Abraham Lincoln uses AI to speak micro-varieties of English. Fake album cover recalls the real musical connection between Joe Pesci and Jimi Hendrix. Robert Graboyes speaks 18th century Lowland Scots.
I think, or possibly only hope, that ubiquitous information storage has made linguistic prescriptivism both possible and valuable. I think the people on Ganymede centuries on will speak, and more particularly write, much as we do. They will value their shibboleths - which serve to identify thieving Belters and those terribly creepy people from the Pluto-Charon dyad - but they will quite literally treasure the ability to code-switch for trade purposes.
Google translate is worthless with Yiddish. It completely fails. I've tried to translate English to yiddish one time with chatgpt and that seems promising.
Are you trying to translate from Yiddish in Hebrew letters or Yiddish transliterated into Roman letters? I find that it does the former just fine, and I wouldn't expect it to do well with transliterations, which are arbitrary and inexact. I just did this one in both Google Translate and in ChatGPT, and they both agreed, pretty much word-for-word:
און דוד המלך האט זיך געשטעלט אויף זיינע פיס, און האט געזאגט: הערט מיך צו, מיינע ברידער און מיין פאלק; ביי מיר אין מיין הארצן איז געווען צו בויען א הויז פון רו פאר דעם ארון פון ה'ס בונד, און פאר א פוסבענקל פאר אונדזער ג-ט, און איך האב זיך אנגעברייט צו בויען.
And King David stood on his feet, and said: Listen to me, my brothers and my people; It was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of God's covenant, and for a footstool for our G-d, and I prepared to build.
Having made my comment above, I seem to be incorrect. I copied Google Translate's transliteration and asked ChatGPT to translate that into English. Here's what I entered:
aun dud hmlkh hat zikh geshtelt aoyf zeyne fis, aun hat gezagt: hert mikh tsu, meyne brider aun meyn falk; bey mir in meyn hartsn iz geven tsu boyen a hoyz fun ru far dem arun fun h's bund, aun far a fusbenkl far aundzer g-t, aun ikh hab zikh angebreyt tsu boyen.
And here's what it gave me:
And King David stood on his feet, and said: Listen to me, my brothers and my people; it was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of God's covenant, and for a footstool for our God, and I prepared myself to build.
However, when I entered that Transliteration into Google Translate, it had no idea what language it was, and when I said "Yiddish," it still could not translate it.
My pandemic project since I retired has been to learn Yiddish. I've taken perhaps 15 courses, including three intensive summer programs at YIVO. I've never tried to translate biblical text into Yiddish, but I have tried to use Google Translate as a dictionary during my studies. Instead, I use two Yiddish dictionaries online, though I also have the texts, verterbukh.org and englishyiddish.com. For example, turkey in verterbukh is אינדוק, but in Google translate, it gives the word טורקיי. Or as another example "level," which Google Translate gives as לעוועל, but the correct word in Yiddish is ניוואָ or מדרגה. Chatgpt does much better. Or the common Yiddish expression האַקט מיר נישט קיין טשייַניק, which means "stop bothering me," or something like that. Google translate has "Don't buy me a teapot," which isn't even a good literal translation. Chatgpt does much better. I also speak much better French and Google Translate is very good, though it sometimes makes mistakes with obscure (for me) grammatical points with the subjunctive. I also speak somewhat decent Hebrew and Google translate is pretty good, though it also misses on slang and idiomatic translations. For example, חבל על הזמן literally means a waste of time. But in modern spoken Hebrew, it usually means "fantastic." Google translate misses this, but chatgpt picks it up. So Google Translate may be able to translate 250 languages, but probably not that well. Incidentally, there is a very well known Yiddish version of the bible translated by Yehoash, who at the time was considered the greatest living Yiddish poet.
