New terminology resource

ProZ, one of the largest translators' community, launched its new initiative: Wikiwords (still in beta version).

Wikiwords is a collaborative project to create a dictionary of all terms in all languages with definitions and example sentences.

The Wikiwords schema is built around concepts. For example, a dog is a concept. It can be conveyed in the English language with more than one term (such as dog, doggie, etc.). In Wikiwords, these terms are linked to the concept of a dog, as well as other terms in other languages that convey this same concept. Similarly, definitions and fields are also related to concepts. The diagram below summarizes the Wikiwords schema.



See more info at: ProZ.com

New translation of "Hamlet"

Source: www.novinite.bg

Bulgarian audience will have the opportunity to rediscover Shakespeare's "Hamlet" with the new and astoundingly original translation of the tragedy by Prof. Alexander Shurbanov, a world-renowned scholar, translator and poet.

This is the sixteenth time that Shakespeare's most popular, memorable and philosophic play is moved into the Bulgarian language. The book, which saw its premiere on Wednesday evening, challenges the Bulgarian translation of such key phrases from the play as "To be or not to be, that is the question" and "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

Prof. Alexander Shurbanov, the best Bulgarian scholar in Renaissance literature and Shakespeare's works, claims that unlike the comedies, there is room for improvement in the translation of Shakespeare's tragedies.

Experts say the latest Hamlet translation boasts fidelity to the writer's work, as well as extraordinary poetic compression of the language.

"There is no other writer like Shakespeare! Three hundred and ninety years after his death he continues to live and to inspire directors to reincarnate him," says Shurbanov, who is Professor in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Sofia.

"In this sense Shakespeare will never be a classis writer - everybody talks about him and nobody reads his works."

Shurbanov's latest book contains impressions from his one-year stay in the United States of America in 2004, where he taught courses at the University at Albany.

Professor Alexander Shurbanov is best known for his publications, among which "Renaissance Humanism and Shakespeare's Sonnets", "Between Pathos and Irony: Christopher Marlowe and the Genesis of Renaissance Drama", "Painting Shakespeare Red: An East-European Appropriation" (with B. Sokolova).

Shurbanov has translated from English into Bulgarian Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", John Milton's "Paradise Lost", Dylan Thomas's "And Death Shall Have No Dominion: Selected Poems", John Updike's "Gertrude and Claudius".

Bulgarian ranked 11 by difficulty of learning

The U.S. State Department, which has to train diplomats serving around the world, ranks languages by their difficulty for native speakers of American English. The department's Foreign Service Institute classifies languages in four categories, in ascending order of difficulty:

Category 1: Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish.

Category 2: Bulgarian, Dari, German, Greek, Hindi, Hausa, Indonesian, Malay, Urdu.

Category 3: Amharic, Armenian, Azeri, Bengali, Burmese, Czech, Finnish, Georgian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Khmer, Lao, Nepali, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhala, Tagalog, Thai, Tamil, Turkish, Uzbek, Vietnamese.
Category 4: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean.

For more information, please visit: www.hamiltonspectator.com

Language diversity to continue net's rise as No. 1 communication medium

Source: www.theage.com

English is no longer the language of the web, but systems are evolving that will maintain its global integrity without stifling diversity, writes Graeme Philipson.

FOR the first 90 per cent of its life, the internet was essentially an English-language medium. It was built on the English language. But now English is a minority language on the net, and things are still changing.

The problems of expressing text on computers was initially solved through a system called ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), in which the Roman alphabet used by most European languages is translated into the computer's zeroes and ones.

ASCII has been extended over the years to include accents and symbols such as the yen and Euro and copyright signs. But that doesn't extend to other alphabets such as Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Korean, Thai and Hindi.

There's an even bigger problem with pictographic languages such as Chinese and Japanese. These languages take many more characters than ASCII's standard 256 symbols. Computers don't understand pictographic text; it must be alphabetic.

The use of pictographic characters on computers is handled through multiple byte characters. These have been standardised internationally with a system called Unicode, an expansion of ASCII that can handle nearly a million characters and express virtually every character in every significant language.

