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BASIC TRANSLATION TERMINOLOGY

Getting to know the jargon of translation is an essential part of the translator. Here follows
a brief guide to commonly used terms in translation and what they mean.

Vocabulary Definitions That Will Get You Started in Translation

1. Accreditation is often used in place of or alongside certification. Accreditation is


merely a way for an organization to vet the translation skills of translators. The
American Translators Association in the United States used to
offer accreditation but has since changed their terminology to certification instead.
The organization probably made the switch because certification is a more widely-
used term.

2. Back Translation is when a translated unit gets translated back into the source
language. For example, a sentence or paragraph might get translated from English to
Spanish. A back translation would occur if that segment were then translated back
into English. Back translations are an interesting exercise to perform, especially in a
translation training setting to see how individual translators cultural and linguistic
experiences can affect their translations. I did this exercise multiple times in school
with hilarious results.

3. Bilingual is such a loaded term that I hesitate to even put it on here. For most
interpreters (and probably translators, as well) a true bilingual person is fairly rare
because a true bilingual speaker needs to have mastered both languages at an A
Language level with its accompanying cultural, linguistic, historical, and phonetic
insights. However, for people outside of the interpretation and translation
community, bilingual often refers to the just the ability (however small or great) to
speak two languages.

4. CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) is also sometimes referred to as computer-


aided translation and refers to the broad idea of using a computer to assist in the
translation process. This could be through the use of terminology management,
translation memory, alignment, and the like.

5. Certified Translation is a term that can mean different things depending on where
youre from, what country youre translating in, and the target country of your
translation. If youre a U.S.-based translator, a certified translation is often one that
is merely notarized. A notary certifies that you are the person who performed the
translation. In other countries, a certified translation is one that might mean some
established criteria for a certain standard.

6. Cognates (true/false friends) are words in different languages that have the same
linguistic heritage. For example, the Spanish word promesa and the English word
promise are cognates. False cognates are an easy way for beginning language
learners to screw up when learning or maintaining a second language.
Embarazado in Spanish does not mean embarrassed, for example.

7. Concordance is like an index in the back of the book but more granular. It consists
of an alphabetical list of the major words in a body of work. Concordances are
important in translation but now dont have to be managed by hand for translators
translating a lengthy body of work. Plenty of software is available that will do that
for you.

8. Conference Interpreting is obviously a type of interpreting that tends to take place


in conference-like settings. It can take the form of either simultaneous interpreting
or consecutive interpreting.

9. Consecutive Interpreting is a type of interpreting where the speaker of the source


language says a phrase, sentence, paragraph, or some length of utterance, and then
stops to allow the interpreter to repeat in the target language what was said.
Sometimes its used in a conference-like setting, but it can also be used in more
intimate settings such as meetings and visits.

10. Content Management Systems (CMS) are used by a ton of organizations as a way
to maintain a central repository of the companys content. This content can then be
accessed easily to reuse on different mediums and across various sources. It makes
translation much easier (and cheaper) for the company, because instead of paying a
translator to translate the same thing multiple times, the company can pay the
translator once and then reuse that translated content in multiple places.

11. Corpora are just a collection or body of writing. They are used extensively in
linguistic studies and research for a wide variety of activities.
12. Crowdsourcing is a relatively new term that wasnt around when I started
translating. It basically means enlisting the help of a group of individuals (either paid
or volunteer) to accomplish a task, which in our case would be
translating. Crowdsourcing works (sometimes) if you have a large user base that is
passionate enough about what youre doing to make it available in their native
language. Even then, though, crowdsourcing doesnt always solve the problem of
translating massive amounts of material. Sometimes,
though, crowdsourcing translation work isnt necessarily about the translating; its
more about engaging users.

13. Dialects are specific forms of language that can vary due to geographical or social
differences. These forms can be different grammatically, semantically,
morphologically, etc. or through a combination of differences.

14. Equivalence is really what the act of translation is all about. First, figuring out what
exactly the source language text means. Second, rendering that meaning into
an equivalent text in the target language that retains as much of the meaning as was
embedded in the source language. There are whole books written about the theory
of translation equivalence. They all make me fall asleep.

15. Full Match or exact match is a term used in translation memory that defines how
much a target language already-translated translation segment matches up with a
corresponding segment in the source language. A full or exact match means that the
whole segment matches up. For example, a sentence in the source language
matches up exactly with a sentence in the translation memory that has already been
translated.

16. Fuzzy Match, as opposed to an exact match, only matches partially with the
segment located in the translation memory.

17. Gist Translations are exactly what they sound like translations that arent a
100% transfer of thoughts and ideas and nuances from one language to another.
Instead, a gist translation is simply one that encompasses the overall meaning, or
gist, of the source text. These are often done when a client wants to know what the
text is about, but isnt sure he wants to spend the money or time to have the whole
thing translated.

