Persian Translation

A sound that goes unwritten: the link that builds the phrase

In this language the link between a noun and the word qualifying it is made with a short vowel, and in everyday writing that vowel is usually not shown. The reader works the link out from context. When Turkish noun phrases are carried across, a wrong reading of where the link falls leaves it unclear which word is qualifying which.

In an official document that ambiguity is expensive: in long institutional names and chains of titles, misplacing the link can make one body look like a sub-unit of another. Long phrases are therefore broken up, and where necessary the position of the link is marked explicitly.

This language also stands apart from those around it in the structure of its stems; it carries no gender distinction and its verb conjugation is regular. In certain respects that makes translation from Turkish easier, but because a substantial part of the vocabulary comes from a neighbouring language, the original sense of a term and its established use in this language do not always coincide.

The gulf between the formal written language and speech

The formal written register of this language parts company with everyday speech not only in the choice of words but in verb forms as well. Administrative correspondence expects long, indirect and courteous formulas; plain statement is taken as rude. Carried across word for word, the comparatively terse formulas of Turkish petitions leave the text sounding immoderately blunt to the reader it is meant for.

The content of the document, by contrast, is not embellished. Formulas of courtesy belong to the salutation and the closing alone; operative clauses and declarations are carried across as they stand, in full and with nothing added.

Area	Frequent error	Result
Long noun phrases	Placing the link in the wrong position	The institutional hierarchy is misread
Forms of address	Carrying Turkish terseness across	The text reads as blunt and careless
Calendar	Converting the date by guesswork	The date of the document becomes disputable
Numerals	Mixing the two systems	The number becomes unreadable

Where the demand comes from

Healthcare accounts for the largest share. For patients arriving for treatment, earlier test results, operation reports, prescriptions and discharge summaries are translated in both directions; giving medicines by the name of the active substance and preserving dosage information exactly bears directly on patient safety in these texts.

The second area is property purchase and company formation: title deeds, partnership agreements, tax records and correspondence with banks. The third is education; undergraduate and postgraduate applications call for diplomas and course descriptions. The fourth is family matters: marriage, birth and custody documents. On the commercial side, contracts and customs papers generate the volume.

Carrying names into the Latin alphabet

There is no single settled rule for carrying names in this language into Turkish or into international use. The same name may be spelled one way in the person’s passport, another in a visa record and another again in a hospital file; long vowels and consonants with no Turkish counterpart are the chief source of the divergence.

A name is therefore never written by ear in translation. The standard is the Latin-letter spelling in the person’s passport, and that spelling is preserved exactly throughout. Where the source document gives the name only in the original alphabet, we ask for the passport spelling.

The same principle governs the suffixes in family names and the names of places. A name that appears with different spellings in different documents is handled as a different person in hospital, bank and land registry records.

Calendar, name and numeral

Official documents are dated by a calendar of their own whose year opens at the spring equinox. The month names and the year count of that calendar do not coincide with the international calendar; and in the region the same calendar is in some practices used with different month names. Dates are not converted by guesswork in translation; the date is carried across with a statement of the calendar it belongs to.

Personal names are carried across with the passport spelling; the suffixes common in family names are not split off but preserved as part of the name. Since two separate systems of numerals are in use, one system must be kept to throughout the document; identity and file numbers are not rewritten but carried across exactly.

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