Alsatian Language Translation

by Ben
(South Carolina, USA )

Hello,
I am hoping to find someone who can translate English to Alsatian.
Can you help me?

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What is the Alsatian Language
by: Suzele

Hi Ben,

Is it possible to translate English to Alsatian?

Without knowing anything about what you want to translate...the answer is yes.

Probably.

There's something you need to know about the Alsatian language. It's not A language. It's many many many many different dialects.

And it's a language that is spoken. Not really written. Sure...you can write it down, but it doesn't have a formal spelling.

The vocabulary changes from one town to the next in many cases. The pronunciation changes too.

And when you are writing Alsatian, you basically sound it out. The way you might write a southern US accent or a Boston accent.

Except in this case, they aren't accents. They are dialects with more differences.

Another challenge that I find when I'm reading Alsatian...the people who write it are from Alsace (and if we're being inclusive, we can add in parts of Switzerland, Southern Germany and Austria at least).

They don't all speak exactly the same version of Germanic dialect, but they speak close cousins of Alsatian.

And guess what, they are going to use different letters to sound it out on paper. Not the same letters that an English speaker would use.

So you might think a word sounds one way when it really sounds a different way (at least to this one person in this part of Alsace).

Alsatian is a language to hear and speak.

It just doesn't have the same effect on paper.

Can it be done?

Sure.

But it's kinda like trying to write out music using the alphabet.

Did I mention that Alsatian has a rhythm to it?

It has a melody to it even.

If you're looking for an expression, you could do it. But the more Alsatian words you want to put on paper, the more complicated it gets.

And it's an old language. So many modern expressions won't exist.

Hope it helps (or at least gives you a better idea of what you can do with it),
Suzele

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