CA1307591C - Method of using a created international language as an intermediate pathway in translation between two nation languages - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A method of using a created international language as an intermediate pathway in translation between two national languages, wherein the first language is translated into the created international language, the latter serving as a bridge, which is then translated into the second language.
In the present method there are interpretive steps rather than a strict word for word translation, without interpretation, which has proven falacious in the past.

Description

- 1 3075'~1 210617 ~%O~ Q~
USINÇ A CREATED INTE~NATIoN~ A~9c~L~ oL-LLu~ E
PATHw~
T ~ 5LATION BETw~E~ Q--~A~ioNAL LANGUAGE~

The present invention r~late to the translation o~
document~ having a source toxt written $n any OnQ 0~ a.
plurality o~ national languages being translated in~o a text that i5 written in any ona o~ a plurality of ~acond targe~
national languages by utilizing a created in~ernational language as an intermediate pathway between the two cho en national languages.
The desire of various nationalities speaking differsnt language3 to readily converse has been ever present in the history of humanity. There are about 3,000 known language~ in th~ world ~the number varie~ according to what i~ counted as a language; dialects that are cleaxly ~us~ that ar~ not includ~d : in this number), and each is th~ vehicle o~ a culture that i9 different in at least som~ way~ from any other culture. The learning and t~aching of languages, the recordiny of languag2s in intercultural communication are matters o~ primary importance. Languages have had to be taught and learned for centuries. ~verywhere, when spea~er of different langua~es have CQme in contact, somebody had to learn a foreign language. There have always been individuals who found it interesting or profitable to do this~ The earliest o~
explorars and traders wer~ forced by nec~ssity to l~arn to ~' `
1 3~7591 undorstand on~ anoth~r'~ languago or to perish ln tho ~conomic a~ w~ll a~ the phy~lcal world~. Thi~, a~ we all know, re~ulted in extensive and lsng languag~ studies wlth thQ erudlte academicians handling ths complex aspects o~ th~
OS communications exchange, whlle th~ mor~ pragmatic day-to-day trader3 and businessmen dev~loped ~hort ter~e mean3 o~
communication. A need aro~e to ~atlsfy ~he requirement~ o~ an exact but easy mean~ for corr~pondencQ between lay persons and small businessmen.
Small, handheld, phrass book~ proli~era~ed to facllltate phonetic intercourse by visiting tourists and servicemQn.
Unfortunately, the phonics in these booklet~, a~ well a~ thelr limited scope, limit~d the amount o~ intercourse pos~ibla.
Small dictionaries that permitted word to word translation were available but unfortuna~ely they did not provid~ a mean~
for transposing words to give a mora accurate grammatical rendition in the target language. Variation~ on the~ item9 became avallable upon the appearance o~ th~ liquid and gaseou~
cxystal readout devic~s which permitt~d storag~ Oæ a limited vocabulary o~ words and thelr direct kranslatable equlvalent~
in a phonic form. Here again, ths limited capacity dld not permit the introduction of adequate grammatical improvement of syntax.
The advent of the personal ComputQrS and the microprocessors has brought a ~lood of approaches to the patent offices around the world. The devices have ranged from direct word for word tran~lation devices to key word translation directly into phrase For example, a word to word translation device can be ~ound in U.S. Letter~ Patent No.

