Science Gossip Talk

Latin

  • JANEJ by JANEJ

    Many of the species descriptions in 18th and 19th Century pubs are in Latin. I have some experience translating them (KUDOs to my high school Latin teacher), but can't say I can do a good translation. How are we to handle these?

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  • jules by jules moderator

    I have just discovered something wonderful. Google translate does Latin! And, even better, it makes a pretty good job of it.

    I'll leave your question for a science team member to answer but thought I'd just share my discovery. 😃

    Posted

  • JANEJ by JANEJ

    Thanks -- I doubt Mrs. Nowakowski is with us any more.
    The problem is, Google translate doesn't read scanned pages and these are more than epigrams.

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  • jules by jules moderator

    There's an option to view an OCR (optical character recognition) version of the scanned page on the BHL site. It does OK if the text is clear. You can then copy and paste into Google translate. It worked a treat for this page. Magic!

    Posted

  • JANEJ by JANEJ

    I'll have to try it. Thanks for your suggestions.

    Posted

  • trosesandler by trosesandler scientist

    JANEJ - a great question. It's not necessary to do word for word translations of the species descriptions. Remember we are mostly looking for words or short phrases for species names, inscriptions, and subjects that are being depicted in the illustrations. Species names will be found almost always in Italics

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