



Languages
Languages are systems of units and rules that serve the members of language communities as means of communication. Less than half of the approximately 6,000-7,000 known languages are actually spoken or passed on to a significant extent. At present, the most common 50 languages are spoken as mother tongues by about 80% of humanity (if one also considers their spread as second languages, their share rises to 90%). The relevance of a language for translation is determined not only by its distribution but also by the economic dynamics of its community of speakers. Consequently, the import/export dynamics and the degree of innovation in the field of industry and technology are decisive for technical translation. Political factors also play a role, such as the role of a language in a governmental context or in an international organisation, or the existence of a second language for historical or cultural reasons. The obligation to provide technical documentation and specialist translations may be mandatory. The availability of qualified technical translators for a particular language ultimately depends on all these factors as well as the quality of the relevant training system.
Important languages for technical translation are (according to subgroups, sorted alphabetically)
- Bulgarian
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Serbian
- Slovak
- Slovenian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Albanian
- Armenian
- Bosnian
- Georgian
- Moldovan
- Russian
- Ukrainian
- Arabic
- Hebrew
- Persian
- Turkish
- Chinese
- Japanese
- Korean
- Vietnamese
If you need a technical translation from or into one of these (or from or into another) language, please ask us for a free quote.