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Language Identification
Every language has its own unique qualities and characteristics. Given the large number of languages throughout the world, identifying the languages used in various materials is to say the least – very challenging.
Below is a table containing 15 languages and various descriptors of each.
|
Language |
Various Characteristics |
| Traditional Chinese |
Used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Complex, angular characters |
| Simplified Chinese |
Used in Mainland China. Simpler characters, derived from
Traditional characters. This is the most common Chinese language-type used for business translations |
| Japanese |
Uses many Chinese characters. Rounder characters. Some characters
contain only one or two lines. Some characters have two little lines by them. |
| Greek |
Various special characters. Greek alphabet. |
| Portuguese |
Look for accents such as ç, ã, and â, which differentiate it from
Spanish. Numerous endings similar to Spanish, such as -a, -o, -as, -os, -ão,
and --ãos. |
| Italian |
Most words end in vowels (o, a, I). Numerous contractions as in
French (l’aiuto). Most accents are `. Accents always fall on last vowel of
words. Many words contain “z”. |
| German |
Umlauts (ä, Ä, ö, Ö, ü, Ü) and special character ß (represents
ss). All nouns start with a capital letter. |
| Spanish |
Numerous words ending in -o, -as, -os. Article and ending of
words correspond (la temperatura, las repisas). Articles: la, las, lo, los, el.
Accents on ó, é, ú, í. The ñ is unique in Spanish. |
| Russian |
Distinguished by Cyrillic alphabet. |
| Korean |
Numerous circles in characters. The remainder of the character is very box-like, not as complex as Chinese characters. |
| Arabic |
Flowing script. Sometimes uses European numbers. Reads from right to left. |
| Thai |
Flowing writing. Round edges. Has a round dot on most characters. |
| Dutch |
Look for vowel combinations such as oe, ij, eu, ei, ou, au, ieu.
Articles include het, een. Includes words like ik, mij, zij, zijn, naar, aan, daar. Many double vowels. |
| Norwegian |
Very similar to Danish. Look for ø, å, œ. Double consonants at the end of words differentiate it from Danish (oss, gikk, gitt). |
| Danish |
Look for æ, ø, å. Accented characters very rare, will see é for emphasis in the word én. |
| Finnish |
Very long words, many double characters – vowels and consonants. Uses ä, ö. Appears very different from other European languages. |
| Swedish |
Look for accents å, ä, ö. Differentiated from German – only uses these three accents and nouns are not capitalized. |
| French |
Look for many accented characters including â, ó, é, ú, í. The dieresis (ë) indicates a separate pronunciation of the two vowels. |
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