Translation | World View Blog

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!! Machine Translation, that is!

Language and Technology, Translation Comments Off

Oct 152012

Human vs. Machine Translation

Rage Against the Machine Photo: static.sched.org

Just what IS machine translation and how did it start interfering with an all-human process? Machine translation is the translation of words and documents by computers. There are websites out there that can translate words from one language to another in real time. All it takes is typing in the word and then the click of a button. Such simplicity may be very helpful when communicating by email with a foreign pen pal or getting the main idea of a foreign website without hiring your own private translator to surf the net with you.

However, real communication requires that the original thoughts and ideas of the sender to bepresented in such a way that the receiver can understand not just the words but also the context behind them. Try typing paragraphs of English to be Continue reading “RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!! Machine Translation, that is!” »

Translating a Wealth of Welsh Literature into English

Translation Comments Off

Jun 292012

Quality foreign translations are needed in many languages!

A painting about The Mabinogion Courtesy: www.sacred-texts.com

A monumental addition to the world’s cultural treasure chest came in the form of an English translation at the hands of a man named Gwyn Thomas. (The original translation was done by Lady Charlotte Guest in 1877, which is when the title The Mabinogion also became popular.) Thomas, who is a Welsh writer and a professor, has published 16 volumes of poetry, and several volumes of work as a literary and cultural critic. But perhaps his greatest contribution, his grand opus, was his translation of The Mabinogion into English. For those of you who are unfamiliar, The Mabinogion is a collection of stories taken from medieval Welsh manuscripts.

This group of 11 stories focuses on historical events in both the medieval and Iron Age. Several of the stories are important to note as they provide valuable evidence for the development of the Arthurian legend. The stories of The Mabinogion appear in the earlier White Book of Rhydderch and The Red Book of Hergest. They are divided into The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, four native tales, and three romances. This collection consists of the preponderance of prose found in medieval Welsh manuscripts that had not been translated from other languages. Continue reading “Translating a Wealth of Welsh Literature into English” »

Neutral Spanish

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Jun 282012

Can such a language exist?

Latin American Spanish Photo: www.izea.net/world/southamerica.htm

The Spanish language was born in Spain out of the prolific womb of Vulgar Latin. When Spain decided to conquer Latin America, they brought their language with them and introduced it to the indigenous peoples.

However, just as the United States of America is geographically cut off from England, producing different intonations, language patterns and phrases, the huge mountain ranges and impenetrable jungle landscapes of Latin America have isolated pockets of Spanish being spoken throughout the region. There is also the same Atlantic Ocean that still separates them all from Mother Spain herself. These geographic barriers produced several dialects of Spanish that sound distinctly different than the Spanish mother tongue. As all languages evolve with time, almost every region of Latin America has a form of Spanish uniquely their own, with some distinctive nouns and phraseology. Other areas that are so cut off from the outer world by nearly insurmountable geographic forces have kept a form of Spanish almost as pure as their Castilian predecessors. Continue reading “Neutral Spanish” »

The Birth of Structural Linguistics

Translation Comments Off

Jun 272012

From the need to understand and translate languages comes the study of their structure.

The Linquistics Encyclopedia photo: lit-download.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html

In the early 20^th century, language scholars decided they needed a theory of linguistic structure and a strategy for analyzing those structures. And so was born the field of structural linguistics. Some of the first pioneers included the anthropologists Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and Leonard Bloomfield. When historical comparative linguistics bumped up against unfamiliar languages, the linguist’s first job was to thoroughly dissect and delineate the language for closer study.

In Europe there was a parallel development of structural linguistics most strongly inspired by Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss student of Indo-European and general linguistics. His lectures on general linguistics, published posthumously by his students, set the tone and direction of European linguistic analysis from the 1920s forward. His approach has been widely embraced in other fields under the umbrella of the term “Structuralism.” Continue reading “The Birth of Structural Linguistics” »

Translator vs. Translation Agency

Translation Comments Off

Jun 252012

It is a monumental misconception that bilingual speakers are also able to translate.