But domain names are still limited to just 37 characters - the 26 characters of the Roman alphabet, the hyphen and 10 numerical characters. That has been a problem in countries that don't use the Roman alphabet.

In February it was reported that China was planning its own system of domain names in Chinese, leading some to believe that China would set up its own DNS (domain name system) and have the effect of splitting the internet along language lines.

The reports have since proved untrue. They were based on a mistranslation of a report in the Government-run People's Daily. What the newspaper actually said was that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the independent body that assigns internet domain names and manages the DNS, had announced plans for Chinese language domain names.

This is fair enough. Chinese language speakers represent the second largest group of internet users - 13 per cent. The proportion of English speakers is below one-third - just 30.6 per cent of internet users speak English as their first language.

Japanese is third (8.5 per cent), followed by Spanish (6.3 per cent), German (5.6 per cent) and Korean (3.3 per cent). Add in the Russians and a few others, and much more than a quarter of the internet's users do not use the Roman alphabet. (The figures come from http://www.internetworldstats.com.)

Because one Unicode character can map one Chinese character to as many as four Roman characters, using Chinese or other non-Roman characters in domain names is a little tricky. ICANN plans to get round the problem by using a method called DNAME records, which use a domain alias, mapping new domain names onto existing ones.

The initial reports led to fears that a separate Chinese-language internet would come into existence, splitting the internet and leading to the possibility of duplicated domain names or the same domain name leading to different URLs depending on the user's location.

The China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) has said it has no plans to do this, and that it will work with ICANN to ensure a unitary internet, albeit one more user-friendly to Chinese speakers.

The number of Chinese-speaking internet users grew fourfold in the five years to 2005, while the numbers of English-speaking users barely doubled in the same period. The number of English-speaking users will continue to grow, largely on the strength of high growth rates in English-speaking developing countries, especially India.

But it is very likely that growth rates in the Chinese-speaking world will continue to be much higher. Fewer than 10 per cent of Chinese currently use the internet.

There are more native speakers of Chinese than speakers of English, and that includes people who speak English as a first or second language. Most Chinese speak the variety of the language known in the West as Mandarin (the Chinese themselves call it Putonghua, or "common speech"), but other varieties of Chinese, though spoken as separate languages, use the same script. Taiwan uses an older version of the script, which was simplified on the mainland after the communist takeover in 1949.

Non-English speakers are very conscious of the dangers of English language-based cultural imperialism, and are actively encouraging the usage of other languages. The Arabic internet world now numbers tens of millions of users, for example.

Throughout history language has been an important aspect of nationalism. Preventing ethnic minorities from using their own language has always been one way governments have attempted to clamp down on separatists.

The internet is now the world's most important source of information and communication. These developments indicate that it will not be a barrier to linguistic diversity.

Преходът като превод

Източник: в. Дневник

Само преди петнадесет години думите "консенсус" и "легитимност" звучаха като екзотични чуждици, а днес са думи, които употребяваме в ежедневната си реч. Ето, че сега на хоризонта се появиха "кохезия" и "субсидиарност". Каква ще е съдбата им - ще останат ли в езика така, или ще навлязат със съответния си превод?

Няма съмнение, че с присъединяването към ЕС България навлиза, образно казано, в голям преводачески период. Но тук не става дума за чуждиците и за превода им. Говорим за появата на един общ език, в който ще съществува общ способ да разчленяваме света и да споделяме ценности, или - един език на европейската идентичност.

