WO1990013883A1

WO1990013883A1 - Multilingual translating apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1990013883A1
Application number: PCT/EP1990/000640
Authority: WO
Inventors: Giuseppe Pizzato
Original assignee: Giuseppe Pizzato
Priority date: 1989-05-12
Filing date: 1990-04-20
Publication date: 1990-11-15
Also published as: AU5445390A; IT8985584A0

Abstract

According to the invention a multilingual translating apparatus is disclosed comprising one or more supports (100), which are suited to contain linguistic expression arranged in alphabetical order in a pre-determined number of languages, wherein each support comprises a number of columns (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) or of lines corresponding with the number of languages treated by the translating apparatus, each column or line of each language comprising only words of the same language, arranged in alphabetical succession, sets of identifying symbols being associated with each expression of each language (11, 12, 13, 14), their number corresponding with the number of languages contained in the apparatus, minus one, wherein each set of identifying symbols comprises at least a symbol identifying the language, which the information refers to, and two or more numerical or alpha-numerical codes for the identification of the support and the exact position on the support, wherein the translated linguistic expression appears. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, each support of the apparatus comprises a double page of an orderly succession of sheets, each double page being formed by the back and the front page belonging to two successive sheets.

Description

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"MULTILINGUAL TRANSLATING APPARATUS".

The invention discloses a multilingual translating apparatus which is created in order to obtain the minimum possible dimensions of the support, or of the supports constituting said apparatus.

When the multilingual apparatus is made of paper and is in the shape of a book, the invention allows the creation of a limited number of pages, although it gives all the bi-univocal correspondences which are necessary to the translation of a linguistic expression into another language and vice versa.

Multilingual dictionaries are well known, this definition concerning those dictionaries which present more than two languages, three for instance, which are mainly organized so as to present a first section in which the correspondence of the words of a language is expressed with the words of a second language, (for example the correspondence of the Italian language with the French language) ; in another section is expressed the correspondence between the words of two other languages, for example Italian with English. In yet another section, is expressed the correspondence of French with Italian ; in an other section again is expressed the correspondence of English with Italian.

In the case of the above mentioned example, a dictionary presenting the correspondence of the Italian language with two foreigner languages, French and English, must repeat twice the same Italian words with the corresponding French translation and with the English one.

The same Italian words will be present in the sections corresponding with the French-Italian dictionary and with the English-Italian one.

As a matter of fact, the multilingual dictionaries which are now on the market are only a plurality of autonomous dictionaries which are grouped in a single volume and can be used by people speaking a certain mother language and not indifferently by anybody who speaks any one of the languages treated in the -.Z - dictionary.

Returning to the above mentioned example taking three languages into consideration, an Italian-French section, an Italian-English section, a French-Italian section, an English-Italian section, will be present in a single volume.

Such a dictionary not only repeats the Italian words four times, in the translation from Italian into French and into English and in the translation from French and from English into Italian, but it also presents the inconvenience that said edition can be used by an Italian person who can profit from the correspondence of the Italian words with the French and the English words, or even by a French person who wants to check the correspondence of the French language with the Italian language, or by an Englishman in order to check the correspondence between the English and the Italian language. But this dictionary can neither be used in order to have the translation of French words into English nor to have the translation of English words into French because,in such a case, it would be necessary to add two more sections, i.e. two complete dictionaries from French into English and from English into French.

If it were so, six sections would be necessary, i.e. twice the number of the languages treated.

In this case every word of every language would be repeated four times in the whole dictionary. In fact, for example, the word "arrivare" would be present in the Italian-French section, in the Italian-English section, in the English-Italian section in correspondence with the word "arrive,to" and in the French-Italian section in correspondence with the word "arriver". From said example it can be clearly understood how difficult it is to present a multilingual dictionary or a translating apparatus, fitting the purposes of several languages, really quick to consult, not bulky, easy to handle and cheap. One of the purposes of the invention is to create a multilingual translating apparatus which is not meant to be used by a person of a specific nationality, but can be used indifferently by people speaking any one of the languages elaborated by this apparatus.