Great stuff! Thanks. Fact is, these platforms are leapfrogging over one another at an incredible rate. The speed of improvement and addition of knowledge is astounding. I routinely use Grok and ChatGPT while watching TV. While watching a crime series, my wife will ask something like, "Why is that man afraid of that woman? I'm not sure what she did to provoke his fear." I'll go on AI and ask, "In Season 3, Episode 4, why is John afraid of Mary?" and out will spew five paragraphs giving a detailed--and generally correct--response, even if the series only dropped a few days earlier.
I am careful to double-check if accuracy is important. For example, in this, I wanted to use a passage of dialect English from Flannery O'Connor and asked ChatGPT to give me an example. It gave a plausible quotation. But, I wasn't going to assume that it was correct, so I got out my copy of Flannery and checked. The first sentence was correct, but the rest of it was either somewhat misquoted or 100% fabricated out of thin air.
Jimi Hendrix was famously left-handed and played an upside down guitar. The "imagined" album cover is not believable. Cannot trust AIs to get things right.
I’m blaming the graphic artist who designed this album cover back in the 1960s. He flipped Hendrix’s photo for composition purposes—and he just didn’t understand music. The record company fired him after this. :)
"I haven’t checked these figures but 87 years ago, I think it was, a number of individuals organized a governmental set-up here in this country, I believe it covered certain Eastern areas, with this idea they were following up based on a sort of national independence arrangement and the program that every individual is just as good as every other individual. Well, now, of course, we are dealing with this big difference of opinion, civil disturbance you might say, although I don’t like to appear to take sides or name any individuals, and the point is naturally to check up, by actual experience in the field, to see whether any governmental set-up with a basis like the one I was mentioning has any validity and find out whether that dedication by those early individuals will pay off in lasting values and things of that kind. . . . But if you look at the over-all picture of this, we can’t pay any tribute – we can’t sanctify this area, you might say – we can’t hallow according to whatever individual creeds or faiths or sort of religious outlooks are involved like I said about this particular area. It was those individuals themselves, including the enlisted men, very brave individuals, who have given the religious character to the area. The way I see it, the rest of the world will not remember any statements issued here but it will never forget how these men put their shoulders to the wheel and carried this idea down the fairway. Now frankly, our job, the living individuals’ job here is to pick up the burden and sink the putt they made these big efforts here for. It is our job to get on with the assignment – and from these deceased fine individuals to take extra inspiration, you could call it, for the same theories about the set-up for which they made such a big contribution. We have to make up our minds right here and now, as I see it, that they didn’t put out all that blood, perspiration and – well – that they didn’t just make a dry run here, and that all of us here, under God, that is, the God of our choice, shall beef up this idea about freedom and liberty and those kind of arrangements, and that government of all individuals, by all individuals and for the individuals, shall not pass out of the world-picture."
Gettysburg Address by Eisenhower, by Oliver Jensen
Love it. But, I imagine it took Mr. Jensen a good while to do it. A few hours? So, I just asked ChatGPT to do the same. It gave a good Ike-style version--terse and serious. I asked for more of a parody, but not overly exaggerated. It gave me a good one. And at the end, it asked whether I would like a more "wandering" version. It's the parody I would have published. Below, I'll give you the first paragraphs and my conversation with Chat GPT:
BOB: Rewrite the Gettysburg Address as if it were written by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
ChatGPT: Sure! Here’s the Gettysburg Address, reimagined in the voice and style of Dwight D. Eisenhower — clear, measured, a little formal but plainspoken, military-tinged, and focused on duty, unity, and perseverance:
(Actually, I'll give you the whole thing, since it's brief)
Fourscore and seven years ago, our forefathers founded on this continent a new nation, built on the conviction that liberty and equality are not privileges for the few, but rights endowed by our Creator for all.
Today we meet on a great battlefield of that war which put that conviction to the test. We come here, not to glorify ourselves, but to honor the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here. They gave their utmost so that this nation might endure.
But, in truth, there is little we can say or do that can add to their sacrifice. Their deeds have already consecrated this ground far beyond our poor power to embellish or diminish. The world will little note nor long remember the speeches we make today, but it can never forget the devotion shown here.
