Interpreters and Language Variation in Conference Work

We at Sonora Translators provide our services to entities from industry, media, academia, commerce, and government, who have relied on us to communicate effectively with Spanish speakers. We make it possible for our clients to understand and be understood by folks who come from far and wide in the Spanish-speaking world.

Recently, someone asked us how interpreters are able to understand presenters who hail from far away. That is a legitimate question – geographical location powerfully determines spoken language. Wording and syntax do not walk in lockstep across countries with the same language. Ask a Spaniard or a Latin American, and you will be rewarded with colorful examples that contrast their own form of Spanish against what is heard from the mouths of people from any other of the 20 Spanish-speaking countries.

The same thing happens with English. For sure, even within the United States, variations in wording, phrasing and accent quickly reveal their provenance within our country; domestic diversity aside, we’re regarded as a unified country that speaks what is called American English. Also, Englishes other than our domestic U.S. brand are commonly spoken at international conferences.

So, what impact do these variations in language have on conference work? The short answer is that conference presenters, independently of the language they’re using, overwhelmingly perform in a standard version of it endowed with broad-spectrum intelligibility. ‘Standard’ refers to what may be heard, for instance, in public broadcasting, a variety that eschews hyperlocal idioms and tends to be reasonably serviceable in the trade of international communication. (On the odd occasion, an obscure metaphor may make an appearance, but we’ll talk about that another day.) For sure, both Spanish- and English-speaking presenters often delight us with expressions that we’re able to comprehend, while we’d convey them differently ourselves. 

In fact, it is largely the vernacular spoken word that runs wild with idiosyncratic variations -- colloquialisms, humor, slang and idioms that originate from social or regional groups with specific dialectal characteristics of their own that deviate from the standard linguistic currency of their larger geographical and cultural area. The vernacular is decidedly not what is heard in multi-national meetings.

Also, we interpreters are accustomed to receiving written materials to help us prepare in advance of an event. We’ve also been hired to attend the formal meetings’ rehearsal, which gives us an invaluable opportunity to become acquainted with what is going to be said during the conference. Preparation makes our work not only possible, but quite enjoyable.

Long live standard language and preparation.