LANGUAGE:
LANGUAGE:
Our people are our pride, helping companies resonate with their customers for 20+ years.
We create, transform, test, and train more content than anyone in the world – from text, voice, audio, video, to structured & unstructured data.
Solutions
Lionbridge Knowledge Hubs
Our experts know the in-and-outs of your industry & its challenges.
Harness the Lionbridge Lainguage Cloud to support your end-to-end localization and content lifecycle
Our people are our pride, helping companies resonate with their customers for 20+ years.
About Us
Key Facts
Leadership
Insights
News
Trust Center
We create, transform, test, and train more content than anyone in the world – from text, voice, audio, video, to structured & unstructured data.
Content Services
- Technical Writing
- Training & eLearning
- Financial Reports
- Multicultural Marketing
- Digital Experience Assessments
Translation Services
- Video Localization
- Software Localization
- Website Localization
- Translation for Regulated Companies
- Interpretation
- Live Events
- Multilingual SEO & Digital Marketing
- Content Optimization
Testing Services
- Functional QA & Testing
- Compatibility Testing
- Interoperability Testing
- Performance Testing
- Accessibility Testing
- UX/CX Testing
Solutions
- Translation Service Models
- Digital Marketing
- Machine Translation
- STAⁱRT Onboarding™
Our Knowledge Hubs
- Generative AI
- Positive Patient Outcomes
- Future of Localization
- Innovation to Immunity
- COVID-19 Resource Center
- Disruption Series
- Patient Engagement
- Lionbridge Insights
Our experts know the in-and-outs of your industry & its challenges.
Life Sciences
- Pharmaceutical
- Clinical
- Regulatory
- Post-Approval
- Corporate
- Medical Devices
- Validation and Clinical
- Regulatory
- Post-Authorization
- Corporate
Banking & Finance
Retail
Luxury
E-Commerce
Games
Automotive
Consumer Packaged Goods
Technology
Industrial Manufacturing
Legal Services
Travel & Hospitality
Harness the Lionbridge Lainguage Cloud to support your end-to-end localization and content lifecycle
Lainguage Cloud™ Platform
Connectivity
Translation Community
Workflow Technology
Smairt Content™
Smairt MT™
Smairt Data™
Language Quality
Analytics
SELECT LANGUAGE:
China is a rapidly expanding global force. It tops the charts with the world's largest population and a booming economy second only to that of the US. For global companies—or companies hoping to go global—there is no denying the power of the Chinese language. As more and more businesses strive to leverage this linguistic power, the demand for Chinese language translation services skyrockets. But when translating documents for Chinese speaking populations, businesses, or their language service providers, are met by a serious linguistic challenge.
There are three distinct Chinese written languages:
This choice leads to the question: What’s the difference between a traditional and simple Chinese writing system? Answering this question, of course, is anything but simple.
Look at the difference in how the word ‘leaf’ is depicted below:
At its core, Simplified Chinese is a simplification of the Traditional Chinese alphabet. This simplification is accomplished in two key ways:
In order to make characters easier to read and write, Simplified Chinese features fewer brush strokes than its ornately designed counterpart. In the example above, the character, 叶 meaning ‘leaf’ has notably less embellishments than the Traditional version, 葉.
Some characters look exactly the same—especially in situations where the Traditional version was too simple to warrant changes. For example, the character 人 meaning 'person' retains just one form that looks identical between Traditional and Simplified Chinese texts.
Stroke reduction is just one of the ways to simplify Traditional Chinese characters. Merged characters are also prevalent. Each character in Simplified Chinese maps to one or more Traditional Chinese characters. Through character merging, unnecessary components—including entire characters—are removed to form a new, simplified version. While they are written differently, corresponding characters in Traditional and Simplified Chinese are usually pronounced in the same, or a similar, manner.
Let’s back up. Why was the Traditional Chinese writing system overridden in the first place? With over 50,000 characters in its lexical inventory, the practice of simplifying the writing system is far from unprecedented. Different versions and interpretations of the Chinese script have been circulated unofficially for years. Then, in 1949 when a new government was established—The People’s Republic of China—an initiative was put in place to develop an official, simplified writing system.
The goal was to make reading and writing more accessible to a largely illiterate population. Chinese linguists worked in partnership with the government to simplify approximately 2,000 Chinese characters. In 1949, the new ‘simplified’ writing system was officially adopted and over the next few decades it was incorporated into the school systems and the distribution of documents. Today, it is the standard writing system for over one billion Chinese citizens.
Traditional Chinese is the written script used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. There are two officially recognized varieties: Traditional Chinese for Hong Kong SAR and Traditional Chinese for Taiwan. The differences between the two are more nuanced than those between Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Mainly, they contrast in style and pronunciation. However, there are also some unique characters found in Hong Kong Chinese, not found in Traditional Chinese for Taiwan. Still, both writing systems operate with a similar set of characters and for the purpose of translation they are often both referred to simply as “Traditional Chinese.”
Simplified Chinese, on the other hand, is the standard script for residents of mainland China—some 1.43 billion people. A small subset of this population—mostly older generations—can still understand Traditional Chinese. However, for the majority of Chinese-speakers in mainland China, texts translated into Traditional Chinese are likely to spark confusion.
Interestingly, an increasing number of residents of Taiwan and Hong Kong are able to read simplified texts. Still, businesses looking to truly resonate with these markets might consider communicating to them in the language they are accustomed to—Traditional Chinese.
Although Traditional Chinese has largely disappeared from everyday use in most of mainland China, people occasionally use it in formal settings or when emphasizing a particular word or phrase. Additionally, foreign media or subtitles of videos from Hong Kong or Taiwan can sometimes include Traditional Chinese.
In terms of market size, mainland China vastly outranks its fellow Chinese speaking neighbors. In terms of market value, however, the consumer bases in Hong Kong and Taiwan should not be overlooked. At Lionbridge, Traditional Chinese still ranks in the top 15 most requested languages for translation. In order to maximize your impact with a Chinese speaking audience, you need translation capabilities in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Due to dramatic differences in regional use, character appearance, translation between Chinese writing systems requires a sophisticated understanding of these languages. The importance of finding a language service provider experienced in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese translation cannot be overstated.
Lionbridge has a reputation and record of success that you can depend on. Contact our team to learn more.