Consonant shift in Germanic languages

Saturday, March 22, 2008

It's fun to play around with Dutch, a language already quite similar to English but even more so when you play around with the orthography. Watch what happens to this passage:

Calgary is de grootste stad van de Canadese provincie Alberta, gelegen op ongeveer 80 kilometer afstand van de Canadese Rocky Mountains. Calgary had in april 2006 een inwonertal van 991.759 (agglomeratie: 1.060.300). Het is de op drie na grootste stad van Canada, na Toronto, Montréal en Vancouver. De inwoners van Calgary staan bekend als Calgarians. De stad is een populaire bestemming voor wintersporters door het grote aantal nabijgelegen ‘vakantieparken’ in de bergen. De economie van de stad bestaat vooral uit de petroleumindustrie, ook al worden de landbouw, het toerisme en technologie steeds belangrijker. In 1988 organiseerde Calgary de Olympische Winterspelen. De burgemeester van de stad is Dave Bronconnier. Aan de “University of Calgary” studeren meer dan 28.000 studenten.
Obviously an introduction to the city of Calgary. Okay, let's keep everything the same and change de and het to the.

Calgary is the grootste stad van the Canadese provincie Alberta, gelegen op ongeveer 80 kilometer afstand van the Canadese Rocky Mountains. Calgary had in april 2006 een inwonertal van 991.759 (agglomeratie: 1.060.300). the is the op drie na grootste stad van Canada, na Toronto, Montréal en Vancouver. the inwoners van Calgary staan bekend als Calgarians. the stad is een populaire bestemming voor wintersporters door the grote aantal nabijgelegen ‘vakantieparken’ in the bergen. the economie van the stad bestaat vooral uit the petroleumindustrie, ook al worden the landbouw, the toerisme en technologie steeds belangrijker. In 1988 organiseerde Calgary the Olympische Winterspelen. the burgemeester van the stad is Dave Bronconnier. Aan the “University of Calgary” studeren meer dan 28.000 studenten.
That's looking a bit better (though a bit awkward in places). Now we'll change een to a, and en to and.

Calgary is the grootste stad van the Canadese provincie Alberta, gelegen op ongeveer 80 kilometer afstand van the Canadese Rocky Mountains. Calgary had in april 2006 a inwonertal van 991.759 (agglomeratie: 1.060.300). the is the op drie na grootste stad van Canada, na Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver. the inwoners van Calgary staan bekend als Calgarians. the stad is a populaire bestemming voor wintersporters door the grote aantal nabijgelegen ‘vakantieparken’ in the bergen. the economie van the stad bestaat vooral uit the petroleumindustrie, ook al worden the landbouw, the toerisme and technologie steeds belangrijker. In 1988 organiseerde Calgary the Olympische Winterspelen. the burgemeester van the stad is Dave Bronconnier. Aan the “University of Calgary” studeren meer dan 28.000 studenten.
Now we'll change a few more commonly found words: van to from, meer to more, dan to than.

Calgary is the grootste stad from the Canadese provincie Alberta, gelegen op ongeveer 80 kilometer afstand from the Canadese Rocky Mountains. Calgary had in april 2006 a inwonertal from 991.759 (agglomeratie: 1.060.300). the is the op drie na grootste stad from Canada, na Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver. the inwoners from Calgary staan bekend als Calgarians. the stad is a populaire bestemming voor wintersporters door the grote aantal nabijgelegen ‘vakantieparken’ in the bergen. the economie from the stad bestaat vooral uit the petroleumindustrie, ook al worden the landbouw, the toerisme and technologie steeds belangrijker. In 1988 organiseerde Calgary the Olympische Winterspelen. the burgemeester from the stad is Dave Bronconnier. Aan the “University of Calgary” studeren more than 28.000 studenten.
There, that's almost legible if you know a few Germanic words. Some other possibilities in Dutch include deleting " ge" to remove the ge- past tense prefix, making a few verbs easier to spot. Or turning " ge" into something like "did " or "is " so that genoemd (named) becomes "is noemd". Of course words like geografie will turn into is ografie but for the most part it will be helpful.

If you make up a list of changes to make to a Dutch document like this (you might even want to experiment with changing all j's to y's) sometimes you might find yourself with a more legible document than a machine translation. I'm also experimenting with a method for a text that would involve starting with English, and slowly turning it into Dutch or German, bit by bit. Anybody ever tried that?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I think you should provide the links of the blog entries where you documented those "translation" experiences with Germanic languages to the Folkspraak list. Those people will certainly be very interested in that. Moreover this can be a way to find a "middle point" between English and Dutch, i.e., a kind of "Folkspraak-ido".

Me said...

Hm, maybe if I write a bit more on the subject since I was pretty much just fooling around with this. I've thought before about the possibility of a language based on Norwegian, English and Dutch, since bringing in German usually results in some pretty different vocabulary, and a lot of people in Germany speak dialects closer to Dutch anyway.

I think I'll let them know if I come up with a bit longer / more well-thought out post on the subject. Thanks for the idea.

Mithridates said...

Hm, maybe if I write a bit more on the subject since I was pretty much just fooling around with this. I've thought before about the possibility of a language based on Norwegian, English and Dutch, since bringing in German usually results in some pretty different vocabulary, and a lot of people in Germany speak dialects closer to Dutch anyway.

I think I'll let them know if I come up with a bit longer / more well-thought out post on the subject. Thanks for the idea.

Antonielly said...

I think you should provide the links of the blog entries where you documented those "translation" experiences with Germanic languages to the Folkspraak list. Those people will certainly be very interested in that. Moreover this can be a way to find a "middle point" between English and Dutch, i.e., a kind of "Folkspraak-ido".

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