Most difficult languages

December 30th, 2009

Languages differ from one another. The native speakers of each language did not seem to have problems to learn it, but having a good command of a second language is a totally different matter. Then, languages become a labyrinth in which grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary are those enemies we have to conquer.

For instance, Spanish people complain about the difficulty of English. A language so loaded with phrasal verbs, funny idioms and the so-calle false friends in which the pronunciation of the words has nothing to do with their written form seems too complicated for the people in our culture.

On the other hand, the English also have their right to claim that Spanish is full of difficulties: Our language has a total of 48 verbal forms, and there are exceptions for many of the verbs. In addition, we have two different genres for the articles -masculine and feminine, although this is nothing compared with German and its three differents forms for the article.

Anyhow, these European languages are a piece of cake compared to Chinese, in which each syllable has 4 clearly differentiated tones meaning different things; or Ubykh, a Caucasian language with up to 78 consonant sounds. Other languages, apart from a multiplicity of tones, offer new sounds, such as clicks or new array of vocalic sounds. This is the case of !Xóõ, spoken by very few people in Botswana.

In conclusion, languages construct themselves upon a wide variety of possibilities and each of them offers a different challenge. Is there any language that  you have found specially difficult to learn or translate?

More information at:

Difficult languages: Tongue twisters

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Esperanto, not only a language

December 23rd, 2009

What is Esperanto? Who are the speakers of that languages? When was it created? Who did it? Why? Probably, these are the typical questions of those interested in languages and linguistics.

First of all, esperanto did not come up spontaneously. It was created by L. L. Zamenhof 150 years ago in order to put an end to confrontations and war. This idea may seem quite naive after the Civil War in Spain, but we must take into account that Zamenhof grew up in an environment in which the coexistence of various languages and cultures caused conflict and misunderstanding.

This language, mixture of Latin, Romance languages and other European “educated” languages, was not the first attempt to create a unified language, but it was undoubtedly the most successful. Around 2 million people know it and are able to use it.

Moreover, Esperanto not only is an spoken language, but is also present in literature. Plays by Federico García Lorca, “Don Quixote”, Joyce’s “Ulysses” or Shakespeare’s sonnets have been translated into Esperanto, and there are hundreds of publications in this language.

In conclusion, Zamenhof’s main merit was to propagate an artificial language all around the globe. Even if that did not serve to stop violence, at least it united people around the motivation of sharing a new language common to people from different countries and cultures.

Source:

Interview by Pablo Arqued (lainformación.com) to Miguel Fernández, Esperanto translator of the works by Federico García Lorca.

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Internet is the future

December 10th, 2009

Internet changes rapidly. Every they there is a new tool, a new improvement, a new possibility. Not too long ago, we were fascinated by MSN Messenger, now Windows Live Messenger. Talking in real time -and for free!- with our friends and colleagues was a kind of miracle.

However, this tool has become quite less popular with the appearance of sites where, apart of talking, we can share and comment on news, videos, images and texts with all our contacts without having to download any program: I am referring to  Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Flickr or the newest Google Wave, among others.

Apart from these social networks, media have also developed since the Internet era began. Almost every newspaper has a digital edition, and some of them even offer their own radio channel. Radios have also adapted to new technologies: many radio stations are available on the net and offer their podcasts so that anyone can download their favourite sections and listen to them when they want.

In conclusion, the Internet is totally integrated in our lives as an endless source of possibilities. What will be the next step?

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Multi-lingual theatre

November 27th, 2009

Can you imagine going to the theatre in a foreign country and being offered subtitles in your own language? Do you dream with going to the opera and not having to raise your head any time you want to understand the dialogues? It seems it is going to be possible.

“Hairspray”, the musical from the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, is pioneer un offering a tool that allows following the play in 8 different languages. The application, called Airscript, translates the dialogues and the songs’ lyrics and send them to the users’ handsets via a wireless network.

For the time being, this device is offered in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, and is also adapted to people with hearing difficulties. Its implementation has been very successful, due to the fact that there are a lot of foreign visitors among the audience.

