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Poll: Do you work with other language variants of your mother tongue?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Sep 18, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you work with other language variants of your mother tongue?".

This poll was originally submitted by Greg Strider. View the poll results »



 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 23:41
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Yes Sep 18, 2018

Yes, I’ve been translating mainly from English and French into the Portuguese variants spoken on the African continent, but I wouldn’t dare translating into Brazilian Portuguese as grammar (placement of the reflexive pronouns for instance), spelling (despite the orthographic agreement), style and vocabulary are quite different.

Greg Strider
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
No Sep 18, 2018

It really pees me off when I see Brits on Kudoz asking what something is called in US English, and vice versa.

Sure, I could approximate American, but it is never going to be authentic, so why would I attempt to do so?

Everybody should stick to their own language.


Angus Stewart
Christine Andersen
Muriel Vasconcellos
Ricki Farn
Michael Harris
ipv
Greg Strider
 
Ada Mirasol Navarro
Ada Mirasol Navarro  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 00:41
Member (2017)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Yes Sep 18, 2018

I'm not getting into language politics here, but I can write either in Catalan/Valenciano depending on what the client asks (it's mostly about verbs and some words but you get used to it), although when I'm writing for myself or speaking I go for Valenciano as this variant is one of my mother tongues.

 
Debora d'Amato (X)
Debora d'Amato (X)  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 00:41
English to Italian
+ ...
Not now Sep 18, 2018

So far, I have been committing only to translations regarding my languages pair, meaning ITA>EN and vice versa. But I really want to start translating or interpreting from English to the languages I'm studying as well.

Obviously, it's going to take time because it's pretty hard, but I'd really like to this goal.


 
Maria Asis
Maria Asis  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 00:41
Member (2002)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Artificial Spanish possible, but not real Sep 18, 2018

Hi!
I was asked in the past to use Neutral Spanish in one of my assignments and then I asked to receive a guideline about that. That did not ever come.

As Spanish speakers we all know about lexical differences, but it's not only about that. I'll be no sure 100% if I'll use some structures or words that can cause an awkward feeling to another Spanish speaker from another latitude. That happens to me with "Ingresar", which is used by Argentineans. Of course, I understand that, b
... See more
Hi!
I was asked in the past to use Neutral Spanish in one of my assignments and then I asked to receive a guideline about that. That did not ever come.

As Spanish speakers we all know about lexical differences, but it's not only about that. I'll be no sure 100% if I'll use some structures or words that can cause an awkward feeling to another Spanish speaker from another latitude. That happens to me with "Ingresar", which is used by Argentineans. Of course, I understand that, but it's not my variety. Using "Entrar" or "Acceder" would make them feel that too.

So an artificial Spanish language might be possible if a great consensus from speakers from all over the globe could meet an agreement, but that would not sound natural at all. This would just be understandable.

Let's see what we're looking for, then.

María José Asís
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 00:41
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
No Sep 18, 2018

England and America are two countries divided by a common language, as George Bernard Shaw is said to have put it.

Or was it really Oscar Wilde, who said this?
"We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language".

I remember a sign in Bombay/Mumbai in my early childhood: 'English spoken, American understood'. Most people there spoke Anglo-Indian anyway.

The more I learn about other varieties of English, the more I s
... See more
England and America are two countries divided by a common language, as George Bernard Shaw is said to have put it.

Or was it really Oscar Wilde, who said this?
"We really have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language".

I remember a sign in Bombay/Mumbai in my early childhood: 'English spoken, American understood'. Most people there spoke Anglo-Indian anyway.

The more I learn about other varieties of English, the more I stick to my own, a sort of Estuary/Oxford with tributes to Northumberland and Yorkshire.
- I love studying the other variants and dialects, but they are full of pitfalls!

Not to mention EUglish, Scandi-English and all the rest...

[Edited at 2018-09-18 10:37 GMT]
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Muriel Vasconcellos
Ricki Farn
Michael Harris
Angus Stewart
Yaotl Altan
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:41
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
No Sep 18, 2018

I wouldn't dare. For all the reasons given. I have only one target language, and that is my mother tongue, US English.

