Features specifically useful for Latin translation
Latin has significantly different translation requirements to a modern language. This is because there are many more ambiguities and the word order is usually based on the emphasis desired for the words rather than the subject/verb/object of modern European languages.
Ambguity is catered for in a variety of ways.
- by the application of artificial intelligence to grammar matching and word scoring.
- the frequency with which a word is used in one mode or another is taken into account.
- the era from which the text came can be specified – classical, medieval or both.
- the area from which the text came, currently eight classifications such as botanical, medical, ecclesiastical.
- the use of common double word phrases such as ‘res publica‘ for state.
Word order is catered for by allowing Blitz Latin to identify the probable word type. You can then leave Blitz Latin to display it in the way it thinks best reflects the meaning, or you can specify the modern language layout of Subject/Verb/Object (SVOE), Verb/Subject often suited to medieval texts. ‘No re-ordering’ can sometimes help when the others fail.
Blitz Latin additionally includes the ability:
- to make intelligent guesses at many unknown words, found by experience to be the most likely to be calculable.
- to translate Latin inscriptions as presented in Frankfurt University’s database.
- to assign mis-spelled medieval words phonetically.
- spell-checking of one or more Latin files.
- to assign some ambiguous Latin words, such as plaga, according to context with a neural network.
- ability for the user to add short, pre-translated, phrases that Blitz Latin will incorporate, such as the res publicaexample quoted above.
- to obtain a Latin glossary of individual Latin words simply by clicking on them.