Helmut Wollmersdorfer wrote:
Mike Hommey schrieb:"My computer" is translated into "mai konpyûta", "My documents" into "mai dokyumento"There are ways to translate "My" in japanese, and ways to translate "documents" as well. IMHO, "mai konpyûta" (especially the "mai" part)JP:mai = EN:every[-body|-thing]
Well, the JP:mai there, is not this one, but is supposed to be the one you would find in a katakana dictionary with the following definition: 私の、自分の, so being exactly the english word "My" written in japanese characters.
and "mai dokyumento" don't make any sense for most of the japanese people.My German WinXP says "eigene Dateien", which I would translate to "own datasets". DE:Dokument has not the broad meaning as EN:document. Maybe JP:bunsho has a similar, narrow meaning as DE:Dokument, and the translation to JP:bunsho would confuse users. I assume this, because -sho is used for things with official, public touch in my Kanji book.
I don't see which broad meaning EN:document would have that DE:Dokument wouldn't. The word EN:document had a meaning before computers. This meaning is, I guess the one that DE:Dokument gives. Even though EN:document got charged with the computer meaning nowadays, and even though the computer meaning is broader than the usual definition of the word, it doesn't mean the corresponding words in other languages are not appropriate.
But this is only speculation of somebody with a few beginner lessons in Japanese.
JP:bunsho seems to me to have the meaning EN:document had before it got charged with the computer related meaning.
Mike