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Languages Poll


  

  1. 1. Which languages would you like to see the slogan translated into? Subject to translators

    • Arabic
      12
    • Bengali
      5
    • Dutch
      5
    • Finnish (or other Scandinavian language, see bellow)
      6
    • French
      13
    • German
      13
    • Hebrew
      9
    • Hindi
      8
    • Italian
      12
    • Japanese
      9
    • Korean
      6
    • Mandarin or Cantonese (see blurb)
      11
    • Polish
      8
    • Portugese
      8
    • Punjabi
      7
    • Russian
      12
    • Spanish
      14
    • Swahili
      5
    • Tamil
      5
    • Turkish
      7
  2. 2. As this is taken place in London, do you think one of the 'native' languages of the British Isles, aside from English, should be used?

    • Yes
      18
    • No
      1
    • Don't Mind
      6
  3. 3. Supposing the answer is yes, which one? Subject to translators.

    • Welsh (Britain and UK)
      17
    • Irish (British Isles but not Britain, the Northern part is in UK)
      14
    • Scottish Gaelic (Britain and UK)
      11
    • Scots (Britain and UK)
      5
    • Manx (from Isle of Man, British Isles but not Britain or UK)
      4
    • Cornish (Britain and UK)
      7


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Timing Note: POLL NOW CLOSED, you can still vote but decisions are made!

The Blurb

If you know any of the languages mentioned, regardless of how well it's doing, and are willing to translate let us know. Whilst doing so can you also let us know if you know if there's a word for 'asexual' in that language. If you have any friends who could translate and are willing, let us know too.

I'll point out that probably we'll get visitors mostly from other English speaking countries and Europe. But in Britain we have a large South Asian population and a good number of Middle Eastern folk and those that come from East Asia are almost always from Hong Kong. There is a link HERE on the languages spoken in Britain. If that's something you want to consider (doesn't have to be).

There are issues around Mandarin vs. Cantonese and I'm letting the people who actually know said languages work that out in translating. There's also something about Scandinavian languages and how Finnish is the only one that isn't similar to the others or.... that's all down in the thread to look at if you're interested.

I know there are a ton of languages that aren't on there and it is European heavy but there's only so many I can put on that list and then there's worry about finding translators and also I'm trying to keep it to ones that have a chance of more than one person in the crowd recognising and knowing out of the hundreds of languages in the world.

Another thing to consider is the image of different languages that are visibly different in conveying a 'global community together' look for World Pride.

With all that said, vote how you will!

ETA: Just realised that few outside of the UK and British Isles in general is going to know where some of those languages come from and how they relate to the area so.... put that in. It's pretty awesome that they haven't all gone and died by now, really, despite the best attempts by the government in decades gone by.

NOTE: There will, probably, be about five to ten used, and a balance of poll info and diversity of background and so on. Though the poll is doing pretty good with that already to be honest. If ten are used then nothing aside from English will be used twice to try and increase the diversity of them whilst also recognising that it's happening in the UK. Sorry for the limit, I'd have all the languages if possible.

At this point I have a fairly good idea of which languages it will be, to be honest, and most translators needed are confirmed.

TRANSLATORS:

Mandarin and/or Cantonese (will likely be Mandarin): Faelights or Starrynight

Dutch: Comedia

Russian: Comedia & Midnight Lady (stated native speaker)

Polish: Trava U Doma

German: Trava U Doma (if no native speaker comes forward, which they'd prefer)

Swedish and Norwegian (if required, see bellow): Comedia

Spanish: Amara_Rose

Italian: Dr Horrible

Arabic: qaface (LiveJournal & stated native speaker)

French: Chiakaiyi (LiveJournal)

Japanese: Chiakaiyi (LiveJournal)

Irish: thatsongrocks (Tumblr and now AVEN too!)

Welsh: lostprophet27 (Tumblr)

Possible Punjabi speaker found via friends of theirs on tumblr volunteering to ask 'em, so not sure how that'll end up. (ETA: I've heard no response to still looking for Punjabi speaker if possible)

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People from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other overseas Chinese communities tend to use Traditional Chinese characters. People from Mainland China tend to use Simplified Chinese characters. Er, yeah, I don't really know what else to say.

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Notte stellata

I can help with Mandarin translation. Since most Chinese speakers will come from Hong Kong, I suppose it's better to use traditional (not simplified) Chinese characters?

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Notte stellata

People from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other overseas Chinese communities tend to use Traditional Chinese characters. People from Mainland China tend to use Simplified Chinese characters. Er, yeah, I don't really know what else to say.