Това са думи на порф. Валери Стефанов, декан на Факултета по славянски филологии в СУ "Св. Климент Охридски". Заедно с министъра по европейските въпроси Меглена Кунева те организираха конференция "Преход/Превод", чийто замисъл беше повече да очертае проблеми и да зададе въпроси, отколкото да търси правилата и отговорите. Мненията и гледните точки бяха колкото и изказалите се, но се изгради и един непоклатим консенсус - в езика не бива да има никакви намеси и регулации. Напротив, точно тогава може да се окажем "изгубени в превода" според сравнението, което използва Меглена Кунева. "Понеже става дума за именуване на явления, които просто не са съществували преди, става дума за едно възраждане. Какво правим с езика си, отваряме ли вратите, за да нахлуе т.нар. европейски език? Ако да - за кой език говорим - за жаргона ли или понятията? Още нещо - дали означава, че ние нямаме базата на понятията вътре в нашия език, и то защото ни липсват тези исторически слоеве, или това е едно нормално модернизиране на всичко онова, което представляват новите реалности в една модернизирана Европа?

Кое е правилното: интеграция или обединение? Това, което със сигурност знам, е, че една добра и точно намерена дума може да спаси цяла една политика, както национална, така и европейска."

Тук ви предлагаме три от мненията на конференцията, които предлагат различни и любопитни гледни точки към поставените въпроси.

Димитър Камбуров

"В момента състоянието на езика ни повече прилича на магма, а процесът на избистряне на магмата на езика е все още далеч. Ако на езика му се наложи закон или норма в това му състояние на изригвания и непрестанна обнова, това до нищо друго няма да доведе, освен до забрава и в последна сметка забрана на закона. Въпросът е дали ако създадеш и се опиташ да прокараш изкуствено моделиран език, ще намериш и кой да го говори. Тук беше споменато, че в по-ранен момент е било препоръчвано да се избягват думи като инициатива, коментар, провокация, асоциация. И какво от това? Тези думи са в чудесно здраве и до днес.

Нещо, което ми направи впечатление във връзка с един мой превод на книга за Русия, Cold Peace, написана от поляк, който е политически съветник и експерт във Вашингтон на американски английски. Изведнъж стана кристално ясно, че българската висша и средна административна лексика отпреди 89-а е била силно русифицирана. Всъщност западната, най-вече френската политическа лексика е намерила достъп до българската среда най-вече през руския. Сега се оказа много трудно да се реши дали в превода си да се върна към тези русизми по силата на това, че става дума именно за руски политически и икономически контекст, или да се заложи на англицизмите предвид американското авторство на книгата: ведомство или институция, отдел или департамент, канцеларията или офиса на президента. Заложих на руските версии, но нямаше как да не се досетя, че разправата и разчистването на руския от официалния български език е в явна връзка с геополитическата преориентация на България през последните 15 години. Русизмът явно ни мирише на комунизъм. Следва да си даваме сметка, че различните като езиков произход синоними могат полезно да насочват към различни нюанси, контексти и конотации, а по този начин могат да се правят важни оразличавания. Осъзнах също колко ми е трудно да правя точна разлика в нюансите между уж синонимите спогодба, договор, договореност, споразумение.

Питах се също дали да продължавам да се придържам към руския модел на произнасяне на имена, свързани с бившия СССР, или да дам израз на отвоюваната им независимост през преименуването им: Прибалтийски или Балтийски републики, Кишинев или Кишинеу, Лвов или Лвив, Белорусия или Беларус, Лукашенко или Лукашенка, Керчки или Керченски провлак. Ако бизнес езикът наистина е най-вече английски, политическият език и бюрократичният език са въпрос на все още нерешена борба между френски и английски.

Впрочем близостта ни до гръцкия през историческия ни контакт с Византия ни дават шанс да се преживяваме като близки по-скоро до поезията и философията ала Хайдегер, отколкото до бюрокрацията и метафизиката на латинския. Може би е полезно да пазим тази близост. Не е ли забавно например, че на български използваме думата "конкуренция" в значение, радикално противоположно на онези, с които думата функционира в западните си контексти. Въпросът е дали имаме сили за Хайдегер или за бюрокрацията."

Георги Господинов:

"Езикът си има свои закони и прагматична логика и не може да го регулираме отвън със закони. Абсолютно не вярвам в дисциплинираността на този процес отвън и ако изобщо говорим за намеса, тя трябва да е много деликатна. Разбира се, че проблемът не е до буквалната преводимост - речниковата, а до превода на определено мислене. За мен тук съществува един голям проблем.

