 | This is aWiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. This is adraft proposal. It is unofficial, and it is unknown whether it is widely accepted by Wiktionary editors. |
| Policies – Entries:CFI -EL -NORM -NPOV -QUOTE -REDIR -DELETE. Languages:LT -AXX. Others:BLOCK -BOTS -VOTES. |
This describes how to handleforeign translations of English words in the English Wiktionary. It is an extension ofWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
{{t|...}} with{{t-check|...}} or{{t+|...}} with{{t+check|...}}, so that a native speaker or expert translator can check the translation.Only English terms are to be translated. In entries for foreign (i.e. non-English-language) terms, an English translation is usually given instead of a definition.
Translation between two foreign languages is handled on the Wiktionaries in those languages. For example, a reader who wants to translate a Hindi word to Japanese should have some command of either language and look inthe Hindi orJapanese Wiktionary. There is one exception to this principle: we do provide translations of idioms that exist in several non-English languages, but have no natural English equivalent. These translations are located at subpages ofAppendix:Terms with no English equivalent.
English inflected forms will not have translations. For example,paints will not, as it is the plural and third-person singular ofpaint. Where these entries contain additional meanings, these non-inflected (lemma) forms should have translations. For example, the nounbuilding should have translations, but the present participle ofbuild will not.
Each “Translations” section is nested within a part of speech header. For example, in a===Noun=== section, the translations section begins with the heading====Translations====.
The translations are separated into divisions for each sense of the English headword.{{trans-top}} creates acollapsible navigation box whose heading shows agloss (summary) of the translated sense – if this is not provided, the word “Translations” is shown by default. For entries with only a single sense, adding a translation gloss is of little use. For entries with multiple senses, including topical labels in the heading (in plain text, not by using{{lb}}) besides the glosses can greatly increase navigability and is thus advised.
Within each box for a translated sense, the languages for which translations exist are listed by their English names in alphabetical order.
{{trans-bottom}} is used on the line after the last translation.
You can copy and paste the next code in the entry:
====Translations===={{trans-top|translationgloss}}{{trans-bottom}}Here’s an example for a word with a noun and a verb definition. Other sections may be included. The order of these sections is explained inWiktionary:Entry layout andWiktionary:English entry guidelines. The order of the translation boxes should correspond to the order of the senses.
==English=====Noun==={{en-noun}}# [[first|First]] [[definition]].# Second definition.====Translations===={{trans-top|first definition}}* Abkhaz: {{t|ab|example 1}}* Afar: {{t|aa|example 2}}{{trans-bottom}}{{trans-top|second definition}}{{trans-bottom}}===Verb==={{en-verb}}# Third definition.====Translations===={{trans-top|third definition}}{{trans-bottom}}Reducing the number of redundant translation boxes is strongly recommended. In the case ofperfect synonyms, the template{{trans-see}} shall be used without exception. For close synonyms, it should be decided on a case-by-case basis whether{{trans-see}} or{{trans-top-also}} is more appropriate; see for instancevapor.
In cases where both an English term and its abbreviation exist as standalone articles on Wiktionary (as is the case for for instanceartificial intelligence andAI), abbreviations of the translations of the unabbreviated English term are not eligible as translations of the unabbreviated English term and vice versa; as an example, GermanKI (initialism ofkünstliche Intelligenz(“artificial intelligence”)) belongs in the translation box ofAI and is not allowed as a translation ofartificial intelligence.
Onlylemma forms are eligible as translations, because including all inflected forms in the translation table would render them almost unnavigable. Consequently,adjectives typically shouldn't be labeled with theirgrammatical gender even in languages thatdecline adjectives. Possible exceptions to the first rule areproper nouns that cannot beattested in their lemmatized form and phrases that grammatically don't allow lemmatization. In a similar vein, instead of inventing unattestableprotologisms, the template{{no equivalent translation}} or{{not used}} should be employed. If there are multipleparaphrases in the target language for an English term but no direct translations, one such paraphrase may be provided after{{no equivalent translation}}. However, if there is only oneidiomatic way to express the idea that is conveyed by the English term even be it a paraphrase, it may be added directly without the use of this template.
