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Short Words To Translate

 
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:07 pm    Post subject: Short Words To Translate Reply with quote

Here are some short (1- or 2- or 3- -letter) dictionary entries in U.S. English dictionaries. Not all of them are words; or at least, not all are English words. For instance, some are standard abbreviations, and some are roman numerals, and some are proper names.

There's probably a large overlap between the most common words and the shortest words; that is, most of these words are probably among the most common.

Translate as many of them as you want into your conlang(s) (and natlangs?); and write as much of those translations as you wish in your conscript(s).

a I O

ac ad ah al am an as at au aw ax ay
bb be bf bi BP BT by
ca cc cg ck cm co cp ct cu cy
db dc de dg dh dl dm do du
ea eh el en et ex
ff fl fm fn ft fu fv
gm go
ha he hg hi hl ho hp hr ht hw Hz
id if ii in is it iv ix
je
ka kb kg km
la lb ld le lf lm lo lx
ma mc me mf mg mi ml mm mo mp ms mu mw my
ne nm no nr ns nu
ob of oh ok on op or ox oz
pa pc pd pg ph pi pl pm pp pr pt pw
qc qt
rd re
sc se so sp sq
td tm to TV
uh um un up us
vg vi vu vv
wd we wk wm wt
xi xl xo xv xx
yd ye yr

Abe abs Abu acc ace ach act acv add ado ads adv adz aft age ago aha ahs aid ail aim air aka ala alb ale Alf all alp alt amp amt Amy Ana and ant any ape Apo app apt arc are ark arm art ash ask asp ass ate auf auk aux awe awl awn axe aye
baa bad bag bah bal bam ban bap bar bas bat bay bbd bbl bcc bch bed bee beg bet bib bid big bin bio bit biz boa bob bog bon boo bop bow box boy bpi bra bro btw bud bug bum bun bur bus but buy bye bys
cab cad cal cam can cap car cat caw cay cfc cha chg chi chq cid cig cir cit cob cod cog com con coo cop coq cot cow Cox coy coz cri cru cry CSU cub cud cue cui cum cup cur cut cwt
dab dad dag dam Dan Dao dap das day ddb Dee def deg del den des dev dew dib did die dif dig dim din dip dir div dob doc doe dog don doo dos dot dpi dry dub dud due dug duh dui dun duo dup dux DVD dwt dye
ear eat eau ebb eco eek eel egg ego EHz eke elf Eli elk ell elm Ely emu enc end eng enl eon era ere erg err esc eta etc eth Eva eve ewe exe exp ext eye
fad fag fan far fat fax Fay fed fee fem fen few fey fez fhb fib fid fie fig fin fir fit fix flu fly fob foe fog fop for fox fro fry fug fun fur fwd
gab gad gag gal gap gar gas gat gay gee gel gem gen geo get GHz gif gig gin gnu gob god Gog goo got goy gum gun Gus gut guy gym gyp
had hag hah ham hap has hat haw hay hem hen her het hew hex hey hic hid him hip his hit hmm hob hoc hoe hog hoi hop hot how hrs hub hue hug huh hum Hun hut hwy
Ian Ibo ice icy Ida ids ifs iii ilk ill imp inc ink inn ins inv ion ire irk Isa ism its ivy
jab jag jai jam Jan jar jaw jay Jed jet Jew jib jig Jim jip job Joe jog Jon jot joy jug jus jut
Kay kea ked kef keg ken Ker key kHz kid Kim kin Kio kip kit kop kun Kym
lab lad lag lam lap lat law lax lay lea led lee leg lei Len Leo les let lhs lib lid lie lip lit Liz lob loc log lop los lot Lou low lox lug lye
Mac mad mal man map mar mat maw max may mea med meg Mel men met mew mho MHz mid mil min Mir mix mms moa mob mod mol mom moo mop mot mow Moy mph mss mud mug mum
nab nag nah Nan nap Nat nay neb nee neo net new nib nig nil nip nit nix nod nom non nor not now nth nub num nun nut Nye Nzo
oaf oak oar oat obi obo oce odd ode off oft ohm oho oil old ole one ooh ops opt orb ore org ors ort our out ova owe owl own oxy Oyo
Pac pad pal Pam pan pap par pas pat paw pay pea pee peg pen pep per pet pew PhD phi pho pHs PHz pie pig pin pip pit pix Piz ply pod poi pop pos pot pox ppb pre pro pry psi pub pug pun pup pus put Pym
qty qua qui quo
Rae rag rah raj ram ran rap rat raw ray red ref reo rep res ret rev rho rib rid rig rim rip rob roc rod roe rot row Roy rte rub rue rug rum run Rup rut rye
sac sad sag Sam san sap sat saw sax say sea sec see sep ser set sew sex she shy sib sic Sid sig sin sip sir sis sit six ski sky sly sob soc sod sol son sop sot sow sox soy spa spy sty sub sue sui sum sun sup sym sys
tab tad tae tag tai tam tan Tao tap tar tat tau taw tax TCU tea ted tee tem ten the thx thy THz tic tie Tim tin tip tit toe tog tom ton too top tor tot tow toy tri try tub tug tut tux two twp txt Tzu
UBS ugh uGu uhf Ulf umm ump ums und unh Uno ups Uri urn use Ute Uzi
Val van vas vat vet vex vey vhf via vie vii vim voc von vow
Waa wad wag wan war was wav wax way web wed wee wet who why wig win wit wiz wks wma woe wok won woo wop wow Woy wpb wpm wry www xii xiv xix xli xvi xxi xxv xxx xyz
yah yak yam yap yaw yea yen yep yes yet yew yin yip Yom yon you yow yrs yuk yum yup
zap zed zee Zen Zia zip zit zoo
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Aert



