Playing with Google's Latin Translator

I have just been playing around with Google Translator’s Latin translator, trying to come up with a couple of mottos for the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission. I can’t say I like it’s style very much. If you don’t know any latin the chances are you will get very bad vocabulary choices trying to do English into Latin.

Any way, here are two I have come up with so far. Let me know how you would phrase these better:

Discrimen nullum; colloquimur cuiquam
(“We’re not fussy; we’ll talk to anyone”)

Cenare et bibere propter pacem et concordiam
(“Eating and drinking our way to peace and harmony”)

If you have a suggestion for “We’re happy to dance with you so long as you don’t mind us stepping on your toes”, I reckon that could be a good motto too…

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

12 Responses to Playing with Google's Latin Translator

  1. Tony says:

    A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi – A precipice in front, wolves behind (between a rock and a hard place)
    Ad augusta per angusta – To high places by narrow roads
    Ad maiorem dei gloriam (AMDG) – For the greater glory of God
    Age. Fac ut gaudeam – Go ahead. Make my day!
    Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri? – (At a barbeque) Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?
    Appareo Decet Nihil Munditia? – Is It Not Nifty?
    Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit – The fellow is either mad or he is composing verses. (Horace)
    Brevis esse latoro obscurus fio – When I try to be brief, I speak gobbledegook [one for Gareth!]
    Canis meus id comedit – My dog ate it
    Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules – If I were you, I wouldn’t walk in front of any catapults
    Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse – You know, Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore
    Credo elvem etiam vivere – I believe Elvis lives
    Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo! – Make me chaste and pure, but not yet!
    Deo adiuvante – With God’s help
    Deo favente – With God’s favour
    Duc, sequere, aut de via decede – Lead, follow, or get out of the way
    De gustibus non est disputandum – There’s no accounting for taste

    Something for everyone at Latin Quotes and Latin Phrases.

    ;-)

  2. Alexander says:

    Under your picture on the sidebar, there’s something in Latin. I thought “wonder what that says” and threw it into Google Translate. I got:

    We sinners sin, but among the Raving and frantic Among the

    and thought, that’s complete nonsense. I suspected you might be crazy, but you don’t normally write gibberish and I do know how statistical translation works, so I experimented. Noticing the capital Raving and Among, I decided to drop all the capital letters except the first, yielding:

    Sin, but among sinners, and between the mad mad

    Hm. I can make sense out of that. But I decided to add a fullstop at the end:

    Sin, but among sinners, and among the insane, mad.

    Hm. I suspect the last translation is probably an exact translation from amongst parallel texts.

    “The meat may have gone bad, but at least the vodka’s still good.” (Probably the only bit of a homily I’ve ever remembered, from back when I was an altar server.)

  3. Salvatore says:

    Hours of fun for the whole family!

    (For your first motto I get: “Delicatis non sumus; loquemur cuiquam.”)

  4. Kyle says:

    Well, as a Latin major, I’ll give a shot at this one:

    We’re happy to dance with you so long as you don’t mind us stepping on your toes

    Gaudium nobis est vobiscum saltare dummodo non referat vobis nos offendere digitos.

    • Schütz says:

      Wow! Thanks for that, Kyle – but it doesn’t really roll of the tongue, does it?! I will stick with my first two mottos. Do they look okay to you?

      • Kyle says:

        Haha. Not at all mellifluous. You’re mottos look fine but I would probably use ‘fastidium’ rather than ‘discrimen’ and to capture the idea of ‘our way to’ it would probably be better to say ‘usque ad…’ .

  5. Matthias says:

    Nil bickeratum toleratum

Leave a Reply to Salvatore Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *