When Never to Use Google Translate

Posted On May 22, 2011By TranspanishIn Languages, Portuguese Language, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

While Google Translate and similar machine translation tools do offer a means for readers to achieve a basic understanding of a text, computers fail to render the nuanced, culturally correct translations created by humans. Machine translation frequently proves useful to decipher blogs, Facebook posts or tweets in a foreign language, but this technology falls short when the occasion calls for precise language, carefully crafted wording, and subtle turns of phrase.

Machine translation will never learn to pick up on the cultural undertones and subtleties at play in language. Jokes, idioms and wordplay are largely lost on Google Translate, which fails to capture the “flavor” of the text.

The following types of translations should never be left up to Google Translate or any other machine translation tool:

Sales and marketing texts requiring both linguistic and cultural understanding
Patent translations or other technical literature where accuracy carries great importance
Medical and pharmaceutical texts, particularly when such information may mean a matter of life or death
Legal texts such as contracts, court orders, and wills, where any error in the text may have profound legal implications
Any document that represents the public face of your business or organization, including websites, brochures, manuals, etc.

Recently, some translation service providers have begun offering post-edited machine translations as an alternative to professional human translations; however, it is the experience of many translation agencies that it actually takes more time for a skilled translator to proofread and edit a machine translation than to create a translation from scratch.

A high quality translation of your documents, website, etc. will prove to be invaluable in terms of projecting an image of professionalism and integrity for your business or organization. Open up your product or business to an audience of some 330 million Spanish speakers worldwide through a professional translation of your text. A relatively modest investment in translated materials for your business will continue to pay dividends long into the future.

Request your Free Quote for Spanish Translations and Portuguese Translations.

Lunfardo: Money Talk

Posted On May 19, 2011By TranspanishIn Languages, Latinos, Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 Comment

Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a defining characteristic of the Rioplatense dialect. Add a dash of Argentine flavor to your Spanish vocabulary with the Transpanish blog’s ongoing feature highlighting some of the most frequently used terms in Lunfardo.

While Lunfardo features a number of words to refer to money in general, it also employs several terms to describe specific currency denominations.

Term	Meaning
guita	one cent [also used as a general term for money]
mango	one peso
diego [considered a non-standard term by Lunfardo purists]	ten pesos
gamba	one hundred pesos
luca	one thousand pesos
palo	one million pesos

Unless otherwise specified, these terms always denote Argentine legal tender. If the speaker wishes to refer to a foreign currency, there are special terms that are affixed to the quantity. For example, verde is used in reference to U.S. dollars (e.g. 5 gambas verdes = 500 dollars). Speakers tack on euro after the quantity if discussing euros, the currency of the European Union (e.g. 10 lucas euros = 10,000 euros).

In addition, it’s best to use the term for the largest quantity applicable, i.e. 20 palos instead of 20,000,000 mangos or 20,000 lucas to express the sum of 20 million pesos.

Language an Obstacle for Internet Users in European Union

Posted On May 13, 2011By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages, Portuguese Language, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 Comment

A recent study conducted by Eurobarometer, the European Commission’s survey research program, found that more than 50% of Internet users in the European Union (EU) sometimes access the web using a language other than their mother tongue. In addition, the study revealed that 90% of EU Internet users show a preference for websites featured in their native language.

Nonetheless, 44% of survey respondents sensed that they were “missing something interesting online” since a number of websites display information in a language they don’t comprehend.

Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, wrote, “If we are serious about making every European digital, we need to make sure that they can understand the web content they want. We are developing new technologies that can help people that cannot understand a foreign language.”

At the present time, the European Commission is funding 67 million euros’ worth of research projects to enhance translation techniques for online content, including the site iTranslate4, which generates machine translations of several European languages.

For more information on this topic, read this article on the news site Deutsche Welle.

Lunfardo: What Does “Guita” Mean?

