I have found this to be a serious topic in most languages, and yet there is no post about it yet! How do your conpeople write an e-mail, if mails have been invented yet?
How do you write occupation titles, dates, addresses? How do you start and end a mail?
Example text below (all fictional). I tried to keep it short because many people seeem to be put off by overly long translation challenges (I personally love them tho), and yet it contains some rather difficult vocabulary and phrasing. Feel free to adjust the proper names to your conculture.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
English
From: Emilia West
To: Magnus Carlsson
CC: Gus Smith
Date: 04/25/2018
Topic: RE: New production hall in Knoxville - Project closing delay
Dear Mr. Carlsson,
Yesterday we met with your colleague Mr. Smith from accounting. We have found that the project closing has to be delayed for another month. The main reasons for that are unclear responsibilities for maintenance as well as logistics issues in the new factory which could severely impede the supply chain. Thus we cannot release the new process for production yet. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Best regards
Emilia West
Lead Project Manager
Certchrome Inc. | 26 Courtland St. | Atlanta, GA 30305 | USA
Cellphone: (404) 495-1853
emilia.west@certchrome.com
How to write an E-Mail
How to write an E-Mail
Last edited by Iyionaku on 27 Apr 2018 08:37, edited 1 time in total.
Wipe the glass. This is the usual way to start, even in the days, day and night, only a happy one.
- eldin raigmore
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Re: How to write an E-Mail
Good topic in my opinion!
Translating from your English to mine; Instead of “We have been in a meeting with ...”, I’d say “We met with ...”.
The present pluperfect progressive, or whatever to call that construction, seems awkward or something for this particular use.
I apologize for the vagueness; I couldn’t combine accuracy with precision this time.
—————————
Wouldn’t concision, as well as accuracy, also be goals for best-practice e-mail writing? Would they sometimes both outrank precision?
Could some natcultures and concultures regard “BCC”s (blind carbon copies) as extremely rude?
————————
I’ll eventually answer your question wrt my own conlangs.
Translating from your English to mine; Instead of “We have been in a meeting with ...”, I’d say “We met with ...”.
The present pluperfect progressive, or whatever to call that construction, seems awkward or something for this particular use.
I apologize for the vagueness; I couldn’t combine accuracy with precision this time.
—————————
Wouldn’t concision, as well as accuracy, also be goals for best-practice e-mail writing? Would they sometimes both outrank precision?
Could some natcultures and concultures regard “BCC”s (blind carbon copies) as extremely rude?
————————
I’ll eventually answer your question wrt my own conlangs.
My minicity is http://gonabebig1day.myminicity.com/xml
Re: How to write an E-Mail
Well, this is sort of trivial because greetings and titles don't exist in native griuskant. Moreover, anything at the From, To, Topic, Date, Address and Contact Details slots are actually in a snippet that is not within the e-mail itself (the conworld allows embedding objects across other higher N-dimensional spaces).
So, the only thing you'll get is:
griuskant (without the conscript)
zhegivas
/'ʒəgivas/
here.anything
The body of the e-mail which contains whatever your content.
So, the only thing you'll get is:
griuskant (without the conscript)
zhegivas
/'ʒəgivas/
here.anything
The body of the e-mail which contains whatever your content.
- Dormouse559
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Re: How to write an E-Mail
I'm interested in doing this challenge, but there was something I wanted to clear up before getting started:
Some notes on improving the English:
I haven't come across this term before, and I'm not sure what it means. After a Google search, I think it might be a Germanicism because most of the results are from the English-language sites of German/Swiss/Dutch companies. Does it mean "factory"?
Some notes on improving the English:
Spoiler:
Re: How to write an E-Mail
Got y'all. Adjusted the original English according to your propositions.
Yes, it means "factory". The German term "Produktionshalle" is widespread because the literal translation of factory - "Fabrik" - more closely refers to the stinking and exploitative factories in industrialism.
I have noticed that too after you mentioned it. It appears that it is incredibly widespread in German-speaking companies, but nowhere else. I filtered after the term "production hall" on all English wikipedia pages and it yielded only 40 results, half of them had a period in between (i.e.: "... Your First Impression was a Monty Hall-Art Stark Production. Hall was the series executive producer.") The remainders mostly describe the company history of relatively unknown German companies so I assume those articles have been written by Germans.Dormouse559 wrote: ↑26 Apr 2018 18:52 I haven't come across this term before, and I'm not sure what it means. After a Google search, I think it might be a Germanicism because most of the results are from the English-language sites of German/Swiss/Dutch companies. Does it mean "factory"?
Yes, it means "factory". The German term "Produktionshalle" is widespread because the literal translation of factory - "Fabrik" - more closely refers to the stinking and exploitative factories in industrialism.
Wipe the glass. This is the usual way to start, even in the days, day and night, only a happy one.
- Dormouse559
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- Location: California
Re: How to write an E-Mail
Hmm, yeah, "factory" can sometimes have similar connotations. I suppose an analog to "Produktionshalle" might be "(manufacturing) plant". In the context of an email between two people who know they're discussing a factory, "plant" would work quite well.
