Have you ever heard of the term netiquette? This portmanteau neatly combines the words network and etiquette and refers to how we should behave online. There are even Netiquette Guidelines, less commonly known as RFC 1855 and published in 1995, which set out all the rules to be followed on the world wide web to improve online communication, which sometimes seems more like organised chaos.

Here we have compiled a brief summary of the most important rules to follow:
– Capitals: should not be used to write entire words or sentences as it gives the impression of shouting in a disrespectful manner;
– Title: always choose a concise title which allows the reader to immediately understand the ideas behind main text;
– Avoid writing too much or barbed/aggressive texts: always write using clear and concise language in a polite manner, even when countering an argument or expressing a diverse opinion to that of the reader. It is also recommended to wrap the text in order to make it readable on any computer or any mobile device.
– Syntax/spelling/punctuation errors: try to avoid making basic errors (reading the text again helps – take our word for it) and at the same time do not rudely berate someone if they have committed such errors in a way as to make them feel stupid or ignorant.
– Privacy: never publish texts or images from other sources without citing the source (e.g. publishing the link) nor should you publish sensitive data, photos or contents of an email or other message without the author’s consent.
– Emoticons: use the so-called smileys sparingly, whilst on one hand they can be used to lighten the language used on social media, they can easily cause misunderstandings or lower the register too much.

Remember… verba volant, scripta manent!

Always in step with the times and firmly focussed on the future. Intrawelt® has consolidated its leadership in the sector of translation, interpreting and multilingual document-management services thanks to the skills and professionalism it has developed and consolidated during its 26 years of business. Over a quarter of a century of experience and a client portfolio full of big Italian and international names are a guarantee of our high-quality professional language services. Furthermore, we are certified by TÜV Italia, an internationally recognised body that closely monitors production cycles and project management in order to ensure an excellent service.

Intrawelt® was established on 14 January 1991 thanks to the vision of Alessandro Potalivo who, having finished his studies at the prestigious faculty of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Bologna, decided to launch himself into the field of multilingual document management with an agency targeting the flourishing local market and with an eye, even at this early stage, to expansion on the international market. This challenge was set on a solid base of linguistic training and a great passion for intercultural mediation, as well as experience in the sector acquired during a course of studies involving work with translation agencies in Bologna and local businesses in Le Marche. The initial idea was to create a network of clients – locally and also further afield – in need of high-quality linguistic services. An ambitious and challenging project, which grew with time and really took off in 1995 thanks to the advent of the Internet.

In fact, the internet brought a veritable explosion of content to the sector, opening new doors for Intrawelt’s commercial expansion. At Intrawelt®, we did not let this opportunity pass us by, establishing ourselves on the national and international markets with new collaborations.

At the heart of Intrawelt’s success is our philosophy of transparent project management for clients. A relationship of trust is formed from the very beginning, based on total collaboration between parties. We listen and adapt to the needs of our clients, but without compromising our workflow which has proved fundamental over the years in guaranteeing an excellent service.

Intrawelt® has grown significantly over its 26 years of business. From a small office with a team of just two, we have become a well-defined structure with 25 in-house professionals who assess the demands of a constantly evolving market every day: the establishment of the internet on a global scale has produced an exponential increase in competition, raising quality standards for language services. We do not shy away from this challenge. In fact, it only makes us more ambitious, as our offices around Italy and Europe demonstrate: from Rome, Milan and Perugia, to Munich and London. An extensive network of contacts serves as a concrete and indisputable testament to the quality of our services.

Intrawelt® has always been a leader in the sector, also in terms of technology. Back in 1991, we offered cutting-edge services thanks to the first document management systems, and today we make use of all the latest-generation project management tools: large server and databases to optimise workflow, cutting-edge software to aid the translation process and graphic and desktop-publishing services combined with many other tools that make Intrawelt® a complete solution for the management of multilingual documents from editing original drafts to creating high-resolution documents for publication.