Posted On April 28, 2011By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 Comment

The Meaning of Guita

In Lunfardo, the word “guita” means “money” or “cash.” The word “dinero” (money) is not frequently heard in Argentina, with speakers tending to favor the word “plata” instead. The term “guita” is in widespread use throughout Argentina. In addition to guita, you may run across the words “mango,” “vento,” “sope” (a reversal of the syllables in the word “peso”), and “mosca” in a discussion about money. Also the word “guita” is equivalent to cent or “peso” (Argentine currency).

The word “guita” turns up in the lyrics of the tango “Al mundo le falta un tornillo” by José María Aguilar and Enrique Cadícamo

Todo el mundo está en la estufa,
Triste, amargao y sin garufa,
neurasténico y cortao…
Se acabaron los robustos,
si hasta yo, que daba gusto,
¡cuatro kilos he bajao!
Hoy no hay guita ni de asalto
y el puchero está tan alto
que hay que usar el trampolín.
Si habrá crisis, bronca y hambre,
que el que compra diez de fiambre
hoy se morfa hasta el piolín.

Hoy se vive de prepo
y se duerme apurao.
Y la chiva hasta a Cristo
se la han afeitao…
Hoy se lleva a empeñar
al amigo más fiel,
nadie invita a morfar…

…

2010 U.S. Census Data Reveals Continued Growth of Hispanic Population

Posted On April 7, 2011By TranspanishIn Latinos, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 Comment

According to the latest demographic information culled from the 2010 U.S. Census, the Latino population now totals 16.3% of the nation’s inhabitants. The Hispanic population increased 43% over the last ten years, growing from 35.3 million to 50.5 million. Demographers also reported that 56% of the country’s total population expansion in the last decade can be attributed to Latinos.

Even though the Latino population’s growth in raw numbers over the last ten years exceeded totals from previous decades, in terms of the growth rate percentage, the Hispanic population increased more slowly than in years past. For example, the Latino population saw growth rates exceeding 50% in the 1980s and 1990s; however, the first decade of the 21^st century witnessed a slightly more modest 43% increase in the number of U.S. Hispanics.

Hispanics, who may self-identify with any race or ethnicity, constitute the country’s largest minority group. By race, 53% of Latinos – 26.7 million people – identified themselves as white only. The next biggest group, 36.7% (18.5 million) of Latinos, identified themselves as “some other race.” A further 6% endorsed multiple races/ethnicities.

In terms of geographic distribution, the majority of the Latino population remains in nine states with significant, established Hispanic communities: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York and Texas. The trend over the last decade, however, is one of dispersion, with the percentage of Latinos living in other states on the rise.

Southeast states including Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina registered some of the most impressive growth in the Latino population. Maryland and South Dakota also saw their Hispanic populations double over the last decade.

In six states – Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island – an increase in the number of Latinos constituted all of those states’ population growth. In the event that the Latino population had not multiplied, those states would have seen negative growth.

The census count of the U.S. Latino population was slightly higher than anticipated. The 2010 Census results for Hispanics yielded 955,000 more people than the Census Bureau had estimated for this segment of the population.

Source: The Pew Hispanic Center

Tips for Spanish Translation Buyers

Posted On March 31, 2011By TranspanishIn Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

When securing the services of a translation agency for an English to Spanish translation, buyers should keep in mind the following points:

Text Expansion

When a document is translated from English to Spanish, the resulting translation often contains up to 20% more words than the source text. This phenomenon, known as text expansion, occurs because Spanish often requires more words than English to express the same idea. Text expansion is a particularly relevant issue for documents that must be formatted for print publication.

Informal vs. Formal Tone

The English language employs the pronoun “you” in both informal and formal situations, whereas Spanish offers a choice of pronouns (tú vs. usted) depending upon the formality of the text. Technical, medical or academic texts will likely use a formal tone (usted), while personal correspondence or marketing materials – where the idea is to foster a sense of closeness with the reader – call for more relaxed, informal language (tú). Identify the tone you’d like to transmit through your translation, and discuss your thoughts with the translation agency’s project manager.