1 3~)75ql ~, 502 ,12~, TRANSh~TION BXTW2~M NATtJRA~ ~NGUAG~, thi~ patQnt being dl~ct~d to an inputtlng o~ a ~ent~nc~ de~crlb~d by a ~ir~t natural langua~ bein~ ~Actloned into individual word~.
Parts o~ speech corre~pondin~ to the~e individual word3 ar~
oS ratrieved fro~ a lexical word storage, wher~by th~ input sent~nc~ i5 described by a corresponding ~trlng o~ the part~
o~-~peech a~ retrieved. A tran~lation pattQrn tabl~ pr~viously prepax~d compare~ ~tring~ o~ parkR-o~-spQ~ch ~or th~ gixst natural languaga with tho~ o~ th~ ~cond l~ngu~g~ and lo tran~form~ the first string~ o~ parts o~-~peech into ~tring~
o~ part~ o~-speech of th~ second languag~. Th~ output sentence de cribed by t~e ~econd natural languag~ i~ gQne~rat~d by sequencing target words ln accordance with tha sequ~nt~al order of the parts of speech of the string patt~rn obtain~d after th~ transformation. Thls i~ a complex procedure at be~t.
U.S.Letter~ Pat~nt No~. 4,412~305; 4,541,069 4,439,836 and 4,36~,315 relate to tran lation devic~ wh~x~ln a ~inglo word i3 us~d as the input to produca tho translation o~ ~ntiro group~ o~ word~, such a~ ~ntanco$ or phrases; a ~ingl~ word enterad wlll access particular sentences withln llmited sub~ct categories: letter~ within words or groups o~ words produces an equivalency detectable by a comparl~on circuit resulting in the represQntation in a second language o~ a plurality of words regardles~ o~ whether it i~ a noni~flected word or an inflected word; and phra~e~ can be tisd to computer specified aural or visual control m~s~age~ for us~ by an operator who chooses to use a particular languayQ in the operation of a machine tool. Similarly, alphabetical acces~ing to an elec~ronic ~ranslator can b~ accomplishe~ by ~tor$ng ~ 1 307591 addres~ code~ with each word, a~ in U.9.Patenk 4,541,069; as well a~ utilization o~ a y~t~ ~or automatically hyphQnating and verigylng the sp~lling o~ woxd~ in a multi-llngual document can be carried out undsr U.S.Patent 4,456,969.
05 ~9 can be seen from tudy o~ ~h~ pr$or ar~ r~erences, generally found in U~SoCl~ 3~4~900~ a d$rec~ tran~latlon ~ro~
on~ natural languagQ to anothar natural languag~ ha~ a ~ultiplicity o~ roadblock , eith2r in th~ lack o~ an available direct translation or in ~a~or gram~a~ical probl~ms du~ to languag~ structure or in tho rQlative ~ag~ o~ d~velopmont Or one of the language3.

SUMMARY OF TH~ INVENTION
Tha present invention ralates to th~ tran~lation between two natianal language~ by the utilization o~ an lnte~mediate step or pathway o~ ~ranslatlng into a created lnternational languago ~rom the first or ~ourc~ national langua~e and th~n tran~la~ing from the creatQ~ international language into th~
s~cond or ~arg~t national languags.
Such a transl~tisn is r~var~ible in elth~r direction and can accommod~t~ tran~latlon fro~ onQ national langua~Q into the cr~atQd international languaga and then ~ran~late into a multiplicity of second national languages from the created international language text.
By utilization of a created international language lntermediate path, it simplifie~ translation. Since most created international language~ only have regular verb~ t the irregulax verb problem i~ eliminated in th~ initial tran~lation by all verb being mad~ regular or shunt~d aside -''" ' 1 3075ql into a secondary tran~latlon operation a~tsr ~11 othQr tr~n~l~tlon ha~ b~en acco~plish~d, It ~u~t ba recogniz0d that, whil~ th~ t0~ "creatsd internatlonal langua~" or "arti~iclal languag~ u~ed o5 hor~in, this invention cont~pl~t~ a~ w~ll the utllization o~
alpha~tlc, num~rlc, alph~nu~eric, ~ymbollG (or any combin~tion o~ thes~) that relat~ to a compre~s~d vocabula~y and/or ~yntax (or a non-co~pr~ d vocabulary) but wlth each having a ~impl~ied and regular grafflmar.
lo Redundancy i~ generally ovsrcom~ by ell~inating prepositlonal phrase~ and inf lnitiv~0 It allows ~ cholc~ o~
thQ i~plistic approach a~ w~ll as a broad~r ~or~ poll~h~d path, but both o~ which employ accuracy in moYem~nt b~tw~n thQ two national language Th~ use of parsQ and ~lag~ to numerically ke~p traoX of thQ ~entence being worked on al~o expedite~ th~ operatlon o~
th~ mathod.
BRIEF DESC~IP~ION OP T~ DRAWING
Fig. 1 is a diagramatic ~howlng o~ the utilization o~ a created int~rnational languago, tha exampl~ utillze~ Esperanto although others could be u3ed, a~ an intermedia~a pathway in translating between ~wo national languages7 and Fig.2 is a block diagram showing a schematic arrangement o~ the flow of information within a computer under the method of th~ present invention and can b~ re~erred to in ~ollowing th~ de~cription that ~ollow~O

