Translations: work slogans (was Re: Which language is this? (once again))

On Sat, 04 Feb 2006 11:49:50 -0500, Tim May <butsuri@...> wrote:

> Mark J. Reed wrote at 2006-02-04 10:44:15 (-0500)
>  > On 2/4/06, Carsten Becker <carbeck@...> wrote:
>  > >    Apni jindgi trike fe banao.
>  > >
>  > > Does anybody know which language this is?
>  >
>  > Well, I found a copy of the flier online; this is the list:
>  >
>  >     * Entdecke das Leben
>  >     * Ondek het Leven
>  >     * Découvrez la vie
>  >     * Odulaez zycie
>  >     * I Bescubre la vida
>  >     * Scopri la vita
>  >     * apni jindgi trike fe banao
>  >
>  > The penultimate one does look like Italian, but the antepenultimate is
>  > not quite Spanish (which would rather be "Descubre la vida").
>  > Perhaps it's Portuguese or Catalan?
>  >
>  > That last one has a definite African feel to it, but beyond that I
> have no clue.
>
> Based on what Google's turning up, I'm pretty sure it's Urdu/Hindi.
> "jindgi" is "jindagi" or "zindagi", "life".  The romanisation seems to
> be a little unorthodox, which makes it hard to look up the rest
> online, but if anyone has suitable dictionaries they might like to
> have a go.
I know snippets of Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali and Sinhalese, and it's
definitely an Indic language, and I'd say a north Indic language at a
hunch. It does seem to be a colloquial rather than learned romanization.

The scenario reminds me of a slogan that was on posters all over a
previous employer: "None of us is as strong as all of us". It almost
invariably appeared in about 20 languages, more or less tightly or loosely
translated. For instance "Samen staan we sterk", which I think sounds like
a nationalist slogan rather than a diversity slogan, but there you go.

I suggest a translation challenge for maybe a selection of those
work-oriented slogans. I'd like to invite you to translate the following
into your conlangs:

Discover life. (I don't know whether this was originally work-oriented,
but it seems like the kind of nonsense some managerial type might thing
makes for more productive workers)

None of us is a strong as all of us. (Based on the original, I'd suggest a
more or less culturally suitable thematic translation rather that a tight
word-for-word attempt)

I don't know, I only work here. (If you don't use this at least once a
day, you're not trying hard enough)

Feel free to add your own cliches to the list...




Paul

Replies