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Poll: Do you have two separate words for "interpreter" and "translator" in your language(s)? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have two separate words for "interpreter" and "translator" in your language(s)?".
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Mary Worby 
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
Member
German to English
+ ...
Er, they are 'interpreter' and 'translator'!
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In all the languages I know, yes.
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| Danish even has three! | Oct 6, 2011 |
Interpreter: tolk
Translator: oversætter
State Authorized Translator (protected title): Translatør.
A Translatør may also be an Autoriseret Tolk og Translatør, i.e. also an authorised interpreter.
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| Which languages don't have? | Oct 6, 2011 |
At the time of asking there had been 40 replies and 12.5% had said no. Nobody had entered a discussion about which ones don't.
Aiuto! Which languages don't distinguish these two professions?
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Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 16:29
English to French
+ ...
... but that does not mean the general public uses both or makes a difference
In the long run, I am afraid French will only use "traducteur" and forget all about "interprète" when speaking about languages, keeping the latter only for music.
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Tim Drayton
Cyprus
Local time: 17:29
Turkish to English
+ ...
TranslatorJames wrote:
At the time of asking there had been 40 replies and 12.5% had said no. Nobody had entered a discussion about which ones don't.
Aiuto! Which languages don't distinguish these two professions?
Turkish, for one.
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Mary Worby
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
Member
German to English
+ ...
Interlangue wrote:
... but that does not mean the general public uses both or makes a difference
In the long run, I am afraid French will only use "traducteur" and forget all about "interprète" when speaking about languages, keeping the latter only for music.
The distinction is rarely made here (UK) either. If I tell people I'm a translator they think it's a glamorous role heading off to war-torn parts or accompanying celebrities!
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Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
United States
Local time: 07:29
Spanish to English
+ ...
The distinction exists in the languages I speak (English, Portuguese, and Spanish), but getting people to honor the distinction is another story.
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Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
Russian to English
+ ...
In memoriam
for another, has only one word for both.
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Interlangue wrote:
... but that does not mean the general public uses both or makes a difference
In the long run, I am afraid French will only use "traducteur" and forget all about "interprète" when speaking about languages, keeping the latter only for music.
On occasions, when I've told people I'm a translator, they gush how impressed they are, how hard it must be sitting there with the headphones on, simultaneously "translating"... Once I explain that these are interpreters, they are no longer so impressed. One person even said, "Oh yeah, I speak English, I could do your job." (On a side note, a Hungarian woman told me she could never be a translator as she had "too much personality"!). * Sigh *
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| Persian (Farsi) | Oct 6, 2011 |
Hi,
In Persian (Farsi) we have one word (originally Arabic), "Motarjem" for indicating both, but in case of ambiguity we add the adjective "Katbi" (literally "written") or "Shafahi" (literally "oral") for solving the problem.
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... though you wouldn't know it if you relied on the media...
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 16:29
Spanish to English
+ ...
Tagalog uses "tagasalin" for both. It originally applied to a practitioner of the oral activity, so you can't qualify "interpreting", just "translation" (the opposite of Persian).
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Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 10:29
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Not about the media | Oct 6, 2011 |
Stephanie Mitchel wrote:
... though you wouldn't know it if you relied on the media...
In English, the word "translator" has traditionally referred to both written and spoken translators. In other words, excluding our professional jargon, "interpreter" is a subset of "translator" in any kind of natural English.
Since the 20th century, our profession has attempted to impose a distinction that never previously existed in English (or in most languages, I imagine). For people who generally claim to take a descriptive view of language, we're way off the mark on this one.
[Edited at 2011-10-06 14:58 GMT]
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