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shocked woah
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aert wrote:
Shocked woah
The idea is, many (maybe even most) words of most English texts that one might want to translate, can be found on that list. If you've already translated those words you'll be that much ahead of the game. (Of course I realize that for many languages, many of those words won't be translatable, at least not in isolation like that.)

Rather than have a separate thread for each of those words, I thought, why not just have one thread, and a separate post for each language?

Leave out the ones that you don't think are words in English; explain why you can't translate, or would have great difficulty translating, the ones you can't translate in your 'lang or won't translate because of the difficulty of translating them in isolation; explain the ones your 'lang has no translation for because those things just aren't part of its speakers' culture or world; decide whether or not you want to translate the personal names; and then tell us the translations of the rest, if you can.

If you have a conscript, and can write the translations in it, do that too. That may be difficult if your script is logographic or ideographic rather than an abugida or abjad or alphabet or syllabary or alphasyllabary or featurography. Or it may not.

Also, of course, any trouble you have going from an almost-isolating language like English to some other type, say a polysynthetic language, or a language with much inflection for things like case etc. rather than auxiliaries and adpositions and articles and determiners and so on, won't be made easier by writing it in your conscript.

But, do what you can; it will help you later, IMO, or at least I hope it will help.

You might consider words of three or fewer letters in any alphabet in any natural language; or any abjad or abugida or featurography. For instance in the Cyrillic alphabet there are 36 letters, right? So there'd be a maximum of 1296 two-letter words (fewer since not every two-letter sequence would be a word), and something less than 46,656 three-letter words? And, in a Hebrew abjad, there are 22 letters, 484 digraphs (not all, perhaps, words), and 10,648 trigraphs (not all words)?

For syllabaries and alphasyllabaries you might consider any word of two or fewer syllable-symbols. Hiragana has either 48, or 93, or 109, symbols; suppose it's 109, then there'd be 11,881 two-symbol combinations (not all of which would be Japanese words, probably).

The idea is just to get the hundred most-common words in each language; or the most-common few hundred, perhaps up to the thousand most-common words. Presumably once you've got the most-common few hundred (whether that's 850, like B.A.S.I.C. English, or 1200, like Lojban), nearly any sentence in nearly any text won't contain more than about two "strange" words not on that first list.

We could come up with a list of the 10,000 most common words and group them in hundreds -- one hundred groups of one hundred words each. That's probably too many for most of us; after the first 2000 most of us will be able to translate most stuff, and after the first 5000 most of us will be past where most conlangs get to. So, maybe, just five to twenty of those groups would be enough.

