We update our translation engines

At the end of 2016, the new grammar rules for the Catalan language were approved. A set of orthographic changes due to the evolution of the Catalan language. What do these changes involve?

Some of these changes affect only a few words, whereas others affect more. Some even amend previous decisions, but the aim has always been to maintain the balance between translation and modernity with a view to modernising the orthographic code.

Goodbye to the diacritical accent

This is one of the most significant among the orthographic changes to be applied and all dictionaries will be required to adapt to the new rules. A total of 136 diacritical accents will no longer be applied, going from 150 to just 14.

Words with prefixes or compound words: Words that contain the sound [r] between vowels preceded by the following prefixes are written with rr: a - or cor -, (arítmia becomes arrítmia, coresponsable becomes corresponsable). The same occurs to compound words based on Greek raqui (o) -, rin (o) -, riz (o) -, rodo -, - rràfia, - rrexi i – rrinc, (cefaloraquidi becomes cefalorraquidi and otorinolaringòleg becomes otorrinolaringòleg).
Use of the hyphen in compound words with prefixes: A hyphen is written when the prefix precedes a combination (exdirectora general becomes ex-directora general, viceprimer ministre becomes vice-primer ministre). Lexicalised expressions are written together and without a hyphen, such as un sensepapers or una contrarrellotge, but with a hyphen déu-n’hi-do and cotó-en-pèl, if they have a graphic accent in the first component.
Suppression of the dieresis in derivatives finishing with the suffix –al: fluidal, laical, helicoidal and trapezoidal.

As well as these changes, new words have been included, such as: blog and cànnabis, and some issues have been resolved regarding names and place names: (Dèbora, Raül, Rubèn; el Figueró, Montgrony, Binibèquer).

These rules shall be applied within a period of four years.

At ATLS, we have updated our terminological dictionaries of machine translation from Spanish into Catalan. Furthermore, taking advantage of these changes to the rules, we have revised the contents of these dictionaries to ensure that our translations continue to be of the highest quality.

Do you need a translation into Catalan? AT Language Solutions will be happy to do it for you!