12/11/05: Name That Language
Dec. 11th, 2005 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidlevineSo I was doing a Google search on my own name, as one does, and Google
turned up
this
page on a mysterious site known only by a number.
The page is about "The Tale of the Golden Eagle" and it has two reader comments. One reader gives the story a grade of 5, the other a 4.
I can't even figure out what language the page is in, never mind what it says.
The Xerox language guesser thinks it's Estonian. But there doesn't seem to be any automated Estonian to English translator on the web. I've tried Romanian, Slovenian, and Serbian translators and none of them can extract any meaning from it.
Can anyone reading this tell me what it says?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-11 09:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-11 09:17 pm (UTC)Try sending it through a Finnish translator if you can find one. That'd be its closest living language relative.
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Date: 2005-12-12 02:32 pm (UTC)allemande
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Date: 2005-12-12 03:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-12 05:03 am (UTC)Unfortunately, while Estonian and Finnish are related languages, very few Finns know it well enought to be able to read or speak it. I'm certain I could get a beer and food, and even say "thank you" afterwards, but anything after that would be just guessing. Some words are the same, a lot of them are shortened and some have totally different meaning, but in general, it has an eerie feeling of familiarity clouded by lots of obscure words.
And even more unfortunate is the fact, that there is precious little connection among Finnish and Estonian fen. Maybe it is in our nature as members of the same language group, that we tend to keep to ourselves and not really mingle with the outside world? Other that a really quick trip to Scottish Worldcons every decade or so...
There is a small, but apparently vibrant sf-community in Estonia, as their website confirms: http://www.ulme.ee/ but it is in Estonian.
Translation of the reviews
Date: 2005-12-12 05:46 am (UTC)Yes, it's Estonian. I know it, because I study there (I'm Finnish myself). Here's a rough English translation of those reviews. I've done them very hastily so the might have errors in them.
1. Overall, its a very good sf-story. I've always liked, when writer combines old stories and creates new myths out of them. That's what I liked in this story too. A couple of unorthodox (or original, if you prefer) ideas and the weird love story makes the story definetely worth reading. The name of the main character, Nerissa, added weirdness (and brought some bones value too) to the story (5 stars)
The second comment was more difficult, so I might have made some errors in the translation. Sorry about that.
2. That wasn't bad, although there were few logical gaps. The story was somehow sterile, as if the author wanted all the time to withhold some information that only he has (inside his head?).
It could also mean something like "it seems as the author had withhold or kind of self-censored the text for the reasons only known to himself. (4 stars)
Okay, but you get the picture, right?
Yours,
Aleksi aka Mustakuutio
(thank jukkahoo for bringing those reviews to my attention)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-12 10:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-12 02:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-14 07:10 pm (UTC)Re: Translation of the reviews
Date: 2005-12-14 07:11 pm (UTC)Googling your name
Date: 2005-12-13 06:35 pm (UTC)I use Google.ca, being Canadian, and I notice that it has a nice feature that Google.com apparently doesn't. Once I do a search, I get an option to set up an email notification of any new sites where my search would make a hit, and then I get an email informing me of them. That way, they do all the work over at google. Neat, eh? I don't think there is anything stopping you from doing that too, if you like.
Rebecca
Re: Googling your name
Date: 2005-12-14 07:14 pm (UTC)