Linguists study differences between languages not the process of professional translation or interpretation. Of course, knowledge how language works is useful but it does not make an interpreter. Leaving aside the difference between interpreters and translators (oral speech versus written text), the interpreter does not have to be a linguist as per the second definition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The first definition may also be more American English usage. We suggest that the first definition of the word “linguist” from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary should not be used at all, and certainly not in the meaning of “interpreter” or “translator”. The problem here is that “accomplished” is not a technical term either: there are various degrees of bilingualism and multilingualism for various purposes: a child who can help his Spanish speaking parents understand his English speaking teacher very well is certainly an accomplished bilingual for this task and his age, but he is not a linguist. Polyglot is not exactly a technical term. someone who speaks two or more languages. The first definition of the word linguist from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is better described by the word “bilingual” or “multilingual person” i.e. We can see that this definition of linguist is as remote as it may be from what conference simultaneous and consecutive interpreters do. In an online forum army interpreters/translators (09L) are defined as “native speakers that primarily just translate” and army linguists (35P) are defined as “intel Soldiers who collect information and use their language skills to sort through it.” 3) “primarily responsible for conducting interpretation and preparing translations between English and a foreign language.” 2) The army interpreter/translator is defined as a separate category i.e. The GoArmy website defines linguists’ responsibilities as follows: “translate highly classified documents and information for military troops and allied forces” 1)Īt the same time, the image shown on that page is people talking and not translating documents. The word is rather often used in military job ads as “army linguist”. We can see from the start that the way the word linguist is defined and used in modern English is ambiguous. There is quite a bit of confusion online about these two terms.ġ: a person accomplished in languages especially: one who speaks several languagesĢ: a person who specializes in linguistics By InterStar Translations on in Interpretation, Interpreter Education, Simultaneous Interpretation
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