Abbreviation
A shortened form of a word or phrase used chiefly in writing to represent the complete form, such as misc. for miscellaneous or colloq. for colloquial.
Acronym
A word formed from the initial letters of a name or phrase, such as EU for European Union or LED for light-emitting diode.
Active language
(1) The target language of a translation or interpretation.
(2) The language or languages into which a professional translator or interpreter is competent to translate or interpret, respectively.
Opposite of passive language.
American English (AmE)
The English language as used in the United States, distinguished from varieties of English used elsewhere.
Australian English (AuE)
The English language as used in Australia, distinguished from varieties of English used elsewhere.
Authorized translation
A published translation of copyrighted material whereby the translator, or representative thereof, has received legal authorization from the author for publication of the translated material.
Automatic/automated translation
See machine translation.
Automatic translator
See machine translator.
Bilingual dictionary
A dictionary that contains words or phrases in one language matched with equivalent words or phrases in another language. A unidirectional bilingual dictionary allows the user to look up words in only one language, whereas a bidirectional bilingual dictionary allows the user to look up words in either of the two languages.
Bilingual glossary
A list of terms related to a specific subject or field, as well as the equivalent for each term in another language. Bilingual glossaries may also contain definitions, in one or both languages, of the terms listed. See also glossary.
Big5
A character encoding method commonly used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The Big5 character set contains 13,053 Traditional Chinese characters.
British English (BrE)
The English language as used in England, distinguished from varieties of English used elsewhere.
Canadian English (CaE)
The English language as used in Canada, distinguished from varieties of English used elsewhere.
Cantonese
The dialect of Chinese spoken widely in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as overseas Chinese communities originating from these areas.
Character count
The number of discrete characters (such as letters of the English alphabet, numerals, punctuation marks, and Chinese characters) contained in a document or excerpt thereof. See also word count.
Character encoding
A code that pairs a sequence of characters (such as alphanumeric characters or Chinese characters) with integers or binary forms of those integers.
Chinese character
A logogram used in writing Chinese. Each Chinese character corresponds to a single syllable (with the exception of the character representing the suffix "-er", which is amalgamated into the previous syllable's coda). There are over 50,000 Chinese characters, although many of these are now obsolete or rarely used. Also called "hanzi".
Chinese Internal Code Specification
See GBK.
Chinese language
A language of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Chinese is the most common native language, with approximately 1.2 to 1.3 billion native speakers globally. See also Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese.
Computer-aided translation (CAT)
See computer-assisted translation.
Computer-assisted translation (CAT)
A form of translation in which human translators translate documents using specialized computer software intended to support and facilitate the translation process. Also called "computer-aided translation".
Confidentiality
The secure protection of client data and/or translated materials, such that they are not disclosed or made available to third parties without the client's prior consent.
Desktop publishing
The design and production of publications, such as newsletters, brochures, or trade journals, using computers and computer software with graphics capability.
Dialect
A variety of a spoken language used by people from a particular geographic area. Dialects of the same language may be mutually intelligible (as in the case of American English and British English, both of which are dialects of the English language) or mutually unintelligible (as in the case of Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, both of which are dialects of the Chinese language).
Editing
The process of preparing text for publication or presentation through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications.
Editor
A person who engages in editing, especially as an occupation.
English language
A language of the Germanic family of languages. English is the second most common native language, with approximately 340 to 380 million native speakers worldwide.
Equivalence
The state of two terms or syntactic units in different languages being equal (or highly similar) to each other in meaning, or an instance of this state.
Faithful translation
A translation that possesses a high degree of faithfulness.
Faithfulness
The extent to which a translation accurately renders the meaning of the source text, without adding to it or subtracting from it, and without strengthening or weakening any part of the meaning.
Financial translation
The translation of financial documents or materials, such as annual or quarterly reports, financial statements, auditors' reports, budgets, and invoices.
Financial translator
A translator, usually with specialized training and experience in finance, who specializes in financial translation.
Freelance translator
A self-employed translator, who works for a variety of clients (which may include translation agencies) on a contract basis. Freelance translators often specialize in one or more particular fields, such as law, finance, medicine, or engineering.
GB
A collective term for the national standard character encodings of the People's Republic of China. GB is an acronym derived from "Guobiao" (or "Guóbiāo"), an abbreviation of "Guójiā Biāozhǔn" ("National Standard") or "Guójiā Biāozhǔn Dàimǎ" ("National Standard Code"). Also known as "Guobiao code".
GB18030
The registered Internet name of an official character encoding of the People's Republic of China. The full name is "National Standard GB 18030-2000: Coded Character Set of Chinese Characters for Information Interchange: Extension of the Basic Set". The GB18030 character set contains 27,484 Chinese characters. See also GB, GB2312, and GBK.
GB2312
The registered Internet name of an official character encoding of the People's Republic of China. The GB2312 character set contains 7,445 characters (6,763 Chinese characters and 682 other characters). See also GB, GB18030, and GBK.
