# to translate (a different verb for a different language)



## Ilmo

Do other languages, besides the Finnish, have a different verb "to translate" for each and every language of the world?
In Finnish, there is a general verb *kääntää* (to translate, also "to turn"), but then you have to add the language into which you are going to translate, for instance *englanniksi* (into English).
Instead, you can use a special verb *englannintaa*.
If you know, what the language in question is in Finnish, you can create the necessary verb just by adding the ending "-ntaa" (in a few cases it is "-ntää") plus taking into consideration the eventual "gradation" of the stem of the verb.
Thus:
*ruotsintaa* - translate into Swedish; Swedish (language) = ruotsi
*saksantaa* - translate into German; German (language) = saksa
*ranskantaa* - translate into French; French (language) = ranska
and so on, ad infinitum
Are there any other languages with a similar feature?


----------



## Etcetera

One of the special features of Finnish which really fascinate me.
Nothing like that in Russian, unfortunately.


----------



## badgrammar

But that just sounds like adding the word for translate as a suffix to the language name, eventually changing the vowels for some sort of vowel harmony?  It doesn't really seem to me like having different verbs, then, it just sounds like adding the verb as a suffix the noun, like in other agglutinative language.  The verb reamins the same, it is just annexed onto the noun.


----------



## Hakro

No, Badgrammar, "-ntaa" is just an ending and it has nothing to do with the verb "kääntää" (although it looks a bit alike). 

 The ending "-ntaa" can be added also to other words than just languages. For example shit = _paska_ and verb to shit = _paskantaa_, big = _suuri_ and verb to make bigger = _suurentaa_.

It's somehow similar method as in English you can create a verb by adding "-ize" to a noun or adjective.


----------



## Outsider

Very interesting! I know of no other language like that.

In Portuguese (and many other languages) there is something similar, but it's really not the same:

to Anglicize (=to translate into English)
to Americanize (=to adapt to American culture)
to Latinize (=to adapt to the Latin language or alphabet)


----------



## badgrammar

Ah, okay, sorry, I did not understand .


----------



## Thomas1

Outsider said:


> Very interesting! I know of no other language like that.
> 
> In Portuguese (and many other languages) there is something similar, but it's really not the same:
> 
> to Anglicize (=to translate into English)
> to Americanize (=to adapt to American culture)
> to Latinize (=to adapt to the Latin language or alphabet)


I thought of exactly the same. 

It is also possible in Polish:
(z)anglizować - to Anglicize
(z)amerykanizować - to Americanize
(z)latinizować - to Latinize
(z)rusyfikować, zruszczyć - to Russianize
(z)germanizować - to Germanize
etc.

This, however, has rather more to do with making attempts to adjust, for instance, a nation to a different culutre, language, etc. than translation. Such words aren't used very often in Polish and I suspect that many Polish people wouldn't know how to make such verbs from certain names (e.g. a verb from Chinese). They were/are very often used while talking of the times when Poland was partitioned.

Tom


----------



## Frank06

Hi,


Outsider said:


> to Anglicize (=to translate into English)
> to Americanize (=to adapt to American culture)
> to Latinize (=to adapt to the Latin language or alphabet)


In Dutch we can do the same
- to anglicise = verengelsen (but this has actually nothing to do with _translating _into English);
- to americanise = veramerikaansen
Some other countries require another construction: 
- to russify (?) = russificeren (and russificatie)

Theoretically, this is possible with quite a lot of languages/country names, but I must say that I never heard about 'ver*korea*niseren' or 'ver*portugal*iseren'.

Groetjes,

Frank


----------



## DrWatson

Thomas1 said:


> I thought of exactly the same.
> 
> It is also possible in Polish:
> (z)anglizować - to Anglicize
> (z)amerykanizować - to Americanize
> (z)latinizować - to Latinize
> (z)rusyfikować, zruszczyć - to Russianize
> (z)germanizować - to Germanize
> etc.
> 
> This, however, has rather more to do with making attempts to adjust, for instance, a nation to a different culutre, language, etc. than translation. Such words aren't used very often in Polish and I suspect that many Polish people wouldn't know how to make such verbs from certain names (e.g. a verb from Chinese). They were/are very often used while talking of the times when Poland was partitioned.
> 
> Tom



In Finnish there's actually a separate verb construction for adjusting nation to a different culture. To translate into German would be *saksantaa*, whereas to adapt to German culture would be *saksalaistaa*.

Other examples:
*amerikkalaistaa *= to adapt to American culture
*ranskalaistaa = *to adapt to French culture
*venäläistää = *to adapt to Russian culture, to russify


----------



## spakh

Hi Ilmo
In Turkish
amerikanlaştırmak: americanize
latinleştirmek: latinize
ruslaştırmak: russianize  list goes on
also 
amerikanlaşmak: become americanized
latinleşmek: become latinized...   (those are not language but culture etc.)
There are more examples and affixes in Turkish enables us to make lots of verbs but I don't know any for to translate into another language.


