Which is the hardest word to translate in this sentence? "Know" is easy to translate. "Pep rally" doesn't have a direct analog in a lot of languages and cultures, but can be approximated. But the hardest word there is actually one of the smallest: "you." As simple as it seems, it's often impossible to accurately translate "you" without knowing a lot more about the situation where it's being said. To start with, how familiar are you with the person you're talking to? Many cultures have different levels of formality. A close friend, someone much older or much younger, a stranger, a boss. These all may be slightly different "you's." In many languages, the pronoun reflects these differences through what's known as the T–V distinction. In French, for example, you would say "tu" when talking to your friend at school, but "vous" when addressing your teacher. Even English once had something similar. Remember the old-timey "thou?" Ironically, it was actually the informal pronoun for people you're close with, while "you" was the formal and polite version. That distinction was lost when the English decided to just be polite all the time. But the difficulty in translating "you" doesn't end there. In languages like Hausa or Korana, the "you" form depends on the listener's gender. In many more, it depends on whether they are one or many, such as with German "Du" or "ihr." Even in English, some dialects use words like "y'all" or "youse" the same way. Some plural forms, like the French "vous" and Russian "Вы" are also used for a single person to show that the addressee is that much more important, much like the royal "we." And a few languages even have a specific form for addressing exactly two people, like Slovenian "vidva." If that wasn't complicated enough, formality, number, and gender can all come into play at the same time. In Spanish, "tú" is unisex informal singular, "usted" is unisex formal singular, "vosotros" is masculine informal plural, "vosotras" is feminine informal plural, and "ustedes" is the unisex formal plural. Phew! After all that, it may come as a relief that some languages often leave out the second person pronoun. In languages like Romanian and Portuguese, the pronoun can be dropped from sentences because it's clearly implied by the way the verbs are conjugated. And in languages like Korean, Thai, and Chinese, pronouns can be dropped without any grammatical hints. Speakers often would rather have the listener guess the pronoun from context than use the wrong one and risk being seen as rude. So if you're ever working as a translator and come across this sentence without any context: "You and you, no, not you, you, your job is to translate 'you' for yourselves" ... Well, good luck. And to the volunteer community who will be translating this video into multiple languages: Sorry about that!
Koju je riječ najteže prevesti u ovoj rečenici? "Know" je lako prevesti. "Pep rally" nema direktno istoznačnicu u puno jezika i kultura, no može se približno prevesti. Ali najteža riječ je zapravo i jedna od najmanjih: "you." Jednostavna, kako se čini, ponekad je nemoguće točno prevesti "you" bez da znamo puno više o situaciji gdje se izgovara. Da počnemo, koliko vam je poznata osoba s kojom vi pričate? Mnoge kulture imaju različite nivoe formalnosti. Blizak prijatelj, netko puno stariji ili mlađi, stranac, šef. Ovo su sve malo drugačiji "vi", "you's". U mnogim jezicima, zamjenica odražava ove razlike kroz nešto što se zove T-V distinkcija. U francuskom, na primjer, reći ćete "tu" kada pričate sa prijateljem u školi, ali "vous" kada se obraćate učitelju. Čak je i engleski imao nešto slično. Sjećate li se starinskog "thou?" Ironično, to je zapravo neformalna zamjenica za ljude s kojma ste bliski, dok "you" ima ulogu formalne i pristojne verzije. To razlikovanje je izgubljeno kada su Englezi odlučili cijelo vrijeme biti pristojni. Ali teškoće u prevođenju "you" ne završavaju ovdje. U jezicima kao što su Hausa ili Korana, oblik "you" ovisi o spolu slušatelja. U mnogim drugima ovisi o tome radi li se o jednom ili mnogima, kao sa njemačkim "Du" ili "Ihr." Čak i u Engleskom, neki dijalekti koriste riječi kao "y'all" ili "youse" na isti način. Neki oblici množine, kao francuski "vous" i ruski "Вы" se koriste i za jednu osobu kako bi pokazali da je onaj kome se obraćamo toliko važan, kao i kraljevsko "we." I nekoliko jezika imaju specifičan oblik u slučaju obraćanja točno dvoje ljudi, kao slovenski "vidva." Ako to nije dovoljno komplicirano, formalnost, broj i spol mogu stupiti na scenu u isto vrijeme. Na španjolskom, "tú" je univerzalna neformalna jednina, "usted" je univerzalna formalna jednina, "vostros" je muški rod neformalne množine, "vostras" je ženska neformalna množina, a "ustedes" je univerzalna formalna množina. Uh! Poslije svega toga, može biti olakšanje da neki jezici često izostave U jezicima kao što je rumunjski ili portugalski zamjenica može biti izbačena iz rečenica jer je očito implicirana načinom na koji su glagoli konjugirani. A u jezicima kao što su korejski, tajlandski i kineski, zamjenice mogu biti izbačene bez gramatičkih upozorenja. Govornici bi rađe da slušatelj pogodi zamjenicu iz konteksta nego koristili krivu i ispali nepristojni. Tako da, ukoliko radite kao prevoditelj i naiđete na rečenicu bez konteksta: "You and you, no not you, you, your job is to translate 'you' for yourselves" ... Pa, sretno. I volonterima koji će prevoditi ovaj video u različite jezike: Žao mi je zbog toga!