GBK
An extension of the GB2312 character encoding, used in the People's Republic of China. GBK is an acronym derived from "Guójiā Biāozhǔn" (Guobiao code, or GB) and the first word of "Kuòzhǎn Guīfàn" (Extended Specification). The GBK character set contains 21,886 characters (21,003 Chinese characters and 883 other characters). Also referred to as "Chinese Internal Code Specification". See also GB, GB18030, and GB2312.
Glossary
A list of terms related to a specific subject or field, as well as definitions of those terms.
Guobiao code
See GB.
Guoyu
See Standard Mandarin.
Hanzi
See Chinese character.
Hanyu pinyin
A romanization system used to represent the pronunciation of Standard Mandarin by employing 25 letters of the Roman alphabet (or 26 letters if "ü" is substituted by "v", as in many Chinese Input Method Editors), the umlaut diacritic, and four tone-marking diacritics. Hanyu pinyin was officially adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1979. Also called "pinyin".
Huayu
See Standard Mandarin.
Human translation
Translation carried out by humans, sometimes with the support of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools or software. Distinguished from machine translation.
Human translator
A person (as opposed to an automated machine or software) who performs translation. Distinguished from machine translator.
Idiomatic translation
A translation that possesses a high degree of transparency.
Input Method Editor (IME)
A computer program or operating system component that allows users to enter complex characters and symbols (such Chinese, Korean or Japanese characters) using a computer keyboard and/or touchscreen input device.
Internationalization
See localization.
Interpretation
(1) The act or process of converting speech from one language into another. Also called "language interpretation".
(2) The interpreted version of speech (in the target language).
Interpreter
A person who engages in interpretation, especially as an occupation.
Language competence
See language proficiency.
Language interpretation
See interpretation.
Language localization
See localization.
Language pair
(1) The two languages (source language and target language) involved in any instance of translation or interpretation.
(2) A pair of languages between which a translator or interpreter is capable of translating or interpreting.
Language proficiency
The ability to effectively communicate in and comprehend a particular language. Also called "language competence".
Language translation
See translation.
Legal translation
The translation of legal documents or materials, such as laws, statutes, regulations, contracts, wills, lawsuits, and legal disclaimers from one language to another.
Legal translator
A translator, usually with specialized training and experience in law, who specializes in legal translation.
Literal translation
(1) The act or process of converting text from one language into another by translating each morpheme, word or phrase of the source text individually.
(2) The translated version of a text that has been converted into another language by translating each morpheme, word, or phrase of the source text individually.
Literary translation
The translation of literary documents or literature, such as novels, biographies, memoirs, short stories, and poetry from one language to another.
Literary translator
A translator, usually with specialized training and experience in literature and writing, who specializes in literary translation.
Localization
The act, process, or result of translating the user interfaces and content of a website or computer software from one language to another. Also called "language localization" or "internationalization". See also website localization and software localization.
Machine translation (MT)
Translation that utilizes computer software or algorithms to translate text from one language into another. Distinguished from human translation. Also called "automatic translation" or "automated translation".
Machine translator
A device, tool, or software application that performs machine translation. Distinguished from human translator. Also called "automatic translator".
Mandarin
See Mandarin Chinese or Standard Mandarin.
Mandarin Chinese
A group of related dialects of the Chinese language spoken widely in northern and southwestern China, Taiwan and Singapore, as well as overseas Chinese communities originating from these areas. Also called "Mandarin". Note that the terms "Mandarin Chinese" and "Mandarin" are also used to refer to Standard Mandarin.
Medical translation
The translation of medical documents or materials, such as medical journal articles, medical reports, and medical certificates from one language to another.
Medical translator
A translator, usually with specialized training and experience in medicine, who specializes in medical translation.
Morpheme
The smallest semantically meaningful linguistic unit of a word. For example, the English word "multilayered" contains three morphemes: "multi-", "layer" and "-ed".
Mother tongue
See native language.
Native language
A language that a person has learned or used since early childhood, and in which he or she is fully fluent. Also called "mother tongue".
Native speaker
A person who has learned or used a particular language from early childhood, and who is fully fluent in that language.
Neologism
A new word, expression, or usage.
Neutrality
The extent to which a translation or an interpretation is not influenced by any personal opinions, beliefs, values, or biases that may be held by the translator or interpreter.
Passive language
(1) The source language of a translation or interpretation.
(2) The language or languages from which a professional translator or interpreter is competent to translate or interpret, respectively.
Opposite of active language.
Patent translation
The translation of patents, patent applications, and related documents and materials from one language to another.
Patent translator
A translator, usually with specialized training and experience in patents and patent law, who specializes in patent translation.
Pedagogical translation
Translation performed for the purpose of learning a second language.
Per-word rate
The price charged (by a translator or translation company) to the client for each word translated. The per-word rate usually refers to the price for each word translated from the source text, rather than the price for each translated word of the target text.
Pinyin
See Hanyu pinyin.
Proofreader
A person who engages in proofreading, especially as an occupation.
Proofreading
The process of reading a proof copy of text in order to identify and correct errors.
Putonghua
See Standard Mandarin.
Romanization
The representation of the pronunciation of a word or language by use of the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system of such representation, where the original word or language uses a different writing system. Hanyu pinyin is a romanization system widely used to represent the pronunciation of Standard Mandarin.
