Translation Station

I would like to know how grown Italian men greet their fathers- is there a pet name, such as papa or dad or is it formal? 

Thank you so much!

really need to be taken with a truckload of salt. I can help out with French, or smatterings of Irish or German at a push (I no longer speak them as often as I used to, so they've gone a little rusty)

Hugs

Sadhbh

I can read & write traditional Chinese, can speak Cantonese (one of the many Chinese dialects), understand a little Mandarin (official Chinese spoken language).  But I am rusty on 'slangs'. 

Not sure if I can be of much help, but I'll be happy to find out more. 

Edit: I can help with common/uncommon surnames & their meanings, eg. Wang or Wong could mean the color yellow, Ma means horse, Li could mean profit, etc. the list goes on.  Some old sayings/phrase could be mistaken as Confucius' sayings.

My Spanish is passable, I can roughly translate Japanese (not up-to-date on slang, and not nearly as fluent as I used to be), and I can also roughly translate some Latin. If anyone needs anything translated into New Yorkese, I'm fluent in that

Hi, Ladies,

sorry if I'm late but I'm in Europe so different time zone.

Betty- If your man speaking to his dad is modern, he would call him simply  Papà, accent on final a.

If you're writing a historical he would say Padre (like to priests) and you would say Voi, capital v. , instead of 'you' but you would have to conjugate the verb accordingly. Example: COME DITE VOI, PADRE, means whatever you say, father.

Tangiles- DIAVOLO literally means devil, but we use it as 'hell'. If you want to say 'what the hell' you would say CHE DIAVOLO. If you want something lighter, you could say DIAMINE or CHE DIAMINE. When pigs fly(donkeys in Italian), in the sense of 'when hell freezes over' would be QUANDO VOLERANNO GLI ASINI.

As far as surnames go we can distinguish them by regions. Usually Northern surnames end in 'i', like Cantelli, Cortesi, Biagi, while Sardinians end in 'u'. Sicilian surnames in 'e', but it's just a ruile of thumb.My surname is Barone (South) but you would find a Baroni (final i) in the North. Gentile/ Gentili.  Ravalli is a strong surname. The most common surname is Rossi (like Smith). If you want a strong, noble surname you could also use something like della Valle, della Rocca. Selvaggio means wild. Castello means Castle, Conti means count, La Terra means land. If you could tell me what kind of person he is, where he's from I can tell you more. One more thing- swear words are more common in the North, where even Saints are mentioned. Tuscans are masters in creative swear-words and so are the people from Trieste who also drink a lot. Siocilians have a temèper, but usually use a couple of strong words that are still rude but not so much because they have become more common. Your hero wouldn't use them , though unless absolutely out of his mind with anger.

Hope this all helps!

My Spanish is a bit rusty because it has been years since I've really used it.  However, I may be able to help some, and I can usually tell if something is phrased really oddly or is just wrong.  For example, I read a book where the hero bought the heroine a tee shirt in a store with a phrase on it that basically translated as "whore".  I'm thinking the author must have thought it meant something a bit different because I doubt the heroine would be very happy about that, otherwise.  Don't know too much slang (as in cursing, in particular). 

I will see if I can get papaya to pop in here for the Hawaiian.

I'm  rusty with my listening/speaking Hawaiian, but I can usually translate (or get help to translate if necessary)...  what is it you want to say?

a hui hou

That's kind of how I felt about it, too.  Not exactly the endearment most women want or expect out of the man they love!  LOL!

Tangiles- Petrella indicates, somewhat loosely, a pebble. But Petrelli is more of a common northern surname. "Che diavolo will I do..."  sounds a bit disjointed, but if you say "Che diavolo! What will I do..." it sounds much better. People who are fluent in two languages don't ,contrary to what is commonly believed, mix them up in the same sentence. hope that helps!

Hi, Papaya, thanks for showing up- my heroine's name is Noelani (it's supposed to mean heavenly mist, is that right?) How would you abbreviate it? Or do you know any shorter names? Also, I'd like to know some terms of endearment besides Ipo, which I think means, my darling, is that right? Thanks so much!

If anyone is interested, I can help with German (native speaker), basic French & Italian, some rusty Gaelic (Scots) and beginners Swedish...

