It appears that the Urdu Dictionary Board, which provided Pakistan with its first official 22-volume dictionary, has been left to operate without an administrative head for over a year.
More than 90 per cent of the department’ editorial staff has retired, leaving a single research officer to do much of all that needs to be done.
Although, following the passage of some 1.5 years, the long headless dictionary board’s administrative charge was additionally handed over to National Language Promotion Department Director General Dr Rauf Parikh, his oversight too has remained limited to operating from the capital city of Islamabad.
The board’s last head, Aqeel Abbas Jaffery, was appointed editor under the federal government of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in 2016, for a three-year term.
His appointment was recommended by the National History and Literary Heritage Advisor Irfan Siddiqui and it was under his tenure that the board successfully digitized the Urdu dictionary. It was then for the first time that Pakistanis had access to a mobile application featuring every word and its pronunciation from the original 22-volume dictionary.
However, much of such feats are recounted today as tales from the department’s bygone glory-days.
On the other hand, for the past year and a half, owing to the severe shortage of editorial staff and the unavailability of funds, the department is said to have been sitting on a pile of projects either pushed to the twelfth of never or forsaken completely.
One such notable project approved in the past was the launch of a children’s Urdu dictionary, which now appears to have been cast aside.
“It is due to the lack of interest of the federal government and the dearth of researchers that the project had to be quietly booted. Out of 55 sanctioned posts of the Urdu Dictionary Board, only 18 posts are now occupied while the remaining 37 employees of varying grades have all retired,” informed a source privy to the development.
The department’s core limitation is that the posts of its Editorin-Chief, Editor, Deputy Editor, Research Officer and Assistant Scholars are no longer occupied, leaving a single Grade-16 Research Officer to run the affairs of the entire wing. Whereas, all others left under him are lower grade noneditorial employees.
Explaining the details of his tenure, former editor-in-chief Aqeel Abbas Jaffery said that lack of funds has been the primary obstacle keeping the department from working on various projects, like the now booted children’s dictionary.
Meanwhile, according to Tariqbin Azad, the department’s sole in-service research officer, work on various new projects, including revision of an existing dictionary and development of a new dictionary, has been reinitiated following the visit of the board’s acting head.
Speaking in this regard, Urdu Dictionary Board Acting Head Dr Rauf Parikh said that he has started work on reprinting two volumes of the dictionary, while efforts are underway to improve conditions of the board.
“The issue of unavailability of editorial staff has been discussed with the concerned ministry and details regarding appointments have been sought. We are sending them in writing. It is likely that appointments will be made by including it in the budget for the next financial year,” he told The Express Tribune.
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Global Electronic Dictionary market segmentation overview
Speaking of the regional scope, Global Electronic Dictionary market size spans across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East & Africa, South East Asia.
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Competitor analysis snapshot
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Who are the global key players in this Global Electronic Dictionary market? What’s their company profile, its product information, contact information?
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What are projections of the global industry considering capacity, production, and production value? What will be the estimation of cost and profit? What will be market share, supply, and consumption? What about imports and export?
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What should be entry strategies, countermeasures to economic impact, marketing channels for the industry?
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The report offers a complete company profiling of leading players competing in the global Global Electronic Dictionary market Size with a high focus on the share, gross margin, net profit, sales, product portfolio, new applications, recent developments, and several other factors. It also throws light on the vendor landscape to help players become aware of future competitive changes in the Global Electronic Dictionary market.
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MAJOR TOC OF THE REPORT:
Chapter 1 Industry Overview
Chapter 2 Production Market Analysis
Chapter 3 Sales Market Analysis
Chapter 4 Consumption Market Analysis
Chapter 5 Production, Sales and Consumption Market Comparison Analysis
Chapter 6 Major Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Analysis
Chapter 7 Major Product Analysis
Chapter 8 Major Application Analysis
Chapter 9 Industry Chain Analysis
Chapter 10 Global and Regional Market Forecast
Chapter 11 Major Manufacturers Analysis
Chapter 12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis
Chapter 13 Conclusions
Chapter 14 Appendix
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LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nearly 100 volunteers worked for 15 years to produce the world’s first complete Bible translation into American Sign Language (ASL) on video.
