“la parole exportée”

photo credit: Daquella manera

I am torn apart between writing about this event here, or adding it to my 2008 International Year of Languages page, listed on the right here —–>

April 4 will be Dictionary Day in Quebec and several reports are discussing the importance of dictionaries in supporting the French language in Quebec and elsewhere, and this is absolutely true. Quebec has the added difficulty of facing the influence of English, wanting to retain its own identity as a francophone region, yet not to follow France; whereas we in France are free to decide to be unbending purists or to adapt to influences of whatever origin. Our choice.

Translators are known to be the primary users of dictionaries, along with writers and students. But as always things change over time, and our practices have to follow.

When I started my career as a translator, all kinds of paper dictionaries -whether technical, general, language…- consumed a huge share of my budget, and I used them every day.

However, with the increased pace of technology development in all fields, that share has been dwindling over the years. Now I own electronic copies of what I consider essential language dictionaries like Le Robert for French and Robert-Collins for English-French-English. I also use le Grand dictionnaire terminologique, a remarkable source developed by Office québécois de la langue française and various online glossaries for explanations of terms and acronyms. However, an overwhelming share of terminology research now consists in tapping the immense reservoir of knowledge you can find on the web: corporate websites, industry analysts, etc. I also have a collection of technical manuals, because when you are dealing with documents and conferences on state-of-the-art technology or even current affairs, dictionaries are not always there for you.

But that can also depend on the domain you are working with. Obviously Law does not change as rapidly as cellphone technology, for instance. I still own manuals about Local Area Networks that are now totally out of date. I bought a ‘bible’ on mobile and wireless networks printed in 2001, but so much has happened in between, I hardly ever open it these days.

And of course, nothing replaces a direct, open and responsible relationship with your clients. They are often your main, indeed your only source of information, and they are the ones to approach first. Where else would I find the terminology developed specifically by that company or organization that they so insist on using, contrary to equally-valid choices made by their competitors?

But I’m curious, how many of you out there still use dictionaries? Paper or electronic?

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Translation, glossaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.