Por la Gente

A while back, frequent commenter Esploranto mentioned that it would be nice if some of the posts on the Dothraki blog could be translated into Spanish. I agreed, but didn’t feel up to the task (my writing style is too idiomatic and idiosyncratic for my Spanish to handle!), so Esploranto offerred to give it a go. He translated a couple of the early blog posts before I realized that there was no simple way to host translations. What would be perfect is if there was a button that you could click on to easily switch between the English and Spanish translations of a given blog post.

That’s when my old friend from elementary, junior high and high school stepped in. Ian Byrd (founder of ByrdSeed.com and a gifted education instructor) saw the problem and took it upon himself to create a custom WordPress plugin (which, if you’re me, sounds like nothing less than sorcery). As a results, translations can now be handled pretty much just as I described: You go to the top and click on the translation you want, and it automagically appears! (Wow. WordPress doesn’t think “automagic” is misspelled? No, wait, hang on: It thinks “automagically” is fine; “automagic”, though, gets a big fat red underline. Crazy!)

Anyway, to see it in action, you can go to my very first post and see the translation provided by Esploranto, upon whom I have conferred the Dothraki name Najahho: the victorious one. Kirimvose, zhey Najahho!

Of course, there’s no reason that the Dothraki blog need be translated only into Spanish. Any and all translations are welcome—including conlang translations! It’s pretty easy to add a language to the plugin, so I can expand the list to include whatever I want. If you’d like to translate a Dothraki blog post, just send the translation in a plain text e-mail to me (or attach a .txt file). If possible, please keep the HTML in tact (it will simplify my job greatly). Provided it looks okay, I can just paste it right in and we’ll be set! Oh, but do include the phrase “Translated by [your name]” in your language to append to the end, and if you’d like me to link to your website, include a link for me and I’ll add it.

Just one note before leaving the topic: Right now the plugin has one kink in it which has broken the right-hand navigation slightly. All the options are there, but they’re not as neat as they were. Ian’s working on a fix, and when we get it, we’ll be sailing.

If it’s morning where you are when you’re reading this, it means that I’m on a plane headed to Seattle for NorWesCon. Can’t wait! If you’re in the Seattle area, come give me a shout. Otherwise…three days. Tick tock.

11 comments

  1. Wow! I’ve just tried the plug-in, it’s great! Really it feels as you said “nothing less than sorcery”, haha. What a neat solution, I’m happy something could be done about it :)

    Thanks for my new Dothraki name! How convenient for me that it starts with N as well as my actual name, hehe. I hope the translation proves helpful to Spanish-speakers eager to read the blog.

    Well, thanks for the opportunity and I will be working on more translations to come! :)

    1. I don’t believe he’s submitted it to the WP plugin search site, so currently it has no website. I’ll ask him about it, and if worse comes to worse, I’ll email it to you.

  2. Hey David, I’d like to volunteer to add a French translation to the mix :) Maybe I’m just being highly unresourceful at not finding this, but due to the popularity of the show it would make a lot of sense if your e-mail address wasn’t just transparently displayed on the site…. in any case, where should I send the text to you? Btw I think it’s so awesome that you’re keeping this blog and just chilling with the conlanging community, despite your sort of celebrity status. thanks! Anyway hope I can be of help :)

    1. Maybe I’m just being highly unresourceful at not finding this, but due to the popularity of the show it would make a lot of sense if your e-mail address wasn’t just transparently displayed on the site…

      Did you mean “was”? I’m very careful about listing my e-mail because (and only because) of spam. If you just put your e-mail address on some site, in a week you’ll be getting 50 spam e-mails a day. I list my e-mail address here, because I’ve got a little PHP script that blocks basically 95% of the spambots. Not that hard to find, though.

      Anyway, feel free to send a translation! Just preserve all the html (including the paragraph tags).

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