EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK'S CODED NUANCES PROVE A LINGUISTIC CHALLENGE
Calm, composed and consistent are the watchwords of the European Central Bank, write Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt and Javier Blas in London. Except perhaps if you listen in Spanish, French or Italian.
Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, has hinted to financial markets that another interest rate increase is highly likely next week, using the English code-words "strong vigilance" to signal a rise is in the pipeline.
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But a study by Barclays Capital reveals that when his words have been translated into other European languages, a number of different alternatives have been chosen, and even a little un-central-bank-like passion added.
The divergences, highlighting the problems of working in all 20 European Union official languages, have not caused a meltdown in financial markets.
The ECB has its own small team of "terminologists" to choose the most appropriate translations for stock ECB phrases, ensuring its messages are generally suitably nuanced. And ECB watchers generally work largely on English texts.
But Julian Callow, economist at Barclays Capital, says that nonetheless, "when officials speak in different languages, there is sometimes a possibility that their language will be misunderstood".
In Spanish, the bank has raised eyebrows by opting for the phrase extremavigilancia, which might convey the right degree of southern European passion, but to many sounds over-hawkish - especially when then translated back into English.
"Reading the ECB in Spanish seems like the central bank is facing galloping inflation," says Jose Carlos Diez, chief economist of Intermoney in Madrid. As Elena Nieto, an ECB watcher at BBVA in Madrid, points out "extrema vigilancia sounds much stronger in Spanish than the original in English".
Whereas in a language such as German, the translation of "strong vigilance" is fairly straightforward - grosse Wachsamkeit - conversion into other, especially Latin, tongues has apparently caused more headaches.
In ECB French language statements and publications, the phrase has been translated variously as demeurer extrêmement vigilant, très grande vigilance or extrême vigilance.
In Italian, it has appeared as un atteggiamento vigile, un atteggiamento molto vigile or è essenziale vigilare.
The ECB yesterday played down the significance of the changes, saying that the various French versions meant exactly the same thing, and pointed out that a strict translation of "strong vigilance" into Spanish - perhaps fuerte vigilancia - would not sound right to native speakers.
But its linguistic labouring has has at least added another dimension to the work of those whose job it is to watch the ECB.
外语作祟 欧洲央行信息“失真”
镇静、沉着、一致，这些词是欧洲央行(ECB)的标语 ―― 除非你听到的是西班牙语、法语或意大利语。
欧洲央行行长让-克洛德?特里谢(Jean-Claude Trichet)已向金融市场暗示，下周很有可能再次升息。特里谢在讲话时用英文“高度警觉”(strong vigilance)来暗示升息在即。
但巴克莱资本(Barclays Capital)的一项研究显示，当人们把他的话翻译成其它欧洲语言时，会选择多种不同的表达法，甚至还要加上一些不符合央行风格的激情。
这些差异突出表明了欧盟采用全部20种官方语言所造成的问题，但它并没有导致金融市场的崩溃。欧洲央行专门有一个“术语专家”小组，来选择欧洲央行常用语最合适的译文，确保其意思整体上得到了恰当细微的反映。而关注欧洲央行的人士通常使用英文版本。
但巴克莱资本经济学家朱利安?卡洛(Julian Callow)则表示，“官员们用几种不同语言讲话时，他们的话有时就有被误解的可能。”
