Although a lot of the information in areas such as health, medicine, business, technology, industry, laws, etc., is currently being translated into Spanish, it’s a small percentage compared to the information available in English.

I came across this article (in Spanish) that discusses one example of this issue. A common problem in the Spanish Forex is the lack of educational materials.

Traditionally the most developed countries represent the largest flow in the foreign exchange market. The power of their economies makes their currencies the most commonly traded in international markets: the U.S. Dollar, the Euro in the European Union, the Japanese Yen and British Pound.

Another reason why Forex has scant information in Spanish is that financial institutions, such as banks and corporate entities that use the Forex market to offset risks in exchange rates, have their operations and major customers in developed countries.

Most of the information and trading techniques that can be found online on the Forex market are in English.

Although there are few websites dedicated to the foreign exchange market, many of the terms used are in English and are impossible to translate. However, this does not mean that Spanish-speaking investors and traders have a disadvantage or don’t invest in this lucrative market. Suffice it to have an idea of what some terms mean, even if they can’t be translated, in order to be a good Forex operator.

Just like this example, there are many other areas where there is little information in Spanish.

What to read:

Online resources

The book club Mosaico for ideas about what to buy

Críticas and publisher catalogs such as Ediciones Serres, Random House Español, and Ediciones TUTOR

Spanish is becoming increasingly more common in the U.S., stimulated by an increasing growth of the Hispanic population. Many Hispanics, even those fluent in English, want to maintain their cultural identity by continuing to learn and speak Spanish. Finally, there is a growing group of English-speaking, non-Hispanics who are learning Spanish as a second language.

Below is an excellent list of online resources for Spanish and bilingual publications.

Latino Book & Family Festival (LBFF)

The Latino Book & Family Festival promotes literacy, culture and education.

Barnes and Noble Bestseller List

“The best selection of Spanish-language books, music and movies” according to their page.

Publishers of Spanish Language and Bilingual Books

Arte Público Press

Emphasizes U.S. Hispanic culture and cultural recovery.  Includes fiction, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies, drama, non-fiction, and reference.

Continental Book Company

Importers and distributors of books in Spanish, French, German, Italian, bilingual Spanish, and ESL English.  Spanish collections include text books, videos, critical studies, readers, and much more.

Dominie Press

Spanish K-3 reading materials, including books, magnetic letters, parental involvement tools, and alphabet books.

Editorial Pax México

Leading Mexican publisher trade and educational titles, distributed in the U.S. through Whitehurst & Clark Book Fulfillment.  (website is in Spanish)

Grupo Editorial Norma

Translated and bilingual books for children and adults.  Features text books, literature, and titles of general interest.

Lectorum

An imprint of Scholastic, Lectorum publishes translated versions of familiar old and new classics, including Franklin, Dr. Seuss, and Arthur books.

Lee & Low Books

Publisher of multicultural books for children, website includes booktalks and classroom guides.

Libros Sin Fronteras

Latin American, Spanish language and bilingual books for children and adults.  Core collection development services are provided as well.

Mariuccia Iaconi Book Imports

While not a publisher or an imprint, MIBI’s catalog consists of children’s books in many foreign languages, including Spanish and bilingual titles.

Océano Grupo Editorial

An imprint of the Gale Group.  Specialty is reference materials for children and adults in the arts, computing, math, history, science, and more.

Pinata Books

An imprint of Arte Público Press, features books for children of all ages.  Most picture books are bilingual; fiction books for older kids are about Hispanic cultural identity and maintaining a sense of self.

Spanish Book Distributors

Most titles are translations into Spanish. Catalog includes books in a variety of topics including business, computers, health, history, parenting, reference, religion, travel, and much more. Translated current fiction best-sellers and romance titles are also available.

Barahone Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents – (also bilingual)

Has a frequently-updated database of recommended titles in Spanish. You can search by author, title, publish, etc.

