Official language of more than twenty countries, among Argentina, Spain, and Ecuador, the Spanish language stands out as one of the world’s main languages. But did you know that, as with British English and American English, there are differences between the Spanish spoken in each of these countries? These differences are manifested in several aspects, such as the intonation of words, the cultural characteristics of each region and phonetics. In Spain, for example, words with “LL”, which in Spanish is considered a single letter, are pronounced with the “LH” sound of Brazilian Portuguese, while in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay the pronunciation corresponds to their “Y” sound. This is not to mention the numerous terminologies that each country uses to say the same thing, like “buses”, which in Chile are called “liebre” and, in Cuba, “guagua”.
Now, let’s assume that your consumer market is in Latin America, a region that contains most of the countries that communicate in Spanish. Would you know in which Spanish to translate the contents of your business, like websites, marketing materials, and technical manuals to better communicate with your target audience? Well, then. That’s exactly what we’ll talk about in today’s article.
Is there a specific Spanish language for each case?
If your company hires translation jobs frequently, you may have come across the offer of a “neutral Spanish”. This type of Spanish was created by the corporate world to minimize regionalism and allow messages to be understood by as many readers as possible. After all, it is much cheaper to translate the content into a single variant of a language, right?
What is not always said, however, is that neutral Spanish, although cheaper, will hardly meet all your business’ demands. Marketing and advertising websites and materials, for example, are highly visible content that act as a showcase for a company’s products. It is therefore very important that the communication of these materials is in line with the linguistic and cultural aspects of each country to which they will be destined.
In such cases, by adopting a neutral Spanish, the message will most likely be understood, but in a way that the reader is not identified with. After all, localization, a process that considers the local and cultural aspects of the translated content country of destination, is very important and should not be ignored. A translation that neglects this approach risks not bringing the expected results to the company’s business.
Before choosing, assess the purpose of the content to be translated
As explained earlier, neutral Spanish was developed for commercial purposes and is not officially a variant of the language. Therefore, it can bring good results to materials with a more technical language, such as manuals and commercial proposals, as the neutrality of regionalisms will not have such a big impact. However, if the aim of its content is to captivate the readership, considering the cultural issues in which it is inserted, it is fundamental that the material be translated into the specific variant of the Spanish in question.
So, before choosing a translation service, it is necessary to assess very carefully the content purpose and, mainly, how much the cultural perception would influence or not the material consumption. And, remember: to conquer new markets and be close to your target audience, there is nothing like speaking their local language!
About Netwire
Created in 2000, Netwire is a multilingual solution enterprise that provides translation and localization into any language. Based in Brazil and with a presence in North America and Europe, the company uses state-of-the-art translation technologies, so it can process large volumes quickly, with a high-quality standard. It has a network of hundreds of native translators, specialized in different business fields to serve multiple market segments. In the past five years alone, Netwire processed over 110 million words, delivering an average of 400 projects per month. This experience makes Netwire the ideal partner to handle any translation demand. Request an estimate via website or by telephone and guarantee the best solution for your business!
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