По принцип, когато се говори за ЕС, а това се чу и тук, в много от изказванията, това се прави на един абстрактен, клиширан език. А той не подлежи на превод. В този смисъл тук има проблем с преводимостта. Не можем да говорим за Европа на един силиконов клиширан език - тогава няма да има никакво разбиране и в двете посоки.

Разделението между политическите елити и обществото, за което толкова се говори, е стъпило и върху разделението между езиците. Това е вредно явление, защото в някакъв смисъл то неглижира езика на обществото. Оттук следва и основният въпрос: как, след като администрацията е приела и подписала един документ, да може после да го обясни. Проблемът не е в конкретния термин - винаги може да намериш думата или думите, с които може да обясниш какво значи конклав, въпросът е как да преведем смисъла. Що се отнася до това кой трябва да прави това, отговорът звучи малко тавтологично, защото в случая първият възможен посредник е медията."

Георги Лозанов

"Преводът е либерализация на обществото, на неговата култура и мислене. Само това да е, вече може да се каже, че сме спечелили в превода.

Защото една евроинтеграция означава увеличаване на броя на преводните текстове, които идват от една чужда култура. И това е екзистенциален процес - от него зависи, или най-малкото се променя, животът на хората. Това, което в голяма степен определя живота на селския стопанин, който е сред колчетата с домати, е кои европейски документи ще влязат, преведени от френски например. Затова е интересен преговорният процес - той е процес на приемане на изречени на правен език екзистенциални отношения.

Струва ми се, че "печелим" и в друг смисъл:

За цялото патриархално, страстно и частно общество, каквото е балканското и нашето общество, и при което модерността все катастрофира, правният език, с целия си "деспотизъм", може да се окаже първият проект на модернизация.

Доминиращите публични езици досега бяха два: идеологическият по време на комунизма - стъпил върху една теоретична утопия. Всички помним партийния новоговор - той влезе накрая и в общуването с кварталния. Вторият език е съпротивата срещу първия и той се разви в частното общуване. Той разруши идеологическото говорене, а по-късно легитимира и мутрите, и жълтата преса.

Краят на този език би могъл да бъде точно в този правно-бюрократичен и същевременно пълен с културни недра език. И България ще заговори като част от един мултикултурен свят.

Що се отнася до чистота на езика - естествено, че ще се променят пропорциите, но да не забравяме, че процесът е двустранен. Нищо чудно думата ракия да стане чуждица в други езици.

Най-важното е, че тук правото не бива да пипа. Няма нищо по-страшно от закон за езика. Да не забравяме, че езикът е от Бога. Това е централната метафора на християнския свят и в навечерието на Великден всеки опит за такава норма е равносилен на богохулство."

Translation, by the numbers

Source: www.cbc.ca

Author: Stephen Strauss

My son was recently vacationing in Quebec's Gaspé when one of his companions started to munch on one of those high-energy power bars that pick you up after a strenuous day's skiing.

Suddenly, she started to chortle. She pointed to text on the bar's wrapper and soon everyone was laughing. The cause: one of those translation absurdities that dot the unevenly bilingual landscape of Canadian packaging.

The Vancouver-based company had written in English that the bar was gluten free and dairy free. In French, this was turned into gluten libéré and laitier libre. Ha, ha, ha. While libéré does literally refer to free, it means free in the sense of liberated, often from something oppressive. Thus, the gluten reference would literally translate as "freed from gluten," as if gluten could be likened to a dictator.

More subtly, laitier doesn't mean dairy when it stands alone. Rather, you would have to say produits laitiers, as laitier would be like saying "milkness." At least the label didn't say gluten gratuit, one of my son's friends said. More guffaws. Gratuit also means free, but in the sense that it doesn't cost anything. However, there is an easy solution to the Vancouver company's problem: Let the internet be the translator – at least in part.