It is for us, the living, to carry on the work which they so nobly advanced. We must dedicate ourselves to the unfinished tasks that lie ahead — to strengthen this republic, to secure freedom's blessings, and to ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
ChatGPT: Would you like a second version too — maybe one where Eisenhower’s military command tone is even a little sharper? (Almost like a wartime address?)
The responsibility is ours, and the challenge is plain: to press forward with confidence, with faith, and with the steadfast resolve that liberty shall endure.
BOB: Very good! Now make it more of a parody of Eisenhower's style, which was viewed as bland and technocratic and sometimes a little muddled. Don't make it an extreme exaggeration, but make it mildly amusing to someone who knows Eisenhower's style.
ChatGPT: Got it — you want a gentle parody: still recognizable as Eisenhower, but with that slightly bland, technocratic, mildly muddled tone he sometimes had — lots of words, some hedging, a bit of bureaucratic flavor, and a tendency to soften strong statements into broad generalities. ... Here’s the Gettysburg Address in "parody Eisenhower" style:
Fourscore and seven years ago — and, by that, I mean eighty-seven years, which is a substantial period in the life of any nation — our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation. It was, and remains, dedicated to certain enduring principles — among them, liberty and the proposition, fundamentally important, that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged — and have been for some time — in a very great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any other nation conceived along those lines, can continue to operate effectively. We are gathered here today on a portion of the battlefield where a significant engagement occurred, one of many, but important in its own way.
Our primary purpose here is to dedicate a final resting place for those who gave their lives so that the nation might continue. This is altogether fitting and proper — and I think most Americans would agree with that.
But, in a larger sense — and this is something we must keep in mind — we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground by speeches alone. The brave individuals who fought here have already done that, far beyond what we might contribute today. Their actions speak with a clarity that words cannot match.
The world, of course, may not take particular note of what is said here, nor remember it in detail, but the sacrifices made on this field are part of the larger story of freedom and unity, and will endure.
It falls, therefore, to us — and to succeeding generations — to take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave, quite literally, the last full measure of devotion. It is incumbent upon us to resolve that their sacrifices shall not have been in vain, and that this nation, under God — and by that I mean the higher principles we all recognize — shall have a new birth of freedom.
And that government of the people, by the people, for the people — in all its complexity and challenge — shall not perish from the earth.
ChatGPT: Would you like an even slightly more wandering version too, with maybe a couple classic Eisenhower-style passive constructions and wordy hedges like “it is to be hoped” or “in the fullest sense”? ... (We can layer the parody depending on how far you want to go!)
ChatGPT: Excellent — here’s a slightly more wandering, mildly funnier version — a step deeper into Eisenhower’s passive voice, bureaucratic phrasing, hedging, and mild verbal meandering, but still plausible as something he might have said on a tired afternoon:
Fourscore and seven years ago — and I would suggest that, in historical terms, this is not an inconsiderable period — our forefathers saw fit to establish, on this continent, a new nation. It was founded, broadly speaking, upon the principles of liberty, democracy, and the general proposition that all men — meaning, of course, all mankind — are created equal.
At this time, we find ourselves engaged — and it must be acknowledged, engaged quite seriously — in a great civil war, one which is testing, in the fullest sense, whether such a nation, conceived and constructed under those principles, can endure through trial and adversity.
We are met here, on a portion of the field where significant events have taken place, to dedicate — and I want to emphasize this — to dedicate a final resting place for those who here gave their lives in the fulfillment of a larger purpose. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this, and I believe that is a sentiment broadly shared by the American people.
However — and it is important to recognize this — in a very real sense, it cannot be said that we can dedicate, or consecrate, or indeed hallow this ground by our words alone. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have already consecrated it, far beyond our poor power to add or detract. Their actions have spoken with a directness and eloquence that transcends the limitations of ceremony.
