LMC - Medical Spanish Translation

Italian is spoken by approximately 70 million people as a maternal language, by approximately 120 million people as a cultural language, and ranks as the 19° language spoken around the world.

Italian is classified as a Romance language because it descends from Vulgar Latin, and it is considered the closest one to Latin for the vocabulary. Standard Italian originated mainly from the Tuscan dialect and, with the inclusion of several influences from other dialects, was finally adopted after the unification of Italy . As a Romance language, it shares several linguistic features (lexicon, morphology, phonology and syntax) with other Romance languages such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and others.

In medieval times and especially during the Renaissance, Italian was the primary commercial language. In modern times it continues to be used as a lingua franca in several environments, as the ecclesiastic. Italian terms are widely used in many fields as music, opera, fashion industry and visual arts. Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, one of the four official languages in Switzerland, the second official language in Vatican City and in parts of Slovenia and Croatia with an Italian minority. It is spoken in several countries with a large number of Italian immigrants, as Latin America and the United States . It is one of the official languages of the European Union.

Common translation pairs in Italian are English to Italian translations and Italian to English translations. In the medical world, English to Italian Medical Translation is more prevalent than Italian to English Medical Translation. This transpires most likely because English is a language in which much clinical and scientific research is conducted and published, thus many advances in life sciences and medicine are first available in English and then translated into other languages.

One important factor to take into account when translating medical documents from English into Italian is the formality of the medical language, substantially more formal in Italy than in the United States . Both the Italian and the English medical vocabulary contain a large number of terms derived from the ancient Greek and Latin languages, but in Italian the Greek and Latin derived terms are more numerous and more widely used. The sentence structure is also less linear and more convoluted than in non specialized languages. This is especially important to remember when translating from the English, in order to avoid the temptation of a literal translation that may be correct, but certainly not desirable especially when the target audience is medical professionals. An example: the Italian word glicemia , that derives from the Greek words sugar and blood, is the term used for blood sugar. The literal translation zuccheri nel sangue is correct, but not as commonly used by medical professionals, who tend to use the more formal glicemia even when talking with their patients. If the translated document is intended for a non professional target audience, or children, it may be useful to include the less formal term in parentheses, or give a brief explanation of the formal medical term.

Since English in modern times became the language in which much clinical and scientific research is conducted and published, its influence in the Italian medical language is substantial. Many English words are commonly used, for instance: follow-up, trial, check-up, by-pass. The use of acronyms is another English influence. Several acronyms are the same as in English, for instance AIDS and DNA, but some English acronyms have an Italian correspondent acronym, for instance NSAID—non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug—in Italian is FANS— Farmaco antinfiammatorio Non Steroideo ; CT—Computerized Tomography—in Italian is TC— Tomografia Computerizzata .

The differences between the variations of the Italian language among the different cultures that use it do not appear to give particular problems. Some of the most notable differences are in the Italian variation spoken in Switzerland, due to the influences from French and German, also official languages. Despite these differences, standard Italian is widely understood, therefore does necessarily require a thorough cultural adaptation, especially when the target audience is medical professionals. It may be useful to keep these differences in mind in case of a non professional target audience.

Since quality in medical translation entails high accuracy (fidelity and transparency), proper translation of the medical terminology and attention to the target audience should be considered in much detail when translating into Italian. At Latino Medica Consultants, translation transparency is addressed by ensuring that the translation team includes a native speaker of the target language, as well as thorough knowledge of the medical field and topic of translation. If you are a Medical or Life Science business looking for consistent high quality medical translations into Italian, please contact us so that we can discuss how we can serve you. Also, feel free to browse through our examples section to review our medical translation work.