Google Translates Ivan the Terrible as “Abraham Lincoln”
A Digger discovered this oddity in Google’s translator, a biography of Russian tsar Ivan The Terrible (or Ivan IV) in which the title character’s name is translated into “Abraham Lincoln”. Weird.
Google translates Øòðý Óрþ÷ýыù – àþÑÂÑÂøѠas “Abraham Lincoln – Russia”. Wikipedia’s article on ol’ Ivan spells Ivan Grozny (the term translated normally as Ivan The Terrible) as ØòðÌÂý ÓрþÌÂ÷ýыù. They are roughly identical, but Google may be getting tripped up on the lack of accent marks.
Microsoft’s new Windows Live Translator, which uses an updated version of the same Systran translation software, translates the same title almost right as “Ivan Groznyy”. Perhaps Google needs to install the latest version.
One good thing: You’ll notice Google Tranlate’s new overlay feature (new to me, at least), which shows the original text if you overlay the translation. Very useful.
Share This
Original post by Nathan Weinberg