In a post in Revista Ñ from March 18, the author notes that “few things say more about human beings, their progress and their barbaric and inevitable mutations, as changes in language and speech. Each linguistic interpretation holds a way of seeing the world, of understanding politics.” On the same note, the secretary of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, José Ignacio Covarrubias, ponders with the president of another language academy about this “laboratory”, the most important one in Spanish and for the future of the language. Both scholars believe that much of the future of the Spanish language will be shaped in America.

The article summarizes the history of Spanish. Born in a small area of the Peninsula, it expanded throughout Spain, became the official language, and spread in America with the Spanish colonization. By the time the country achieved political independence they were irreversibly bound to Spanish. They are declarations of independence, constitutions and laws written in Spanish, which is now by spoken almost half a billion people. In the U.S., the Hispanic community surpasses in size the African-Americans community and is the first minority with more Spanish speakers than Spain. In other words, you can travel from Tierra del Fuego to Canada without changing language.

In the Obama administration, the  is the reference point for Spanish in the U.S. government. In addition to regulating Spanish publications in the official government website, the Academy broadcasts television messages regarding the correct usage of language in their attempt to determine “the rules of correct Spanish.” It also seeks to “guide Spanish speakers on how to speak correctly” and “promote bilingualism, so that people learn properly both languages.” Although the Academy also tried to ensure that none of the Spanish variants override the each other, Mexican idioms are well established along the southern border and other forms, such as Cuban and Dominican, have also gained ground.

Spanglish is growing among the immigration population, and just as we did in this blog, the author of the article asks: “Is it a setback, a sign of vitality, an inevitable process?” Covarrubias says: “It is a clash of two languages. Spanish is the first language after English. There is an inevitable clash, such as in Portuñol, the Franglais, and we have the Spanglish. Experts define it as a Spanish dialect, sometimes it is due to ignorance, sometimes it is done for convenience.” Covarrubias also specifies the task of the Academy: “We play a normative role; we only make suggestions because nobody owns the language. We have to accept the rules imposed by usage.”

These scholars do not seem to be concerned about the language distortions made by young people who are influenced by new technologies, abbreviations, usual chat phrases, and other, since they are considered to be slightly different from educational deterioration. Rather than describing a reality, educators worry that young people are able to integrate into society and are able to say what they want with precision and firmness, which is essential in a democracy.

A dictionary is a simple tool which helps us with the pronouciation, spelling and grammar needed for correct and effective communication. A glossary is an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge. The list below are helpful resources for general and specialized terminology in English and Spanish aimed for students, teachers, professionals and the general public.

English and Spanish Dictionaries and Glossaries

Biology Glossary English – Spanish glossary of technical terms used in ecology, evolution, and systematics

Business Dictionary English to Spanish terminology and vocabulary

Child Welfare Glossary English – Spanish child welfare terms from the Child Welfare  Children’s Bureau

Deaf & Blind Glossary English – Spanish glossary of concepts and terms from the National Consortium of Deaf-Blindness

English Spanish Glossaries Portals and search engines that take you to a large number of glossaries on every topic imaginable, as well as general dictionaries, encyclopedias and other resources for translators. If you are looking for a very particular glossary that does not fall in the other categories, check the portals in this section

In the US, when a transcript contains a translation of conversations spoken in a foreign language, a qualified witness must authenticate and verify the translation. See United States v. Llinas, 603 F.2d 506, 509-10 (5th Cir. 1979).

A party who wishes to challenge the accuracy of a translation is responsible for presenting another translation. The jury may then choose which version to believe. United States v. Rosenthal, 793 F.2d 1214, 1238 (11th Cir. 1986) (citing Llinas, 603 F.2d at 509).

For more information, please visit:

http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=infco20091124124

Veo arboles verdes, rosas rojas tambien

Las veo florecer para ti y para mi

Y pienso para mi mismo, que mundo tan maravilloso.

