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Conversion from Simplified to Traditional Chinese

If a website is localized/internationalized with a Simplified Chinese translation...

  • Is it possible to reliably automatically convert the text to Traditional Chinese in a high quality way?
  • If so, is it going to be extremely high quality or just a good starting point for a translator to tweak?
  • Are there open source tools (ideally in PHP) to do such a conversion?
  • Is the conversion better one way vs. the other (simplified -> traditional, or vice versa)?
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philfreo Avatar asked May 13 '11 23:05

philfreo


People also ask

How do I translate from simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese?

On Review Tab, there is Chinese Conversion button that can help you. If you want change Display Language Settings, in Word Language Options, you can select Chinese(Simplified) or Chinese(Traditional), set it as Default Display Language.

How do you switch between simplified and Traditional Chinese?

Press Ctrl + Shift + F to switch between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Both Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese input methods are displayed as on the taskbar. Method 2: Right-click the input method icon on the taskbar and select Settings.

Is it easy to learn Traditional Chinese from simplified?

Some people may claim that Simplified Chinese is easier to learn, but it is only partially true. Simplified Chinese characters contain fewer strokes and may be easier to remember for new learners. The actual effort involved in learning either traditional or simplified characters is quite similar.


2 Answers

Short answer: No, not reliably+high quality. I wouldn't recommend automated tools unless the market isn't that important to you and you can risk certain publicly embarrassing flubs. You may find some localization firms are happier to start with a quality simplified Chinese translation and adapt it to traditional, but you may also find that many companies prefer to start with the English source.

Longer answer: There are some cases where only the glyphs are different, and they have different unicode code points. But there are also some idiomatic and vocabulary differences between the PRC and Taiwan/Hong Kong, and your quality will suffer if these aren't handled. Technical terms may be more problematic or less, depending on the era in which the terms became commonly used. Some of these issues may be caught by automated tools, but not all of them. Certainly, if you go the route of automatically converting things, make sure you get buyoff from QA teams based in each of your target markets.

Additionally, there are sociopolitical concerns as well. For example, you can use terms like "Republic of China" in Taiwan, but this will royally piss off the Chinese government if it appears in your simplified Chinese version (and sometimes your English version); if you have an actual subsidiary or partner in China, the staff may be arrested solely on the basis of subversive terminology. (This is not unique to China; Pakistan/India and Turkey have similar issues). You can get into similar trouble by referring to "Taiwan" as a "country."

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JasonTrue Avatar answered Sep 18 '22 15:09

JasonTrue


As a native Hong Konger myself, I concur with @JasonTrue: don't do it. You risk angering and offending your potential users in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

BUT, if you still insist on doing so, have a look at how Wikipedia does it; here is one implementation (note license).

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spacehunt Avatar answered Sep 20 '22 15:09

spacehunt