Translation: Where the Rubber Meets the Road - II

One of the first problems I ran into, in translating the Gospel of Matthew into Udugi, was that I didn't know the Cherokee (Tsalagi) word for "virgin," I have several Cherokee dictionaries, both on paper and on-line, but none could provide me with this word. So I referred to the Cherokee New Testament, translated in the 1840s. To securely identify the proper word, I used a concordance to locate a few more example in the New Testament, learning that the correct word was ꭰꮫ (adv). Having a similar problem with the word "treasure," I used the same technique. I happened to be using an old copy of Cruden's, which gave me this information: "the word 'treasure,' among the Hebrews, signifies anything collected together; provisions, stores." I found this very interesting, and wondered what the word meant to a Cherokee. In the Cherokee New Testament, the word is "tsugvwalodi" (ᏧᎬᏩᎶᏗ), a word that also means "valuable." So there is our answer: it means "valuables." I know that I will confidently be able to use the same word when I get to Mt. 6:21, "for where your valuables are, there will your heart be, also."

The gifts of the Three Wise Men presented an interesting and instructive problem. Gold was probably not, originally, a store of value for the Cherokee, since the only market for it would have been where metallurgy was practiced--far away. In modern Cherokee, gold is "dalonige," a word that also means "yellow." But I learned from the Cherokee NT that it was called "adelv-dalonige," which means "yellow shake," probably referring to the panning process. Silver is still called "adelv-unegv," "white shake." Gold was not important in the Cherokee culture of the early nineteenth century, so it is ironic that a little gold, found in a creek in northern Georgia, was one of the principal reasons for the forced removal of the Cherokee from their ancestral lands.

"Frankincense" presented more of a problem. Cherokee has no "f" sound, and the living dialects do not have "r," either. Looking it up in the Cherokee NT, I found that the missionaries had translated it as "sweet-smell-rubber," and I have done the same in Udugi. The closest thing in any First Nations culture might be sage, but it's common, so might not be thought of as a fit gift for a king.

In the Cherokee NT, "myrrh," which comes from Arabia and East Africa, and is not part of Native American culture, was called "mila," without explanation, by the missionaries. Not being quite sure what it is myself, I have, in Udugi, followed their lead.

Sometimes the translations of the missionaries were quite clever, and served well. For example, they must have known, or someone among them did, that in Hebrew Bethlehem (beit-lehem) means "house of bread." Since Cherokee has no "b" or "th," and words cannot end in a consonant, they did not try to represent the sound. In Cherokee, Bethlehem is Gaduyi, which means "Bread-place."

Similarly, the Cherokees of today call Bartlesville, OK "Gugu," which means "Bottle." Sometimes (e.g. in the case of "frankincense," one follows the meaning, and sometimes, as in the case of "myrrh," one follows the sound.

So if I tell you that the Cherokee word for "spear" is "digatisdi," you'll now know the meaning of "adelv-digatisdi," right?

(to be continued, probably)

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.

Food for Thought

Here is some food for thought (at least, my thought): yesterday's blog post "Matthew Chapter 2, Verses 13-15 in Udugi," has received 15 visits in the last 24 hours, a healthy number of visits, and more than any other post received during that period. This is partly because the most recent posts usually get the most visits. But on the face of it, one would question whether it would get more than a couple of visits, if any at all. But there is something going on here. The Udugi language is acquiring a following. It is becoming popular--the question is, with whom? I would be happiest if the audience turned out to be the Tsalagi people. But I would also be happy if First Nations people of many different tribes, who have lost or are losing their indigenous language were embracing Udugi, whose apt name means "Hope."

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.

Matthew Chapter 2, Verses 13-15 in Udugi

13  ale ulosonv nasgidv ahnagisdiyise, gvniyuquo, anidawehi unelanvhi vhnai gananugoisdase tsowa didla asgitisdi hawina, hineganete, dilodu ale agisdu ayoli ayotline ale utseli etsine, ale ulatisdu itsidv nahnai, ale edodu uhna igohida ayv ayohisdose kaneisdine nihi didla: elodvno ayasdose ayoli ayotline adahisdi nasgine.

14  hilayvi atsvyai dilodise, atsvyai agisdise ayoli ayotline ale utseli etsine svnoyi gvdodi, ale ahnagisdiyise itsidv nahnai.

15  ale gesvise uhna elodv ayohuhisdi igohida: akalisodi nane na unelanvhi kanegvise adelohosgi digvwalosv, hineganete, doyegi itsidv nidvlenvda ayv uyanvdise aqua uwetsine.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.

Translation: Where the Rubber Meets the Road - I

ᎭᏢ ᎠᏜ ᏗᏠᎯᏍᏓᏎ ᏅᏃᎯᏁ
hatlv adla ditlohisdase nvnohine

I've been in the translation business, on and off, since 1963. Some things have changed enormously, but others are still true, and always will be.

Back then, machine translation was only a dream. The early attempts at it were terrible, a joke, really. I assiduously avoided it, not dipping my feet into those smelly waters, even for very limited purposes, until the late 1990s. The software available then was atrocious, and led to disastrous results, more often than not, unless you knew the source and target languages well enough to properly edit the output of the program. In other words, it was almost useless.

Things began to change about ten years ago. There are still many very poor translation programs, but one or two are quite amazing. The one I consistently use, when I use one at all, is Google Translate. I am not aware of anything else that is as good. One can translate between any pair of languages out of a list of 100 languages. Depending upon the quality of implementation for any specific language, the results can be excellent. Most of the time, I only need to change a few words.

