Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
dont
English translation:
the Rayleigh scattering of which is sensitive to
French term
dont
Is it just me, or dies there seem to be somethng missing from this sentence? Try as I might, I cannot make sense of it. So far my best effort for 'dont' is: 'where', but I'm sure there are words missing after 'fibre optique'. Help!!
| 4 +2 | the Rayleigh diffusion of which is sensitive to |
Drmanu49
|
| 3 +3 | in which |
chris collister
|
| 3 | of which |
Tony M
|
| 4 -2 | whereof |
Louisa Tchaicha
|
Mar 17, 2013 14:00: writeaway changed "Field (specific)" from "Aerospace / Aviation / Space" to "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters"
Mar 17, 2013 14:07: AllegroTrans changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Mar 22, 2013 09:52: Drmanu49 Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (3): Nikki Scott-Despaigne, GILLES MEUNIER, AllegroTrans
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Proposed translations
the Rayleigh diffusion of which is sensitive to
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 heures (2013-03-17 13:51:11 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Rayleigh scattering as mentioned by Chris.
| agree |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: "of which" of course, for the meaning, although the whole sentence could (should?) be turned round in English.
6 mins
|
|
Thank you Nikki.
|
|
| agree |
GILLES MEUNIER
12 mins
|
|
Thank you Gilles.
|
|
| neutral |
chris collister
: But note that this is Rayleigh scattering, not diffusion
1 hr
|
|
Right Chris!
|
France
precision engineer, precision translator
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English
in which
You're right, the sentence is odd: "microstrains due to an acoustic wave over the optical fibre (associated with?) variation in the backscattered wavelength", but it would be best to contact the client.
| agree |
kashew
4 hrs
|
|
Thanks, John
|
|
| agree |
B D Finch
20 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Barbara
|
|
| agree |
Tony M
: I think if you insert the missing opening bracket where I have suggested, you then get '...an acoustic wave over the optical fibre (variation in backscattered wavelength)', where the ( ) infers 'causing...'
21 hrs
|
|
Yes, of course, the missing bracket! Thanks for pointing that out.
|
whereof
| disagree |
B D Finch
: Inappropriate register. "Whereof" is generally used in legal, rather than technical, contexts.// That supports my disagreement: patents are legal documents.
18 hrs
|
|
whereof is used in technical patents//I'm talking about the description and claims of a patent application.
|
|
| disagree |
Tony M
: Agree with BDF; although 'whereof' might be used in some patent-type texts, it certainly doesn't fit well in general technical writing, as we have here.
18 hrs
|
of which
Of course, if you try to slot in 'of which' directly, you get a very clumsy sentence in EN:
"The DAS (Distributed acoustic sensing) ... the Rayleigh diffuson of which is sensitive..."
So you'd need to re-model the sentence; however, I think that does give the right idea: it is the R. diffusion (etc.) of the DAS that is sensitive to...
I think the only thing missing is the opening parenthesis after 'fibre optique', thus:
"...à une onde acoustique sur la fibre optique (variation de la longueur d’onde rétrodiffusée)."
The parenthesis is an explanation of what immediately precedes it.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 mins (2013-03-17 11:48:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Note that the 'sensible' here is quite probably 'susceptible' rather than necessarily the literal 'sensitive'.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 days6 hrs (2013-03-19 17:57:22 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
No Janis, both times when I used 'where', it was part of the discussion, not actually part of the text.
I don't think it would be safe to use 'where' to translate 'dont', as it would potentially change the meaning too much; naturally, it would all depend really on exactly how you re-phrase the whole sentence.
| Thanks Tony. I must have had a mental block - Sunday mornings are not a good time to be working... |
| In your comment to Chris, you use 'where', which is something I suggested in my original question, so do you agree that 'where' would be OK here? |
Discussion
There is a possible parsing in which “dont la diffusion Rayleigh” means something like “including Rayleigh scatter”: « The DAS or DVS, including Rayleigh scatter, is/are sensitive to ... » This would result in a full sentence, but makes zero sense in context. And it still wouldn't account for “due”.