Three sets of eyes photo: courtesy www.pbase.com

Three sets of eyes photo: courtesy pbase.com

When searching for translation services, it is vital to remember that just because someone speaks two languages does NOT mean that this person is qualified to translate between these two languages. The fact is that most bilingual speakers do not receive the sort of education or expertise required for a quality professional translation in either language or in the field of expertise for which the translation is intended. Often an employer will ask one of their Spanish-speaking team members to translate a letter or some short document from English into Spanish. It happens all the time. It never occurs to the team leader that the employee may not be equally well-educated in both languages–especially not for a Continue reading “Translator vs. Translation Agency” »

Translation vs. Localization

Localization, Translation Comments Off

Jun 212012

Translation converts written text into another language and localization brings those conversions into the wonderful worlds of technology and computers.

Translation/localization photo: www.buildingonline.net

Translation involves the conversion of written text or spoken words into another language. It is essential that a full understanding of the source material be flawlessly rendered into the target language, concentrating on all possible cultural nuances and style.

The difference between translation and localization can be defined as follows:

“Translation is only one of the activities in localization; in addition to translation, a localization project includes many other tasks such as project management, software engineering, testing and desktop publishing.”¹

Localization is typically used by software and web page development industries for translating their software or web sites into different languages and designing them with a specific country or region in mind. Localization implies that the culture and mannerisms of the specific location for which the localized product is intended will be assimilated into the translation of that product. Products and environments are geared to work naturally with the target language and individual locale by adding region-specific programs and translating text.

Continue reading “Translation vs. Localization” »

Need a Great Translator?

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Jun 192012

Translation agencies provide high quality translation plus project management.

Translation-flags photo: ehow.com

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, finding a translator is as easy as typing “translator” into your search engine and waiting to see who or what pops up. How in the world can you possibly know if you have found what you need? Do they have both the linguistic training in all languages required for your project as well as a working knowledge of the subject matter? The truth is there is no license required to become a “translator.” Anybody can assume the title without the requisite training, education and life experience necessary to do the job with quality or accuracy. Luckily, if you search for a “translation agency” instead, you will be rewarded with their ability to provide high quality translation as well as project management.

Anyone can create an attractive website, embellish their credentials and establish themselves as a professional translator. Who would know the difference? The only way you could ascertain if they had generated an accurate translation for you, is to hire yet another professional translator/editor to check their work. If you don’t double check with editing or Continue reading “Need a Great Translator?” »

Language Translation and its Arabic Influence

Translation Comments Off

Jun 192012

Arab invaders brought a new culture rich in medical and scientific knowledge.

The evolution of Latin into the Spanish language occurred simultaneously with the invasion of Spain by the Moors in 718 A.D. While the use of Latin expanded over the country, the Arab conquerors introduced a new culture rich in medical and scientific knowledge. During the 8^th and 9^th centuries, the Moors used their Baghdad House of Wisdom to translate this abundance of new intelligence into Latin. The Arabs also contributed vast works of literature from India and Persia which were translated through a variety of intermediary languages. These offerings included the Arabian Nights, the Koran and the Bible.

Life of Raymond Lull Courtesy: www.wikipedia.com

Two hundred years after the Moorish onslaught, Archbishop Raimundus (also known as Raymond Lull) built his School of Translators in Toledo. His goal was to translate the treasure trove of scientific and technological works gifted to Spain by the Arab invaders. Continue reading “Language Translation and its Arabic Influence” »

Spanish Book Translation Explodes

Translation Comments Off

Jun 122012

Tens of thousands of publications are being translated into Spanish each year.

Photo courtesy of www.ehow.com

More than 10,000 books annually are translated from English into Spanish. Tens of thousands additional works are translated from English into Spanish, including medical, technical, and scientific publications. These numbers can only continue to grow as the globalization of businesses around the world races with medical and technical advances to benefit the ever-growing Spanish-speaking population base. This is an amazing growth industry. Can you predict a niche market for any translating or interpreting companies?

Twitter Translation Center Will Support Right-to-Left Languages

Language In Use, Language Resources, Translation Comments Off

Jan 262012

The Twitter Translation Center, which takes a crowd-sourced approach to translating and localizing Twitter for people around the world, recently announced that Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu would be fully supported this spring. Twitter is currently available in 22 languages, allowing many users worldwide to be able to tweet in their language of choice. Over 425,000 people volunteer for this project, which started with Japanese being the first language translated back in 2008.

They are continuing to develop more languages, and are encouraging any potential translators to visit their translation center if they want to volunteer.

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Language Translation, Inc.
A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.

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