Wikipedia:Translation/Samuel Bernard

Talk
During this period, "aides" referred to taxes, so he was something like the Director General of Tax Collection (not sure what the best equivalent would be in English...) Vrac (talk) 22:39, 29 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Possibly best to just translate as "... d'Arty, a high-level tax official" ? ǝɹʎℲxoɯ ( contrib ) 23:14, 29 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Works for me... Vrac (talk) 23:39, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

What the heck was the office of directeur général des aides? ǝɹʎℲxoɯ ( contrib ) 22:39, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Not sure if I got this translation quite right. What wars were these? ǝɹʎℲxoɯ ( contrib ) 22:39, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

This appears to be an error in one of the sources used for the French article (not cited, by the way, although I did find the exact phrase in a search of Google Books). Other sources say that he was "le commissaire de marine et des galères de France". The sentence as it stands in the French article doesn't make much sense. I would go with the other sources and translate it as: commissioner of the French Navy. ­­­­­­Vrac (talk) 20:25, 29 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I was baffled by the original sentence as well. So none of this business about wars in Flanders and Picardie in the original source that you found?  ǝɹʎℲxoɯ ( contrib ) 20:30, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Literally what the French sentence says is: commissioner and controler of the navy and war in the department of Flanderss and Picardy. Meaning he was in charge of the navy, and in charge of war (not that there was one), in a single French département called Flanders and Picardy (such a single département does not exist, perhaps in the past it did but I can't find any evidence of it), both are regions in France that comprise various départements. If it said "aux" départements it would make a bit more sense, but it seems clear to me that the sentence is erroneous, hence my reasoning for going with a different source... Vrac (talk) 21:08, 29 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Gotcha, I parsed the subordinate clauses slightly differently but it didn't make any more sense. I was under the impression that the départements did not exist at all under the ancien régime, being an anti-regionalist innovation of the French Republic... so that didn't make sense either.  ǝɹʎℲxoɯ ( contrib ) 21:13, 29 November 2007 (UTC)