Take up the 30-word challenge!

Written on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 9:27 am | by benign0

In yet another Tagalog vs English “debate” this time on Peyups.com, I — tounge-in-cheek — proposed a kind of a test on the efficiency by which Tagalog can articulate complex concepts by issuing a challenge to translate the following text into Tagalog:

Just because molecular irregularities cause a ballbearing’s radius to vary by nanometers along its surface does not stop us from attributing a spherical quality to it at a macro level.

[Just a bit of trivia: The eminent cvj was a source of inspiration for the above blurb. ;) ]

The performance criteria is simple. Above is a concept articulated in one sentence using 30 words. The challenge is to match that economy using Tagalog whilst maintaining the clarity, conciseness, and completness of the original message.

A certain bazookabubblegum came up with this brilliant attempt:

Dahil ba ang di-pantay na pagkakamulatil na nagdudulot sa pagbabago ng sukat sa lihit ng bolitas sa nanometro ay di ibig sabihin walang kinalaman ito sa anyong pantimbulog sa pangkalahatang antas.

And introduced the following Tagalog words (though I’m not too sure if these are real or made up):

mulatil (mulaang butil) = molecule
lihit = radius
timbulog = sphere

And I thought: At 32 words (missing the mark by only two), Jeez, maybe I may in fact be wrong about Tagalog. :o So being the strapping sportsman that I am, I decided to take a stab as well. This is what I came up with:

Bagama’t ang pang-molekyular na irregularidad ay sanhi ng pagbabago ng reydyus ng bolbering sa sukat na nanometro ay di sapat na rason na di nating i-regard ang mala-bolang kwalidad nito sa makrong lebel.

(For a few laughs, try to read the above a-la Willard Cheng of ABS-CBN’s world-class news program Bandila)

My 35-word bid above assures Mr. bazookabubblegum’s record is safe for now. Unless of course the FilipinoVoices posse takes up the challenge to defend the dignity of our beloved Tagalog dialect by coming up with better translations.

Any takers? ;)

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About The Author: benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.COM and has once been described as "one of the most enthusiastic hecklers of the politically-passionate" by a respected journalist.

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Comments

28 Responses to “Take up the 30-word challenge!”

  1. Jeg on July 24th, 2008 10:02 am

    Pfsh. I dont know about your word count criteria but:

    “Kung titignan mo sa malapitan, maraming baku-bako yung bearing, bakong may sukat na nanometers nga lang. Pero kahit na baku-nako ito sa malapitan, hindi ito dahilan upang di natin ito pwedeng tawaging spherical.”

    HAH! :-D

  2. Jon Limjap on July 24th, 2008 10:49 am

    I don’t see the relevance of the challenge, benign0.

    I mean, let’s try and have this translated to German. And then let’s count THAT translation in terms of:

    a) number of words
    b) number of syllables
    c) number of characters

    Considering the superiority of German mechanical engineering (Mercedes Benz and BMW, anyone?) it might give us a benchmark of language efficiency vis-a-vis technical knowhow.

    ==========

    Anyway, let’s have some fun :)

    “Bagama’t lumilihis ang radius ng isang ballbearing nang ilang nanometro sanhi ng iregularidad sa balat nito sa molekyular na antas, maituturing pa rin itong spherical sa antas na macro.”

    That’s 29. Without new words. ;)

    If I was really faithful to the composition of the original sentence however, the best I could come up with is 31:

    “Bagama’t lumilihis ang radius ng isang ballbearing nang ilang nanometro sanhi ng iregularidad sa balat nito sa molekyular na antas, hindi nangangahulugang di iton maituturing na spherical sa antas na macro.”

  3. Jon Limjap on July 24th, 2008 10:52 am

    ^^edit on the second attempt “di ito” instead of “di itoN”

  4. Nick on July 24th, 2008 1:28 pm

    haah, good challenge.. and good work Jon, I myself could never have done it..

  5. Arbet on July 24th, 2008 1:34 pm

    As Juned is wont of saying, it’s the Indian, not the bow.

  6. benign0 on July 24th, 2008 1:47 pm

    Hey Jon, great one! :)

    But then, get a load of this:

    Kahit iregular ang ibabaw ng bolbering sa lebel na molekular, spirikal pa rin ang itsura nito sa malayo.

    18 words! :D

  7. Jon Limjap on July 24th, 2008 1:54 pm

    If I would really deviate from the composition of the sentence (note that the above translation got rid of the radius aspect of the original sentence), the best translation I could come up would also be 18.

    Maybe that’s the magic number. :P

  8. benign0 on July 24th, 2008 2:02 pm

    If I would really deviate from the composition of the sentence (note that the above translation got rid of the radius aspect of the original sentence), the best translation I could come up would also be 18.

    Maybe that’s the magic number.

    Maybe it is. And guess what led us to it: Something called thinking outside the square. A bit of self back-patting is in order, wouldn’t you think? ;)

    Of course we could all do a cvj and dwell on that minor detail of the concept of radius dropping out of the picture to achieve the above result…

    Notwithstanding that, the record stands at 18!

