19 January 2010
How do you spell Portuguese? In English, many people forget to put in that second ‘u’, but Portuguese speakers across the world, whether in Portugal, Brazil, Angola or Macau, are likely to spell it correctly: português.
One reason it’s easy to get correct is because Portuguese spelling, unlike English, is largely phonetic. But what happens in the cases when it’s not? And what happens when words have alternate pronunciations? Are they spelled differently? Should they be?
How to standardise spelling is an issue for all languages, and never a straightforward one. English spelling is a mish-mash of phonetic rules, grammatical rules, etymological rules, and exceptions and variations. Other languages have long adopted more systematic spelling systems: the first official Italian orthography dates back to 1582, French to 1635, and Spanish to 1713.
The first official Portuguese system was much more recent: 1911. It was adopted in Portugal and its overseas territories. But Brazil, which had gained independence nearly a century earlier, wasn’t consulted on the spelling reform, and didn’t adopt it either. Instead it introduced its own official system – similar but not identical to the Portuguese one –in 1938. So Portuguese spelling was standardised, but in two different ways.
Since then, there have been several attempts to unify official spelling across the whole Portuguese-speaking world, and an agreement was finally reached by representatives of 8 countries in 1990.
Various follow-up meetings ensued, and in the end it took nearly two decades before the first country adopted the new system: Brazil, in 2009. The other signatories to the agreement are still due to do so, with a transition period until 2012.
For
Portuguese translation providers, this means that there are currently still two spelling systems in operation: one in Brazil, one for the other Portuguese-speaking countries. You’ll still have to specify which to use.
When the new agreement is implemented in all countries, does that mean that translation providers will no longer have to make the distinction? No. Brazilian Portuguese has further significant differences in vocabulary, grammar and syntax. So you’ll still have to distinguish Brazilian from Iberian Portuguese, even when they both finally use the same spelling system.
If you’re a Portuguese translator, you might find the following Portuguese links useful. This
simple guide (in Portuguese) outlines the main changes made in the 1990 agreement. More entertaining to read is
another guide (again in Portuguese) in which the writer pours scorn on the welter of misinformation surrounding the spelling reform, and tries to set the record straight.
Labels: localisation, Portuguese, translation
14 August 2009
Look up figs in a dictionary and it will describe a fruit or the tree that produces them. In translation and localisation the word has a quite different meaning. FIGS translation is simply an acronym describing French, Italian, German and Spanish translation.
This combination of languages opens any document or product up to a wide range of potential users. Turning to the strangely ever-useful
CIA World Factbook, some plain economic facts bring this home all too clearly. Germany alone is the world's 5th largest economy with an estimated 2008 GDP of US$ 2.8 trillion, more than a quarter greater than the UK's equivalent output. France, Italy and Spain are 8th, 10th and 12th respectively on the same scale.
The numbers are even more staggering, with a combined GDP of about that of the United States, once you add in some of the other countries and regions where these are primary native languages – Austria, Mexico, Argentina, French-speaking Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, Venezuela, the list goes on and on. There are also large numbers of people around the world who speak one of the FIGS languages as a foreign or second language.
As the FIGS languages use the Roman alphabet, they are relatively straightforward to use in a range of typefaces and on the web. This, combined with their large audience, makes these languages a popular choice especially when considering translation for a west European market. Many companies and organisations wanting to expand their reach are making use of
FIGS translation and localisation services for their products, websites and documents.
After all, whether you are trying to win someone's business or convince them of your point of view, there is no substitute for a stylish, well written translation in their native language. Everyone should give a fig about that!
Labels: FIGS, French, German, Italian, localisation, Spanish, translation
