1Cynfelyn
General enquiry to those members translating Common Knowledge on LT's non-English language sites, or indeed fluent in those languages.
In those languages with a familiar and a formal second person pronoun (e.g. you (English), tu/vous (French), ti/chi (Welsh)), which are you using to translate, for example "You have no new messages".
If you are using rather than translating non-English language sites, which do you prefer to see / not see?
Different languages will be different, and perhaps usages are changing. For example, I get the impression there may be something of a 'democratisation' going on in Welsh, or shrinking of the pool of people who get called 'chi', but as an L2 Welsh speaker I'm quite likely to be wrong.
(See https://www.omniglot.com/bloggle/?p=12287 for three levels of formality in Bengali second person pronouns: তুই tui, তুমি tumi, and আপনি apni, plus their plurals. Fortunately for present purposes, but perhaps surprisingly, Bengali is not an LT language).
In those languages with a familiar and a formal second person pronoun (e.g. you (English), tu/vous (French), ti/chi (Welsh)), which are you using to translate, for example "You have no new messages".
If you are using rather than translating non-English language sites, which do you prefer to see / not see?
Different languages will be different, and perhaps usages are changing. For example, I get the impression there may be something of a 'democratisation' going on in Welsh, or shrinking of the pool of people who get called 'chi', but as an L2 Welsh speaker I'm quite likely to be wrong.
(See https://www.omniglot.com/bloggle/?p=12287 for three levels of formality in Bengali second person pronouns: তুই tui, তুমি tumi, and আপনি apni, plus their plurals. Fortunately for present purposes, but perhaps surprisingly, Bengali is not an LT language).
2MarthaJeanne
I don't translate, because I use the English-language site, but if I were translating 'You have no new messages.' into German for the purposes of the site, I would probably just use 'Keine neue Nachrichten' and sidestep the whole issue of what word to use for 'you'.
I would guess that what pronoun is preferred will vary by age group, with younger speakers preferring the more intimate versions, and older speakers the more formal ones. Personally, it really grates when companies call me 'Du!' No, I am not close friends with you, and if you are going to act as if we are, I will try to avoid doing business with you. Note that English has almost totally lost the intimate second person pronoun, which today is almost only (if at all) used for God.
I would guess that what pronoun is preferred will vary by age group, with younger speakers preferring the more intimate versions, and older speakers the more formal ones. Personally, it really grates when companies call me 'Du!' No, I am not close friends with you, and if you are going to act as if we are, I will try to avoid doing business with you. Note that English has almost totally lost the intimate second person pronoun, which today is almost only (if at all) used for God.
3Dilara86
I just checked the French site. The formal "vous" is used: "Vous n'avez pas de nouveaux messages". That's standard on "serious" websites and I am fine with it, as most adults would be, I think. Having said that, the use of "tu" wouldn't bother me. I'd probably find it a bit strange at first, because it would be unexpected, but I wouldn't be offended or put off LT... We already use "tu" with each other in Talk.
4Cynfelyn
>2 MarthaJeanne: I see that LT's German front pages usually uses du etc., but also slips into Sie. I don't know if it reflects anything more that the peferences of the individual translators:
"LibraryThing verbindet Dich mit Menschen, die lesen, was auch Du liest." (https://www.librarything.de).
"Melde Dich an und erfasse gleich ein paar deiner Bücher."
"Tausche dich mit anderen Bibliophilen über deine Vorlieben aus."
"... für Analytik und (falls Sie nicht eingeloggt sind) für Werbung. Indem Sie LibraryThing nutzen, erklären Sie dass Sie unsere Nutzungsbedingungen ..." (Cookies notice).
"LibraryThing verbindet Dich mit Menschen, die lesen, was auch Du liest." (https://www.librarything.de).
"Melde Dich an und erfasse gleich ein paar deiner Bücher."
"Tausche dich mit anderen Bibliophilen über deine Vorlieben aus."
"... für Analytik und (falls Sie nicht eingeloggt sind) für Werbung. Indem Sie LibraryThing nutzen, erklären Sie dass Sie unsere Nutzungsbedingungen ..." (Cookies notice).
5anglemark
I rephrase. For example, "You have no new messages" I translate as "There are no new messages". That being said, Swedish is not a problem language this way, because we stopped using the second person plural as a courtesy form in the 1960s, so if I had to choose, I simply pick the pronoun based on whether the intended reader is a you or a y'all (in Southern US parlance).
6MarthaJeanne
>4 Cynfelyn: Assuming you have copied those correctly, there is not only the Du/Sie question but also the Du/du one. I don't think children are taught to capitalize Du in letters any more, but I still would if directly addressing someone. Your second quote does in the first instance, but not in the second one.
