Translation Glossary of Terms
The following list is composed of the most common terms used in interpretation or translation. Understanding all the jargon of interpretation or translation is vital when it comes to building relationships personally or professionally.
A
Adaptation — The process of converting information into an appropriate format for the target language and culture.
Algorithm — “TM” applications employ matching algorithm(s) to retrieve similar target language strings, flagging differences.
Alignment — Alignment is the task of defining translation correspondences between source and target texts.
Alignment Tool — Application that automatically pairs versions of the same text in the source and target languages in a table. Also called bi-text tool.
Ambiguity — Situation in which the intended meaning of a phrase is unclear and must be verified – usually with the source text author – in order for translation to proceed.
Antonym — Antonyms are opposites words, that reside in an inherently incompatible binary relationship, e.g. In the pairs – male:female; long:short; up:down; and precede:follow.
Artificial Intelligence — Branch of computer science devoted to creating intelligent machines that produced the first efforts toward machine translation.
Automatic Retrieval — When a translator moves through a document, TM’s are automatically searched and displayed. (Server based).
Automatic Substitution — Exact matches come up in translating new versions of a document.
Automatic Translation — Machine-based translation process not subject to input by a human translator.
B
Back Translation — Process of translating a previously translated text back into its source language.
Bidirectional — Script that normally reads from right to left but contains some exceptions in which other characters, like numerals, read from left to right. Hebrew and Arabic are examples of bidirectional languages.
C
CAT (Tools) — Computer-assisted translation (tools) – The process by which a human translator uses computer software to facilitate translation.
Cognate — In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt and skirt.
Compilation — The activities required to check, process and output to one or multiple target formats in a single source publishing environment (e.g. Robohelp).
Collaborative Translation — Emerging approach to translation in which companies use the elements of crowdsourcing in a controlled environment for working on large corporate projects in short periods of time.
Concordance — This feature allows translators to select one or more words in the source segment and the system retrieves segment pairs that match the search criteria.
Consistency — Measure of how often a term or phrase is rendered the same way into the target language.
Context — Information outside of the actual text that is essential for complete comprehension.
Cultural Adaptation — Adjustment of a translation to conform with the target culture.
Cultural Assessment — Examination of an individual’s or group’s cultural preferences through comparative analyses.
Culturally-Sensitive Translation — Translation that takes into account cultural differences.
D
Dialect — Variety of a language spoken by members of a particular locale and characterized by a unique vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Domain — The area of knowledge communicated within a text, translation, or corpus.
DTP: Desk Top Publishing — It’s about using specific software to
Dubbing — Recording or replacement of voices commonly used in motion pictures and videos for which the recorded voices do not belong to the original actors or speakers and are in a different language.
Dynamic Content — Data produced in response to changeable, unfixed and retrieved from a database through user requests.
E
Eastern Arabic Numerals — Set of symbols used to represent numbers in combination with the Arabic alphabet in various countries, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, and also parts of India. Also called Arabic Eastern Numerals.
Editing — Editing – Second level of review in the traditional TEP process.
Encoding Scheme — System that assigns a numeric value to each character, in order to convert the character set to an automated form for transmitting and maintaining information.
Exact Match — Exact matches (during translation memory analysis) appear when the match between the current source segment and the stored one has been a character by character match. When translating a sentence, an exact match means the same sentence has been translated before. Exact matches also referred to as 100% matches.
Extended Characters — Characters that exceed the ASCII character range of seven bits, such as characters with diacritical marks or non-Roman characters.
F
False Friends — False friends are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning.
FIGS — Abbreviation for French, Italian, German and Spanish.
Fuzzy Match — Indication that words or sentences are partially – but not
exactly – matched to previous translations.
When the match (during Translation Memory analysis) has not been exact, it is a
fuzzy match. Some systems assign percentages to these kinds of matches, in
which case a fuzzy match is greater than 0% and less than 100%. Those figures
are not comparable across systems unless the method of scoring is specified.
Fuzzy Logic — When exact matches cannot be found, Fuzzy Logic creates near matches in text, to translation memory terms.
G
GILT — Acronym for globalization, internationalization, localization, and translation.
GIM — Abbreviation for global information management.
Gist Translation — Use of human or machine translation to create a rough translation of the source text that allows the reader to understand the essence of the text.
Globalization (G11N) — The process by which regional economies, societies, and also cultures have become integrated through a global network of political ideas through communication, transportation, and trade.
Glocal — Combination of the words ‘global’ and ‘local,’ used to describe products or services intended for international markets and have been customized for different languages, countries, and cultures.
Glossary — A glossary, also known as an idioticon, vocabulary, or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms.
H
Homonym — A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings.