Scientific translation
The translation of scientific documents or materials, such as scientific journal articles, abstracts, research papers, conference handouts, and other publications from one language to another.
Scientific translator
A translator, usually with specialized training and experience in science, who specializes in scientific translation.
Sight translation
The act, process, or result of converting text in the source language into orally rendered speech in the target language.
Simplified Chinese
One of two standard character sets (the other is Traditional Chinese) of the modern Chinese written language. Simplified Chinese is widely used in mainland China, Singapore, and overseas Chinese communities, and is the official written language of the People's Republic of China.
Software localization
The act or process of translating the user interface and content of a software application from one language to another and, if necessary, adapting the software's design and functions to suit the foreign culture associated with the target language.
Source language
The language from which text is translated or speech is interpreted. Opposite of target language.
Source text
The original text that is to be, or has been, translated into one or more other languages. Opposite of target text.
Standard dialect
See standard language.
Standard language
A particular variety of a language that has been given legal or official status. Standard Mandarin, for example, has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People's Republic of China. Also called "standard dialect".
Standard Mandarin
The official spoken language (or dialect) of the People's Republic of China, and one of four official spoken languages of Singapore. Standard Mandarin belongs to the Mandarin Chinese group of dialects, with a vocabulary drawn from this group and a phonology based on that of the Beijing dialect. Also referred to as "Mandarin", "Putonghua", "Guoyu", and "Huayu".
Target audience
The demographic group or specific audience for whom the target text of a translation or the final product of localization is intended.
Target country
The country for which the target text of a translation or the final product of localization is intended.
Target language
The language into which text is translated or speech is interpreted. Opposite of source language.
Target region
The geographic (or geopolitical) area for which the target text of a translation or the final product of localization is intended.
Target text
The final text that is to be, or has been, translated from another language. Opposite of source text.
Technical terminology
Words or expressions used primarily (or exclusively) within or in relation to a specific field, such as law, medicine or engineering.
Technical translation
The translation of documents or materials of a technical nature (i.e., those containing a significant amount technical terminology) from one language to another.
Technical translator
A translator, usually with specialized training and experience in one or more technical fields, who specializes in technical translation.
Traditional Chinese
One of two standard character sets (the other is Simplified Chinese) of the modern Chinese written language. Traditional Chinese is widely used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and many overseas Chinese communities.
Translatability
The degree to which a word, expression, or text is able to be translated into another language.
Translation
(1) The act or process of converting text from one language into another. Also called "language translation".
(2) The translated version of a text (in the target language).
Translation agency
See translation company.
Translation company
A company that provides translation as its primary business service and may offer additional language-related services, including interpretation, localization, editing, and proofreading. Also called "translation agency".
Translation dictionary
A bilingual dictionary intended for use in the translation process.
Translation memory (TM)
A type of database consisting of text segments in a source language and their translations into one or more target languages. Translation memories are often used in conjunction with computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools and word processors to assist human translators in the translation process.
Translation process
A process wherein the translator establishes equivalences between a text, or segments thereof, and another language. The translation process consists of decoding the meaning (including both denotations and connotations) of the source text, and then re-encoding this meaning in the target language.
Translation studies
The systematic, interdisciplinary study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpretation or both of these activities.
Translation unit
A segment of text which the translator treats as a single semantic or lexical unit for the purposes of establishing an equivalence. The translation unit may be a morpheme, a word, a phrase, a sentence, or a larger syntactic unit.
Translator
(1) A person who engages in translation, especially as an occupation.
(2) A device, tool, or software application that performs machine translation.
Translator's note
A note (usually a footnote or an endnote) added by the translator to the target text in order to provide additional information regarding the cultural or historical background, limitations of the translation, etc.
Transliteration
The representation of, or a system for representing, text or characters (often based in part on their phonetic sounds) using an alternate writing system.
Transparency
The extent to which a translation appears to native speakers of the target language to have originally been written in that language, and conforms to the language's grammatical and idiomatic conventions.
Unicode
An industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from the writing systems of all languages to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. The Unicode encodings in most widespread use are UTF-8 (an 8-bit encoding) and UTF-16 (a 16-bit encoding).
Untranslatability
The property of a word, expression, or text not having an equivalent in another language.
Website localization
The act or process of translating a website's user interface and content from one language to another and, if necessary, adapting the website's design and functions to suit the foreign culture associated with the target language.
Word count
The number of discrete words contained in a document or excerpt thereof. For non-alphabetic languages (such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese), each individual character is generally treated as one word. See also character count.
Word-by-word translation
See word-for-word translation.
Word-for-word translation
(1) The act or process of converting text from one language into another by translating each word of the source text individually.
(2) The translated version of a text that has been converted into another language by translating each word of the source text individually.
Also called "word-by-word translation".
Wordfast
A comprehensive computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool, consisting of a set of macros that run in Microsoft Word. Wordfast is designed for use by professional translators.
Word processor
A computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, and formatting) of viewable or printed material, such as text and images. Examples of commercial word processors include Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus Word Pro, and NJStar Chinese Word Processor.
