Spanish Dialects and Language Translation Software
When
you translate Spanish you must remember there are different Spanish
Dialects. Learning more about dialects can be important when
working with language translation.
Spanish is spoken by almost 400
million people worldwide in 21 different countries. Pronunciation
and usage of the spoken Spanish language
varies between countries, but regional differences are not so great
as to make the language unintelligible to speakers from different
areas.
The difference between European Spanish and any one variety of Latin
American Spanish is about the same as the difference between British
English and American English.
If your audience speaks Latin American Spanish they should easily
understand Castilian Spanish or Neutral Spanish.
What is a Dialect?
A Dialect means that in a certain area the speech may vary a little.
The dialect usually applies to the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
characteristic of specific geographic localities or social classes.
English Dialects / American English compared to UK English
To understand dialects more let's look at English, there are many
different dialects but if you know English you can still understand
the different dialects. For example in England you can easily
pick up a British newspaper and read it, but there are some words
that have different meanings. For example, they may say the sentence, "I
am going to move into a my flat this weekend. In America we would
say, "I am moving into my apartment this weekend". They
simply use the word "flat" instead of "apartment" but
you can get the idea of what they are saying.
In Systran's Software we have built in the ability to translate
using UK (British English) or American English.
Spanish Dialects: Castilian (Castillian), Mexican Spanish, Puerto
Rico (Puerto Rican) Spanish
There are several Spanish dialects. The two major ones are Castilian and Latin
American Spanish, which includes Mexican and Puerto Rician.
Castilian Spanish is spoken in Spain and in some of its territories
and former colonies. Latin-American Spanish is spoken in Mexico,
Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Other Spanish dialects are Andalusian, Murcian, Aragonese, Navarrese,
Leonese, and Canary Islands Spanish.
Castilian Spanish Dialect
/ Neutral Spanish Castilian Spanish is also called Neutral Spanish because it is
so widely accepted. The most popular and the accepted
standard is the Castillian Spanish Dialect. You will find books,
movie and
radio
programs are translated into Castillian dialect if it will be distributed
world wide. If you are developing materials for the Spanish market
you will most likely want to translate it into the Castilian dialect.
Speaking Spanish Dialects and the Written Dialect
The differences in dialects are less in the
written text than they are in the spoken language. Spanish has
far fewer regional variations. As a result, dialect turns out not
to be a big issue when you are doing text.
Popular Spanish Dialects in the United States
Even though Mexican Spanish, Cuban and Puerto Rico are all part
of the Latin American dialect, there are still differences.
Mexican Spanish Southern California and Texas - According to the
2000 census, more than 20 million Mexican Americans live in the United
States, comprising
7.3% of the total population—making them the largest subgroup of
the biggest minority group in this country.1,2 The Mexican American
population is also growing rapidly, having doubled between l980
and 2000, after nearly doubling from 1970 to 1980.3
Cuban Spanish
New York , New Jersey, California and Florida - The
Cuban Americans are considered the oldest population of Hispanic
immigrants in the United States. Most of
the Cuban Americans today live in , New York
, New Jersey, California and Florida, although some smaller groups
may be found in other locations within the US.
Puerto Rican Spanish
New York and Florida - You will find the largest concentration
of Puerto Rician Americans in New York and Forida.
The Puerto Rican dialect is very
similar
to
Cuban
dialect
and will
also
be close
to
the Venezuelans,
Canary
Islanders
and Andalusians in southern Spain.
Latin American Spanish Latin American Spanish is the most common dialect spoken by Hispanic
people in the United States and Spanish-speaking people in Latin
American countries are very similar with few differences. Latin American
Spanish is spoken in about countries and even though each has its
accents, slang and popular expressions any Spanish speaker can still
speak and read Castillian or Neutral Spanish.
What is Localization
Localization is when you modify the translation for a certain dialect.
Learn more about Spanish Localization
Systran's Translation Software uses International Spanish
Dialect
Systran's
translation software uses a unique blend of dialects that is referred
to as an "International Dialect". This is accomplished through
the ability to control the built in dictionaries and linguistic
rules. You can easily customize the Spanish translation to another
dialect by
training
the software
to recognize
different words for another dialect by building your own custom dictionaries,
building translation memory and more. For example, you can easily
create a "Mexican Dialect" dictionary.
Overall the differences between the
Spanish dialects of Europe and Latin America with reference
to pronunciation,
vocabulary,
and
grammar are relatively minor so if you translate with the software
usually a person that speaks the language can understand the
minor differences.
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