So that is where we stand with regard to the technical side of the process. Naturally, if you need to translate to or from a language that is not on the list, you are out of luck, and must do the whole thing manually. But there is something else to be considered, and it is the part of the process that fascinates me most: every translation is also a cross-cultural process. When the cultures are similar, as is usually the case among the European languages, there may not be much of a problem. When, however, you have widely varying cultures, as is usually the case with indigenous languages, the cross-cultural aspect can be quite challenging.

The Bible is the most-translated book on earth. It has been translated, in whole or in part, into more than a thousand languages. These translations often involve an enormous cultural gulf that must somehow be bridged. I am currently working on a translation of the Gospel of Matthew into Udugi, a constructed language that is based on Cherokee (Tsalagi, ꮳꮃꭹ) vocabulary, but has a much simpler, Esperanto-like grammar. I am basically translating Matthew from the King James Version (KJV) of 1611, frequently consulting the Cherokee New Testament, translated in the 1840s. In addition to a wide cultural gulf to be bridged, there is linguistic change to be reckoned with on both ends of the process.

Cherokee is extraordinarily complex in its verb system, which is one of the reasons why it is now an endangered language. In addition, it has an extremely restrictive phonology (it lacks the p, b, f, and v sounds, which are unpronounceable to a monolingual Cherokee-speaker). Among natural languages, there are only four others that have no bilabials: Wichita (Caddoan family), Aleut (Eskimo-Aleut), and Eyak and Hupa (both Na-Dene). One of these languages, Wichita, does not even have the "m" sound, which Cherokee does have. The others, like Cherokee, do have "m." Interestingly both Cherokee (Southern Iroquoian) and Wichita use the "Qu" (kw) sound to represent the unpronounceable "p" and "b" bilabial stops. Both languages are part of the Keresiouan macro stock within Almosan-Keresiouan, so they are distantly related. Linguistically, if no longer culturally, the Cherokee are "Plains Indians." Udugi, by the way, uses the Cherokee phonology, so has the same limitations as Cherokee.

The restrictive phonology mentioned above explains the name Qualla for the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina: it was named after a woman whose first name was Paula. It also explains why the Biblical name Abraham appears in Cherokee as "Equahami" (pronounced as "Egwahami" in Oklahoma). "Mary appears as "Meli" because the living dialects of Cherokee have "l," but not "r." There is no "sh" sound, so I have to follow previous practice and represent the name "Jesus" as "Tsisa." "Joseph" (also per previous practice) is "Tsowa," and "Herod" is "Elodv." "v" is a vowel that sounds like the "u" in the English word "but."

(to be continued)

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.

Matthew Chapter 2, Verses 9-12 in Udugi

9  hilayvi nasgidv advgise ugvwiyuhine, nasgidv ahnagisdiyise; ale gvniyuquo, noquisi, na hagatise kalvgvi hawina, anagisdise nasgidv igvyiditlv, igohida nasgi nvlise ale gadogise hanani galvladitlv hatlv gesvise ayoli ayotli.

10 hilayvi nasgidv agowadodise noquisine, alihelisdise galosvstanvhi.

11 hilayvino nasgidv nvlise adanelv nahnai, nasgidv hagatise ayoli etsi meli gvdodi, ale eladi ulosvgise ale adadolisdodise nasgine: ale hilayvi nasgidv asduidise unatseli tsugvwalodine, nasgidv udanedise adanedodine nasgi didla; adelv-dalonige, ale uganasdv-gawasvgi-adla, ale mila.

12  ale gesvanete uyotsvhita unelanvhi gvdodi asgitisdi hawina na nasgidv ase tla hulutsi elodv didla, nasgidv ahnagisdiyise nasgidvsa elohi nudale nvnohi gvdodi.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced Mt 2:10 (Cherokee, Udugi, en, fr, es, pt)

Matthew 2:10

Cherokee (ꮳꮃꭹ): unigohvno nasgi noquisi, utsatanvhi unalihelitsei. / ᎤᏂᎪᎲᏃ ᎾᏍᎩ ᏃᏈᏏ, ᎤᏣᏔᏅᎯ ᎤᎾᎵᎮᎵᏤᎢ.

Udugi (ꭴꮪꭹ): hilayvi nasgidv agowadodise noquisine, alihelisdise galosvstanvhi. / ᎯᎳᏴᎢ ᎾᏍᎩᏛ ᎠᎪᏩᏙᏗᏎ ᏃᏈᏏᏁ, ᎠᎵᎮᎵᏍᏗᏎ ᎦᎶᏒᏍᏔᏅᎯ.

English (KJV): When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

English (modern): When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly.


Quand ils ont vu l'étoile, ils se sont beaucoup réjouis.

Cuando vieron la estrella, se regocijaron en extremo.

Quando eles viram a estrela, eles se alegraram muito.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.

Matthew Chapter 2, Verses 5-8 in Udugi

5  ale nasgidv hinegise nasgi didla, gaduyi hawina tsudiyi vhnai: igvnisisgi hia-iyv gesvase gowelodita adelohosgi gvdodi,

6  "ale nihi, gaduyi, elohi tsudiyi hawina, tla gesvase usdigesdodi ugvwiyuhi-uwetsi ayeli tsudiyi vhnai: igvnisisgi nihi-nidvlenvda nvlose ugvwiyuhi na asdawadvsdose aqua yvwine isili."

7  nahiyvi elodv, ulosonv atsvyai utselide uyanise agatahnai asgayadi, adadvdodise nasgidvne  alinigvnehie hilayvi noquisi gananugoisdise.

8  ale atsvyai adanvsdise nasgidvne gaduyi didla, ale hinegise, hena ale ayasdu alinigvnehie ayoli ayotline; ale hilayvi nihi awadvdise nasgine, asiquo ayohisdu kaneisdine ayv didla, yadvhna na ayv yeliquose nvli ale adadohisdodi nasgine nasquv.

 
Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.