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"A" language

Native language or a foreign language spoken with native proficiency from which an interpreter can render all modes of interpretation.

"B" language

Foreign language from which an interpreter can render interpretation.

16-bit Unicode transformation format

Variable-length character encoding form that can represent Unicode or ISO characters in a 16-bit series suitable for storage or transmission in data networks. Commonly abbreviated UTF-16.

32-bit Unicode transformation format

Fixed-length, four-byte method for encoding Unicode characters. Commonly abbreviated UTF-32.

8-bit Unicode transformation format

Variable-length character encoding form that can represent any character from almost all the languages in the world. Commonly abbreviated UTF-8.

Accent mark

Small symbol placed above or near a letter, usually to distinguish its pronunciation from a similar word.

Accreditation

Formal process by which the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities of an individual – such as a translator or interpreter – or an organization – such as an LSP – are evaluated.

Accredited translator

A translator who has successfully met the requirements for accreditation.

Active language

Language into which an interpreter renders interpretation.

Ad hoc interpreter

Person who provides interpretation services on an irregular basis, usually without the benefit of any formal training or professional preparation.

Adaptation

Process of converting information into an appropriate format for the target language and culture.

Advocacy

Practice by which an interpreter acts on behalf of either of the parties for which he or she renders interpretation. This practice is encouraged by some and discouraged by others.

Agglutinating language

Language in which, through agglutination, a single word can constitute a complete sentence, sometimes resulting in units of measure other than price per word (such as price per line, per character or per page) for calculating translation costs.

Agglutination

Process of adding one or more affixes to a word or combining components of words into a single word, often conveying complex ideas.

Alignment

Process of matching segments of text with their translated renditions, creating equivalents between a source text and target text.

Alignment tool

Application that automatically pairs versions of same text in the source and target languages in a table. Also called bi-text tool.

Ambiguity

Situation in which the intended meaning of a phrase is unclear and must be verified – usually with the source text author – in order for translation to proceed.

Anglophone

Person who speaks English.

Apache

Open source web server supported by the Apache Software Foundation.

API

Acronym for application programming interface.

Apostille

Official attachment or stamp sometimes applied to translations of public and private documents as proof of authenticity for countries that have signed the Hague Convention on Documents.

Application programming interface

Set of specified procedures or functions provided by a service or operating system to computer programs’ requests for support. Commonly abbreviated as API.

AQ

Abbreviation for availability quotient.

Arabic Eastern numerals

See Eastern Arabic numerals.

Arabic numerals

Set of ten numerals (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) that comprise the most commonly used symbolic representation of numbers throughout the world.

Artificial intelligence

Branch of computer science devoted to creating intelligent machines that produced the first efforts toward machine translation.

Artificial language

Language used by machines.

Authoring

Process of producing textual content.

Automated publishing

Computerized production of content and presentation.

Automated translation

Synonym for machine translation.

Automatic recognition

Method that automates the translation of terms through the use of an electronic dictionary and computer-assisted translation software, proposing target language equivalents and facilitating consistency of terminology and style.

Automatic translation

Synonym for machine translation.

Availability quotient

Metric that objectively ranks what percentage of the total online population can access each level of experience on any given site. Commonly abbreviated AQ.

Back translation

Process of translating a previously translated text back into its source language.

BIDI

Abbreviation for bidirectionality.

Bidirectional

Script that normally reads from right to left but contains some exceptions in which other characters, like numerals, read from left to right. Hebrew and Arabic are examples of bidirectional languages.

Bidirectional interpretation

Interpretation that takes place in both directions. For example, spoken language is rendered from English into Japanese, and from Japanese into English.

Bidirectionality

Quality or characteristic in a software program or application that facilitates work on bidirectional text. Commonly abbreviated BIDI.

Bidule

Portable equipment used for providing simultaneous interpretation with only a microphone and sometimes headphones instead of a sound isolation booth.