Hopefully, Airscript will also be used in other shows and will replace the unconfortable screens on one side of the stage, in which subtitles were only offered in one language.

Source:

London West-End show goes multi-lingual

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Translation at health centres

November 25th, 2009

One of the mayor benefits of simultaneous translation is the help it provides to health care patietns. This service, introduced 8 months ago by the  Andalusian Health Reception, has already been used around 5000 times in 46 different languages.

It is a really complete service: It allows patients ask medical questions in their own language and it is also available in the 8 casualties coordination centres.

The simultaneous translation service is also offered by the Centre of Information and Services Salud Responde, where citizens can ask questions related to the health system, solve administrative procedures or arrange a date with the doctor.

The most requested languages are English, Arbic, German, French, Chinese and Romanian. However, there are other 40 languages -Bosnian, Korean, Lituanian, Turkish, etc.- also offered to users.

More information at:

ADN.es – Los centros sanitarios utilizan en casi 5.000 conversaciones el servicio de teletraducción simultánea

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New Spanish Grammar

November 20th, 2009

The 4th of December, the two first volumes of the “New Spanish Language Grammar” will be published both in Spain and Spanish America. This is an exhaustive work that the 22 Royal Spanish Academies have been preparing for more than a decade and that compiles for the first time the Spanish of each country and region. Thus, it is the most detailed Spanish grammar published so far.

The two first volumes in this grammar are focused on morphology and syntax. In 2010 a volume on phonetics and phonology will probably reach the market. This will include a CD with the different pronunciations in each country.

In order to celebrate the publication of this grammar -the first since 1931-, it will be presented the 10th of December in the Royal Spanish Academy’s headquarters in an act chaired by the King and Queen of Spain.

In conclusion, this grammar has gathered all the varieties of Spanish, a hard job if we take into account that there are millions of speakers of this language spread all over the world.

Reference:

El País.com (Cultura): La ‘Nueva gramática’ llegará el próximo 4 de diciembre

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Multilingual countries

November 18th, 2009

Belgium, France and Spain are countries where a variety of languages is spoken. The official languages in Belgium are French, German and Dutch. In France, French is the only official language: However, in some regions we can still hear Breton, Corsican or Basque. Spanish is the official language of Spain, but some autonomous regions share the officiality of Spanish with other language (Galician, Catalan or Basque).

Brussels, capital of Belgium, show its linguistic variety in the city names, in the road signs and in the street names: These are written both in French and Dutch. In the regions of Flanders and Wallonia, though, they are only written in one language (French and Dutch, respectively). German is only spoken in the East of Belgium, in some parts of Liège.

Imagen de Bruselas

In Frances, bilingualism is limited to some regions and is only used in road signs or to indicate the name of cities and villages. In Brittany, for instance, indications are written both in Breton and in French.  Bretaña, por ejemplo, las indicaciones están escritas tanto en bretón como en francés. The same happens in Corsica, where French, Corsican and Italian converge. Other typical example is the area of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, where both Basque and French are spoken.

In the bilingual Spanish regions, signs and place names usually appear in both languages, although it always depends on the area. Thus, in the capitals written indications will be written in two languages, but in other places will only figure in one language.

Señal bilingüe en el país vasco

Bilingual city names in the Basque country

Therefore, linguistic variety is present in many countries. However, there are always people who want to impose one of the languages and do not accept its coexistence with others.

Source:

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Google Translate, now better

November 18th, 2009

Google Translate is improving. Now, apart from translating into 51 languages, it adds the following features:

  1. Instant translation: You will not have to wait to have written the whole fragment in order to see it translated.
  2. Audio: You will be able to hear the pronunciation of what you write (only in English yet).
  3. Romanization: You will be able to read texts in Arabic, Persian or Hindi in the Roman alphabet.
  4. Transcription to Arabic, Persian or Hindi: You will be able to write Arabic, Persian or Hindi words in the Roman words and see them transcribed into their original alphabet.
  5. Grammatical analysis: Google Translate will identify the root of complex words.

