Sinister goat translation

Tasukete
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Sinister goat translation

Postby Tasukete » 2012-05-10, 16:31

Hi all!

I want to say Sinister goat (as in 'a goat that is sinister') in Esperanto and found this in Google Translate: Sinistra kapro

I have some questions with this:

1- Is it a correct translation? should it be kapro sinistra?
2- Does kaprA exist (as in female goat)? or is it only kaprO?
3- How do you accentuate these words when saying them? which vowels?

Thank you very much!!!

Mutusen
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Re: Sinister goat translation

Postby Mutusen » 2012-05-10, 18:11

1. Both are correct, but putting the adjective before the noun (as Google Translate did) is more usual. By the way, sinistra looks very rare (I think I've never heard it and I can't find it here) and I don't like these words that are copy-pasted from Latin, so I'd rather say something like malbonaŭgura (ill-omened).

2. Kapra does exist but it's an adjective (caprine, goatlike). O does not indicate gender, it's just the ending of nouns. Kapro can be both male or female; it you want to make it female, then it's kaprino.

3. Always the next-to-last syllable.
„Koľko jazykov vieš, toľkokrát si človekom.“

Tasukete
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Re: Sinister goat translation

Postby Tasukete » 2012-05-10, 18:28

Thank you so much Mutusen!

I actually prefer if the word is rare, but only if it does actually mean 'sinister'.

Is there someone who can confirm the meaning of sinistra?

Thanks again! :)

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zeme
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Re: Sinister goat translation

Postby zeme » 2012-05-10, 19:01

It does mean sinister, but the real question is whether it should be an acceptable Esperanto word in the first place.
The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.

Tasukete
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Re: Sinister goat translation

Postby Tasukete » 2012-05-10, 20:34

zeme wrote:It does mean sinister, but the real question is whether it should be an acceptable Esperanto word in the first place.


What do you mean 'acceptable'? could it mean something insulting?

This is for an artistic name by the way...

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Narbleh
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Re: Sinister goat translation

Postby Narbleh » 2012-05-12, 1:24

It's just a matter of linguistic purism, whether you can convey the meaning of "sinister" with existing parts of the language or want to borrow a new root.

If it's for your personal use, just use whatever you think looks best. A user name on a forum won't significantly affect the future of Esperanto :)
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Tasukete
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Re: Sinister goat translation

Postby Tasukete » 2012-05-12, 1:34

Hahaha thanks Narbleh! :D

All the best!


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