Translation and Adaptation - adapt-it/adapt-it-mobile GitHub Wiki

Translation

Translation is a general term for transforming text from one language to another. Generally two languages are involved:

1. The original language
2. The target language

Part of the translation process is making sure that the original language meaning is maintained in the translation. This validation is called exegesis.

Adaptation

Adaptation is a form of translation that takes advantage of similarities in related languages to speed the translation process. In this case there are three languages involved:

1. The original language
2. The source language, which already contains a translation and exegesis of the original
3. The target language for the new translation. The target language must be closely related to the source language.

Adaptation translates from the source language to the target language. This has a couple advantages over a normal translation process:

• Related languages can have similarities in syntax, grammar -- even in idiomatic expressions. These can have an impact on how quickly a translation can be done.
• Since the source language and the target language are highly related, most of the exegesis is automatically maintained, speeding up the overall translation time. In the cases where the original meaning would not be maintained, the translator does need to retranslate the text into the new language so that it maintains the meaning.

The goal of adaptation is to produce a sufficiently good draft which can then be improved, in other software, to a publishable standard. Adaptation is a popular approach to translation, and translation projects that make use of adaptation software in this manner have proven successful.

When does Adaptation make sense?

Adaptation projects can be tested quickly for effectiveness before committing to the methodology. The following conditions are conducive to success:

• A good source text in a related language. If the starting source text is a poor quality translation -- or is not exegetically correct -- the problems in the source will be propagated to the target language if care is not taken within the process, or afterwards, to find the problems and fix them with appropriate editing.
• A similar translation policy. It is helpful if the source text was done with a translation policy sufficiently close to that which would lead to unquestioned acceptance of a target language adaptation done without deliberate policy adjustments. Local factors, and the likelihood that a better translation could be produced by some other means, and the availability of personnel for such alternatives are important considerations. Lacking alternatives, an adaptation may be the only reasonable solution for a target community, even when the translation policy of the source is not optimal.
• Consultant support. Translation projects in general fare better if there is a translation consultant to help verify the accuracy of the translation. But an adaptation can still succeed, with a lesser degree of external support, if the source text is a quality translation -- because bilingualism is capable of a high degree of accurate adaptation when the languages concerned are similar.