The world, in the ordinary course of events, may not long remember what we say here today — speeches, after all, are fleeting — but it cannot and will not forget what those men did here. Their deeds will stand in testimony long after our own words have been set aside.
It is rather for us, the living — and this, I think, is an obligation of the highest order — to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is incumbent upon us to take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave, as it is often said, the last full measure of devotion.
We here highly resolve — and it is to be hoped that future generations will continue to resolve — that these honored dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God — meaning under the guiding hand of Providence and the enduring ideals to which we aspire — shall experience a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, which has served us so well in good times and in adversity, shall not perish from the earth.
ChatGPT: Would you also like a version where he digresses a little into mild policy talk? ... (Like explaining the importance of maintaining infrastructure or budgeting sensibly while honoring the dead? Very Eisenhower!)
The world's first translating computer had been developed, and was being demonstrated. The American developers would type a common phrase in English, and the computer would translate it into the selected language. It worked beautifully - until they got to Chinese.
They entered the common English phrase "Out of sight, out of mind" and translated it into Mandarin. The Chinese observers were quite puzzled, so they typed the computer's output and asked it to translate it back into English. The result should have been expected.
Not just computer-translation problem. An old story concerned Pepsi's 1960's slogan: "Come alive! You're in the Pepsi generation!" Supposed, when marketed in China, the translation came out as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead." (Snopes says it's unsubstantiated) https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/come-alive/
Another story was that when Coca-Cola marketed in China, they used ideograms pronounced ko-ka-ko-la, but the meaning came out as "bite the wax tadpole." From Snopes again, it does seem that there are ideograms that will convey that pronunciation and that meaning, but it's not the one that Coca-Cola chose. There are many characters with those pronunciations, and they chose four that meant "to allow the mouth to be able to rejoice." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bite-the-wax-tadpole/
Another story (I can't verify it's truth) said that Perdue Chicken went for Hispanic markets and failed to appreciate the very regional nature of Spanish. Supposedly, they translated their slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" in a way that was fine in Mexican, Puerto Rican, and various South American Spanish regionalisms. But, the story goes, in Cuban Spanish, it became "It takes an aroused man to make an affectionate chicken." According to the story, marketing conventional-wisdom people cited this as a disaster, but Perdue sales exploded in Miami because brand-name recognition went to 100% among Cuban-Americans, who thought it was pretty funny.
And, speaking of Miami, the John Paul II visited there, supposedly, some t-shirt manufacturer made up thousands of shirts that said "Vi la Papa!" when it should have said "Vi al Papa!" The second version means "I saw the Pope!" The first (erroneous) version means "I saw the potato!" According to the story, the shirts immediately became a hot item, because, once again, Spanish-speakers thought it was hilarious. Again, I can't verify it.
"Fabrik Arbeit Gruppe" is German for manufacturing company and is abbreviated FAG. A language translation program translated a German company's press release into English and bowdlerized FAG to "homosexual". Germans at the FAG who read the English translation were thoroughly bewildered at the program's remarks about their sex life.
I guess it pays to read over your translated press releases.
Here's a sign for a beauty salon in China. It has the name of the salon and some comments on services. Above, in English, it says, COULD NOT CONNECT TO TRANSLATOR SERVICE.
Oh, I enjoyed this SO much. My verdict on the Lowland Scots accent (expertise based on multiple re-reads of the Highlander series ;-) heh heh) is TOTALLY ACCURATE and even if not so - how very enjoyable to listen to you growling and rolling your r's. Thank you so much for your always very fun essays.
I debated deleting your comment for fear of offending. But I did some research and found that you are correct. That is simply the standard Tok Pisin word for "child." (In Tok Pisin, however, "Holy Ghost" is "Holi Spirit" or "Spirit Bilong God.")
That was beautiful.
I think, or possibly only hope, that ubiquitous information storage has made linguistic prescriptivism both possible and valuable. I think the people on Ganymede centuries on will speak, and more particularly write, much as we do. They will value their shibboleths - which serve to identify thieving Belters and those terribly creepy people from the Pluto-Charon dyad - but they will quite literally treasure the ability to code-switch for trade purposes.
