Merrill Brink News Reviews and Opinion on May 28, 2015: The Importance of Dialect in Translating to Win Over Spanish-Speaking Consumers Around the World
London, UK (PRWEB UK) 28 May 2015 -- When translating your materials for Spanish-speaking audiences, being fluent in the Spanish language is not the only requirement to ensure that your message will be truly understood by the target audience. Do to the global reach of the language and its rich history of evolving within local geographies, local variations or dialects have proliferated in countries where Spanish is spoken by majority of the population. As a result, Spanish speakers all over the world are able to understand each other but they notice differences between their dialect and the dialects of other regions, much the way American and British speakers of English can quickly determine whether the content they’re reading was written by someone from their home country. To truly connect with your target market, you must both translate your materials into Spanish but localise it to include word choices in the buyers’ local dialect.
The following sections summarise key factors that differentiate Spanish dialects spoken around the world.
Borrowed Words
One of the most distinctive differences among Spanish dialects spoken in specific country lies in the loan words that are borrowed from bordering countries. For example, Mexican speakers of Spanish use the American-sounding computador and celular for computer and cell phone, respectively. In Spain, these words are substituted by ordenador, similar to the French ordinateur, and móvil, borrowed from the British English mobile.1 Locals also add words borrowed from immigrants into everyday speech. Argentinian Spanish speakers, because of the country’s history of Italian immigration, use the Italian-inspired chau to casually say goodbye, in contrast to the European Spanish adiós.2 Yet other words are borrowed from indigenous peoples, such as the Quechuan guagua, meaning infant, in Chile.3 These are just a few examples to illustrate why it is important to ensure that your word choices in translation match the vocabulary commonly used by the people who live there.
Pronoun and Verb Conjugations
In addition to incorporating local ways of referring to everyday items, the use of pronouns can also differ from region to region. The concept of masculine and feminine pronouns serves as a common tie among all dialects, but the specific pronouns used in each dialect may vary. In Spain, the standard masculine direct object pronoun is le, as in Le vi ayer (“I saw him”), but in much of Latin America, lo is used, instead (Lo vi ayer).4 Differences can also be found in personal pronouns, particularly with voseo or the use of vos rather than tú as a second-person singular pronoun. Voseo has become common practice in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, and several Central American countries.5 Accompanying conjugations of vos may also vary by country and verb inflection, making it especially important for your translators to have native proficiency in the Spanish dialect of the country you are marketing to.6
This summary of differences between Spanish dialects is by no means exhaustive, but it underscores the importance of tailoring your Spanish translations to match the dialectic preferences in your target market. Equally important, variations in dialects can be subtle so it’s important to employ translators native to the target country is an essential part of the localisation process. Partner with a reputable language services provider with a network of translators from all over the world to sure that your company’s message is relevant to and resonates with your target audience.
Full Article: http://www.merrillbrink.com/targeting-spanish-speaking-consumers-05262015.htm
References
1 “Varieties of Present-Day Spanish,” Oxford Language Dictionaries Online, Website.
2 Sandra Bao, Lonely Planet Buenos Aires (Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet, 2014), page 218.
3 “Language of Chile: Chileanismos, Castellano and Indigenous Roots,” This Is Chile Web site, April 14, 2011, Website.
4 “Varieties of Present-Day Spanish.”
5 Mary Johnson and John Grinstead, “Variation in the voseo and tuteo Negative Imperatives in Argentine Spanish,” University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 17, No. 2 (2011): 97–104, Website.
6 Ibid.
Vanessa Lontoc, Merrill Brink International, http://www.merrillbrink.com, +1 (917) 720-5598, [email protected]
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