The language industry is the
sector of activity dedicated to facilitating multilingual communication, both oral and written. According to the
European Commission's Directorate-General of Translation, the language industry comprises the activities of translation, interpreting,
subtitling
Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...
and
dubbing, software and website globalisation, language technology tools development, international conference organisation, language teaching and linguistic consultancy.
According to the Canadian Language Industry Association, this sector comprises translation (with interpreting, subtitling and localisation), language training and language technologies.
The European Language Industry Association limits the sector to translation, localisation, internationalisation and globalisation.
An older, perhaps outdated view confines the language industry to computerised
language processing and places it within the
information technology industry.
An emerging view expands this sector to include
editing for authors who write in a second language—especially English—for international communication.
Services
The scope of services in the industry includes:
*
Translation
*
Editing for authors:
author editing
*
Editing for publishers, e.g.
copy editing
Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual o ...
,
proofreading
Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or an electronic copy of a publication to find and correct reproduction errors of text or art. Proofreading is the final step in the editorial cycle before publication.
Professional
Traditional ...
(including
computer-assisted reviewing),
developmental editing
*
Language interpretation
Interpreting is a translational activity in which one produces a first and final target-language output on the basis of a one-time exposure to an expression in a source language.
The most common two modes of interpreting are simultaneous inter ...
*
Language education
*
Computer-assisted translation tools development
*
Terminology extraction
*
Language localisation
*
Software localisation
In computing, internationalization and localization ( American) or internationalisation and localisation (British English), often abbreviated i18n and L10n, are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional peculiarities an ...
*
Machine translation
The persons who facilitate multilingual communication by offering individualized services—translation, interpreting, editing or language teaching—are called
language professionals.
Evolution
Translation as an activity exists at least since mankind started developing
trade millennia ago; so, if we include
interpreting
Interpreting is a translational activity in which one produces a first and final target-language output on the basis of a one-time exposure to an expression in a source language.
The most common two modes of interpreting are simultaneous inter ...
, it is no exaggeration to say that the origins of language industry are older than those of
written language.
The communication industry has developed rapidly following availability of the
internet. Achievements of the industry include the ability to quickly translate long texts into many languages. This has created new challenges as compared with the traditional activity of translators, such as that of
quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...
. There are various
quality standards such as the
International Organization for Standardization's
ISO 17100 (used in Europe), the CAN CGSB 131.10-2017 in Canada and ASTM F2575-14 in the USA.
A study commissioned by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation estimated the language industry in European member states to be worth 8.4 billion euro in 2008. The largest portion, 5.7 billion euro, was ascribed to the activities of translation, interpreting, software localisation and website globalisation. Editing was not taken into consideration. The study projected an annual growth rate of 10% for the language industry. At the time the study was published, in 2009, the language industry was less affected by the economic crisis than other industry sectors.
One field of research in the industry includes the possibility of
machine translation fully replacing human translation.
Controversies
Rates for translation services have become a big discussion topic nowadays, as several translation outsourcers allegedly go in search of cheap labor. Professional associations like the
try to put a stop to this development. Currency fluctuation is yet another important factor.
Apart from this, phenomena such as
crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
appear in large-scale translations.
US President
Barack Obama drew criticism after a 2009 White House white paper proposed incentives for automatic translation.
Letter from ATA to President Obama
References
External links
(1991-1995)
CAN CGSB 131.10
{{Industries
Translation companies
Industries (economics)