[Web4lib] Language Translation on website: Machine, Human and Language Resources Combined

[Chris Tinney]

Foreign Languages: Translations and Translators
http://www.academic-genealogy.com/foreignlanguagestranslations.htm
Basic to advanced resources for students, educators
and language specialists: translators, translations, 
languages, foreign language tutorials. 

http://www.academic-genealogy.com/foreignlanguagestranslations.htm#Translators
Included are the most well known computer generated
translation sites,  [which produce a "gisting translation", 
a rough translation that gives the "gist", or central idea; 
the essence contained in the source text.]  These are
combined with human resource contact links.  The best
of both worlds.

Respectfully yours, 

Tom Tinney, Sr. 
Who's Who in America, 
Millennium Edition [54th] through 2004 
Who's Who In Genealogy and Heraldry, [both editions] 
Family Genealogy & History Internet Education Directory 
http://www.academic-genealogy.com/ 

Mike Taylor <mike at indexdata.com> wrote:   Sharon Logan writes:
> We are interested in providing translated pages on our website. We
> would like to use several languages. Those I have talked with have
> used actual staff to translate their pages for them. I am
> wondering if there is reliable translation software out there for
> accomplishing this task.

Sorry, no. Translation is an incredibly complex and difficult task,
pretty much a canonical example of the kind of thing that computers
can't do well because they lack the cultural context necessary to
understand what's being said. There is no currently substitute for a
human translator (and I'd be prepared to bet that there won't be for
several decades yet, it ever.)

_/|_ ___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/ Mike Taylor http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\ "We are stardust - Million year old carbon / We are golden -
Caught in the devil's bargain" -- Joni Mitchell, _Woodstock_

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