[Help] problem with french translation

[jean le francois]

Hello dear friends,

At first i reclaim your forgiveness about my "simplified English".

I believe in Jesus christ since a long time ago. He save my life when i was Young and after i was helped by him several times, finally i received the book of mormon.
With the news scriptures, i received a lot of visions and more spiritual power, but i fall down in front of the opposition.
So... i'm true believer, and i'm continuing to do what i must do.

Recently i was too embarassed by a lot of "wrong style" with the french translation, essentially with the punctuation.
With this problem, i feel the french translation was made by canadian's people, and i thank them and all other peoples for all work in the name of Jesus Christ, and distribution of new scriptures.

As i have three qualifications of printer worker, i begin to change ponctuation of a new personnal version. Perhaps attractive for other french's readers, but absolutely needful for me!... so i do it.

After some rectifications i found wrong translations. I don't know about german or spanish translations, i'm french and i found some real "wrongs translations" shifting the sens of the English version. Of course it's minor problem, not shifting the sens like a lie, but that's made difference.

Now i'm lost: This situation input bug in my spiritual way, and i request help and guidance. I can't continue to read news scriptures with "style errors", much less with "wrong translations".

I hope that this problem is known in the Church. I think that i need a contact with expert of french language how can agreed my way, and control my work.


Jean-François Gallo

[theBruceGuy]

I'm pretty sure all the French translations are done at the European headquarters in Frankfurt. The translation team there issue the work out to qualified translators and they have a set of words that have a standard Church translation. All translations are checked to ensure these words are included in the correct locations as they proof read.

It is common for people to read and think the translation is poor. While I lived in Germany, the BOM translation used was produced by a man in my street. He said when he met the elders and they shared a german BOM with him he looked at it and thought "That is German, but not as we know it" so he retranslated it and his translation was accepted.

When he died they worked on it again and are constantly improving.

Best of luck in your endeavors

[Jonathan_H]

Hello dear friends,

...

After some rectifications i found wrong translations...

Bonjour Jean,

Welcome to the forum.

Are you referring to the translation of the Book of Mormon? Do you have some specific examples?

I do not know what sort of help I (or we) can offer, but there are a few French speakers on the forum.

Best,
~Jon

[gkearney]

The French spoken in France and the French spoken in Canada and the United States are very different.

In Canada there are two very distinct forms of French, or languages derived from French:

Québécois is spoken in the provence of Quebec and in surrounding areas of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario and the U.S. states of Maine and Vermont. It has come under considerable influence of English in both vocabulary and structure. It is a viable living langauge spoken by about a quarter of Canada's population as well as significant number of speakers in Maine and Vermont in the United States.

Acadian is a much older language and while having it's origins in 17th century French it is, at this point so far removed from either French or Québécois as to pose real difficulties for speakers of either of those languages to understand it. Acadian is spoken today in the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec areas of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and in the St. John's river valley between New Brunswick and the U.S. state of Maine. Ballots and other such official documents in both New Brunswick and Maine are still produced in Acadian as well as in the more common Québécois.

Acadian is the source language of Cajun a creoles spoken in Louisiana by decedents of the original Acadians who were forced out of their original settlement in Nova Scotia by the British and exiled to Louisiana. Cajun has come under considerable influence of English, African American Vernacular English, and various creoles spoken in the region.

Maine's second largest city, Lewiston, remains a predominately Québécois speaking city with large Québécois speaking populations found in Augusta, Waterville and many other cities and towns.