Translation Tools in the EU

Sanja Seljansseljan@ffzg.hr

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences – University of Zagreb Department of Information Sciences

“Translating is not just a matter of finding the right word, but also of using the right technology” (Karl-Johan Lönnrot, DGT: Translation Tools and Workflow, 2007.)

• DGT (Directorate General for Translation): Brussels, Luxembourg– largest and most complex translation service in the

world– set of translation tools in the document workwlow– main body responsible for translation and written

communication• 1.750 translators and 600 support staff• Community institutions and bodies (Council, Parliament,

Court of Justice, of Auditors, etc.) – their own translation departments

• DGT Linguistic structure (language departments

per official EU language) Specialization in particular subjects

• Translation out of several languages into mother tongue

Translator’s needs:

• Terminology resources (dictionaries, glossaries, terminology databases)

• Reference documents (electronic archives, aligned texts)

• Facilities for reuse of previously translated texts (electronic archives, translation memories, copy-pasting from other applications, etc.)

• Local and central assistance (pre- and post-editing from experts, secretaries, language units; central from Helpdesk & Pre-processing team)

Integrated translation support tools

AlignmentTM

TranslationMemory

Terminologymanagement

MTMachine

Translation

Textprocessor

Translation capacity on 01/05/2004

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

MT CS ET HU LT LV PL SK SL DA EL ES FI IT NL PT SV DE EN FR

Language department

Nu

mb

er o

f tr

ansl

ato

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EU-10EU-15 NPLEU-15 PL

(Lönnroth, K.-J. Director General: FROM GLOBAL TO LOCAL: MULTILINGUALISM IN ACTION)

I Administration and document tools for electronic submission translation requests

and integration into electronic archiving system (Poetry, Suivi, etc.)

II CAT Tools: Terminology tools (IATE, Quest) Translation memories (local and

central): TWV, Euramis Machine Translation: EC Systran

III Voice Recognition (Dragon Naturally Speaking

Translation Tools:(DGT, Translation Tools and Workflow, 2007.)

I Administration and document tools

tools for electronic transmission of translation requests from clients to DGT (Poetry software): translation request, original document and reference documents

software for the electronic management of translation requests in DGT (Suivi),

interface for translation management incorporating reference documents, document comparisons and on-going translation (Dossier Manager),

electronic archiving system for all incoming and outgoing documents for DGT (internal software DGT Vista)

and Eur-Lex which is public and free of charge, providing direct access to the Official Journal of the European Union containing treaties, secondary legislation and preparatory acts in all official EU language (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/)

DGT Vista - electronic archiving system

Eur-Lex which is public and free of charge, providing direct access to the Official Journal of the European Union

Terminology tools – IATE, Interinstitutional Terminology Database from 2005

(older version Eurodicautom, Euro-Dictionnaire Automatique)

• EC central terminology database of all institutaions and bodies

• more than 8 million terms and 500,000 abbreviations;

• all EU languages and Latin

• maintained by language departments (translators)

• since 2007 open to the public for testin puropses

– QUEST

• Not nerminology base, but internet-based metasearch interface, developed by DGT, which translators can use to search several databases at the same time in order to speed up terminology searches

II CAT & MT Tools

IATE, Interinstitutional Terminology Database

QUEST – internet-based metasearch interface, developed by DGT

Translation memories (local and central): - SDL TRADOS Translator’s Workbench (TWB)

• integrated translation support tool (multilingual capabilities and word-processing)

• Legislative and preparatory documents• Set of attributes (translator, doc. num., year, client)

- EURAMIS central TM (European Advanced Multilingual Information System)

- Not used directly in the translation process- More than 84 million translation units- e-mail base client-server application that gives access to a number

of language tools and services

Machine Translation: EC Systran (EC System Translation) – version for EU beween 18 language pairs + prototypes In use since 1976. Based on dictionaries, different domains, linguistic programs +

translation memories

II CAT & MT Tools

SDL TRADOS Translator’s Workbench (TWB)

• The speech recognition software used by DGT: Dragon NaturallySpeaking

• Used by more than 300 translators • Applied for dictation of text in a natural language• Accuracy up to 98% and speed up to 160 words/min• available for 9 languages (out of 20) • Time-saver for translators who do not wish to type the

text.

II Voice Recognition

Translation capacity on 01/05/2004

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

MT CS ET HU LT LV PL SK SL DA EL ES FI IT NL PT SV DE EN FR

Language department

Nu

mb

er o

f tr

ansl

ato

rs EU-10

EU-15 NPL

EU-15 PL

EURAMIS project

• Started in 1995• Aim: development of multilingual tools and their

integrations into multilingual service• Quality assurance• Promoting of interinstiutional cooperation• Series of e-mail based client-server applications which

provide access to various tools and services

Euramis Architecture

(DGT, Translation Tools and Workflow, 2007.)

(DGT, Translation Tools and Workflow, 2007.)

Categories of documents translated

Translated pages by document categoryOctober 2004 – September 2005

Legislative texts35%

Documents of political

importance(commu-nications etc.)

13%

Meeting/working documents

3%

Guides/manuals for Member States

2%

Correspondence, letters from citizens

2%

Implementing Member State

legislation2%

Bulletin1%

Brochures1%

Information for the general public

3%

Webpages4%

Documents arising from legal obligations

18%

Others16%

Source: StatSuivi (the statistics database of the DGT)