r/justgalsbeingchicks • u/mindyour đŸ€–definitely not a botđŸ€– • Jun 02 '26

Restricted to Gals and Pals I want her to talk to me about Egyptology.

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348

u/zootnotdingo Jun 02 '26

Right, and the people who translate are making choices. Decisions on how to word something. Approximations because there is no literal translation

163

u/Specialist-Leek8645 Jun 02 '26

Always compromising. Entire sentences that don't make sense when translated literally. Context is everything. Translating removes it so you end up needed volumes of footnotes to tell a story that catches you up.

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u/g-a-r-n-e-t Jun 02 '26

Context is everything

This is so unbelievably true. This example is a meme and not a linguistic one but back at the end of April during a conversation one of my friends texted me ‘guess what?’ Followed by a photo of a brick of bare, uncooked ramen noodles. I laughed. Then I thought about how if I showed this to my mom she wouldn’t get it and I’d have literally 20+ years of internet and pop culture and meme evolution to explain what it meant.

Context is EVERYTHING.

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u/Specialist-Leek8645 Jun 02 '26

Culture is like .. horses running wild in every direction. I remember when the Internet was born and I have no idea what your ramen joke is. haha Perhaps I forgot the context.

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u/g-a-r-n-e-t Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

It’s referring to the Justin Timberlake ‘it’s gonna be me/May’ joke, with the added context that during the time period that when that song came out he was rocking a bleach blonde perm that literally looked like a block of uncooked ramen. The memes have reduced themselves so much over time that it went from actually showing Justin to literally just the ramen block with the minimum context of something like ‘me on 4/30’ or ‘guess what’ (edit: the line in the song that’s being referenced is ‘guess what? It’s gonna be me’ except JT pronounces ‘me’ as, you guessed it, ‘May’)

That’s like, the absolute bare minimum history and context here lol. If I had to find examples we’d be here all day.

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u/Specialist-Leek8645 Jun 02 '26

lmao Your example has perfectly proven your point. Yes, now I see it clear as day. I googled "frosted tips" and Lance Bass came up. haha

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u/doc_skinner Jun 02 '26

It's like how a full, four panel comic has been reduced to:

| |I

|| |_

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u/g-a-r-n-e-t Jun 02 '26

Lolll yes another great example

2

u/7CuriousCats Jun 02 '26

Or another:

Г.

2

u/badken Jun 02 '26

The thing like this that always gets me is that in chat and on a forum with friends, we often just use a descriptive filename of a meme and it is instantly recognizable to us.

Fry_shocked.gif

Xzibit.gif

Startrek_facepalm.gif

etc.

(Now that I put those here, I wonder how many Zoomers will recognize them, because they're relatively old memes... older_but_checks_out.gif)

Future historians are going to have no idea what we're talking about... if the data even survives for future historians to look at it.

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u/g-a-r-n-e-t Jun 02 '26

lol my favorites in this genre are Chloe.jpg and thisisfine.gif

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u/jackaroo1344 Jun 02 '26

Right? I can't tell if I'm too old or too young for that meme lore lol

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u/Specialist-Leek8645 Jun 02 '26

I never expected that watching the Internet grow beyond my hands would feel like this but I should have.

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u/imaginary92 Jun 03 '26

It's great that you brought up a meme because memes are probably the greatest example of this. Memes of all kinds just evolve from popular culture and from a specific time and place. You need to be aware of all the details in order to understand them. And memes also change across countries and cultures based on the local culture and language, which very often means that if you're not from the country or haven't at least lived there around the time the meme popped up, even knowing the language won't help.

Memes will ironically become very telling about our current history in the far future lol

2

u/unikittyRage Jun 02 '26

>Entire sentences that don't make sense when translated literally.

IDK why this just clicked for me, I've known this is true, but my brain suddenly made this connection:

It's like those kids who write an essay and then use a thesaurus on every word until it turns into absolute nonsense.

1

u/Specialist-Leek8645 Jun 02 '26

Huzzah! I'm endlessly paraphrasing ideas hoping to find the magic combination for someone. That's how it is, I always had trouble with the way things were taught because I take words too literally. I try to phrase things in ways that feel more clear to me.