The final book of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in ASL video was released on February 15, 2020, during a dedication program for a new translation office in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
“For us, it’s been a 15-year journey, and we can finally say it’s complete,” said Jeremy Mallory with the ASL Remote Translation Office.
There have already been 41 million individual video chapter downloads of this version of the Bible, as many rely on their faith to cope with uncertainty, anxiety and loss amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robert J. Hendriks III, U.S. Spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses tells 8 News Now that this translation effort has affected more than just Jehovah’s Witnesses. He pointed out that in the United States, those who use ASL to communicate only amount to about 10,000 in congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Of those people, only around 2,500 of them are actually deaf. The rest are those who support those congregations as volunteer teachers of the Bible in ASL.
“I have everything at my fingertips,” signed Lilli’Ann Ibanez, a deaf woman who attends a sign language congregation in Las Vegas.
This newly released ASL Bible translation brought tears to the eyes of one reader.
“I didn’t feel goose bumps when I read the Bible in English, but the moment I started watching the Bible in sign language, I couldn’t help but shed tears,” shared Isias Eaton, who attended the program in Florida when the ASL Bible translation announcement was made.
TECHNOLOGY CATCHES UP
“It was the first time in history, the Deaf community, those who read and spoke ASL, had a complete Bible available to them in any community, anywhere on the globe,” said Hendriks, of the translation of all 66 books of the Bible.
The translation work began with the release of DVDs, which was cumbersome, difficult to navigate for the end user and would end up being difficult to use.
As time went on, Hendriks says they were able to put the video translation online and on a smartphone app, “putting this powerful translation in the palms of people’s hands.”
JW.ORG, Man watching ASL Bible on a tablet
Hendriks shared the religious organization’s goal was not just to translate this complex and sophisticated language literally, but to accurately translate thoughts, and then transmit it in video.
SIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION PROCESS
There are generally three people on a translation team, according to the remote translation office (RTO).
One person focuses on generating translation ideas, the second on the accuracy of the translation, and the third watches closely to ensure the interpretation is natural and easy to understand.
“When they did a translation of a text that was so literal that it could only be understood, literally, it was often very illogical,” said Nicholas Ahladis with translation services of Jehovah’s Witnesses. “And it often meant that the sign language translation team had to go back to the drawing board and come up with a revised text that would be more understandable.”
ASL video translation services, JW.ORG
After the text is analyzed in English, Hendriks says RTO members hold a project meeting to discuss translation challenges to ensure everyone is on the same page with the meaning of a text before the translation filming begins.
Their translation system is more thought-for-thought, rather than word-for-word, according to Geoffrey Jackson of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The ASL Bible Team of Jehovah’s Witnesses were the first to use a live review panel for Bible translation to produce a high-quality product.
“His image of what the Bible is trying to say to us should be the same as a person reading the Bible in English or any other language,” explained Bobby Dunbar, Translation Services of Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York.
The translation team worked hard to ensure no concepts were missing or added in their translation of the New World Translation Bible from English text to ASL video.
“If that thought can be conveyed in an accurate way, in a meaningful way, that’s what it’s all about,” added Jackson.
LOCAL COMMUNITY REACTION
“When it comes to reading the Bible, watching it in ASL, I have it downloaded in an app on my phone and tablet so I can use it for study,” Ibanez shared.
Tory and Jamie Jaramillo, a hearing couple, work as licensed sign language interpreters in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jamie is the hearing daughter of two deaf parents, and English is her second language.
“As a child of two deaf adults, I identify linguistically and culturally with the deaf community,” Jamie said. “What I choose to do for my secular work is I am an American Sign Language interpreter,” she added.
Jamie Jaramillo, Sign-language interpreter J, CI & CT, NIC Master
As a Jehovah’s Witness, Jamie chooses to volunteer her time teaching the Bible. She says over the years, it has been very difficult because of a lack of access to the complete Bible in ASL video.
