Authoring and Documentation Workflow Tools for Haitian Creole: A Minority Language

Although research has been conducted by several institutes on how to process written text for minority and vernacular languages, no academic research project thus far seems to have produced a usable, functional, authoring or translation tool for end-user native speakers of these types of languages. On the other hand, a set of software programs has been in the making for twenty years outside of academia.

Mason, Marilyn. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Babel Not: Machine Translation for the Technical Communicator

Machine Translation, though useful in certain cases, is still not, and may never be the one-size-fits-all solution for translation needs. Any translation used for commercial or professional purposes must be at the very least checked and double-checked by human translators.

WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Babelfish: Real-Time Machine Translation on the Internet

On December 9, 1997, Digital Equipment Corporation and SYSTRAN A.G. launched AltaVista Translation Service, the first European language translation service for Web content. For the first time, non-English speaking users can translate information on the predominantly English speaking Web in real time.

Ament, Kurt. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Caterpillar Technical English and Automatic Machine Translation  

Caterpillar is developing an Automatic Machine Translation (AMT) system for translating product support literature into eleven languages. Source language authors write in Caterpillar Technical English (CTE) which uses a constrained English language domain and sophisticated spelling, lexical, grammar and disambiguation software. CTE tools are accessed through pull down menus in the author's text editor. Integrating the source language author into the translations process using CTE has allowed the development of the AMT system which completely eliminates the need for human post-editing of the translated service literature.

Gallup, Sharlene. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Language>Translation>Machine Translation

Control Costs of Translation with Advance Plan

The liability of a translated manual is several times greater than the English version. This increased liability can be tied directly to the accuracy of the translation.

McBride, Bill. Boston Broadside (1993). Articles>Language>Translation>Project Management

Creating Effective Translations

Use active voice, because it is easier to understand. If the material is being translated into a language which frequently uses passive voice, such as German, the translator will make the accommodation for that language.

Wright, Ami. Boston Broadside (1997). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Establishing a Technical Translation and Software Localization Professional Interest Committee  

Conservative estimates suggest that the translation market is currently over $1 billion and growing at a rate of 15% annually. The impact of an increasingly global economy continues to be felt by many business people, not the least of whom are the technical communicators who are charged with the mission of writing with international audiences in mind. Producing culturally appropriate, quality translations requires an awareness of how documents intended for foreign markets should be written. The purpose of the proposed Technical Translation and Software Localization PIC is to increase awareness of localization issues and to provide a forum for discussion, information exchange and education for those technical communicators who are involved in international communication.

Burns, Ann Lyn. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Language>Localization>Technical Translation

The European Association for Machine Translation

The European Association for Machine Translation (EAMT) is an organization that serves the growing community of people interested in MT and translation tools, including users, developers, and researchers of this increasingly viable technology.

EAMT (2005). Articles>Language>Translation>Machine Translation

Fast Online (Machine) Translation - But...?

Even if the attainable quality of automatic translation systems is insufficient under certain conditions, and despite careful preparation of the original text, nevertheless the translation provides a useful basis for a technical translator. The automatic translation greatly simplifies the production of a foreign language text and leads, all in all, to an efficient translation process. For example, the translation of a customer Website with the help of an automatic translation system (i.e. post-edited machine translation) cost us only a third of the time, which we had previously calculated as pure 'manual work'.

Thiele, Ulrich. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Following the Road Untraveled: From Source Language to Translation to Localization    

A-dec Inc. is a dental equipment manufacturer headquartered in Newberg, Oregon. A 40-year leader in the dental products industry, A-dec/spl trade/ has targeted the international market as their growth market. The change in scope has brought with it the recognition that the A-dec Technical Communications team must address how to align their content to support an international audience, as well as clearly communicate the company's core values. The process has been ongoing and dynamic as new discoveries occur. They faced the challenge of understanding the differences between translation and localization, which started their education in the area of necessary requirements for competing in the international marketplace. This case study discusses their journey towards creating a globalized product.

Ledet, Denise and Rahel Anne Bailie. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Going International

For many people, setting up a Web site is their first experience with publishing documents for an international audience. It's true (for now) that most of the computers on the Internet are in the United States, but the Net includes computers in more than a hundred countries. If you put information on the Web, people from all over the world can read it. At least 15 percent of the visitors to the EEI Web pages are from outside the United States. In the first few days of the new year, pages were viewed by people from two dozen countries, including Croatia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. It's not called the World Wide Web for nothing.

Ivey, Keith C. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

The Hazards of Translating Legal Documents

The issue of translation is a global one and doesn't just relate to mistranslations by American and British English speakers. Today, poor translation can be particularly dangerous given the speed at which events are reported. How dangerous? According to the Dow Jones Newswire of 12 May 2005, one mistake was worth several billion U.S. dollars.

Frievalds, John. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Language>Legal>Translation

Ideological Manipulation in Translation in a Chinese Context: Su Manshu's Translation of Les Misérables

In China Su Manshu was mainly remembered as a pioneer of poetry translation, yet when it came to his translation of Les Misérables, the comments always centered on its unfaithfulness. No substantial study has ever been made to probe into the reasons behind such a practice. The research by such scholars as André Lefevere (1992, 1995) and Susan Bassnett (1995) on ideological manipulation of translation gives us some insight to rethink Su Manshu's translation of Les Misérables from the ideological perspective.

