lesswrong.ru domain for translation project?
post by BT_Uytya · 2012-02-03T19:27:05.209Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 19 commentsContents
19 comments
Hello.
Me and a group of a fellow aspiring rationalists work on Russian translation of LessWrong.
The project is considerable; I think it is worthy of a paid second-level domain.
Too bad rationality.ru is already taken. So are rationalist.ru, ratio.ru and similar others.
Well, there is an option. Would it be impudent of us to store our translations in the lesswrong.ru?
19 comments
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comment by Prismattic · 2012-02-04T01:39:08.481Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
[Correction of your English follows. Feel free to ignore this as nitpicking if it is not useful to you]
Russian "мы с [кем-либо]" is properly rendered in English as "[Someone] and I", so here it should be "A group of fellow aspiring rationalists and I..."
A currently-ongoing activity is typically rendered using the present continuous tense (-ing), and here it should be "...are working on..." ("work on" suggests that this is your job, which you do on a regular basis, rather than an ongoing activity done once.)
Because this need not be the only such translation, and it has not been specified previously, you want to use the indefinite article (a/an): "...a Russian translation of Lesswrong."
"The project is considerable" -- I'm actually not certain what was meant here, but based on the next clause I suspect you mean, "The project is fairly extensive".
Finally, one more issue with articles. While there could be many translations, only one site could be named lesswrong.ru, so here you don't want an article at all. It should read, "Would it be imprudent of us to store our translations at lesswrong.ru?"
Editing to add: I just realized I misread "impudent" as "imprudent". Regardless of what anybody here suggests is the most prudent choice, it's certainly not impudent.
Replies from: BT_Uytyacomment by Matvey_Ezhov · 2012-02-06T12:04:40.957Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Maybe we can get ru.lesswrong.com?
Replies from: dvasyacomment by Shmi (shminux) · 2012-02-04T01:25:07.663Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
точнее.ру
comment by Grognor · 2012-02-03T23:44:00.718Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
What's the Russian translation of Less Wrong? Use that.
Replies from: Vladimir_Golovin, HoverHell↑ comment by Vladimir_Golovin · 2012-02-04T05:52:33.190Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
IMO, all Russian translations of "LessWrong" are too long, and the transliteration is too awkward, especially considering how hard it is for most Russians to pronounce the word "wrong" correctly (though I admit I like how it sounds when spoken in a thick Russian accent). My spoken English is above average compared to other Russians, but I still stumble on this word every time I have to speak it.
I'd just go with lesswrong.ru -- while it's still available.
↑ comment by HoverHell · 2012-02-03T23:51:58.184Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
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Replies from: shminux, Prismattic, Dr_Manhattan↑ comment by Shmi (shminux) · 2012-02-04T01:19:39.399Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Additionally, it is usually called exactly that (“lesswrong”, “лессвронг”) in Russian anyway (a sort-of loanword / proper noun).
But the meaning is not obvious to an uninitiated, not the way it is in English.
Replies from: HoverHell↑ comment by Prismattic · 2012-02-04T00:49:21.829Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I think the loan word is better anyway, but if you were going to do something in Russian, I'd go with "дальше от заблуждения" or something, rather than word-for-word "менее неправильно", менее неверно", or "менее ошибочно".
Replies from: Multiheaded↑ comment by Multiheaded · 2012-02-04T23:17:51.879Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Yeah; English to Russian word-for-word translations generally suffer from sounding plain, simplistic and even kind of silly; to keep the plain but functional style of English semi-technical writing, you often have to pick synonims that are a litte longer/more sophisticated/more technical.
↑ comment by Dr_Manhattan · 2012-02-04T00:33:07.093Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Loan-word is clearly the praviliniy (correct) choice in this case. Loan words are actually good signaling IMO - here is something from another language that's cool enough to adopt.
Replies from: Yuu, Multiheaded↑ comment by Yuu · 2012-05-06T14:34:04.245Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
That also can indicate something like "There is a community which prefer to be closed for new members and that's why they use some words that only they can understand clearly". I believe that the web-site with translations should be understood by people, who did not read lesswrong.com in English some time ago, and can not see familiar words. The more terms can be correctly comprehended by newcomers, the better for this rationalists community.
↑ comment by Multiheaded · 2012-02-04T23:12:32.015Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
True; introducing new loanwords more or less at whim is an old and accepted tradition in Russian, too, although it could occasionally make one look like a snob/hipster.
comment by Multiheaded · 2012-02-04T23:08:18.860Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
nwm, commented before I saw the wiki
comment by Lara · 2012-02-04T16:36:02.903Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
You have done a great job, keep it up! And I too agree with the English version, for several reasons: there are lots of loanwords from English already on the Internet, nobody seems to have a problem- 'post', for example, is quite international.
There doesn't seem to be a precise translation of 'wrong' to Russian, except the negatives, which don't sound well.
And mostly because 'lesswrong' is something like a brand already, not just the meaning of words that make it, and no one translates those. It would be easier for people to find the original source for more information.
comment by Yuu · 2012-05-06T15:50:24.881Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Use ru.lesswrong.com if possible, or just create brand new eye-catching phrase in Russian, which will not be translation of "less wrong", because correct translation of this phrase will be long and counter-intuitive. For example: be-rational.ru, usebrain.su, мысли-правильно.рф (think correctly), напряги-мозги.рф (get smart), мозгоштурм.рф (brain storming) etc.
P.S. I have found http://lesswrong.ru/ at Translations list page, so let's use it.