Many translation boxes have a header that summarizes the key points of the corresponding sense's definition. However, it is usually not sufficiently precise to base one's translation solely on it. Instead, the whole sense definition has to be yielded consideration, especially the sense's labels. A good test in general is to (in one's mind) translate an English sentence where the word occurs in the right sense and see which target language terms best correspond to it.
The aim of translation boxes is to provide asprecise as possible translations and not as many as possible. If a term already has a perfectly fitting translation in a target language, then adding more terms that are merelysemantically related but not synonymous in the target language is heavily discouraged, especially if the English term with a parallel semantic relation already has its own entry.
In addition to theVisualEditor (which is accessed at “Preferences” under “Editing”), you can add translations in a visual way, employing the “Add translation table button” in the Translations section.
After clicking in the “show” element (generated by the{{trans-top}} template), you should see a line at the end of the table something like
{{t-needed}}.Inwikitext, for each translation into a foreign language, the language name is preceded by abullet (generated by*) followed by the translations into that language, each linked to the main entry for the foreign term in the English Wiktionary (blue link if entry already exists; red link if it doesn’t). Language names are not to be wikified (i.e. the name should not link to the language definition page).
{{t+}} with anISO 639-1 orISO 639-3 language code to create a link to the English Wiktionary entry for the foreign word and a link to its entry in the Wiktionary of the target language:{{t}} can be used.* Aleut: {{t|ale|tunux̂}}tr=. Some translations into Japanese may includekanji readings inhiragana. This format is nowdeprecated and should no longer be used; best practice is to remove the hiragana and leave only Latin transliteration.{{t|...}} by{{t-check|...}} or{{t+|...}} by{{t+check|...}} so a native speaker or expert translator can check the translation.{{t+|...|alt=}} parameter to display the translation but use lemma-forms as the page name, e.g. the Russian translation ofasleep links to the Russian verbспать(spatʹ,“to sleep”) but displaysспя́щий(spjáščij, literally“sleeping”), which is an equivalent ofasleep.{{t}} templates. For example, in the verbstar, which has no literal equivalent in French:*:. Nesting is done for languages that are considered subclasses of another language, or languages with multiple scripts, such as the Latin and Cyrillic forms of Serbo-Croatian.* Serbo-Croatian:*: Cyrillic: {{t|sh|на̀ра̄нџа|f}}, {{t|sh|помо̀ра̄нџа|f}}*: Roman: {{t|sh|nàrāndža|f}}, {{t|sh|pomòrāndža|f}}Here is an example (a shortened version of the entry fororange) illustrating some of the conventions:
===Noun==={{en-noun}}# The [[fruit]] of the [[orange tree]].# The [[reddish]]-[[yellow]] [[colour]] of an orange.====Translations===={{trans-top|fruit of the orange tree}}* French: {{t|fr|orange|f}}* German: {{t|de|Orange|f}}* Japanese: {{t|ja|オレンジ|tr=orenji}}* Russian: {{t|ru|апельси́н|m}}* Serbo-Croatian:*: Cyrillic: {{t|sh|на̀ра̄нџа|f}}, {{t|sh|помо̀ра̄нџа|f}}*: Roman: {{t|sh|nàrāndža|f}}, {{t|sh|pomòrāndža|f}}{{trans-bottom}}{{trans-top|colour of an orange}}* German: {{t|de|Orange|n}}* Hebrew: {{t|he|כתום|m|tr=katóm|alt=כתום / כָּתֹם}}* Latvian: {{t|lv|oranžs|m}}{{trans-bottom}}That produces:
orange (pluraloranges)
If it is not clear which sense applies to a given translation, create a “Translations to be checked” table using{{checktrans-top}} and{{trans-bottom}}:
{{checktrans-top}}* Spanish: {{t-check|es|palabra|f}}{{trans-bottom}}The above templates generate theTranslations to be checked header automatically. This table immediately follows the others in the Translations section.
====Translations===={{trans-top|SENSE}}{{trans-bottom}}After creating the section or putting the trans templates, you can add translations using the “Add translation table button”:
{{trans-top}}{{t}} and{{t+}}{{translation only}}