User:B jonas/This is america

Sandbox for Reference_desk/Language question 2012 April 29 "Language poster".

By language
Let me organize all the results by language.

Feel free to comment in this section, but follow the normal conventions of the reference desk: sign your comments, and do not remove others' comments. (If you dislike this arrangement, you can just comment above or below this section.)

I have copied most existing comments from outside in this section, this copying marked by “(M)” after the sig. If you all are satisfied with this arrangement, we could put the unorganized part in a collapsible box.

The "original" should be the text present on the picture provided by OP. Sorry for any transcription errors I made, and if you find one, please correct it.

@SIG@

French
Original: C'est l'Amérique. Parlez la langue que vous voulez.
 * The French seems okay. Adam Bishop (talk) 17:05, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Spanish
Original: Esto es Estados Unidos. Hablar el idioma que desee.
 * The Spanish alone says "United States" rather than "America" --ColinFine (talk) 16:47, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * Don't Spanish-speakers typically refer to the USA as [los] estados unidos rather than America? If so, then the Spanish translation is fine. It translates back as, "This is United States. To speak the idom which you desire." ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:07, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * But shouldn't it be "Estos son las Estados Unidos" rather than "Esto es Estados Unidos"? Angr (talk) 20:25, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * In English, we use USA as both a single and a plural, depending on context. Maybe they do likewise in Spanish. Or, maybe the translator got it wrong. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:48, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * Check the USA article in the Spanish wikipedia, and you'll see they refer to the USA in the singular: es rather than son. That would be because they are talking about it as a nation rather than a collection of individual states. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:53, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

German
Original: Das ist Amerika. Sprich, was auch immer Sie die gewünschte Sprache.
 * The German uses the familiar "sprich" followed by the formal "Sie". I rather think "die gewünschte Sprache" means "the wished-for language" rather than "the language you want", but I'm not certain. --ColinFine (talk) 16:47, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * The last part of the second German sentence is totally incorrect. If you want it right I suggest to reword it completely, like Fine's Russian translation. Otherwise, I suggest: "Das ist Amerika. Sprich die Sprache die du bevorzugst/ die due dir wünschst."-- GoP T C N 17:00, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * I suggest "Dies ist Amerika. Sprich ruhig jede Sprache, die dir beliebt." or "Dies ist Amerika. Du kannst hier jede Sprache sprechen, die du magst." for German. "Das ist Amerika" sounds like you are standing outside America and pointing at it. "Dies" is the appropiate translation for "this". The second part is a bit hard to translate smoothly. "die dir beliebt" sounds a bit uncolloquial, but is a more exact translation than "die du magst". --:Slomox:: &gt;&lt; 18:04, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Italian
Original: Questa é l'America. Parla qualunque lingua che si desidera.

Russian
Original: Это Америка. Говорите все, что язык вы хотите.
 * The Russian contains "все" ("all") which isn't in the others. I'm also dubious about the construction: I don't think you can use "что" lake that. I suspect it means "All speak, that you want language". I think it would be "Говорите по языку, которий хотите". --ColinFine (talk) 16:47, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * This is unfortunately still wrong, see below. --99.113.32.198 (talk) 02:10, 30 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * Or if you want to get the "whatever" in more specifically, "по чему-нибудь языку" ("in whatever language"). --ColinFine (talk) 16:47, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * Russian: Это Америка. Говорите на любом языке. This is "speak any language". Literal translation is more awkward: Это Америка. Говорите на каком хотите языке. 99.113.32.198 (talk) 02:08, 30 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Greek
Original: Αυτή είναι η Αμερική. Μιλήστε ό, τι γλώσσα που θέλετε.

Arabic

 * The Arabic seems wrong but I'll leave it to someone wiser to fix that. Adam Bishop (talk) 17:05, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * Well I'll have a go at the Arabic too. "America" was spelled wrong and the verb wasn't imperative. If I'm not way off, it would be "هذه هي امريكا. اتكلم كل ما اللغة التي تريدها". Adam Bishop (talk) 17:22, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Swahili
Original: Hii Marekani ni. Kuzungumza lugha yoyote unataka.

Vietnamese
Original: Đây là Mỹ. Nói bất cứ ngôn ngữ bạn muốn.

Swedish
Original: Detta är Amerika. Tala det språk du vill.

Lithuanian
Original: Tai Amerika. Kalbėk kokia kalba norite.