What is Ferragosto?

Ferragosto is Italy’s August Bank Holiday, on 15 August every year. It coincides with the Catholic celebration of the Assumption of Mary and is marked by celebrations such as outdoor concerts and parties, food festivals, and firework displays all across Italy. The celebration of “Feriae Augusti” was introduced by the 1^st Emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus to link with the other holidays celebrated in the month of August, forming a ‘ponte’ (bridge) and giving all the hardworking people of Italy (like us!) a long weekend to relax and/or party. This way, we can all come back to the office on Tuesday 16 refreshed after our weekends of socializing, bathing in the beautiful waters surrounding Italy, and eating, as food plays a BIG part of any celebration!

Everybody here at Intrawelt is making plans for the best way to spend the break. From trips to other regions of Italy such as Puglia, to it’s beautiful beaches for a traditional Ferragosto ‘bagno di mezzanotte’ (midnight swim); afternoons spent admiring the wonders of the Adriatic further along the coast (we love the shallow waters of Abruzzo, the beautiful natural beaches of the Riviera del Conero, and just about every other beach in between!); social gatherings with local friends or a total escape with a trip to Essaouira, Morocco!

This is the main weekend of the year where everybody abandons the cities and heads to the seaside! Each coastal town organizes its own special events and Porto Sant’Elpidio is no exception! Those of us sticking around will be attending the ‘Notte dei Desideri’ (Night of Wishes) which includes the popular tradition of releasing sky lanterns into the night and making a wish; this year’s edition of ‘Una Ragazza per il Cinema’ (A girl for the Cinema), established in 1989 as an occasion for hopeful actresses to show off their talents in a competition to be Italy’s next star on the silver screen; the Super Summer Games giving us all the chance to enjoy some live music; and last but not least – as food is perhaps one of the most important parts of any Italian celebration – Porto Sant’Elpidio is providing an evening of international cuisine ‘Sapori dal Mondo’!

So, from all of us at Intrawelt, we wish you a happy Ferragosto! Our offices will only be closed on Monday 15, and we’ll be back to work on Tuesday!

Image: Di Luca Boldrini – Flickr: sirolo, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16572767

The “8^th” instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One & Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script), the Official Script Book of the Original West End Production, was released on 31 July 2016 in the UK, Harry Potter’s birthday. The first batch of tickets have now sold out for the Production in London’s West End. Fans all over the world are awaiting the release of the book in the official language of their countries, as translators only receive a copy of the text once the English version has been published and is on sale in the UK.

The first book in the Harry Potter series was released in the UK on 26 June 1997 – yes, we too are surprised at how long ago that actually was – and the franchise has since been one of the most successful of all time. Continuously breaking records such as most sold in countries all over the world, it is safe to say the 7 first books of the franchise are international bestsellers. Not only are the books famous worldwide, but so are the eight films, the related works by J.K. Rowling, the studios in London (a must see!), the theme park in Florida, the merchandise and much, much more!

Such a huge fan base is of course due to the sheer brilliance of the storytelling achieved by J.K. Rowling. As a translation agency however, without detracting from the incredible accomplishments of Rowling, we automatically think of the massive role played by translators in the success of the franchise; without the translated versions of the books and films (available in over 60 languages) a lot of the fans would not have been able to access the wonderful Wizarding World.

In the British English version alone there are many peculiarities, interesting places and creatures, and new words; the foreign language versions don’t disappoint, as well as highly accurate translations, they adapt the curious made-up names to the target language. Some of our favourite examples of these are:

• In Italian, Minerva McGonagall becomes Minerva McGranitt, Albus Dumbledore (from the English bumblebee) becomes Albus Silente and Neville Longbottom becomes Neville Paciock, while the word for squib (a wizard by blood but with no magic powers) is simply magonò (meaning wizard-no), and the translation of Hufflepuff (one of the four houses at Harry’s school) is Tassorosso (meaning Redbadger).
• The French and the Brazilian Portuguese versions for Hufflepuff are perhaps closer to the English word than the connotations of the words themselves; French opted for Poufsouffle, whereas the Brazilian Portuguese opted for Lufa-Lufa.

