I was in particular very suspicious of authoritarian high-modernist attempts to “preserve” languages and a high-culture ethos around judging linguistic value. French is a familiar example. But modern “official” Hindi is even better, though not extreme as modern Hebrew.
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Most stuff is barely worth reading for native speakers in the language, but the best stuff is not only worth translating globally for maximum reach, it might even be valuable enough to inspire non-native speakers to learn the language.
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It’s telling that I was unable to find a good translation resource for breaking smart —> Hindi. Then I started doing it myself but then gave up as not worth the effort. Didn’t even bother looking in Tamil or Kannada (where doing it myself is not an option)
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Inference: speakers of any language it’s worthwhile translating material like breaking smart into are already likely to speak English. It’s like it’s easiest to get a loan if you can prove you don’t need one. It’s easiest to get translations to languages that don’t need them.
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Ironic endnote: this thread was inspired by OP profile of a Kannada lexicographer who spent 54 years writing a dictionary. Kannada is native language of Bangalore, perhaps the best-known non-western city associated with software eating world. E(P(software saves Kannada))=0.05.
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