Latin
Original: Hoc est Americae. Loqui quidquid lingua vis.
 * Latin: Why "americae" in the genetive (or plural?). And "quidquid" does not agree with "lingua". I'm not sure the construction works either, but perhaps "hic america est. quaquid vis lingua loqui" would be comprehensible. --ColinFine (talk) 16:54, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * The Latin should be "Haec est America. Loqui quamquam linguam vis". Adam Bishop (talk) 17:05, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * My "quaquid" was obviously nonsense, but surely it should be ablative? "Quaqua lingua"? Actually, looking it up I found a better solution: "Haec america est. quavis lingua loqui". --ColinFine (talk) 21:33, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * Why ablative? "Loqui" is often followed by the name of a language turned into an adverb (latine, anglice, etc), but it normally takes a direct object in the accusative. And "quavis" (or "quamvis" actually) would work for "whatever", but it doesn't replace a verb, so you'd need to repeat "vis", or "malis" or something. Adam Bishop (talk) 22:24, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Czech
Original: Tohle je Amerika. Mluv, co jazyk, který chcete.
 * The Czech should read "To je Amerika. Mluvte v jakémkoliv jazyce, co chcete" or "...Mluv v jakémkoliv jazyce, co chceš". It still sounds a bit unnatural in my opinion, there's probably a better way of saying it similar to the "dowolnym językem" in the Polish. But the big big error is that "mluv" (singular) and "chcete" (plural) don't agree. - filelake shoe &#xF0F6;  17:03, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Portuguese
Original: Esta é a Amerika. Falar qualquer lingua que você deseja.

Polish
Original: To jest Ameryka. Mów dowolnym językiem.

Icelandic
Original: Þetta er Ameríka. Tala hvað tungumál sem þú vilt.

Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian)
Original: To je Amerika. Govoriti što god jezik želite.

Tagalog (Filipino)
Original: Ito ay America. Magsalita anumang wika ang nais mo.

Welsh
Original: Mae hyn yn America. Siarad beth bynnag iaith y dymunwch.
 * I've a feeling the Welsh ought to have the relative particle "a dymunwch" rather than the normal particle "y dymunwuch". --ColinFine (talk) 16:54, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Ukrainian
Original: Це Америка. Говориме все, що мову ви хочете.
 * Ukrainian: Це Амеріка. Розмовляйте будь-якою мовою. This is "speak any language", literal translation is awkward: Це Амеріка. Розмовляйте якою бажаєте мовою. 99.113.32.198 (talk) 02:08, 30 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Klingon
Original: vam 'oH 'amerI'qa' SepjljQa'. jatlh vay' Hol SoH neH.

Dutch
Original: Dit is Amerika. Spreek de taal u wilt.
 * The Dutch one doesn't capture the "whatever" part, and uses the formal "u". If that's what you want, I would suggest "Dit is Amerika. Spreek welke taal u maar wilt.". The informal version would then be "Dit is Amerika. Spreek welke taal je maar wil." Thayts (talk) 22:03, 29 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

Albanian
Original: Kjo është Amerika. Fol çfarëdo gjuhë që ju dëshironi.

Chinese

 * The Chinese sentence is in traditional Chinese, and it says "This is America. What language do you want to speak." (The second sentence is a question but is ended with a full stop, not a question mark.) I can't think of a simple idiomatic translation of the English message, but perhaps something like "这里是美国. 说你想说的语言. " (in simplified CHinese; the traditional Chinese equivalent is "這裡是美國. 說你想說的語言. ") -- This is more or less idiomatic and translates literally to "This (here) is America (country, not continent). Speak the language that you want to speak." I think this captures the idea being conveyed relatively well while still being idiomatic. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 13:12, 30 April 2012 (UTC) (M)

English
Original: This is America. Speak whatever language you want.

Comments not specific to a language
This is a list of all languages in the poster, from top to bottom: With almost all languages I'm familiar with, there is something that definitely strikes me as wrong. However, in most cases, I don't have the enough level of fluency to provide decent and natural-sounding translations. My language isn't there. --Theurgist (talk) 12:50, 30 April 2012 (UTC) (M)
 * French
 * Spanish
 * German
 * Italian
 * Russian
 * Hebrew
 * Greek
 * Arabic
 * Swahili
 * Vietnamese
 * Swedish
 * Lithuanian
 * Latin
 * Hindi
 * Czech
 * Portuguese
 * Polish
 * Icelandic
 * Thai
 * Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian)
 * Tagalog (Filipino)
 * Welsh
 * Ukrainian
 * Klingon
 * Dutch
 * Albanian
 * Japanese
 * Chinese
 * Korean
 * English (original)
 * Thanks for identifying the languages. @SIG@