`` - 1 3075ql VESCRIPTION OF THE ~REFERRED EM~ODI~ENT
Thl~ invs~tion contemplate~ thQ usage o~ a comput~r, 3uch a~ an ~ ^ PC, that utllize~ MS-DOS and i~ capabl~ o~
acc~pting 8ASIC as well a~ other program~ing language3, such 05 a~ C/P~, Ass~bler languag~, Cobol, Fortr~n, or any oth2r compatible computer language. Other so~tware such as compilsrs plu8 other speed enhancing arrange~snt~ can b~
utilized in subroutines as well as in thQ ~aln ~r~am o~ thl~
m~thod.
10As was indicated above, thi~ method o~ tran~lation batween two na~ional language~ includes the st~p of utilizing a created international language bridge, whereby any on~ o~ a pl-~rality of national languageq can be compatibly translatQd into the chosen created international language and, then~ can be translated from the created international languag~ into any chosen one o~ a plurality of national languages . Ther~ are several such "crea~ed'3 international languagas, the most - common o~ which is Esperanto created in the 1880's by Dr.
Ludovic La~arus Za~enhof ~1859-1917) o~ Poland~ It contains a precompre~d vocabulary (roughly one~tenth tha number o~
words as Engl~sh) and a completely simpll~ied and regular grammar. Thi~ eliminates the need for many complex mathematical statements to account ~or ~he gra~matical differences between existing national languages. While other created international languages, for example, Inter Lingua, Modified Esperanto, or Volupuk, could be used, the present disclosurs utilizes Esperanto. It must be recognized tha , while the term ~created in~ernational language" or "arti~icial languag~" is used herein, th~s invention contemplate~ a~ well ?5 ~ Q ~rK

; ~ 0 7 5 9 1 tho utlllz~tlon o~ alphabetic, num~ic, alphanum~ric, symbollc ~or any co~b~ination oX the~e3 that relates to a compr~ssad vocabulary and/or ~yntax (o~ a non-Gompre~sed vocabulary) but with each o~ these having a 3impli~ied and regular grammar.
05 Ther~ are Espexanto textbook~ available in 80me ~ y language~. Th~ two national languages us~d in the illu~trak~d embodiments of this specificatio~ ar~ ~ngli~h and Ger~an, however, thQ method can b~ succe~sfully utilizad with a multitude o~ other languag~, i . Q., Japan~e, ~anl3h, French, Russian, and Ch$nese. Addi~ionally; most all languags~
arQ compatible with an intermad~ata simpllfled and regulariz~d language, one of which i~ Esp~ranto, and th~y could b~ readily adapted for use with this method. It must be realized that, by util~zing Esperanto as the intermediate pathway b~twQen th~
two national languages, the m~thod i~ reverRible and the translation from language A to languag~ B can go in the opposito direction, from language B to languag~ A, wlth e~ual ~acility, see Fig.l.
A multiplz languagQ dictionary data basQ, inaluding Esperanto, was prepared and plac~d on a limitad acce~ di3k:
along wlth other subroutine~, thak can b~ acce~sed by computer, are provided and called upon to smooth out the tran~lation a~ it progres ~. It should be recognized that it is not only possible, but also acc~ptable, in certain circumstances, to utiliz~ the simplistic approach o~
tran31ating from a base national language in~o Esperanto and then directly into the target national language. This o~ten produce~ an elementary kype of resulting languagQ that i5 totally acceptable in instances where the recipient o~ the document i~ not lingui3ticall~ ~ophi~tlcatad, or whet0 th0 m~ag- being conveyed do~ nc~t requir~ addltlonal nuance,~ 9 Thi~ 1~ o~t~n utillz~d to gr~ k advantage ln br~Q~ o~rs and acceptances in cornmercial tran~aation~, whers on0 party ordar~
05 a ~p~ci~ic quantity o~ a pxoduc:t having a g~neril~ nam~
util ized in both languag~ and tha ~cond party mer~ly conrirm~ availability and d~livery in~or~ation, It ~180 i~
o~ten readlly acceptable in tha ~cientific c:o~anity.
The niceties requir~d in ~ocial in~ercour~e, how~v~r, can be~ supplied by th~ application o:e tha otll~r subroutin~ shown in abbreviated ~lowchart form in Flg. 2, and which aro described now in mor~ detall.
An operator ma}ce~ a choice ~ ~rom an apprs:~priat~ ~tarting menu, of the national language that will be used in entering the text that is to be ~ranslated. From a keyboard ter~inal, the source text in the chosen language, in this ~xample English, is introduced into the comput~r and placad in a created text fil~.<ENGTXT~ (It should bQ noted that the language of the boxes in tho flow chart o~ Fig~2 will b~
utilized in the description o~ each o~ the ct~ps in this mQthod) When the text has been fully enter~d into the text flle it i9 then operated upon and parsed into indlvidual sentences with each sentence being plaaed in it own file.<SENPARSE>
Each of the individual sentenc~ file~ is preferably "flaggPd" whereby it i~ numerically kept track of, thereby aiding the computer in ascertaining which sentence it is working onl as well as providing a return point of a loop for operation on succe~siv~ ~ sent~nce~ <SENROUTl~. (In th~

