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Subject:translation questions From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 21 Dec 1995 13:15:07 -0800
I've never had to have a manual translated, so maybe I'm a little
unclear on the process -- help me out here???
I've seen several people argue that you shouldn't use contractions
in a manual that's targeted for translation. Why???
Maybe I'm expecting too much here, but I would assume that a
competent translator would take colloquial English and turn it
into colloquial *whatever*, contractions included.
I can understand avoiding them if the book is gonna be computer-
translated first because they muck-up the software's algorithms,
and I can understand avoiding them if you're writing for an ESL
audience (although most European languages use contractions of
some sort -- like the definite article gets shortened and
appostrophed before a noun, etc. ), but if I'm gonna pay to have
a *real person* translate the book, I expect them to take "you'll"
and turn it into the appropriate person/future tense verb of the
target language.
So. Somebody please tell me why this isn't so.
-Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
