We all know the awkwardness of “Romglish” situations and, above all, the half-educated translations that bring nothing but a dry smile to our lips.
No translation can be done without attention to detail and context, without a certain feeling for language, but it is self-evident what a medical translation full of errors or “false friends” means. Not only the meaning is affected, but also the scientific value of the translated document.
Medical and religious translations were among the first kinds of writing to be transposed from one language into another. While religious translations were confined to the sphere of Greek or Latin, medical translations took over Greek and Latin terminology and combined variants of it. That is why translators specialized in medical translation must keep in mind all the changes of meaning and spelling, especially for German and English.
Prefixes and suffixes are an important key in medical translation, say the translators specialized in medical translation at Syncro Translation Services. General culture and attention to detail are very important among the professional skills of a translator specialized in medical translation.
When a medical translation is carried out, it is very important to know all the grammatical and spelling transformations of words in the target language and to watch for “false friends” – words that seem similar in sense and meaning but mean something entirely different.
Here are some typical examples from English and German: English drug corresponds to German Arzneimittel, meaning medicine, and not to Droge, which means an addictive substance. Another simple example is ambulance: its German counterpart is Krankenwagen, not Ambulanz, which means outpatient clinic.
Other “false friends” in medical translation are found between Spanish and English. For example, the Spanish actual means “current” or “present”, while the English actual means “real”.
Every medical translation is observed and coordinated by the project team, and possible errors are always kept in mind, says Mihaela Vișan, one of the founders of Syncro Translation Services, a pharmacist by profession.
As if the examples above were not enough, specialists in medical translation must also pay attention to the abbreviations and changes that occur when processing a text from the source language to the target language.
Eponyms – words derived from the names of the personalities who contributed to a given field of science – may or may not vary from one language to another, but they too need extra attention. An eponym in one language may or may not have the same eponym as its counterpart in another language, so each term must be checked against reliable terminology sources.
Phraseology in the medical field is also specific and allows no compromise on the quality and care of the translation. The names of active substances and pharmacological principles belong here too.
Specialized translation for the medical and pharmaceutical field is therefore an area where the translator’s passion, perfectionism, art and experience must be combined with teamwork and the capacity for continuous learning.