- 1 3075~1 ~lowchart o~ Fig. 2 th~ ter~ "TEX~ whim~ically 3hown a~
being broken up into lndlvidual parts arld includ~ an addltior~al on~ lndlcated a~ "n+~" which would indica~3 thalt all o~ th~ sentences had b~n handl~d and th~ co~put~r would 05 then proceed to tha steps leading ~o 'lend'l. ) With the text par~ed into lndividual s~nkence~ and properly flagged, the individual words are tran~lated ~rom the original text language, Engll~h, lnto Esperanto to ~orm the strea2nline intermediate pathway. Each individual word i8 assigned a grammatical tag as it is b~ing tran~lated. All irrsgular verbs in Engllsh are "smoothed out'~ into r~gular ending Esperanto verb ending~. Slnce E~p~ranto U8~S on~-tanth the number of words that are found in the English voca~3ulary tho numb r of " lookups" in tha electronic data base is drastically reduced. ~he dictionary data ba~e~ a~ was previously noted, is provided with limited access whereby introduction of special word~ that havo a highly repeated volum~ of u~age or which ar~ o~ a speclalized nature, i.e., medical, cientific, or restrictQd com~ercial, can undor proper clrcumstanc2~ and procedures h~ added to th~
dic~ionary.
Continuing this translation, it i~ placed in a temporary ~ile until the entire sentencQ being acted upon is completely translated into the intermediate language~
The next step is ~or the GOmpUter to access another sector of the electron~c dictionary data base ~or the transla~ion of all interm~diat~ pathway ERperanto words (except verbs) in~o the target language equivalentR, in th~s ~xample tha target language is ~erman .

.

All o~ the re~naining untranslated wOr~l8, namely, the verba, ~ tran~lated i~o taEget language verb root, excep1;
~or the verb ~nding. The pro~ram than make~ u~o o~ ar~if'icial pr2sent/past/~uture ending~ whlch impo~ a regularity on 05 "lxregular" verb 3ystems. lt al30 s~r~es to con~ugate ~Iregular~ verbs. Fox example, the G~man verb ~cheAIt (t~ ~eo) is r~ndered a~ "seha~" ~th~ "-a~ the Esperanto endiny), ther~ore, all o~ ths Gerrnan verbs ar~ artl3~iclally regularized ~or now .
Each sentence then is paxsed into individual word~, ~ach being prererahly a~signed their own tempoxary fil~
A~ter each sentenced is par~d, th~ program Dlay t~rmlnzlta by utilizing the path to th~ far left in Fig. 2 and proc~sd ~olely on the basis o~ thQ translation ~rom th6~ ~ource 15 languags into the intermediatQ pathway l~nguaga and thence into the target languags. A8 ha~ be~n pr~v:Lou~ly indicats3d, th~rQ ara circumstance~ wher~ such a tran~latlon i~ totally adequat~ and ha~ th~ advantag~ o~ speed. If, howev~r, a mor~
re~ined lnterpre~akion i~ required ~hen ~he program p~ovide~ a 20 plurality o~ alternative subroutine~ which can be called up ~or actlon on the par~;~d s~nt~ncsO Thera 1~ no important ord~r or sequ~nc~ in which the~e subroutlne~ must bo u~d. Fuxl:her, it i~ not mandatory that each o~ them be used in the smoothing process since it is conceivable thak, due to structure of the 2s target language, i~ might not require or permit the application of a particular subroutine.
It is important to remember that sach time an individual word is transformed, or as::ted upon in any ~a~hic:n~ it is r~placed in its sen~enca a~ t~ snd Or ~he sub~ou'cine then . lQ

- , .

