unforum

[AugustaNights]

Got a reply too!

[MatrixofReality]

OT - New Ringtone

[hatpins]

Sorry for OTness

[WolfHawk]

How in the heck do you make your own ringtone and get it onto your phone???!!

[MatrixofReality]

[heartmachine]

I've been listening to the david_vox recordings--all of them--way too many times, and based on what I can understand and on what else I've read in this thread:

No va a trabajar, no se preocupe. El sistema es (demasiado) frágil y no es bastante (----tico?). No puede expresarlo aquí...(para? a?) sus (güeras).

The static is OBNOXIOUS and comes at exactly the right times to garble non-intuitive words.

Again, obviously not a native speaker. Aside from the accent (bad enough), the speech pattern is very anglophone ("no va a trabajar" the way an anglophone would say "it won't work," rather than emphasizing the "no" the way a Spanish speaker would.).

The translation of the above would be: It won't work, don't worry. The system is too fragile and isn't very (something). He/she/it can't express it here...(for or to?) your/his/her/their (foreigners--I'll explain more of this in a minute).

My initial take on it was that the man is responding to an accusation re: the GRACIE program (eg "What if it works?" "It won't work, don't worry."). The problem with this interpretation is that "trabajar" really only applies to the work that people do, as in someone's job. It isn't used in relation to things like machines or programs, so either my interpretation is wrong or this is another evidence of this not being a native speaker.

Assuming I'm right, the speaker could then be talking about the GRACIE program as being too fragile and not very whatever (four syllables, with the accent on the second and possibly ending with "tico".) to work. "Demasiado" is an assumption on my part because it's really poorly pronounced, but I think I'm right.

"He/she/it can't express it here" could mean that someone can't say anything else in that setting, ie they're in a public place and this is secret info. "Express" is an odd verb choice, make of it what you will.

The last bit has been transcribed as "para sus guerras." I'm reinstating the "you" possibility for "sus" because it does follow the above formality of "no se preocupe." However, "guerras" is problematic for two reasons: 1)because the /u/ can be clearly heard, and 2)because of the single pronunciation of the /r/. So there are three possibilities:
-it could be "guerras" (wars) pronounced phonetically by a non-native speaker (my wounded ears)
-it could be "güeras" (literally blonde females, but also used to refer to anyone light-skinned, regardless of hair color). If so, it could refer to Anna's contacts in "EU-1" who would definitely be considered güeros. However, there's no justification for the use of the feminine form since she's gotten e-mails from both genders.
-it could be another word altogether

Also, there's a change in volume after "no puede expresarlo." Starting with "aquí" it sounds like there's been a gap in the recording, like the rest of it was added in at a different volume and possibly overlapping the end of the previous phrase. This last bit is both louder and sounds more forceful--exclamation points would probably be justified, but useless without knowing what's actually being said.

Anyway. Was any of this actually useful? Probably not, but my linguistically-inclined self was entertained doing it.

[Leyton Stone]

Did this die? Or, finish or, something?