Know Your Target Audience

Before purchasing a translation, determine the target audience for your materials. A translation for Spanish speakers in Latin America will vary significantly from one produced for European Spanish speakers. If possible, identify the exact location of your target audience. In the case of a document that’s meant to have broad appeal, neutral Spanish may be the best compromise, as it avoids regionalisms, colloquial language, and certain verb tenses and conjugations that hint at a particular dialect.

Formatting Decisions

Sometimes a translation project entails more than just translating the words on the page. In the case of presentation slides, pamphlets, websites and software, for example, the text must be formatted for either digital or print publication. Decide whether you will be responsible for formatting the finished translation or if the agency will provide that service. Most full-service translation agencies offer desktop publishing (DTP) and formatting options, but remember that you will likely incur an extra expense in addition to the translation costs.

Are you looking for a Spanish Translation Service? Visit Transpanish for a free quote.

Google Strikes Deal to Translate European Patents

Posted On March 28, 2011By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

Last week Google announced an agreement with the European Patent Office (EPO) to translate approximately 50 million patents using the search giant’s Internet-based translation tool, Google Translate. Google and authorities at the EPO will collaborate to translate patents into 32 different languages.

Patent researchers, scientists and others will be able to conduct searches for patents in German, French and English, the patent authority’s three official languages. The EPO site’s users may then obtain an instant translation of the patent documentation into languages such as Russian, Japanese or Spanish. It’s important to note that these translations are being made available purely for research and information purposes; they are in no way meant to substitute for official patent translations done by professional translators, as mandated by law.

The EPO will grant Google access to all previously translated patents, which amount to some 1.5 million documents in addition to 50,000 new patents per year.

Officials at the patent office expect the project to be finalized by 2014.

For more information, visit EPO.org.

Also read:
The machine translation debate

Google Translate and the Struggle for Accurate Machine Translations

Portuñol: A Blend of Spanish and Portuguese

Posted On March 18, 2011By TranspanishIn Brazilian Market, Languages, Portuguese Language, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 3 Comments

Portuñol or portunhol – a dialect based on code-switching between Spanish and Portuguese – has resulted from prolonged contact between the inhabitants of border areas. Emerging over time as a sort of lingua franca for those living in immigrant communities or in trade zones where speakers lacked fluency in the other group’s language, portuñol can be described as a hybrid mixture of Spanish and Portuguese with a smattering of influences from indigenous languages. Portuñol speakers are concentrated in the border areas between Argentina and Brazil, Paraguay and Brazil, and Uruguay and Brazil.

The most uniform and structured variation of portuñol, known as portuñol riverense or fronterizo, is spoken near the Uruguay-Brazil border, specifically in and around the area surrounding the twin cities of Rivera, Uruguay and Santana do Livramento, Brazil. Although most linguists consider portuñol riverense to be primarily a Portuguese-based dialect, other variants of portuñol retain more of a Spanish flavor.

In the past few years, a number of literary works in portuñol have been produced, largely by Uruguayan and Brazilian authors. One of the most celebrated examples of portuñol literature is a novel entitled Mar Paraguayo by Wilson Bueno. The use of portuñol has also risen on the Internet, with websites, blogs and chat rooms dedicated to the dialect.

The Languages of Spain

Posted On March 5, 2011By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Latinos, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

The first language that springs to mind when one thinks of Spain is – not surprisingly – Castilian Spanish, the country’s official language. However, there are actually a number of other languages and dialects spoken there, a few of which have attainted co-official status in certain regions: Catalan/Valencian, Basque, Galician, and Aranese.

Here’s a brief snapshot of some of the languages spoken in Spain.

Castilian Spanish

Castilian Spanish – so named for its roots in the region of Castile – emerged from Spain’s many regional languages and dialects to become the primary language of the nation. Castilian Spanish was later brought to the New World through the colonization efforts of the Spanish, where the language enjoyed widespread adoption throughout the Americas.

