| Abstract [eng] |
Along several centuries hundreds of books were written in Florentine vernacular language. The latter, however, is not easy to understand even for native Italian speakers. In 2016-2018 the author created a PC software which provides the possibility to automatically translate entire texts from Florentine vernacular language, as it is found in the literature, into modern Italian language. In this article the author intends to describe the phases of the realization of this software as well as the results of its use. The software in its dictionary currently includes about 25 000 definitions of the vernacular language (where “definitions” mean the presence of terms or phrases in vernacular literature that are replaced in the respective terms and phrases of modern Italian). Numerous studies over the years have demonstrated the limitations of machine translation, often using the error rates of translation software. Even translators that use complex algorithms created with statistical methods frequently end up generating unreliable results, sometimes questioning the very usefulness of translation software. However, if used with the necessary precautions, automatic translators can simplify a job or can help in understanding of texts even for those who know little or no foreign languages. The translator described in this article, although not immune from the defects of machine translation, can be useful both to scholars of Italian literature of past centuries, as well as to those who, while knowing Italian, want to approach texts that cannot be fully understood without the support of footnotes. |
