On Wednesday 04 Jun 2008 4:33:28 pm Rishab Aiyer Ghosh wrote: > "for bookings before june 15th the 4th night is offered" > > a native english speaker may find this incomprehensible. but any > continental european would understand what it means. native speakers are > frequently at a disadvantage since they do not allow for the same > flexibility in the interpretation of words as 2nd/3rd/4th language > speakers of english do. especially if they're monoglots, as most native > english speakers are. > > for the disadvantaged native english speakers in this world of "english > dominance", the website does add a helpful translation: "Book your stay > before June 15th and get 4 nights for the price of 3" > > -rishab Diversion:
I have spent a month helping to translate my son's Sanskrit lessons into mostly English and other languages he can understand. This is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do because Snskrit is compressed code. The Sanskrit sentence may be: "Bzzt bzzzzt bztbzzt" and the translation is often "And the King rose to address his people and said, Oh my countrymen, the time has now come to decide which side we will join " Another real "bugger" of a sentence (in Kannada this time) is "Neenu nimma appana yeshtane maga?" which needs about 20 words or so to translate into English grammatical English. I think it goes something like "Of all your father's sons what position do you occupy if they (your father's children) were arranged in descending chronological order of age" A typical Kannadiga would ask in English "You are your father's how-many-eth son?" or "How-many-eth son are you of your father?" shiv
