19 December 2002 06:30
EU preparations help reinvent language
A few days after the official pomp in Copenhagen that hailed the close of European Union negotiations for 10
candidate countries, Peteris Udris was back to work translating the names of exotic Mediterranean fish into Latvian.
Udris is the chief terminologist at the Latvian Translation and Terminology Center, the government agency responsible
for the herculean task of translating about 85,000 pages of European Union legislation into Latvian. Sitting at a
computer and surrounded by stacks of French, English, German and Latvian dictionaries, Udris pours over technical EU
documents on everything from agriculture to finance to fishing looking for words that have absolute no Latvian
equivalent. So far he and his colleagues have found and defined 50,700 such words. "For 50 years our language lived
behind the Iron Curtain, away from English," said Udris. "We did not have the need to translate words that we
would never use." Since it opened in 1997 the Latvian Translation and Terminology Center has translated 53,166
pages of EU documents and its 57 terminologists and translators have until 11 p.m. on April 30, 2004 - one hour before
Latvia is scheduled to become an official EU member - to translate the rest. Most of the pages have been translated in
the last three years - 14,800 in 2000, 14,500 last year and just over 16,000 so far this year. The center has also
translated 5,500 pages of NATO documents during that period. Fishing and banking have proven to be the hardest
industries to translate because neither was available to Latvians during the Soviet era. Banking terms developed during
Latvia's interwar independence were outdated as it began EU negotiations or, in many cases, just forgotten by most.
Modern business simply did not exist in the Soviet Union. Until recently, for example, there was no Latvian equivalent
of "franchise," "entrepreneur" or "overdraft." Fishing is particularly difficult. Not only
do terminologists have to name fish from elsewhere in Europe that don't exist in Latvian waters, they have to come
up with words for modern ship parts and commercial fishing terms. "Most Latvians were not allowed to fish
commercially in the Soviet days for fear that they might escape, so there are very few Latvian words for parts of
ships," said Udris. Fishermen were usually Russian and consequently most terms now used by Latvian fisherman are
Russian or German, Udris said. When terminologists find a word that has no Latvian counterpart they first consult the
relevant government ministry to ensure there isn't a word that is commonly used among specialists but that
isn't in general use. Udris also sometimes consults his frayed, yellowing copies of the Latvian Conversation
Dictionary, a multivolume encyclopedia of the Latvian language. Each volume was written and published individually
beginning with "a" mostly during the pre-Soviet 1930s. Often he'll find civil law terms that are suitable
translations for English words, but which fell out of usage during communist rule. One problem, however, is that the set
ends at "t," which was published just before the Soviet invasion. The Soviets halted publication of the
remaining volumes, Udris said. If there is no word, the terminologist devises one and adds it to a list of new words in
a particular industry. The lists are discussed in special committees made up of linguists and industry experts who
debate particularly difficult words. Then the words go to the government's terminology commission for final
approval. Hundreds of new words are approved each week. "This whole process is enriching and modernizing the
Latvian language," said Edvards Kusners, head of the European Integration Bureau. Terminologists have resisted
simply "Latvianizing" English words - just adding Latvian endings and stresses to English words. "Every
citizen should be able to review EU legislation in their own language," said center director Marta Jaksona. But
sometimes there's no choice. Udris and other terminologists struggled over the word "ombudsman." They
decided the Latvian word for "mediator" wasn't quite right so they simply lobbed off "man" and
created the word "ombuds," which fits nicely into the Latvian lexicon thanks to the "s" at the end.
"You could do that more often, but as soon as you put those words in front of a Latvian speaker they won't be
understood," said Udris. Often terminologists will consult German, French, Lithuanian and even Estonian
dictionaries to determine how those languages handled translation of technical English words. To translate technical
documents as quickly as possible, the center employs a team of lawyers, physicists, chemists and others whose hobbies
are languages. Most speak at least two other languages - usually French and English - but some speak several. "We
have one man here who learned 10 Romance languages simultaneously," Udris said. Translators of that caliber are
hard to find in Latvia, said center director Jaksona. And it is getting more difficult to keep them as the EU begins
hiring the best translators from proposed member states to work in Brussels. Two attorneys with the center that
translated legal terms from French and English recently left to work for the EU, where their salaries will be "10
times higher," said Jaksona. That makes the May 1 deadline for translating all the documents seem even closer, she
added. "We still have a lot to do and not much time left."
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