Hi,

I am relatively new to Esperanto (although I have quite some posts here) and since a couple of weeks we started to translate the "word of the day" in the German subforum.

Since we try to take a close look at the translation, questions arise that are sometimes difficult to answer. I couldn't find a translation of the word of the day from one of the experts here. So I wondered, if it might be possible to also give an "official" translation (supposedly in English) where one is able to compare one's own translation...

That way one might get out most of the vorto de la tago.

Also, it might be nice to have the opportunity to ask questions about the word of the day (directly to an expert) e.g. why a certain word has a specific ending. Maybe one of the things is already available and I just couldn't find it.

Just a little suggestion ...

Ĝis revido, Gerald

I notice some of the words aren't in lernu's dictionary, either (ebliganta, aperinta, rezono, starigita, sinkomprenadon...).

As well, if anyone can fill in, my browser sometimes displays certain characters as question marks, so I have "refuti doktrinon per ?iaj konsekvencoj" (vorto de la tago - KONSEKVENCO as sent on Sunday, June 17, 2007).

EJones216:I notice some of the words aren't in lernu's dictionary, either (ebliganta, aperinta, rezono, starigita, sinkomprenadon...).

All these words (except "rezono") are compounds and you should look for the word roots (ebl-, aper-, rezon-, star-, kompren-). In these cases the rough translations are: (that is) allowing, (that has) appeared, reason, (that has been) erected, self-understanding.

As well, if anyone can fill in, my browser sometimes displays certain characters as question marks

This usually means that your fonts do not have unicode characters. You should upgrade them. The process varies according to your OS so I cannot give you precise instructions. Most modern OS's should already be fitted with font sets complete enough, though.

Hi,

on my Mac, in Safari the letters (also ĝ and so on) are displayed correctly. I think, some other browsers still have trouble to display all letters correctly (also the German "Umlaute").

Coming back to the initial question, whether it might be possible to give an official translation: I still think, that this would be a nice extension to the "vorto de la tago". Of course, it might be a good idea to provide it later, so that an immediate translation still is not just "copy - paste".

Maybe sending the official translation the next day with the new word of the day might be a very good idea! Then one can control ones translation and find all errors/inaccuracies. I guess that way one can get most out of the vorto de la tago.

Is there anyone I could contact directly about this matter?

Gerald

Regarding the word "rezono", it is the noun form of "rezoni". If you look up "rezoni", you will find the definition in the dictionary. If the word you search for in the dictionary doesn't appear, sometimes if you remove the grammatical ending, it will appear. For example, if you search for "rezon" (the root word, without a verb or noun ending), you are given the definition for "rezoni".

Regarding official translations of words of the day, the lernu team has received several requests for translations to be sent with the words. It hasn't been done because of the length of the "word of the day" list, and the effort involved in translating every single one. It would be easy to translate the word only, but our users could look those up in the dictionary on their own. It would be significant work to translate the full definition and example sentence. Lernu's translation work is entirely done by volunteers, and at times, it's a struggle just to keep the translations for the site's content updated, in addition to keeping up with user correspondence and lesson corrections.

However, I like your idea of collaborative translation on the forums. If you'd like to start a thread for the purpose of translating each word of the day and the sample sentence, and get the ball rolling with the first couple, I'm sure you'd find many people willing to discuss the translations with you.

Hi Erinja,

yes, I guessed that the "lernu team" already has a lot to do and since it's voluntary work (pro bono) people can't invest too much effort and time.

Anyways within the last weeks, the translation in the German subforum worked nearly every day and also, the discussions about some parts of the translation were quite fruitful.

Also, I feel that some people see it as an incentive to go to the website. Many people in the subforums are beginners (including me) and if they see some rather easy translations, the next step to also read and maybe, even write in Esperanto might be easier.

Also in other subforums the word of the day is translated, partly in a rather stepwise way, so it seems to work well.

Geraldo