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Translate (transliterate?) company names, product names?

by ebeckhusen, February 15, 2009

Messages: 27

Language: English

ebeckhusen (User's profile) February 15, 2009, 9:28:34 PM

I was wondering what the general practice was regarding company or product names or media titles. Do we translate them, transliterate them, leave them as they are in the originating language, something else?

Say something like "Apple Computers". Would we leave it as is, or translate to something like "Komputilojn Pomojn"? (sorry if the grammer is wrong, I've just started learning!)

RiotNrrd (User's profile) February 15, 2009, 9:58:22 PM

I personally don't translate or transliterate names (personal or corporate) unless they themselves have done so first.

Not knowing whether Apple Computers has done so or not, I would stick with "Apple Computers", or, at most, "Apple Komputiloj".

SuperMarc92 (User's profile) February 15, 2009, 10:03:43 PM

First, Apple Computers doesn't exist anywore and now it's just Apple.

I think that when you want to translate a noun you need to make a new word but you have to keep the same pronounciation.

For example : Apple would be Apol or something like that. But I'm not sure.

On Wikipedia, Google is called Guglo in the esperanto version.

(sorry for my english)

69UM24OSU12 (User's profile) February 15, 2009, 11:57:10 PM

You generally don't translate corporate or brand names. If you translate Apple into Pomo people might not understand what you're talking about.

If you want to be sure speakers of anther language understand the name, you might perhaps provide a translation in parentheses. e.g.- I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (Mi ne povas kredi ke ĉi tio ne estas butero), but Apple is so well known that no such translation is necessary.

In English we don't translate such brand names as Bon Ami or Stella D'Oro into "Good Friend" and "Gold Star."

ebeckhusen (User's profile) February 16, 2009, 12:26:21 AM

Thank you all. I guess if I had thought about it a little more I could have realized that myself, because we don't do it in English and it definitely makes sense that you wouldn't.

andogigi (User's profile) February 16, 2009, 1:34:22 AM

The wikipedia article on the company leaves the name as Apple. However, it translates Macintosh as Makintosxo. Go figure...

http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple

ceigered (User's profile) February 16, 2009, 5:57:56 AM

SuperMarc92:For example : Apple would be Apol or something like that. But I'm not sure.
andogig:The wikipedia article on the company leaves the name as Apple. However, it translates Macintosh as Makintoŝo. Go figure...
This isn't directed at you two, just you both brought up something I thought a non-North American should mention - the whole 'English Transliteration into Esperanto' thing is something I don't really support at all.
Ekzemple:
*'Apol' does not match South Australian pronunciation at all (I don't think it matches any Australian accents either). In SA, our pronunciation is more 'Apuŭ', and even if we tried to pronounce 'Apple' as 'Apol' it would sound like 'Apoŭ' - which I guess to you lot sounds like 'Apo' rido.gif

Then words like Makintoŝo, while not quite as bigger deal (the worst chance you could expect I guess would be 'Makntoŝo' okulumo.gif would still be hard to search for etc if you are expecting the original brand name.

So my point would be that transliterating English names would be harder for everyone except the lucky guys who got to transliterate it okulumo.gif

*Heck, I haven't even started on some South African accents where 'a' = 'e'

andogigi (User's profile) February 16, 2009, 10:56:16 AM

Ceigerd raises some really good points here. We regularly borrow foreign words into English while keeping the original pronounciation as much as possible. Heck, some words even retain their diacritic marks. (fiancé) It hasn't harmed our ability to communicate as far as I can tell. It has probably advanced it.

As an example, my wife works in the states for an Australian firm. We still spell the name Flight "Centre" instead of Americanizing it to "Center". We all know the company's origins and respect the brand. I know very few people who seem to mind. (unless my spell checker counts okulumo.gif)

jchthys (User's profile) February 16, 2009, 3:47:00 PM

Esperanto is different from other languages, since it aims to be completely phonetic. Nevertheless, I leave those types of proper nouns as they are: not Fajrovulpo or Fajrofokso, but Firefox; Internet Explorer, not Interreta Esplorilo, at least in writing. In speech one can use Makintoŝo ("Mac" = Maĉjo), but miaopinie in writing the original forms should be used, despite that Vikipedio sometimes uses transliterated forms.

henma (User's profile) February 16, 2009, 4:51:48 PM

jchthys:Nevertheless, I leave those types of proper nouns as they are: not Fajrovulpo or Fajrofokso, but Firefox; Internet Explorer, not Interreta Esplorilo, at least in writing. ... miaopinie in writing the original forms should be used, despite that Vikipedio sometimes uses transliterated forms.
Why?

It can be difficult for people who don't understand English some times. For instance, the name of Microsoft's "Internet Explorer" is translated in non-English versions of Windows. In Spanish it's named "Explorador de Internet", so I can easily know that we're talking about the same program, but is it understandable for chinese people? hungarian? russian? Maybe not.

I think that, certain programs are better translated and everybody will know them by their esperanto name. Most people understand very well names like vindozo, fajrovulpo, linukso, etc.

Amike,

Daniel.

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