Lost in Translation

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Making Altavista's Babelfish Language Tool Go Wild

This automatic text translator interprets any English phrase back-and-forth into five languages with a final return to the mother tongue.

For example, take the previous sentence and process it from English to French to English to German to English to Italian to English to Portugese to English to Spanish to English. The result:

''This compiler/translator that rifle automatic of the witnesses interprets the payment in advance is something for the matter printed English in zurueck-und in the five languages with a restoration nonupdated of the obstruction to the arsenal of the language."

"The resulting half-English, half-foreign, and totally non sequitur response bears almost no resemblance to the original," says developer Carl Tashian. "Remember the old game of 'Telephone'? Something is lost, and sometimes something is gained."

Lost in Translation

~ Mike Durrett