Language betas

[xenakis]

So friends, here we are again: a new fandom with an international/multilingual cast (ah, the good old days of Inception!).

A lot of fics I’ve been reading are using bits and pieces of various languages, so I thought it might not be a bad idea to have some place where writers can ask for translation betas, and multilingual fans can offer their help!

Italian and Arabic seem to be the main focus right now, but we have all the places and times in history to explore! Of course, if you happen to have a PhD in Medieval Ligurian, I’m sure your gonna make a lot of friends here ;)

In the meantime, I’m offering my services for French (so hit me with your Booker backstory fics!).

Comments

[falena]

I'm sure the Genoese dialect I spoke with my grandparents must be pretty different from whatever they spoke in the 12th century, just FYI.

Also, perhaps I should have mentioned it before, but Genoese is just a spoken dialect (we don't study it in school) so I have never had to write it! It's so weird. There are some websites giving pointers on how to learn Genoese spelling but it's complicated, different scholars use different systems.

Anyway, 'Bèn turnòu a càza, amô' it's a very simple 'Welcome home, [my] love'. I just realised I know basically zero terms of endearment that would work with a lover, as I said I mostly spoke Genoese with my grandparents, so all I know are affectionate words you would use with a child, ooops.

Sorry, turns out I'm not that helpful.

[castalie]

Oh, yes, I know that. I should have mentioned that the part I'm talking about happens in 2020, sorry.

Please, don't apologise! This is very interesting, actually :) Thanks for taking the time to explain. I'm taking note, then.

I previously found this for "my lover" - "u mae amu", do you know it could be/mean, then?

Thank you again!

[falena]

I see. I was just wondering if Joe and Nicky would still be speaking whatever version of Genoese Nicky learnt in the 1100s and then taught to Nicky, you know? Lol, this language thing is more complicated than I originally thought. :D

Different spelling conventions aside, that's an accurate translation of 'my lover'. I'd left the possessive out in my translation because I realised I wasn't 100% sure if the article + possessive worked grammatically in your sentence (for what would be called a vocative in Latin). I mean, if I say ' U mae amô se ciamma Nicky' (My lover is called Nicky) or ' U l' a ascurdoeu u mae amô' (He has forgotten my lover), I'm pretty sure it's correct. As I said, it's very disconcerting to see how many gaps there are in my Genoese knowledge. It's sad.

Thanks for being understanding!