Big-5

Method of character encoding used in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for Traditional Chinese characters.

Bilingual

Person who speaks at least one language fluently and exhibits near-native proficiency or fluency in the second.

Bilingual corpus

See bi-text database.

Bi-text

Document consisting of versions of a particular text in both the source and target languages.

Bi-text database

Collection of bi-texts. Also called bilingual corpus.

Bi-text tool

See alignment tool.

Bitmap

Grid of pixels with individual color values.

BRIC

Abbreviation for Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the four countries with economies expected to surpass the richest countries in the world by the year 2050. This term was first used in a thesis by Goldman Sachs investment bank.

Browse CEL

Customer experience level in which a visitor learns about a category, options, and benefits.

Buy CEL

Customer experience level in which a visitor completes a financial or equivalent contractual transaction.

C2JK

Abbreviation for the four most commonly requested Asian languages for translation projects: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Also called CJK and KCCJ.

CAI

Abbreviation for computer-assisted interpretation.

Captioning

Text-based versions of dialogue in films and television programs in the same language or another language, most commonly displayed at the bottom of the screen.

CAT

Abbreviation for computer-assisted translation.

CAT tools

See computer-assisted translation software.

CCJK

Abbreviation for the four most commonly requested Asian languages for translation projects: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Also called CJK and KCCJ

CEL

Abbreviation for customer experience level.

Certification

Process by which the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities of an individual – such as a translator or interpreter – or an organization – such as an LSP – are evaluated. 2. Statement from a translator regarding his or her qualifi

Certified interpreter

Interpreter who has successfully met the requirements of a certification process.

Certified translation

Translation that is accompanied by a statement from the language service provider, and/or translator or a third party individual or authority attesting to the accuracy of the translation.

Chance interpreter

Person who provides interpretation services on an irregular basis, usually without the benefit of any formal training or professional preparation.

Character encoding

Character encoding. Mapping from a character set definition to the actual code units used to represent the data.

Character set

Collection of symbols or characters that correspond to textual information in a language or language group.

Chuchotage

Delivery method for simultaneous interpretation in which the interpreter sits behind the listener, simultaneously interpreting while the speaker talks and whispering the rendition into the listener’s ear.

Chunk

Smallest unit of content in a content management system.

CJK

See C2JK.

CJKV

Acronym for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

Coarse-grained TM

Translation memory based on large clause- or sentence-based segments.

Code page

Character set that assigns code point value or numeric value to each character.

Cognates

Words that share a common origin.

Collaborative translation

Emerging approach to translation in which companies use the elements of crowdsourcing in a controlled environment for working on large corporate projects in short periods of time.

Collation sequence

Order of a character set that can be represented on a computer.

Collocation

Group of words that work together to express a single concept, object, or action.

Colophon

Description, logo, or note at the end of a text.

Community interpreting

Interpretation provided in social and public services settings.

Computational linguistics

Study of processing natural languages through information technology.

Computer-aided translation

See computer-assisted translation.

Computer-assisted interpretation

Process by which a human interpreter uses computer software to facilitate interpretation. Commonly abbreviated CAI.

Computer-assisted translation

Process by which a human translator uses computer software to facilitate translation. Commonly abbreviated CAT.

Computer-assisted translation software

Also called CAT tools.

Concatenation

Procedure of linking multiple files or messages together as a single document, often to facilitate processes such as search and replacement, term list extraction, collocation finding, and repetition rate establishment.

Concordance

Process through which a computer-assisted translation software program compiles a list of contexts for terms in order to define the term and its equivalent in the target language more precisely.

Conference interpreting

Interpretation provided in conference settings.

Consecutive interpretation

Process through which an interpreter orally conveys a speaker’s words into another language after the speaker completes an utterance, usually relying on memory and note-taking, or though voice-silencing technology, which allows the interpreter to record t

Consistency

Measure of how often a term or phrase is rendered the same way into the target language.

