A glossary or term base in localization is a list of specialized terms and phrases that are used in a specific domain or industry. A glossary or term base is typically created and maintained by localization professionals, and it is used to ensure consistency and accuracy in the translation and localization of content.
A glossary or term base conventionally serves some of the following roles for localization programs:
- Provides a common reference point for translators, reviewers, and other localization professionals, to ensure that they are using the same terminology and conventions.
- Ensures consistency in the use of specialized terms and phrases, to prevent confusion or misunderstandings.
- Provides definitions and context for specialized terms and phrases, to help translators and reviewers understand their meaning and usage.
- Provides standardized translations for specialized terms and phrases, to ensure that they are translated consistently across different languages and locales.
Difference between Glossary and Translation Memory
The glossary and the translation memory (TM) are both core part of a company or localization team’s “linguistic assets”. As part of the linguistic assets, the glossary helps to reduce variability in term choice by keeping translations aligned to specific preselected outcomes, while the translation memory is a repository of past translations, formatted according to specific string segmentation rules. Whereas the glossary is “prescriptive” for future translation choices, the ™ is a repository of past translations, which can be leveraged in part or in full, and according to different string matching rules, for new translations.
Glossary and Machine Translation
Machine translation without customization (i.e. an “MT base model”, or basic machine translation) does not account for a glossary. Custom machine translation engines, however, often allow the user to upload the glossary to their model, ensuring that their preset translation choices are adhered to. Incorporating glossaries into MT models allows for specifications to a base model, while generally not being involved in training a base model.
Localization Glossary and search optimization
There is no direct connection or dependency between conventional SEO efforts and localization glossaries. However, by serving as a controlled vocabulary across content assets, glossaries can ensure certain linguistic choices which support ideally optimized pages in a scaled way. By controlling for choice of terminology throughout a document, glossaries may be used to better approximate content optimization beyond the selection of keywords.