I was just alerted to a new site, ackuna.com, that is promoting their crowd-source translation capabilities by showing how bad machine translation can be. To illustrate this, you type in some text, and their “Bad Translator” feature runs it back and forth between English and various other languages using popular on-line translation sites.<\/p>\n
As I had just seen “Anna Karenina<\/a>” (superb movie), the obvious phrase to use was Tolstoy’s famous opening paragraph: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n Eight translations later through Bing I got:<\/p>\n “”<\/p>\n Which was disappointing. So then I tried SDL, which I’d never heard of, and five translations later I got: “The happy families that I am like everything; each family in a satisfactory way not is not in a satisfactory way in its real way. ”<\/p>\n This seemed more promising, so I tried Bing again, and got this (WordPres still strips out non-Roman characters):<\/p>\n From English: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Which was more promising (though ??? is<\/span> clearly suspect…)<\/p>\n Then I decided to be cruel, and tried this: “Wants pawn term dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n Feeding this to Bing for eight passes:<\/p>\n From English: Wants pawn term dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Not too surprisingly, Danish was the weak link. So I tried five passes through SDL:<\/p>\n From English: Wants pawn term dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist.<\/span> This is a great toy! Check it out: http:\/\/ackuna.com\/badtranslator<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was just alerted to a new site, ackuna.com, that is promoting their crowd-source translation capabilities by showing how bad machine translation can be. To illustrate this, you type in some text, and their “Bad Translator” feature runs it back Continue reading Automatic translation<\/span>
\nTo Bulgarian: ?????? ????????? ?? ?????? ????????; ????? ???????? ????????? ? ???????? ?? ???? ?????.
\nBack to English: Happy families are all worthy; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
\nTo Catalan: Feli\u00e7 fam\u00edlies s\u00f3n tots dignes; cada fam\u00edlia infeli\u00e7 \u00e9s infeli\u00e7 en el seu propi cam\u00ed.
\nBack to English: Happy families are all worthy; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
\nTo Chinese Simplified: ????????? ???????????????????
\nBack to English: Happy family all worth it; each unhappy family is sad in its own way.
\nTo Chinese Traditional: ???????????;<\/span>????????????????????
\nBack to English: Happy families, are worth a look; is<\/span> tragic in its own way, each unhappy family.
\nTo Czech: \u0160?astn\u00e9 rodiny, jsou stoj\u00ed za to pod\u00edvat; je tragick\u00e9, sv\u00fdm zp?sobem, ka\u017ed\u00e1 ne\u0161?astn\u00e1 rodina.
\nBack to English: Happy families, are worth a look; Tragically, in his own way, each unhappy family.
\nTo Danish: Glade familier, er v\u00e6rd at se; Tragisk, p\u00e5 sin egen m\u00e5de, hver ulykkelig familie.
\nBack to English: Happy families, are worth a look; Tragic in its own way, each unhappy family.
\nTo Dutch: Happy families, zijn de moeite waard een kijkje; Tragische op zijn eigen manier, elke ongelukkig familie.
\nBack to English: Happy families, are worth a look; Tragic in its own way, each unhappy family.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nTo Bulgarian: ???? ????? ?????? ???? ???????? ?????? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???????? ?????? ??????? ???? ?????? ?????? lodge, ???, ??????.
\nBack to English: Wants pawn term dare worsted ladle Gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage honor itch offer lodge, doc<\/span>, florist.
\nTo Catalan: Vol pe\u00f3 termini s’atreveixen<\/span> estam<\/span> cullera<\/span> Gavina aixada<\/span> lift humides<\/span> assassinat<\/span> interior cullera<\/span> cordage honor picor<\/span> oferta<\/span> lodge, doc<\/span>, floristeria<\/span>.
\nBack to English: Wants pawn term dare lift inner ladle Gull hoe bucket Stamen humid cordage honor itch offer lodge, killed doc, florist.
\nTo Chinese Simplified: ?????????????????????????????????? doc? ???
\nBack to English: Wants pawn term dare lift inner ladle Gull hoe bucket stamens wet cordage honor itch offer Lodge, killed doc, flower shop.
\nTo Chinese Traditional: ?????????????????????????????????? doc?????
\nBack to English: Wants pawn term dare lift inner ladle Gull hoe bucket stamens wet cordage honor itch offer Lodge, doc killed, flower shop.
\nTo Czech: Chce, aby p?\u0161ec term\u00edn odv\u00e1\u017e\u00ed zvednout vnit?n\u00ed p\u00e1nvi Racek motyka kbel\u00edk ty?inek wet \u0161??ry ?est sv?d?n\u00ed nab\u00eddka Lodge, doc zabit, kv?tin\u00e1?stv\u00ed.
\nBack to English: He wants to weigh up the internal term pawn basin Gull hoe bucket of wet cords honor itch offer Lodge, doc killed, flower shop.
\nTo Danish:
\nBack to English:
\nTo Dutch:
\nBack to English:<\/p>\n
\nTo French: Les besoins mettent au mont-de-pi\u00e9t\u00e9 le d\u00e9fi de terme ascenseur de houe de mouette de louche en laine peign\u00e9e meurtre plus mouill\u00e9 cordages de louche int\u00e9rieurs honorent la loge d’offre de d\u00e9mangeaison, le bassin, le fleuriste. <\/span>
\nBack to English: The needs put to the mount-of-piety the challenge of term elevator of hoe of mouette<\/span> of ladle in wool combed wetter murder ropes of internal ladle honor the lodging of offer<\/span> of itch<\/span>, the pool, the florist. <\/span>
\nTo German: Die Bed\u00fcrfnisse stellen zur Untersatz-von-Fr\u00f6mmigkeit die Herausforderung des Begriffsaufzugs der Hacke des mouette des Sch\u00f6pfl\u00f6ffels in Wolle hat gek\u00e4mmt nassere Mordseile des inneren Sch\u00f6pfl\u00f6ffels ehren die Unterkunft des Angebots des Juckreizes, des Teichs, der Florist. <\/span>
\nBack to English: The needs place to the support-of-piety the challenge of the concept procession of the hoe the mouette<\/span> of the take spoon in wool combed wetter murder ropes of the internal take spoon honor the lodging of the offer of the itchiness, the pond, the Florist. <\/span>
\nTo Italian: I bisogni collocano al sostegno-di-la piet\u00e0 la sfida della processione di concetto della zappa il mouette del porta il cucchiaio nella lana ha pettinato le corde di assassinio pi\u00f9 bagnate dell’interno portano il cucchiaio onora l’alloggio dell’offerta del prurito, lo stagno, il Fiorista. <\/span>
\nBack to English: The needs place to the support-of-the pity the challenge of the procession of concept<\/span> of the hoe the mouette<\/span> of the door the spoon in the wool combed the cords of assassination more wet some inside carry the spoon honors the lodging of the offer of the itch, the pond, the Florist. <\/span>
\nTo Portuguese: As necessidades colocam ao apoio-de-a pena o desafio da prociss\u00e3o de conceito da enxada o mouette da porta que a colher na l\u00e3 penteou os cord\u00f5es de assassinato mais molhado algums dentro de carregar a colher honra a hospedagem da oferta da coceira, a lagoa, o Florista. <\/span>
\nBack to English: The needs put<\/span> to the of of penalty the challenge of the procession of concept<\/span> of the hoe the mouette<\/span> of the door that the spoon in the wool combed the weter<\/span> cords of murder algums<\/span> inside carry the spoon honors the lodging of the offering of the itch, the pond, the Florist.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n