This apparatus must also be quick to consult, have a limited bulk, so as to be easy to handle in the most varied circumstances, without presenting weight or handling inconveniences.

A further purpose of the invention is for said apparatus to show just once a specific linguistic expression in a given language, and for it to associate with each linguistic expression a set of symbols of bi-univocal identification between a language and each of the other languages so that it is easy to find the correspondence of each expression in the language one wants to translate into. Another purpose of the invention is to reduce, as far as possible, the number of the symbols of identification which are necessary to obtain the bi-univocal correspondence between the expressions of a language with each of the other expressions in the language one wants to translate into, without damaging the clear meaning of the apparatus.

All these purposes and others which will be better explained later are reached by a multilingual translatig apparatus which, according to the main claim, is able to create a bi-univocal correspondence between the linguistic expressions of a language, which are arranged in alphabetical order, with each linguistic expression of each remaining language of a number of a pre¬ determined languages, and characterized in that it comprises one or more supports which are suited to contain these linguistic expressions, each support presenting a number of columns or of lines which are equal to the number of the pre-determined languages, each column or line of each language comprising linguistic expressions belonging to the same language which are arranged in alphabetical order, each expression of each language, being associated with sets of identifying symbols, the number of the sets being equal to the number of the pre-determined -V-

languages, minus one.

Advantageously, each set of identifying symbols includes at least the symbol of the language it represents, and two or more numerical or alpha- numerical codes, identifying bi-univocally the support and the position on the support whereat the translated linguistic expression appears.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the support containing the linguistic expressions, consists of . a double page of a succession of sheets, organized in book-shape, wherein every double page consists of the back and of the front side of two successive sheets. Morerover in this embodiment each double page of the apparatus comprises all the pre-determined languages treated by the apparatus which are arranged in a column or in a line and in alphabetical order. It is evident that this apparatus simplifies the search of the translation of the words belonging to any language into any other language included in the translating apparatus. It is particularly useful that in the margin of each support of the apparatus, besides the column or the line arranged in alphabetical order, there be a column or a line with the symbol identifying each language, close to the first word of the language which is being taken into examination. The advantage of this consists in that, when turning over the pages of the apparatus, if support of the linguistic expressions consists of pages, the page containing the expression of any language we are looking for, can be easily found, because it is simple to see the initial word of the column of each language. The most important advantage resulting from the invention, is that the number of the symbols of identification which are sufficient to give the translation of each expression of a language in the corresponding expression of another language contained in the translating apparatus, is compressed in a small space, so that the volumes which now can be consulted at a desk, or which cannot be carried along on a journey, become pocket editions. It is clear that one of the greater advantages resulting from the invention, is that the person who uses this apparatus can carry it around without being hampered by an eccessive bulk. Another advantage is that, when the translating apparatus is a book, the same edition, without any variations can be printed, distributed and indifferently utilized in any country, by any citizen speaking any of the languages contained in the book. In other words, a multilingual translating apparatus including, for instance, Italian, French, English, German and Spanish can be distributed in the same edition without any variation, in Rom, Paris, London, Berlin and Madrid.

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will be better explained in the description of a preferred embodiment of the translating apparatus which in the case of the example, is described in the shape of a book.

However it should be understood that the detailed description and specific example, while indicating a preferred embodiment of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modification within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description, and from the drawings wherein:

- Fig. 1 shows one of the double pages which constitute the translating apparatus of the invention;

- Fig. 2 and Fig.3 show a line of a column recording a single expression of a language and all the identifying symbols, which are necessary to find the corresponding translations in the other languages.

As can be observed in Fig. 1 which shows a double page of the translating apparatus of the invention, the page on the whole being indicated with 100, consists of 5 columns which are respectively indicated with 1,2,3,4,5, each of them presenting in alphabetical order the expressions of the languages included in the translating apparatus.

More specifically column 1 presents the Italian language and therefore the Italian words in alphabetical order. - & -

Column 2 presents the words in the French language in alphabetical order.

Column 3 presents the words in the English language in alphabetical order. Column 4 presents the words in the German language in alphabetical order.

Column 5 presents the words in the Spanish language in alphabetical order. Each line of the columns is marked with a corresponding number which is recorded in column 6.

