• robolemmy@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I think every language probably sounds silly if transliterated into another language

    • Karyoplasma
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      1 day ago

      It’s not a transliteration, it’s a direct translation. Transliteration is the conversion of one script into another and (Modern) English and German use the same script based on Latin. Transliteration would be дружба - druzhba.

      By the way, in many German online communities, it’s a meme to take English expressions and directly translate them and is called Zangendeutsch. Just go to any of the ich_iel communities here and you can see it :)

      • deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        16 hours ago

        Eh, not totally. Some languages have phonemes that are completely absent in other languages, and some phonemes (especially vowels, though sometimes consonants, eg: “r”) are different enough that a transliteration can never do them justice. Although, I guess transliterating into the international phonetic alphabet would do the trick…