Technical translation is not a fixed art – it must continually evolve to keep pace with new words coming into common usage in all the languages of the world.

However, these in turn can be difficult to predict, and researchers are now working to better understand which words make it into the mainstream, and which fall by the wayside.

Anthropologist Michael O’Brien of the University of Missouri-Columbia gives the example of ‘meme’, as opposed to ‘culturgen’ – both mean the same thing, a cultural item such as a saying that has become widely adopted, but most people would be more likely to recognise ‘meme’.

For technical translation, however, it is Mr O’Brien’s research on the vocabulary of climate change that is perhaps more likely to be involved in the document translation process.

He has revealed an arc of 30-50 years that it can take for new words to fully enter a language, and even then only a handful make it to the true mainstream.

Among them in the area of climate change are ‘biodiversity’, ‘Holocene’, ‘paleoclimate’ and ‘phenology’, all of which were almost unheard-of in the early 1900s, but which have their place in single-language English texts, and in the document translation process, for modern-day items relating to climate change.

Source: EurekAlert!

Translation agencies don’t just work with new documents – we are sometimes asked to translate older texts too, and that raises its own questions.

For instance, if a document is fairly old, there is the issue of whether the translation should use language that was common at the time it was originally written, or that is more commonly used in the present day.

Translation agencies must make this decision based on the characteristics of the original document, and on the wishes of the client.

In a recent book by Mats Malm, professor of comparative literature at the University of Gothenburg, the author explains how modern readings of older texts differ from their original audience’s interpretation.

This can cause difficulty in modern editions – particularly if an original sense of humour must be conveyed in a way that is still appropriate for the present-day audience.

“The voice of a text is always important,” the author asserts. “Just think of all the smileys we have started using to add clarity to texts.”

While emoticons might not be appropriate in technical translations, the point is still valid – and choosing a good translation agency can make sure the voice of a text is not lost as it moves from one language to another.

Source: EurekAlert!

Translation companies like The Translation People might be specialists at what we do, but it still helps when the two languages being used share structural similarities.

Any similarity between grammar and sentence structure makes our job easier – and can allow translation companies to more accurately convey the original meaning of the text in the target language.

Luckily, because languages are a human development, such similarities exist in many cases even where the languages developed separately.

For generations, scientists have tried to determine whether this is because those languages share common roots, or simply because the human brain always thinks with the same processes and structures.

Now it seems like the latter is the likely explanation.

Researchers at the University of Rochester devised two artificial languages, and asked English-speakers to use them to describe images.

They found a tendency for the speakers to alter the languages slightly to remove ambiguity from what they were saying – and always in similar ways, suggesting that the languages would develop in that way in the real world.

As a result, they suggest that the human brain is responsible for much of the structure of language, even in remote parts of the world, helping to explain some of the similarities translation agencies encounter on a daily basis.

Source: EurekAlert!

The UNESCO World Atlas of endangered languages currently lists more than 3,000 languages. There are many reasons a language can become extinct. Extinction is usually attributed to military, economic, religious, cultural or educational suppression; globalization also contributes to the neglect of minority languages. Linguists have struggled to preserve and revitalize endangered languages for many years and make use of new technologies and media to preserve the cultural identity and the cultural knowledge associated with the languages. The Translation People recently blogged about Google campaigning to save the world’s endangered languages

Survival International, an organization that supports tribal people worldwide, and VOGA (Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese) deal with endangered languages. Both recently reported on their efforts to preserve the Bo language even after the death of the last known speaker Boa Senior, the only native speaker for nearly 40 years. The language dates back 65,000 years to Africa and was spoken on the Andaman Islands. Since January 2010, Bo has been considered a dead language, and it isn’t only linguists that mourn its extinction. Anthropologists also mourn the last Bo speaker since her death means the loss of historical knowledge and a cultural identity. The director of Survival International commented on this, “With the death of Boa Sr. and the extinction of the Bo language, now a unique part of our human society is nothing more than a memory. Bo’s death should be a warning to us all and not just the other tribes of the Andaman Islands.”