Content delivery application

Program that uses and compiles information to update a web site.

Content management system

Tool that stores, organizes, maintains, and retrieves data.

Context

Information outside of the actual text that is essential for complete comprehension.

Controlled language

Language in which grammar, vocabulary and syntax are restricted in order to reduce ambiguity and complexity and to make the source language easier to understand by native and non-native speakers and easier to translate with machine and human translation.

Controlled vocabulary

Standardized terms and phrases that constitute a system’s vocabulary.

Corpus

Compilation of texts that is helpful for collecting data, conducting research, and analyzing natural language text.

Country code

Abbreviation of two or three characters to signify a country or dependent area. ISO 3166 specifies country codes, such as “AL” for Albania and “CZ” for the Czech Republic. There are also country codes for telephone numbers, such as +1 for the U.S. and Can

Court interpreting

Interpretation that takes place in court settings.

Creole

Language that develops when speakers of different languages remain in ongoing and persistent contact with one another, usually with one language group characterized by having greater political or economic power than another.

CT3

Abbreviation for community, crowdsourced, and collaborative translation.

Cultural adaptation

Adjustment of a translation to conform with the target culture.

Cultural assessment

Examination of an individual’s or group’s cultural preferences through comparative analyses.

Cultural brokering

Practice by which an interpreter provides cultural information in order to help the listener gain a better understanding of the speaker's intended meaning.

Cultural competence

Ability of an individual or organization to work effectively with individuals or groups with diverse cultural backgrounds.

Cultural sorting

Organization of a text in an order typical for a certain culture, such as alphabetical order in the United States and character stroke order in China.

Culturally-sensitive translation

Translation that takes into account cultural differences.

Customer experience level

Level that describes the experience of a web site visitor. Commonly abbreviated CEL.

DBE

Abbreviation for double-byte enabled.

Desktop publishing

Applications like FrameMaker, PageMaker, and QuarkXPress to prepare documentation for publication.

Diacritical mark

Symbol that signifies an alteration to the character around which it is placed, such as the apostrophe [‘] and circumflex [^].

Diacritical weight

Relative value of a diacritical mark in a collation sequence.

Dialect

Variety of a language spoken by members of a particular locale and characterized by a unique vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

Diaspora

A dispersion of people, language or culture from its original homeland.

Dipthong

Speech sound that shifts vowel tones within one syllable. Examples include the words “low” (English), “oui” (French), and “muita” (Portuguese).

Direct speech interpretation

Practice by which the speaker's utterances are rendered into the target language directly, without changing pronouns or prefacing renditions with the words, "he said," or "she said."  A direct speech interpretation of the w

Disambiguation

Process of cleaning up a text in order to eliminate ambiguities to make translation more accurate.

Distortion

Alteration from the original source.

DITA

XML-based architecture for authoring, producing and delivering technical information.

D-M18N

Abbreviation for domestic multiculturalization.

DNT

Abbreviation for do not translate.

Do not translate

List of phrases and words such as brand names and trademarks that do not require translation. Commonly abbreviated DNT.

Document type definition

Description of how content should be structured, providing rules for tags and characteristics, to enable programs to more easily process and store the document. Commonly abbreviated DTD.

Domain

Area of knowledge that is communicated within a text, translation, or corpus.

Domestic multiculturalization

Multiculturalization that takes place within a country's borders. Commonly abbreviated D-M18N.

Dominant language

1. Language in which a person primarily communicates, usually his or her native language. 2. Language spoken by those who hold political and/or economic power.

Double-byte character set

Character set that enables representation of double-byte languages.

Double-byte enabled

Quality of an application or program that supports double-byte languages. Commonly abbreviated DBE.

Double-byte language

Language – such as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese – that requires two bytes (16 bits) to represent each character precisely.

DTD

Abbreviation for document type definition.

DTP

Abbreviation for desktop publishing.

Dubbing

Recording or replacement of voices commonly used in motion pictures and videos for which the recorded voices do not belong to the original actors or speakers and are in a different language.

