Going global

[Mark Hammer]

For a variety of reasons too numerous to list, the lingua franca of the web is English.  Pretty much an unfair tyranny of the economic minority when you think of it.

Although I don't see it changing any time soon, that is no reason why this forum can't serve as a means for increasing our knowledge of each other's language.  When you see the locations of people here, it is a community situated around the entire globe, with well over several dozen languages spoken besides English.

So here is my idea.  How about the rest of you who are blessed with more than one language teaching the rest of us (who are often too lazy to learn or speak more than one language) how to "talk shop" in your language?

For example, how do I say "distortion" or "clipping" in Romanian or Mandarin?  What is the Portugese word for "resistor", "power supply", "pickup", etc. ?  What do you call a preamplifier and power amplifier in Greek or Turkish?  How would I identify a soldering iron by name in a German electronics store?  What do you call a "chip" in Hebrew or Arabic or Swedish?

And so on.

I leave it up to you to identify words that are useful to know, as well as those that are virtually identical or entirely different between your mother tongue and English.  

Obviously, using another alphabet is no way to teach English-only speakers to expand their horizons, so if you think it needs to be written in a special way to make the pronunciation clear, go ahead.  If it could be spelled different ways, mention that.

I want to learn!!  This could be fun.

[smoguzbenjamin]

I speak both dutch and english fluently. Because my parents both speak English in the house, so I knew almost no Dutch when I went to playschool. I learnt within 4 weeks or so though

What do you want to know, Mark?

[Mark Hammer]

It's not just me, it's everyone else out there who might accidentally stumble onto a Dutch Elektor article somewhere and has no idea how to recognize words for common components or ideas.

List as many English / Dutch equivalents as you can think of:

Resistor
Capacitor
Diode
Transistor
Silicon
Germanium
Battery
Voltage
Power
Current
Wire
Copper
Solder
Circuit
Schematic
Chassis
Plug
Jack
Cable
.....
etc
etc

[bioroids]

I have some trouble finding corresponding names between products and their equivalence to argentinian products. (for example, what the h**l is a decal?). I never found an equivalent to "enamel", i just have to buy imported ones.

By the way, some terms are used in english here (like "clipping") or else adapting the english word to spanish pronunciation and ways (something like "clipping"="clipeo" very ugly!)

Luck

Miguel

[Gilles C]

A good place would be at the bottom line in the post.

This year, I decided I would like to learn Spanish. It would be a good start. A little everyday.

N.B. You're right Mark. I have problems speaking about effects in French outside this forum. People here in Quebec don't use the same words than I do.

It must be because I spend more time on this forum than on stage (which is none these days...)

Gilles

There is not enough delay in my reverb box. / Il n'y a pas assez de délai dans ma pédale de distortion...  

[Johan]

ok Mr Hammer..I am swedish so I'll give you a few...

Resistor = motstånd ( moutstaand )
Capacitor =kondensator
Diode =diod (dee-oh-d )
Transistor =transistor
Silicon =kisel (tjees-el )
Germanium =germanium ( yermaaniuum )
Battery =batteri ( but-erie )
Voltage =spänning ( span-ing )
Power =effekt
Current =strömm (str-uh-mm )
Wire =sladd ( slaaad  )
Copper =koppar
Solder = lödtenn
Circuit =krets
Schematic =kretschema
Chassis = chassi
Plug = plugg or propp
Jack  = jack
Cable = sladd (again )

many words will be the same becouse the technology is still fairly young ( less than 100 years ) and the global comunication in that time has been such that there has been little or no need to create different words in different parts of the world..but it's still a cool idea

how about "Rör" ( r-uh-r ) for tube or lödfläta ( loedflaata ) for solderwick or spole ( spool-eh ) for inductor/coil..

swedish reporter asking an amerikan.."can you name any swedish people?.."..uhm..the swedish shef?..."well, he's not a real person...." .".no, but he's swedish, isnt he?..."


johan ( yo-un )

[Mark Hammer]

Now I need to know the Swedish word for "Thankyou".

Terrific start to what I'm sure will be a thread worth saving.

[Johan]

thank you= tack ( tuck )...but beer will do...

Johan

[Jun]

Hi,
This is a fabulous site with a wealth of very useful information. Thank you Aron and everyone else.
Just in case any of you have a chance to visit Akihabara in Tokyo, Japan these translation will help you.  As most of you know Akihabara is a DIYer's ultimate dream with over 1000 electronic shops, some as small as 10' by 8' where each store might sell nothing but LEDs or transformers etc.
here are some translations:  

Resistor = teiko-o
Capacitor = condensaa  (for some reason)
Diode = daio-odo
Transistor = toranjistaa
Silicon = shiricon
Circuit = kairo
Schematic = kairo zu
transformer = toransu

Most English words are the same in Japanese, they only pronounce it quite differently. When in doubt just accentuate every consonant (i.e. plug = puragu) When my wife was exploring Tokyo alone she said no one would help her find a McDonald's.  I had to teach her the correct pronunciation which is  'Macudonarudo' a 6 syllable word!