In the case of the example column 6 presents 21 lines so that, for example, the Italian word "abusare", indicated with 10, is present in column 1 at line 15; while the English word "abuse, to", indicated with 20, is present in column 3 at line 4. Each word of each language is associated with four sets of symbols, one for each remaining language differring from the language recorded in the column being under examination. Vfith reference to Fig. 2, column 1 and the word "abusare", indicated with 10, it can be observed that under the word "abusare" there are a slot 11 with the symbol F, a slot 12 with the symbol GB, a slot 13 with the symbol D and a slot 14 with the symbol E.

Each of these slots, marked with the symbols identifying the language they refer to, presents an upper and a lower adjacent spaces, wherein the upper space numerically records the page of the book and the lower space records the line of the page where the corresponding word, translated from the given language, is to be found. For example, always referring to the word " abusare", indicated with 10, and clearly visible in Fig. 2, it can be observed that in the slot 12, wherein the symbol GB identifies the English language, there are two symbols of identification, i.e. the numbers 3 and 4 where the upper number 3 indicates that the English word corresponding with "abusare" is at page 3 (in the case of the example the same page of Fig.l indicated with 7) and the lower number 4 indicates the line at which the word "abusare" translated into English, or , better said, "abuse, to" indicated with 20, in Fig. 3, which is the translation of the word "abusare". Therefore each slot 11,12,13,14, presents a set of identifying symbols including a symbol representing the respective language and two numbers, the upper number indicating the page containing the translation of the linguistic expression or word referring to it, and the lower number indicating the line containing said translated linguistic expression or word.

It can be understood that these symbols of identification are sufficient to give a univocal indication which makes it quick and easy to find the translation of the searched word. With reference to Fig. 1 and to Fig.3, on the other hand, if the translation is to be made from a different language, for instance from the English language presented in column 3 of the double page 3, if an English person wants to know the Italian translation of the word "abuse, to", indicated with 20 in the figure, which is to be found in column 3, line 4, said person can read under the word "abuse, to" and in the slot marked with "I" and indicating the Italian translation, the numbers 3 and 15 (see Fig.3) indicating page 3 ( being the same page of the Fig.l), and line 15, which is the line whereat the word "abusare" indicated with 10 is present in the column of the Italian language, which is indicated with number 1 in Fig. 1.

In conclusion, in the organization of the linguistic expressions which are arranged in alphabetical order for each language of the translating apparatus of the invention, there are the corresponding sets of identifying symbols necessary to find the linguistic expressions translated in the other languages contained in the translating apparatus.In the given example the sets of identifying symbols are represented by numbers and by letters identifying the respective languages, in order to find the needed translation at the right page and line. The preferable but not compulsory choice of presenting a double page or a nook, as a support of all the expressions arranged in alphabetical order in the various languages fulfils the main purpose of creating the translating apparatus in alphabetical order progressing from the letter A to the letter Z and from the first to the last page, and that for each language.

As can be observed in Fig.l at the extreme right of page 3, under the slot indicated with 7, identifying page number 3, it can be observed that the symbols of each nation of the language being treated, together with the first word of the respective language appearing in each column, are formed into column. Thus in the column indicated with 8, the word "abisso" appears for the Italian language, it being the first word of column 1, the word "abside" appears for the French language, it being the first word of column 2, the word "abundance" appears for the English language, it being the first word of column 3, the word "ablsen" appears for the German language, it being the first word of column 4, and the word "aborto" appears for the Spanish language, it being the first word of column 5. With the description of this column indicated with 8 in Fig. 1, it can easily be understood how a person speaking any of the languages contained in the translating apparatus can consult it in his or her mother language by searching the desired word or expression in alphabetical order, since each language is arranged in alphabetical order, so that what is searched can be quickly and easily found.