Boa Senior’s death was reported on by the BBC by K. David Harrison. Harrison is the author of The Last Speakers: The Quest to Uncover the World’s Most Endangered Languages, and has appeared in The Linguists, a documentary about the efforts to capture endangered languages. At the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2008 it received worldwide recognition. Harrison equates the survival of languages with the survival of species and speaks in this context of a parallel extinction. Harrison believes that 80% of the species are unknown, and even 80% of the languages are not yet documented. He emphasizes the important relationship that exists between our language and the environment in which we live. Harrison is also a strong supporter of new technologies which can help to make people aware of endangered languages. After The Linguist documentary aired at various film festivals, in 2009 it was published on the Babelgum website: “If the internet is used properly, it can be an enormous influence on enhancing the people’s awareness and may help to preserve minority languages.”

International organizations and institutions share this view. The European Union is funding a project for the protection and preservation of languages. The ELDIA program (European Language Diversity for All) has a grant of almost €3 million and makes use of the so-called “vitality barometer”, a gauge to show the risk of a language. ELDIA focuses its work on 14 Finno-Ugric languages, such as Meänkieli in Sweden, and the variant of the Estonian language, which is spoken by Estonian workers in Germany.

Under the “Endangered Language Program” Rosetta Stone created a 2010 Chitimacha language version of its software. The objective of this program is to “prevent global language extinction”.

The people and organizations that are fighting for the survival of these languages will do anything to ensure that future generations cannot lose sight of this problem. Or to express it in the words K. David Harrison: “The fate of these languages is in the hands of the few remaining speakers, or rather, in their minds and mouths. Let’s listen to them, as long as it is still possible. “

Did you know that there is no international sign language? As with spoken language there are regional differences in gestures. They are fully-fledged languages recognized as separate with independent grammars and individual gestures. Worldwide, there are approximately 200 different sign languages.

British and American signers do, for example, find it very difficult to understand each other. Paradoxically, there are fewer differences between American Sign Language and French, because the American version is based on the French. German sign language also differs from the Austrian and Swiss versions.
Even within a sign language there are regional differences, similar to dialects in spoken languages. For example within the German Sign Language, the sign for the days of the week is different in North and South Germany.

There are attempts to create a comprehensible, artificial sign language to provide for international conferences, similar to the principle of Esperanto. The sign equivalent is called “Gestuno”,  - a mixture of the word gesture ‘and the UN. It includes 1500 signs, which are like any other living language adapted and expanded gradually. The disadvantage of this standard version is that the vocabulary is limited making it difficult and longwinded to translate long descriptions of facts.

Accurate translation between languages can often be challenging, due to the need to use precise translations of each word, while still conveying the intended overall meaning of any given section of text.

Emotion may not always be an issue in translation – but what if there is a need to come up with an accurate translation of a source of national pride? What if the source material is the national anthem?

Late in World War II, US president Franklin D Roosevelt began to secure the alliance of Latin American countries through an artistic exchange programme, which saw writers and musicians collaborate across American borders.

As part of the scheme, Peruvian immigrant Clotilde Arias won a competition asking for a Spanish-language version of The Star-Spangled Banner to be written.

Marvette Perez, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, where the original 1945 document is going on display, tells the Associated Press of some of the word choices that helped Arias’ translation to stay faithful to the English-language original.

“For example, the word we say is ‘flag’ or ‘bandera’ – but she used ‘pendon’, which is literally ‘banner’,” Perez says. “That’s the exact word in English – in that way, it’s faithful.”

In 2006, by contrast, a Spanish-language translation of the US national anthem was met with widespread anger, as many people perceived it as having political undertones not present in the original song.

Both translations serve as examples of how, when done well, even sensitive translations can succeed – but when done badly, emotionally charged rewrites can spark outrage.

Source: Associated Press

The European Day of Languages is celebrated on 26th September, and at The Translation People we are very pleased that a whole day has been dedicated to the linguistic diversity within Europe.

This Wednesday, various events will be held all over Europe for professionals as well as for the general public. Go speak-dating in Prague, watch European films in Cracow, or attend language-learning workshops in Riga! Specific talks on multilingualism and language games for the translators of the future are also on offer. Schools and universities across the country are marking the day with events and seminars, you can get involved too maybe by watching a foreign language film, going for an Italian meal or sampling a few European wines.

The celebratory mood will continue right the way through to International Translation Day on 30th September, so spare a thought for your translation provider and send them flowers or chocolates, just to show them how much you appreciate their services!