Variations on variations

January 9, 2009 8:22 PM

Help me translate the word "variations" into as many lanugages as possible. (Or recommend good online translation services.)

So I'm looking to translate this word into as many languages as possible in hopes of making a very cool looking poster one day. So far I have the following.

Note: I'd like the word to stay plural, but if that's not possible for some lingual reason I'll accept "variation' as a substitute.

EN: variations
GR: veränderungen
SP: variaciones
FR: variations
Italian: variazioni
Portuguese: variações
Japanese: 変化
Korean: 函捞
Chinese: 变化

If you can
A) confirm the above
B) suggest more lanugages

posted by tiamat to writing & language (24 comments total)

Danish: variationer
posted by flif at 8:31 PM on January 9

It would help to know what sense of "variation" you have in mind; in German, for instance, "variations" could be "Veränderungen," "Variationen," or "Schwankungen," depending on the sense. (BTW, in German, nouns are capitalized.) In Norwegian, "variation" could be variasjon, forandring, svingning, or avvik.
posted by brianogilvie at 8:36 PM on January 9

Bosnian: različiti
Hungarian: változások
Romanian: variaţii

The Hungarian word above is the one I'd use, but it carries within it a strong suggestion of "change" (like the original "variation," if you think about it.) There are other words for it, but this is the common word. I think when you get into non-IE languages (such as Hungarian), there may be some confusion - www.dictionary.com lists nine meanings for "variation," so . . .

. . . in some languages, there could conceivably be many different words for "variation," depending on the meaning desired. The further you get from English, the greater the likelihood of this being true, for the most part. So it might help to know what sense of the word you're seeking.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 8:42 PM on January 9

I mean it in the sense of 'on a theme' or different ways to complete the same task.

To steal the definations I like from dictionary.com

-Something slightly different from another of the same type.
-A form that is an altered version of a given theme, diverging from it by melodic ornamentation and by changes in harmony, rhythm, or key. [but not in the strictly musical sense]

but NOT

-The extent or degree to which something varies: a variation of ten pounds in weight.

So what I want to focus on is the element of sameness, not difference.
posted by tiamat at 8:42 PM on January 9

brianogilvie beat me to it - and German's even a close language!
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 8:42 PM on January 9

Well, the Korean is wrong. It's not even in Hangeul. It should be: 변화. Korean doesn't use plural forms the way English does, so that's singular.
posted by smorange at 8:44 PM on January 9

On postview: oh, well, then 변화 is wrong, too. I'm not sure what the right word is, however. Perhaps someone else with a better command of the language will help.
posted by smorange at 8:47 PM on January 9

According to one of my books: the Korean is: 변주 (variation [on a tune, theme]).
posted by smorange at 8:52 PM on January 9

In Finnish, you would say (in plural) "muunnoksia" (variations on a theme, for example in music). But that will not get you very far unless you give me a real-life example of how you want to use it to translate - word forms in Finnish change significantly depending on their function within the sentence.
posted by keijo at 8:58 PM on January 9

I can began to vouch for veracity, but I use HowtoSayin. Here's variations...
posted by dawson at 8:58 PM on January 9

While Spanish 'variaciones' is okay, I prefer the word 'variedades.' But it all depends on the context and dialect, of course (My sense is that 'variaciones' is preferred in more peninsular Spanish; I speak Mexican Spanish). Native hispanohablantes, care to elaborate on the various matices of the two words?
posted by mynameismandab at 9:18 PM on January 9

In Russian there's варианты (varianty), which roughly means "options." There's also вариации (variatsii), which is clumsier but closer to the meaning of "variations."
posted by nasreddin at 9:23 PM on January 9

The Chinese is right, though Elgar's Enigma Variations is rendered as 谜语变奏曲, with 变奏biànzòu being the specifically musical idea of variation on a theme. Both 变 biàn and 化 huà are enormously significant in Chinese philosophy which has the Yijing (Book of Changes) as one of its core foundations.
From a Tang commentary on Chapter 23 of the Doctrine of the Mean:

