[78-L] X-word puzzles and 78s

[Glenn Longwell]

Interesting, I ran into the same thing.  When I was trying to translate a bunch of Greek 78s I found that using one on-line alphabet wasn't enough as some of the variations on letters changed from the 20s to the 50s.  I'm no expert so maybe I'm missing something but it was an interesting challenge.

I was once told if you own a dictionary more than 5 years old (back when someone would actually buy one) then it's time to buy a new one.  Languages change quite a bit over time.

Glenn


________________________________
 From: Malcolm Rockwell <malcolm at 78data.com.invalid>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> 
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 12:39 PM
Subject: [78-L] X-word puzzles and 78s
 


Tying my the previous post on crossword puzzles and language even 
tighter to 78rpm discography (how obscure), when I was researching 
Hawaiian recordings made and pressed in Japan translation was ever 
problematic. Titles from the 1950s were easy to do. But the further I 
went back - to the 78rpm Nipponophone era c. 1918 or thereabouts - the 
harder translation became. The Japanese language and it's written forms 
had changed so much that I needed to find someone alive who was around 
in the 1920s to read not only kanji, but katakana. Couple that with 
trying to locate someone not only familiar with the idiomatic Japanese 
of the day but with the idiomatic English of today made my task 
virtually impossible. To translate some of the earlier language directly 
I not only would have to have learned modern Japanese, but Japanese as 
it was spoken and written in 1900.
And I thought English was bad enough!
Malcolm
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