Sound familiar? I came across a site last week called Song Translator that while entertaining, shows just how difficult it is to produce a top-notch song translation. Like poetry, music lyrics have a rhythm, a feeling, a sound that are notoriously difficult to replicate. The rhyme scheme goes            out the window, the subtle innuendos and word play are often lost and the translated lyrics typically come out stilted and clumsy.

That being said, the site is great if you want to have some fun, maybe laugh at how silly some songs would sound in another language.  Guns N’ Roses in Spanish? Luis Miguel in English? The site is however well put together, showing the lyrics in Spanish and English, sometimes along with a Youtube video of the original.

Poetry translations are notoriously difficult and force a translator to walk the fine line between accuracy and beauty. In a similar vein, song translations frequently receive a mixed reception.

Case in point: the US National Anthem in Spanish. There have been a number of  “Star Spangled Banner” translations, the most controversial being the hip-hop version “Nuestro Himno,” featuring Wyclef Jean, Pitbull, Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon. The criticism ranges from the liberties taken with the translation (it is far from literal) to the topic of illegal immigration. Below are the “Nuestro Himno” lyrics and the “Star Spangled Banner”  lyrics for comparison, plus the  “Nuestro Himno” Youtube video.

“Nuestro Himno”

Amanece:­ ¿lo veis a la luz de la aurora

Lo que tanto aclamamos la noche al caer?

Sus estrellas, sus franjas flotaban ayer,

En el fiero combate en señal de victoria.

Fulgor de lucha, al paso de la libertad,

Por la noche decían: «¡Se va defendiendo!»

¡Oh, decid! ¿Despliega aún su hermosura estrellada

Sobre tierra de libres la bandera sagrada?

“The Star Spangled Banner”

O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Here’s the “Nuestro Himno” music video:

Ipod Translator

The Apple Ipod has taken the world by storm and, along with its sibling the Iphone, become the must have accessory for the 21st century. Each new Ipod has brought along a fresh idea, be it video capabilities or an insanely compact size. It has been heralded for much more than its entertainment capabilities, with advocates claiming that its large memory can be useful in everything from learning to diagnose heart murmurs to getting into shape. Duke University went as far as to issue a 20gb Ipod to all incoming freshmen. With all of these applications, surely there is something for translators, right?

Of course. And believe it or not, the most highly touted Ipod translator comes from the US Army. Vcommunicator Mobile has been used in Iraq for several years now and provides loads of options for communicating in Arabic and Kurdish. Phrases such as “May I see your ID?” are spelled out phonetically so that they can be read aloud, or for the US soldier with an imperfect Arabic accent, the phrase can be played over a mini-speaker to everyone in the immediate vicinity.

Although the details have yet to be ironed out, the translator (interpreter?) will soon be made available to tourists, businessmen and other foreign travelers who need to communicate in another language.

Twitter, tweet and tweak your heart out globally now with a number of new products and services. If you have not yet heard, Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows people to stay connected, and according to the New York Times, Twitter is “one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet.” Friends keep in touch with friends, companies keep their clients up to date on their business, and there is even a President Barack Obama Twitter, which, along with a Youtube channel and MySpace page, is part of the “WhiteHouse 2.0″ initiative (this will also coincidentally be translated soon). So evidently it’s huge in the U.S. But what if you want to twitter in Spanish? Or twitter in French?

As with any translated material, you can translate Twitter into any language with a human translation or a machine translation. Businesses that plan their twitter announcements in advance can send out to have a set of tweets translated for their multilingual markets. There are also of course programs that function as an automatic Twitter translator, but with an already condensed text space and a language of its own, this inevitably leads to garbled translations. Machine translations of tweets have proven to be nearly incomprehensible and much of the “wit” disappears into thin air.

So regardless of whether you want to twittear in Spanish or send out a gazouillisin French, human translation is your best bet for a Twitter translator. And to keep up to speed on the happenings at Spanish Translation, you can now follow us at http://twitter.com/TRANSLATION_

The idea of machine translation was introduced to the general public on the 7th of January, 1954. The project was a collaboration between the University of Georgetown and IBM, who provided a model 701 to serve as the “brain” for the translation. The machine was fed over 60 relatively simple sentences in Russian and provided a fairly accurate English translation. Keep in mind that this experiment took place at a  time  when computers were just being introduced to the world and were frequently called “robots” or “giant brains,” so the results were astounding and in some circles, frightening.