初渐谓之变,变时新旧两体俱有;变尽旧体而有新体,谓之化

"As it is beginning and during the gradual process, we call it bian [change]; while something is in bian [change] its new and old states co-exist. When bian [change] has brought an end to the old state and a new state obtains, we say it has hua [changed; transformed]"

I think if it's for a poster the character biàn (Simplified: 变 Traditional: 變) could be used alone, as that's when the old and new states are still co-extant.
Plate of Chinese beans! Very tasty.
posted by Abiezer at 10:08 PM on January 9

Swedish is same as Danish: variationer
posted by ryanbryan at 10:12 PM on January 9

I would stick with the word variaciones in Spanish. Maybe like mynameismandab said, it depends on location or other factors, but thinking about the poster idea i still think variaciones sounds better, (variaciones seems like the slight change of language etc you were suggesting, whereas variedades to me sounds like more of an assortment of similar or related things but not necessarily manipulation of the same thing).
cool idea, also.
posted by nzydarkxj at 10:40 PM on January 9

In het Nederlands: Variaties.
Wijzigingen.
Veranderingen.
Verschillen.
Afwijkingen.
posted by monospace at 10:51 PM on January 9

変化 (henka) for Japanese is wrong. Henka means "change" or "transformation" from one state or another; I wouldn't ever use it ever as variation.

Variation is a hard word to translate directly; it really depends on context.

The two musical terms for variation are 変奏曲 and 変調 . They relate to the Chinese (characters) and the Korean (pronunciation).

変奏曲 (hensōkyoku) means variation in the sense of musical variations described above.

I think the Korean equivalent is 변주곡 . (I know how to say it but I don't know how to write it properly in English, sorry.)

変調 (henchō), pronunciation-wise resembles the Korean 변주 referenced above. 変調 means change of tone within a piece or modulation.

To simplify, for music in Japanese you want 変奏曲 and for Korean I think you want 변주곡 . Definitely not 変化.
posted by vincele at 10:58 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Variation is a hard word to translate directly; it really depends on context.
This is a good point which holds for Chinese too as I can now think of contexts where I'd want something other than 変化 to represent "variations" were I translating from English to Chinese.
posted by Abiezer at 11:24 PM on January 9

It's much easier to work from the full text of what you're trying to communicate than from a description or from generalised examples. Isn't that possible?
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 11:29 PM on January 9

Fariaasjes, in Frisian.
posted by ijsbrand at 2:56 AM on January 10

In Albanian: larmi, with the accent on the i, stands at the intersection of abundance and variability. For example, Një larmi ngjyrash means A collection of various colors, or Many various colors. Depending on the context, other words may be more appropriate.
posted by preparat at 6:22 AM on January 10

I'd like to add to what others have already said about german: variations could be "Veränderungen" (capitalize the noun!) but I think what you mean would be closer translated with "Möglichkeiten."

I take it that what you mean to translate using the word variations is that users have different or multiple options, in which case I'd suggest "Möglichkeiten" or even "Optionen."
posted by krautland at 10:02 AM on January 10

In Finnish, you would say (in plural) "muunnoksia" (variations on a theme, for example in music). But that will not get you very far unless you give me a real-life example of how you want to use it to translate - word forms in Finnish change significantly depending on their function within the sentence. posted by keijo at 5:58 AM on January 10 [+] [!]

Muunnoksia is a good translation for variations generally, but for musical variations it would be better to use muunnelmia or variaatioita (they're not limited to the musical usage). For your poster I would personally choose muunnelmia because muunnoksia sounds a bit technical to my ear.

(keijo is absolutely correct when he says that we would have to know the actual usage to give a proper answer though. For example, if you choose muunnos as your translation for variation then the plural could be muunnokset, muunnoksia, muunnosta or at least eight (there are probably more I can't think of right now) more variations of the word depending on what kind sentence it's in. But if you're not actually going to use it in a sentence then what I wrote above will work fine.)
posted by severiina at 3:51 PM on January 10

Thanks! These are all great answers and very helpful. I thought it would be overkill to mark everyone as best answer, but my thanks go out to everyone (and anyone who still posts more, of course).
posted by tiamat at 12:44 PM on January 12