Well, thank you for clarifying. I'll start figuring out what the Silvish do with emails.
- Dormouse559
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Re: How to write an E-Mail
Hey, did I say I was going to start figuring out how the Silvish do emails? Well, I did start, but I never finished. Until now! So here's the answer, nearly a year later.
In this email, American business type Emilia West is doing business with Silvish business types Harlou Harloù and Ôgustou Fevrou. (Fun fact: "Magnus" is a reference to Charlemagne, so the closest Silvish equivalent of "Magnus Carlsson" is essentially "Carl Carlsson".)
Silvish
De : Emilia West
A : Harlou Harloù
CC : Ôgustou Fevrou
Data : 25/04/2018
Oddjé : RE: Neuv' uzin-a a nKnoxville - Retar d' ahhevalya de prôjé
Li Harloù,
Yê, nou-z ant retrouvé vottron collêgou li Fevrou d' lê contâbletê. Nou-z an decouver qu' l' etteu-t retardé l' ahhevalya dî prôjé pandan in moû. La rrêzoù par chà s' ajissi d' responsâbletê d' intrettyé trê clê insi que de problêmi lojistic dyun lê neuv uzî qui pourouye gravaman accablé la hwin-a lojistica. Allora nou ppoussan pas incora sortre lou neu prôches de prôdussoù. No nnou-z esscûzan par tout inconvenyan.
Cordyalaman,
Emilia West
Gouverneuza de prôjé princhepala
Certchrome Inc. | 26 Courtland St. | Atlanta, GA 30305 | USA
Portâblou: (404) 495-1853
emilia.west@certchrome.com
Tout le tralala :
Usage Notes
Header
The terminology here is based on the French format, which in turn is based on the English format, so not much of note to report. In electronic forms, it is expected for words not to decline. In normal writing, a + Harlou Harloù = a hHarlwì Harloù.
Salutation
The normal polite address is simply the person's surname preceded by a noble-gender definite article; the sex-based gender agreement should of course be decided by the referent's gender. When used without a given name, surnames agree with the referent in gender, number and case. For example, if Ms. West were addressing her email to a woman with the last name Harloù, she would open with the feminine Le Harlon-a.
Professional emails like this one don't usually have much else in terms of salutation. Her(a) "dear" exists, but it is viewed as less businesslike. If Ms. West were writing Mr. Harloù a personal email and wanted to use her with his last name, she would write Li her Harloù.
Closing
This part is also influenced by French. The most neutral form for a business email is cordyalaman "cordially". In a personal email, one could also end with amicalaman "amicably". Both are direct calques from French (cordialement, amicalement) and aren't much used outside the context of correspondence. For example, the usual way of saying "amicably" is amissâblaman.
In this email, American business type Emilia West is doing business with Silvish business types Harlou Harloù and Ôgustou Fevrou. (Fun fact: "Magnus" is a reference to Charlemagne, so the closest Silvish equivalent of "Magnus Carlsson" is essentially "Carl Carlsson".)
Silvish
De : Emilia West
A : Harlou Harloù
CC : Ôgustou Fevrou
Data : 25/04/2018
Oddjé : RE: Neuv' uzin-a a nKnoxville - Retar d' ahhevalya de prôjé
Li Harloù,
Yê, nou-z ant retrouvé vottron collêgou li Fevrou d' lê contâbletê. Nou-z an decouver qu' l' etteu-t retardé l' ahhevalya dî prôjé pandan in moû. La rrêzoù par chà s' ajissi d' responsâbletê d' intrettyé trê clê insi que de problêmi lojistic dyun lê neuv uzî qui pourouye gravaman accablé la hwin-a lojistica. Allora nou ppoussan pas incora sortre lou neu prôches de prôdussoù. No nnou-z esscûzan par tout inconvenyan.
Cordyalaman,
Emilia West
Gouverneuza de prôjé princhepala
Certchrome Inc. | 26 Courtland St. | Atlanta, GA 30305 | USA
Portâblou: (404) 495-1853
emilia.west@certchrome.com
Tout le tralala :
Spoiler:
Usage Notes
Header
The terminology here is based on the French format, which in turn is based on the English format, so not much of note to report. In electronic forms, it is expected for words not to decline. In normal writing, a + Harlou Harloù = a hHarlwì Harloù.
Salutation
The normal polite address is simply the person's surname preceded by a noble-gender definite article; the sex-based gender agreement should of course be decided by the referent's gender. When used without a given name, surnames agree with the referent in gender, number and case. For example, if Ms. West were addressing her email to a woman with the last name Harloù, she would open with the feminine Le Harlon-a.
Professional emails like this one don't usually have much else in terms of salutation. Her(a) "dear" exists, but it is viewed as less businesslike. If Ms. West were writing Mr. Harloù a personal email and wanted to use her with his last name, she would write Li her Harloù.
Closing
This part is also influenced by French. The most neutral form for a business email is cordyalaman "cordially". In a personal email, one could also end with amicalaman "amicably". Both are direct calques from French (cordialement, amicalement) and aren't much used outside the context of correspondence. For example, the usual way of saying "amicably" is amissâblaman.