Absolutely! :)
Google translate is worthless with Yiddish. It completely fails. I've tried to translate English to yiddish one time with chatgpt and that seems promising.
Are you trying to translate from Yiddish in Hebrew letters or Yiddish transliterated into Roman letters? I find that it does the former just fine, and I wouldn't expect it to do well with transliterations, which are arbitrary and inexact. I just did this one in both Google Translate and in ChatGPT, and they both agreed, pretty much word-for-word:
און דוד המלך האט זיך געשטעלט אויף זיינע פיס, און האט געזאגט: הערט מיך צו, מיינע ברידער און מיין פאלק; ביי מיר אין מיין הארצן איז געווען צו בויען א הויז פון רו פאר דעם ארון פון ה'ס בונד, און פאר א פוסבענקל פאר אונדזער ג-ט, און איך האב זיך אנגעברייט צו בויען.
And King David stood on his feet, and said: Listen to me, my brothers and my people; It was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of God's covenant, and for a footstool for our G-d, and I prepared to build.
Having made my comment above, I seem to be incorrect. I copied Google Translate's transliteration and asked ChatGPT to translate that into English. Here's what I entered:
aun dud hmlkh hat zikh geshtelt aoyf zeyne fis, aun hat gezagt: hert mikh tsu, meyne brider aun meyn falk; bey mir in meyn hartsn iz geven tsu boyen a hoyz fun ru far dem arun fun h's bund, aun far a fusbenkl far aundzer g-t, aun ikh hab zikh angebreyt tsu boyen.
And here's what it gave me:
And King David stood on his feet, and said: Listen to me, my brothers and my people; it was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of God's covenant, and for a footstool for our God, and I prepared myself to build.
However, when I entered that Transliteration into Google Translate, it had no idea what language it was, and when I said "Yiddish," it still could not translate it.
My pandemic project since I retired has been to learn Yiddish. I've taken perhaps 15 courses, including three intensive summer programs at YIVO. I've never tried to translate biblical text into Yiddish, but I have tried to use Google Translate as a dictionary during my studies. Instead, I use two Yiddish dictionaries online, though I also have the texts, verterbukh.org and englishyiddish.com. For example, turkey in verterbukh is אינדוק, but in Google translate, it gives the word טורקיי. Or as another example "level," which Google Translate gives as לעוועל, but the correct word in Yiddish is ניוואָ or מדרגה. Chatgpt does much better. Or the common Yiddish expression האַקט מיר נישט קיין טשייַניק, which means "stop bothering me," or something like that. Google translate has "Don't buy me a teapot," which isn't even a good literal translation. Chatgpt does much better. I also speak much better French and Google Translate is very good, though it sometimes makes mistakes with obscure (for me) grammatical points with the subjunctive. I also speak somewhat decent Hebrew and Google translate is pretty good, though it also misses on slang and idiomatic translations. For example, חבל על הזמן literally means a waste of time. But in modern spoken Hebrew, it usually means "fantastic." Google translate misses this, but chatgpt picks it up. So Google Translate may be able to translate 250 languages, but probably not that well. Incidentally, there is a very well known Yiddish version of the bible translated by Yehoash, who at the time was considered the greatest living Yiddish poet.
Great stuff! Thanks. Fact is, these platforms are leapfrogging over one another at an incredible rate. The speed of improvement and addition of knowledge is astounding. I routinely use Grok and ChatGPT while watching TV. While watching a crime series, my wife will ask something like, "Why is that man afraid of that woman? I'm not sure what she did to provoke his fear." I'll go on AI and ask, "In Season 3, Episode 4, why is John afraid of Mary?" and out will spew five paragraphs giving a detailed--and generally correct--response, even if the series only dropped a few days earlier.
