Babel Fish (website)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Example translations
- 1.1 French to English
- 1.2 English to Korean
2 External links

Babel Fish is a web-based application developed by AltaVista (now part of Yahoo!) which machine translates text or web pages from one of several languages into another. It takes its name from the Babel fish, a fictional animal used for instantaneous language translation in Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The word Babel is a borrowed reference to the biblical account of the city of Babel and the various languages which allegedly arose there. The translation technology for Babel Fish is provided by SYSTRAN, whose technology also powers the translator at Google and a number of other sites.

It can translate among English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

While the methods used for translation are advanced, the service makes no claim to produce a perfect translation: the best that is claimed is that it can show the gist of a page or text.

The quality of translation depends on the languages in question: translations between European languages can be passable, but attempting to translate East Asian Languages to English often produces gibberish. A number of humour sites have sprung up that use the Babel Fish service to translate back and forth between one or more languages (a so-called round-trip translation), generally with amusing results.

[edit] Example translations

[edit] French to English

From the first paragraph in this article

Le poisson de Babel est une application enchaînement-basée développée par AltaVista (partie maintenant de Yahoo !) quelle machine traduit le texte ou les pages Web d'une de plusieurs langues en des autres. Elle prend son nom des poissons de Babel, un animal fictif utilisé pour la traduction instantanée de langue en roman de Douglas Adams le guide de l'auto-stoppeur de la galaxie. Le mot Babel est une référence empruntée au compte biblique de la ville de Babel et des diverses langues qui prétendument a surgi là. La technologie de traduction pour des poissons de Babel est fournie par SYSTRAN, dont la technologie actionne également le traducteur à Google et à un certain nombre d'autres emplacements.

And now translated back into English:

The fish of Babel is an application sequence-based developed by AltaVista (left Yahoo now!) which machine translates the text or the Web pages of one several languages into others. It takes its name of fish of Babel, a fictitious animal used for the instantaneous translation of language in novel of Douglas Adams the guide of the hitch-hiker of the galaxy. The word Babel is a reference borrowed from the biblical account of the town of Babel and various languages which allegedly emerged there. The technology of translation for fish of Babel is provided by SYSTRAN, whose technology also actuates the translator with Google and a certain number of other sites.

[edit] English to Korean

From the first paragraph in this article (including non-translatable words)

Babelfish은 알타비스타가 개발하는 웹기반 신청 이다 (지금Yahoo의 분해하십시요!) 어느 기계가 또 다른 한개로 몇 언어의 한에서 원본 또는 웹 페이지를 번역하는 까. 그것은Babelfish의 더글러스Adams'소설안에 즉석 언어 번역을 위해 이용하는 소설 동물에서 그것의 이름을 은하에 자동차 편승자 가이드 가지고 간다. 낱말Babel은 추정되게 거기서 일어난Babel과 각종 언어의 도시의 성경 계정에 빌린 참고 이다. Babelfish을 위해 번역 기술은 그의 기술이Google과 다수 다른 위치에 또한 통역을 강화하는SYSTRAN에의해 제공된다.

Back to English (including non-translatable words)

The Babelfish is the web base application which Altavista develops and (the Yahoo disjoint now! ) Which machine also translate the original or web browser from grudge of different one open circuit some language to peel. It the Babelfish su hazard uses an instant language translation from the novel animal which more wrongly inside Adams' novel the automobile riding sleeping guide has it name under the silver and it goes. The word Babel is presumed and from that place it is a reference which borrows in bible accounts of the city of the Babel which happens and various language. The hazard translation technique his technique the Google and majority also by the SYSTRAN which strengthens an interpretation in different location is provided the Babelfish.