Google Latin

Latin Learning Latin
1

Google Latin translator launched September 2010. Here’s an example of a translation by it illustrating its limitations.
Mense septembris anno bis millesimo decimo Google instrumentum vertendi e sermonibus latinis in lucem misit. En exemplum versionis eis factum defecta demonstrans.

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2

You can also set the Google interface language to display in Latin.

3

Here’s how it does with the opening of Ovid’s Metamorphoses:

I’m going to put this tool in my “not ready for prime time” category now.

4

Useless tool, you can’t rely on translations done by non-human translators. Not only Latin but any language.

5

most of them Latin books have already been written

Now I can’t help but imagine the translation being read by a redneck.

Also: it’d be nice if all Latin were as easy to read as that post was, wouldn’t it? Strange that “autem” wasn’t used postpositively, though…

6

Ut Jacobus ipse ironicè dicit: “…intellegamus grammatica nostra non sine culpa esse.” Forsàn ego latinè Jacobo frequentiùs erro.
As Jakob himself ironically says: “…we should know are grammar is not without their fault.” Maybe I make more mistakes in Latin than Jakob does.

7

As someone who worked as a freelance translator for years I second your thought. I would call it useless though. It definitely can give people a basic understanding of a text or article who dont have much knowledge of the specific language. And I have to say that the translation tools have become better which worries me a bit. Remember babelfish a couple of years back? Horrible. But the new Google translate, Im actually quite surprised how coherent some of the translations sound. The latin sounds ok, better than some of other other languages (e.g. indonesian).