Language Ledger - Newsletter of Indy Translations, LLC	Vol. 04 No. 02 Winter/Spring 2004
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More than half of the world’s approximately 6,000 languages are facing likely extinction within the next 50 years. Many of these languages still have thousands of living speakers, yet they are not being passed down to the next generation. Such languages are considered “dying” languages since eventually their last native speaker will pass away leaving no one left to carry on the language. But many ask why should anyone care?

When a minor language dies and is replaced by a more dominant language, the world loses a piece of its cultural history. It is not any different from the extinction of an animal species. The culture of an entire people is tied to its language so more than just the language is being lost.

Furthermore, the majority of dying languages are not written down. Once they have disappeared, all records of the language and cultural heritage will also perish. For this reason, linguists are in a struggle to record the sounds, grammar and oral histories of as many of these languages as possible.

No matter how widely spoken a language is, it is still vulnerable. For example, the Latin language was spoken throughout the entire Roman Empire, but it splintered into several different languages and the language itself fell into disuse. Even though it is still learned by millions of students and used in a limited sense in the Catholic Church, there are no living native speakers of it. The lesson for us all is to be sure to pass along our native languages to our children so that the full breath of human civilization is not lost.

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With its rapid growth and phenomenal reach, the Internet provides an immense opportunity for any company to promote its services, products and information easily and cheaply across the world.  Small, local companies and large corporations can now afford to reach foreign customers through the Internet.

However, many prospective international customers may have limited abilities to read the English-written website, or might prefer to read the site in their own language. Such individuals and companies seeking information in their native language are not well served by the majority of American-run Internet websites.

Currently 90% of all websites are only in English. It is estimated that 70% of American-run or owned websites will be translated into one foreign language or another by 2005. As many companies are finding, now is the time to invest in making your website multilingual and truly reaching out to the available marketplace.  

Indy Translations proudly offers complete translations of websites, including design and localization, to help your business reach the global market. Our translators, graphic artists and web designers will completely replicate, localize and translate your website. This is a process that involves not just translation of text, but also the equally important translation of images, graphs and meta tags.

The crucial localization process involves changing all regional elements of the website related to the target country or culture. This may include alterations to telephone numbers and addresses to make international contact easier, metric and currency conversions so that measurements or fees are clearly understandable, as well as the alteration of existing images and icons to create a culturally appropriate display. Some images may have very different connotations in different cultures and our experts strive to revise or create images to avoid any unwanted sentiments. 

By having your website professionally translated, your company can reach out to the world while ensuring that its message will be received appropriately and accurately by all international customers who visit the website, regardless of their native language and culture.

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Icelandic is the national language of Iceland, the island nation of 280,000 residents located off the southeastern shore of Greenland. The language is rarely used or spoken outside Iceland, in spite of the fact that from the middle of the 19th century until the First World War about 20% of the population emigrated to Canada and the United States.

Icelandic stems from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings who settled the island in the 9th century and has, in fact, changed very little since those times.  As a result, while most speakers of modern English find Shakespeare written in Old English difficult to read, a speaker of modern Icelandic would not have the same difficulties understanding a piece written in Old Norse.  Other factors have played a part in the preservation of the language, including the country’s relative isolation throughout most of its history and a strong movement for purism in Icelandic vocabulary, calling for the creation of words for new technology, rather than adopting them from other languages.                                        

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