Hah, I just saw your post after posting mine! :lol:

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I can help with Mandarin translation. Since most Chinese speakers will come from Hong Kong, I suppose it's better to use traditional (not simplified) Chinese characters?

So you can translate into... and I'm still not clear on the diff between Cantonese and Mandarin, but into something that the majority of people from Hong Kong will understand? If so, help would be appreciated (if it gets voted in which I hope so).

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Notte stellata

I can help with Mandarin translation. Since most Chinese speakers will come from Hong Kong, I suppose it's better to use traditional (not simplified) Chinese characters?

So you can translate into... and I'm still not clear on the diff between Cantonese and Mandarin, but into something that the majority of people from Hong Kong will understand? If so, help would be appreciated (if it gets voted in which I hope so).

Well, I don't speak Cantonese. Cantonese is a dialect in China, and if you write it down according to how it's spoken, it's different from Mandarin (perhaps similar to Welsh vs. English?). Mandarin can be written in either traditional or simplified characters, and I can do either (it's very easy to convert one into the other in Word). Mandarin written in traditional characters should be understood by the majority of people from Hong Kong.

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Welsh is a completely different language from English. It's related to the various forms of Gaelic (Irish, Scots, Manx) and Cornish - to one degree or another. But a completely different language like Polish and German are or English and Cherokee are. But maybe more like British-English and American-English, or like Spanish and Portugese?

We'll see what happens then, I thought it was a diff language too but was told it wasn't by someone who'd be more familiar with this stuf so.... yeah.

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Standard Chinese is the same between both Mandarin and Cantonese... *rolls* XD Basically, that's what is taught in schools...

You're not supposed to use written Cantonese in more formal settings anyway. I guess we'll have to see what the phrases end up being? I dunno if my parents (both from Hong Kong) would be willing to help me translate if we wanted informal Cantonese phrasing involved. Pfft, I'm pretty sure my mom still doesn't believe me about being asexual.

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Notte stellata

You're not supposed to use written Cantonese in more formal settings anyway.

Yeah, that would be kind of strange...For example, newspapers in HK are written in Mandarin (traditional characters), so are most Chinese signs I've seen in the US. Also, if you use Mandarin, people from Taiwan and Mainland China can read it too (I think most people from the mainland can read at least some traditional characters), but if you use written Cantonese, the reader group would be much more limited.

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Ah, in that case Mandarin then. Honestly, I know nothing beyond the fact that they both exist and those from Hong Kong tend to speak Cantonese so I'll defer to the knowledge of you guys.

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Alphaprocess

For London, Polish and French would be quite useful these days! Also Korean but mostly in the Southwest of the city, around Kingston and New Malden. Mind you there are a lot of different languages spoken across the metropolis.

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Capslock Cadet

It's a shame that only Finnish is on this list. I think it might be a good idea to add Swedish, Norwegian or Danish. See, even though we don't want to admit it (sibling rivalry) our languages are kind of alike, and we can usually understand parts of other Scandinavian languages. Except for Finnish, that is wastly different.

If we were to have a slogan in any of these three other scandinavian languages it's likely that Swedes, Norwegians and Danes would be able to understand it.

I'd be able to help with a translation of Swedish and/or Norwegian.

Out of the languages already listed I'd be able to help with translations for Russian and Dutch.

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It's a shame that only Finnish is on this list. I think it might be a good idea to add Swedish, Norwegian or Danish. See, even though we don't want to admit it (sibling rivalry) our languages are kind of alike, and we can usually understand parts of other Scandinavian languages. Except for Finnish, that is wastly different.

If we were to have a slogan in any of these three other scandinavian languages it's likely that Swedes, Norwegians and Danes would be able to understand it.

I'd be able to help with a translation of Swedish and/or Norwegian.

Out of the languages already listed I'd be able to help with translations for Russian and Dutch.

Ah, sorry abou that. I just went with Finnish because it's the first one that came to mind from that region. I didn't know it was the only one that was separate enough to be like that, ah, sorry. I can go modify it to be (or other Scandinavian Language) though cause I thought they were all similar-ish.

But yay for the Dutch and Russian!

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Capslock Cadet

I guess it would make sense to keep Finnish, and then maybe add one of the other scandinavian languages. That way we'll be able to reach a lot of people, hopefully :)

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Trava u doma

Umm, yeah, I can help with Polish... ( :( )

Possibly with German, too, but I know there are German native speakers on here, so I guess it's better to ask them =)

Actually, how many languages will be used?