Dynamic content

Data produced in response to changeable, unfixed and retrieved from a database through user requests.

Eastern Arabic numerals

Set of symbols used to represent numbers in combination with the Arabic alphabet in various countries, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, and parts of India. Also called Arabic Eastern Numerals.

Editing

Second level of review in the traditional TEP process.

Encoding scheme

System that assigns a numeric value to each character, in order to convert the character set to an automated form for transmitting and maintaining information.

Enter CEL

Customer experience level in which a visitor arrives at a site and establishes interest or leaves.

Escort interpreting

Interpretation that takes place for a person or delegation, for casual and/or professional communications.

Ethnic marketing

Marketing that is designed to reach a specific linguistic or cultural group, usually a minority group.

Exact match

Indication that a unit of text is 100% identical to a previously translated unit within a translation memory.

Example-based machine translation

Form of machine translation that uses previously translated texts to produce a new translation, rather than creating a new translation from an actual translation and analysis of the source text.

Extended characters

Characters that exceed the ASCII character range of seven bits, such as characters with diacritical marks or non-Roman characters.

eXtensible markup language

Metadata language used to describe other markup languages. Commonly abbreviated XML.

Extreme globalization

Globalization projects that involve immense scalability, huge complexity, the use of XML-based and web services, extraordinary organizational efforts, and the need for massive amounts of translation and localization leverage.

F2F

Abbreviation for face-to-face interpretation.

Face cognates

Words that are thought to share a common origin but actually do not. For example, the words “embarrassed” and “embarazada” (Spanish for “pregnant”).

Face-to-face interpretation

Spoken language conversion by a human interpreter in the same location as the two parties who wish to communicate. Commonly abbreviated F2F.

False friends

See false cognates.

FAQT

Abbreviation for fully automated quality translation.

Faux amis

See false cognates.

Federal court interpreter

Interpreter who has obtained certification that permits him or her to interpret during U.S. federal court proceedings.

FIGS

Abbreviation for French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

Fine-grained TM

Translation memory based on word- or syntagm-level segments.

First language

Language a person learns first in life.

First person interpretation

Practice by which the speaker's utterances are rendered into the target language directly, without changing pronouns or prefacing renditions with the words, "he said," or "she said."  A first person interpretation of the words

Fixed booth

Area built into a meeting room from which interpreters can perform simultaneous interpretation.

Foreign language

Language that is not one’s native language.

Freelance translator

Translator who works as a freelancer.

Freelancer

Individual who is self-employed and works for multiple companies on a per-project or contractual basis.

Full match

See exact match.

Fully automated quality translation

Machine translation output with no human post-processing or editing, but suitable as a replacement for human translation. This type of MT is the ultimate goal of technologists. Commonly abbreviated FAQT.

Fully automated useful translation

Machine translation output with no human intervention, but typically with a lower bar for quality than fully automated quality translation. Commonly abbreviated FAUT.

Functional quality assurance

See functional testing.

Functional testing

Reviewing software applications and programs to ensure that the localization process does not change the software or impair its functions or on-screen content display.

Fuzzy logic

Process that creates near matches in text to translation memory terms when exact matches cannot be found.

Fuzzy match

Indication that words or sentences are partially – but not exactly – matched to previous translations.

G11N

Abbreviation for globalization, with the number 11 representing the number of characters between the G and N.

GB 18030

Non-Unicode code page that contains room for 1.6 million one-, two- or four-byte characters and includes characters for Traditional Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Yi and Uyghur scripts.

GCMS

Abbreviation for global content management system.

Geolocation

Process of identifying the geographic location of an individual, computer, or device based on their IP address..

GILT

Acronym for globalization, internationalization, localization, and translation.

GIM

Abbreviation for global information management.

Gist translation

Use of human or machine translation to create a rough translation of the source text that allows the reader to understand the essence of the text.