Random Literature Thread

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-03-03, 20:28

I don't know how reliable this approach would be or anything, but they do at least list "Afrikaans" under "Subjects" in that example, too.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Car » 2016-03-03, 21:44

I chose that example because I know in that case what the original language is, so I could check if worldcat.org can be used for that.
Thanks for your help.
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2016-03-03, 23:02

vijayjohn wrote:I don't know how reliable this approach would be or anything, but they do at least list "Afrikaans" under "Subjects" in that example, too.

Yeah, that's not tremendously helpful. Belles-lettres often lack subject headings and, depending on the scheme, it's generally not valid to add a subject heading for the original language.

A note stating what language the work was translated from is optional, but according to common bibliographical standards, there should always be a uniform title in the original language. But, as I said, WorldCat is awash in records which don't meet these standards. (I literally looked at a dozen different records for this one Deon Meyer title and not a single one of them was fully cataloged according to RDA--the prevailing set of standards in the English-speaking world recently adopted by the DNB.)
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Car » 2016-03-04, 11:31

linguoboy wrote:(I literally looked at a dozen different records for this one Deon Meyer title and not a single one of them was fully cataloged according to RDA--the prevailing set of standards in the English-speaking world recently adopted by the DNB.)

When I was studying Information Management, there was talk about switching to AACR here. Interesting to see that that one is outdated by now...
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Meera » 2016-04-27, 17:15

I'm not sure where else to ask this so I will put it here but I was wondering if anyone has read "A Song of Ice and Fire Series" and I was wondering how difficult are they to read? Could someone with a normal reading level read them or is it like Les Miserables level of difficulty?
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby IpseDixit » 2016-04-27, 19:07

Meera wrote:I'm not sure where else to ask this so I will put it here but I was wondering if anyone has read "A Song of Ice and Fire Series" and I was wondering how difficult are they to read? Could someone with a normal reading level read them or is it like Les Miserables level of difficulty?


I've just read the first book so far (in English). I didn't find it difficult. And although it's quite a long book, I found it gripping and finished it quite quickly.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Meera » 2016-04-27, 19:13

IpseDixit wrote:
Meera wrote:I'm not sure where else to ask this so I will put it here but I was wondering if anyone has read "A Song of Ice and Fire Series" and I was wondering how difficult are they to read? Could someone with a normal reading level read them or is it like Les Miserables level of difficulty?


I've just read the first book so far (in English). I didn't find it difficult. And although it's quite a long book, I found it gripping and finished it quite quickly.


Thank you! I'm thinking of buying the first book :mrgreen:
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-05-01, 0:13

I'm getting to a point in my grandfather's diary where I don't see any paragraph breaks for a few pages (and I'm kind of anticipating what's about to happen as I read...). I wonder how long it'll take me to write out that whole part.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Yasna » 2016-05-18, 13:35

My haul from last weekend.

Image
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2016-06-02, 21:14

So I'm still leisurely making my way through the short story (really, a novella) "Luxurious Hearses" in the collection Say you're one of them by Nigerian writer Uwem Akpan. Probably the most offputting aspect of it is his approach to rendering regional accents. Apparently, there are particular mergers associated with speakers of certain regional languages, such as f/p for Hausa-speakers (Hausa has /ɸ/ but lacks /p/), r/l for Igbo-speakers, and so forth.

As a friend of mine was saying yesterday, with accents, less is more, but Akpan didn't get that memo. So instead of, say, having the Hausa-speaker occasionally use /f/ in place of /p/ or hypercorrect a /p/ or two, he replaces every occurrence of p with f and vice-versa, producing lines like: "Yusup, your inpidel brother, better fass you."

The effect is artificial and unsubtle to the point of complete ridiculousness. But it gets worse. The line above is actually spoken by one Hausa-speaker to another, so there is no good reason to render it like this. Most of the dialogue takes place in an ethnically-mixed context, where it makes sense that the dominant language would be English/Naijá [Nigerian Creole] with regional colouring according to each character's origins. We can assume that the speech here is represented more or less as it would've been spoken. But it's just distracting to have Creole in a flashback to the protagonist's experiences as a Hausa in Hausaland.

I'll finish the story, but then I'll move on to a novel by Ghanaian author Kojo Laing, who reportedly has a much more sensitive approach to the use of non-standard registers of English.
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-06-07, 1:13

I'm working on translating my grandfather's diary right now even though I'm not completely done reading it yet, and one thing that strikes me from the beginning is that sometimes, my grandfather uses big Malayalam words in ways that look a bit odd to me (and apparently to my dad as well). For example, he uses a word that means 'equality' or 'parity' in a context where I think he really means 'composure'.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Yasna » 2016-06-07, 4:39

vijayjohn wrote:I'm working on translating my grandfather's diary right now even though I'm not completely done reading it yet, and one thing that strikes me from the beginning is that sometimes, my grandfather uses big Malayalam words in ways that look a bit odd to me (and apparently to my dad as well). For example, he uses a word that means 'equality' or 'parity' in a context where I think he really means 'composure'.

What was your grandfather's level of education?
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-06-07, 4:47

Yasna wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:I'm working on translating my grandfather's diary right now even though I'm not completely done reading it yet, and one thing that strikes me from the beginning is that sometimes, my grandfather uses big Malayalam words in ways that look a bit odd to me (and apparently to my dad as well). For example, he uses a word that means 'equality' or 'parity' in a context where I think he really means 'composure'.

What was your grandfather's level of education?

He had a PhD.

He uses big words in English without any problem. He writes just fine in it. And for that matter, I would say he writes just fine in Malayalam, too; I guess it's just that he uses words that (most middle-class?) people don't recognize immediately, so they might seem to make more sense at first glance than they really do.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby OldBoring » 2016-07-07, 8:22

Maybe he met a Hongkonger who told him "[ton sej ɛnifiŋ pɪk̚]!".

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-07-07, 8:29

And then ignored him? :lol:

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby OldBoring » 2016-07-07, 10:31

Yeah of course! "ʋhy I haʋ ʈo listen ʈo d̪is Chinki?"

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-07-07, 15:12

Funny coincidence: He did mention a Chinese person in the part of the diary I translated yesterday. :) (He talks a little bit about Chinese people in the area where he was a few paragraphs later, too).

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby OldBoring » 2016-07-08, 8:57

vijayjohn wrote:Funny coincidence: He did mention a Chinese person in the part of the diary I translated yesterday. :) (He talks a little bit about Chinese people in the area where he was a few paragraphs later, too).

Huh? Where?
The Chinese are everywhere, like the Indians.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-07-08, 19:59

OldBoring wrote:Huh? Where?

Penang.
The Chinese are everywhere, like the Indians.

He doesn't mention seeing any anywhere else during the war, although he does mention seeing comfort women at one point, and it wouldn't surprise me if a lot or even most of them were Chinese.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Yasna » 2016-07-11, 15:44

French comic artists are increasingly using the manga style and having great success with it.

Japan expo : les mangakas français à la conquête du neuvième art nippon
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