The first prime minister of India late Jawahar Lal Nehru was called Chacha Nehru in Hindi. He used to love children so they started calling him Chacha (paternal uncle). But he was called Mama Nehru by the children of Kerela (Malyalam spoken state) as traditionally matriarchal system prevails in Kerela and so mother's brother called Mama (maternal uncle) is having more importance than father's brother. The soft drink Fresca was being promoted by a saleswoman in Mexico. She was surprised that her sales pitch was greeted with laughter, and later embarrassed when she learned that fresca is slang for lesbian. U.S. and British negotiators found themselves at a standstill when the American company proposed that they table particular key points. In the U.S. Tabling a motion means to not discuss it, while the same phrase in Great Britain means to bring it to the table for discussion. He is as wise as owl. An owl represents an wise creature in USA and UK. But in India it is referred as foolish. In Arab countries it is seen as inauspicious.
In India, there is a saying, kosa kosa par pani badle, char kosa par vaani. This means that at every one kosa, (a local measuring unit for distance slightly greater than one mile) quality of water changes and at every four kosa language changes. This saying is not an exaggeration. For example in Bengali
Shadhubhasha, language of sages, is the written language with longer verb inflections and a more Sanskrit-derived vocabulary. Indian national anthem Jana Gana Mana and the national song of India Vande Mataram were composed in a form of Shadhubhasha, but its use is rapidly declining in modern age. Choltibhasha, running language, a written Bengali style that reflects a more colloquial idiom, is increasingly the standard for written Bengali. But if we talk about spoken Bengali , spoken Bengali exhibits far more variation than written Bengali. Ancholik dialect and one or more forms of Grammo Bengali can be found different with the small changes of distance.
Showing posts with label Translation / अनुवाद. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Translation / अनुवाद. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Translation : Art plus Craft plus Science
Many newcomers to translation believe it to be an exact science, and mistakenly assume that firmly-defined one-to-one correlations exist between words and phrases in different languages, thus rendering translations fixed and identically-reproducible, much as in cryptography. They assume that all that is needed in order to translate a text is to encode and decode between languages, using a translation dictionary as the codebook.
On the contrary, such a fixed relationship would only exist, were a new language synthesized and continually synchronized with another, existing language in such a way that each word would forever carry exactly the same scope and shades of meaning, with careful attention being given to the preservation of etymological roots and lexical "ecological niches," assuming that these were known with certainty. If the new language were then ever to take on a life of its own apart from such cryptographic use, each word would naturally begin to assume new shades of meaning and cast off previous associations, thereby vitiating any such synthetic synchronization.
There has been debate as to whether translation is an art or a craft. Literary translators, such as Gregory Rabassa in If This Be the reason, argue that translation is an art, though one that it is teachable. Other translators, mostly those who work on technical, business or legal documents, regard their métier as a craft — one that can not only be taught, but that is subject to linguistic analysis and that benefits from academic study.
Most translators will agree that the situation depends on the nature of the text being translated. A simple document, e.g. a product brochure, can often be translated quickly, using techniques familiar to advanced language-students. By contrast, a newspaper editorial, a political speech, or a book on almost any subject will require not only the craft of good language skills and research technique, but a substantial knowledge of the subject matter, a cultural sensitivity, and a mastery of the art of good writing. Translation has, indeed, served as a writing school for many recognized writers.
We cannot say translation is a art only, or craft or science only. In fact translation is the combination of all the three. As far as translation is concern it is not similar to that of fine art like things but if writing any story is creation then translating it is essentially a recreation. Art and craft are complementary to each other and for translating anything a good amount of experience is also needed. The whole process of doing any translation is fully scientific so translation is science also.
On the contrary, such a fixed relationship would only exist, were a new language synthesized and continually synchronized with another, existing language in such a way that each word would forever carry exactly the same scope and shades of meaning, with careful attention being given to the preservation of etymological roots and lexical "ecological niches," assuming that these were known with certainty. If the new language were then ever to take on a life of its own apart from such cryptographic use, each word would naturally begin to assume new shades of meaning and cast off previous associations, thereby vitiating any such synthetic synchronization.
