The art and science of translating written text or the spoken word into another language that is understandable has many vagaries. This is not a precise science because it is nearly impossible to translate verbatim a word for word transcript.
Vagaries in languages and localized text or word usage make it nearly impossible to translate one exact word for another. Translation requires that the person who is translating the text have some knowledge of the culture as well as the language into which the text will be translated to prevent embarrassing or costly mistakes.
Translation has a very lengthy and a very rich history. The first viable translation that we see in history appears to be the translation found in Sumeria in approximately 2000 BC when the Epic of Gilgamesh was translated into the languages of Southwest Asia.
Ptolemy V of Egypt commissioned one of the most famous historical translations in history somewhere around 196 BC. This definitive translation example of the Rosetta Stone was inscribed using three different languages. In addition to that, it has been considered to be the key to helping to understand what translation is all about.
The task of translation is not always easy. This is shown in the translation of Rosetta Stone because it took longer than twenty years to fully decipher this text that was on the stone. This took place during 1799.
In some cases the history of translation has been rocky. It has always been difficult to change the wording of a given text and to keep the meaning intact.
There has been a lot of discussion in the form of the written word from ancient Greece, where early translation was first practiced concerning the process and methods for accomplishing it. It was in this place that literal translation, or the art of meta-phrase and paraphrase were distinguished and the entire process laid out to make certain that the critical part of translating anything into another language involved cultural truths.
Translation became much more of a science during the 1700s when writer and translator John Dryden described the process of translation as being two different modes of phrasing. He agonized over many of his translations, speaking about them in this fashion: " When words appear . . . literally graceful, it were an injury to the author that they should be changed. But since... what is beautiful in one language is often barbarous, nay sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words." Modern day translation takes a great deal of instruction in word substitution from Dryden's methodology.
The 18th century advanced translation, but if anything made it less accurate. If a translator perceived that something would be boring or would not please the audience, they simply omitted that part all together, leading to some very strange and unique translations.
It was during the 19th century that translation took on a whole new meaning of necessity because transportation improved and brought people from around the world together as never before. This made it much more necessary to achieve accurate translations, and therefore, new methods and styles were used to help provide benefits to the business community of people from different languages and cultures.
As we get to our modern age, we see an even greater need for translation as people are communicating through the Internet. We are no longer separate people, but are rather a piece of the larger, global picture. As a global neighborhood people are interacting daily, and goods and services are not traded across borders.
To allow for that machine translation arrived and in some cases, companies relied on inexpensive machine translation and found that it was not in their best interest. Using mechanical translation alone can provide for some hilarious results. Who doesn't remember the "All your base are belong to us." fiasco when the game Zerowing was translated poorly from the original Japanese game in the early nineties?
No one is saying that translation through software doesn't have a place because it does help for online users and document translation.
Websites and brochures are created and must be translated, giving rise to the need for a rapid, or in some cases, a nearly instant translation. Software can be a means for the translation of sites to provide for that instant -if not perfect-understanding.
Today, most legal, medical and business translation is accomplished using software assisted human translators.The two methods together can catch problems that may exist in the translation. They further provide for an accurate and understandable translation from one language to another. Translations are then double checked to ensure that localized expressions and words are being used that will give the right idea as well as the right text.
The evolution of translation has changed in a dramatic way over the centuries allowing for higher accuracy at a lower price. At the same time, it has increased understanding among people around the world.
Vagaries in languages and localized text or word usage make it nearly impossible to translate one exact word for another. Translation requires that the person who is translating the text have some knowledge of the culture as well as the language into which the text will be translated to prevent embarrassing or costly mistakes.
Translation has a very lengthy and a very rich history. The first viable translation that we see in history appears to be the translation found in Sumeria in approximately 2000 BC when the Epic of Gilgamesh was translated into the languages of Southwest Asia.
Ptolemy V of Egypt commissioned one of the most famous historical translations in history somewhere around 196 BC. This definitive translation example of the Rosetta Stone was inscribed using three different languages. In addition to that, it has been considered to be the key to helping to understand what translation is all about.
The task of translation is not always easy. This is shown in the translation of Rosetta Stone because it took longer than twenty years to fully decipher this text that was on the stone. This took place during 1799.
In some cases the history of translation has been rocky. It has always been difficult to change the wording of a given text and to keep the meaning intact.
There has been a lot of discussion in the form of the written word from ancient Greece, where early translation was first practiced concerning the process and methods for accomplishing it. It was in this place that literal translation, or the art of meta-phrase and paraphrase were distinguished and the entire process laid out to make certain that the critical part of translating anything into another language involved cultural truths.
Translation became much more of a science during the 1700s when writer and translator John Dryden described the process of translation as being two different modes of phrasing. He agonized over many of his translations, speaking about them in this fashion: " When words appear . . . literally graceful, it were an injury to the author that they should be changed. But since... what is beautiful in one language is often barbarous, nay sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words." Modern day translation takes a great deal of instruction in word substitution from Dryden's methodology.
The 18th century advanced translation, but if anything made it less accurate. If a translator perceived that something would be boring or would not please the audience, they simply omitted that part all together, leading to some very strange and unique translations.
It was during the 19th century that translation took on a whole new meaning of necessity because transportation improved and brought people from around the world together as never before. This made it much more necessary to achieve accurate translations, and therefore, new methods and styles were used to help provide benefits to the business community of people from different languages and cultures.
As we get to our modern age, we see an even greater need for translation as people are communicating through the Internet. We are no longer separate people, but are rather a piece of the larger, global picture. As a global neighborhood people are interacting daily, and goods and services are not traded across borders.
To allow for that machine translation arrived and in some cases, companies relied on inexpensive machine translation and found that it was not in their best interest. Using mechanical translation alone can provide for some hilarious results. Who doesn't remember the "All your base are belong to us." fiasco when the game Zerowing was translated poorly from the original Japanese game in the early nineties?
No one is saying that translation through software doesn't have a place because it does help for online users and document translation.
Websites and brochures are created and must be translated, giving rise to the need for a rapid, or in some cases, a nearly instant translation. Software can be a means for the translation of sites to provide for that instant -if not perfect-understanding.
Today, most legal, medical and business translation is accomplished using software assisted human translators.The two methods together can catch problems that may exist in the translation. They further provide for an accurate and understandable translation from one language to another. Translations are then double checked to ensure that localized expressions and words are being used that will give the right idea as well as the right text.
The evolution of translation has changed in a dramatic way over the centuries allowing for higher accuracy at a lower price. At the same time, it has increased understanding among people around the world.
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Some information on translation agencies found at Eyes on Huntsville. Thank you for the valuable language translation and agency information.
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