Bing Translator Adds Klingon to Its Language List

[StewShearerOld]

Bing Translator Adds Klingon to Its Language List

Bing has taken its translator feature into the final frontier.

Fantasy and science fiction can be heavy on the fake languages. I blame J.R.R. Tolkien. He had perfectly good real world languages to work with but he had to create his own and inspire generations of nerds to spend hours mastering a skill with little to no practical use. For my part, I've always trouble learning new languages. As a result, I've been the odd man out when it comes to fantasy speech. When all the other nerds are conversing in their fancy Elvish or what-not, I'm left sitting there feeling awkward and wondering if it's me they're picking on my t-shirt.

While I might be doomed amongst Lord of the Rings aficionados, I might have a chance among the Trekkies. Bing has recently revealed that its <a href=http://www.bing.com/translator>translator feature will now be able to turn several human languages into Klingon. While it may seem a fortuitous time for the feature to be added in, what with Star Trek: Into Darkness hitting theaters and all, Bing claims the feature has been in the works for some time now. "Although the new film is coming out soon, this is an idea we were kicking around for awhile," said Matt Wallaert, a behavioral scientist for Bing. "Star Trek has always looked at the future of technology and [Klingon] is the most widely spoken constructed language, even though only a handful of people are actually fluent."

To make the translator Bing's contacted and worked with linguistics Ph. D. Marc Okrand who helped to develop the Klingon language for the original Star Trek motion picture series. It also worked with a group of ten fluent Klingon speakers as well as the Klingon Language Institute to help test and adjust the translator. While the translator has trouble with some languages, like Spanish and Italian, it is still a big step for the Klingon and Star Trek. "There have been dictionary efforts with Klingon, there hasn't been a true translation service with full grammatical structure until now," said Wallaert. In addition to benefiting Trek fans Wallaert is confident the experience will come in handy for similar future efforts. "This is a geeky thing for us to do, but it's also a fun challenge of our own teams to enhance translations and work with a language with a distinctive pattern."

Source: <a href=http://mashable.com/2013/05/14/bing-klingon/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedly&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29>Mashable



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[Gammayun]

Finally there maybe only a small Klingon demographic but some companies have recognised the market, and to those who mock you shall face a may' ghIqtall.

 

[SecondPrize]

toH, ghotvam'e' muDechbej neH. pagh 'e' vIHar Dunmo' De' 'oH jaj start.

 

[Evil Smurf]

When nerds are united, we get shit done.

 

[nodlimax]

The problem is, that it doesn't really work. Try to translate "interesting news" into klingon and back to english....

 

[Furcade]

Seriously, two varieties of Klingon but exactly zero Bantu languages?

It kinda gets on my nerves that a cultural/linguistically important language is effectively a lower priority that languages people actually speak outside conventions.

 

[Longstreet]

Well we at least know why they did it. The community that is interested in the klingon language might be small, but damn sure bigger than the demographic that uses Bing translator now.

What did stuck out to me about this article, is that there is actually something as a klingon language institute
Some people...

 

[Thaluikhain]

Seriously, two varieties of Klingon but exactly zero Bantu languages?

It kinda gets on my nerves that a cultural/linguistically important language is effectively a lower priority that languages people actually speak outside conventions.

Argh, beaten by a mere 9 minutes. But yeah, there's real actual languages it might actually be useful to have, we don't need klingon, at least not yet.

 

[Brian Barker]

Google translate is already ahead of Bing, with 64 languages. The latest is the international language Esperanto, which has 2 million fluent speakers.

I wonder how many people speak Klingon, worldwide, fluently?

 

[sid]

Alright, I'll give it to them. This is the first time I've ever seen bing do something I actually enjoyed. google's still better though. Either way, I'm flattered, nice job

 

[Jodan]

media stunt to get users away from the google translate juggernaught?

and i also want to know how there are two klingon dialects. klingon hasnot been around that long and its already sprouting variations. we need some linguists here stat. lets get some anthropological scolorship going on this pedantic subject.

all in all though it is fun to play with and i cant help but get intoit reading something back. i cant help but turn into worf.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

media stunt to get users away from the google translate juggernaught?

and i also want to know how there are two klingon dialects. klingon hasnot been around that long and its already sprouting variations. we need some linguists here stat. lets get some anthropological scolorship going on this pedantic subject.

all in all though it is fun to play with and i cant help but get intoit reading something back. i cant help but turn into worf.

It's not two different dialects from what I can tell. One uses the real alphabet, and the other one uses the made up Klingon one.

Seriously, two varieties of Klingon but exactly zero Bantu languages?

It kinda gets on my nerves that a cultural/linguistically important language is effectively a lower priority that languages people actually speak outside conventions.

Argh, beaten by a mere 9 minutes. But yeah, there's real actual languages it might actually be useful to have, we don't need klingon, at least not yet.

On the other hand, how likely are you to run into written Bantu, especially on the internet? It's not exactly Swahili or Afrikaans, and these web based translators aren't designed as interpreters for people travelling.

Edit: Although I now see that it's missing both Swahili and Afrikaans. I know South Africa at the very least has a pretty big presence on the internet, so you'd think they'd at least have Afrikaans. Google Translate has both Swahili /and/ Afrikaans, but no Bantu.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Great, but now I need a Klingon phonics lesson to be able to recite my translations. Guess I better contact the Klingon Language Institute (holy hell...) if this becomes a pressing issue.

 

[Ukomba]

Really? They add Klingon before Sindarin? :/ I am not amused.

 

[ShipofFools]

Really? They add Klingon before Sindarin? :/ I am not amused.

But you see, the Klingons killed the Elves.

On topic, there is a Klingon Language Institute?
Suddenly my life seems a lot more valuable to society then it did before I knew about that.

 

[Daemascus]

Just saying, Google has had Klingon for yeeeears. So once again, Bings playing catch up.

 

[kailus13]

It appears that it doesn't work that well.

toH, ghotvam'e' muDechbej neH. pagh 'e' vIHar Dunmo' De' 'oH jaj start.

This was translated as "well, I think this is very mudech. or because I think it is a Wonderful start the day News."
So either you or Bing have a flaw in your translation.

 

[Jordi]

Just saying, Google has had Klingon for yeeeears. So once again, Bings playing catch up.

Maybe you can search in Klingon, but it doesn't seem like Google Translate has it. It's not in their list of languages, and if I past in SecondPrize's sentence, it also doesn't automatically detect it (it thinks it might be Slovak).

I think this is actually a point in favor of Google, since they apparently focused on useful languages.

 

[Vhite]

it also doesn't automatically detect it (it thinks it might be Slovak)

Nothing wrong with that, Klingon is the second most common language here, especially at southern borders.

What I like to do with Bing is reverse translate, that is translate something, then copy translation back into left window and switch languages and repeat several times. This way I got "Create All night, but well done, but" from "Tonight we make love". Pretty accurate context wise.