That doesn't mean go to Babelfish, the automatic language translation service on the Net. Type in libéré there and it tells you it doesn't know what you're talking about. Rather, simply assume that if a term or phrase has been used lots of times on the net by native speakers or good translators, it is correct. This blindly statistical approach is the essence of a kind of mini-revolution in the field of computer translation.

Instead of trying, as previous generations of computer scientists did, to teach a translating computer to think as a linguist, let the machine sift through existing translations of a phrase and statistically determine the likeliest usage.

Here is how you – and that poor misspeaking company in Vancouver – can use the principle of statistical machine translation today.

First, go to the Google search engine and type in "Government of Canada." You figure their translators probably have gotten things right. Next, type in "gluten free." The first reference is to an Innovation Canada website. It translates gluten free as sans gluten. This seems correct, but the internet is notorious for its accuracy potholes and gluten libéré also sounds right to the untrained ear. Go back to Google and type both words within quotation marks. There are 118,000 references to sans gluten. Type in "gluten libéré" and one reference appears – in Spanish. Sheer numbers scream the correct choice.

Type in "dairy free" in the Government of Canada website and sans produits laitiers pops up first. Put that into Google and it is referenced 805 times. Type "laitier libre" and it pops up seven times, one of which is a blog laughing at what a ridiculous translation it is for gluten free it.

Type in "gluten gratuit" and there are two references.

Of course, this approach isn't going to replace translators, who are needed to catch gross miscues, such as the paragraph found on the website of a Quebec power-bar manufacturer that begins in English: "Intervening in more than 50 pays GARANTIE BIO ECOCERT is a certification society approved by public authorities that has been active daily for more than 15 years on the field."

But my demonstration suggests that, in about half an hour, a non-French-speaking employee at that Vancouver firm could have verified something as simple as that ingredient label and likely got the translation right – or at least have improved on the current mishmash.

There are other applications. I'm writing a letter in German to a longtime friend of my father's announcing his recent death. My German is at the third-grade level and I am not sure whether I should use the German word for "has," as in "father has died," or the word for "is," as in "my father is dead." I go to Google. Ist (is) beats hat (has) 1060 to 0. It's little stuff but useful stuff and a sign of the times on the internet, where simply counting what people do is much more significant than anyone ever thought. It's how Google makes its money, and it's how government agencies might be able to separate liars, spinners, plotters and terrorists from the guileless rest of us.

Translating Web Sites - Considerations for Multilingual Online Businesses

Source: www.isedb.com

I recently talked to someone who was in the process of translating their current web site (which is now in English) into several additional languages so he could appeal to more potential customers worldwide. By using the existing domain name and simply “adding pages to the site” in other languages, he thought he could save some money by not having to purchase additional domain names. I proceeded to explain to my friend that his idea of translating the site into different languages was a good one—but trying to save money is a bad marketing decision altogether. Multilingual web sites and merely translating the existing site into other languages is not a good marketing decision. It’s more effective to use only one language per domain name and establish an online presence in the country where you intend to do business.

If you are going to translate an existing web site into another language or several languages, the recommended method is to use only one language per domain name. I suggest that you host the site in the appropriate country, as well (for example, use a .fr TLD for French and host it in France). If you can also set up a local office in that country, that would be ideal. When you set up a web site and domain name, you are setting up a business—and by establishing a presence in the country using that country’s native tongue is much more powerful than simply adding a few web pages to your existing web site.

One option is to use sub-domains on your existing domain name (e.g., francais.yourdomain.com). While using sub-domains separates the languages into different sections of your web site, they are ultimately a barrier when it comes to doing business online. If your business is located in the United States, someone from Germany or France may be leery of doing business with you—simply because your business is not located in their country. (The same thing happens when I buy things online—I prefer to do business with someone located in the United States rather than someone in another country even though they speak my same language.)

Potential cost shouldn’t really be an issue or determining factor when it comes to translating and setting up new web sites. The cost of an additional domain name is minimal at this point, as buying a domain name is rather inexpensive. When choosing another domain name for a new/additional language, many people choose to use their current domain name and simply use another TLD. For example, if your main web site is in English on www.companyname.com and you’re translating your site into French, it would be appropriate to use www.companyname.fr. If for whatever reason it’s not available, then you might consider adding a hyphen or selecting something similar to your company name or perhaps even your main keyword in French. Typically, domain names containing keywords are still available in many country-specific TLDs. Still another option might be to select a domain name that includes your company name in addition to a keyword.