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There will probably, at most, be about five languages besides English used. And the poll only has so many slots so.... I'll keep the Finnish (braket blurb) as it is and if no Finnish translater comes forward do another Scandinavian language like Norwegian yeah? Till then I'm trying to be mostly neutral but also adaptable in this even if I have preferences in my head.

Thanks for the Polish assist if it comes forward. And the German but if needed.

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Midnight Lady

Just in case, Russian is my native language, too. And I would be more than willing to help. :)

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I'd be willing to lend a hand with translating slogans into Spanish, if no native speaker comes forward. :)

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No Hungarian, Icelandic or Vietnamese? :o

To be frank, the poll only had twenty spots, and we're not going to have all these languages. So I picked ones that seemed somewhat more likely to have a speaker there than others for one reason or another and in some cases picked one or two from a region because there are hundreds of languages in the world and putting them all on is impossible. Sorry I missed yours out. We have put the Finnish one as Finnish or other Scandinavian depending on translators which isn't the same as Icelandic but close-ish at least cause it's related to Norwegian as I understand it. Not the same but.... again, limit in the poll options and we'll likely be using only about four or five anyway. Which hopefully will be from different regions around the world and, I know, four or five isn't enough to do that either but we're not sure how many would be willing to carry placards in the first place.

It's possible that, as we're using two slogans, we might translate them into different languages, opening it up to more than that but we'll see how the voting and people volunteering to translate goes.

Thanks Midnight Lady and Amara_Rose for volunteering!

If anybody knows languages not from the European region, like Arabic or Punjabi or something that'd be brilliant! Or if you have friends who are fluent and don't mind doing you a favour because I'd like for this to not be a mostly Europe and eastern Europe thing with the token language from some place else if at all possible.

ETA: Good news! A person on the LiveJournal asexual community has stepped forward to translate into Arabic. Yay!

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Hey, I'm fluent in Irish and would be happy to translate whatever! :)

Hello and welcome! And again, sorry for babbling at you, I'm doing it to most people at the moment.

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ThatSongRocks

Hey, I'm fluent in Irish and would be happy to translate whatever! :)

Hello and welcome! And again, sorry for babbling at you, I'm doing it to most people at the moment.

Hey! Thanks! :D And don't worry about it haha :)

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HighwayToHell

This is going to turn to chaos if you do this.

You need to agree on ONE language to speak...

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We all speak English, the leaflets will all be in English, the banner is in English, any stickers will be in English and so on. The placards will have two slogans, each with an English version alongside the others. Considering it's World Pride, in London which is pretty multi cultural in any case, we're trying to embrace that fact. Also each Placard will have two faces, back and front, the front side will be in English and be the same so.... it isn't going to be as chaotic as you might think from this thread.

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I am pretty sure that the scots no longer use scottish or gaelic, ancient languages.

They're not as common as Welsh in Wales or Irish in Ireland for sure but they aren'd dead languages either. All of them are living languages. I don't know any of 'em but that's on me. Same goes for Cornish and Manx though Cornish came closest to dying off around the turn of the 20th century it climbed back. All of them are recognised and protected as (living) minority languages by the EU.

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I'll be very happy to translate anything to Finnish.

The deal with Finnish is that it's not even an Indo-European language. To give you some perspective, half of the world's population speaks an Indo-European language as a first language. Finnish is pretty far out linguistically. But luckily for y'all, I speak it and it would make me one happy ace if I could help out!

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I'll be very happy to translate anything to Finnish.

The deal with Finnish is that it's not even an Indo-European language. To give you some perspective, half of the world's population speaks an Indo-European language as a first language. Finnish is pretty far out linguistically. But luckily for y'all, I speak it and it would make me one happy ace if I could help out!

I didn't know that, why's it so different? Anything to do with the Saami languages?

And the languages have already been decided, Finnish isn't in it sadly. Thank you for volunteering though, so much.

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Ah, shame! But understandable, it's such a small language. Any Scandinavian language will have a larger scope. :)

Yes, Finnish and the Saami languages belong to the same group of languages, Finno-Ugric languages. Check out the link if you want to know more! Basically Finnish, along with Hungarian and Estonian (and some smaller languages found mainly around Russia) originated most probably somewhere in Siberia. They're quite different from Indo-European languages, and possibly the biggest difference is that Finno-Ugric languages don't have prepositions. They're called agglutinative languages, which basically means that all the info most languages communicate using prepositions or small determining words is instead stuck into suffixes. These suffixes can dramatically alter the word, which makes Finno-Ugric languages quite difficult to learn. (For example, the Finnish word talo means 'house', whereas taloissannekin means 'in your houses too'.)

Whoops, I kind of went in to lecture mode, sorry!

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