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Back-translation
Hiring another translator or translation agency to tell you what your translated text is saying. This step is sometimes used by companies as a method of auditing the quality of their translation.

Bi-directional language (bidi)
Text that flows in both directions, such as Arabic and Hebrew, in which numerals are read from left to right and the text is read from right to left.

CAT (computer-aided translation)
A broad term that may include a wide range of software tools designed to help translators work more quickly and/or improve the quality of their work. CAT tools range from electronic bilingual dictionaries to translation memory software.

Change order
When the scope of a translation or localization project expands, an agency will issue a change order that the client must approve before the additional work can be completed. Change orders can quickly turn an on-time and under-budget project into a painful experience for both clients and agencies. The key to avoiding change orders is to work closely with your agency to minimize any last-minute changes or additions.

FIGS
An abbreviation frequently used in the translation industry to refer to French, Italian, German, and Spanish – the four major Western European languages.

Globalization (g11n)
For our purposes, globalization refers to the process of adapting a business and its products and promotions to a new audience, typically one that is in a different country. Globalization encompasses internationalization and localization.

Internationalization (i18n)
The process of creating products and/or supporting materials so they can be easily localized.

L10N, L10n
The abbreviation for localization. The number refers to the number of letters between L and n.

Language pair
The combination of source language and target language, such as EN > FR (English translated into French). The arrow indicates the source and target languages. A translator will specialize in one language pair, typically his or her native language and one additional language. The native language will usually be the target language.

Locale
A combination of language and region or country, such as French/Canada or English/UK. A number of attributes are often associated with a locale, such as number format, time and date formats, measurements, and currency.

Localization (L10N, L10n)
The process of adapting products and/or supporting materials for a locale. The process may include translation, re-design and technical and cultural modifications.

Machine translation (MT)
The process of translating from one human language into another using software. The term originates from the days when computers were called machines. The most popular MT application is Babel Fish (world.altavista.com).

MLV (muli-language vendor)
A translation vendor who specializes in mulitple language pairs, such as Western European languages.

Translation memory (TM)
The process and software tools that automate the re-use of previously translated terms and sentences. The larger a translation memory grows, the more valuable it generally becomes because it reduces the number of source words that require translation.

Source language
The language one translates from.

SLV (single language vendor)
A translation vendor who specializes in one language pair, such as English to/from Spanish.

Target language
The language one translates into.

Unicode
A universal coded character set designed to include the characters from all the world’s major languages. Unicode Version 3.1 contains 94,140 encoded characters. For more information, visit the Unicode Consortium at www.unicode.org.