In Ask-A-Linguist,
Destiny Dianne Hicks
Hello, I am 11 yrs. old and I want to be a linguist when I grow up.
What are mostly needed for a linguist to know and be able to translate?
Thank you.
Hi Destiny,
I've noticed that you have already received a number of replies from Ask a Linguist and have been directed to the difference between linguistics (as the study of human language) and translation (in the vein of interpretation). I will not belabor that distinction, but I will attempt to provide you with more information on both endeavors. Hopefully, I can provide a desired answer as well as some informative extras.
First off, linguistics is a subject little-known to the layperson, not being taught in most high-schools nor in some colleges and universities (although plenty of wonderful programs do exist). Personally, I did not discover the discipline until after I had applied to college, and, as a result, I suffered a few procedural head-aches during my undergraduate career. So, it's wonderful that you want to get your foot in the door so early!
To introduce the wonderful world of linguistics, below is a link to a frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) page that succinctly decomposes 'linguistics' into its many sub-domains. Additionally, the page lists a few introductory texts, although some may be too complex to be tackled by an 11 year-old. The webpage author suggests that 'The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language' is an appropriate beginning, and I heartily second that notion. Finally, the page addresses some puzzling questions (i.e. about the origin of language) and questions about specific languages/language families:
Also, the link below takes you to a wonderfully approachable overview on the fields of linguistics. As you would expect, start with the overview article (by Nunberg and Wasow) then proceed onto whatever domain sounds interesting (and hopefully one will!). Information on most (if not all) of those sub-domains is hyperlinked directly in the overview:
Now, to address your question about translation: it is difficult to pin down which languages most pressingly require translation. Many languages may fit such a bill, doing so for a purpose that fluctuates with the social, economic, or academic context. For instance, as you may guess, it may serve your marketability to master a widely spoken language. A list of such languages can be found on the Ethnologue site, which lists them according to the estimated population of speakers:
Or, a 'needed language' may be so classified on a much more task-specific basis. After a short stroll on-line, I found a number of web-based companies looking for free-lance translators of all types and sorts: French and German linguists (http://www.adamstrans.com); Chinese, Japanese, or Korean speakers (http://www.arialtranslations.com); Japanese or Chinese linguists (http://www.lexfusion.com); speakers of Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Farsi, and French, as well as freelance linguists of Chinese(all dialects), Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Nigerian (Ibo and Yoruba), Pashto (spoken primarily in Afghanistan), Punjabi, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese(http://www.fbi.gov). This is, of course, NOT an exhaustive list (much to your (future) advantage, I suppose!)
Also in high demand are linguists with knowledge of less commonly spoken languages, especially endangered ones. These sorts of linguists may be called upon to document and hence preserve the language in the form a dictionary or comprehensive grammar. This is done by a number of linguists who study American Indian languages. For a little bit of a toe-hold on this last enterprise, I'm providing a link to the Ethonologue page for the United States, which details the estimated number of speakers of the 250 (!) languages spoken in the U.S. (as of the 1990 census): http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/USA.html
Also in this vein is the Terralingua Organization, which concerned about the future of linguistic, biological, and cultural diversity. The frequently-asked-question (FAQ) page nicely catalogues the geographic distribution of some widely spoken languages and as well provides a lucid (but detailed) introduction to the notion of a mother tongue, of a dialect (vs. a language), and language policies.
There is also the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, from which I lifted the link to the Terralingua Organization. Feel free to browse this one as well:
As a bit of a follow-up note to much of this, Ethnologue is well worth investigating beyond the few links given above (I believe the hyperlinked page above provides a link to Ethnologue's home page and to its parent organization, SIL (formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics). Ethnologue showcases a virtual encyclopedia of areal linguistic information, from which you can learn about language families, language policy (i.e. whether any one language is taught in school, used in national radio broadcasts, etc.), and which languages are spoken in which country.
If, however, you are simply curious as to ins and outs of either any given language or of the culture at large in which it is spoken, you may find LingNet's 'Internet Pointers' of good use. The site links information to over 100 languages, showcasing a list that ranges from Acadian, Arabic, and Afrikaans, to Yiddish, Yoruba, and Zulu! The link to any listed language details further links to cultural information (i.e. on-line newspapers, television feed, national history, literature, recipes, grammar and pronunciation of official/main languages, etc.) as well as to on-line dictionaries (these range from large on-line dictionaries to the 'alternative', i.e. slang, ones).
Lastly, I am providing a link to Yahoo's output for translation and interpretation-themed web-pages. The given pages (at least the ones that I have cursorily examined) provide information on translation services, translation software, and translation theory. You may have already visited the site, but just in case not:
Hope this helps!