BTW, some people on KudoZ have assumed, from my name, that I am not a native speaker of English and have told me that they preferred to choose another answer because it was provided by a native speaker.


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 00:41
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes Sep 18, 2018

I can do "US English" if I have to, but I always get a US native speaker to check my drafts before delivery.

Caroline Rösler
 
Elisabeth Purkis
Elisabeth Purkis  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 18:41
German to English
+ ...
50/50 Sep 18, 2018

Having spent exactly half my life in the UK and the US I feel pretty comfortable in both variants, but I would say that I'm more up to date with US slang. Some UK slang sounds a bit foreign now, which feels a bit odd.
:/
However, one never loses the innate appreciation for British humour that leaves many Americans scratching their heads...

[Edited at 2018-09-18 11:36 GMT]


Kaisa I
 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 20:41
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No Sep 18, 2018

No, and every time I've seen people trying to do that, the outcome was a disaster. There is nothing worst than having a Pt-Pt reviser destroy my translation in Pt-Br because the client thinks Portuguese is all the same thing.

Greg Strider
 
Kaisa I
Kaisa I  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 19:41
English to Finnish
+ ...
Not as a target language, but maybe as a source language Sep 18, 2018

Even though I grew up by the river bordering Sweden, and the local Swedes' language, Meänkieli, was very similar to my Finnish dialect, I would still not dare to translate into Meänkieli. However, the question does not specifically ask that. If the opportunity arose to translate from Meänkieli to Finnish, I'd like to think I'd be up for the challenge.

Side note: Names of languages are capitalized in English, but not in Finnish or Meänkieli. The word Meänkieli, which translates
... See more
Even though I grew up by the river bordering Sweden, and the local Swedes' language, Meänkieli, was very similar to my Finnish dialect, I would still not dare to translate into Meänkieli. However, the question does not specifically ask that. If the opportunity arose to translate from Meänkieli to Finnish, I'd like to think I'd be up for the challenge.

Side note: Names of languages are capitalized in English, but not in Finnish or Meänkieli. The word Meänkieli, which translates to 'our language', is the name for their language, in their own language. Do I still capitalize it when writing about it in English? I guess I do...
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Morano El-Kholy
Morano El-Kholy  Identity Verified
Egypt
Local time: 01:41
Member (2011)
English to Arabic
+ ...
Yes Sep 18, 2018

Yes, I can work with other dialects of my Arabic native Language. But, not all the Arabic dialects of all the Arabic speaking countries! I have spent a considerable time living in the Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab of Emirates and visited Qatar several times. So, I can speak/work with their variants besides my Egyptian native dialect.

 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 00:41
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
No Sep 18, 2018

Although I can (more or less) speak and understand/read two other variants of German, I wouldn't even attempt to turn them into written words. They're simply too complicated and too far away from the spelling/grammar used in high German.

[Edited at 2018-09-18 14:12 GMT]


Ricki Farn
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 00:41
French to English
"English for Japanese" Sep 18, 2018

When I was working in-house, a company of trendspotters asked me to translate a report on trends in fashion for their Japanese client. I pointed out that we could have it translated into Japanese, but they said no, they wanted English. Then they said "but since it's for Japanese clients, you need to translate it into simple English. It turned out to be a highly technical text, so I said I couldn't possibly simplify the technical terms. They said , the Japanese client is a fashion professional, s... See more
When I was working in-house, a company of trendspotters asked me to translate a report on trends in fashion for their Japanese client. I pointed out that we could have it translated into Japanese, but they said no, they wanted English. Then they said "but since it's for Japanese clients, you need to translate it into simple English. It turned out to be a highly technical text, so I said I couldn't possibly simplify the technical terms. They said , the Japanese client is a fashion professional, so they'll understand the technical terms. Don't worry about the words, please just use simple grammar.

I did my best, but couldn't help wondering whether I was dumbing the text down too much any time I did so. Should it sound like a school book? Would you learn this concept at school or is it too hard?

If I were to be asked to do the same now, I would tell the client to dumb their source text down and let me translate that.
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Christine Andersen
 
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Poll: Do you work with other language variants of your mother tongue?






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