Web Page Language Translation

Many of the rich features found on the Internet remain obscure until a need occurs. In early August, I stumbled upon a Web site linked to my November 1999 article, “Ego-Surfing Part II,” entirely in French. Fortunately, the AltaVista search site provides a free, convenient translation service. While 80 percent of the Internet content is written in English (only 6 percent of the world population speaks English as a native language), as the Net expands, a growing number of users cannot read English. On the home page of the Web site, AltaVista, in the Babel Fish area, the services of Systran provides the following conversions:

English to French

English to German

English to Italian

English to Portuguese

English to Spanish

French to English

German to English

Italian to English

Portuguese to English

Spanish to English

German to French

French to German

Russian to English

The process works remarkably well.

 

Some Background

Machine Translation, as defined by Systran, is conversion of one human language to another by computer. While grammatical structures (language usage and rules) are taken into consideration, the results will never be as good as with human translators. Much of this work was funded by the US military since World War II. Dr Peter Toma, a recognized linguist researcher, became involved with Russian to English machine translation which lead to its use for the 1974-75 joint USSR Apollo-Soyouz Space Project. While early software required mainframe computers, in 1995 a Windows version was made available from Systran. In late 1997, AltaVista offered Babel Fish real time translations of Web content on its Web site. Frankly, it is remarkable to have this high technology available as a free resource on the Internet.

 

My Experience

I entered the URL www. liberation.fr/multi/actu/20000731/20000803jeuu.html into Babel Fish. Within seconds, the English translated article appeared in the Internet Explorer browser. A careful comparison of the French and English translations reveals the fascinating way English computerese translates into French. For example, ego-surfer becomes l’ego-surfeur, and cyberspace becomes cyberespace. However, the English search engine becomes nom a des moteurs recherche. The Systran machine encounters a little difficulty with translating articles de presse to articles of press (instead of press articles), sites familiaux to sites family (instead of family sites), and pages de fan to pages of fan (instead of fan pages). However, aside from these minor imperfections, the overall translation process yields impressive results.

 

Webmaster Warning

Some Webmasters, in the attempt to beautify an article, will use a graphic image in place of a letter within the body. Often this is found at the beginning of a paragraph. The Systran’s machine translator (or most PC software) cannot perform the conversion. The Liberation.fr Webmaster fell into this trap. In the first word of the first paragraph, the J in Je was replaced with a picture of that letter. This resulted in the following translation: “JE is reproduced on the Fabric, therefore I am.” The AltaVista Babel Fish Web site allows the user to replace the graphic in a translation window by cut/paste and a few keystrokes. The result is a correct translation: “I am reproduced on the Fabric, therefore I am.” Simple.

 

Truly International

While the English language will continue to dominate the Internet, more foreign Web sites will populate cyberspace as the Net grows in popularity. As international Webmasters render Web content for a local audience, English will decline at some sites. Currently, eBay hosts auctions in England, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Japan, with the last two written in German and Japanese. (Note: currency converters are available on most non-U.S. eBay sites.) More will follow.

Perhaps one of the best uses for AltaVista’s Babel Fish would be to browse foreign newspaper Web sites. In the US, with the merging of mega media entertainment organizations, the line blurs between news and amusement. A foreign prospective on current events may restore some balance.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://babel.altavista.com/translate.dyn

http://www.liberation.fr/multi/actu/20000731/20000803jeuu.html

(This is the 220th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the Internet. Next, “DotComGuy” is the subject on tap. Stay Tuned. Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)