An organization, such as the one shown in Fig. 1, also shows that the same issue, with the same print characters and the same arrangement, i.e. the same book, can be distributed in any of the Countries whose language is contained in the book, without any need for any variations in the issue of the book itself. The same alphabetical search performed by consulting the column indicated with 8 can be carried out regardless of whether the issue is Italian, English or French. It will also be pointed out that the number of identifying symbols for the bi-univocal correspondence between different languages is reduced in comparison with the number used in the traditional multilingual dictionaries now being used. Moreover, the space used for each reference symbol has also been reduced, since it has been replaced by a letter or number codes instead of a series of characters forming a word or a linguistic expression. In the case illustrated in Fig. 1, the translating apparatus involves five languages. Any traditional dictionary involving five languages with the possibility of translating from and into any of those languages, would have twenty sections, a section being one unit of the dictionary wherein the words of one language are translated into the words of a single other language. Therefore, since each section includes two corresponding words, one in the language to be translated and one in the translated language, it would happen that each language having the same meaning in the different languages would be repeated twice for each section, i.e. forty times altogether. In the case of the translating apparatus according to the invention, if the languages involved are five, there will only be five words and four different sets of identifying symbols, i.e. there will be five words plus four x five = twenty sets of identifying symbols for a total of five words plus twenty sets of identifying symbols, against a total of forty words which correspond with the arragement of a traditional multilingual dictionary. Thus it can easily be understood how drastically the number of linguistic expressions is reduced in favour of a number of sets of identifying symbols, which in turn are reduced in number. Therefore, the bulk of the support on which said identifying symbols are printed is considerably reduced, since the latter are much reduced in number and also more compacted in comparison with the words or the linguistic expressions printed in a traditional dictionary.

It can therefore be understood that the just described invention fulfils all the proposed purposes. In particular, the purpose of reducing to a minimum the number of the identifying symbols, which are necessary to create a bi- univocal correspondence between a linguistic expression of a language and the same expression of any other language of those included in the translating apparatus has been fulfilled. Secondly, said sets of identifying symbols occupy a limited space, since they are numerical, alpha-numerical or, at any rate symbols rather than whole words consisting of a plurality of characters. The further purpose of creating a translating apparatus wherein each language is arranged in alphabetical order from the first to the last page of said apparatus has been fulfilled. It is obvious that the presentation of the identifying symbols of the apparatus can change according to taste and to need, since the presentation aspect of the linguistic expressions in several languages by itself can not be the object of a patent.

During the realization stage of the translating apparatus according to the invention, variations and modifications of the translating apparatus may occur to those skilled in the art. It is, however, understood that said variations and modifications will not exceed the scope of the invention, such as it is claimed hereafter.

Claims

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CLAIMS 1) A translating apparatus suited to establish a bi-univocal correspondence between linguistic expressions of a language which are arranged in alphabetical order and each linguistic expression of each pre-determined language or group of languages, also being arranged in alphabetical order, characterized in that it includes one or more supports (100) suited to contain said linguistic expressions, each support presenting a plurality of columns (1,2,3,4,5) or of lines whose number is equal to the number of pre-determined languages, each of said columns or of said lines comprising linguistic expressions belonging to the same language, which are arranged in alphabetical order, sets of identifying symbols (11,12,13,14) being associated with each linguistic expression (10) of each language and their number being equal to the number of pre¬ determined languages, minus one, wherein each set of identifying symbols is suited to determine,on the support containing it, the position of the corresponding linguistic expression, which is translated into a language differring from the linguistic expression this set of identifying symbols is associated with.

2) A translating apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that each support suited to contain the linguistic expressions of each pre-determined language, consists of a double page of a regular succession of sheets, said double page consisting of the back and of the front side of two successive sheets.

3) A translating apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that each set of identifying symbols (11,12,13,14) associated with each linguistic expression (10), includes at least a symbol (11) identifying the language into which the linguistic expression is translated and two or more numerical or alpha-numerical codes, suited to identify the support and the position on the support whereat the translated linguistic expression appears. 4) A translating apparatus according to claim 1, - / 2 -

characterized in that a graphic symbol or national flag identifying the language itself, is associated with each succession of linguistic expressions which are arranged alphabetically and according to language . 5) A translating apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that each support containing the linguistic expression presents a column (6) or a line indicating the progressive number of lines or of the columns which are present in this support. 6) A translating apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that a side of this support presents a column or a line with the first vord of each language, associated with a symbol identifying each language.