1 -~075~ 1 being utiliz0~. Similarly, th~ order ~t ~Qrth in thl~

dQscriptiv~ m~t~rlal i~ not controlling o~ the ultim~te ord~r o~ use, nor does it a~eat th~ outco~ anticip~ted.
~oing ~orward with th~ transl~tlon, th~ pars~d ~entenc~
05 may proceed to the subroutinQ wherQ thQ ~iRcellan~ous gra~ar program moves th~ position o~ word3 w~thin the tran~late~
sent~nce, where nece~sary, or, conjugate~ irx~gular v~rb~, or, deals wlth "ona-o~a-kind" ~ituation~ pQculiar to th~ target languag~, in this example ~erman.
In certain language~ there ~xi~ a sy~te~ o~ ca~e~, meaning, certain words will appear di~ferently by tham~elVQ~9 or will change the manner in whi~h "surroundlng~ word~ (~u~h a~ ad~ectives) ar~ used in coniuncti~n wlth ~uch word~. Th~se "Casas" can be applied, whera n2cessary, for a particular language.
Ad~ectives are deGlined according to thQ rule~ o~ th~
target (German) language, based upon preposition~ encounkered in a particular phra~e, and the noun ~ollowing. Thl~
accomplished through th~ u8e of contQxt recognition, which i5 utilized in another o~ the steps avallable herein.
An infinitives program ~not shown) res~ores verb.s to thoir "dictionary" format, as reguired; in the target (German) language, for example, "to go"--~"zu gehen" becomes just "gehen". The "z~ "to" is redundant for purposes of thi~
invention.
An adverb program acknowledge~ the idiosyncra~ie of variou~ languages and shift~ adverb~ around ver~s in the fa~hion of the chosen targ~t language: e.g. "~e speak~

1 3075~1 ~luently~ "H~ ~luently ~p~a~",.. 7 etc~ Thl~ nother poll~hing op~ra~ion availablo in thl~ m~thod.
~h~r~ o~ten are di~rent varb con~ugations that aro uniqu~ to the target languag~ (both in "regular" a~ well a~
05 "irregular" verbs). Instead- o~ haviny an astrono~ic~l n~mber o~ irregular verbs in th~ original lan~uag~ that mu~t b~
match~d to an exce~slv~ nu~ber o~ verb~ in th~ t~rg~t languag~, thi~ i~ an ar~a wh~r~ th~ lntermedla~e pathway languag~, in thi~ ~bod~snt, E~p~ranto, saY~s tl~ and comput~r memory ~tora~e spa~ in tha~ the combinakion~l possibilitie~ are reduced by going through the "regular"
E~peranto verb stage. To provid~ smoother text, howav~r, thi~
subxoutin~ can be utilized to handle the verb con~ugation~ in tha target national language .
lS Quite often a pronoun will change based upon context, for example, i~ the pronoun i~ "doing'l ~omething it will dl~fer from the same pronoun that lg ~belng acted upon~. The context evaluation and correctlon will b~ handled in th~ subroutlnQ
designated Pronoun Shift~.
As sort o~' a sentry or watchdog the sub rcutinQ
~SENROUT2>, in the pr~s~nt method, checks th~ "~lag"
p~viou~ly gen~rated in "SENROUT1~ and decide3 where to go,i.~O,to do another SentQnc~ or, to go on toward. "end", in the Menu, if there are no more ~entenca~ to do ~
All of the sentences can be individually collected in a single temporary ~ile where th~ final document i5 recomposed ~entence by sentence in tha target lan~uage, all within the samo ~ . (It must b~ remembered that thi~ could be de lgnated "RUSSIAN'~ or any oth0r natlonal language that i9 12 ' s~xving a~ th~ target languagQ) ~his ~ can also be u~d 1 th~ final tran~lation t~r~lna~d wikh the tran~latlon ~ro~
Eep~ranto to kh~ target languag~ without utilizing any o~ the "~ina tuning'l subroutine~ discu~d abov~.
os In the flnal sub-rout~ne o~ the method, khl3 step ~trips o~f any grammatical tag~ ac~umulated during tha tra~latlon/interpretation proce~s and can, i~ desired, ~print~ the word of ~ach sQntence~
The document i~ now available, optionally, ~or a ~inal viewing in the taryet (G0rman~ languag~, and~ it da~ired, ~or ~inal manual editing prior to hard copy printing.
The final optional printing operatlon p~rmlt~ a choic~ o~
printing ~Ihard copy" of eith~r or both th~ original national languags source text and th~ target national language text.
Files çan be preserved in cho3en subdirectorle and/or can be ~dited and interfaced with compatibl~ word proces~ing programs prior to possibl~ ~iling in a cho~en ~ubdirectory. ~hQ program r~turns the user to ~h0 Menu in preparatisn ~or th~ next tran~lation.
As was previously indicated, two o~ th~ optional step~
were not inter~ac~d with the program described, T~es~, once again, are subroutine~ or ~ileB that may provide additional smoothing out of the final translation. The first of these optional steps in the method would further re~ine the initial input by a series of files which would sequentially~ i) immediately parse sentence~ into individual word file~, ii) such parsing would not only translate words into the created international language a~ each word is en~ered in~o its individual ile, bu~, algo, i~ would add a grammatical ~ag on ' - 1 3075ql each word, e.~. "you"---"PN:y~u PN; " ~PN ~ pronoun3; ill) thl~
i~ ~as~ on word~ b~or~a or a~tar, d~t~rmln~ a word is a noufl or værb. Thi~ i~ a cont~ dQt3xmin~r that ba~cally i~ a ~orm o~ "artlficlal intelli~ence~ and re~ir~ an in~dQpth 05 arsaly~i~, with multitudinou~ exampll3~ to bQ checlc~ad ag~in~, o~ the context being act~d upon .
Tho o1:h~r optional operation tak~ plac~ in tr~ting th~
acco3npii~hed tran~lation by taking car~ o~ th~ E:n~ h languag~ p~culiarity o~ h~vlnq ~or~ o~ "to do" or l'do'a in 10 front o~ v~rbs, (e.g. I do go ~ I go/ I did go ~ ~ werlt) .
Whi LG these xe~inelu~ntss ar~ o~1:on d~irabl~ in ~o~
nicetles, they aro not ~andatory ~eor simplla corr~ t communlcation, but rather mer~ly show an in depth knowl~d~s o~
tho nuance~ o~ the 1 anguagoO In certain in3tance~ th~ can bs 15 o~ great help from a social prestlq~ posltion, howeYer~ the day tc~ day dealings can probably be handled quite as e~ectivsly without bowlng to the add~d tim~3 paramet~r re~ulr3d for theso re~in~ments and obtain th~ ~ame e~:elcacy thxough use o~ tho abbrevlatle3d direc:t inter~odiate pathway 2 0 created language tran~lation .
Furth~3r, it i~ contemplated that this method can be inter~aced with various types o~ ~ynthesizers , e . g ., whereby keyboard~ can be interfaced ~hrough computers ~o modems and where the typing of text will be translated into spoken word 25 for transmis~ion to the recipient, or, voice recognition can ~2 combined with phone modems , e . g., automatic translation of comrers~tion~ into ei~her written, voice-synthesized transl~tion or other elec~ronic r~pre~enta~ion. $hl~ could b~
a r~vsr~ibl~ procedura i~ ~h~ recipi~n~ had th~ sa~e p~ogra~