----------



## Maja

Only one verb for "translating" in Serbian -> prevesti/prevoditi.
  We also have "amerikanizacija", "germanizacija" etc, but the meaning is entirely different and has to do with adoption of certain customs and so on.
There is also "amerikanizam", "germanizam" etc. which are calques.


----------



## Etcetera

In Russian, there's the verb русифицировать, which actually means 'to translate into Russian', but its meaning is very specific. This verb is used when speaking about translating a software, for example.


----------



## Ilmo

Etcetera said:


> In Russian, there's the verb русифицировать, which actually means 'to translate into Russian', but its meaning is very specific. This verb is used when speaking about translating a software, for example.


 
But you don't use this verb regarding a normal translation of a literary work, you don't for instance "русифицировать" (sorry, I cannot conjugate it properly) The Seven Bothers, by Aleksis Kivi, do you?


----------



## ridziniece

In Latvian there is the form "rusifikācija" which means "russification", but it does not mean "to translate into Russian"  

We use the verbs "tulkot", "iztulkot", "pārtulkot", "pārcelt", "pārlikt" (which are synonyms) to describe translation, both written and oral. For the translation of poetry there is the term "atdzejot". The name of the language must be added to form the phrase just like in English ("to translate from such and such language...") , but we do not form such compounds as they do in Finnish.


----------



## minicooper

In Greek there is only the verb "translate" (ìåôáöñÜæù=metafrazo) for all!!


----------



## karuna

Sveika Rīdziniece! Actually in Latvian the word "latviskot" is often used to mean exactly "to translate into Latvian". It sounds antiquated but today the software translators have given a new life to this old word and the new meaning is closer to "Latvianize". Similar forms with other languages (krieviskot, angliskot, vāciskot) are rarer but can be found in colloquial speech too.


----------



## Etcetera

Ilmo said:


> But you don't use this verb regarding a normal translation of a literary work, you don't for instance "русифицировать" (sorry, I cannot conjugate it properly) The Seven Bothers, by Aleksis Kivi, do you?


Of course not. It's a very special verb, as I've said.


----------



## Ilmo

ridziniece said:


> We use the verbs "*tulkot*", "iz*tulkot*", "pār*tulkot*", "pārcelt", "pārlikt" (which are synonyms) to describe translation, both written and oral.


 
And in Finnish there is the verb *tulkita* (to interprete, to translate orally). I guess thay come from the same origin.


----------



## Thomas1

Frank06 said:


> [...]Some other countries require another construction:
> - to russify (?) = russificeren (and russificatie)
> 
> [...]


 


DrWatson said:


> In Finnish there's actually a separate verb construction for adjusting nation to a different culture. To translate into German would be *saksantaa*, whereas to adapt to German culture would be *saksalaistaa*.
> 
> Other examples:
> *amerikkalaistaa *= to adapt to American culture
> *ranskalaistaa = *to adapt to French culture
> *venäläistää = *to adapt to Russian culture, to russify


You cleared up the difference that I couldn't quite grasp when writing my previous post, thanks. 
zruszczyć - to Russianize
(z)rusyfikować - to Russify
_zruszczyć_ means to adjust a language to Russain standards, whereas, _rusyfikować_ means to adjust to Russian cultural customs, norms, etc. Frank do the two forms you gave have the same distinction or they are the same in meaning, connotations, etc?

Tom


----------



## Marga H

In Polish we have only one additional verb:instead of "przetłumaczyć na język polski"(translate into  Polish) you can say *"spolszczyć"*.


----------



## Hakro

Marga H said:


> In Polish we have only one additional verb:instead of "przetłumaczyć na język polski"(translate into Polish) you can say *"spolszczyć"*.


It's _puolantaa_ in Finnish.


----------



## Brioche

Ilmo said:


> Do other languages, besides the Finnish, have a different verb "to translate" for each and every language of the world?



Esperanto has this ability.

_En_+language+_igi_ for translate into language
and
_El_+language+_igi_ for translate from language.

Elangligi [el+angl+igi] = translate from English.

Enesperantigi [en+esperant+igi] = translate into Esperanto.

If you want to, you can just use the general word for _translate_ which is _traduki._


----------



## Chazzwozzer

In Turkish, *Romanizasyon *may be used if we're talking about, say, a Chineese writing his name in Latin letters.


----------



## mataripis

*Tagalog: Isalin/ Tumbasan/Tapatan/Paglilipat * De pa Dumaget: Salenen/Tepongan
*


----------



## A.O.T.

*In Ukrainian* we've got only one verb "перекладати" (perekladaty).

русифікувати (rusyfikuvaty) - to russify

and so on.


----------

