel Fish is not a translating software, it is a happy software to cure anyone from boredom or sadness

shine on
Cassandra

I can beat that!!!!!!
I typed in" i like using my computer in my bedroom. My mother makes nice food"

i then used loads of languages including french to german to english....and it came out with:
"Joy with my computer in my eel sleep of really using. My mother forms the food agreeably"

WHAT??? huh?? that makes no sense!!! and further more how does it get from bedroom to eel sleep???

how good is that??

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I like cheese

I then mucked about with it further and it replied:

"Joy with my in my sleep eel using it to really calculate. My mother forms the food agreeably"

this is brilliant!!! thank you!! time spent on the computer will never be the same again!!!! hahahahahahahahaahahha!
<falls backwards over chair and giggles uncontrollably on the floor>

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I like cheese

THIS WILL BE THE LAST ONE I SWEAR!!!
i typed in "what a wonderful day it is. I feel that i can fly for miles on the back of an eagle"
it came back after a while with:
"Which day is astonishing him. I feel how I fly of the miles back of the annual eagle borders"

hahahaha..i too am easily pleased.....

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I like cheese

So where is this Babel Fish thing anyway?

in the fish tank, what do you think ?

check out my intro thread for more info on the fishtank saga

[ 10 July 2002, 01:15: Message edited by: Ros ]

::blushes::

Babel Fish


The Babel Fish is small, yellow and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy recieved not from it's own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconsious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of it's carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in you ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by the Babel Fish. The poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.

" all your base are belong to us "

ROFL... hadn't seen you posting in a while and was missing you Steelwings

'tis a mighty fish, uh ?

whats a female babel fish like I wonder !!!!

shine on
cass

I know what a Babel fish is, i've been trying to breed one for ages (and thus make God explode) but it seems there's a page or program aswell... and was wondering where it was.

Ah - If anyone else want's to play:-
http://babelfish.altavista.com

So a friend of mine who was from Singapore stole some signs from a college there. One sign said "Please do not make noodles in the fountain." Apparently, this was a problem worthy of a sign...? Right...onward and upward.

Anyways, translating to Spanish and back once, I got "It please does not make tallarines in the source."

I love Babelfish.

I put in "I love my double fire poi" and using italian to english, came up with. "I love my double amount of the fire."

Both are true so cannot be that bad!!

Sono amo il mio <fire poi?> would be it. I dun think that Babelfish properly conjugates italian verbs. si, pazzi!

the problem with babelfish is that it does a direct dictionary traslation of each work individualy so a slight mismatch and bam there you go.

you can get stranger results if you use more than 2 languages like english to french to german to english or whatever.

We know, Ajay, but that doesn't make it any less fun.

Ok, here's a morbid one. This is from a sign down the hall from our lab:

"Animal carcasses and body parts for disposal should be deposited in the appropriate receptacles. " Eww. I guess someone has to do it, but I'm glad it's not me.

Translated to Spanish it is:
"Las caparazones y las piezas animales del cuerpo para la disposición se deben depositar en los receptáculos apropiados."
Close...but not quite...

So back-translated, it is:
"The shells and the pieces animals of the body for the disposition are due to deposit in the appropriate receivers. " Well, at least it's not gross anymore...

Back to Spanish it is:
"Las cáscaras y los animales de los pedazos del cuerpo para la disposición son debido al depósito en los receptores apropiados."

And back to English:
"The rinds and the animals of the pieces of the body for the disposition are due to the deposit in the appropriate receivers. "

Teeter:
"Las cortezas y los animales de los pedazos del cuerpo para la disposición son debido al depósito en los receptores apropiados."

Totter:
"The crusts and the animals of the pieces of the body for the disposition are due to the deposit in the appropriate receiver."

Yum. And then people wonder why I'm a vegetarian.

Ok., i couldnt help myself, this seemed TOO fun to pass by, so i wrote a little verse and decided to see what babelfish would do to it........

Originally:
"i wish i was not a coward,
and my heart was not afraid.
I wish that i could take my hands
and make them spin with flame!"

from english to german and back.....
"I do not wish myself was a coward,
or that my fearful heart wasnt.
I wish myself could my hands take
and her rotational acceleration with flame form!

tis not too shabby a version i think!

and the english/french/german/english version is kinda groovy too!:
"I do not wish myself was a the matter, and my heart did not have a fear. I wish that I mean hands to take and the revolution with the flame for them could make!"