I use to use this site all the time and LOVED the translator. If you hadn't used it before they "updated" it let me explain. There were 2 boxes, one to type in english and one to type in dovahzul. Pressing translate would translate the words. If it couldn't translate the words it would leave them in the original language. Then you just go back in and change that word. Very simple and easy to use.

NOW you can type in words and, rather than translating it gives it to you in the language you typed in. If you hover you mouse over the words in gives you options of what that word might be. Before I could translate entire paragraphs with two simple copy/pastes. Now I have to go through, hover over each word, copy the word that it translated it to, and then paste it to a word document. Very time consuming and difficult for new users.

I don't know how this new one is better in any way but can we bring back the old one. If need me have both of them, one as an "advance translator" and one as a "fast translator".

Check out the Legacy Translator page, which is an archived version of the old translator.

Note that the Legacy Translator uses non-canon words that are no longer being taught or supported, so use it at your own discretion.

Oh, thank you Paarthurnax! I will be carefull using it. If I needed an importain word translated then I would use the update virsion. It's just when I have paragraphs that I need to understand I will use the other translator for bulk.

Sorry for not looking at all the tabs, I hope I haven't wasted your time.

Majora5694
I don't suppose you guys plan on making the new translator like the old one? On Skype me and some friends used to use the old one and just copy and paste the translations and talk to each other in dragon and it was pretty cool but now we can't cause of the way the new one works

Did you and your friends find that you were learning the language effectively while you used it in that way?

One of the reasons we changed how the translator works is because of a phenomonon we called "Translator Speak", where people would copy and paste things from the translator without knowing the language, and as a result use the language incorrectly.

If the old translator worked perfectly it wouldn't be as much of an issue, but it was actually pretty inaccurate. My goal with the new translator is to help people to relevant lessons along the way so they can learn the language. If there are things that would help you learn, I'm always open to suggestions.

paarthurnax

Did you and your friends find that you were learning the language effectively while you used it in that way?

One of the reasons we changed how the translator works is because of a phenomonon we called "Translator Speak", where people would copy and paste things from the translator without knowing the language, and as a result use the language incorrectly.

If the old translator worked perfectly it wouldn't be as much of an issue, but it was actually pretty inaccurate. My goal with the new translator is to help people to relevant lessons along the way so they can learn the language. If there are things that would help you learn, I'm always open to suggestions.

There is a quite simple solution. Simply bring back the old translator, connect it to the new dictionary, and make it so that when you click "translate" you would be able to copy the sentence in Dovah, while also being able to hover over the words and see their meaning, so that you could have both. It is quite tedious to have to repeatedly hover over the words and write the word. But, with this function, you could easily copy and paste, while still being able to learn indiviual words meanings. 

As DovahKiinZaan mentioned, direct translations would often be incorrect, and would depend on people inspecting individual words anyhow. The difference is between a tool that is easy to use but inaccurate, and a tool that's accurate but takes more effort.

paarthurnax

As DovahKiinZaan mentioned, direct translations would often be incorrect, and would depend on people inspecting individual words anyhow. The difference is between a tool that is easy to use but inaccurate, and a tool that's accurate but takes more effort.

That's why, as I said, just mix both. Because it's unfair to the people who want a quick and easy translation. I alos noticed that most of the time, with the legacy translator, most of the time if you translate twice it would basically mean the same thing. Only a word or two would be different. And I notice anyway, with the newer translator, some of the words don't translate at all for me. Sometimes, almost the entire sentence is still in English. Besides, it would be more fun and challenging that way. When talking to your friends in Dovah, if they truly pay attention and learn the language, they'd notice the flaw, and immediately click on said word to see other meanings.

The issue I'm trying to illustrate is that the people who want a quick and easy translation will unfortunately get an incorrect translation. Checking the translator with itself isn't really a good way of verifying that a translation is correct.

Here's an example. Let's say I want to translate:

Hey, what is going on? Would you like to have a discussion about the translator?

This is what the Legacy Translator gives me:

Ahnok, fos bo nau? Fund hi med wah lost tinvaak do rotuniik?

Converting it back to English with the translator, we get:

Hello, what fly on? Would you like to has talk of translator? 

Pretty much the same as what we put in, right? However, there are several major mistakes someone who only uses the translator would never spot. Let's go through the translated sentence and see what those mistakes are.

