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25th translation contest: "Alien first impressions" » English to Ukrainian

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Source text in English

Imagine dining in a European capital where you do not know the local language. The waiter speaks little English, but by hook or by crook you manage to order something on the menu that you recognise, eat and pay for. Now picture instead that, after a hike goes wrong, you emerge, starving, in an Amazonian village. The people there have no idea what to make of you. You mime chewing sounds, which they mistake for your primitive tongue. When you raise your hands to signify surrender, they think you are launching an attack.

Communicating without a shared context is hard. For example, radioactive sites must be left undisturbed for tens of thousands of years; yet, given that the English of just 1,000 years ago is now unintelligible to most of its modern speakers, agencies have struggled to create warnings to accompany nuclear waste. Committees responsible for doing so have come up with everything from towering concrete spikes, to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, to plants genetically modified to turn an alarming blue. None is guaranteed to be future-proof.

Some of the same people who worked on these waste-site messages have also been part of an even bigger challenge: communicating with extraterrestrial life. This is the subject of “Extraterrestrial Languages”, a new book by Daniel Oberhaus, a journalist at Wired.

Nothing is known about how extraterrestrials might take in information. A pair of plaques sent in the early 1970s with Pioneer 10 and 11, two spacecraft, show nude human beings and a rough map to find Earth—rudimentary stuff, but even that assumes aliens can see. Since such craft have no more than an infinitesimal chance of being found, radio broadcasts from Earth, travelling at the speed of light, are more likely to make contact. But just as a terrestrial radio must be tuned to the right frequency, so must the interstellar kind. How would aliens happen upon the correct one? The Pioneer plaque gives a hint in the form of a basic diagram of a hydrogen atom, the magnetic polarity of which flips at regular intervals, with a frequency of 1,420MHz. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, the hope is that this sketch might act as a sort of telephone number.

Winning entries could not be determined in this language pair.

There were 8 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase. Not enough votes were submitted by peers for a winning entry to be determined.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (8 total) Expand all entries

Entry #31345 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.924.00 (6 ratings)3.83 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 3 users entered 4 "like" tags
  • 3 users agreed with "likes" (3 total agrees)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
Уявіть ситуацію: ви обідаєте в одній з європейських столиць і не знаєте місцевої мови.
Flows well
Iryna Lobko
-1
+3
1
Офіціант погано володіє англійською, але правдами і неправдами вам вдається таки розпізнати щось в меню, замовити, поїсти та оплатити чек.
Flows well
Oleksandra Matviichuk
Відповідальні за це організації
Good term selection
Michael Sarni
тримається на припущенні
Flows well
Iryna Lobko
Entry #31435 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.843.67 (6 ratings)4.00 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 3 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (2 total agrees)
+1
в майбутньому її зрозуміють.
Good term selection
Michael Sarni
космічними апаратами «Піонер-10» та «Піонер-11»
Good term selection
Iryna Lobko
+1
навіть він розрахований на те, що прибульці мають зір
Good term selection
Michael Sarni
Entry #31112 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.503.50 (6 ratings)3.50 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 3 users agreed with "likes" (4 total agrees)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
+2
шкереберть
Good term selection
Іти (піти)​ шкереберт​ь — відбув​атися прот​илежно до ​того, як м​ає бути
Link: http://sum​.in.ua/s/s​hkerebertj
Marina Hrabar
-1
+2
1
кшталт
Good term selection
Oleksandra Matviichuk
Entry #31267 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.003.20 (5 ratings)2.80 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
щоб показати їм свою покірність,
Good term selection
Michael Sarni
якою спілкувалися 1000 років том
Good term selection
Michael Sarni
Entry #31390 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.003.17 (6 ratings)2.83 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
-1
+1
1
Офіціант трішки говорить англійською, і вам вдається з горем пополам замовити щось знайоме з меню, поїсти і розрахуватися
Flows well
Oleksandra Matviichuk
якою спілкувалися тисячу років тому
Good term selection
Michael Sarni
Entry #31444 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Ekaterina Ostapova
Ekaterina Ostapova
Russian Federation
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.922.83 (6 ratings)3.00 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
+1
імітуєте звуки жування
Good term selection
Michael Sarni
Entry #31279 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.752.17 (6 ratings)3.33 (6 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #31270 — Discuss 0 — Variant: Not specified
Voting points1st2nd3rd
0000
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry2.602.40 (5 ratings)2.80 (5 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags