Glossary

Controlled Language
Application of strict grammar and style rules for authoring of texts; helps improve the translatability of texts (especially with MT and TM) by minimising ambiguity and enforcing consistency in use of language and terminology.

Gisting
Provision of a raw, unpolished translation (giving the "gist" of the meaning), associated mainly with MT. Increasingly used by those who need only the rough meaning of a foreign language text (eg: browsing a website, scanning emails).

In-Country
Living in the country in which the target language is spoken.

Language Combination
The source language{link} and target language from/into which a text is to be translated.

Language Fade
A natural consequence of a person living away from his/her own country for an extended period, thereby becoming out of touch with modern language usage & idiom. Can result in "awkward" or "old-fashioned" translation style.

Machine Translation
Automatic translation, by computer, from one natural language to another. The translation program analyses the source language text and translates it into the target language, using its built-in syntax analysis tools and bilingual dictionaries. Human "post-editing" is generally required to bring the translation to an acceptable standard.

Mother tongue
A person's native language, generally as a consequence of birth, upbringing &/or education. See also native speaker.

MT
Abbreviation of Machine Translation.

Native speaker
Literally a person who speaks a language "like a native", either as a consequence of birth, upbringing, education, extensive exposure, or any combination. See also "mother tongue".

Post-editing
The process of revising a translation produced by MT to bring it to an acceptable standard of accuracy and readability.

Source language
The language from which a text is to be translated; the translation is referred to as the target language.

Source text
The text to be translated; the translation is referred to as the target text.

Target language
The language into which a text is to be translated; the original language is referred to as the source language.

Target text
The translated text; the text in the original language is referred to as the source text.

Text expansion
Many languages require more physical space on a page than others, to say the same thing. Translations from a very concise language such as English can be 10-30% longer than the source text: for example French and Spanish tend to use more - and often longer - words, while Dutch and German use fewer - but MUCH longer - words.

Translation Memory
An application that stores source language segments (typically phrases and sentences) with their respective target language segments in a bilingual database (Memory). For each new segment to be translated, the program scans the database for a previously stored source segment that matches the new segment, either exactly (100% match) or approximately (fuzzy match) and, if found, presents the corresponding target segment as a possible translation. The translator can then accept, modify or reject the suggested translation; all segments accepted, modified or translated by the translator are added to the Memory.

TM
Abbreviation of Translation Memory.

Wordcount
The number of words in a text, the basis used for pricing translations in most countries. In the UK the norm is to quote rates per word (or thousand words) of source text. If numbers have to be retyped (eg in tables), these will be included in the wordcount and are therefore chargeable; if not required, or the source text is in editable format (so the numbers do not have to be retyped), they will not be chargeable.