UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES
W O R L D H E A L T H O R G A N I Z A T I O N
ORGANISATION MONDIALE DE LA SANTÉ
EXECUTIVE BOARD EB2/3Ó
31 August 1948 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH Second Session
LINGUISTIC POLICÏ FOR PUBLICATIONS Report by the Director-General
At the f i r s t Health Assembly， a suggestion was made for the p r i n t i n g , i n as many languages as possible, of the publications of the World Health Organization。 The Assembly approved the
recommendation of the Committee on Programme that the matter should be referred t o the Executive Board for consideration (A/78, p. 5)•
This proposal provides the opportunity for review of the implications of m u l t i l i n g u a l publication, and suggests the need for a clearly defined l i n g u i s t i c policy i n regard t o publications.
1 LINGUISTIC MODALITIES OF PUBLICATION
The following are possible l i n g u i s t i c modalities of publication: j
1.1 Material i e received and published i n one and the same language.
Example； Most national publications
1.2 Material i s received i n either of two (or more) languages^ but i s published only i n the language i n which i t i s received^ i n a
single mixed-language edition*
Examples: Schweizerische medizjnische Wochenschrift Several Scandinavian Acta
Boletin de l a Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana
Note: Output of words, and hence detailed work, i s the same as i n 1. E d i t o r i a l staff must be l i n g u i s t i c a l l y q u a l i f i e d to deal with the several languages^ but no translations are required.
1.3 Material i s received i n several languages and published i n only one language•
Example : B u l l e t i n mensuel de 1T Office international d!Iiygiène
« м ш м м а н ш м а м м а м — — M — — — — - к м — » — — — 1 _ • “ ？ i ш • • . m •• . •«• • — — « — « — » » • • и • i i . ' . m n . » — m » — — m — —圓 _ i ,圓 mi ¡ • j • ， —
publique
Note: Output of words i s the same as i n 1 ！^d 2. Provision i s
required for translations of a l l material no》 received i n the language of publication, but editing and preparation of material for press vían be done on a u n i l i n g u a l basis, and the detailed e d i t o r i a l work i s not materially increased.
Jo page 2
〕,，4 Material i s received i n only one language and published i n several languages^ a separate edition for each language о
Example : British Medical Bulletin
Note : Output of words i s double for two languages, treble for three, etc. Editing of the original material i s carried out in one language, separate provision being made for translation of a l l material, and for checking、 preparing for press, and proof-reading of translations.
1.5 Material i s received in either of two languages and published i n
• .".... - • и • • • • ‘ • • •• ！ «.II. T ！ I. .1 щи
two languages^ a separate edition for each language>
Examples: A l l WHO publications^"
Note : See section 2»
2. IMPLICATIONS OF MULTILINGUAL EDITING AND PUBLICATION This case i s complicated by the need for both editing and
2
publishing i n more than one language<, A l l material received i s published i n both English and French，and the detailed work of preparing for press and proof—reading i s therefore doubled, with a corresponding need for duplication of s t a f f . Moreover， the staff must
>
:include translators from English into French and from French i n t o .English,
As received, manuscripts are sometimes i n English and sometimes in French， and i t i s necessary that the staff responsible for
i n i t i a l reading and editing of manuscripts - principally the
medical e d i t o r i a l staff 一 should include both English-speaking and French-speaking members。 While bilingualism does.not double the volume of work i n t h i s phase, some diminution of t o t a l output necessarily results by comparison with a unilingual medical editorial s t a f f working i n only one language。 A further source of loss of output i s that the f i n a l revision of translations of technical articles must be undertaken by medical
Except the Chronicle, which i s published i n five languages. Of these, the Chinese edition i s produced entirely i n China, the Spanish edition i s translated by a part—time medical translator, and the
Russian edition i s translated and revised by WHO translators• These three editions are consistently in arrears^ partly because the writing and editing of the material i s done i n English and French, partly because there i s no regular machinery for translation into languages other than English and French, The present ad. hoc arrangements for the Russian and Spanish translations would not be feasible on a larger scale.