“Written form doesn’t reach their hearts in the same way as watching it,” said Jamie.
“As a Sign Language interpreter here in Nevada, I work very hard to try and give an accurate interpretation, but interpreting is kind of like art. You’re doing it without having information beforehand, versus the effort that goes into a translation, like the New World Translation [Bible],” Tory explained.
Tory Jaramillo, Sign Language Interpreter BA,CI & CT
With the pandemic dragging on, Jamie says the isolation has proven more severe for members of the Deaf community. She has noticed that the mental and emotional health of her students has been impacted.
“The Bible provided for the deaf could not have come at a better time,” Tory added.
Richard and Sari Cardona are hearing parents who learned sign language and virtually attend ASL religious meetings to support their deaf son.
Spanish is their first language, but the family decided to move to an ASL congregation to learn the language and help their son.
Richard Cardona Sr. moved his family to Las Vegas and joined an American Sign Language Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses to teach his deaf son about the Bible
“As the father of a deaf son and as immigrants, when we moved here to the United States, it was very difficult,” Richard said. “In 2019, we moved here to the city of Las Vegas and received great support.”
“When parents who are not deaf find out that they have a deaf child, this can be very unexpected, and sometimes even frustrating. We know that this has an influence on the child’s emotional and social development,” Sari shared. “As a mom I would ask myself, ‘How can I teach my son the truths from the Bible?’ But God never forgets anyone, regardless of his disability.”
Sari Cardona learned sign-language to better communicate with her deaf son
“Now, when we all three sit down to study the Bible, we can understand the questions our son asks us, and I feel a direct connection with my son,” Sari said.
8-year-old Richard Cardona signing his thoughts on the release of the complete Bible in ASL.
“I am so happy…because Jehovah God has given me the Bible in ASL, which is sign language, to help me understand,” signed Richard Cardona Jr.
STATEMENT FROM LOCAL ORGANIZATION
Many in the Deaf community expressed disappointment regarding the receiving accurate and timely information in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some say they felt like an afterthought with messaging that could affect their lives — at the very least, their mental health.
With pandemic anxiety a growing concern, rapid delivery of healthcare information could reduce the risk of contracting or transmitting a life-threatening disease. For the Deaf community, the added challenge of sometimes not having a sign language interpreter or being unable to read lips due to mandated mask-wearing for public safety increased that threat.
With a focus on providing advocates for the Deaf community, the Nevada Commission for Persons Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing or Speech Impaired was created in 2020 within the Office of the Governor in Nevada. Its mission is to ensure Nevadans have equal and timely access to resources, services, and opportunities in the community.
According to the state website, the goal of the Deaf Commission is to provide timely access to information, effective communication, education, and services that promote choice and independence for Nevada residents who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities, and the families and professionals who support them.
When asked how the huge undertaking of translating the entire Bible into ASL could benefit the Deaf community, Maureen Fradianni, a member of the commission said, “That’s beautiful…it is great. It has an empowering affect to have that access to communication. I can say that…even though our beliefs are different, I applaud what they [Jehovah’s Witnesses] have done.”
Amid the pandemic, Fradianni commented on the importance of digital resources in helping the Deaf community be included in public conversation, even though in-person Sign Language interpreters are preferred by many.
“That’s wonderful,” she said, regarding the translation of the ASL Bible for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Before her retirement, Fradianni worked for eight years with an agency called the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advocacy Resource Center. That agency later became The Deaf Center of Nevada. The agency has since closed and stopped providing services. She says its closure in December 2020 took a toll on the Deaf community because the services they were accustomed to were no longer provided.
According to Fradianni, the Aging and Disability Services Division is temporarily taking over these services until July 1.
“I find that we are using these digital resources even more now, and I would assume that after the pandemic, we’re going to be using them even more than we did before,” she added, as she expressed hopes for the return of in-person events due to the eye strain and fatigue resulting from the extended use of virtual events during the pandemic.
With the recent update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on mask-wearing guidelines for those fully vaccinated, hope seems to be on the horizon.
