During the global COVID-19 pandemic, it became all too apparent that communication barriers in public health are a rampant issue. The almost exclusive reliance on standard written versions of global languages, such as English or Spanish, has inevitably excluded big chunks of the population from the dissemination of necessary information in these times of crisis, while also invisibilizing linguistic diversity all around the world. This reaffirmed the need to establish platforms where speakers of minoritized and indigenous languages can create the materials they need in their own languages. This chapter outlines the process whereby the virtual community established around the #europeminoritylanguage project successfully launched a translation campaign for COVD-19-related material using hashtags in their social media profiles. This campaign managed to compile translations in about 77 different minoritized linguistic varieties spoken mostly in Europe and Western Asia, with the help of nearly as many volunteer translators. This chapter also discusses some issues that arose throughout the project and the rationale behind decisions such as the inclusion of more than one version for certain varieties or the anonymity of most of the translators. Much of the material translated comes from the initiative by Translation Commons, COVID-19 Multilingual.

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Outsourcing Translation of COVID-19 Information into Minoritized Languages: The #europeminoritylanguages Project

  • Guillem Belmar Viernes

摘要

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, it became all too apparent that communication barriers in public health are a rampant issue. The almost exclusive reliance on standard written versions of global languages, such as English or Spanish, has inevitably excluded big chunks of the population from the dissemination of necessary information in these times of crisis, while also invisibilizing linguistic diversity all around the world. This reaffirmed the need to establish platforms where speakers of minoritized and indigenous languages can create the materials they need in their own languages. This chapter outlines the process whereby the virtual community established around the #europeminoritylanguage project successfully launched a translation campaign for COVD-19-related material using hashtags in their social media profiles. This campaign managed to compile translations in about 77 different minoritized linguistic varieties spoken mostly in Europe and Western Asia, with the help of nearly as many volunteer translators. This chapter also discusses some issues that arose throughout the project and the rationale behind decisions such as the inclusion of more than one version for certain varieties or the anonymity of most of the translators. Much of the material translated comes from the initiative by Translation Commons, COVID-19 Multilingual.