Li, Li. Translation Journal (2005). Articles>Language>Translation>China

Improving Translatability And Readability With Syntactic Cues  

'Syntactic cues' are function words and punctuation marks that indicate syntactic relationships. Research in psycholinguistics, reading, and reading in a foreign language has shown that readers rely heavily on these cues to help them analyze and predict sentence structure. Yet technical writers and editors routinely eliminate many of these cues from their writing in the mistaken belief that they are improving readability. This workshop will show you how to use syntactic cues not only to improve readability, but also to eliminate ambiguities that cause problems for translators. This approach does not require knowledge of grammatical terminology, and it will increase your sensitivity to many subtleties of the English language.

Kohl, John R. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Improving Translatability and Readability with Syntactic Cues    

More and more technical writing is being translated from English into dozens of languages for use worldwide by readers who have varying degrees of fluency in English. More and more technical documents are translated using computer-assisted or machine translation and are then post-edited by human translators whose first language usually is not English. As a result, more than ever before, technical writers need to be aware of syntactic ambiguity in order to ensure the most accurate, timely, and cost-effective translation. This manuscript explores an approach to writing unambiguously that is based on research from several disciplines. In addition to facilitating translation, the syntactic cues approach improves the readability of technical documents for both native and nonnative readers of English. The manuscript discusses considerations for integrating the syntactic cues approach into established documentation processes and also provides a procedure that helps technical writers learn to use syntactic cues effe

Kohl, John R. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Java Localization with Translation Memory eXchange Standard

One of the main concerns of internationalization consists of separating the main source code from the texts, the labels, the messages and all the other objects related to the specific language in use. This article briefly explain the TMX standard and a simple TMX Java bridge.

Asuni, Nicola. evolt (2005). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Limits of Automated Audio

This is a list of limitations of the types of automated audio translation offered by such services as Talkr.com. Since we do not see a list in their help center, we thought we would compile our own list and offer it as a wiki page for any customers to keep a list of limitations.

KeyContent.org (2007). Articles>Language>Translation>Audio

Linguistic Issues in Authoring for Technology-Enabled Translation  

For many corporations, growing international is almost a must. Obviously, human translators play a key role in this difficult venture. A range of computer tools aimed at expediting the translation process are now being used by translators. However, whether or not translation tools are used, translators feel frustrated and blame technical writers for their flaws. Authoring does not seem to be done with translation in mind, and the linguistic issues to be solved up front are sometimes countless. An efficient, cost-effective, and high-quality translation requires the right combination of ingredients, and proper authoring will have a major impact on the entire process.

Rivas, Juan-Carlos. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Lost in Translation?  

The task of communicating in a global environment requires planning, sensitivity and expert help. The authors have developed a series of check lists and tips to guide writers, editors, and other members of the localization team through the process.

Sellin, Robert and Elaine Winters. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Language>Translation>Localization

Machine Translation - 2001 Has Already Arrived

The easiest way to cope with existing language barriers undoubtedly is the use of translation programs, electronic helpers that translate texts automatically. However, with high expectations meeting poor quality translation results in the past, press media regularly concluded that users had better learn the language themselves or employ at least a human translator. Yet a closer look at modern machine translation (MT) programs allows a more subtle view.

Bauer, Elisabeth. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Machine Translation - A New Dimension and What You Can Expect

Instead of 'translation', AltaVista offered me unbelievable junk, evidently, an unedited MT version of American promotional material. The text was unreal, the result of a myth: You click a button and the translation is staring at you. You are in the middle of a jungle.

Klein, Fred. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Machine Translation and Multilingual Technical Communication  

The demand by the global market for products which have been localized has brought a whole set of issues and concerns to international technical communication. Of particulur interest is the need to translate technical documentation into a number of languages without sacrificing the necessary timeto-market. Old solutions and processes are insufficient. This paper explores some of the computational tools now offered by the machine translation industry for the facilitation of multilingual document translation as modern corporations need it.

Bennett, Winfield Scott. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Language>Localization>Machine Translation

Machine Translation and Technical Communcation  

Machine translation, the use of computers for translating between languages, is only now coming of age, just at a time when there is increasing need for such technology. Views of machine translation range from realistic assessments to extravagant statements for and against the technology. The reality is that machine translation can provide high-speed automated quality translation depending on a variety of factors; it is not a panacea for all translation problems. Successful machine translation requires human-computer interaction which promotes the strengths of each. Machine translation has reached a stage at which it can contribute to multilingual technical communication.

Bennett, Winfield Scott. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Language>Translation>Machine Translation

Machine Translation Today and Tomorrow  

The field of machine translation (MT) was the pioneer research area in computational linguistics during the 1950s and 1960s. When it began, the assumed goal was the automatic translation of all kinds of documents at a quality equalling that of the best human translators. It became apparent very soon that this goal was impossible in the foreseeable future.

Hutchins, W. John. Gardez Vlg (2002). Articles>Language>History>Machine Translation