Source:
http://www.globalme.net/blog/company-product-names-should-you-translate-them
http://www.globalme.net/blog/company-product-names-should-you-translate-them
Company & Product Names: Should You Translate Them
To translate, or not to translate, a company or product
name? Lots of translators face this question. In fact, there are 1,560
threads on Proz.com about translating proper nouns.
If you, as a linguist or a translation project manager, are
working on a relatively large project, most likely the answer is
already in your translation style guidelines. However, not all projects
have the answer ready when you start working on them. If you are in that
situation, here are some tips you might find useful.
*Plus, stay to the end and share your solution in our poll!
Research it first
It’s the most basic of the basics, but check on the
internet. Look for the official translation on the client’s website. If
they have their company/product names translated into your target
language and it’s published on their website, you should use the
existing translation.
When an official translation is not provided
While International organizations usually have official
translations of their names, that may not be the case for domestic and
local companies.
Should the names be translated when there is no official
translation? Well, there is no right or wrong answer to that, because it
all depends on what the client wants. So check with your client how
they want the names to be treated in translation. You can just simply
ask them, or even better, you can suggest some options and let them
choose what they like.
Here are 4 formats you can use.
a) Original – just leave the original name.
Some names would not make sense or perhaps could be
misunderstood when translated. In such cases it’s safer to keep the
original name as it is.
b) Original (Translation) - provide a translation in parentheses after the original name.
Keeping the original name can avoid misunderstanding, but
the readers might not understand the language. If you use this format,
you can give an explanation by translating the name.
c) Translation (Original) – translate the name and provide the original in parentheses.
If you think it would be better to translate the name, but
still want to keep the original name to avoid misunderstanding, you can
use this format. As your product establishes its space in the market,
you can slowly phase the parentheses out.
d) Transliterate – provide a phonetic translation of the original name.
This is recommended when your source and target languages
use different alphabets. For example if you’re translating from English
to Korean or Arabic, it will be easier for your audience if the name is
transliterated to their language.
No time to confirm?
I know you’re busy, and so is the client. You might not
have enough time to check with your client due to a tight deadline. The
client may be a little slow in responding to your emails, and you still
have to deliver the translation.
To be on the safe side, I would recommend using b) Original
(Translation) in such a case. If you have the translation in
parentheses, it makes it easy for the client to spot and delete them if they want to
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add your feedback or comment here: