Furthermore
Since we’re being all scatological this week – or scato as the French like to say, with their habit of coining a cute abbreviation for just about everything: resto (restaurant), maso (masochist), dodo (dormir)… which is all fine and dandy, until it spills over to the names of grown men: Phi-Phi (Phillipe) or Lu-Lu (Lucien, Luc…).
That’s just wrong.
… I thought I’d announce that I’ve given up on trying to find a cute pet name for the people of my profession (like doc or shrink), and express my ongoing resentment towards that other yes I can have it both ways cabal for having cornered the market on the word “tranny.”
Plus, I still can’t figure out why my idea for a bumper sticker: Translators do it better because they have two tongues has never caught on.
All very disheartening.
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Comment
- I was trying to find you a trendy name for your profession and noticed that xlate (translate) is taken.
Examples:
http://www.i-xlate.com
http://www.stridge.com/products_xlator.htm
Does x = trans in general or just in Geek (like xmit = transmit)? And is it just because trans is like cross and the letter x is like a cross?
— eeksypeeksy Apr 16, 6:47am # - As an intemperate swearer I found the preceding post very interesting. Had some confusion today though, wondering how auto mechanics could become known as a ‘yes, I can have it both ways’ cabal. Have only ever heard ‘tranny’ refer to a transmission. A moment, then ‘Ah…’
What this all makes me wonder though, is why substitute an unclear two syllable word for a perfectly good word whose meaning is unambiguous. The only thing the cute abbreviations seem to have in common is ending with vowel sounds, rather than consonants. Repetition of a sound often but not always. I was going to suggest the non-cute, but fun to say ‘polyglot’, then I realized it ends in a ‘t’ and is actually a word.
What is it about vowel sounds that make the object described more intimate? Just realized we do this with names all the time, at least in English. Starts to sound like baby talk in one’s head. Danny, Mommy, Bobby, Louie, kitty, Lizzie. What the fu—, or rather, heck?
Anyway, came here via a link from Chaising Daisy, and like your site very much. Very clean layout and excellent articles. Thanks.
— owen Apr 16, 7:23am # - Me, I’m giggling at the idea of a tranny saying, “Darling, could you fetch me the dickie?”
Or is dictionary already a diminutive?
— Kip Manley Apr 16, 8:29am # - How about “traddy” or “tradi”? Or “trado”?
— palinode Apr 16, 9:16am # - transtextual
— beerzie boy Apr 16, 10:19am # - ‘Slator’ has a nice fuck-offness about it, no?
Yeah, I’m a slator. Problem wid dat?
No points for association, of course.
— Dean Allen Apr 16, 10:36am # - How funky to want it to be only from the english.
Tradui.
Traduix.
Tradi.
— msg Apr 16, 3:50pm # - Haven’t a clue as to a catchy cognomen for translator, but here is my offering for a motto.
Cognizance now, trance later.
Referencing the meanderings, I suspect you experience in your endeavors, from sparkling clarity to vagary.
— Jack Lobaugh Apr 17, 1:02am # - P.S.
How dumb I am. Just realized that “LOST IN TRANSLATION” is a double entendre.
— Jack Lobaugh Apr 17, 1:28am # - I second M. Allen’s suggestion, but note that I wouldn’t like to lose the apostrophe: I’m a ’slator.
— Simon Apr 17, 8:03am # - There’s a college for translators in Munich, the SDI, that has a weird logo that apparently represents two tongues.
http://www.sdi-muenchen.de/
Can’t say what they’re up to, though!
— MM Apr 17, 12:56pm # - i don’t think anyone here in munich knows what they’re up to…i always saw that logo like a yingyang thing…
I’m still giggling about the dicky:)
— maike Apr 18, 2:23am # - @maike: I have it from the horse’s, er, mouth. I taught for a long time at the Institut für Fremdsprachen in Erlangen, which is the same kind of college but has a rather hackneyed logo representing the globe. There must be a happy medium!
— MM Apr 18, 2:53am # - xlator is good, which can be mispronounced a little like excellence
— Toph Apr 18, 8:17pm # - or not—just a crisp Xlator!
— Toph Apr 18, 8:20pm # - ‘Slator is definitely the best. I like the X in place of the S, but it’s misleading. Also, the apostrophe must stay. Being new and all in the world of Nicks, Slator would be lost…err.
How about ‘Zlator?
The Dickie almost sent me to the floor in a puddle of piddle!
ExZellent site, I must say. I bow down…
— Veda Apr 24, 11:54pm #
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