There has been debate as to whether translation is an art or a craft. Literary translators, such as Gregory Rabassa in If This Be the reason, argue that translation is an art, though one that it is teachable. Other translators, mostly those who work on technical, business or legal documents, regard their métier as a craft — one that can not only be taught, but that is subject to linguistic analysis and that benefits from academic study.
Most translators will agree that the situation depends on the nature of the text being translated. A simple document, e.g. a product brochure, can often be translated quickly, using techniques familiar to advanced language-students. By contrast, a newspaper editorial, a political speech, or a book on almost any subject will require not only the craft of good language skills and research technique, but a substantial knowledge of the subject matter, a cultural sensitivity, and a mastery of the art of good writing. Translation has, indeed, served as a writing school for many recognized writers.
We cannot say translation is a art only, or craft or science only. In fact translation is the combination of all the three. As far as translation is concern it is not similar to that of fine art like things but if writing any story is creation then translating it is essentially a recreation. Art and craft are complementary to each other and for translating anything a good amount of experience is also needed. The whole process of doing any translation is fully scientific so translation is science also.
Friday, October 10, 2008
FUEL: An initiative in language standardization via collaboration
http://www.linux.com/feature/149038
"FUEL (Frequently Used Entries for Localization) aims to solve the problem of inconsistency and lack of standardization in computer software translation in a new and unique way. Initiated by Red Hat, the project is trying to give a better experience to end users of a localized desktop by resolving the issues of standardization and inconsistency."
"FUEL is an attempt to standardize terms for the whole desktop instead of concentrating on different applications separately. At present, FUEL incorporates representative entries from the GNOME desktop, OpenOffice.org, Firefox browser, Evolution email client, and Pidgin instant messenger, so that it can have at least all the entries that a normal user uses very frequently. Later, on demand from communities, FUEL can incorporate more applications in its list from different projects."
"FUEL (Frequently Used Entries for Localization) aims to solve the problem of inconsistency and lack of standardization in computer software translation in a new and unique way. Initiated by Red Hat, the project is trying to give a better experience to end users of a localized desktop by resolving the issues of standardization and inconsistency."
"FUEL is an attempt to standardize terms for the whole desktop instead of concentrating on different applications separately. At present, FUEL incorporates representative entries from the GNOME desktop, OpenOffice.org, Firefox browser, Evolution email client, and Pidgin instant messenger, so that it can have at least all the entries that a normal user uses very frequently. Later, on demand from communities, FUEL can incorporate more applications in its list from different projects."
सहभागिता आधारित भाषा मानकीकरण का एक प्रयास
लिनक्स डॉट कॉम पर मेरा आलेख हाल ही में छपा है...मानकीकरण के फ़्यूल प्रोजेक्ट के बारे में यह आलेख विस्तार से सारी स्थितियों के बारे में बताता है कि क्यों इस प्रोजेक्ट को शुरू किया गया है. सहभागी नवाचार पर आधारित इस प्रोजेक्ट के बारे में इस लेख में यह बताने की कोशिश की गई है कि कैसे सहभागिता से हम उन मानकीकरण के लक्ष्यों को हासिल कर सकते हैं जो अब तक कई कारणों से हासिल नहीं किया जा सका है.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Translation and the Concept of Register
Basically in modern linguistics, language is analyzed on two basis, on the basis of structure and on the basis of usability. According to the variation of subjects language variation is essential. We can say it domain variation or functional variation. These variation is the variation of domain that is functional variation according to subject matter. On the basis of usability, the special language type which we use is called register. Linguistics have tried to capture these functional variations of the homogeneous code by introducing the concept of register or domain. The notion of register is based on the social fact – what people do with their language. In other words, it is a language variety used in social activity in a defined situation.
On the basis of register only we can differentiate between the functionality of language in different human practice. Basically to understand the speciality the concept of register came in linguistics. When we make differences in same language according to particular subject area then register is created. Due to the use only official Hindi is different from commercial Hindi, commercial Hindi is different from technical Hindi and technical Hindi is different from social Hindi and so on. All area have its own particular words and use. The glossaries and use of language in all areas are different. The identification of this difference is essential. We can see the difference in the following examples.
