Wikipedia:Translation
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Requesting a translation from a foreign language to English[edit]
Requesting a translation from a foreign-language Wikipedia into English is easy.
- If the English article already exists (but a translation would be useful because the article in the foreign language is of higher quality):
- simply place a translation template from the category Category:Expand by language Wikipedia templates on the English article page. For example, to request improvement of the English article on Fuerteventura, based on the equivalent article on Spanish Wikipedia, place {{Expand Spanish|Fuerteventura}} on the English article Fuerteventura.
- If the English article does not yet exist:
- you can:
- create the article on English Wikipedia as a stub article, explaining or defining the subject of the article in a sentence or two;
- then immediately tag your stub article with a translation template, as above.
- or
- add a page request red link in the Requested articles Project section with the proposed title of the article which will contain the translation adding an interwiki link to the foreign-language Wikipedia page(s). Note that fewer people will likely see a request created using this method.
- you can:
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- In either case, articles must meet the relevant notability criteria for the English-language Wikipedia – foreign-language Wikipedias may have differing standards, and the acceptance of an article in one language is no guarantee that it will be accepted in another.
Note that this page is not for requesting translations of copyrighted sources outside Wikipedia. It is also not for pages currently in English Wikipedia that are not in English. For that, please see Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English.
Articles needing translation[edit]
- Category:Articles needing translation from foreign-language Wikipedias contains all articles tagged as needing translation into English. Browse the appropriate language category to find an article you are interested in.
- Tools like this one can locate articles that may need translation by finding foreign-language articles with no interwiki link to English, but interwiki links to several other languages.
- A project specifically working to translate key medical articles. Wikipedia:MED/Translation_project
License requirements[edit]
A translation is a derivative work. Wikipedia articles are under a copyleft license that requires attribution to the original source and authors in all derivative works. How to do this is described on Translating from other language Wikimedia projects.
How to translate[edit]
Translation takes work. Machine translation almost always produces very low quality results. Wikipedia consensus is that an unedited machine translation, left as a Wikipedia article, is worse than nothing. (This is partly because translation templates automatically carry links to machine translations, so readers can easily access machine translations anyway—pasting a machine translation into an "article" really achieves nothing).
Articles on a given subject in different languages are typically edited independently, and need not correspond closely in form, style or content. If portions of an article appear to be low-quality or unverifiable, use your judgment and do not translate those portions. Once you have finished translating, you may ask a proofreader to check the translation.
The new, translated article must credit the source article. The recommended way to do this is to do both of the following:
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- (a) Have the first edit summary of the target article include an interlanguage link to the source article. Example:
Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Exact name of French article]]; see its history for attribution. - (b) Place the template {{Translated page}} on the target article's talk page.
- (a) Have the first edit summary of the target article include an interlanguage link to the source article. Example:
You are not required to import the revision history, but if you wish to do so, ask at Wikipedia:Requests for page importation for the page to either be imported into your userspace or over your translated version of the article. (See also Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia.)
Avoid being overly influenced by the style of the original. With the exception of quotations, use normal English encyclopedic style, as appropriate for the topic.
The English text should be understandable to a wide audience, so – other things being equal – use everyday English expressions rather than jargon or foreign expressions. It may be necessary to add material explaining terms or cultural concepts unfamiliar to English-speaking readers.
Translation from English into a foreign language[edit]
Translations of an article on English Wikipedia into some other language are covered at Wikipedia:Translate us.
Classroom collaborations[edit]
Wikipedia welcomes the involvement of students in article editing. Article translation is particularly well-suited to student involvement. Such efforts provide useful, real-world translation experience for students, who will be motivated by the fact that their work will be seen by thousands of Wikipedia readers. They also benefit Wikipedia readers, who gain access to information about other cultures and peoples. For assistance setting up a classroom translation project, please see Wikipedia:Student assignments and Wikipedia:WikiProject Classroom coordination.
Userboxes[edit]
{{User Translator}} may be used to indicate your willingness to translate/proofread and your participation in this project:
{{User Translator|es}} produces:
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{{User Translator|hi|proofreader=yes}} produces:
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{{User Translator|ar|project=no}} produces:
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{{User Translator|de|proofreader=yes|project=no}} produces:
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{{User Translator|sd|project=no}} produces:
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{{User Translator|sd|proofreader=yes|project=no}} produces:
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After putting this template on a userpage, the page will be added to the appropriate subcategory of Category:Available translators in Wikipedia. When the proofreader attribute is set to 'yes', the page will also be added to a subcategory of Category:Available proofreaders in Wikipedia.
{{User Translator 2}} works in the same way in the other direction (from English to another language).
See also[edit]
- Category:Wikipedia translation templates
- EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators of Scientific Articles
- Machine translation
- Template:Notenglish-section
- Wikipedia:Basic copyediting, a task commonly following translation
- Wikipedia:Native Cherokee Lexicon Translation Project
- Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English, for pages on the English Wikipedia that will shortly be deleted unless translated
- Wikipedia:Translating German Wikipedia
- Wikipedia:Translators available
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Cross-language Editing and Learning Exchange
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- Wiktionary:Translations
- Meta:Translation of the week
- MediaWiki translation on translatewiki.net, a localisation platform for translation communities, language communities, and open source projects
- LOGOS - Multilingual Translation Portal (translation course)
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