18. Globalization is a relatively new buzzword when it comes to translation and refers
to the general idea of adapting a translation (or a text) to suit the needs of a global
audience.

19. Glossaries are a set of terms in a source and target language that are usually
accompanied by a short definition of each term. In my mind, the thing that sets
dictionaries and glossaries apart from each other is that glossaries tend to be
specialized dictionaries containing words and definitions from a specific topic or
field.

20. Idiomatic Translations are those that try to convey the overall meaning of a source
language text, even if that means sacrificing some of the literal meanings associated
with the source language version. Different translation jobs require different levels
of idiomatic translations and its important to talk with the client to know what level
is needed.

21. In-house Translator is a translator that works for a specific company as a full-time
regular employee translating and performing translation-related tasks. Most
translators work as freelance translators, but there are a number of in-house
translator positions that open up in the marketplace from time to time.

22. Internationalization is the process of preparing a text or source document to


facilitate its translation and localization.

23. Interpretation is rendering spoken source language into spoken target language
through spoken words or signs.

24. Language Combination in translation is languages that a translator or interpreter


works. For example, my language combination is Spanish to English because those
are the two languages that I work. Other translators and interpreters can have three
or more language combinations, depending on their skill level with those languages.
25. Language of Habitual Use is the language that you use most often. It might be your
native language but that isnt always the case. Someone having been born in Mexico
and grown up speaking Spanish might feel more comfortable using English after
having lived in the United States for 20 years.

26. Language Pair is similar to language combination.

27. Language Service Provider (LSP) is a fancy name for an individual or organization
that provides professional language services to clients. This could include services
like translation, interpretation, content search engine optimization (SEO), or any
number of other services.

28. Literal Translation is opposite of an idiomatic translation in that the translation is


done word-by-word without worrying about the meaning of the text as a whole.

29. Localization is the processing of rendering a text or source language in a way to


meet the needs of a certain language or culture. Localization is a huge component of
the translation industry and anyone interested in becoming a freelance translator
should understand more about localization.

30. Mother Tongue is somewhat of a loaded term to some people but for most,
a mother tongue is the language that a person has grown up speaking. For some,
this could be more than one language.

31. Native Language is for the most part the same as mother tongue.

32. Notarized Translation is often used in the United States to certify that the
translation was done by a specific person. The notary cant necessarily attest to the
veracity or fidelity of a translation; instead, the notary can certify that the person
who did the translation is who he says he is.

33. Parallel Texts: are often used in linguistic statistical studies or computational
linguistics. It consists of a text that has been translated. Both texts can then be put
side by side as parallel text.
34. Proofreading is the process of checking a translation for any errors. Some
translators offer proofreading services in addition to translation services as a way to
provide more value to customers.

35. Remote Interpretation is a type of interpreting where the interpreter is not in the
same room as the speakers. Remote interpreting can use video conferencing or
teleconferencing to accomplish the interpretation.

36. Sight Translation is a type of hybrid interpretation/translation. The translator will


read a piece of source text and then verbalize the translation directly afterwards.

37. Simultaneous Interpreting occurs when an interpreter is doing the interpreting at


near real-time of the speaker speaking in the source language.

38. Source Language is the language from which an interpreter or translator works.

39. Sworn Translators are not the norm in the United States. Instead, translators in the
U.S. often offer certified or notarized translations. For those countries that have the
concept of a sworn translator, it is someone who has gone before a court and has
been approved to translate in a certain language combination.

40. Target Language is the language a translator or interpreter works into.

41. Terminology is just a set of terms that are used in a project or across multiple
translation projects.

42. Terminology Database is a repository of terminology. Pretty simple.

43. Terminology Management, then of course, is the process of managing those terms
to effectively take advantage of that database in your translation projects.

44. Transcription is the process of putting oral speech into written form. Many
translators also offer transcription services as part of their language portfolio.

45. Translation Agency is a company that acts almost as a middleman between clients
and translators. Translation agencies often have a database of translators who work
in different language combinations and can then farm out translation work
depending on subject matter expertise and language proficiency.

46. Translation Memory is basically a database that stores translated text, usually
segments that can be words, sentences, or paragraphs. These segments have
already been translated so that when a translator runs across those same segments
in a translation, the translation can be automatically populated with the translation,
which saves the translator time.

47. Word Count is the main way that translators charge their clients. Translators often
charge so much money per word, and then multiply that by the total word count to
get a final amount. However, there are some translators that charge by the hour.

Source:

http://www.translationrules.com/the-translation-terminology-cheatsheet-for-new-
translators-and-interpreters-54-vocabulary-definitions-to-get-you-started-in-translation/

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