Translation problems
General problems
Translation is inherently a difficult activity. Translators can face additional problems which make the process even more difficult, such as:
* Problems with the source text:
- Changes made to the text during the translation process
- Illegible or difficult-to-read text
- Misspelled or misprinted text
- Incomplete text
- Poorly written text (ambiguity or incomprehensibility)
- Missing references in the text (for example the translator is to translate captions to missing photos)
- The source text contains a translation of a quotation that was originally made in the target language, and the original text is unavailable, making word-for-word quoting nearly impossible
- Obvious inaccuracies in the source text (for example "prehistoric Buddhist ruins", when Buddhism was not founded during prehistoric times)
* Language problems
- Dialect terms and neologisms
- Unexplained acronyms and abbreviations
- Proper names of people, organizations, places, etc. - often there are already official target-language translations for such, but if not supplied by the client they can be difficult to find out
- Obscure jargon
- Obscure idioms
- Slang
- Stylistic differences, such as redundant phrases in a source language, when redundancy is frowned upon in the target language
- Differences between languages with respect to punctuation conventions
* Other
- Rhymes, puns and poetic meters
- Highly specific cultural references
- Humour
- Insider information (insider references not knowable to a third party or outsider)
- Words that are commonly known in one culture but generally unknown by the layperson in another culture, such as Chinese 芬多精 (fen1 duo1 jing1) meaning phytoncide: these generally require the addition of an explanation
- Subtle but important properties of language such as euphony or dissonance