Ahnok, fos bo nau? Fund hi med wah lost tinvaak do rotuniik?

To start, "to go on" is an English expression that means "to happen". A word-for-word translation here does not work at all in the dragon language, for the same reason you'd be confused if I told you in English "Peace fire sky".

Second, med means "like or similar to" (as in "like a dragon"), not "to like something". We have a similar problem with lost "have", which is only used to form verb tense ("have fought") and never in the sense of "to have something". English words with double meanings are a nightmare for the Legacy Translator because nothing would seem to be wrong if you used the translator to convert it back to English.

This is just one example. The issues are greatly compounded when the Legacy Translator is used for casual things like chat.

What would a good translation look like? I might say: Drem yol lok, bo paaz? Laan hi tinvaak do rotuniik? Literally, this is "Peace fire sky (greetings), flying fair (is all well)? Do you want speech about the translator?"

You may notice this looks nothing like the original text, and that's true. Genuine Dovahzul is very different from colloquial English, which is why the Legacy Translator is so bad. The translations made by the Legacy Translator aren't Dovahzul, they're just English with different words.

The new translator has some really neat features that allow for phrases like "What's going on?" to be translated into "Bo paaz?" and for words with double meanings to be distinguished. Suggestions for new phrases and translations will go a long way towards making the translator more complete and usable.

paarthurnax

The issue I'm trying to illustrate is that the people who want a quick and easy translation will unfortunately get an incorrect translation. Checking the translator with itself isn't really a good way of verifying that a translation is correct.

Here's an example. Let's say I want to translate:

This is what the Legacy Translator gives me:

Converting it back to English with the translator, we get:

Pretty much the same as what we put in, right? However, there are several major mistakes someone who only uses the translator would never spot. Let's go through the translated sentence and see what those mistakes are.

To start, "to go on" is an English expression that means "to happen". A word-for-word translation here does not work at all in the dragon language, for the same reason you'd be confused if I told you in English "Peace fire sky".

Second, med means "like or similar to" (as in "like a dragon"), not "to like something". We have a similar problem with lost "have", which is only used to form verb tense ("have fought") and never in the sense of "to have something". English words with double meanings are a nightmare for the Legacy Translator because nothing would seem to be wrong if you used the translator to convert it back to English.

This is just one example. The issues are greatly compounded when the Legacy Translator is used for casual things like chat.

What would a good translation look like? I might say: Drem yol lok, bo paaz? Laan hi tinvaak do rotuniik? Literally, this is "Peace fire sky (greetings), flying fair (is all well)? Do you want speech about the translator?"

You may notice this looks nothing like the original text, and that's true. Genuine Dovahzul is very different from colloquial English, which is why the Legacy Translator is so bad. The translations made by the Legacy Translator aren't Dovahzul, they're just English with different words.

The new translator has some really neat features that allow for phrases like "What's going on?" to be translated into "Bo paaz?" and for words with double meanings to be distinguished. Suggestions for new phrases and translations will go a long way towards making the translator more complete and usable.

Seeing that you do not understand what I am trying to say, I give up and shall deal with this new 'translator'.

paarthurnax
@Lord Dovah I hope the discussion doesn't end here since this seems to be an important issue. Could you explain what I'm missing? The point I'd like to get across is that any translator that works the way you suggest will be inaccurate.

I am trying to explain how that is wrong, and it could be accurate. You could have both of them combined. For example: The newer translator would be on top, and the updated (if you choose to do so) legacy translator would be on bottom. Someone would type something into the new translator, then the legacy translator. If they double translate on the legacy translator and as you said, it comes out making no sense, they would use the knowledge they get from the new translator and use it to see how they could correctly change the translation they received the legacy translator. So, instead of having to type out a full sentence, they could just change a few words in Dovah. It alos helps them to know which words have double meanings and which world they should be translated to into Dovah. For example, if you were to use the word kill, it could have multiple meanings (as on this website they are many meanings for kill). Here are a few examples of using the word kill:  "Zu'u fent krii hi." That would mean "I shall kill you". However, kill could also be translated to: "Zu'u fent qahnaar hi." which means you would 'vanquish' or 'deny' them something. If someone paid attention to the new translator, they could find the correct meaning and fix the translation they received from the legacy one. This is why I mentioned this could be a learning challenge, harder then just having the new translator give it to you, when you could actually work for it.