By setting up a new domain name and using one language for that whole site, you’re setting up the equivalent of a new internet business in that language. Other web sites will see your site as a separate web site from your other web sites in other languages. That’s a good thing, as that entitles you to additional directory listings in the country-specific Yahoo! Directory, DMOZ, and other influential web site directories in that language. In addition, other web sites in your industry that are in the same language will be more apt to link to your web site if it’s entirely in their language. For example, let’s say you sell red widgets—you have a lot of links from other sites that talk about red widgets but they’re in English. With a new French site about red widgets, other French web sites that talk about red widgets will link to your French site—they will probably not link to your site that is in English. In a time where links from other web sites are crucial for good organic search engine rankings, it is a good practice to remove any barriers such as language barriers that might stop another web site from linking to you.

Regional versions of certain major search engines tend to favor web sites that are in the same language and that are hosted in the same country. If someone uses www.Google.fr (Google France) to search in French, web sites that are in French and hosted in France are favored in the organic search results. Therefore, it is recommended that your French language web site use a .fr TLD and is hosted on a web server that is physically located in France. I realize that certain countries are preferred when it comes to web hosting, so for redundancy purposes it would make sense to host the site in the country first—and have backup servers in another country (you can specify several different nameservers when setting up the domain) if availability and bandwidth is an issue.

When doing the actual translating of your current web site, it’s best to use translators located in the country you’re targeting—they know the language best. If at all possible, if your company employs local salespeople or marketing staff in that country then you might consider having them write or translate the copy on the web site—they know the product and any important selling points and local “slang” that is important to include. Also, they will know the major web portals in their country (where the web site should be listed) as well as the major keywords that the site should target—translators from other countries might be able to translate the web site’s copy, but they may not be as familiar with the keywords that are important to include. Although computer-generated translation tools are available, do not use them to translate a web site from one language to another—the copy will not read well and visitors to the site will be turned off when they visit the site.

If you translate your web site into another language, you must be prepared to back up all the new business that the web site will generate. You must have someone available to speak that language—your salespeople should be located in that country and be ready to work with any potential customers that visit your web site. Just because you translate your web site into another language doesn’t mean that you’re done—be prepared to continue to support it by adding content on a regular basis, getting links to the site from other web sites in the same language, and promoting it just like you would with any other web site.

On web sites that are translated into languages other than English, it’s important to include a local phone number. I’ve talked to many people over the years about web sites in languages other than English, and there seems to be a trend—web surfers in countries other than the United States and Canada do not trust web sites as much as Americans and Canadians do. For example, when buying something online, Americans and Canadians will buy online and enter their credit card information without ever talking to the someone at the business. However, visitors from other countries tend to want some sort of ‘personalized touch’ during the buying process. By adding a local contact phone number and address/location, you increase the chances that they will purchase online. For example, one retailer I talked to translated their web site into another language (the main site was in English). They couldn’t figure out why no one was buying anything online although they had a lot of visitors from their country (the new translated site was in French, hosted in France, and had a .fr TLD). The retailer added their phone number and local contact information in the footer of every page on the site. The phone immediately started to ring off the hook and they were able to help people purchase online while they were on the phone. In this particular case, the customers wanted a personalized touch, and adding the local contact information helped tremendously, especially because the company is a major American retailer doing business for the first time online in that country. The web site’s visitors wanted assurance that they were doing business with a local company.

Translating a web site into another language may sound easy--and it can be done without even knowing the other language. However, it’s not something to be taken lightly—there are a lot of other considerations if your online business in that language is going to be successful. It’s important to stay away from using automated tools to translate the site; rather, use local translators who fully understand the business in their country and make sure you have local sales staff to back up that business. You’re not just translating a web site into another language—you’re establishing an online business in that language as well as a local presence in the country you’re targeting.

