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<html><head><title>Languages of Belshai</title></head>
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<p>Posted by <b><!--poster-->Christopher O'Regan</b>
on <!--date-->20:06 12/14/01
<p>In reply to: <a href="285.html">Languages of Belshai</a> posted by Philip Newton</b> on 1:03 12/12/01
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I think Belshai's terrestrial analogy would be Switzerland. They have no
one official government language there; federal legislation etc is simply
published in different languages, and as Mark mentioned, there is a very
high degree of multilingualism. Not only between say, French and German,
but also between Swiss and High varieties of German, not to mention
Italian, Romansch, and a few other minority toungues. (Multilingualism is
actually a very natural situation for most people throughout history.
Many indigenous Australians, for example, were fluent in a great many
different tribal languages.)
<p>As for the United Nations . . . i don't mean to be pedantic, the reason i
mention it is because I think it's so cool! During meetings of the
various organs, delegations don't have their own interpreters, the UN has
ts own battery of professionals, each <u>simultaneously</u> translating
speeches (which must be made in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic
or Chinese . . . or German as well? i can't quite remember if it's
official or not) into all the other official languages. Delegates simply
pick up a set of headphones and choose which translation they wish to
listen to. I never cease to be amazed at the ability of these people to
keep up with what is being said, often about highly technical subjects,
and process it into natural idiom of a foreign tongue <u>at the same time!</u>
Just imagine, for example, trying German-to-English, where forming
sentences while waiting for the verb must be horrendously tough!
<p>--Ad onlelán,
<p>Rhisto Filipei
<hr><i>Mark responds:
<p>Yes, simultaneous translation is an amazing ability... I can't even
provide a gist if (say) my wife and I are watching a movie with a few
lines in French. Just following along is hard enough!
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