The ECHA-term project
Multilingual REACH and CLP Terminology
EAFT - Oslo, 11 October 2012
Dieter Rummel, Translation Centre for the Bodies of the EU
Luxembourg
Before we start:
The Translation Centre for the Bodies of the EU
•Translation service for the decentralised agencies of the EU
•Working for about 55 clients
•Translating legal, technical, scientific texts, Community
trademarks – as well as lunch menus
•Rather small (110 translators) and young (17 years)
•Working with a vast network of freelancers
Terminology at the Centre
• A small central terminology unit coordinates between 3 and 9
projects per year;
• 1 translator per language is a terminology coordinator
• “Translation oriented” terminology;
• Occasionally terminology projects requested by Clients;
• Since 1999 involved in the IATE (“Inter-Active Terminology for
Europe”) project for a creation of a single terminology database
for the language services of the EU;
• Technical maintenance of the IATE is ensured by the Centre;
• Chair of the interinstitutional IATE Management Group.
´s Tasks
Background:
• Translations are one of the ECHA‘s means to support the industry
• 6500 pages published in 22 EU languages (leaflets, technical guidance, web
content, IT manuals, administrative documents and news items)
• Challenge: complex and highly technical terminology
• The ECHA-term project was launched with the objective to provide ECHA
and its stakeholders with a reliable, coherent, up-to-date source of
terminology to harmonise the use of terminology in the REACH and CLP
context, to enhance clear communication and ultimately to reduce costs
for the stakeholders
•
Launch to the public
2011 April, at http://echa.cdt.europa.eu
Managed for ECHA by the Translation Centre in Luxembourg (CdT)
•
Project development
Phase I 2009
Creation of REACH core terminology
Definition of requirements
Proof-of-concept
Phase II 2010
Building the IT system
Extending the content
Tests by a user group
Content
• 1000 CLP and REACH terms, phrases and definitions in 22 EU
languages
• 9 multilingual pictograms with images
• 53 substances of very high concern with
EC and CAS numbers
• 100-150 new terms are added annually
Content creation
• Definition of a relevant corpus in the source language
(usually English);
• Semiautomatic extraction of concepts and completion with
definition, reference, context, note etc. by terminologists;
• Validation by 2 or 3 translators at CdT to ensure pertinence;
• Formal revision by English terminologist;
• Validation by ECHA;
• Multilingual phase: target equivalents and relevant
information are completed CdT terminologists;
• Ideally target equivalents are validated by experts (ECHA);
• Import of data in ECHA-term;
• Maintenance of data following user feedback.
IT system: Features
Look-up of translations
Look-up of definitions
On-line editing
Entry history
Consultation - Validation
User management
Download of terminology (Excel, TBX)
Feedback management
Statistics
Home page
Monolingual search
Bilingual search
Alphabetical index
Editing
Entry history
Consultation and validation
So far, so well....
• Over 800 registered users (translators and industry)
• ca. 300 queries per day
ECHA-term user survey 2012
• ECHA-term makes my work more efficient
• The terms in the database are relevant to
me
Strongly
disagree
5%
Cannot
say
13%
Strongly
agree
31%
Neither
agree nor
disagree
15%
Strongly
disagree
2%
Neither
agree nor
disagree
6%
Cannot say
6%
Strongly
agree
42%
Agree
36%
Agree
44%
Outlook and questions
• Continuous extension of the glossary (next: biohazards)
• Does size matter? Are we ambitious enough?
• How can we improve usability of terminology in ECHA-term (terminology checking
and highlighting of terminology in the ECHA’s web site and documentation)?
• Do we need an ECHA-term “app” for mobile computing?
• Creation of an active user community?
Thank you for your attention!
For more information see:
http://echa.cdt.europa.eu
http://echa.europa.eu
http://cdt.europa.eu