But the point of my list was, that for English, and also for many other languages, the most-common words and the shortest words tend to have a statistically significant overlap; that is, commoner words are likelier to be shorter than less-common words, and shorter words are likelier to be commoner than longer words.
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Aert



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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
So there'd be a maximum of 1296 two-letter words (fewer since not every two-letter sequence would be a word), and something less than 46,656 three-letter words? And, in a Hebrew abjad, there are 22 letters, 484 digraphs (not all, perhaps, words), and 10,648 trigraphs (not all words)?

For syllabaries and alphasyllabaries you might consider any word of two or fewer syllable-symbols. Hiragana has either 48, or 93, or 109, symbols; suppose it's 109, then there'd be 11,881 two-symbol combinations (not all of which would be Japanese words, probably).


Of course, most of these will be impossible, being VV or CC combinations (some languages will allow (some of) this, but I don't think CC is very common.

Regarding the most common words, there are several lists to this degree, of which very few are between 1-2 letters (a, I being the only English 1 letter words; a, e, o, y for Spanish)

Quote:
the most-common words and the shortest words tend to have a statistically significant overlap; that is, commoner words are likelier to be shorter than less-common words, and shorter words are likelier to be commoner than longer words.


Agreed, but only to a degree. I think by far most common (at least in English) are between 3 and 6 letters, with 4-5 most so of all. Languages that tend to conjugate verbs per pronoun (which also often have specific 'verb' indicative endings) will likely have higher averages, and synthetic/polysynthetic even higher.

Quote:
The idea is just to get the hundred most-common words in each language; or the most-common few hundred, perhaps up to the thousand most-common words.


This is definitely a good goal to have. However, the way my word formation table works ([poly]synthetic language) is having a base verb, and 'conjugating' it into other word types, and adding suffices for even more words. This results in a high degree of completeness for each verb-topic, gets some more difficult words, many common words, and even idioms. Personally I would have to virtually complete my formation table beforehand (or go back and replace earlier words with the derived ones) before using this list for words to make.

Quote:
We could come up with a list of the 10,000 most common words and group them in hundreds -- one hundred groups of one hundred words each.


http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/PG/2006/04/1-10000 [10000; as per Project Gutenberg - word list targeted pre-1920s books I think, so it's probably a bit outdated]
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:1000_English_basic_words [1000; alphabetical order]
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/Contemporary_fiction [2000; contemporary fiction]
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/TV/2006/1-1000 [1000; TV]
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


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killerken



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PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 3:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alright, let's give this a go. I'm only going to tackle the first two lists. In my first cursory glance, I didn't see many that could actually be translated, but I'll list everything I see.

a=n/a(no articles) I=osto O=ân

as=leþânu at=los
be=lârvi by=un
co=what
do=dỉrvỉ
go=fỉlvỉ
he=alu hi=lârnon
if=ỉna in=san is=lârvỉ it=ỉs
me=ostĉ/ŝ my=-â
no=elm
of=rus on=san or=...(I should probably come up with something...)
pa=gweldon(father)
so=âacos
to=los
us=ostỏrĉ/ŝ
we=ostỏro

Also, you didn't include om for some reason, but it means peak/tip.
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Aeetlrcreejl



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PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

a=-t
I=eu
O=O

as=(essive case)
at=(locative case)
be=set
by=if
do=xat
go=řet
he=tàr
hi=As
if=ì
in=(locative case)
is=sit
it=tòt
me=mì accusative (-wè clitic), mí dative (-wí clitic)
my=-wě, mis is emphatic form
no=è
of=(genitive case)
on=ò
or=we
pa=patr
so=sǐ
to=(locative case)
us=wey paucal accusative (-wóó clitic), wíí paucal dative (wíí clitic)
úmè plural accusative (-ô clitic), úmǐ plural dative (-wè clitic)
we=ú paucal, ús plural

EDIT: in and if corrected.
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Last edited by Aeetlrcreejl on Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:21 am; edited 1 time in total
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killerken



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whoa! Our ifs are the same! Small world...
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Aeetlrcreejl



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whoops, when I was quoting you I must have forgotten to change the "if".
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