Here is an example of one of the more general translations:

Russian: “Mi pyeryedayem mislyi posryedstvom ryechyi”

English: “We transmit thoughts by means of speech”

So why did the scientists and linguists choose Russian into English? Perhaps this next example will make things a little clearer.

Russian:  “Dyinamyit pryigotovlyayetsya xyimyicheskyim protsyessom yiz
nyitroglyitsyeryina s pryimyesjyu yinyertnix soyedyinyenyiy”

English: “Dynamite is prepared by chemical process from nitroglycerine with admixture of inert
compounds”

Cold War, here we come.

What is a glossary? A glossary is basically a catalog of words from a select discipline or area of study in which the terms are arranged alphabetically and defined, discussed and/or translated into another language.

There are general glossaries on subjects like medicine, economics or art, for example, and then there are more specific glossaries within these topics, such as infectious diseases and public health, taxes and investments, or art history and photography. This categorization may be quite restricted, but the groupings generally overlap or include more than one area (a glossary on medical insurance may be useful for translating medical or insurance texts).

Some institutions and companies also have their own glossaries that aid the user/client in understanding the organization’s special terminology. These can be a lifesaver for a translator working on something from the company or in the same field.

Glossaries can be monolingual (the explanation or definition is in the same language), bilingual (the words and/or definitions are translated into another language) and can be used both forwards and backwards, meaning from either language, or even multilingual (translations in more than one language).

When using a glossary, it is essential to know exactly what you are looking for, what area or field you need to check and how precise the term needs to be.

A tip: If a bilingual glossary is not available, use a very specific monolingual one to gather a better idea of the true meaning(s) of the word you are after.

There are numerous sites that collect glossaries (by area, topic, language, etc.). Sometimes a glossary for a certain company or institution can be found on its website. And if you are facing an extraordinarily technical or specific topic, it’s not a bad idea to ask the client if a glossary is available.

I’d also like to share this link with you: GLOSSARY This is a compilation of different glossaries that a friend put together and which is divided by topics, subtopics, languages, etc.  Hopefully they will be as useful to you as they have been to me.

Every word has a meaning, but some words have more than one, such as homonyms: bark, bear, groom, etc. Sometimes a word means or symbolizes “something more” and the author can give it a special meaning or name (the best example is “Rosebud” from Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane).

The dictionary defines disambiguate as “to make clear and (more) comprehensible and to state unambiguously or remove ambiguities.” This is what we do as translators. And it’s not always easy.

There are of course texts that are extremely ambiguous, but generally, we have enough “clues” to decipher the true meaning.
So what is it that helps us decipher the clues? A translator’s best friend:  “the context.” The context is “the part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.” In other words, it is the relationship one word has with the rest of the message.

The cartoon here presents ambiguity taken to the extreme…

I often wonder about the future of language.

And yes, the singular “language.”
In 2003, Hollywood released Code 46m a film that discusses something very similar to what I’d been wondering about. The movie takes place in the not-so-distant future with people “inside” and “outside” of a very controlled system in which “papeles” (papers in the pidgin language everyone speaks) are required for authorization. All of the characters speak a language that is essentially English, but with different words from Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Mandarin… For example, people greet one another in Mandarin, saying “Ni Hao.” Everyone has a “palabra” as a password and can get “Outside” if they have their “papeles.” Couples say “Ti amo” to one another and when William (Tim Robbins) is asked if he has children, they ask him “Chico or chica?”

A lot of sentences are put together like these:
“You ever live afuera?”
“Did you have a cerveza?”
“I can’t find my cosa!”

