Did you know that there are about 7.000 languages in the world?
About 97% of the world’s population speaks only 4 % of these languages, while only 3 % of the world speak 96% of all remaining languages. A great majority of those languages, spoken mainly by indigenous peoples, will continue to disappear at an alarming rate.
The translator’s profession is more than 2000 years old! Indeed, the oldest known translation dates back to the 3rd century BC: it is a translation of the Old Testament into Greek.
The Bible is considered to be the most translated book. Some parts of this book have been translated into Klingon! However, ‘Listen to God and Live Forever’ has been translated into more than 600 languages. Also, United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been translated into over 400 languages. And interestingly, Modern favorite Harry Potter has been translated into more than 70 languages.
UNESCO has an online database named ‘Index Translationum’. This database will show a list of all the books translated all over the world. Agatha Christie (7233 translations), Jules Verne (4751 translations) and William Shakespeare (4293 translations) are the top 3 most translated authors according to recent translation statistics.
The English language has more than 250,000 words. So, it is important to know maximum world while translating into or out of English! And an average person knows around just 10-20,000 words.
During the first decade of the 21st century, over 75% of books between the years 2000 and 2010 were translated into French or German and just 5% into Chinese.
And a professional translator can translate around 250 words within an hour. A translator working full time can translate around 520,000 words per year.