Jun

[Arn C.]

This is definitely a cool idea Mark.  

Now what about those southern red neck boys, they have a language all their own :lol:


Arn C.

[Nasse]

:lol: This is good one

I´ll do what I can, but who knows

But just thought few essential words more what you search in an old yellow super spiffy magazine project...

switch
power supply
full wave rectifier
half wave rectifier
input
output
switching
toggle switch
single
double
triple
op amp

phase shifter
delay
summing
difference
differential


but as Mark Hammer said, etc etc

What I have done at my work  :x is fiddlin with simple but sometimes big and critical tables with word processor excel and maybe databases. I believe it would be benefit if we can make some kind of indexing for certain or all  words. Of course it can be added afterwards but if we can make a decent longish list of most common/useful words/terms in english *then* it´s time to number/index it somehow and after that it is just bobs your uncle anybody who can just add more info referring to the table index

[Marek]

Hi! I don't really think this is going to be mega-useful or anything, but nevertheless here's the list in serbian (or serbocroatian if you like):


Resistor = Otpornik (remember '90ies in Serbia? student's movement against Milosevic    "Otpor" = Resistance )
Capacitor = Kondenzator  ( much like German - Kondensator )
Diode = Dioda
Transistor = Tranzistor
Silicon = Silikon
Germanium = Germanijum
Battery = baterija
Voltage  = napon ( lit. "Tension" just like in German - die Spannung )
Power  = snaga  ( Snagasko pojacalo - Power Amplifier )
Current  = struja
Wire  = zica  ( zhica)
Copper  = Bakar
Solder  = kalaj
Circuit  ~ kolo, sklop  (Electronic circuit = elektronski sklop )
Schematic  = shema
Chassis  = kuciste (housing) ili kutija (box)
Plug  =  ? no idea...
Jack  = Dzek ( or Jack :-)
Cable = kabel, kabal, kabl

Preamplifier = pretpojacalo ( pred - before, pojacalo - amplifier )
Sound = zvuk
Speaker = zvucnik  ( he/it who/which  makes zvuk :-)

Thank you = hvala
You're welcome = molim

To je sve za sada = that's it for now

Pozdrav,
Marek

[claydavis]

Now what about those southern red neck boys, they have a language all their own :lol:


Arn C.

surprisingly, a great many of us rednecks are fairly fluent in english, and have adopted many of your yankee terms for electronic components. we just take our time pronouncing them.

[smoguzbenjamin]

OK :mrgreen: The fat letters are the stresses in each word.

Resistor  - Weerstand (we're-stunned)
Capacitor - Condensator (condense-ah-tor)
Diode  - Diode (dee-oh-du)
Transistor - Transistor
Silicon - Silicone (Si-licone-uh) or Silicum
Germanium - Germanium (Ger-mah-nium)
Battery - Battery (Bat-uhr-ai)
Voltage - Voltage (Vol-tah-sjuh)
Power - not sure :?
Current - Stroom (str ohm)
Wire - Draad (like 'drat' but with a bit longer 'a' and a d at the end)
Copper - Koper (cope-er)
Solder - Soldeer (sol-deer)
Circuit - not sure either :?
Schematic - Schematisch diagram (Skay-mah-tisj diah-gram)
Chassis - Chassis
Plug - Plug (Plugggg, rasp the G's in your throat)
Jack - Same as plug
Cable - Kabel (Kah-bul)

[Arno van der Heijden]

Some additions:

Silicon - Silicone (Si-licone-uh) or Silicum  

That would be silicium instead of silicum

Power - not sure  

Power - vermogen   (ver-mo-gggun, again rasp the G's in your throat)

[Arno van der Heijden]

Cool idea Mark!

You have no idea how much stuff can be found on Russian or Japanese sites.

Some time ago I found the Japanese word for schematic (in Japanese symbols) and typed it in in Google. You can find some pretty cool things that way :mrgreen:

[puretube]

power = vermogen;
circuit = schakeling;

in dutch

[puretube]

beer = Bier (german);

[smoguzbenjamin]

Of course, vermogen. Stupid me

[Johan]

..yes ofcourse...beer in swedish is ÖL ..witch incidently is the same word the Germans use for oil....I guess it makes us run smoother? :roll: ....

Johan