[INDOLOGY] Google Translate for Sanskrit

[Westin Harris]

Esteemed colleagues,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

This will certainly stir up some new material for ongoing translation
theory discourses vis-a-vis machine translation and the role of the
translator. For the sake of conversation, I wonder if anyone on-list feels
that this is an explicitly BAD idea, and why?

And full disclosure, I cannot say that I fared much better with the first
verse of the MD when I first encountered it as a fledgling Sanskrit
student. Nothing worse than those dreadful greasy trees, am I right? Hahaha.

On Thu, May 12, 2022 at 8:48 PM adheesh sathaye via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Hi Charles et al,
>
> It seems that if you just start typing into the google translate box, it
> will detect it as Sanskrit though the language name doesn’t show up yet.
> Maybe it’s a soft roll-out. Seems to do OK for simple sentences but not so
> much for kāvya, though the results are hilarious.
> See attached screenshots of the first sentences of the Goldman primer and
> the first verse of the Meghadūtam.
>
> with best wishes,
> adheesh
> —
> Adheesh Sathaye
> University of British Columbia
>
>
>
>
> On May 12, 2022, at 07:22, Charles DiSimone via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> Well, this seems like it would be fun to play with. However, none of the
> languages listed in the link Martin Gluckman shared appear for me when I go
> to the Google Translate website (even after updating Chrome). Perhaps there
> is some sort of rolling implementation depending upon one's location?
>
> All my best,
> Charles
>
> Dr. Charles DiSimone
> Department of Languages and Cultures
> Ghent University
>
>
> On Thu, May 12, 2022 at 4:08 PM Martin Gluckman via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Google Translate is now available for Sanskrit!
>>
>> https://blog.google/products/translate/24-new-languages/
>>
>> It seems quite promising!
>>
>> Kindest wishes,
>>
>> Martin
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
>


-- 
*Sincerely,*

*Westin Harris*
Ph.D. Candidate
Study of Religion
University of California, Davis
https://religions.ucdavis.edu/people/westin-harris

2021 Dissertation Fellow,
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies

Sarva Mangalam.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20220512/8ecc382c/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screen Shot 2022-05-12 at 07.50.02.png
Type: image/png
Size: 170177 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20220512/8ecc382c/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screen Shot 2022-05-12 at 07.55.01.png
Type: image/png
Size: 197156 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20220512/8ecc382c/attachment-0001.png>