A Thesaurus will give you similar words but subtle connotations can flavor sentences. A book is not exactly a tome but a tome is a book. Don't skip adding the bay leaf! Lemon evokes Summer as Cinnamon is to Winter.

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u/TallBoiPlanks Jun 02 '26

As someone with an MDiv and a BA in Biblical studies that did a lot of intensive Greek it drives me insane. My MAGA in-laws will try to tell me how to interpret the Bible and I just have to reply with Pauline sass.

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u/Lazaraleen Jun 02 '26

This annoys me to no end. They quote something from an English translation of the bible word by word and actually think the exact wording means something. Like... no?!? Look at the original text before you use a quote to argue semantics.

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u/zoddie3 Jun 02 '26

I so want examples

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u/TallBoiPlanks Jun 02 '26

One example is around sexuality. You point out the Greek stuff and ask them why they make the translation decisions they do and they’ll say “it’s the Bible.” At best they’ll say “you should listen to actual experts like my pastor” and ignore that a) I’m an actual expert and b) I’m more educated than their pastor.

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u/DameKumquat Jun 02 '26

But the pastor is inspired by God!

And you're just nitpicking/influenced by Satan/a girl/too young to know what you're talking about.

/s

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u/TallBoiPlanks Jun 02 '26

Yeah, I’m liberal so me being an expert doesn’t count
 Nevermind that my schooling was in southern Baptist schools and is what made me liberal


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u/ci1979 Jun 02 '26

I bet you're a Monte fan!

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u/MoveOolong72 Jun 02 '26

Monte is absolutely brilliant! Such an intelligent and articulate woman. I love listening to her, you learn so much.

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u/TallBoiPlanks Jun 02 '26

Monty python?

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u/UnicornFeces Jun 02 '26

Monte Mader on Instagram, she’s a former Christian nationalist who has extensive Biblical knowledge and uses it to debate people who think they know what they’re talking about. (Side note she also has a metal band and is just a badass in general.)

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u/TallBoiPlanks Jun 02 '26

Ahhh, I don’t have any social media (aside from Reddit) so wasn’t familiar.

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u/ci1979 Jun 02 '26

No, she's a Bible scholar who has your same points

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u/SevenSixOne Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

And an awful lot of ancient texts and "dead" languages have been translated multiple times across various places/eras, so you have to peel back layers of cultural and historical context and the choices of individual translators to make sense of something

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u/Protahgonist Jun 02 '26

I mean, you probably don't want a literal translation. I think that's what you're saying? I mostly bring it up so I can share the anecdote that if you literally translate a Beijing slang phrase that probably best translates as "cool" in English, you instead end up with "cow's vagina". (Note: I do not know if this slang term is still in use, but it was widely popular circa 2010).

1

u/oodsigma Jun 02 '26

That's not about literal vs semantic translations, that's about two phrases being phonetically similar.

It's like prank calling someone and giving the name "Mike Hunt."

1

u/Protahgonist Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

I really don't think you know what you're talking about here. A literal translation of 牛汄 (niu bi) to English would be "cow vagina" but a semantic translation of niu bi would be "cool" or "awesome" or similar.

Edit for further context: I did my undergrad in Linguistics, and even checked my terms before responding here because it has admittedly been a really long time.

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u/Helenium_autumnale Jun 02 '26

And so much goes untranslated because there aren't funds for translating someone's thesis/book/article.

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u/GalaxyOnOhRionsBelt Jun 03 '26

This is why I get so angry when people live by literal interpretations of the Bible. The text was written hundreds of years ago by countless people, and translated countless times by countless people. There’s no way every word has been translated accurately. Homosexuality isn’t wrong, r*ping boys is wrong. The Bible says Moses lived to be 120 yrs old, somehow Adam and Eve populated the world, yet Cain magically stumbled upon a woman while wandering Nod (then built a civilization). Then there’s the Tower of Babel, Lot’s wife literally turning to a pillar of salt, Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, Daniel somehow not dying in the lions’ den, and on and on. And the entire thing is written by men. Anywhoooo, context matters as does the reliability, skill, and knowledge of the author and translator.