Technical and scientific texts often incorporate neologisms. A neologism is a recently coined linguistic item born from development and invention. Since English-speaking countries have been for some time at the head of research, most neologisms are in English.
For the technical-scientific English translator, neologisms are one of the most common sources of translation problems. Because the pace of dictionary editing does not always meet the swiftness of the advances in science and technology, at the moment of translating a neologism, there are often no dictionaries to help and no previous publications on the subject in the target language.
The crux of the translation problem is to find a linguistic item in Spanish that will be readily accepted by prospective readers as an appropriate translation of the neologism. But, deprived of reference texts that might suggest an equivalent, only the translator's common sense and a few resources are left.
In his quest for an acceptable equivalent to a particular neologism, the translator may choose to take any of the following courses of action.
First, if the English neologism conforms to the morphological standards of Spanish, it is possible to transfer it. That is, to reproduce it as it is spelt in English. E.g.: chat as "chat" (i.e.: "conferencia virtual"); fanzine as "fanzine" (i.e.: "historieta artesanal").
If the neologism is "unreadable" in Spanish, its adaptation to suit the morphology of the target language may be considered. For example, as all Spanish verbs end in "ar", "ir" or "er", the English verb randomise becomes "randomisar" (i.e.: "seleccionar al azar"). And, as there are no final consonantal clusters in Spanish, the neologism genomics becomes "genómica" (i.e.: "disciplina vástago de la genética, que estudia los genomas"), replacing "s" for "a" to break the cluster.
In other cases, the neologism may be translated by creating a new collocation or combination of existing Spanish linguistic items. E.g.: plug mill as "laminador cerrado sobre mandril"; gelva as "acetato de polivinilo". The Spanish version of the English neologisms plug mill and gelva use existent Spanish words, newly arranged to express the meaning of the novel items.
It is also possible for the translator to "invent" a Spanish linguistic item to cipher the idea concealed in a neologism. E.g.: konk as "ratear" (i.e.: "preparar un motor"); freecutting as "maquinabilidad" (i.e.: "cualidad de los metales que permite que sean bien trabajados en una máquina"). The "invented" items often feed on standard Spanish roots ("rata" and "máquina", in our examples), and on the Spanish norms of compounding and derivation.
No matter what course of action the translator takes, it is advisable that a gloss accompanies the Spanish version of the neologism when it first appears in the text, especially when the meaning of the equivalent item is not unveiled by the context or the item itself.
The gloss can take the form of a footnote, a note or a parenthetical remark, usually a short phrase that tells in plain language what the new item means.
Footnotes are inserted at the bottom of the page on which the neologism is found preceded by an asterisk, a letter or a number of reference to the item in question. Notes are listed at the end of the translation after a number or a letter of reference that coincides with the one placed on the item in question. Parenthetical remarks appear immediately after the item, generally enclosed by round brackets or dashes.
In all cases, the gloss should be preceded by "N. T.:" or "N. del T.:" or "Nota del Traductor:" to warn the reader that the gloss belongs to the translator and not to the author of the source version.
It is worth noting that translators may resort to keeping the English neologism between parenthesis by the side of the Spanish equivalent. For example: "Una de las opciones del portfolio es la inversión de tranca (ratchet) que permite asegurar el capital en un porcentaje idéntico al porcentaje de utilidades."
In the preceding quotation the business English neologism ratchet has been incorporated into the translation in order to facilitate the understanding of "inversión de tranca" to those readers that are familiar with ratchet investment through transactions in English or that have seen the term ratchet transferred into previously translated texts.
Recapitulating, when confronted with a neologism, the translator may transfer it, adapt it, create a new collocation of existing target language items or invent a new linguistic item in Spanish. Whatever he does, he should clarify the meaning of the Spanish equivalent unless the new item is self-explanatory or explained within the text.
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