Catalan/Valencian

Catalan, a Romance language spoken in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, currently boasts some 12 million speakers. Catalan has achieved broad usage as an everyday language in these areas. The language has become the medium of instruction in a number of schools, and it’s utilized to a large extent in government administration and the media. The version of the language spoken in the Community of Valencia is known as Valencian. Though some Valencians contest that their language is separate from Catalan, the majority of linguists consider it a dialect.

Galician

Spoken by approximately three million people in the northwest corner of Spain, Galician shares many linguistic features with Portuguese. The two languages are more or less mutually intelligible, but Galician relies on Spanish orthographic conventions. In fact, scholars have been debating for some time as to whether Galician and Portuguese are actually two distinct languages or just dialects of the same language.

Basque

Linguists consider the Basque language, spoken in the north of Spain in Basque Country, a language isolate (i.e. a language with no known linguistic relationship to another language). As such, Basque shares virtually zero mutual intelligibility with Castilian Spanish and the other languages of Spain, which all belong to the Romance language family.

Aranese

Aranese – a language spoken in the Aran Valley of Catalonia in northeastern Spain – shares co-official status with Catalan in that region. Approximately 90% of those living in the Aran Valley can understand Aranese, and some 65% of inhabitants can speak the language.

Read Differences between Latin American Spanish and Castilian Spanish.

Linguistic Features of Rioplatense (River Plate) Spanish

Posted On February 22, 2011By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 2 Comments

The dialect of Spanish spoken in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina is known as Rioplatense or River Plate Spanish. The dialect’s sphere of influence extends to other major cities within the River Plate region including La Plata, Santa Fe, Rosario, Paraná and Mar del Plata in Argentina, and Montevideo in Uruguay. While significant dialectical differences exist between the Spanish spoken in the various regions of Argentina, most foreigners equate “Argentine Spanish” with the Rioplatense version.

The following linguistic features set Rioplatense Spanish apart from other dialects spoken in Latin America and Spain.

Voseo. In Rioplatense Spanish, the second person singular pronoun tú is completely replaced by vos, a linguistic phenomenon known as voseo. The conjugation of the second person form in the present indicative tense and the imperative mood also changes [Example: tú hablas (you speak) becomes vos hablás, dime tu nombre (tell me your name) becomes decime tu nombre]. Click here for more information on voseo.

Rehilamiento or sheísmo. The linguistic feature known as rehilamiento or sheísmo refers to a characteristic of Rioplatense Spanish in which the sounds “ll” and “y” are pronounced as [ʃ] or [ʒ] (like the sounds in the English words mission and measure). As a result, the word pollo (chicken) is pronounced “po-sho” or “po-zho” while playa (beach) sounds like “plah-sha” or “pla-zha.”

Appearance of numerous European loanwords. The great wave of European immigration to Argentina at the end of the 19^th century and beginning of the 20^th century led to the incorporation of a number of loanwords from Italian, French, German and English. Traces of Italian are particularly noticeable in everyday words, e.g. morfi (food).

Unique intonation influenced by Italian. Italian also left its mark on the Rioplatense dialect in terms of speakers’ unique intonation. Many people describe the sound of Rioplatense Spanish as Spanish spoken with an Italian accent.

Aspiration of the letter “s” at the end of a syllable. The letter “s” often seems to disappear in Rioplatense Spanish [Example: the word “fresco” is pronounced “freh-ko”]. Some linguists feel that this feature of the dialect is attributable to the influence of Italian as well.

Use of Lunfardo. Rioplatense Spanish is peppered with numerous words and phrases from the colorful slang known as Lunfardo. One of the features of Lunfardo is the use of vesre, a form of wordplay that reverses the order of syllables in a word [Example: café → feca (coffee)].

Influence of indigenous languages such as Araucano, Quechua and Guaraní. The languages of the various indigenous peoples of Argentina have shaped the Spanish language in this country. Examples of indigenous words that have entered into Rioplatense Spanish are the word tambo meaning dairy farm, which comes from Quechua, and the Araucano word laucha meaning mouse.

Spanish Language