Categories: translation, trials
Date: 07 October 2008 14:29:27
I have finished translating the stock control program and have sent it off to be proofread.
I came across a little example of a calque - or loan translation - which is where a word in the foreign language has been borrowed from the source language and translated literally.
In this case the word before me was "Kontrollkästchen". I automatically translated it as "check box" as that fitted the context but then stopped to look it up as it occured to me that "kontrollieren" is a verb meaning to carry out tests (or checks) and so therefore it was possible it was driving at the meaning of a box to show an inspection had been carried out. I looked it up and found I was right in the first place.
This sort of thing can get a bit confusing as "kontrollieren" is often translated as "to control" (which it rarely means) and the American English "check" is usually a "tick" in BE (except in computer speak). And don't get me started on the problems I negotiated when faced with storing (information) in the store (warehouse) to be delivered to the different stores (shops). German has three different words here so it's perfectly clear but I felt I had to temporarily sidestep the client's glossary of preferred terms to make it clear what the author was rambling on about!