    And to think my gradeschool years were made traumatic by a bunch of six-syllable talasalitaan words we had to memorise after every Genoveva Edroza Matute tale we read in class. What a colossal waste of unnecessary anxiety! :D

  9. DJB Rizalist on July 24th, 2008 2:22 pm

    Good fun!

    “Bakal na bató
    Bilog ang anyô
    Kung ukit-ukit nitó
    Marikit at tagô
    sa mata ng tao.”

    16 words and its both more accurate and precise since the attribution of spherical roundness only depends on deviations from roundness being smaller than the resolution of the observer’s image or view of the surface, not on it having to be nanometer in scale.

    Your statement would be false if the ball bearing is being viewed with a Scanning Tunneling microscope.

  10. Isi on July 24th, 2008 2:35 pm

    Kahit na hindi pantay ang malamulpik ng bolang-padulas ang pagbabago ng kalahating-layo sa labas nito ng hinating-siyam na metro ay hindi na maitatangi ang kabilugang uri nito sa pangkalahatang antas.

  11. Jeg on July 24th, 2008 2:37 pm

    There you go. Did you come up with that one, benny?

    Direct word-for-word translation really isnt needed. In fact it sounds way too pedantic (mulatil?) and show-offy. ;-)

  12. Jeg on July 24th, 2008 2:54 pm

    Mother of pearl, DJB. In a few verses, youve demonstrated what Tagalog is exceedingly good at: song.

  13. Nick on July 24th, 2008 2:59 pm

    @DJB, haah, love it.. that’s so poetic..

  14. benign0 on July 24th, 2008 3:06 pm

    DJB, brilliant in its elegant poetic simplicity! Though it is unfortunate that some of us here prefer to view the world through a scanning tunneling microscope…

    Jeg you know me, always original. ;)

    So the record stands at 16!

  15. Jon Limjap on July 24th, 2008 3:48 pm

    LOL, love DJB’s version. Kaunti na lang haiku na. Hahaha.

  16. cvj on July 25th, 2008 6:51 am

    Bravo, DJB!

  17. Jeg on July 25th, 2008 10:29 am

    Jeg you know me, always original.

    Haha. Sure. After I showed you how it’s done. ;-)

  18. benign0 on July 25th, 2008 3:18 pm

    Haha. Sure. After I showed you how it’s done.

    hah! Sige na nga, I’ll grant you that. But then you did ignore my 30-word benchmark. ;)

  19. J on July 26th, 2008 1:07 am

    Tagalog dialect? Or Tagalog language?

  20. benign0 on July 26th, 2008 1:44 pm

    J, I believe it is dialect.

  21. Jon Limjap on July 26th, 2008 2:36 pm

    Tagalog is supposed to be a dialect. Filipino is supposed to be a language based on Tagalog the dialect. A lot of camps disagree, and certainly the Cebuanos vehemently oppose the stature of Tagalog and believe that theirs should be the national language.

  22. benign0 on July 26th, 2008 2:51 pm

    Maybe before this whole crap about a “national” language was conceived we should have first figured out what the “Philippines” REALLY is all about and what it stands for (besides ocho-ocho rallies, that is).

  23. J on July 28th, 2008 12:07 am

    I think a language is a distinct tongue with distinct vocabulary and grammar patterns. A dialect is a variation of a language.

    Like Japanese is a language but Kantoben (Tokyo Japanese ) and Kansaiben (Osaka Japanese) are dialects. They have different intonation and some words are different, but they are mutually intelligible.

    Given this premise, I believe Tagalog is a language because it is not a variation of any other language. Filipino is a dialect of Tagalog, along with Bulakenyo, Batangenyo and Tayabasin. Cebuano, Ilocano etc are all languages, not dialects.

  24. philmanil on July 28th, 2008 1:05 am

    WTF is this discussion all about? You only need a dominant language if you want to dominate.I will say this, each culture to his own. And please don’t over-analyze things.

    You guys are all a bunch of losers, leaving the Philippines and pretending to matter in the country you left behind.

  25. benign0 on July 28th, 2008 4:15 am

    WTF is this discussion all about? You only need a dominant language if you want to dominate.I will say this, each culture to his own. And please don’t over-analyze things.

    You guys are all a bunch of losers, leaving the Philippines and pretending to matter in the country you left behind.

    Nobody’s ‘pretending’ to matter here, dude, as even those who live in the Philippines don’t seem to matter.

    Whether it is expats or islanders who ’speak out’, nothing seems to change in the Philippines.

    So we might as well over-analyse for the greater good of the Republic.

  26. benign0 on July 28th, 2008 4:17 am

    The language called “Filipino” is an artificial construct implanted to the minds of the inhabitants of an island group known as “the Philippines” to make them believe that they are a single political unit

    It’s nothing more than that. An artificial construct.

  27. J on July 28th, 2008 5:06 am

    Linguistically speaking, yes, Filipino is an artificial construct. Therefore a dialect.

    But Tagalog is a language in its own right.

  28. Nick on July 28th, 2008 11:14 am

    @Philmanil, it is in discussion that the roots of all solutions begin, it is a start to something concrete.

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