- 1 3075~1 at hl~ end, or altexnativ~ly, it could be received ln printed ~o~ s~n th~ output CRT when r~c~ivQd over ~ mod~m int~r~aced wlth a ~put~r.
Utilization o~ the m~tho~ can b~ applied in co~mercial 05 si~uatlon~ by an inter~a~e o~ a compu~er with mod~m-typ~
coIIununlcation lines and where deslred reponsQ~ could bs made in th~ sender ' 8 national language and tran~lated by th~3 csmputer to b~ transmitted over ~h~ com~unication lin~ th4 nat~onal target languag~ o~ thel recipient. It i~ corlt~plat~d 10 that thQ written document could b~ synth~lzed into a synthe3ized voice translatlon or vice ver~
interchang2abl~.
Other examples and modi~icatlons of the method and apparatu set forth herein will b~ apparent to tho~e ~killed 15 in th~ art, but it is my desire to be limited only by the 5cope 0~ my appended claim~.

Claims (29)

1. A universal machine method implemented on a data processing device utilizing a data base for performing interpretations between any one of a plurality of first national source languages and into any one of a plurality of second national target languages comprising:
a first step of storing a source text in said any one first national language in an electronic storage means as a first text file;
said first step including a first substep that parses said source text into individual sentences, with each sentence in its own separate subfile;
a second step of interpreting said sentences into a created internationally universal language which serves as an intermediate pathway, as the words making up said sentences are translated into the created internationally universal language, they are entered into individual files consisting of the word plus a grammatical syntax tag, such tag consisting of a designation of the word's grammatical posture, i.e., noun, pronoun, verb, adverb ... etc., and a third step of interpreting said tagged wards from said created internationally universal language into any one of said second natural national target languages; said interpretation steps being totally reversible within said intermediate pathway of said universal international language, there being no requirement of reworking of said intermediate pathway language to accommodate changes in source or target languages.

