Comments on: Ephemeral Translation

By: transubstantiation

transubstantiation — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:22:55 +0000

True, but the problem does not disappear, that is these phrases still need to be communicated (interpreted and translated).

By: Paweł Ochmański

Paweł Ochmański — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:21:35 +0000

That is true. Yet shorter doesn’t necessarily mean simpler or effective at times. CU L8R and BTW NRN, BFN:)

By: transubstantiation

transubstantiation — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:37:41 +0000

Language serves communication and therefore economy is key. The shorter and simpler our utterance, the more likely we can be understood. Langauge naturally seeks economy and so this is a subject that will soon need to be taken up and developed, especially with the rise of the new multimedia technologies.

By: Paweł Ochmański

Paweł Ochmański — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:46:00 +0000

The economy of language is sometimes bizarre, especially in text messages. I can understand expurgating grammar words to cut down on the number of signs or eliminating punctuation but there was(is) a fashion in Polish language for shortening words to make them more hype. “Do zoba”, “cze” and “trzym sie” are typical examples. Such phrases pose a challenge to translate them and maintain their original structure. One of the comedians used that idea to create one more which was “szczęść bo” to mean god be with you:)

By: transubstantiation

transubstantiation — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:54:37 +0000

Two wonderful examples.
As to the first question, if the act of writing them down in the first place does not cause them to cease being ephemera then we might also assume that translating ephemera will likewise not change their status.
The second question (and perhaps the most difficult to answer)… my diacritic nomenclature of “ephemera” does not necessarily presuppose the uniqueness or originality of the word within linguistics or translation (although it may suggest that) but is only an idiosyncratic use of quotation marks.

By: J. K. Gayle

J. K. Gayle — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 20:36:14 +0000

Fascinating post and thoughtful questions. I’ll be thinking about ephemera for a long, long time now. Two of my favorites: “This tape will self-destruct in five seconds” (from Mission Impossible) and “mene mene tekel upharsin [(or was it) parsin (?)]” (that mysterious disappearing handwriting on the wall from the Book of Daniel). And my questions now: 1) Once they’re translated, are they still ephemera? 2) And what would it take to let the word “ephemera,” our English transliteration of the old Greek epi + hēmeros (literally “upon a day”), become ephemera? Yes, call for the research and let it continue!