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Tuesday, August 23, 2016

More Adventures in Getting Arabic Wrong

I've previously noted that one should Always Check with Someone Who Knows Arabic Before Posting to the Internet or getting a Tattoo.

It's even more embarrassing to find glaring errors in  a movie trailer. The Language Log linguistics blog notes that the trailer for the forthcoming science fiction film Arrival, a film which reportedly focuses in large part on alien linguistics, apparently is somewhat challenged by a major terrestrial language:

Note the text at the upper left of the screen reads:
ة ل ج ا ع   ر ا ب خ أ ;

Similarly, the text on the bottom right says:
ر ش ا ب م ل ا   ث ب ل ا

Yes, someone has failed to realize that Arabic is 1) written from right to left,  and 2) the letters are supposed to be connected.

The first is supposed to read أخبارعاجلة , urgent news or breaking news.  The second is البث المباشر , live broadcast.

Longtime readers may recall something similar from the London Olympics four years ago: "Obligatory Olympics Arabic Note: Marhaba bikum fi London, Sort of":
One would think with all the online translation tools this wouldn't keep happening.

In other Arabic news:

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