At the level of words:
Administration Scientific
Grant Force
Registration Velocity
Document Displacement
Confidential Magnetism
Compensation Photosynthesis
On the basis of register only we can differentiate between the functionality of language in different human practice. Basically to understand the speciality the concept of register came in linguistics. When we make differences in same language according to particular subject area then register is created. Due to the use only official Hindi is different from commercial Hindi, commercial Hindi is different from technical Hindi and technical Hindi is different from social Hindi and so on. All area have its own particular words and use. The glossaries and use of language in all areas are different. The identification of this difference is essential. We can see the difference in the following examples.
At the level of words:
Administration Scientific
Grant Force
Registration Velocity
Document Displacement
Confidential Magnetism
Compensation Photosynthesis
Monday, April 7, 2008
g11n, i18n, and l10n
According to Wiktionary, Internationalization, i18n, is the act or process of making a product suitable for international markets, typically by making text messages easily translatable and ensuring support of non-Latin character sets. Similarly,
localization, l10n, means the act or process of making a product suitable for use in a particular country or region, typically by translating text into the language of that country or region and, if necessary, ensuring support of non-Latin character sets. Abbreviation: l10n (numerals one and zero, for the number of characters between the 'L' and 'N' usually in lowercase.). Globalization a.k.a G11N means ensuring the availability of a software product in languages other than the language of origin. Since in software field US dominates the galaxy so language of origin is traditionally US English.
Because in British English these terms can also be spelled 'localisation', the word is occasionally abbreviated as "l10n" (the number ten between the letters l and n) because there are ten letters between its first and the last letters. This is often done in software engineering to avoid confusion over spelling of the term.
Particularly in the world after 1990's, the term Globalization has become a household word around the world. The term globalization which is used in the mainstream media generally talk about the economic globalization . We are watching the world continuously shrinking and so the process of globalization means communication across the whole world also. Internationalization and localization are means of adapting products such as publications, hardware or software for non-native environments, especially other nations and cultures.
The distinction between internationalization and localization is subtle but important. Internationalization is the adaptation of products for potential use virtually everywhere, while localization is the addition of special features for use in a specific locale. The processes are complementary, and must be combined to lead to the objective of a system that works globally.
Subjects unique to localization include:
* Language translation,
* National varieties of languages (language localization)
* Special support for certain languages such as East Asian languages
* Local customs,
* Local content
* Symbols
* Aesthetics
* Order of sorting
* Cultural values and social context
In making software products, internationalization and localization pose challenging tasks for developers, particularly if the software is not designed from the beginning having these concerns in mind. A common practice is to separate textual data and other environment-dependent resources from the program code. Thus, supporting a different environment, ideally, only requires change in those separate resources without code modification; greatly simplifying the task.
The development team needs someone who understands foreign languages and cultures and has a technical background; such a person may be difficult to find. Moreover, the duplication of resources could be a maintenance nightmare. For instance, if a message displayed to the user in one of several languages is modified, all of the translated versions must be changed. Software aiding this task are available, such as gettext.
Since open source software can generally be freely modified and redistributed, it is more prone to internationalization. Most proprietary software is only available in languages considered to be economically viable only. But the open source i18n and l10n work is gigantic.
Internationalization is sometimes used interchangeably with globalization to refer to economic and cultural effects of an increasingly interconnected world.
While internationalization most commonly refers to the addition of a framework for multiple language support, especially in software, it sometimes refers to the process whereby something (a corporation, idea, highway, war, etc.) comes to affect multiple nations. This usage is rare; globalization is preferred. Because of globalization, many companies and products are found in multiple countries worldwide, giving rise to increasing localization requirements. Localization may describe production of goods nearer to end users to reduce environmental and other external costs of globalization.
The bigger and much larger part of the world is non-English speaking people.
Not all speakers of English as a second language throughout the world are not able to use the language efficiently in their work. National language identity will remain alive. In a real-world business environment, all users need to understand application output, accurately and in real time, and not just those who happen to be initiates into the English language.
Software globalization is making software products run anywhere. Globalization is giving choices to the user to choose any of the supported languages.
Software globalization should be started from the very beginning of software making. It starts in the beginning where people can choose their very own locales.
Known in this connection as Internationalization (I18N), product developers must deliver designs that allow for such features as selectable date and currency formats, as well as dynamic resizing of buttons and boxes. Users must be able to input, view, and print data using their own character sets.