Just give me a shout.

Cheers. S

RomyS,

hi, I guess that in South Africa where there are all those mixtures it's easier to fall into the groove- are the dialects similar? Maybe that's the reason why they blend?

 Probably in languages that are well established and completely different (not considering the original links to Indoeuropean, of course) such as English and Italian they are less likely to mix. Though there is a third language as Italian Americans call it, which is a mixture of English words and Southern Italian dialects, but I guess that's hardly a language in its own right- just the means for the elderly Italians who have only picked up some English words here and there. What I mean is that someone fluent in both languages would not use both in the same sentence. It's so interesting to learn how languages work. I studied comparative Philology at Uni but know nothing about South African dialects. Thank you for your information.

Papaya- thanks so much for your help- My heroine just calls her man with a few sweet words here and there. It's great to know that you're there to help- isn't this thread great?

Thanks for the infor, Nancy.

I can translate Russian well enough for a romance novel phrase. The grammar is quite complex, so I can't really do paragraphs and get it right. Light swears, the sort a hero might say are okay, but tank driver swears I don't know. They are much rarer in middle class society in Russia, so many of the younger generation have adopted English swears as they feel by their American or English colleagues' usage, the words can't be half as bad as their Russian equivalents. Which is a way of saying, I'm not sure I can produce swears a bad guy would say. 

My observation is that plenty of people who are reasonably fluent in two languages mix them. Some words have more or less detail in one language than another. If you don't use the word you mean, whatever the language, you have to explain the difference between your thought (where you made the distinction or not) and the word which has either more or less meaning than your thought.

Then there are the words that conjure up something specific. For example, Dacha refers to a country cottage in Russia used as a second home. Many Russians have vegetable gardens there and dash off on weekends to grow their potatoes. With one word, Dacha, you conjure up the whole concept, whereas cottage, summer place, or farm don't really do it. 

double post

I love how many languages are present here!

I admit, lol, here in California, there's a reason we call it "Spanglish". We throw Spanish and English around like a ping pong. "Como que money? You need money, tevenga a mi, you hear me?" We also throw in bad words left and right, but that's something else, lol.

I speak & understand only 2 of the local languages (English and Afrikaans) so I'm perhaps not the best judge, but I gather some of the local 'African' languages are quite similar. But they all borrow words from one another, so it's hard to tell. And they all borrow words from English which is rapidly becoming the dominant language.

Okay, I know someone said "It is better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."  That being said, I am proofing one of my latest WIPs and I think I am using Fiance and Fiancee wrong.  So for the French speaking folks, is one male, one female, what or which is the correct spelling and/or word to use when a man refers to his intented lady?

Thanks!

with one "e" for men and two "e"s for women. I suppose it depends on the books you read. It does mean an official engagement, if she's just his girlfriend, you could use his "chérie", "copine" (though that can be just a girl friend, as opposed to a girlfriend) or "petite amie" (which in this context does not mean "little friend of the feminine persuasion") - the masculine versons are "chéri", "copain" and "petit ami" (with the "t" pronounced before the "a")

Hugs

Sadhbh

Thank you Fake Frenchie, Sadhbh & Penn.  I am going back through and changing to make sure I use the male/female version.

Betty

anytime!

Hugs

Sadhbh

Betty - the game is called Jukskei (pronounced as you wrote it). I have to admit I have no idea how it's played, as it's not particularly common (Rugby and Soccer/Football are the big sports here), but I'll ask around and see if anyone knows the rules.

Well, Finnish is my mother tongue and I have studied Swedish, German and I know a little bit of Japanese, too.

I live in Finland.

While revising my current MS I learned there are male and female versions of protégé. Same rule as with Fiancé. But if you're talking about protégé plural and of mixed genders, is it just the one e? Protégés? Or if talking about one protégé, gender unknown, is it also one e?

Hey, I'm fluent in west-coast American English. I can tell you if your west-coast American hero, heroine, or other character would actually say 'insert idiom here'.  

ChrissieSue

"Protégés" for plural mixed gender groups

"Protégé" for a single person of unknown gender.

Unless of course Sadhbh contradicts me.