Playing with the Google Greek->English translator

Ekaterini Tsalampouni linked to this blog from her Greek language website.  I wanted to know what she said, so I copied it and pasted it into Google language tools.  The result was really very good:

Κατάλογος ψηφιοποιημένων χειρογράφων.

Από το ιστολόγιο του Roger Pearse πληροφορούμαστε για την ύπαρξη στο διαδίκτυο καταλόγου ψηφιοποιημένων χειρογράφων του Μεσαίωνα (μεταξύ των οποίων και αρκετών της Αγίας Γραφής. Για να βρεθείτε στη βάση δεδομένων, πατήστε εδώ. Για να διαβάσετε τη σχετική ανάρτηση του Roger Pearse, πατήστε εδώ.

became

List of digitized manuscripts

From the blog of Roger Pearse information on the existence of online digitized catalog of medieval manuscripts (among them several of the Holy Scripture. To get to the database, click here. To read the suspension of Roger Pearse, click here.

What more could you reasonably want?

How would it deal with patristic Greek, I wondered?  There used to be a website at aegean.gr that had PDF’s of Greek texts from the Patrologia Graeca, but it has since vanished.  However I did have a PDF or two, so I grabbed a bit of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and pasted it in.   Well, from

Κωνσταντίνου ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Χριστῷ, τῷ αἰωνίῳ βασιλεῖ, βασιλέως, υἱοῦ Λέοντος τοῦ σοφωτάτου καὶ ἀειμνήστου βασιλέως, λόγος, ἡνίκα τὸ τοῦ σοφοῦ Χρυσοστόμου ἱερὸν καὶ ἅγιον σκῆνος ἐκ τῆς ὑπερορίας ἀνακομισθὲν ὥσπερ τις πολύολβος καὶ πολυέραστος ἐναπετέθη θησαυρὸς τῇ βασιλίδι ταύτῃ καὶ ὑπερλάμπρῳ τῶν πόλεων. Εὐλόγησον πάτερ.

you get

Κωνσταντίνου ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Χριστῷ, τῷ αἰωνίῳ King βασιλέως, son Λέοντος of σοφωτάτου he ἀειμνήστου βασιλέως reason, the Wise ἡνίκα his sacred Chrysostom he scenes from the Holy ὑπερορίας anakomisthen osper the πολύολβος he πολυέραστος ἐναπετέθη treasure τῇ βασιλίδι ταύτῃ he ὑπερλάμπρῳ cities. Πάτερ blessed.

No good, in other words.  But… then I thought, is this to do with accentuation?  What happens if I remove accents?  If I turn Πάτερ into Πατερ?  Sure enough “Πάτερ blessed” became “Blessed father”!

I’m going to experiment a bit further, and see if stripping off the accents does the trick.  What do we need to do, to make this work, I wonder?  Without any accents, we get:

Κωνσταντινου εν αυτω τω Χριστω, τω αιωνιω βασιλει, βασιλεως, υιου Λεοντος του σοφωτατου και αειμνηστου βασιλεως, λογος, ηνικα το του σοφου Χρυσοστομου ιερον και αγιον σκηνος εκ της υπεροριας ανακομισθεν ωσπερ τις πολυολβος και πολυεραστος εναπετεθη θησαυρος τη βασιλιδι ταυτη και υπερλαμπρω των πολεων. Εὐλογησον πατερ.

Which becomes:

Constantine in Christ afto meantime, meanwhile eternal king, king, son of Leon and sofotatou late king, why, inika the Chrysostom of the wise and sacred AGION scenes from the yperorias anakomisthen osper the polyolvos polyerastos enapetethi treasure and the identity and vasilidi yperlampro cities. Blessed father.

Not quite there, is it?  Interestingly logos = reason in accentuated form, and =’why’ in unaccentuated form.  What am I doing wrong?

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