English becomes fourth language of government

The need to translate government literature into English increased after Switzerland joined the Partnership for Peace swissinfo.ch

The government is to put English on a par with Switzerland's three national languages, with the creation of an English translation unit.

Switzerland is constitutionally bound to translate all government documents into the three national languages. From the summer, English translators will join their German, French and Italian speaking counterparts in translating the bulk of government literature.

The service will be ranked equally with the other translation units at an administrative level, although initially it will be made up of just three full-time translators.

The government authorised the creation of the unit last August, following a report which revealed that the translation of documents into English was posing serious problems.

One problem is the sheer quantity of material. One study carried out by the government showed that in the year 2000 some 25,000 pages had to be translated into English.

Arms deals

The defence ministry is the main producer of texts that have to be translated into English – in 2000, it produced 7,780 pages needing translation, many of which related to arms purchases.

The need for English translation has become more pressing since Switzerland joined Nato’s Partnership for Peace (PfP), and began sending troops to assist in peacekeeping duties abroad.

Switzerland is also finding it necessary to translate legislation into English, particularly in areas relating to cross-border crime and banking secrecy. In such cases, the accuracy of the translation is paramount.

For this purpose, a possible collaboration between the new federal translation service and the Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne is in the works.

The new unit is also intended to improve the way in which work is shared out among internal and external translators. This would in turn pave the way for the creation of a common style through a shared database.

Candidates for the new posts are expected to be recruited from the United States and Britain, as well as Switzerland and Germany.

The new service comes amid increasing concern at the growing influence of English in Switzerland.

The federal chancellery has denied that the service will undermine the national languages. The government is facing growing pressure to introduce legislation to protect the status of the national languages, particularly in schools, amid what many see as the insidious encroachment of English.

swissinfo