Any linguists on DU?
Last edited Sun Jun 28, 2015, 03:55 PM - Edit history (1)
I'm working on a project for July 4th and need some assistance. We're wanting to make some hand-lettered posters featuring "Welcome!" in other languages. The European languages are no problem, but we're having difficulty finding other examples that we can readily replicate; the pages I've found on google show text that loses resolution when I try to enlarge it.
So, as I often do, I'm turning to DU for help. Specifically, we need:
Somali
Greek
Japanese
Hebrew
Arabic
SE Asia languages
Thanking you in advance!
Update: Appreciate all the suggestions. I'm not the computer geek in the family, and the 9-year-old neighbor who usually helps me navigate the netz (while rolling his eyes at my old lady ineptitude) is away visiting grandparents. So your time and effort is doubly appreciated! I'll let you know how it all turns out.
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a few posts below ...
Sid
He's clearly our resident language expert 
That was so damn funny I'm still laughing!
(Sorry, lots of grad classes in general linguistics, mostly syntax; ABD in Slavic languages, mostly historical and phonology; with all the ancillary "you should also study ____________ language" under my belt. Missed Sanskrit, though. Pity.)
Once put together this kind of list for a friend. Damned irritating. Plagiarism is better. (Okay, cite the source and call it "research". There. That upholds professional ethics.)
But Google's better. It's done your work for you.
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/welcome.htm
http://www.freelang.net/expressions/welcome.php
http://www.word2word.com/howto/welcomead.html
I like the Omniglot source because it keeps the original orthography. Although, to be honest, you could have "Screw you" for most of the languages, tell people it said "welcome," and the admirers would tell you what a great job you did.
Caveat: All of them will contain mistakes. That's life. The Polish and Serbian translations at Omniglot (most others, too) are for multiple people only (and including at least one male, at that). The Bulgarian uses two different words, but don't make that mistake--but you have to decide if you're talking one man, one woman, or a group, whichever word you use.
Caveat 2: How you say "welcome" in any situation is likely to depend on a lot of variables. In English, we just say "welcome." Or perhaps "mi casa es su casa." Or "make yourself at home." Or "good to see you" or "come on in." Speakers of another languages may say the word translated as 'welcome' when we do, or at other times. They may just be a greeting, "Welcome!" or also fit in with "Welcome to the United States" (as opposed to "You're welcome to the edamame"
. As with the English variants, they may vary socially and stylistically in ways that are different from English.
For example, the Czech version at Omniglot is a pain, and I'd want to throttle whoever produced that mess, as it goes from "welcome" (informal) to "welcome" formal" to variants like "I greet you" or "we greet you." "Vitejte" is probably what you're after. Unless it's one person you know well, then "Vitej". Yeah, there's an accent over the "i".
Response to madamesilverspurs (Original post)
Sid
Response to SidDithers (Reply #17)