2. A machine method of performing reversible interpretations according to claim 1 wherein the selection of the grammatical tag is based upon the syntax relationship of the tagged word with the words positioned before or after the tag word and, an artificial intelligence is provided in said data base and capable of being consulted to utilize data sources means for determination of said grammatical tag based on usage within said sentences.

3. A machine method of performing reversible interpretations according to claim 2 wherein the interpretation into said target language is subjected to a plurality of secondary programs in said data base to analyze and adjust said words within said sentences based on their grammatical tags.

4. A method of performing reversible interpretations according to claim 3 wherein said interpreted and adjusted sentences are subjected to declination of adjectives according to construction rules of the target language and based upon prepositions encountered in the phrase being subjected to examination and the position of the following noun, based on context recognition in said data storage.

5. A method of performing reversible interpretations according to claim 4 wherein said interpreted sentences, as previously adjusted, are subjected to an adverb and verb program, said adverbs, if any, being shifted around verbs according to the common preference in the target language, said verbs being conjugated in accordance with the unique conjugations of the target language morphology, the created international universal language having saved time and memory space by regularizing the verbs in initial translation, thereby elimination the requirement for an unusually high number of irregular verbs in the first national language being matched to an excess number of irregular verbs in the target national language.

6. A method of performing reversible interpretations according to claim 5 wherein the interpretations of the words in each sentence into the target national language are collected and then recomposed line by line into a document in the target national language; and the grammatical tags are then removed.

7. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 1 wherein said created internationally universal intermediate pathway language is chosen from a list consisting of at least; Esperanto, Inter Lingua, Modified Esperanto, Volupuk, or any alphabetic, numeric, alphanumeric, symbolic or combination thereof that is related to a compressed vocabulary and syntax but with a simplified and regular grammar.

8. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 1 wherein all irregular verbs in the first national language are transformed into regular verb endings within said created internationally universal language.

9. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 8 wherein all created internationally universal language words are translated into the target language except for verbs.

10. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 9 wherein the remaining words, namely verbs, are translated into the target natural language with artificial endings which makes them regular.

11. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 1 wherein each said text subfile is provided with a flag adapted to assist in keeping track of which subfile is being worked on and said flags of the subfiles are checked to determine whether there are further sentences to be worked upon.

12. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 11 wherein if all sentences have been worked upon and translated the translated sentences in the target language are collected and the source text is recomposed into sentences in the target second national language.

13. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 12 wherein the national target language translation is displayed on-screen to permit final manual editing prior to printing.

14. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 13 wherein a printed copy of the translation may be provided after said final editing, if any.

15. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 1 wherein the selection of the grammatical tag is based upon the relationship of the tagged word with the words before or after, and artificial intelligence is provided and consulted to utilize data source means for determination of said grammatical tag based on usage.

16. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 10 wherein the translation into said target natural language is subjected to a plurality of secondary programs in said data base to analyze and adjust said words within the sentences based on their grammatical tags.

17. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 16 wherein said translated and adjusted sentences are subjected to declination of adjectives according to construction rules of the target language and based upon prepositions encountered in the phrase being subjected to examination and the position of the following noun, based on context recognition in said data base storage.

18. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 17 wherein said translated sentences, as previously adjusted, are subjected to an adverb and verb program, said adverbs, if any, are shifted around verbs according to the common preference in the target language, said verbs being conjugated in accordance with unique conjugations of the target language, the created internationally universal language having saved time and memory space by regularizing the verbs in initial translation, thereby elimination the requirement for an unusually high number of irregular verbs in the first national language being matched to an excess number of irregular verbs in the target national language.

19. A machine method of performing translations according to claim 18 wherein the translations of each sentence into the target language is collected in a single file and then recomposed line by line into a document in the target national language.

20. A device for reversible translation of one national language into a second national language, including a keyboard for input of source text in said one national language, a computer to accept said input, interpretive dictionary data base means including data on said one national language and data on said second national language as well as data on a created internationally universal intermediate pathway language, means for directing said source text input into a single file, means for parsing each sentence of said text into independent files and applying a syntax identifier to each said sentence, means for translating said one national language into said intermediate pathway of said created internationally universal language and translating from said internationally universal language into said second national

21 language, means for collecting the translated sentences in the second national language in a single file and subsequently recomposing said last mentioned translated sentences, if needed, into a completely translated document, and means for providing output of at least visually displayed copies of said translated text.
21. A device of the type contemplated in claim 20 wherein said computer includes syntax data means for recomposing said translated text to accommodate irregular verbs, proper placement of adverbs and pronouns in accordance with accepted grammatical practice in the second national language.