I am careful to double-check if accuracy is important. For example, in this, I wanted to use a passage of dialect English from Flannery O'Connor and asked ChatGPT to give me an example. It gave a plausible quotation. But, I wasn't going to assume that it was correct, so I got out my copy of Flannery and checked. The first sentence was correct, but the rest of it was either somewhat misquoted or 100% fabricated out of thin air.
Jimi Hendrix was famously left-handed and played an upside down guitar. The "imagined" album cover is not believable. Cannot trust AIs to get things right.
I’m blaming the graphic artist who designed this album cover back in the 1960s. He flipped Hendrix’s photo for composition purposes—and he just didn’t understand music. The record company fired him after this. :)
"I haven’t checked these figures but 87 years ago, I think it was, a number of individuals organized a governmental set-up here in this country, I believe it covered certain Eastern areas, with this idea they were following up based on a sort of national independence arrangement and the program that every individual is just as good as every other individual. Well, now, of course, we are dealing with this big difference of opinion, civil disturbance you might say, although I don’t like to appear to take sides or name any individuals, and the point is naturally to check up, by actual experience in the field, to see whether any governmental set-up with a basis like the one I was mentioning has any validity and find out whether that dedication by those early individuals will pay off in lasting values and things of that kind. . . . But if you look at the over-all picture of this, we can’t pay any tribute – we can’t sanctify this area, you might say – we can’t hallow according to whatever individual creeds or faiths or sort of religious outlooks are involved like I said about this particular area. It was those individuals themselves, including the enlisted men, very brave individuals, who have given the religious character to the area. The way I see it, the rest of the world will not remember any statements issued here but it will never forget how these men put their shoulders to the wheel and carried this idea down the fairway. Now frankly, our job, the living individuals’ job here is to pick up the burden and sink the putt they made these big efforts here for. It is our job to get on with the assignment – and from these deceased fine individuals to take extra inspiration, you could call it, for the same theories about the set-up for which they made such a big contribution. We have to make up our minds right here and now, as I see it, that they didn’t put out all that blood, perspiration and – well – that they didn’t just make a dry run here, and that all of us here, under God, that is, the God of our choice, shall beef up this idea about freedom and liberty and those kind of arrangements, and that government of all individuals, by all individuals and for the individuals, shall not pass out of the world-picture."
Gettysburg Address by Eisenhower, by Oliver Jensen
Love it. But, I imagine it took Mr. Jensen a good while to do it. A few hours? So, I just asked ChatGPT to do the same. It gave a good Ike-style version--terse and serious. I asked for more of a parody, but not overly exaggerated. It gave me a good one. And at the end, it asked whether I would like a more "wandering" version. It's the parody I would have published. Below, I'll give you the first paragraphs and my conversation with Chat GPT:
BOB: Rewrite the Gettysburg Address as if it were written by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
ChatGPT: Sure! Here’s the Gettysburg Address, reimagined in the voice and style of Dwight D. Eisenhower — clear, measured, a little formal but plainspoken, military-tinged, and focused on duty, unity, and perseverance:
(Actually, I'll give you the whole thing, since it's brief)
Fourscore and seven years ago, our forefathers founded on this continent a new nation, built on the conviction that liberty and equality are not privileges for the few, but rights endowed by our Creator for all.
Today we meet on a great battlefield of that war which put that conviction to the test. We come here, not to glorify ourselves, but to honor the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here. They gave their utmost so that this nation might endure.
But, in truth, there is little we can say or do that can add to their sacrifice. Their deeds have already consecrated this ground far beyond our poor power to embellish or diminish. The world will little note nor long remember the speeches we make today, but it can never forget the devotion shown here.
It is for us, the living, to carry on the work which they so nobly advanced. We must dedicate ourselves to the unfinished tasks that lie ahead — to strengthen this republic, to secure freedom's blessings, and to ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
ChatGPT: Would you like a second version too — maybe one where Eisenhower’s military command tone is even a little sharper? (Almost like a wartime address?)
