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XYZ Gold News
BULLETIN FOR FEBRUARY 2009
Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent
production of an equivalent text, likewise called a ″translation,″
that communicates the same message in another language. The text to be
translated is called the ″source text,″ and the language that it is
to be translated into is called the ″target language″; the final
product is sometimes called the ″target text″.
Translation must take
into account constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of the two
languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. A common misconception
is that there exists a simple word–for–word correspondence between
any two languages, and that translation is a straightforward mechanical
process; such a word–for–word translation, however, cannot take
into account context, grammar,
conventions, and idioms.
Translation is fraught with the potential for ″spilling over″ of
idioms and usages from one language into the other, since both languages
coexist within the translator′s mind. Such spilling–over easily
produces linguistic hybrids such as ″Franglais″
(French–English), ″Spanglish″ (Spanish–English),
″Poglish″ (Polish–English) and ″Portuñol″
(Portuguese–Spanish).
On the other hand, inter–linguistic spillages have also served the useful
purpose of importing calques and loanwords from a source
language into a target language that had previously lacked a concept or
a convenient expression for the concept. Translators and interpreters,
professional as well as amateur, have thus played an important role in the
evolution of languages and cultures.
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