Re: Language Issues

On Sat, 27 Feb 1999, Thomas Barclay wrote:

> > On a slightly less off topic note, what about the Spanish-speaking
> > population of the NAC?
> 
> I think English would be the language of government, but high 
> tech would make some sort of "universal language" translation 
> probable for all docs (and speech to text and translated text to 
> speech would make this possible for speech too). So I expect you 
> would get service in any of the official languages of the NAC - 
> English, Spanish, Welsh, and of course Broad Scots. (grin). 

as far as possible, military communications should avoid written or
spoken
text as an interchange format, to minimise errors. rather than sending a
message to the left flank squad saying "attack the enemy mortar position
with IAVRs", you'd select the left flank squad on your map, click on the
"engage" menu, select the "IAVR" option, and then select the enemy
mortar
position. this would be sent to the left flank squad in an internal
computer-readable format, and then rendered into their local language at
that end.

whilst this is obviously not applicable in all situations, if thoroughly
designed it might cover 75% of all orders. that would help quite a bit,
i
should think.

also, there might well be a team of translators attached to the
battalion
hq, so if you needed to issue an unusual order, you could get a
translator
to change the language in real time. translation would be a very, very
stressful job.

> I think a fair modifier might be based on troop tech. If we assume 
> first line troops with first line equipment, software and AI, the 
> modifier might be cut to a +1 (simply put, even computers will 
> sometimes blow a contextual translation).

this is true. computers are far from perfect. now, i know today's
technology is primitive at best, and in 150 years it will work much,
much
better (although bear in mind the device will have to be small and work
in
realtime, so it does have a harder job than modern computer
translators), 
but have a look at this. consider the simple command:

Sergeant Mendoza, move your missile team forward under cover of the
hedge!

here is what Altavista's Babelfish translator made of it, translated
from
english, to german, back to english, into spanish and back into english:

Sergeant Mendoza, changes of position to his equipment of the flight 
advanced under address of the fence! 

see what i mean? this is why we have symbols on maps, methinks :-).

> Comments? 
> /************************************************
> Thomas Barclay	       
> Voice: (613) 831-2018 x 4009
> Fax: (613) 831-8255
> 
>  "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes
>  it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
>  -Bjarne Stroustrup
> **************************************************/

yes, those are comments. personally i'd have used the c++ form :-).

Tom