Strictly speaking, an internationalized product is not usable in any region of the world unless it is localized to that specific region. It must also speak the local language in every sense of the word. Localization (L10N) is the process of adapting an internationalized product to a specific language, script, cultural, and coded character set environment. In localization, the same semantics are preserved while the syntax may be changed. Localization goes beyond mere translation. The user must be able to not only select the desired language, but other local conventions as well. For instance, one can select German as a language, but also Switzerland as the specific locale of German. Locale allows for national or locale-specific variations on the usage of format, currency, spellchecker, punctuation, etc., all within the single German language area.
Economic and software globalization are a connected process. The real penetration of e-commerce is entirely due to the globalized software. Software companies internationalize and localize their products simply because this makes good economic sense. It is driven by huge revenue opportunities outside the Anglo phonic world for software companies and translators alike.
Abbreviation, Symbols, and Icons
It should be noted that a scientific text not only consists of words and sentences, it also contains abbreviation, symbols, and icons. Therefore it is a problem of translator how they will translate these things. For ASCII (American standard code for Information Interchange), it is good to write it accordingly as we pronunciation it but we cannot take liberty everywhere. We can translate MBBS something like औषधि एवं शल्य चिकित्सा स्नातक in Hindi but it can produce confusion. And also if abbreviation is written without giving its full meaning, then translating it making a problem.
Bibliography:
Palmer, H.E. The principles of language study
Nida, E.A. Towards a science of translation
Srivastava, R.N. भाषायी अस्मिता और हिंदी
Tiwari, B वैज्ञानिक साहित्य के अनुवाद की समस्याएं
Srivastava, R.N. अनुवाद: सिद्धांत और समस्याएं
Tiwari, B कोश विज्ञान
Pinchuk, Isadore Scientfic and technical translation
Kumar, Harish वैज्ञानिक व तकनीकी शब्दावली आयोग का इतिहास
Alen Duff Translation
Lehman, P.W. Historical Linguist: An introduction
Tiwari, B अनुवाद कला
Tiwari, B अनुवाद विज्ञान
Mudiraj, Shashi अनुवाद : मूल्य और मूल्यांकन
Newmark, Peter Approaches to Translation
Catford, J.C. A Linguistic theory of Translation
Quarterly magazines 'Anuvaad', Wikipedia, and Wiktionary... to name a few.
localization, l10n, means the act or process of making a product suitable for use in a particular country or region, typically by translating text into the language of that country or region and, if necessary, ensuring support of non-Latin character sets. Abbreviation: l10n (numerals one and zero, for the number of characters between the 'L' and 'N' usually in lowercase.). Globalization a.k.a G11N means ensuring the availability of a software product in languages other than the language of origin. Since in software field US dominates the galaxy so language of origin is traditionally US English.
Because in British English these terms can also be spelled 'localisation', the word is occasionally abbreviated as "l10n" (the number ten between the letters l and n) because there are ten letters between its first and the last letters. This is often done in software engineering to avoid confusion over spelling of the term.
Particularly in the world after 1990's, the term Globalization has become a household word around the world. The term globalization which is used in the mainstream media generally talk about the economic globalization . We are watching the world continuously shrinking and so the process of globalization means communication across the whole world also. Internationalization and localization are means of adapting products such as publications, hardware or software for non-native environments, especially other nations and cultures.
The distinction between internationalization and localization is subtle but important. Internationalization is the adaptation of products for potential use virtually everywhere, while localization is the addition of special features for use in a specific locale. The processes are complementary, and must be combined to lead to the objective of a system that works globally.
Subjects unique to localization include:
* Language translation,
* National varieties of languages (language localization)
* Special support for certain languages such as East Asian languages
* Local customs,
* Local content
* Symbols
* Aesthetics
* Order of sorting
* Cultural values and social context
In making software products, internationalization and localization pose challenging tasks for developers, particularly if the software is not designed from the beginning having these concerns in mind. A common practice is to separate textual data and other environment-dependent resources from the program code. Thus, supporting a different environment, ideally, only requires change in those separate resources without code modification; greatly simplifying the task.