^ The remarks which follow refer to conditions and requirements that w i l l exist when the publishing programme i s being f u l l y implemented.
ËB2/36 page 3
e d i t o r i a l s t a f f . Each' l i n g u i s t i c group of medical editorial staff must therefore (a) read and prepare manuscript originally submitted i n i t s own language (b) read and, i f necessary, revise translations into i t s own language of manuscripts originally submitted i n the other language•
工t i s essential that each member of the editorial staff should have a good visual knowledge of the other working language and, given sufficiently stable conditions, i t should be possible for most medical e d i t o r i a l staff to do some of their work i n the other language
(detailed revision of manuscripts and matters of literary style excluded)«
With two editing and publishing languages, i t i s feasible5
although not easy^ to preserve functional coherence of the medical e d i t o r i a l staff. Addition of a third language would result i n a material increase i n the number of medical editorial staff required and a functional disirrbegratior^ for i t i s not to bo expected that medical staff could be found who would a l l have one of the languages as the mother tongue and a good visual knowledge of the other two.
I f the number of languages were further increased, co-ordination of the texts i n different languages and unified control of their accuracy and quality would be quite impracticable•
An alternative would be that a l l material was received and edited i n two languages^ and that translations should be made of the edited material into additional languages. This would mean that the number of "translators would have to be doubled for a t h i r d language，
trebled for a fourth language, and so on, with a corresponding increase i n the staff (with a knowledge of the relevant languages) required for preparing manuscripts for press， proof-reading, and stenographic and clerical services. Without additional medical e d i t o r i a l s t a f f , with knowledge of the relevant languages， effective control of the •
adequacy of technical translations would be lost* 4
A good lay reviser may be better than a bad medical reviser. But3
i n general^ a l l technical translations should be revisad by medically- qualified staff.
4 Some of the hazards of technical translation are i l l u s t r a t e d by the following examples, taken from a translation commissioned in a non- working language. Salmonella was treated as the паше of a tomi, chicken-pox was included as" one of the conventional p e s t i l e n t i a l diseases, and reference was made to the Singapore Etymological
Station» These errors were discovered by a reviser without technical knowledge, and other errors may possibly have escaped attention.
EB2/36 page 4
Apart from the functional complexity of publication i n more than two languages, and the need for great additions to s t a f f (and hence to accommodation and other overheads)», there i s the question of the
д additional production costs irrvolvecL
I f the cos七 of printing and pager for 3000 copies of a publication i n one language i s the cost of printing tho same number of copies i n two languages (1500 of each) w i l l be not veiy greatly below 2£, and the cost of printing i n three languages about Assuming the t o t a l number of copies required to be the same, the cost per copy
would therefore be more than doubled. In practice, i t i s probable that t o t a l circulation would be increased^ but that t h i s would never
compensate for the greatly increased i n i t i a l costs of p r i n t i n g .
I f a l l WHO publications were to "be published i n three instead of two languages, it i s estimated that the following additional ^baff would be required:
Medical e d i t o r i a l staff 2 Lay e d i t o r i a l s t a f f 5
Translators 6 Stenographers and clerks 10
Total 23
A similar increment of s t a f f would be necessary for each additional language undertaken.
3 DECENTRALIZED PUBLICATION OF EDITIONS IK OTHER LANGUAGES
Apart from the implications to t h e budget for E d i t o r i a l Services of increasing the number of languages i n which WHO publications are published, there remains the increasing operational d i f f i c u l t y of ensuring co-ordination of e d i t o r i a l work i n several languages within the one unit ^
I t i s suggested- therefore5 that i f an increase i n the number of languages be possible on f i n a n c i a l grounds, production of further editions i n other languages should be decentralized. For example;
editions of WHO publications i n the Russian language could be undertaken f a r more expeditiously i n the USSR than i n Geneva. Corrected proofs i n English or French could be sent to the USSR, where a l l further stages including t r a n s l a t i o n , revision, preparation for press, p r i n t i n g , bind- ing^ and proof-reading, would be undertaken, A similar arrangement could perhaps be made through regional organizations of WHO for
publication i n other languages, e.g. Spanish.