All these functions help us communicate, and we hope Google Translate extends them to all languages.  In this video you will discover more things about this application.

Source:

Google Translate: now with speech and real-time translation

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Google Translator Toolkit, the new revolutionary tool?

November 5th, 2009

If we had the chance to ask a veteran translator what his job looked like 40 years ago, he would possibly tell you that his task was much harder than today, when we can resort to computers, online dictionaries and translation programs. This kind of programas are used by almost every translator.  They make their task easier, and therefore increase their productivity.

The most common translation programs are SDL Trados, Transit, Across y Wordfast, but now a ‘hard competitor’ has enroled the list. It is the new application by Google, Google Translator Toolkit, a free translator that could achieve the reputation of the above mentioned translation programs.

Google Translator Toolkit works with  Google Translate and offers the possibility of translating into 345 languages. Translation from one language to the other is made automatically with Google Translate, and then the users can modify the text until they achieve a perfect translation. The main advantage of this system is that the translator does not have to make the effort of translating from scratch. At least, he/she has an starting point, even if the automatic translation needs to be thoroughly revised.

Translation memories are another facility of Google Translator Toolkit. They save the translations on the net and also file the corrected items. For example, if on a first translation ‘apply for that job’ has been translated as ‘aplicar para ese trabajo’ and the translator has modified ‘aplicar’ and rewritten it as ‘enviar una solicitud’, Google Translator Toolkit will ‘remember’ it for the next time this expression appears and will not repeat the mistake.

Google Translator Toolkit also gives you the possibility of translating directly from your document or web page. It is compatible with Microsoft Word, with te Open Document texts (.odt), with texts without the formatting (.txt) and with enriched text (.rtf). Google Translator Toolkit recognises sentence by sentence the segments of the translation so that you can edit them and make the necessary corrections, as we can see in the image below:

The underline text on the left column is the fragment that we want to edit. In this case, Google Translator Toolkit has translated automatically the text from English into French, and we are going to correct the mistakes of the French version this application suggests. On the right column, parallel with the underlined passage, there is a white box: Here we will insert our modifications.

Finally, we must stress again the great amount of languages from which Google Translator Toolkit translates: 345 languages than can give rise 10.664 different combinations. This broad idiomatic offer favour the perpetuation of  minority languages and gives them social status. Besides, shared translation memories and glossaries are a help for the unification of the written forms of languages.

In conclusion, Google Translator Toolkit is an application that all those people on the field of translation should know. This does not mean that they should leave aside translation programs like SDL Trados or Transit. These are frequently demanded by translation agencies and they make a really good service.

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Translators and interpreters

November 4th, 2009

Establishing the difference between a translator and an interpreter is not a difficult task: Both “transform” words from one language to another, but do not do it the same way. Translators do it on paper, while interpreters do it orally. Thus, translators need a broad control over the grammar and the vocabulary of the text they are translating, but at the same time have time time enough to analyse and revise their translation. On the other hand, interpreters must translate simultaneously what other people say, a task which requires a high level of concentration.

Interpreters can be divided into two categories. Simultaneous interpreters translate right after the speaker. Thus, they must have a strong memory to remember what has been said and elaborate it into the target language. This job requires a big effort an is habitually held by a pair interpreters who take turns every 20 minutes. However, consecutive interpreters translate every 3-4 sentences or at the end of each “paragraph”. This technique provides them with time to take notes and achieve a more exact translation. This kind of workers are often requires in conversational exchanges between people from different countries.

Nowadays the translation market is at its very peak, because many firms want to project themselves internationally and need to interact with people from many places. Interpreters are also very helpful for deaf people and for medical industry. Without them, doctors would be unable to attend people who speak minoritary languages, for example.

In conclusion, both translators and interpreters combine languages, but in a quite different way and with different levels of difficulty. A translation will always need to be very precise, but will have more time to translate than an interpreters. In the case of interpreters, they will need a lot of concentration to complete successfully their task, but the length of their work will normally be shorter.

Is it clear for you now, what the difference between translators and interpreters is?

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