- www.goihata.com
I love my native language and would like to share some interesting facts related to it for those of you who want to know a little bit more about our rich Spanish.
Spanish is the official tongue in Spain, Balearic Islands, and Canary Islands, as well as all the South American countries except Brazil and Guyana. It is also a common second language of some areas in the United States (Texas, Arizona, California, and Florida), parts of Morocco and even the west coast of Africa. Today, Spanish is the most widely spoken of the Romance languages, both in terms of number of speakers and the number of countries in which it is the dominant language. It is the mother tongue of some 320 million people scattered worldwide.
Regarding its origin, it is a Romance language (the roots are in Latin) which is an influence from the Moors who occupied Spain in the 7th century the regions to the north of Spain which had not been conquered during the Moorish invasion, saw the creation of Christian kingdoms which began to expand southwards and set the emancipation in motion.
Obviously, the Spanish spoken in all these countries appears with great variety. In fact the dissimilarities between Castilian Spanish and Latin American Spanish are correspondent to those between British English and American English.
The Roman alphabet is the one in use and the Spanish vocabulary comes from Latin, though many of the words clearly differ from their equivalents in French and Italian. Also, prolonged contact with Germanic and later Arabic affected its evolution but did not threaten a decline in Romance use. Germanic and Arabic have left their mark on the Spanish language as words like ‘guerra’ – war and ‘algebra’ – math can both be traced back to their respective Germanic and Arabic origins.
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com
Archive for April, 2008
Facts about Spanish
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008Language Translation Tips
Thursday, April 24th, 2008- www.goihata.com
I love reading tips that are useful in our work and even though we have seen the following several times already I still continue checking them up to keep the information always fresh so, here I go once again!
- Our final translation should never look like a translation. It should look like it was written by a professional who has a good command of his/her language (excellent grammar and stylistic
- The style of the translation should always correspond to the text. If the text is a newspaper article, then a journalistic style should be used. If the text is a business letter or some marketing material, then the appropriate style should be used.
- The translation, inevitably, should have the right meaning, but should also reflect the tone of the original. Therefore, if the translation is of an angry business letter demanding payment, then the final translation should express the same tone (with appropriate taste of course). It may occur though that certain points cannot be translated well considering the differing customs and cultures of the respective languages as we always strive to focus more on the language being translated into rather than the language being translated from. If you feel some major changes should be made to the text, you should immediately contact your customer or agency.
- Choice of terminology is most important so having good dictionaries is a must. Of course we have access to wonderful computer translation dictionaries but I still keep my “oldies” and they have a prominent place and are highly important in the final phase of revision. But when everything else fails I also try searching the term on Google as it usually clarifies ideas.
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com
音を文字で表す
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008- GoiHata.com
欧州人の名前を日本語に翻訳するという作業は実際には音訳になり、語順も外国語の順番が変わることはありません。日本語には外国の言葉を記す便利なカタカナという文字があるので、この作業は簡単です。しかしながらこれが中国語への翻訳となると、一筋縄ではいかないようです。
名前はローマ字のままで漢字に置き換えることはしないというのが基本だそうです。ところが名刺などに自分の名前を記す際に、漢字を使って欲しいという希望者が多く、翻訳者はなるべく原音に近くてイメージが良い漢字を探すのに苦労することになります。これはカタカナ表記でも同じですが、もともと共通の音を持たない二つの言語を他方の文字を使って音で表すというのには限界があります。バスク語にはスペイン語にない“ツァ、ツィ、ツ、ツェ、ツォ”の音があり、それぞれ“tza, tzi, tzu, tze, tzo”の文字で表されます。現代日本語の書きことばをローマ字で表記する体系を国際的に確立したISO3062に準拠すれば日本語の“つ”は、“tsu”で、例えば津波は“tsunami”。“tsu”はバスク人にとって日本語にすれば“チュ”に近い音なので、どうしても発音すると“チュナミ”になってしまいます。一時期ニュースで頻繁に“チュナミ”と発音されていた時には、仕方がないとはいえ“tzunami”と表記されていれば、バスク人ならちゃんと“ツナミ”発音できるのに…と音を同じ文字の物差しで表せない文字の限界を感じました。ただしマドリード発の日本語新聞がバスク警察Ertzaintzaをエルチャンチャと書くのは限界ではありませんね。
- GoiHata.com
音を文字で表す。その２
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008-www.goihata.com
時々スペインの地名が“ヴ”の文字で表されているのを見かけることがあります。例えばÁvila“アヴィラ”、Vitoria“ヴィトリア”などです。外国語の地名や人名を文字で表すのに、なるべく原音に近い文字で表す、あるいはオリジナルの綴り（つづり）に近い文字で表すという二つの方法があります。例に挙げた二つの地名はオリジナルの綴りに基づいた表記と言えます。なぜならスペイン語には“ヴ”の音がないからです。
国語審議会をもつ文化庁では、“ヴ”を含めた外来語の表記に使用できる文字を示していますが、日本語化の程度や慣習などを基準にはするものの、特別な音の書き表しについては取り決めをしないで自由としています。一方、日本新聞協会新聞用語懇談会は、情報の内容が読者に正確に伝わることを目的にしているので、現地の呼称に基づくカタカナ書きの原則とともに慣用が固定しているものも認めています。そしてVの表記に“ヴ”の音を認めていません。
たくさんの言語を知っている人を別にすれば多くの人はカタカナがその語の音に近いものだと思っていますが、場合によっては音ではなくて、綴りに近いこともあるのです。そしてその区別は一般に区別できません。本当に音を文字で表すのは簡単ではありませんね。
言語に詳しい物理学研究者の鳥居さんのホームページには、日本語の名前をアルファベットでどう綴るか、外国語の地名を違う外国語で綴るとどうなるかなど、おもしろい話題が載っています。
http://nucl.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/torii/language/myhome.html
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Translation insights
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008- www.goihata.com
I recently read a very interesting interview to Mrs. Brett J. Epstein who works as a writer, Translator, editor, and English teacher in Sweden. She shares insights on the essential elements of the Translator’s craft and business.
