Please translate this quote into your language

[ebensorkin]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

In general, every country has the language it deserves. -Jorge Luis Borges

So far I have german:
Im Allgemeinen hat jedes Land die Sprache, die es verdient.

and Hungarian
Általában minden országnak olyan nyelve van, amilyet megérdemel.

(I am still looking for the original Spanish)

Thanks!

[clauses]

I have Googled it for you:
http://www.logosdictionary.org/pls/dictionary/new_dictionary.gdic.st?phrase_code=6071967

[Jongseong]

The Korean translation there is okay (although removing the comma would render it more natural) but ambiguous. It just says every country has an appropriate language. I would change the wording to better convey the sense of the country 'deserving' the language: 일반적으로 모든 나라는 그 분수에 어울리는 언어를 갖고 있다.

[Quincunx]

I think the Dutch translation on that website is also fine.

[guifa]

I can't find the original Spanish. Logos dictionary seems to be the only source for it in Spanish or really English for that matter. I've tried a variety of different possible original Spanishes and nothing comes up. It also doesn't seem like something Borges would say anyways, though I could certainly see him having included it in a story as a line from a narrator or character.

Just be careful, it's very (extremely) likely he didn't actually say it.

«El futuro es una línea tan fina que apenas nos damos cuenta de pintarla nosotros mismos». (La Luz Oscura, por Javier Guerrero)

[Ricardo Cordoba]

Eben, I was able to find the phrase using Google Books: "En general cada país tiene el idioma que merece." (Link.)

The source, El otro Borges ("The Other Borges"), is a book of interviews spanning the years 1960 through 1986.

When I was living in Buenos Aires, I heard a similar phrase: "Cada país tiene el gobierno que se merece." Which means, "Each country has the government it deserves." (!) I'm not sure which phrase came first, or if it's just an old saying that gets changed from time to time.

[apankrat]

Russian:

Как правило каждая страна имеет тот язык, который она заслуживает.

[paragraph]

Must be an old saying. My boss, in the communist Czechoslovakia (bless his soul), told me in 1973: Every nation has the freedom it deserves. Czech: Každý národ má takovou svobodu, jakou si zaslouží.

This one would be: Obecně řečeno, každá země má takovou řeč, jakou si zaslouží.

[Aleme]

Hi! Eben ,
How are you ? This is Ethiopian translation . .
Aleme

[kongur]

Hi Eben!

"Genellikle her ülke, layık olduğu dile sahiptir." Would be Turkish translation of the statement.

Ayşe

[rcc]

A Greek version: "Γενικά, κάθε χώρα έχει τη γλώσσα που της ταιριάζει."

[dan_reynolds]

Eben, I don't think that the German translation that you have is very good. The sentence begins in an odd way. Drop me a line and we can talk about it further

[johnnydib]

Lebanese transliteration:
biL 2ijméL kil balad 3indoL Ligha li byistéhala

In Arabic script:
بالإجمال كل بلد عندو اللغة لي بيستاهلا

[ebensorkin]

Thanks everybody! Dan, Will do. Matthew, you make a very good point. I will see if I can find out more about the quote. I do recall Borges lapsing into a very old fashioned way of thinking when it came to nationality eg that he was willing to generalize, albeit in a witty way. Also, I think holding position seriously in this sense was maybe outside of his interests*. But people are sloppy and it could well be that it is not his or that a character of his says it.

I don't have my Library here in Reading, and the Uni is closed for a while now, so finding those references is not going to happen quickly.

For example, "Borges: I think that the meanings are more or less irrelevant. What is important, or the two important facts I should say, are emotion, and then words arising from emotion. I don't think you can write in an emotionless way. If you attempt it, the result is artificial. I don't like that kind of writing. I think that if a poem is really great, you should think of it as having written itself despite the author. It should flow." http://www.wooster.edu/artfuldodge/interviews/borges.htm

[Indra Kupferschmid]

The German is literally correct, I would rather leave out the "in general":
Jedes Land hat die Sprache, die es verdient.

[Dan B.]

@Eben,
The Romanian translation you have linked above is alright:
În general, fiecare ţară are limba pe care o merită.

@Ricardo,
We have a similar saying in Romania (every nation deserves its leaders).

[mili]

The Finnish translation is also ok.

[paragraph]

What, pray, is going on with Georgia here:

 

No Central European?

[Theunis de Jong]

What, pray, is going on with Georgia ..

?

 

It must be your software.

[William Berkson]

The Hebrew doesn't look right to me, but you need a native speaker...

[Frode Bo Helland]

In general, every country has the language it deserves.

Hvert land har språket det fortjener, generelt sett.

[ebensorkin]

Thanks again!

[Mark Simonson]

What, pray, is going on with Georgia here...

You most likely have an old version of Georgia installed. I noticed the same thing on my Mac. I checked and there was an up-to-date version (with all the CE characters) in /Library/Fonts/, but there was also an older version (with just the basic Latin set) in ~/Library/Fonts/, which was probably put there when I installed Office 2004. I'm not sure how the system chooses which version to use when there is more than one installed, but it was apparently using the older one. I removed the old version from ~/Library/Fonts/ and the correct Georgia characters immediately appeared on this page in the example texts above.

[afonseca1974]

Hmm... in Portuguese (like all the other languages I think) you can tranlate it in diferent ways:

"Em geral, cada país tem a língua que merece" more literally

"Normalmente, cada país tem a língua que merece" more loose...spoken

António

[vivicity]

I'm not loving the placement and phrasing of "ordinairement" for the French version.

Like with the German - it reads more naturally to just say

Chaque pays a la langue qu'il merite.

Or you could say

En general, chaque pays a la langue qu'il merite.

If you want to keep it closer to the original.