ARTICLES ON TRANSLATION.

TranslationDirectory.com has a page of Articles on Translation Business & Linguistics on widely varying topics, from the general (The Translation Profession, Solutions to Common Problems for Freelance Translators) to the quite specific (Aspects of Scientific Translation: English into Arabic Translation as a Case Study, Trados—Is It a Must?). A mixed bag, but there’s probably something of interest for anyone invoved with professional translation.

I was particularly taken with Moderately Irritating Recurring Idioms and Mannerisms, by Miriam Hurley (“ATA-accredited, Italian-to-English Translator”), with its long lists of possible ways to render Italian terms into English, e.g., for ambito:

sphere
realm
context
within
domain
area
scope
in terms of
with a view to
will also include
for that purpose/on that occasion
as part of
as far as the … is concerned/with regard to
through/by
in the case of
in the ___place
within the scope/according to
in their sphere of activity
purview
within the framework of
for the purposes of
extent
range
compass
field
as part of
in the context of
in
environment
circle
ambit
confines
region
area
orbit
province

(Via Taccuino di traduzione.)

Comments

  1. Michael Farris says

    Interesting Italian list, i should try to come up with a similar Polish list. I know my students are thoroughly sick of me saying “there’s really no good equivalent for that in English/Polish”/
    A couple off the top of my head
    kilkanascie (unspecified number between 11 and 19 inclusive)
    I usually have to choose between “over ten” and “almost twenty” depending.
    na przelom X i Y (at the turn of, but both the ending and beginning period are mentioned)
    I’m reduced to something boring like “at the end of X and (the) beginning of Y” since I usually end up having to keep both X and Y.

  2. Margaret S. says

    On several different translators’ lists I follow, they’re simply called “bugbears”. Some of them don’t reduce a list, no matter how long, of equivalent terms. When you see one of those, you know that the whole sentence (and maybe its neighbours, too) are in for a total reworking, and in the finished translation, there’s no single term that you can point your finger at and say “that’s how XXX is expressed in English in this sentence.” A couple of es>en examples: “espacio,” “dinámico.”

  3. I’m impressed that TranslationDirectory.com is still a going concern and the links in the post still work!

  4. January First-of-May says

    kilkanascie (unspecified number between 11 and 19 inclusive)

    I believe that “umpteen” is an almost exact equivalent in English, though its numeric range is probably a little narrower (and it might not necessarily fit stylistically).

  5. Yes, that’s pretty close.

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