16.5. Accents

Even speakers who use their own mother tongue sometimes have local peculiarities of accent or vocabulary, for which the interpreter should be prepared. Fluent intercourse with friends of the upper classes in London, Paris or Madrid does not make it certain that one can easily follow what is said by workers’ representatives from Yorkshire or the Middle-West, from Quebec or the Jura mountain districts, from Barcelona or Peru.

Appropriate preparation can hardly be expected from a school, hut the aspirant interpreter may grasp all opportunities which offer, not only in the course of travels but also in his own town, to talk with a variety of people having the worst possible accents, so that he may grow familiar with them.

One point of detail which is not without importance is the pronunciation of Latin, which varies considerably as between different countries. The English interpreter should not only be able to recognize standard phrases such as a priori, de jure, etc. when they are pronounced as taught in Louvain or Heidelberg; he should also be able to recognize expressions far more infrequent when pronounced in a way different from his own, such as botanical or pharmaceutical names, lines of Horace or Ovid, elementary aphorisms of Roman law, etc. Were it only with this end in view, a few years of Latin would prove most valuable.

The ear should also grow accustomed to the way in which speakers from certain countries pronounce proper names. An unprepared Englishman may not recognize a Chinese name which he knows quite well, when that name is spoken by a Chinese or a Russian or a Frenchman. Fortunately, practice gives one a special sense of phonetic transposition which often helps one to guess. If this should fail, the interpreter may have to ask the speaker kindly to write down the name for him – a service which is gladly rendered.

16.6. Provincialisms

It is easier to prepare for such problems when they affect vocabulary. One may learn at school that “superintendent” does not mean the same thing in the British railways and in the Indian railways; that “pavement”, “meeting”, and “session” have entirely different, if not contradictory, meanings in Great Britain and in the United States; that “dès huit heures”, “réduire”, “jeter loin”, mean different things in France and in French-speaking Switzerland; that a “char” in Montreal has little resemblance to a “char” in the French countryside, a “pistolet” in Brussels is not so dangerous as what goes by the same name in Paris, etc. One ought to know that “savoir” in Belgium often corresponds to “pouvoir” in France and “vouloir” in Switzerland, and that “diner” or “dinner” is not the same meal in different countries. Interpretation schools should have special classes to teach such provincial phraseology. Reading of well-chosen books and periodicals is of course of considerable help.

16.7. Subject Matter

A good knowledge of the subject matter of the discussion greatly influences the quality of the interpretation. An expert in a highly technical question, if he has sufficient linguistic capacities, may be a very good extempore interpreter. On the other hand, the very best professional interpreter may prove a sad failure if he is totally ignorant of the subject discussed.

Before the beginning of any session it is therefore indispensable to study the subject by a careful perusal not only of the reports and memoranda to be discussed but also of some earlier documents, and even of technical handbooks. With extremely rare exceptions, only what is intelligently understood can be properly interpreted. It is out of the question that a speech on the extraction of hard coal can be properly translated by one who knows nothing about the working of a colliery, or a technical discussion on atomic weapons without some idea at least of nuclear physics.

The interpreter will be well advised to consolidate the result of his preparation by drawing up a glossary of the special words and phrases used by the Commission, both on the subject matter discussed and on its own internal administrative organization. This glossary should be added to throughout the session, whenever new information is gathered on terminology.

Incidentally, it is always helpful to know at least the main lines of the views which the speaker holds on the subject discussed. This affords the best protection against grave mistranslation, which may result for instance from the fact that a negation has not been heard, or even has been inadvertently omitted by the speaker.

Incidentally also, it is always helpful to read the rules of procedure before the session begins, and to know their exact phraseology in the various languages used.