Fradianni also shared information on a grant opportunity available for programs and services for the Deaf community through the Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) website. This grant includes services for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. The deadline to apply is June 12.
The commission held a meeting on May 13, where members discussed what more can be done for the Deaf community.
FUTURE TRANSLATION WORK
While other organizations have worked to complete the ASL Bible, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures has continued their work and have already translated the Bible into an additional 100 sign languages, making it available to deaf and hard of hearing communities around the world.
The translation, publishing and printing work of Jehovah’s Witnesses is supported by voluntary donations.
“The ASL Bible Project set a pattern for other sign languages,” explains Nicholas Ahladis, who helps coordinate translation services at the world headquarters facility in Warwick, New York.
Jehovah’s Witnesses say they will not stop translating the Bible until everyone can read the Bible in “the language of their heart.”
ASL DIGITAL RESOURCES
To learn more about the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in American Sign Language (ASL) please visit this website.
Screenshot from ASL Bible languages available in whole or in part on JW.ORG
ASL videos on the topic of coping with anxiety during the pandemic:
To view the ASL Bible, visit jw.org, click on the language icon at the top center of the website page, check the “Display Only Sign Languages” icon and select the desired sign language translation.
Screenshot from ASL online Bible on JW.ORG
Screenshot from ASL Bible web page on JW.ORG
When viewing the ASL Bible, you can also enable “show text” to display captions as you watch the online bible.
8 News Now extends a special thanks to Peter Roman of American Sign Language Communication for providing ASL translation for this article’s interview with the Deaf Commission.
While the dictionary was partly compiled with 6-by-4-inch slips of paper, as in the 19th century, Ms. Barber was sent to Palo Alto, Calif., and Oxford, England, to learn computational lexicography. That enabled her and her staff to sort through a vast database of digitized Canadian publications, parliamentary debates and books that had been collected as a linguistics project by a Canadian university.
Several entries that made the final cut involved words used in most of Canada — like “eavestrough” for rain gutter and “keener,” “a person, esp. a student, who is extremely eager, zealous or enthusiastic.” But others were regional, like “parkade,” a Western Canadian term for parking garage, and “steamie,” a steamed hot dog in Quebec.
While Ms. Barber apparently had no favorites, at least one of the 2,000 Canadian words and meanings that made it into the first edition of the dictionary might have reflected her personal interests.
Ms. Hanna said her sister was a fan of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team and particularly of Serge Savard, one of its stars in the late 1960s and ’70s. “Spinarama,” “an evasive move, esp. in hockey, consisting of an abrupt 360-degree turn,” appears in the dictionary without a notation that the technique was first attributed to Savard.
When the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, which was based on a revised version of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, appeared in 1998, it was an immediate best seller. Ms. Barber escalated her long-running book tour.
Because she did not drive, she called on friends and family members to take her and boxes of dictionaries out to sell after public speaking events. The dictionary, and a 2004 edition that added about 200 more Canadianisms, became the standard word authority for Canadian news organizations and schools. Several spinoff versions were produced, including one for students.
“When the dictionary came out,” Mr. Sinkins said, “for some people it established for the first time that there was such a thing as a unique variety of English we can call Canadian.”
Most businesses need to use advertising to help sell their products or services. A business that doesn’t need a marketing strategy, which almost always involves advertising, is either so much better than its competitors or doesn’t have any competitors at all, i.e. it is a monopoly.
The need for advertising only increases when a business intends to sell its products or services to a wholly new market, such as an international market or a national market whose first language is different from that of the business. That’s when the business will need an advertising translator and in most cases, one who is a specialist in localization.
What Is localization?
While marketing or advertising translation may be understood to be essential if a new market is to be reached whose main language is different, many businesses overlook the role of localization. Localization is the conversion of text, as well as other accompanying material, such as images, graphics, slogans and video clips so that it is sensitive to the cultural, ethical, religious and socio-economic norms of the new target market.
In the past, many big firms have launched an international marketing drive without understanding the importance of localization. Straightforward translation of marketing material has often resulted in some superb blunders.