The development team needs someone who understands foreign languages and cultures and has a technical background; such a person may be difficult to find. Moreover, the duplication of resources could be a maintenance nightmare. For instance, if a message displayed to the user in one of several languages is modified, all of the translated versions must be changed. Software aiding this task are available, such as gettext.
Since open source software can generally be freely modified and redistributed, it is more prone to internationalization. Most proprietary software is only available in languages considered to be economically viable only. But the open source i18n and l10n work is gigantic.
Internationalization is sometimes used interchangeably with globalization to refer to economic and cultural effects of an increasingly interconnected world.
While internationalization most commonly refers to the addition of a framework for multiple language support, especially in software, it sometimes refers to the process whereby something (a corporation, idea, highway, war, etc.) comes to affect multiple nations. This usage is rare; globalization is preferred. Because of globalization, many companies and products are found in multiple countries worldwide, giving rise to increasing localization requirements. Localization may describe production of goods nearer to end users to reduce environmental and other external costs of globalization.
The bigger and much larger part of the world is non-English speaking people.
Not all speakers of English as a second language throughout the world are not able to use the language efficiently in their work. National language identity will remain alive. In a real-world business environment, all users need to understand application output, accurately and in real time, and not just those who happen to be initiates into the English language.
Software globalization is making software products run anywhere. Globalization is giving choices to the user to choose any of the supported languages.
Software globalization should be started from the very beginning of software making. It starts in the beginning where people can choose their very own locales.
Known in this connection as Internationalization (I18N), product developers must deliver designs that allow for such features as selectable date and currency formats, as well as dynamic resizing of buttons and boxes. Users must be able to input, view, and print data using their own character sets.
Strictly speaking, an internationalized product is not usable in any region of the world unless it is localized to that specific region. It must also speak the local language in every sense of the word. Localization (L10N) is the process of adapting an internationalized product to a specific language, script, cultural, and coded character set environment. In localization, the same semantics are preserved while the syntax may be changed. Localization goes beyond mere translation. The user must be able to not only select the desired language, but other local conventions as well. For instance, one can select German as a language, but also Switzerland as the specific locale of German. Locale allows for national or locale-specific variations on the usage of format, currency, spellchecker, punctuation, etc., all within the single German language area.
Economic and software globalization are a connected process. The real penetration of e-commerce is entirely due to the globalized software. Software companies internationalize and localize their products simply because this makes good economic sense. It is driven by huge revenue opportunities outside the Anglo phonic world for software companies and translators alike.
Abbreviation, Symbols, and Icons
It should be noted that a scientific text not only consists of words and sentences, it also contains abbreviation, symbols, and icons. Therefore it is a problem of translator how they will translate these things. For ASCII (American standard code for Information Interchange), it is good to write it accordingly as we pronunciation it but we cannot take liberty everywhere. We can translate MBBS something like औषधि एवं शल्य चिकित्सा स्नातक in Hindi but it can produce confusion. And also if abbreviation is written without giving its full meaning, then translating it making a problem.
Bibliography:
Palmer, H.E. The principles of language study
Nida, E.A. Towards a science of translation
Srivastava, R.N. भाषायी अस्मिता और हिंदी
Tiwari, B वैज्ञानिक साहित्य के अनुवाद की समस्याएं
Srivastava, R.N. अनुवाद: सिद्धांत और समस्याएं
Tiwari, B कोश विज्ञान
Pinchuk, Isadore Scientfic and technical translation
Kumar, Harish वैज्ञानिक व तकनीकी शब्दावली आयोग का इतिहास
Alen Duff Translation
Lehman, P.W. Historical Linguist: An introduction
Tiwari, B अनुवाद कला
Tiwari, B अनुवाद विज्ञान
Mudiraj, Shashi अनुवाद : मूल्य और मूल्यांकन
Newmark, Peter Approaches to Translation
Catford, J.C. A Linguistic theory of Translation
Quarterly magazines 'Anuvaad', Wikipedia, and Wiktionary... to name a few.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Translate or Die!