I
Internationalization (I18N) — Internationalization is the planning and preparation stages for a product that is built by design to support global markets.
Interpretation — Process of rendering oral spoken or signed communication from one language to another, or the output that results from this process.
L
Language — System of signed, spoken, or written communication.
Language Tags and Codes — Language codes are closely related to the localizing process. They indicate the locales involved in the translation and adaptation of the product.
Language Combination — Group of active and passive languages used by an interpreter/translator.
Language Pair — Languages in which a translator or interpreter/translator can provide services.
Language Services Provider (LSP) — An organization or business that supplies language services, such as translation, localization, or interpretation. Commonly abbreviated LSP
Leverage — The practice of reusing previously translated terms and phrases in new translations. Also, the rank which evaluates how much of the previously translated text can be reused.
Literal Translation — Translation that closely follows the phrasing, order as well as sentence construction of the source text.
M
Machine Translation (also known as automated translation) — Translation carried out exclusively by a machine. Commonly abbreviated MT.
Machine Translation Plus Translation Memory — workflow and technology process in which terms not found in translation memory are automatically sent to the machine translation software for translation.
Match — that words or sentences are matched – either partially or fully – to
previous translations.
Meaning-for-meaning translation — Translation for which the words used in
both languages may not be exact equivalents, but the meaning is the same.
Mega-Language — of the ten most important languages on the web, including Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Metadata — Information that describes data.
Morpheme — unit of meaning in a language.
Mother Tongue — Native as well as first learned language of an individual.
MT — Abbreviation for machine translation.
Multiculturalization — Process by which the linguistic and cultural diversity among a group of people increases.
Multinationalization — Process of expanding an organization’s presence into multiple nations. Commonly abbreviated M18N.
MultiTerm — The SDL Trados terminology tool. Latest version SDL MultiTerm 2009 as well as SDL MultiTerm Server 2009.
N
Native Language — First language that a human learns naturally, usually since childhood.
Networking (TM Server) — When networking during the translation it is possible to translate a text efficiently together with a group of translators.
Neutral Spanish (also Universal Spanish) — Spanish that is mutually intelligible by speakers from various parts of the Spanish-speaking world and is not immediately identifiable with any single regional variety of the language. No standards exist for defining neutral Spanish.
Next-Wave Language — One of the languages of growing importance on the web.
O
Ontology — Description of the relationships between concepts, objects, and other entities within a given field.
P
Plain English — Method of writing English that employs a clear and simple style, usually for the purpose of improving readability. Among its features are using only active verbs (no passive voices) and making sure that each word has only one meaning.
PPW — Abbreviation for price per word.
Post-Editing — Process by which one or more humans review, edit, and improve the quality of machine translation output.
Pre-Editing — Process by which a text is edited prior to translation in order to clarify ambiguous terms and increase translatability.
Pre-Translation — Phase of the translation process in which documents are prepared for conversion into another language. This usually includes an automated analysis against translation memories. so that previously translated text is inserted in a file, therefore avoiding rework and associated costs.
Practice — Of checking a translated text to identify and correct spelling, grammar, syntax, and coherency and integrity errors, (usually carried out by a second linguist or translator. – not necessarily. Proofreading can be done by editors with no second language.
Pseudo-Localization — The process of faking translation of software or web applications before starting to localize the product for real. It is used to verify that the user interface is capable of containing the translated strings (length) and to discover possible internationalization issues.
Pseudo-Translation — A procedure which simulates how a translated document will look after translation and how much extra DTP or other work will be required before actual translation is done. This can help in setting the appropriate timelines of projects.
Q
QA — Abbreviation for quality assurance. Process designed to ensure translation quality. Specific processes followed with the purpose of minimizing errors.
QC — Abbreviation for quality control.
QI — Abbreviation for quality improvement. Quality improvement Process designed to ensure translation quality, in which the overall goal is to enhance performance.
Quality Assurance — Process designed to ensure translation quality. Specific processes with the purpose of minimizing errors.
Quality Control — Process designed to ensure translation quality, in which the target text is reviewed with the purpose of catching errors.
Quality Improvement — Quality improvement Process designed to ensure translation quality, in which the overall goal is to enhance performance.
R
RBMT — Abbreviation for rules-based machine translation.
Register — Measure of formality of language dependent upon the tone, terminology, as well as grammar implemented.
Repetition — Sentence or phrase that is repeated in the source text, often referred to a Translation Memory analysis.
Rich Media Content — Synonymous for interactive multimedia.
A broad range of interactive digital media that exhibit dynamic motion, taking
advantage of enhanced sensory features such as video, audio and animation.
Roman Numerals — System of numerals that evolved from the system used in classical Rome, often used for purposes such as numbering pages in introductions or prefaces.
