Just a detail here, but I think that translating Rappen in "Er gelt gleich mir od[er] ihm ein Rappen" as "raven" is likely to be inaccurate. A Rappen is a small coin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappen) which was used in Alsace at the time: effectively a penny. I can't pretend to make full sense of the verse, but I believe it means something closer to "compared to me, he's worth no more than a penny" or "if it comes down to me and him, he's not worth a cent".
(Also, unless Duden and Wikipedia both fail me, Rappen doesn't mean raven; the word for a raven is and was Rabe, which is the origin of the name for the Rappen coin through figurative use, as the coin had an eagle – a large bird – on it; this in my view makes the translation you've got that much less likely, and I suspect machine translation of botching this.)
Thank you for your reply! This was not a machine translation. „Rapp“ is still a common form in some South German dialects, also see Grimm's note of "letzteres oberdeutsch auch in rappe übergehend“ (https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=R00008). The coin you mention was specifically named after ravens (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappen#Etymologie). Ultimately all translation choices are subjective.
Yes, I know the coin was named after ravens, that's what I tried (poorly, evidently) to communicate. What I am suggesting is first and foremost that I think the coin is intended here, not the bird.
Good to know that this wasn't a machine translation, in any case. That certainly changes the color of the matter somewhat; I had the impression that you were employing a machine-assisted method for transcription and translation of these texts, but I apologize if this was mistaken.
I use machine T/T for my initial review and triage of notes, get a rough rough draft out to evaluate some content and context, and then for all of my article pieces I work with my collaborator and trained historical friend Platy to do full real person translations for all the in-article texts. In the past I noted this in the intros of my articles, and I totally forgot to in this one!
Just a detail here, but I think that translating Rappen in "Er gelt gleich mir od[er] ihm ein Rappen" as "raven" is likely to be inaccurate. A Rappen is a small coin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappen) which was used in Alsace at the time: effectively a penny. I can't pretend to make full sense of the verse, but I believe it means something closer to "compared to me, he's worth no more than a penny" or "if it comes down to me and him, he's not worth a cent".
(Also, unless Duden and Wikipedia both fail me, Rappen doesn't mean raven; the word for a raven is and was Rabe, which is the origin of the name for the Rappen coin through figurative use, as the coin had an eagle – a large bird – on it; this in my view makes the translation you've got that much less likely, and I suspect machine translation of botching this.)
Thank you for your reply! This was not a machine translation. „Rapp“ is still a common form in some South German dialects, also see Grimm's note of "letzteres oberdeutsch auch in rappe übergehend“ (https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=R00008). The coin you mention was specifically named after ravens (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rappen#Etymologie). Ultimately all translation choices are subjective.
Yes, I know the coin was named after ravens, that's what I tried (poorly, evidently) to communicate. What I am suggesting is first and foremost that I think the coin is intended here, not the bird.
Good to know that this wasn't a machine translation, in any case. That certainly changes the color of the matter somewhat; I had the impression that you were employing a machine-assisted method for transcription and translation of these texts, but I apologize if this was mistaken.
I use machine T/T for my initial review and triage of notes, get a rough rough draft out to evaluate some content and context, and then for all of my article pieces I work with my collaborator and trained historical friend Platy to do full real person translations for all the in-article texts. In the past I noted this in the intros of my articles, and I totally forgot to in this one!
I'm also gonna keep my eyes peeled for any mentions of "rappen" as coin throughout my research docs (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gdCVxE6CqweHv1b-9PL9yUcrDUcnbPkBN981EscdHiw/edit?usp=sharing). I haven't yet seen that word used at all referencing money, but if it crops up it may help us steer one way or the other on this note!