According to the Bible, there was a time when all those on earth spoke one language. And humanity, united by one language, started building the Tower of Babel to reach the heavens and discover the ultimate truth. As this was open defiance against God's wishes, He thought that the best way to stop these efforts would be to create confusion between humans by making everybody speak different languages so that no one could understand each other. Soon, humans could no longer communicate with each other and the work halted. The Biblical myth ends with the tower being left unfinished, and mankind's dream of reaching the heavens effectively thwarted. "The confusion of tongues" created by a Biblical God has been preventing knowledge decentralization even today.
And that very confusion can also become a barrier in the process of actual penetration of IT, as more than 80 per cent of the population of the world speaks a language other than English. Today open source world are eroding the layers of the "confusion of tongue" by helping to create desktops in the languages people can understand. With more and more computer users shifting towards Linux, the demand for localized interfaces has gone up for non-English speaking users. The power of IT is coming to people in their own language. It is very exciting, but not a simple task at all. And of course translators are the main driving force that is making the globe a real global village. Basically information highway is now highway because of the effort of translators. Therefore, it is generally told that the whole civilization is the borrower of translator for its own existence. We can say that it was not entirely possible to see the today's world as it is in present condition without the translators efforts.
After the process of economic globalization translation is playing more vital role. In 1985, Paul Angel wrote in a collection named Writing from the world II that when the world is continuously contracting like a ripe orange and all the population of different culture are coming closer then on this new earth, the deciding statement for the remaining year will be as simple and straight forward like this: Either translate or die! The process of economic globalization has opened stream of opportunities for the translator and language related persons. So come forward to become the conductor of the process of economic liberalization and globalisation.
The example of oldest translation is on Rosetta Stone which belongs to 2nd century BC. Some of the earlier major work of translation happened to translate the religious books only. In ancient Greeks there were two type of theory for the translation of Bible, one was Philological theory of translation and second was Inspirational theory of translation. While in first type a translator should be aware of both the source language and target language, second type stressed on that this type of 'good' work couldn't be possible without the inspiration of the God. Here, in the world of open source a person with the combination of both the said type is necessary. Inspiration is also necessary here apart from having knowledge of both the source and target languages, a inspiration to work for the open world of open source which is all good and democratic for the masses in broader sense giving masses the power of ownership. So be inspired! And start working to bring the world closer. Let us start translation. But be cautious! We have very big responsibility, responsibility of giving power of IT to the masses! So before starting translation, please just wait for some more posts on issue of translation...
And that very confusion can also become a barrier in the process of actual penetration of IT, as more than 80 per cent of the population of the world speaks a language other than English. Today open source world are eroding the layers of the "confusion of tongue" by helping to create desktops in the languages people can understand. With more and more computer users shifting towards Linux, the demand for localized interfaces has gone up for non-English speaking users. The power of IT is coming to people in their own language. It is very exciting, but not a simple task at all. And of course translators are the main driving force that is making the globe a real global village. Basically information highway is now highway because of the effort of translators. Therefore, it is generally told that the whole civilization is the borrower of translator for its own existence. We can say that it was not entirely possible to see the today's world as it is in present condition without the translators efforts.
After the process of economic globalization translation is playing more vital role. In 1985, Paul Angel wrote in a collection named Writing from the world II that when the world is continuously contracting like a ripe orange and all the population of different culture are coming closer then on this new earth, the deciding statement for the remaining year will be as simple and straight forward like this: Either translate or die! The process of economic globalization has opened stream of opportunities for the translator and language related persons. So come forward to become the conductor of the process of economic liberalization and globalisation.
The example of oldest translation is on Rosetta Stone which belongs to 2nd century BC. Some of the earlier major work of translation happened to translate the religious books only. In ancient Greeks there were two type of theory for the translation of Bible, one was Philological theory of translation and second was Inspirational theory of translation. While in first type a translator should be aware of both the source language and target language, second type stressed on that this type of 'good' work couldn't be possible without the inspiration of the God. Here, in the world of open source a person with the combination of both the said type is necessary. Inspiration is also necessary here apart from having knowledge of both the source and target languages, a inspiration to work for the open world of open source which is all good and democratic for the masses in broader sense giving masses the power of ownership. So be inspired! And start working to bring the world closer. Let us start translation. But be cautious! We have very big responsibility, responsibility of giving power of IT to the masses! So before starting translation, please just wait for some more posts on issue of translation...
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