profanity, translation, etc (Was: Dictionary)

["Andrea Brundt" <andrea_w_brundt -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Al wrote:
"Some dictionaries, I've heard, don't even include four-letter words, which
Mark Twain once opined often served a more practical purpose than prayer.
So keep the poor old thing around and try to tolerate its shortcomings."

This reminds me of an amazing article I read in the New Yorker yesterday
called "Dirty Words". It describes the history of a Russian "street
language" called "mat". I'm no linguist, but it sure got me thinking
differently about how language, culture, sexuality and politics relate to
one another. (Also, some of the English translations of Russian idioms are
hilarious, and I intend to use them...but not in my writing, and not on this
list! Warning: The language in the article will be offensive to many.)

Anyway, with regards to tech writing, it makes me very afraid of ever having
to be involved in localization or translation! Every language is a moving
target that even native speakers struggle to hit. Where's the line between
idiom and the rest of a language? How translators do what they do, I'll
never really understand.

Regards,
Andrea





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