S
Segment — Sentence or phrase that is separated from the rest of a text based on language construction rules such as punctuation.
Segmentation — Its purpose is to choose the most useful translation units. Segmentation is a type of parsing. It is done monolingually using superficial parsing and alignment is based on segmentation.
Simplified Chinese — Contemporary written Chinese language used in mainland China and Singapore.
SimShip — Simultaneous shipment. Abbreviation for simultaneous shipment.
SMT — Abbreviation for statistical machine translation.
Software Development Kit — Documentation and source code that facilitate the process of developing programs that interface with a given product. Commonly abbreviated SDK.
Software Engineering — Process of translating and adapting computer software from one language and culture into another. Also referred to as localization engineering.
Source Code — Code that is compiled to develop a program.
Source Count — Number of words in a text to be translated. The count of words in the document.
Source File — File that contains the source document in its original form, as opposed to a generated file, and is also required for localization processes.
Source Language — Language of the text that to be translated. The language.
Source Text — Text that needs translation.
Source Text Analysis — Analysis of the source text prior to translation that provides a better idea of the difficulty of the translation.
Statistical Machine Translation — Generation solutions that take a probability-based approach to translation through computational analysis of data, treating data as character strings, determining patterns, and also leveraging regularities. Commonly abbreviated SMT.
Style Guide — Document that describes the correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, style and numeric formats to ensure consistency and quality in a translated text.
Style Sheet — Document or template that describes the structure as well as format of a document, with instructions regarding fonts, page size, spacing, margins, paragraph styles and tag markups to ensure consistency and quality in a translated text.
Subtitles (also Captioning) — Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs. They usually display at the bottom of the screen. They can either a written form of the original language or a translation.
Synonym — Different words with almost identical or similar meanings, e.g. Student as well as pupil.
Syntax — The study of structure and elements that form grammatical sentences.
T
Tagging — Marking content in a document with information about its content.
Target Audience — Group of people who receive the information rendered by the interpreter in the target language.
Target Language — This is the language that a text is translated.
Technical Translation — Translation of technical texts, such as user or maintenance manuals, catalogs, and data sheets.
TEP — Edit – Proofread Process.
Term — Word, phrase, symbol or formula that describes or designates a particular concept.
Terminology — Collection of terms.
Terminology Analysis — Process carried out prior to translation in order to analyze the vocabulary within a text. In addition, to analyze its meaning within the given context, often for the purpose of creating specialized dictionaries within specific fields.
Terminology Database — Electronic repository of terms and associated data.
Terminology — Terminology is the study of terms and their use.
Textual Parsing — It is very important to recognize punctuation in order to distinguish for example the end of sentence from abbreviation. Thus, mark-up is a kind of pre-editing.
Terminology Software — Data processing tool that allows one to create, edit as well as consult text or electronic dictionaries
Text Expansion — Process that often occurs during translation in which the total number of characters in the target text exceeds that of the source text.
Transcreation — When new content is developed or adapted for a given target audience instead of merely translating existing material. It may include copywriting, image selection, font changes, as well as other transformations that tailor the message to the recipient.
Transcription — Process of converting oral utterances into written form.
Translatability — Degree to which a text is rendered into another language.
Translate-Edit-Proof — Most common set of steps used for linguistic quality assurance in translation production processes. Commonly abbreviated TEP.
Translation — Process of rendering written communication from one language into another, or the output that results from this process.
Translation Capacity — Average number of characters, words, lines, or pages that a professional translator can translate. This is done within a given time frame, such as a day, week, or month.
Translation Memory — Translated text segments stored in a database. A translation memory is a system which scans a source text and tries to match strings (a sentence or part thereof) against a database of paired source and target language strings with the aim of reusing previously translated materials.
Translation Memory Plus Machine Translation — A workflow as well as technology process. Terms not found in translation memory, automatically sent to the machine translation software for translation. The results are then fed back into the translation memory. Commonly abbreviated TMT.
Translation Memory System — Computer-aided translation tool that offers translation suggestions from translation memory.
Translation Unit — This is the segment of text treated as a single unit of meaning.
Transliteration — Process of converting words from a source text or audio file into a written text that facilitates pronunciation of the words.
TM — Translation Memory, see Translation Memory.
Trados — SDL Trados is a leading Translation Memory Editor used in translation. Latest versions SDL Trados Studio 2009 and SDL Trados TM Server.
U
Unicode — 16-bit character set that is capable of encoding the characters of the world’s major language scripts.
V
Voice-Over — Technique in which a disembodied voice narrates a film, documentary, or other visual media.
W
Word Count — The total number of words in a text. Typically used to price translation projects.
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