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Recent Blog Posts
Syncing Videos
Translation and recording of videos from English into other languages can become challenging as English uses fewer words than most other languages. The translated text must be short so that recordings can match the length of the English language video. That process often requires rephrasing or paraphrasing to get it just right.
Happy Hump Day
We were recently asked to translate a commercial into Spanish. Part of the text said ‘Happy Hump Day’. Translating that greeting into Spanish caused many headaches. The Spanish language does not use such a greeting at all, and to translate the meaning of it would have made the text too long. We scratched our heads, used all kinds of dictionaries and the help of Google to come up with a solution that would work.
What does ‘Hump Day’ even mean?
The Urban Dictionary’s definition: The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week.
First Nations
Canada’s, as well as America’s, first inhabitants didn’t know how to write. The many different languages were only spoken languages. When schools were introduced and children ordered to attend classes, the language of the teachers was English only. While children spoke their native languages at home, they quickly adapted to English and soon interpreted for their parents and elders. Their command of their native spoken language became less and less.
The primary source of information for historians is traditionally written documents, but there were none. It soon became apparent that these languages and cultures needed to be preserved. Linguists started to interview elders most familiar with their native language and recorded these interviews. If they spoke no English, pictures were used to learn the words, the proper pronunciation recorded and written down as best as possible. These indigenous languages have sounds very unfamiliar to us. To preserve these languages, special alphabets were created to identify such sounds and create a glossary/dictionary.