The responsibility is ours, and the challenge is plain: to press forward with confidence, with faith, and with the steadfast resolve that liberty shall endure.
BOB: Very good! Now make it more of a parody of Eisenhower's style, which was viewed as bland and technocratic and sometimes a little muddled. Don't make it an extreme exaggeration, but make it mildly amusing to someone who knows Eisenhower's style.
ChatGPT: Got it — you want a gentle parody: still recognizable as Eisenhower, but with that slightly bland, technocratic, mildly muddled tone he sometimes had — lots of words, some hedging, a bit of bureaucratic flavor, and a tendency to soften strong statements into broad generalities. ... Here’s the Gettysburg Address in "parody Eisenhower" style:
Fourscore and seven years ago — and, by that, I mean eighty-seven years, which is a substantial period in the life of any nation — our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation. It was, and remains, dedicated to certain enduring principles — among them, liberty and the proposition, fundamentally important, that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged — and have been for some time — in a very great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any other nation conceived along those lines, can continue to operate effectively. We are gathered here today on a portion of the battlefield where a significant engagement occurred, one of many, but important in its own way.
Our primary purpose here is to dedicate a final resting place for those who gave their lives so that the nation might continue. This is altogether fitting and proper — and I think most Americans would agree with that.
But, in a larger sense — and this is something we must keep in mind — we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground by speeches alone. The brave individuals who fought here have already done that, far beyond what we might contribute today. Their actions speak with a clarity that words cannot match.
The world, of course, may not take particular note of what is said here, nor remember it in detail, but the sacrifices made on this field are part of the larger story of freedom and unity, and will endure.
It falls, therefore, to us — and to succeeding generations — to take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave, quite literally, the last full measure of devotion. It is incumbent upon us to resolve that their sacrifices shall not have been in vain, and that this nation, under God — and by that I mean the higher principles we all recognize — shall have a new birth of freedom.
And that government of the people, by the people, for the people — in all its complexity and challenge — shall not perish from the earth.
ChatGPT: Would you like an even slightly more wandering version too, with maybe a couple classic Eisenhower-style passive constructions and wordy hedges like “it is to be hoped” or “in the fullest sense”? ... (We can layer the parody depending on how far you want to go!)
BOB: Yes
ChatGPT: Excellent — here’s a slightly more wandering, mildly funnier version — a step deeper into Eisenhower’s passive voice, bureaucratic phrasing, hedging, and mild verbal meandering, but still plausible as something he might have said on a tired afternoon:
Fourscore and seven years ago — and I would suggest that, in historical terms, this is not an inconsiderable period — our forefathers saw fit to establish, on this continent, a new nation. It was founded, broadly speaking, upon the principles of liberty, democracy, and the general proposition that all men — meaning, of course, all mankind — are created equal.
At this time, we find ourselves engaged — and it must be acknowledged, engaged quite seriously — in a great civil war, one which is testing, in the fullest sense, whether such a nation, conceived and constructed under those principles, can endure through trial and adversity.
We are met here, on a portion of the field where significant events have taken place, to dedicate — and I want to emphasize this — to dedicate a final resting place for those who here gave their lives in the fulfillment of a larger purpose. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this, and I believe that is a sentiment broadly shared by the American people.
However — and it is important to recognize this — in a very real sense, it cannot be said that we can dedicate, or consecrate, or indeed hallow this ground by our words alone. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have already consecrated it, far beyond our poor power to add or detract. Their actions have spoken with a directness and eloquence that transcends the limitations of ceremony.
The world, in the ordinary course of events, may not long remember what we say here today — speeches, after all, are fleeting — but it cannot and will not forget what those men did here. Their deeds will stand in testimony long after our own words have been set aside.
It is rather for us, the living — and this, I think, is an obligation of the highest order — to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is incumbent upon us to take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave, as it is often said, the last full measure of devotion.