Will the world communicate this way in the future? And if so, in a not-so-distant future? I actually feel that with the growth of “Spanglish” (and other combinations of languages), we are already on our way…

The subject of bilingual education in the US is a hotly debated topic, but news source are frequently unclear in their definitions of what exactly bilingual education is. The general public is largely unaware that there exist a wide variety of programs for students whose native language is not English and assume that bilingual education means a fifty-fifty split in their two languages. Neither of the two most common programs, English as a Second Language programs and traditional Bilingual Education programs, uses this kind of system.

The traditional bilingual education program teaches core courses such as science and history in the student’s native language, be it Spanish, Chinese, etc. English is also taught, but as a special course. Programs vary by state, but students in traditional bilingual education programs generally spend only a small percentage of their time at school learning English. These are intended to be temporary programs that provide students with a foundation in their native language before they learn a second language.

English as a Second Language (ESL) programs are also temporary, but are more of an adapted immersion program. ESL students also take special classes on the English language, but core courses are also taught in English. These classes are modified to the needs of the students whose first language is not English, but instruction is in English and there may be a wide variety of cultures and languages represented in the class.

These two programs are quite different, but the distinctions frequently get lost in the cries of xenophobia and the lamenting of the supposed deterioration of American culture.

After having received several valuable comments from readers, I’ve looked into Ideal Nol and Esperanto a bit more in an effort to differentiate their purposes, current and projected usage, and challenges that the languages face.

Esperanto was created with the most honorable of ambitions: promote international understanding in an effort to foster wold peace. Creator Dr. Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof’s  romantic and idealistic goal for the language was for it to become the world’s second language. Ideal Nol was also of course created for a sort of international understanding, but more so between college students texting one another than the entire world. Another significant difference is that while Ideal Nol can be spoken, it’s niche lies more in the digital realm of SMS and MSN.

Finding current (and accurate) figures on the number of Esperanto speakers is quite difficult, but the most widely-circulated statistic puts the number of Esperanto speakers at somewhere between one and two million. There are songs in Esperanto, films produced completely in Esperanto and numerous books and magazines in the language. Ideal Nol is quite young, so there are no figures  available for it yet, but what the creators lack in followers, they make up for in optimism (talk of a Nobel Prize). The idea of a native Ideal Nol speaker sounds preposterous, but who knows..

Esperanto’s biggest foes have been Hitler, Stalin and English. While the first two made active efforts to suppress “the language of spies,” the latter has crept into a position as the world’s unofficial second language. Ideal Nol also has its detractors, as can be evidenced by the comments on last week’s post, and may prove to be nothing more than a flash in the pan.

In the same vein as ttyl, lmao and gr8, Ideal Nol is a new language created by Enric Cabrejas that combines the simplicity (confusion) of abbreviated text messages and messenger conversations with the simplistic rules of Esperanto. The new form of expression was devised as a way for individuals without a common language to communicate, be it vocally, over cell phones or online. According to the Ideal website, it is rapidly gaining momentum across European college campuses and the world.

Ideal Nol is based on 7 basic grammar rules and an ever-expanding lexicon that can both be consulted online. Next week I will provide an update on the current status and possible future of the language, but until then, bai!

How many words are there in Spanish? How about in English? Depending on who you ask, there are different answers… There is a certain tendency (among Spanish-speakers) to overestimate the number of words in Spanish as well as the overall variety of the language’s forms. Some say that it is out of a need to win some kind of competition more so than a defense of real numbers.  The problem is that there are no concrete figures… How does one go about counting the words?

I’d say that Spanish has a “ton” of words, or maybe even a “gazillion.” This makes me wonder: Does “gazillion” count as a word? What about other localisms and slang? You would also have to add the special terms used by certain groups: doctors, lawyers, artists of all types, “marginalized” individuals (locked up, drug addicts, etc.). You won’t find these words in dictionaries. And so I ask myself: Do you count all of the feminine and masculine variants, the singulars and plurals, the diminutives, the augmentatives….? And aaaaaaaaallll of the words that we make up each day, for text messages or chatting: some abbreviations, other “stretched” ones (like the second one in this sentence), other manipulated words or “vesre”* in Spanish? We also have “imported” words, the ones we copy, borrow and steal from other languages, plus those that undergo a slight phonetic modification and adaptation so that we can consider them new. And there are also bad words (which we’ve discussed here before) and although they are “bad,” there are a lot of them and they are widely used… even if they’re not in the dictionary. Does whoever counts words include those?