Clearly the translators who worked on the series have been extremely creative, finding ways to keep the magic of the books alive even in translation, each with their own approach to the process. The Italian versions were translated by two different people, one translator carried out the adaptation of the first 3 books, whilst another worked on the last 4 books; however, the discrepancies between the names of some objects and people of the Wizarding World did not go unnoticed by Italian fans, showing again the central role of consistency in translation quality.

Translation and magic aren’t all that different you know!

Ever wondered what your favourite film is called in another language? Translators have to make a crucial decision with film titles; creating a different title based on an aspect of the film or opting for a literal translation of the original title, possibly involving a little localisation. Both of these options have to ensure the film has as much success with the translated title as it does with the original title.

One example of conveying the meaning of the original title whilst using localisation can be seen in the Hebrew title of the 2009 animation ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ released in Israel.

‘Meatballs’ are a common western food, yet in Israel ‘falafel’ is perhaps more well-known; therefore the title became ‘Rain of falafel’ (Geshem Shel Falafel). Although it actually still rained meatballs in the film, the title itself attracted the necessary amount of spectators, as the word ‘falafel’ resounded with them as a traditional food of their country.

South American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela also ditched ‘meatballs’ in favour of the more popular  ‘hamburger’. Meatballs aside, the rest of the title of this animated film also underwent a transformation in nearly all countries.

Excluding Brazil, the aforementioned South American countries opted for the cloudless ‘Hamburger rain’ (Lluvia de hamburguesas), whilst Brazil went for ‘It’s raining hamburgers’ (Tá Chovendo Hambúrguer). Similar to the South American translations, Castilian Spanish chose to eliminate the clouds and translate the title as ‘Meatball rain’ (Lluvia de albóndigas), ‘albóndigas’ being a typical dish on the Iberian Peninsula. The Canadian French title also varies from the French title, using ‘It’s raining hamburgers’ (Il pleut des hamburgers) and ‘Storm of meatballs’ (Tempête de boulettes géantes), respectively.

Ever heard of ‘Tutti insieme appassionatamente’  (All Together, Passionately) or perhaps seen the musical? Maybe if we told you that it was actually ‘The Sound of Music’, you’d be able to answer. Yes, creative film title translations have been around for decades, alongside musical, book and TV programme titles.

The Italian translation of this classic is certainly not the most curious, nearly all South American countries chose ‘The rebellious novice’ (La novicia rebelde), Spain chose ‘Smiles and tears’ (Sonrisas y lágrimas) and Germany chose ‘My songs, my dreams’ (Meine Lieder, meine Träume), perhaps closer to the original title than some of the others, as it is the only one that makes a more direct reference to music.

Whilst the translated titles of the next two films remained very close to the original, we did find one peculiarity. Two classic cinematographic productions, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971) and ‘The Big Lebowski’ (1998) use the same Italian word for two different English words. ‘A Clockwork Orange’, uses ‘drughi’ as a translation of ‘droogs’ (the characters that form part of protagonist’s gang of thugs) whilst ‘The Big Lebowski’, uses ‘drugo’ as a translation of ‘dude’ (Jeff “the Dude” Lebowski, becomes ‘drugo’).

In the first case, the word ‘droog’ (‘drughi’, plural of ‘drugo’) is said to originate from the Russian word for ‘friend’ (the literal  translation in to Italian is ‘amico’) and forms part of the made up language that resembles Russian in the film. In the second case ‘dude’ is translated as ‘drugo’. The connotations of ‘dude’ often imply a certain level of familiarity and friendship, similar to ‘friend’.

So dudes, we hope the next film you watch is as creative as its title!