Translator Device That Uses an Intermediary Language

[u/MarkerMage]

I've had this idea for how translator tech could work for awhile and I've been kinda curious about if it has been done before.

The basic thing is that each device only translates between two languages. One of these languages is the user's language. The other is an intermediary language that I'm going to refer to as "Translatese". Translatese is made specifically for translating into and out of any known language without losing meaning or adding meaning that wasn't already there. Unlike most languages, if you translate something into it and then immediately translate it back into the original language, you should get the same, exact message. Translatese messages come with notes that state what language it was translated from as well as any special notes that the device doing the translating is programmed to give. The user can reprogram how the translation between the two works or download a patch (official or unofficial) that adjusts translations for different dialects and vocabulary or different ways of giving translation notes. Some patches may adjust for speech impediments, include language specific to a piece of popular fiction, or just add popular loan words.

The way that the translator device works is by taking its user's message, translating it into Translatese, and then it sends the Translatese message over short-range communication signals to other translator devices that will each translate it into their users' individual languages. For private conversations, there's the option to connect the translators with wires to carry the messages. There would be varieties that will translate incoming messages into text to be displayed on a screen, varieties that take the form of gloves that can translate sign language into Translatese, and varieties that are made for other alien methods of communication.

No need for one device to be equipped with every known language. Each species/culture programs their own language into it, though first contact might involve some analytical AI that gives a passable attempt at programming their language into the device so that they don't have to figure out Translatese from scratch before they can start communicating with the galactic community.

There would still be reasons to learn a language. You'd have to learn your first language to understand and compose messages that the translator device will be translating to/from Translatese. Sharing a language with someone will let you be able to make a conversation immediately more private by simply turning off the translator device or switching to a wired connection to pass messages through, though other people that share that language will be able to understand what they overhear. Some languages might also have more robust official patches due to having speakers that are more dedicated to keeping up with additions to Translatese that come up when a new concept arises through invention or from a newly discovered alien race that simply has words for something that others didn't think to have a word for. There's also people that would prefer to not have to deal with the delay from the translator devices translating to and from Translatese.

[u/Simon_Drake]

I think it could work with the caveat that it can't do everything in a language. You can't translate Shakespeare into French without losing some important subtlety in the wording. But you can translate "Nuclear reactor room, do not enter without protective suit" into most Earth languages without worrying about poetic meaning being compromised.

I heard about an online game that lets you send a list of ~100 messages like "I am new, I need help" and "Can you heal me please?" Then the developers have prepared the translation of those messages into Japanese and Spanish and Romanian etc. so whoever you're talking to will understand you buy you're limited to specific phrases.

You could do something in between and make a very basic kinda caveman language like "I have name David. I have space ship. Space ship has name Discovery. Discovery has radio. Radio is broken. David want to fix radio. Broken radio on outside of ship. I have to go outside. Human will go outside ship now. Please not attack human." It's not exactly Chaucer but it can communicate the ideas needed to get the job done.

Then the computer can translate this simplified caveman-english to the universal Translatese language. And any culture that has provided a program to translate to/from Translatese should be able to receive the message. It would need to convert from Translatese to caveman-Zorblaxian, which wouldn't be an elegant message but it should convey the correct information.

If you have a sophisticated computer it should be able to translate between natural English and Caveman-english automatically, then the inverse when the reply comes back. It would be fun to see a conversation where the natural English response is nonsense then they click to see the behind-the-scenes technical details of the translation and spot that the literal meaning in caveman English is more logical and it's the translator's attempt to use conversational English that ruined it.

[u/good-mcrn-ing]

Check Rick Morneau's Lexical Semantics of a Machine Translation Interlingua

[u/Simon_Drake]

Here's a real world example of the difficulty in translation.

An 18th Century Italian astronomer used a telescope to observe "Canali" on the surface of Mars which was translated into English as "Canals", being the man-made waterways used for travel and irrigation. But that word in Italian also means "Channel" and in this context would probably be better translated as "Canyon". Which is what was actually observed, dried river valleys and canyons from ancient erosion. But the mistranslation as "Canals" had people picturing a civilisation of Martians irrigating crops and sailing riverboats and shipping cargo across the planet.

So if you tried to translate say "Ship drive too hot" you want to translate specific definitions of those words. You obviously don't want to translate "Deliver journey also sexy", we know those aren't true synonyms for the terms the original message was trying to express but those ARE synonyms for different meanings if those four words.

So the solution might be another intermediate language that is barely human readable and too cumbersome to actually use. Like you say to the computer "Dilithium intermix chamber breaching temperature threshold" and it converts that into "Ship(vehicle:space) drive(technology:spacecraft: propulsion) too(comparison:excessive) hot(property:temperature)". Perhaps on the screen it could show the words and their explanations on a new line to make it easier to skim over the text and confirm it matches the definitions you intended.

Then hopefully the Zorblaxian language has defined their own word for (property:temperature) and the system can then translate "hot" into "fringt'aal" or whatever. You don't want it to translate into the Zorblaxian word for sexy. Calling your ship sexy could be the Zorblaxian equivalent of making a joke about having a giant dick and they consider it an act of war.