With everything said and done, whether it’s 100,000 or 300,000 words that “exist,” how many do we actually use? Depending on our cultural upbringing, I’ve heard that we use between 1000 and 10,000 words. How many more are there that we don’t use because while they are still in the dictionary, they are obsolete, out of style, etc.  Many are relegated to a catalogue of unused words that once belonged to our language. And many more will continue to be incorporated as language never stops growing.

However many they may be, they are our “prime materials” and we have to keep learning them in order to be able to use them in our daily lives.
_________________
* “vesre” («revés» en vesre) is to form words backwards: this is a type of word formation that consists of the permutation or metathesis of the syllables of a Spanish word. This stems from the Castilian Spanish spoken in the River Plate area of Argentina and Uruguay and was popularized by the tango scene at the beginning of the twentieth century. A few examples: “mionca” (camión), “ñoba” (baño). ( http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesre)

A small yet difficult subject, especially for “rookies”: what to do when you come across an abbreviation, initials or acronym while translating. (This article does not differentiate between initials- the first letters of a group of words from a full expression or name, and acronyms- initials pronounced together, effectively forming a word: SONAR, SCUBA, etc.)

There are different ways to look at the subject, and here I have included a few general guidelines that will serve you when translating from English to Spanish.

1. Company or insitution names that are made up of initials should not be translated (FBI, CNN, UCLA, BBC). The full name of the entity should be translated, followed by the initials, a comma, and the phrase “por sus siglas en inglés”.  Agencia Central de Inteligencia (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés).

2. Large and well known international organizations generally have a standardized translation for their initials that you will need to find. (UN = ONU, WHO = OMS). The full name is written out with the initials in parentheses, or vice-versa.

Ex.: Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte (OTAN)

3. Acronyms and initials in the medical field (meaning names of diseases, procedures, compound names for body parts, etc.) usually have a standardized translation. You should try and find one and use it instead of the one from the source language. TC = CT (colesterol total), CT = TC (tomografía computada), ACL = LCA (ligamento cruzado anterior), AIDS = SIDA (síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida), DNA = ADN (ácido desoxirribonucleico), STD = ETS (enfermedades de transmisión sexual).

4. Randoms: position names (CEO, COO, RR. PP.), political groups (IRA), country names (USA), military, government, international business procedures (SIGINT, CMOC, FIFO), electronic and computer systems (DOS, ATM, PIN), common phrases (FAQ). Some are traduced into words ( (CEO = Director Ejecutivo, COO = Director o Jefe Operativo, FAQ = preguntas frecuentes, ATM = cajero automático), some have a translation and new initials (IRA = Ejército Republicano Irlandés [ERI], USA = Estados Unidos de América [EE. UU.]), others should not be translated (like those in point 1; ex.: Centro de Operaciones Civiles y Militares (CMOC, por sus siglas en inglés), and others, especially computer terms, are the same as in English (PIN, DOS, CD ROM).

When in doubt, look it up!

“Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.”

—- Yevgeny Yevtushenko

The quote above is from Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, author of Babi Yar and known critic of the Soviet government. While this quotation is undeniably misogynistic, it does present an interesting point of view and reality of translations.

While translators generally focus on producing a translation  that is faithful to the original, what does one do when translating poetry, when portraying a feeling, a mood, is more important than meaning? How much creative freedom is granted to the translator?

Poetry is so nuanced, so particular, that it could be likened to recreating a piano sonata on a bass drum. The result may be interesting and may have a certain style to it, but it will never produce the same feeling as the original.