The Printing Press

It is a little-known fact among the Western world that Johannes Gutenberg was not in fact the first to create a printing press. Borrowing from wood-block printing in many Asian cultures, Korean Choe Yun-ui created the first printing press with moveable block characters in the 1200s. However, due to many factors, such as invasion into Korea and the fact that organizing the Chinese characters to print took quite a while, this printing press did not become widespread.

Gutenberg’s printing press, on the other hand, often printed works written in Latin, which is written with far, far fewer letters than there are characters in Chinese. Arranging the type pieces and going through the printing process was markedly easier than in Korea two hundred years earlier, and Gutenberg’s printing press was essential for the increase in literacy in the following century. In our last blog, we mentioned that Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible was a major turning point in the history of translation; without the printing press, his translation would not have reached even half the people that it did.

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone, first discovered in 1799, held a passage that was written three times—twice in two versions of ancient Egyptian, and once in ancient Greek. The passage, written in 196 BC, was key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, despite so much of the Rosetta Stone being broken and incomplete.

The Nuremberg Trials

The infamous Nuremberg Trials were held to take Nazis to court and to try them for war crimes that took place during World War II. Remarkably, the trials only took ten months to complete, despite the need to translate and interpret the proceedings into numerous languages. This was accomplished by implementing the world’s first simultaneous interpretation program, which likely saved years off of the Trials’ time. Simultaneous interpretation is difficult to learn the skills for, but is commonly used for conferences, such as for the United Nations.

The Internet

With the advent of the internet, the world became even more global than ever. While learning languages and speaking or writing to a language partner regardless of distance was possible with phone calls and letters, the internet sped up those processes to be nearly immediate.

With this, however, came increasing demands for translation and interpretation for global businesses. Translators and interpreters now had to learn how to not only navigate linguistic landscapes, but also digital ones.

Machine Translation

Very recently in the history of translation and interpretation has been the rise in machine translation. Essentially, putting one string from language A into a machine, which would produce that string in language B. This method vastly improves the speed at which translators can do their jobs, but as machines can’t understand language in the way that humans do, translators and proofreaders are necessary to ensure that the final product doesn’t sound unnatural.

Now

While looking back at history, we also look towards the future. In the past, human history has had lots of events that have influenced today’s translators and interpreters. Many events even had an impact on the world as a whole, such as the printing press and the internet. In the future, there will only be even more AI inventions and events that will shape the translation and interpretation sphere. However, one thing we have seen clearly is that language has been highly varied and shaped by human thought and action; in that vein, we in the translation and interpretation industry are still far, far away from being replaced by machines or robots.

Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans

Evidence of interpreters can be seen as far back as 300 BC with the depictions of the Princes of Elephantine. The two were apparently bilingual and were integral to military operations and trade between Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan.

Alexander the Great from Ancient Greece also employed interpreters for communication with India. When Romans dominated society, it was common for them to be fluent not only in Latin, but also Greek from tutors and slaves so as to not have to rely too heavily on interpreters. Roman translations of Greek works are part of what gives us so much mythos to pull from as well.

Of course, interpretation and translation from other languages was a regular event for dealing with outside cultures. For example, in 202 BC, Scipio and Hannibal met together in the presence of interpreters, in what we might call today as a conference interpretation event.

The Bible

In 382 AD, Pope Damasus had St. Jerome translate biblical texts into what is now known as the Vulgate Bible. This was for a form of Latin that the church would use. The history of biblical translations is rich and complex, but noteworthy is Martin Luther’s German translation in the 1500s that allowed the common people to read and understand the word of God for themselves.

Columbus and Cortes

When Christopher Columbus headed to what he thought was India, he hired the interpreter Luis De Torres, who was fluent in Chaldean, Arabic, and Hebrew. However, when he landed in the Caribbean, he decided to capture native Taino people to teach them Spanish and spread Christianity.

Similarly, when Hernan Cortes began his conquest of Mexico, he acquired about twenty enslaved women, one of whom was “La Malinche” as she is known today. He chose her as his consort, and she also served as an interpreter from Nahautl into Mayan, which was interpreted into Spanish by another member of Cortes’s crew.

John Dryden’s Translation Theory

The Ancient Greeks discussed translation theory first and then in 1680, John Dryden proposed three major ideas for the modern era of translation. First was “metaphrase,” which refers to a literal translation; second was “paraphrase,” which refers to translating the meaning more than the exact wording; and lastly was “imitation,” which refers to creative translation of the text.

While these wordings are not often used today, the ideas certainly are. You might hear people talking about “literal translation,” “translation of meaning,” or “transcreation” instead.