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10:02 Oct 15, 2009
This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other
Japanese to English translations [PRO] Agriculture
Japanese term or phrase:麦
Is there an English equivalent? The sentence in question is as follows:
麦は世界で一番多く作られている穀物で、日本では小麦や大麦を総称して「麦」と呼んでいます。
The dictionaries I have seen say 麦 is barley or wheat. Obviously, that's not going to work here.
As of right now, what I have done is what Steven suggested. I took the Wikipedia entry on cereal grains and rephrased it (i.e. cereal grains being the most widely grown crop in the world). Then I just said that in Japanese the word "mugi" refers to barley (omugi) and wheat (komugi). Not quite the same, but still factually correct, so it should be okay.
This is a tough one, but are these distinctions important here? Is the text about etymology or agriculture? What is the main point the author is making here? I would probably use 'cereal grain' as the generic 麦, as this covers wheat, barley, oats, etc., and is certainly the most widely grown type of crop thing worldwide.
麦 in Japan normally refers to wheat, barley, oat and rye. I don't think buckwheat is considered 麦、although letters 蕎麦 include it. I don't think you should use "grain" because it will include corn and maze which are apparently not 麦.
Hi Casey, I was not aware Steven's discussion when I posted.
Yes he got point there. "Kokurui" is another tough word.
Well, I'm glad you got good suggestion from this posting. What is your translation, then? Would you mind sharing it ?
humbird United States Local time: 14:29 Works in field Native speaker of: Japanese, English
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks, humbird. I appreciate the help, but the answer was given to me by Steven in the discussion before you posted your answer, so I don't think it's fair to award points.
The translation workplace 
