International Translation Day 2020: Interesting Facts about Languages and Translation

International Translation Day is a global day praised on 30 September of every year on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is viewed as the patron saint of translators. It is seen to raise awareness about the translation profession and to honor work by language experts. It helps in promoting cultural heritage and mutual respect in our changing world.

Translators play a significant role in diplomatic engagements that prevent border disputes and promote peace as well as help in the development of the economy through globalization. St. Jerome was a minister from North-eastern Italy, who is known generally for his endeavor of translating the vast majority of the Bible into Latin from the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He likewise translated parts of the Hebrew Gospel into Greek.

As per the UN, International Translation Day plays a significant role in uniting countries, adding to the development, and reinforcing world security and peace. This day gives an incredible chance to highlight the significant work of translators, interpreters, and others in the language service industry.

International Translation Day 2020: Theme

The theme of International Translation Day 2020 is “Finding the words for a world in crisis”. The theme spotlights on the significance of work to guarantee that clear data arrive at everybody and beat language barriers both globally and locally.

Despite the Covid-19 emergency, FIT is focussed to feature the significance of translators, interpreters, and terminologists in dealing with the circumstances on an International scale, National scale as well as on a local scale. Translation experts are generally critical to ensure the flow of data between various language groups and this is the explanation the theme of the 2020 edition of International Translation Day is, “Finding the words for a world in crisis”.

The celebrations of International Translation Day have been consistently promoted by the International Federation of Translators (FIT) since the time it was set up in 1953. The idea of an authoritatively perceived International Translation Day was launched by FIT in the year 1991 to show solidarity of the translation community around the world.

History of International Translation Day

The International Federation of Translators (FIT) was set up in 1953. In the year 1991 FIT launched observing International Translation Day for the acknowledgment of the translation community around the world. On 24th of May 2017, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution announcing the 30th of September as International Translation Day. The signatory nations of the Draft Resolution A/71/L.68 were Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Qatar, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. A few different associations pushing the resolution are the International Association of Conference Interpreters, International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters, Red T, World Association of Sign Language Interpreters.

Significance of International Translation Day

The significance of International Translation Day is to perceive the role of professional translation in countries interfacing with one another. The day is given to show the solidarity of the translation community around the world. This is an effort to promote the profession of translation in various nations and not really in Christian nations as they were. The translation is a profession that is becoming a fundamental need existing apart from everything else in the progressive globalization period. The role of translators is significant in interfacing various countries and encouraging peace, improvement, and understanding level.

This day is celebrated to recognize work by the translators who made it conceivable to bring the world closer.

30 Interesting Facts about Languages and Translation

1. There are around 7,100 living languages in the world today, among which about 6,500 are spoken languages. Around 2,000 of those languages have less than 1,000 speakers.

2. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese with 1,213,000,000 speakers in the world.

3. English is the most well-known official language, with perceived status in 51 nations. Arabic, French, and Spanish are likewise generally perceived.

4. Arabic is the official (or co-official) language in 22 nations, making it the 5th most spoken language in the world.

5. There are 6 official languages used in UN meetings: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.

6. The five most common target languages are:
   • German
   • French
   • Spanish
   • English
   • Japanese

7. Furthermore, the top five origin languages are:
   1. English
   2. French
   3. German
   4. Russian
   5. Italian

8. Arabic is one of the few languages that are read from right to left, making it one of the harder languages to learn. It takes years to master writing the script from right to left! Other right-to-left languages incorporate Hebrew and antiquated Phoenicians.

9. The Bible, which can be read in almost 650 languages, is believed to be the most translated publication (and at least one of its books has been translated into 3,225 languages). Next is the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is accessible over 500 languages.

10. Certain literary classics have additionally been translated into numerous languages, for example, The Adventures of Pinocchio (accessible in 260 languages) and The Little Prince (accessible in 300 languages). Translated into 70 languages, Harry Potter has the best approach!

11. Around 330,000 individuals practice translation as a profession, and that does exclude the individuals who do it casually.

12. As per a UNESCO database called “Index Translationum”, which lists the entirety of the books translated in the world, the best 3 most translated writers are Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, and William Shakespeare.

13. The most targeted languages for translation are English, French, German, Italian, and Russian, making them the best 5 languages in the translation industry.

14. During the first decade of the 21st century, over 75% of books were translated into French or German, however just 5% into Chinese. This is astounding because Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world!

15. A professional translator can translate around 250 words within 60 minutes. A translator working full time can translate around 520,000 words for each year.

16. The most widely spoken languages are Chinese, Spanish, English, and Hindi.

17. The translation profession is over 2,000 years of age! It’s hard to believe, but it’s true: the Old Testament is thought to have been translated into Greek in the third century BC, which would make it the oldest recorded translation.

18. The best 3 most interpreted translated are Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, and William Shakespeare.

19. As indicated by the Translation Association of China, there are over 300,000 certified translators. That is sufficient to fill an entire town of individuals.

20. A year ago’s evaluations put the translation industry’s annual income at $49 billion around the world, and it’s proceeding to develop fast with expectations expressing it will reach over $52 billion by 2021.

21. There is a language that is far simpler than English to translate. As per most translators with years of experience, Spanish is the simplest language to translate. It is because, in the Spanish language, words written are indistinguishable from how they sound, which makes it the most available language to learn and translate.

22. The English word “translation” gets from the Latin translation (which itself originates from trans-and from fero—together signifying “a carrying across” or “a bringing across”).

23. It is often felt that the bible is the most translated book however it is incompletely obvious on the off chance that we think about fractional translations. Nonetheless, the most translated book, in general, is a book called “Listen to God and Live Forever”, a 2011 publication by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

24. The UNESCO keeps a list of the most translated authors of fiction and the top 5 are :
    1. Agatha Christie
    2. Jules Vernes
    3. William Shakespeare
    4. Enid Blyton
    5. Barbara Cartland

25. The main significant work that was translated in the Classical world (300-200 B.C.E) was the Septuagint. This was a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek (Koine). The word Septuagint implies seventy. It is believed that seventy translators worked persistently to translate the book.

26. Languages, for example, English, German, French, Russian, and Italian are the significant languages to be translated into others.

27. During the first decade of the 21st century, 78% of the total translated books were translated into French or German.

28. The punctuation marks in Arabic and English are almost the same, even though both languages have various roots.

29. St. Jerome is a praised translator from Christian history. He translated the Old Testament into Latin straightforwardly from the first Hebrew. His feast day, which denotes his death on September 30th, has likewise become International Translation Day.

30. It was first celebrated by the International Federation of Translators (FIT) in 1953 as the day of translators and it isn’t until 1991 that it officially became an International Translation Day.