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Archiver > TMG > 2003-05 > 1051983261


From: "Frank van Thienen" <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] Language strategies
Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 10:34:21 -0700
In-Reply-To: <1C494577A9B7364EB5A4F88C962156D268CB28@mail32gent1.corp.u4agr.com>


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michel Vuijlsteke [mailto:]
> It doesn't make sense to have all these addresses start with
> articles, and except for manually tweaking every single
> person in a 10.000 person database I don't see any solution
> to the problem...

Michel,

Unfortunately, to output into 2 or more languages, and minimize the
word-processor tweaking, a lot of TMG tweaking is required.
As you already know, you can have default sentences for each tag, each
language. Then for individual tags, you can customize the sentence if
required, allowing you to enter prepositions or what have you, where
necessary.
As for the Memo section, where the "meat" of the matter is, you can use
the split-memo approach which allows you to have up to 9 sections within
one memo. I've never used all nine. To implement a simple sentence
that has only one occurrence of [M], I split the memo into [M1] and
[M2], where the [M1] is always English and the [M2] is always Dutch. An
Occupation tag memo might look something like:
merchant sailor in 1909||matroos ter koopvaardij in 1909
Where the sentences are:
[P] was a [M1] and [P] was [M2]

More complex sentences may use 2 or more Memo sections per sentence, in
that case divide the Memo into [M1] and [M2] for English, [M3] and [M4]
for Dutch (for example).
If you start from scratch, like I did, it simply becomes part of data
entry: translate every tag as you go. To go back into existing data
will require setting flags and going through your data one person, one
tag at a time.

> Is it the accepted practice to translate all these little
> phrases? Should I then add the original in parentheses? Or
> leave that for a footnote?
In most cases I have not inluded the original (Dutch) in my English
editions, but that's totally up to you. If you do, I would likely put
the original in parentheses at the end of the sentence (could end up
being very messy)

No matter how you do it, there will ALWAYS be word-processor tweaking.
For one thing, unless this has changed, each tag has an Abbreviation
(eg. "mar.") and a Past Tense ("married") which are used in charts and
incomplete sentences. A word macro will have to translate those. TMG4
narratives did some real funny things to Dutch sentences, which
hopefully will be fixed. These too were manageable with Word macros.
Setting up these macros is another big chore, making sure you catch all
oddities, but once the macro is set up, it takes minutes to run and all
is well that ends well!
One thing that does not translate is your source citations, endnotes
and/or footnotes.
Good luck, you've got your work cut out for you :-)

Frank van Thienen
Vernon, BC Canada


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