SDL TRADOS Certification Program for Translators

SDL Desktop Technology, a division of SDL International, announced the upcoming launch of a major new industry initiative, the SDL TRADOS Certification Program.

Achieving SDL TRADOS Certification will demonstrate competence in understanding the CCM Methodology and in leveraging the complete range of SDL TRADOS functionality, including new collaboration, filtering, QA checking and terminology management features.

SDL TRADOS Certification Benefits to Corporations and LSPs:

- Pre-qualification of translators on technology use before outsourcing work
- Guarantee a level of translation technology expertise
- Faster return on investment when employing translators
- Ensure the translators you are using are connected to the global ecosystem of trusted technology

SDL TRADOS Certification Benefits to Translators:

- Stand apart from other translators
- Demonstrate a level of translation technology expertise
- Provide increased opportunities for career advancement

The SDL TRADOS Certification Program launches at the end of April 2006. To find out more information about SDL TRADOS Certification, the CCM Methodology and to pre-register your interest, please visit www.sdl.com/certified.

EU wordsmith lifts lid on eurojargon

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Poor translations of EU jargon can alienate ordinary people, with EU translators' increasing reliance on the internet raising the risk of mistakes, European Commission terminologist Alex Andersen told EUobserver.

The commission currently employs 20 terminologists, one for each official language, to advise translators how to handle industrial terms such as "biomass" as well as EU jargon such as "subsidiarity".

Over-literal translations can fall foul of connotations in the target language, creating unwelcome effects Mr Andersen explained.

Translating "European Union" directly into Danish instead of opting for "europæisk sammenslutning [European Association]" also hits the wrong note and can have far-reaching implications such as galvanising support for Danish opt-outs on EU policy.

"The word 'union' doesn't appeal to Danish people. It has negative connotations because people think back to the historic union between the Nordic countries when they in turn dominated each other," the expert stated.

Mr Andersen, from Denmark, has over 30 years' experience in EU terminology and speaks Danish, Swedish, Dutch, German, French, English, Italian, Portuguese and - the hardest to learn - Finnish.

But a question mark hangs over the future of the terminologists’ role in the European Commission and other EU institutions, with some Brussels directors wondering if they still need them in an age when internet search engine Google supposedly has a solution to any terminology problem.

Google no substitute

"With Google you often end up just confirming your own good or bad idea," Mr Andersen said. "And it does not help the harmonisation of EU terms among the different institutions."

When the commission reopened its Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels in 2004 it attached the sign "Commission Européenne" which should have read "Commission européenne" in correct French.

The faux pas was quickly corrected but you can still see the screw marks from the old E if you look carefully.

"If they had called us, it wouldn't have happened," the terminologist quipped.

The EU should also beware of coining terms with fuzzy meanings that few people can understand unless they make a study of the European project, he said.

"Just think of the French 'partenaires sociaux' which is often mistranslated into English as 'social partners' instead of the more correct 'both sides of industry.' The UK civil service uses the former expression to mean husbands and wives."

To help translators check for definition, an interinstitutional termbank (IATE) has been set up, - an electronic multilingual glossary set to be open to the public by 2007.

The termbank can also cast a light on evolutions of EU culture.

French fossils

The EU's penchant for abstract policy "spaces" is a fossil of the French political term "espace" used in the 1970s and 1980s before English became the most popular language for original European Commission documents.

The phrase "absorption capacity" started out as a value in chemistry, extended to the capacity of new member states to absorb EU funds then moved to the EU's capacity to absorb refugees.

Its latest usage, as the EU’s institutional capacity to absorb new member states, is still too fresh to appear in the glossary.

Some sensitive words, such as "terrorist" and "genocide" also stand out in the EU terminologist's work.

"Terrorist" is "too sensitive" to fall under a terminologist's authority, but IATE defines it as "a person who commits a violent act for political reasons."

"Genocide" is described in line with the International Criminal Court in The Hague as harmful acts "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."