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    Saint Jerome-History of translation

    The history of translation

    Author: Alina Cincan, Published on 30 September 2013 , Last updated 08 February 2022

    The Story of Language

    Language is one of the most powerful mediums of communication known to man. Before the advent of the spoken word, humans had to depend on signs, symbols and basic sounds in order to communicate with each other. Gradually, these sounds came to represent specific objects or events, ultimately evolving into a complex pattern of vocal expression called speech. Charles Darwin, in his controversial work The Descent of Man, speculated that human language evolved from birdsong; scientists from MIT and the University of Tokyo this year added veracity to that speculation. In any case, language has come to be an invaluable part of any culture – no matter how evolved or primitive that culture or language might seem to be.

    The evolution of a language is such a complex process because of the myriad variables involved. For example, take the etymology of one word and you can write an entire chapter about it; extrapolate that to tens of thousands of words and sound-pairings and what you have is a labyrinthine structure of unthinkable complexity. Although several attempts have been made to identify the origin of human speech and language, all of them are mere theories; one explanation for this is the various sources from which human speech may have been derived. Bird song is just one of these many hypotheses: there are innumerable theories ranging from the comical to the fantastic and everything in between.

    Linguistic Differentiation

    The large geographic spread of the human population is one major reason for the emergence of several language groups that have no relation to each other. Just as races evolved independently of each other, language can be assumed to have taken the same course through human history. The need for communication within a small community quickly escalated into a need for a common mode of speech that everyone in a particular region could understand and use. However, because of this ‘exclusive’ use of language, problems arose where trade was involved. This is where the need for translation seems to have reared its enormous head. Without being able to understand each other’s systems and methods of business, trade would have been impossible. Out of this problem emerged a solution – translation.

    Trade may not have been solely responsible for the emergence of translation, but it certainly highlighted the need for it. As cultures transacted with each other, they needed interpreters who understood both languages and could act as a communication bridge. Subsequently, each civilization’s cultural artefacts – such as prose, poetry and other literary and religious works – needed to be translated into other languages. Thus, the importance of translation and interpretation was established.

    Early Translation

    Translation originally developed to fill a sore need that plagued every nation that wanted to trade or even communicate with another. In fact, it wouldn’t be a far stretch to assume that traders themselves were the first translators because they often spent many months at various ports and would have had the opportunity to learn new languages in the course of their travels. These polyglot travellers may indeed be the predecessors of modern translation experts. Out of this informal practice of interpreting based on needs, the art of translation is likely to have emerged.

    The Evolution of Translation

    Over time, translation took the driver’s seat in the vehicle of international relations because it was indispensable to the process of communication. Its importance since then cannot be overstated; of every facet of culture that involves reading or writing, translation is an integral part. If translation is integral to writing, then interpretation is integral to reading and speaking. Very early on, therefore, interpretation and translation became an indivisible part of cultural exchange in its many forms; soon, every culture had what can be termed a ‘translation centre’ – there was the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, the translation school in Toledo, Spain, and innumerable monasteries where monks religiously (pun intended!) undertook laborious translations and transcriptions. Even as far back as ancient Rome and Greece, translation was an elite pursuit that was part of every educated man’s repertoire of skills. As the translation industry came of age, it became an independent art and science – one that would serve the world for time indeterminate.

    Translation Today

    In the modern world, translation is as important – if not more so – as it was several millennia ago. Officially, there are about 6,800 languages spoken around the world, of which a significant portion have unique scripts and many have shared scripts based on the origins of the language in question. These challenges are compounded by the fact that nearly every culture in the world has interactions with every other culture. This means that there are an incalculable number of translation requirements every second of every minute of every day around the world. It’s no wonder, then, that translation is a dominant part of intercultural interaction.

    The slow speed of manual translation has led to technology stepping in. Thus, machine translation (MT) and machine-aided human translation (MAHT) were born.

    Translation and Technology

    With the dawn of the technological age, the application of software to the field of translation became an interesting subject that was, and continues to be, pursued relentlessly. Although (a lot) more fallible than purely human translation, machine translation is a useful tool that has found several applications. For example, MT is regularly used for weather reports and other speciality areas where linguistic variables are limited. It is sometimes used for written government or legal communication, too, albeit with a modicum of human intervention. Though currently limited in application, it is a useful tool in the repertoire of any professional translator – if only to make the job a little bit easier or quicker. The late Claude Piron, a professional translator who worked for several years with the WHO as well as the UN, validated this claim when he said that MT automates the simpler portions of a translator’s efforts.

    In its most advanced form, MT may give satisfactory output for unrestricted texts, but it is still best used when domains and variables (such as disambiguation or named entities) are controlled in some way. There is no doubt that the need for human translators will remain, and that even the best MT software can only go so far where sensitive or specialised translation is required. For results of the highest quality and integrity with respect to the source and target material, there is still no adequate substitute for a trained, certified and experienced human translator.

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    Alina Cincan
    Alina Cincan
    In her 15 years as a translation professional, Alina has been wearing many hats: translator, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, Chartered Linguist (Language Specialist), member of the Mediterranean Editors and Translators, project manager, member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (Language Services), international conference speaker and author. Her #1 passion? Languages! She speaks six languages with various degrees of fluency. Some of her articles were published in translation journals and magazines, such as Traduire in France, MDÜ Magazine in Germany, La Linterna del Traductor in Spain, the ITI Bulletin in the UK and De Taalkundige/Le Linguiste In Belgium. Her latest project is an extensive research study on the freelance translation landscape. More about her experience and work can be read on Alina Cincan's page.

    26 Comments

    1. Raluca Topala says:
      30 September 2013 at 8:40 pm

      Loved it! I’ll share.( May I also suggest you to ad “share buttons” to your blog?)

