Adam Sedia
A translator must not know only the language, but must be able to read it, as well. For some languages, this requires knowledge of not one, but two (or sometimes three!) writing systems. To English speakers, this sounds strange, but for several languages, political leaders have changed the way a language is written – some quite recently. This article examines some of those changes in writing systems and how they affect translations
Perhaps the most famous script change occurred in Turkish. Since the Middle Ages, the Turkish of the Ottoman Empire, under the influence of Islam, was written in an adapted version of the Arabic alphabet. But Turkish and Arabic belong to two different language families entirely, with each language having several sounds that the other did not. This made the Ottoman Turkish script unwieldy, often not accurately reflecting the sounds of Turkish. Movements to adopt a Latin script for Turkish began as early as 1862, and in 1928, Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, replaced the old Arabic script with an adapted version of the Latin alphabet that more accurately reflected the sounds of Turkish, with exactly one letter per sound. The script became mandatory the following year, and since then Turkish has been written only in the Latin script, which also drastically helped improve literacy.
Turkish was not the first language to change to the Latin alphabet. Vietnam since ancient times experienced a strong cultural influence from China, including the adoption of Chinese characters to write the Vietnamese language. But like Turkish and Arabic, the two languages belong to two entirely different families and do not share all their sounds. In particular, Vietnamese vowels have a much more complex tonal system than Chinese. In the 1600’s, French Catholic missionaries adopted a version of the Latin alphabet for Vietnamese that accurately reflected its sounds – in part to ensure their own correct pronunciation of the language. After France became the colonial power in Vietnam, the Latin script slowly replaced Chinese characters, becoming mandatory in 1910. Even Vietnamese nationalists preferred the new script, however, and long after independence Vietnamese continues to be written in the Latin script.
Not all script changes occurred so long ago, however. Mongolian was traditionally written in the Mongolian script, derived from the medieval Sogdian script. It resembles the Arabic script, but is written vertically. In 1946, largely under the influence of the Soviet Union, Mongolia’s government adopted a version of the Cyrillic script (used for Russian) for the Mongolian language. Although the Cyrillic script remained official, the traditional script never fell out of use. In 2020, Mongolia announced it would increase the use of the traditional script, with both scripts being used in official documents by 2025.
In Central Asia the Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz language (all Turkic), as well as Tajik (a variety of Persian) were traditionally written in the Persian version of the Arabic script. Their lands were absorbed into the Russian Empire, and under the Soviet Union all five languages were ordered to adopt the Cyrillic script like Mongolian. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, three of the new republics abandoned Cyrillic for versions of the Latin alphabet, following the model of the related Turkish language – first Uzbek in 1992, then Turkmen in 1993, and Kazakh in 2017. As of today, only Kyrgyz and Tajiki Persian still use the Cyrillic script.
Serbian, too is written in two scripts. Linguistically, Serbian and Croatian are regarded as one language (Serbo-Croatian), with the difference being the script: Catholic Croatia using the Latin script and Orthodox Serbia using a version of the Cyrillic script. In the late 1800’s, many Serbian writers preferred the Latin script, which was taught in schools beginning in 1914. Since then, both scripts are used for Serbian, with each having strong proponents. Serbia’s constitution even addresses the language, providing that the Cyrillic script is official for Serbian, but also that the Latin script is a “script in official use.” Both scripts remain in widespread use for the language.
How does all this affect translation? A document in Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh, Mongolian, and especially Serbian is likely to be written in one of two possible scripts – or both. A translator of any of these languages must be well-versed in both scripts to provide proper services. Vietnamese and Turkish historical documents may also occur in different scripts, which may be of concern for those examining property or genealogical records, and a skilled translator of those languages should have specialized knowledge of the historic scripts, as well.
At Unida Translation, we pride ourselves on our translators’ deep knowledge not only of the language itself, but on all the nuances of translation, including knowledge of multiple scripts. Unida Translation is a leading provider of professional translation and interpretation services, offering expertise in over 125 languages. Our team of certified translators and interpreters is committed to delivering accurate and culturally sensitive language solutions to meet the diverse needs of our clients. For more information, visit our website at unidatranslation.com.