She describes, and I totally agree with it, the job of Translators as the art and craft of bringing the authors’ real expressions, as well as their ideas, inferences, disposition, voice, style, and so forth, from the source language to the target language, without being either excessively literal and strict with the text or overly free and loose. In her opinion, a Translator must consider what and how would the author have written the document if he were writing in the target language. So, for her, translation is the delicate and formidable job of perfectly recreating the authors’ original document and I consider this statement is accurate and truly honors our efforts in a very nice way.
Due to her activities she considers that translating creative work like literature is more challenging and more interesting and thinks that writers are the ideal people to be Translators as they have experience with writing, the writing process, analyzing literature, and editing. She suggests that one of the best ways to learn about translation is to carefully read and study a document in both its original language and its translation trying to understand what words and phrases really meant and why the Translator had made certain choices comparing it to what you would have done, had you been the Translator in charge.
During the interview she also mentioned some reading material that I would like to read myself like William Weaver’s essay “The Process of Translation”, Vladimir Nabokov’s essay “The Art of Translation”, and “Performing Without a Stage: The Art of Literary Translation” by Robert Wechsler.
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com
History of Spanish Language
Saturday, April 12th, 2008 - www.goihata.com
The Spanish language has been called the second world language, due to its large world wide distribution. It’s origin goes far back into history. Tribes, such as the Celts, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Greeks contributed to the early development of the Spanish language.
Around 200 BC, due to the reign of the Roman Empire and then later on during the 5th to the 13th century, due to the long period of the Muslim invasion of about 750 years, the Spanish language has been influenced and undergone further development.
Over this period of continuing tensions between Christians and Muslims, more than 3700 battles were fought, but
Some years later in 1469, through the marriage union of Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, Spain became a big and influential Kingdom in Europe. The year 1492 also presents a milestone in the start of the wide distribution and influence of the Spanish language When Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castilian sent the all known Italian explorer Christopher Columbus to sea, which led to the discovery of the American Continent.
(Red color represents countries where the Spanish language is the official language)
The worldwide distribution of the Spanish language and the number of speakers: With the colonial power of
Here is a list of the top ten countries with Spanish speakers:
Country and number of speakers
Mexico 106.255,000, Spain 46.000,000, Colombia 45.500,000, Argentina 41.248,000
United States of America 32.200,000, Venezuela 26.021,000,
Peru 23.191,000, Chile 15.795,000, Cuba 11.285,000, Ecuador 10.946,000
Saroj Das
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Coherence when translating
Friday, April 11th, 2008- www.goihata.com
When we receive a document to translate it is very important to check the writing quality in the original. There is a tacit axiom in translation which every one of us knows: the translation will never be much better than the original (or in tech-talk: GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out!) If the original is an incoherent, illogical piece of nonsense, so the translation will be. If the source text is a brilliant piece of erudition with great literary merit, then the translation should surely be the same.
The point is Translators cannot go much above the quality of the original, and translation buyers should not necessarily blame a bad translation on the Translator. Of course, we must always do our best to render the information in the optimum manner even though it is best not to rewrite the original or improve its style or content, insert our own clever ideas or original phrases… just translate and offer quality work free of errors and omissions before deadline time. Be a competent, responsible, and capable professional who will honor agreements and produce quality work.
Make sure that there are no errors, omissions, spelling or punctuation mistakes, and that you deliver your translation on time in the form requested and expected by your client. If not sure about the client-s expectations, always ask while in time. If you do it this way, you will get more work. if not, you will only cause grief.
If a text is truly beyond understanding, the only responsible course of action would be to contact the client and leave the decision regarding whether to translate it or not into your customer’s hand. You may lose a job this way, but you will likely win the confidence of the client. The latter is ultimately worth far more than the former, no doubt!
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com
Quality translations
Monday, April 7th, 2008Every company or individual requiring a translation service needs quality and most of the time a fast delivery wrapped in technical expertise. This is especially important with companies within the life sciences sector such as pharmaceutical and medical laboratories where any inaccurate translation of the information regarding prescribed dosage directions or product description could be extremely harmful and potentially lethal because they are usually manufacturers of medical and surgical equipment exporting on worldwide scale and must provide the most accurate information, complying with all the legal requirements for labelling or instructions in every language spoken within their target markets, for their intended audience. Inaccurate translation for such companies can be costly, both in the cost of correcting poor translations, but more critically in the potential cost to the health of the patient or end user of their products and so, expert localization is vital in these cases.
Translators working on these areas are mostly native speakers who have professional experience with a proven track record in the industry. Ideally, they should be practicing surgeons or doctors thus ensuring that the expertise applied to the translation and the terminology used are industry standard to guarantee they are upheld throughout and this is especially important with the Asian languages where perfectionism is key as linguistics is so complicated, and so challenging that it is vital for the Translator’s work to remain accurate usually by staying close to the native tongue, by staying in the country where the language is spoken.
A Translator must have a mix of sharp language skills, formal training, real-life translating experience and most especially the ability to think in two or more languages at once to ensure excellence becomes an intrinsic part and the basis of all our tasks and projects. We should (must!) really exude Quality!
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com