      • Alina Cincan says:
        30 September 2013 at 8:43 pm

        Thank you, Raluca. As for the buttons, it’s a work in progress. 🙂

    2. James says:
      03 October 2013 at 10:11 am

      Hi, I liked your tattoo post and I took the liberty of sharing it elsewhere. Hope you don’t mind

      • Alina Cincan says:
        03 October 2013 at 10:22 am

        Hi James, I am glad you liked it. As long as you’ve mentioned the source, there’s no problem 🙂

        • Mohammad says:
          11 February 2017 at 6:50 am

          Hi miss Alina. may i ask some questions concerning translation?

          • Alina Cincan says:
            17 February 2017 at 4:52 pm

            Hi Mohammad, I’d be happy to help if I can, sure.

    3. Karoline says:
      12 December 2014 at 9:50 am

      Hey,
      I really enjoyed your post. I am writing a research paper on how the evolution of MT has changed the profession of human translators. Have you any numbers on how the numbers of human translators have changes through the last decade?

      • Alina Cincan says:
        12 December 2014 at 10:03 am

        Hi Karoline,

        Many thanks for your comment. Your research paper topic sounds very interesting – I’d love to read it once it’s published.

        Unfortunately I don’t have any figures regarding the number of human translators and this would probably be very difficult to estimate, mainly because in some countries (UK included) the industry is not regulated (unfortunately) and there are people who call themselves translators just because they are bilingual, which of course is not enough.

        I suppose a rough estimation can be done if data is gathered from translator associations around the world. However, there are many translators who belong to more than one association.

        I wish I could have helped. I’d be very interested in reading your study, or at least the most important findings.

    4. Gulayim says:
      02 May 2015 at 12:22 pm

      I am from Turkmenistan. I am a teacher at International Turkmen Turkish University and i liked ur blog Alina. It was very helpful. I love languages also. Thank u very much.

      • Alina Cincan says:
        02 May 2015 at 12:33 pm

        Thank you, Gulayim.

    5. Fairouz says:
      08 May 2015 at 7:38 pm

      Thank you Alina, your blog is interesing.

      • Alina Cincan says:
        09 May 2015 at 7:54 am

        Thank you, Fairouz.

    6. wachiuri says:
      19 June 2015 at 3:04 pm

      I work in a Centre for translation and Interpretation and i still feel that when it comes to machine translation there is a void that needs to be bridged: inconsistencies, word for word translation. in my opinion we have not reached a point when machine translation can eclipse the translator.

      • Alina Cincan says:
        20 June 2015 at 9:30 am

        Exactly. MT may be useful, but it cannot replace human translators.

    7. Fatima says:
      19 December 2015 at 5:55 am

      Hi Alina,Thanks for your helpful post.
      I think translation is honest and holy work. because bridge between different nations and people ,maybe pay off common understanding ,our world have massive need to that.
      according to my idea translation is not just words against words or expressions front expressions but it is kind of spirtism in particular literal text
      What is your opinion about that when thecnology delet important part in translation?

      • Alina Cincan says:
        21 December 2015 at 8:59 pm

        Hi Fatima, thanks for your comment. If by your question you meant that technology (was it CAT tools you referred to in particular?) takes away from the translation, I’d say it depends. Of course, a literary translation will not benefit from technology; however, CAT tools can be very helpful when it comes legal or technical translations for example.

    8. Astrid says:
      29 March 2016 at 11:12 am

      HI Alina!
      Thanks for an interesting blog post. I wonder if you could recommend any books or other literature concerning the history of translation.

      I’m writing my BA-thesis about translation history where I’ll compare two translation of the same book but with 50 years difference. How has the view of translation changed during that time and can it be seen thru these two translations. Any help or guidance would be helpful.

      Kind regards,
      Astrid Rodriguez Nyberg

      • Alina Cincan says:
        06 April 2016 at 2:11 pm

        Hi Astrid,

        Many thanks for stopping by 🙂 Your BA thesis sounds very interesting! Let me ask around and gather some recommendations and I’ll get back to you.

      • Alina Cincan says:
        22 April 2016 at 11:24 am

        Two recommendations so far: “Translation, history, culture” by André Lefevere and “Translators through History” by Jean Delisle, Judith Woodsworth. If more come my way, I’ll share them here.

    9. Astrid Rodriguez Nyberg says:
      25 April 2016 at 11:30 pm

      Hi Alina!
      Thanks so very much for your time and effort! I will look up these books ASAP. ? Once again, thanks, and any additional references you might come across… Just let me know!
      Best wishes,
      Astrid

    10. sajad says:
      27 May 2016 at 4:58 pm

      hi dear Alina. i’m writing a MA thesis related to translation quality assessment, so some new full pdf theses related to mentioned topic is needed. if u provide me with so i can surely succeed finishing.
      sajad khorami from Iran

      • Alina Cincan says:
        31 May 2016 at 11:31 am

        Hi Sajad,

        Thanks for stopping by and for commenting. I’m afraid I cannot help with your request, but you may want to check with your university and/or local library. Good luck with your thesis!

        • SAID HUSSAIN says:
          26 October 2016 at 12:07 pm

          hi alina I want to write a research paper in translation study could you help me

          • Alina Cincan says:
            26 October 2016 at 6:33 pm

            Hi Said,

            It would probably be best to contact academics (if you haven’t already), who would be much more suitable to guide you.

    11. shiva says:
      22 November 2016 at 8:10 am

      Hi Dear Alina
      How could I cite this page in my bibliography?

      • Alina Cincan says:
        22 November 2016 at 11:27 pm

        Hi Shiva, I suppose it depends on the guidelines you have been given and on the style guide you are using.

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