Translation: It’s History and Trends
The term “translation” hails from the mid-fourteenth century with an etymological base in the Latin word translationem, a noun of action from the stem of transferre. It also shares roots with the word from Old French meaning “the rendering of a text from one language to another.” The verb form in English, translate, is from […]
The meaning of ‘Cana’
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 […]
Aesthetics and Meaning: The Balancing Act of Literary Translation
Words carry more than just their meaning. They also possess an aesthetic quality that can derive from their meaning, their sound when being pronounced, or even the appearance of the word if it contains symmetry. While these are purely subjective and personal preferences, translators can find themselves faced with the task of trying to decipher […]
The Fallibility of the ‘100% Match’ and How it Affects Agency Rates
Continuing with the topic of Trados, or translation memory software, the ‘100% matches’ moniker warrants a closer look. The term can be both deceptive and misapplied, for reasons including the true accuracy of the matches and the way they affect translation rates, respectively. The term applies to any segment of source text that is an […]
Should translators be paid by the hour or per word?
It is far more common for translators to quote a per-word rate to their clients than an hourly rate. Yet hourly rates still persist in some particular cases. There are many reasons why per-word pricing is the norm and preferred by both clients as well as translators and translation agencies. Chief among these is that […]
Machine Translation vs. Translation Memory Software: Different Methods, Different Results
Most people are familiar with machine translation tools such a Google Translator and Babelfish, for example. They seek to replace the human translator by taking rules that were previously established and put into the software and applying them to new phrases. These rules cover everything from syntax to grammar and individual vocabulary units. But these […]
The Importance of Providing Written Translations of Company Policies
While US labor laws require that employers provide translations of certain kinds of information regarding company policies to Spanish-speaking employees, the laws which are currently on the books do not necessarily cover all of the information that these employees require. As a result, it is not unheard-of for employees with limited English abilities to be […]
Communicating for Life: The Language Barrier in Health Care
Learning a foreign language for the purpose of living in another country goes beyond mastering the basic conversations one might have on a street corner. With the complexity of life, comes the wide variety of situations that a person must know how to navigate in their new language in order to get by. But even […]
The Dynamics of Language and Sociolinguistic Norms
Language change is a well-documented phenomenon and one that has contributed greatly to the idea of language as a dynamic, evolving form of communication. This evolution manifests in everything from vocabulary to syntax, punctuation and accent. Because it encompasses so many influences over a period of time, language change is generally too gradual to make […]
Take a Butcher’s at Cockney Rhyming Slang
What exactly is Cockney Rhyming Slang and where does it come from? Is it still used today? Was it developed for particular social or political reasons? There are many worthy questions surrounding the use, creation and development of Cockney Rhyming Slang and there’s a lot of fun to be had too in the practice of […]
