Here are some interesting facts about translations that you probably didn’t know. Which one surprised you the most. Comment below.

1. HERE ARE A FEW
INTERESTING FACTS YOU
PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW
ABOUT TRANSLATIONS

2. Most translators with their years of experience consider Spanish as the
easiest language to translate into mainly because in Spanish everything is
written as it sounds.This property about Spanish language makes it the
easiest language to learn and translate. In addition, Spanish has very little
grammatical irregularities.Therefore, many people prefer Spanish as an
international language to learn.

3. About 97% of the world’s population speaks only 4 % of these languages,
while only 3 % of the world speak 96% of all remaining languages. A great
majority of those languages, spoken mainly by indigenous peoples, will
continue to disappear at an alarming rate.

4. Some parts of this book have been translated into Klingon! However, ‘Listen
to God and Live Forever’ has been translated into more than 600 languages.
Also, United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been
translated into over 400 languages. And interestingly, Modern favorite Harry
Potter has been translated into more than 70 languages.

5. A translator working full time can translate around 520,000 words per year.

6. Of course, this is not counting people who translate things informally, whose
number is even bigger.

7. and they make sure that it is neither U.K. nor U.S.-biased.

8. Vowels are very tricky to translate, especially when a translator has to convert
them into a vowel-free language. Languages like Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic,
Tigrinya, and Amharic have no vowels. And when the translators have to
translate words like facetious and abstemious, you can imagine things can
get a little nightmarish for them.Words containing vowels are not easy to
translate people!

9. A mistranslated word that led to the atomic bomb being dropped on
Hiroshima.The unfortunate word was ‘Mokusatsu’ and it was uttered by the
Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki when asked by the press about
Japan’s surrender.The word means ‘no comment’ but can easily be
mistranslated as ‘not worthy of comment’.The international press picked the
latter, which provoked retaliation from the English forces.Ten days later, the
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

10. Several factors influence the cost of a translation. Supply and demand is the
most important factor impacting cost. A translator’s origin (and current
location) can also make a difference.Translators based in countries with a
high cost of living have to charge more for their services to sustain their
careers. Using the US as an example, according to Slator.com, the priciest
language pairs in the USA are English to Japanese and English to Korean with
the average price reaching $0.57 per word.

11. While you would expect a site such as Wikipedia, Google or Apple to take this
title.The title of the most translated website in the world goes to Jehovah’s
Witnesses (jw.org).They list over 900 language options on their website.
Jehovah’s Witnesses will immediately begin translating each of their
publications into every language in which they use.They’re on a mission to
spread their faith to every corner of the globe, and they’re making use of
language translation to achieve their goals.