We here highly resolve — and it is to be hoped that future generations will continue to resolve — that these honored dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God — meaning under the guiding hand of Providence and the enduring ideals to which we aspire — shall experience a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, which has served us so well in good times and in adversity, shall not perish from the earth.
ChatGPT: Would you also like a version where he digresses a little into mild policy talk? ... (Like explaining the importance of maintaining infrastructure or budgeting sensibly while honoring the dead? Very Eisenhower!)
Very interesting use of AI I enjoyed it.
An OLD computer joke.
The world's first translating computer had been developed, and was being demonstrated. The American developers would type a common phrase in English, and the computer would translate it into the selected language. It worked beautifully - until they got to Chinese.
They entered the common English phrase "Out of sight, out of mind" and translated it into Mandarin. The Chinese observers were quite puzzled, so they typed the computer's output and asked it to translate it back into English. The result should have been expected.
The computer had typed out "Invisible Insanity".
Not just computer-translation problem. An old story concerned Pepsi's 1960's slogan: "Come alive! You're in the Pepsi generation!" Supposed, when marketed in China, the translation came out as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead." (Snopes says it's unsubstantiated) https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/come-alive/
Another story was that when Coca-Cola marketed in China, they used ideograms pronounced ko-ka-ko-la, but the meaning came out as "bite the wax tadpole." From Snopes again, it does seem that there are ideograms that will convey that pronunciation and that meaning, but it's not the one that Coca-Cola chose. There are many characters with those pronunciations, and they chose four that meant "to allow the mouth to be able to rejoice." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bite-the-wax-tadpole/
Another story (I can't verify it's truth) said that Perdue Chicken went for Hispanic markets and failed to appreciate the very regional nature of Spanish. Supposedly, they translated their slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" in a way that was fine in Mexican, Puerto Rican, and various South American Spanish regionalisms. But, the story goes, in Cuban Spanish, it became "It takes an aroused man to make an affectionate chicken." According to the story, marketing conventional-wisdom people cited this as a disaster, but Perdue sales exploded in Miami because brand-name recognition went to 100% among Cuban-Americans, who thought it was pretty funny.
And, speaking of Miami, the John Paul II visited there, supposedly, some t-shirt manufacturer made up thousands of shirts that said "Vi la Papa!" when it should have said "Vi al Papa!" The second version means "I saw the Pope!" The first (erroneous) version means "I saw the potato!" According to the story, the shirts immediately became a hot item, because, once again, Spanish-speakers thought it was hilarious. Again, I can't verify it.
"Fabrik Arbeit Gruppe" is German for manufacturing company and is abbreviated FAG. A language translation program translated a German company's press release into English and bowdlerized FAG to "homosexual". Germans at the FAG who read the English translation were thoroughly bewildered at the program's remarks about their sex life.
I guess it pays to read over your translated press releases.
Here's a sign for a beauty salon in China. It has the name of the salon and some comments on services. Above, in English, it says, COULD NOT CONNECT TO TRANSLATOR SERVICE.
https://i0.wp.com/circalingua.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CouldNotConnect_0.jpg?w=646&ssl=1
Oh, I enjoyed this SO much. My verdict on the Lowland Scots accent (expertise based on multiple re-reads of the Highlander series ;-) heh heh) is TOTALLY ACCURATE and even if not so - how very enjoyable to listen to you growling and rolling your r's. Thank you so much for your always very fun essays.
"A gie ye ma braw thanks, guid Ma'am, wi' a' the warmness o' ma heart!"
Bob, A truly unique post and fun to read. Thanks for keeping things light, and fascinating. Now, back to the ideology wars...........................
Rick
Thanks, and onward!
My favorite Papua New Guinea pidgin is the Trinity.
Da Papa, da pikkininny and da Holy Ghost.
I debated deleting your comment for fear of offending. But I did some research and found that you are correct. That is simply the standard Tok Pisin word for "child." (In Tok Pisin, however, "Holy Ghost" is "Holi Spirit" or "Spirit Bilong God.")