Brand names and slogans have been misinterpreted to be rude, pornographic, dull or incomprehensible when translated into another language. Even translation between what many would think as reasonably similar languages, such as between English and German, Dutch or one of the Latin languages has resulted in spectacular gaffes. These marketing mistakes may have led to a lot of jokes, but the jokes are on the business that has made the mistakes, often resulting in poor sales figures and a lack of respect or interest in the business’s products or services.
Even marketing in the same language can result in mistranslation when there shouldn’t be a need for translation. The difference between British English and U.S. English is more than some well-known spelling differences. U.S. customers would be confused as to what a ‘lorry’ is or put off when temperatures, lengths and weighs are expressed in metric units rather than U.S. units.
Conversion of marketing material, including advertising between English and languages that are only very distantly related such as Korean, Arabic and Turkish needs even more sensitivity and direct knowledge of the idioms, colloquialisms, cultural and ethical norms of the people who speak these languages.
Businesses Should Aim for Professional Localization Strategies
A business that is branching out into international markets should be aware of just how important it is to translate all their marketing material, from websites, to social media advertising, GoogleAds, traditional ads in the mainstream media, posters and flyers.
The worst mistake is to sidestep using a professional marketing translation agency and just going for something like GoogleTranslate.
There are a number of computer generated tools now available that can certainly appear to translate a business’s marketing requirements cheaply and quickly, but the efforts are unlikely to result in good sales figures precisely because of the mistranslation that often accompanies these techniques as well as the potential gaffes in meaning.
It is a wise move to look carefully at what individual translation agencies can provide. Most translators specialize in one or another field of translation as well as in one or more languages they can translate fluently.
Businesses should always choose the translation service that offers the languages they want as well as specifically offering a localization strategy for everything they translate.
Microsoft has continued their work to unify the codebase and features of their Edge browser on the various platforms they have ported it to.
We have recently seen the results of this when Edge Canary for Android gained Microsoft’s Edge coupon service, and today we have seen another desktop feature added – improved support and more options for translating web pages.
The settings now mirror those of the desktop app, including letting you specify which languages you want to translate, and allowing you to add languages to the list. Previously the feature only had a toggle which switched Translate on and off.
The feature is currently only available in Edge Canary for Android and has not come to Edge Dev for Android yet.
During the pandemic, many of us have spent much of our time at home cleaning out closets, basements and garages, getting rid of things we no longer use or need.
Sometimes editors of dictionaries have to do the same thing. When new words are added, obsolete words get scrapped to make room.
We're talking about print dictionaries, of course: actual books with pages. Books that will keep getting bigger and heavier if cuts aren't made.
That's What They Say for May 16, 2021
One word that didn't make the editors' cut is "aerodrome." This word was created around the beginning of the 20th century to refer to a balloon hangar or small airfield. It lasted about a hundred years before being removed from many dictionaries near the end of the 21st century, having been largely replaced by "airport."
Obsolescence isn't the only reason words get dropped. When "vitamin G" got the boot, it wasn't because we don't talk about vitamin G anymore; we just call it something else. Today "vitamin G" goes by its modern moniker, "riboflavin."
Words don't always leave quietly. When Merriam-Webster editors decided that "snollygoster" was no longer needed, there was a campaign to keep it, leading editors to restore it in 2017. It's no wonder: do you know of any other words that refer to a shrewd, unprincipled person and sound as awesome as "snollygoster?"
There is certainly an argument that there's no point to hanging on to words that don't get used anymore. Should a word like "hodad" get to take up space in print dictionaries? A word that got some use back in the 1960s but has since faded from memory? Maybe.
While you're not likely to encounter "hodad" in modern conversation, what if it turns up in a book that was written in the 1960s? What if there aren't enough context clues for you to figure out that a "hodad" is someone who hangs out at beaches, pretending to be a surfer?
This is where online dictionaries can be beneficial. Unlike print dictionaries, online dictionaries aren't in danger of growing too big and heavy to lug around. So even though you won't find "hodad" in a printed Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary, you will find it in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary.
Incidentally, you'll also find "vitamin G," with a cross-reference to "riboflavin."
