Language Translation

The up-to-date version of this post is maintained here: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/language-translation.html

Do you want to know how your surname sounded in German or French? Try AT&T's Text To Speech demo site. Type in the text, press the "speak" button and you hear the word or phrase you need to pronounce: http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html

Google Translator: http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

WorldLingo.com: http://www.worldlingo.com/

Free Translation: http://www.freetranslation.com/

Free Translation Online: http://translation2.paralink.com/

French (voila.fr): http://trans.voila.fr/ - powered by Systran

Links and Resources for Translators: http://www.iol.ie/~mazzoldi/lang/

Online Dictionaries and Translators: http://www.word2word.com/dictionary.html

The Translator's Home Companion: http://www.rahul.net/lai/companion.html

Voila Online Translator(French): http://www.voila.fr/Geek/

FranceGenWeb Translation Service: http://www.francegenweb.org/traduction/

Genealogy.Net Translation Service: http://www.genealogienetz.de/gene/misc/translation.html

etranscribtum: http://www.e-transcriptum.net/

Translation Wizard: http://www.faganfinder.com/translate/ - Thanks for the link, Maria! This one will attempt to translate even passages in an unknown language.

English - German online dictionary: http://dict.leo.org/?lang=en
and Wörterbuch Deutsch-Englisch: http://dict.uni-leipzig.de/
German dictionary: http://www.quickdic.de
and Links to other free English-German online dictionaries and grammar resources: http://quickdic.org/index_e.html

English to Latin, and Latin to English Dictionaries and Translators: http://www.italatin.com/latin.html


Transcribe Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transcribe/
   A free service for people who have problems transcribing old German documents, parish records.
   Ein kostenloser Dienst für Leute, die Probleme haben alte deutsche Dokumente, Kirchenbücher; zu transkribieren.
   Un service gratuit pour les gens ayant des problèmes pour transcrire d'anciens documents allemands, des registres paroissiaux.
   Un servicio gratuito para las personas que tienen problemas para transcribir Documentos, Registros de Parroquias, etc escritos en Aleman Antiguo.
Transcriptions and Translations of German documents (letters, parish records): http://www.rootsweb.com/~deutg/

For serious or extensive files, you may want to hire a professional translator. Jacques de Guise, professional genealogical researcher, recommends World Lingo as the "best automatic Internet translator on the Internet at the moment."

Hopefully, you will never need it, but for insults in 165 languages, Insult Monger: http://www.insultmonger.com/swearing/

Also just for fun - How to say "Oh my god! There's an axe in my head," in 112 languages: http://www.yamara.com/axe/


Form letters:

FamilySearch.org (Czeck and Slovak, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish): http://www.familysearch.org
   Search Tab > Research Helps link > Sorted by Document Type link > Letter Writing Guide link, or http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/RG/frameset_rhelps.asp?Page=./research/type/Letter-writing_Guide.asp&ActiveTab=Type

Genealogy.com (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish): http://www.genealogy.com/00000023.html

Deciphering Older Writing: http://valoriez.blogspot.com/2004/04/deciphering-older-writing.html


Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work, risking, and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful: yourself. - Alan Alda