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LANGUAGE COMBINATION
The term "Language Combination" refers to the languages an
interpreter uses professionally. These ‘working’ languages can
be further subdivided into ‘active’ and ‘passive’
languages. Below a fuller description is provided of the different terms,
following the AIIC classification of A, B and C languages.
Active languages:
Active languages are those languages into which the interpreter works.
An active language can be one of two kinds:
| A Language: |
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The interpreter's mother tongue (or another
language strictly equivalent to a mother tongue), into which s/he
interprets from all other working languages, generally in the two
modes of interpretation, simultaneous and consecutive. AIIC members
are expected to have at least one A language. |
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| B Language: |
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A language into which the interpreter works
from one or more of her/his other languages and which, although not
a mother tongue, is a language of which s/he has perfect command.
Some interpreters work into B languages in only one of the two modes
of interpretation. In principle, an interpreter’s main active
language is the mother tongue - the language in which the interpreter
was formally educated and feels completely at ease. |
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An active language which is not the interpreter’s
mother tongue can only be acquired after years of hard work and frequent
stays in a country of that language. Usually, however, the second
active language reaches a satisfactory standard only after many years
of practice and is more suited to interpretation of technical discussions
where lexical accuracy is more important than style or very discrete
shades of meaning. It is customary only to work into the second active
language out of the mother tongue. |
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The very rare case of true bilinguals, i.e.
people whose personal circumstances have resulted in their having
two "mother tongues", is the exception that proves the rule.
Bilingual interpreters are much in demand, especially if they can
offer a third language. |
Passive languages:
| C Language: |
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Passive languages are those languages of
which the interpreter has complete understanding and from which s/he
interprets. These are what interpreters call their C languages, according
to AIIC classification. |
Working languages and language combinations
Using the information provided above as a basis, let us take an example
of an interpreter with three working languages - English, French and Russian.
By classifying them as A, B and C languages respectively we have that
interpreter’s language combination. This means that this particular
interpreter may be employed to work from Russian and French into English,
as well as from English into French.
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