Hi, everybody
I'm translating a novel, set in South Africa, and I found those
plants, but I couldn't find the Italian equivalent of their names.
Is there anybody who can help me? Is there a website where I can go
and solve my doubts?

stinkwood = Pigeo africano?
yellowwood = (Podocarpus latifolius)
knob thorn = ?
camel thorn = ?
sweet thorn = ?
sugar bush = ?
arum = ?

Thanks in advance
Rerum

rerum schreef
Hi, everybody
I'm translating a novel, set in South Africa, and I found those
plants, but I couldn't find the Italian equivalent of their names.
Is there anybody who can help me? Is there a website where I can go
and solve my doubts?

stinkwood = Ocotea bullata
yellowwood = Podocarpus sl (incl Afrocarpus/Nageia)
knob thorn = Acacia nigrescens
camel thorn = Acacia erioloba
sweet thorn = Acacia karroo
sugar bush = Protea repens (likely other Protea spp too)
arum = probably Arum

Thanks in advance
Rerum

South Africa must be the country with the most plant books
per surface area? Should not be hard to find a few good books.
If these plants don't have established Italian names it
might be best not to translate
PvR

I'm translating a novel, set in South Africa, and I found those plants, but
I couldn't find the Italian equivalent of their names.
I recommend that you start by getting the botanical names, then inquire from an
Italian Web site. However, unless the plants have been grown in Italy, or are
known in the part of Africa that was once an Italian colony (Eritrea &
Ethiopia), they may not have Italian names. Arum denotes a huge group of
plants. You will have to be more specific about that one.


Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much
that ain't so."
Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), 1818-1885

In article ,
rerum wrote:
Hi, everybody
I'm translating a novel, set in South Africa, and I found those
plants, but I couldn't find the Italian equivalent of their names.
Is there anybody who can help me? Is there a website where I can go
and solve my doubts?

stinkwood = Pigeo africano?
yellowwood = (Podocarpus latifolius)
knob thorn = ?
camel thorn = ?
sweet thorn = ?
sugar bush = ?
arum = ?

There isn't any reason to suppose that there are standard Italian
names for most of these if they are South African plants is there? the
only one I can help you with is Arum, this is the generic name for a group
of plants which must occur in Italy - there is even an Arum italicum! Look
this up in any Italian botany book you have to hand.

Howard Clase.

If these plants don't have established Italian names it
might be best not to translate

I second that, with a proviso: you might just directly translate the English
names, e.g., Yellowwood, you could use the Italian words for "yellow" and
"wood." A better idea, IMO, is to use genus names -- in the case of the
acacias, use the word "acacia" followed by a suitable adjective, e.g., Acacia
nigrescens could be called "black" acacia.

Jie-san Laushi

Huodau lau, xuedau lau, hai you sanfen xue bulai
_____________________________________________
to email: eliminate redundancy

If these plants don't have established Italian names it
might be best not to translate

Jie-san Laushi schreef
I second that, with a proviso: you might just directly translate the English
names, e.g., Yellowwood, you could use the Italian words for "yellow" and
"wood." A better idea, IMO, is to use genus names -- in the case of the
acacias, use the word "acacia" followed by a suitable adjective, e.g.,
Acacia nigrescens could be called "black" acacia.

Jie-san Laushi

+ + +

Well, I could not disagree more about translating. That would be a very good
way to hopelessly confuse matters. Names are not logical but come into being
through unfathomable and often lengthy processes, different in each culture.

I would not care to guess how many ways there are to put yellow and wood
together. This will be different in every language and they will refer to
different woods in every language. In botanical names there are at least
four Greek words for 'yellowwood', none of which correspond to english
yellowwood.

I have a Dutch book here somewhere (which I keep as an example of how bad
things can get) which only uses translated names (bypassing even established
Dutch names). Although I am sure there is not a wood in there I am not
familiar with, in many cases it has proved impossible to find out what they
are. I can translate from Dutch back to all possible English equivalents and
then start guessing. In a few cases this helps but for others it is
hopeless.

As to the second recommendation: this comes close to the 'standardized
common names' that David Hershey already has condemned. Also there are
better than a thousand Acacia species and there are only a handful of
colors. Not to mention the fact that Acacia might be broken up (it is in the
air) and all the new 'Italian Acacia's' might get to belong to new and
differently named genera?

Actually I suppose part of the charm for an Italian reader in reading a book
set in South Africa is to encounter all the exotic place and plant names ...
PvR

Actually I suppose part of the charm for an Italian reader in reading a book
set in South Africa is to encounter all the exotic place and plant names

Okay, so you're saying, just stick the English word Yellowwood into an
otherwise Italian sentence?

I just had another idea: if this book is set in South Africa, why not try to
find out the Afrikaans or Zulu names, and use those?

Jie-san Laushi

Huodau lau, xuedau lau, hai you sanfen xue bulai
_____________________________________________
to email: eliminate redundancy

Actually I suppose part of the charm for an Italian reader in reading a
book set in South Africa is to encounter all the exotic place and plant
names

Jie-san Laushi schreef
Okay, so you're saying, just stick the English word Yellowwood into an
otherwise Italian sentence?

+ + +
Yes, does not seem too bad, does it?
+ + +

I just had another idea: if this book is set in South Africa, why not try
to find out the Afrikaans or Zulu names, and use those?

Jie-san Laushi

+ + +
That might work. Depends very much upon the perspective of the book.
English settlers, Afrikaander, or local people? The Afrikaander names are
readily available (yellowwood = geelhout, likely the english is a
translation from the Afrikaans), but there are very many local people
involved with very many different languages. This might get very involved
very easily.
PvR

arum = ?

Why didn't I think of this before... Since the setting is South Africa, could
this arum be a plant now widely grown as an ornamental 'round the world, and
known in English as "calla-lily"? The genus is Zantedeschia. If so, surely it
is grown also in Itlay, and has an italian name?

Jie-san Laushi

Huodau lau, xuedau lau, hai you sanfen xue bulai
_____________________________________________
to email: eliminate redundancy

Could be

Mabberley:
Zantedeschia, a genus of 6 spp in Araceae

Zantedeschia aethiopica: arum lilly
Zantedeschia elliottiana: yellow arum lilly
PvR

Jie-san Laushi schreef

arum = ?

Why didn't I think of this before... Since the setting is South Africa,
could this arum be a plant now widely grown as an ornamental 'round the
world, and known in English as "calla-lily"? The genus is Zantedeschia. If
so, surely it is grown also in Itlay, and has an italian name?

Jie-san Laushi

Huodau lau, xuedau lau, hai you sanfen xue bulai
_____________________________________________
to email: eliminate redundancy