Translation

[Galahad]

Has anyone used any of the fonts for the alien races, with the intention of applying them to existing literature.

I was thinking of translating my NIV bible into Minbari or vorlon.

Given that people have been doing this sort of thing with Trek, I was wondering if the phenomenon had spread to B5 fandom yet?

 

[vacantlook]

From the little that I've been exposed to it, I thought the translations of real world literature and such into Star Trek stuff was all centered on Klingon, which is a fully created language made by Marc Okrand.

Since there's, as far as I'm aware, little produced for an official Minbari or Vorlon language, a translation would be impossible. But I guess letter-to-symbol substitution could be possible, but I don't know where the fonts from.

 

[Galahad]

Ah. There I need no help, I have the fonts! I had a go with John 1in Minbari, man that looked weird! LOL!!!

Pretty... but weird!

 

[Quagmire]

This is a little harsh but; have you ever considered the outdoors? They can be lovely this time of year.

 

[vacantlook]

Ah, it's summer. It's all hot, and sticky, and buggy. Bleh!

 

[Recoil]

This is a little harsh but; have you ever considered the outdoors?

 

[Galahad]

This is a little harsh but; have you ever considered the outdoors? They can be lovely this time of year.

I'd love to, but the nice people in the white coats won't let me out. They say I'll be much safer where I am.

I'm not a fan of the corned beef sandwiches they keep feeding me in here!

 

[Chilli]

Well .. what you're talking about is transliteration, not translation .. by putting test into Minbari font, it won't become any more Minbari than a Russian or Hebrew text would become if it was put into the Latin alphabet .. so I can't really claim to see the "point" as long as there is no Minbari language in grammar, vocabolary, articulation, no transcription rules (transcription between two alphabets is hardly ever 1:1 letter-wise .. and very much depends on the languages. Transcribing Russian to English looks very different than transcribing Russian to German, in spite of both languages using the same alphabet) and even the existance of the alphabet is questionable .. at best, you would be putting the text into a code, not translating it.

 

[B5_Obsessed]

This is why we'll always be geeks. :devil:

 

[Chilli]

No .. geek would be if someone bothered to invent the Minbari language as a whole .. I'd volunteer, but the last full language I developed when I was 6 .. I have NO idea how weird I am for having done that :|

 

[vacantlook]

I guess that makes Tolkien an uber-geek being that he created many languages over the course of his life. :-D

 

[Galahad]

I guess that makes Tolkien an uber-geek being that he created many languages over the course of his life. :-D

But to be fair, he did base many of the principles of those languages on historic tongues.

I mean, he was a professor of language so i think he can bve excused.

There aren't many writers who create such an elaborate universe for the sake of a few stories.

Tolkien is one, Rev Awdry iis another. In TV terms, I think it's fair to add jms to that list. OK so he hasn't developed a fully working system of languages, but he does have all the background info on the B5 universe he created, which is lets face it pretty elaborate.

 

[Flounder]

Recommended reading:
Tengwar

 

[KoshFan]

Actually, that's a bit backwards; he developed the languages and then decided to write stories using it. His early versions of Elvish actually predate any story he wrote, by a few years I believe. However, the story of Beren and Luthien was inspired by events in his own life.

Tolkien's world remains so popular with people because it feels so real, and it feels so real because of the effort he put into all the myriad levels of it. It isn't a world constructed for the sake of a story: it's a world with stories happening in it.

 

[RW7427]

I was thinking of translating my NIV bible into Minbari or vorlon.

I think you have too much time on your hands.

 

[MeadDrinker]

It isn't a world constructed for the sake of a story: it's a world with stories happening in it.

That's an excellent description.

 

[KoshFan]

Thank you. I was rather proud of that myself.

 

[Chilli]

But to be fair, he did base many of the principles of those languages on historic tongues.

I'd say he was inspired rather than that he based them on specific tongues really. I've seen some bacis rules and vocabulary of the version of elvish said to be based on Finnish, a language I have studied .. some gramatical elements were there, there were some similarities in pronounciation and one word in a long, long list that was related to the finnish words .. but it by no means seemed like Finnish just with different words. He used langauges to get his inpiration, yes .. but who doesn't have inspiration from something somewhere when inventing anything?

 

[Jade Jaguar]

I don't know if it is still available, but back when the first LOTR film came out, I posted a link to an anthropology website, with an article about how Tolkein had created Elvish, with very little change, from some ancient variant of Finnish, that he had studied.

 

[Granite]

You forgot Narn. There is text and a few words in the series.