22. A device of the type contemplated in claim 20 wherein said copy of the initial source language text as well as the translated target language text may be printed into a hard copy.

23. A universal language interpretive data processing device including means for accepting a string of words in normal succession in a first natural language, means for separating individual words that have but on meaning and immediately interpreting such words into an internationally universal manmade intermediate language, separating the remaining words and subjecting them individually to syntax means for carrying out a relational examination relative to their disposition and association with other words in said string to establish each of their categories, i.e., noun, verb, adjective, adverb ...
etc., and then to interpret them in proper context to said intermediate language, reversible operational means for then carrying out the interpretation from said intermediate language to one of several natural target languages, said operation being totally reversible, whereby said device is capable of carrying out an interpretation from any one of said several target languages to said first natural language as well as to or from any of the other target languages without reworking of said intermediate internationally universal language pathway to accommodate changes in source or target languages of said interpretive device.

24. A universal machine method adapted to be implemented on a data processing device utilizing a data base for performing reversible translations of selected input text between any one of a plurality of first national source languages into any one of a plurality of second national target languages, including:
a first step of storing a first source text in any one of a plurality of national languages in a storage means as a first source text file;
a second step of translating said first source national text file into a created internationally universal intermediate language which serves as a totally reversible intermediate pathway, and storing said translation into said internationally universal intermediate language in a second text file; and a reversible third step of translating said second text file from said created internationally universal language into any one of said plurality of second national target languages, said reversible translations capable of being carried out without reworking said intermediate pathway of said created internationally universal language with each new source or target language, thus the translation is totally reversible and can go from language A to language B, as well as from language B to A with equal facility.

25. A method as claimed in claim 24 wherein the first source text is parsed into sentences with a file being assigned to each sentence, therebeing no limitation as to the length or complexity of any sentence so parsed, whereby complete fluidity in translation is accomplished.

26. A method as claimed in claim 24 wherein the translation process is reversible between any number of said plurality of languages with equal facility.

27. A method as claimed in claim 24 wherein a data base is provided with which data base said intermediate internationally universal language works readily to determine from the context and position of words within the source text the grammatical identification of each word in said text for further use in translation into any one said plurality of national target languages.

28. A universal method of performing reversible interpretations between any one of a plurality of first national source languages and into any one of a plurality of second national target languages including:
a first step of storing a source text in said any one first national language in a storage means as first text file;
said first step including a first substep that parses said source text into individual sentences, with each sentence in its own separate subfile;
a second step of interpreting said sentences into a created internationally universal language which serves as an intermediate pathway, as the words making up said sentences are translated into the created internationally universal language, they are entered into individual files consisting of the word plus a grammatical tag, such tag consisting of a designation of the word's grammatical posture, i.e., noun, pronoun, verb, adverb ... etc., the selection and designation of said grammatical tag being based upon the syntax relationship of the tagged words with the words positioned before or after the tagged word, and artificial intelligence is provided and capable of being consulted to utilize data source means for determination of said grammatical tag based on usage within said parsed sentences, a third step of interpreting said tagged wards from said created internationally universal language into any one of said second national target languages;
said interpretation into said any one of said target languages is subjected to a plurality of secondary programs to analyze and adjust said words within said target language sentences based on their grammatical tags;

said interpreted and adjusted sentences being further subjected to declination of adjectives according to construction rules of the said any one target national language and based upon prepositions encountered in the phrase or sentence being subjected to examination and the position of the following noun, based on context recognition in data storage;
said interpretation steps including said analyzing and adjusting being totally reversible within said intermediate pathway of said internationally universal language, there being no requirement of reworking said intermediate pathway to accommodate any changes in source national language as well as target national languages.

29. The method as set forth in claim 28, wherein said interpreted phrases or sentences, as previously analyzed and adjusted, being still further subjected to an adverb and verb program, said adverbs, if any, being shifted around verbs according to the common preference in the target language, said verbs being conjugated in accordance with the unique conjugations of the target language morphology, the creaked internationally universal language having saved time and computer memory space by regularizing the verbs in initial translation, thereby eliminating the requirement for an unusually high number of irregular verbs in said first national source language being matched to an excess number of irregular verbs in the target national language.