A language pair is created when verbal words are converted into some other dialectal. The entire process is referred to as translation which plays a critical role in helping businesses and individuals from different Linguistics and cultural backgrounds to communicate and understand each other.
For instance, if a project involves English to German translation, this creates a duo known as the English-German language pair. Conversely, if it involves the translation of text from German to English, a new duo will be created: German-English. This makes it possible that no linguistic barriers exist and promotes cross-cultural understanding.
What exactly is a language pair?
In a language pair, there is one basic language and also a target language. The basic language is one in which you first created the original content. The target language is one in which a translator effectively translates the original or source content.
It’s also important that English to French translation involves the English-French duo which is not the same pair as French-English. Therefore, when we try to choose the right duos, it’s important to pay special attention to the role of vernaculars or linguistic twosomes. Because things actually start to get mixed up a little bit.
Top four language pairs in the world
Many global companies trade with markets in developed countries to ensure their economic and business success. However, it’s a fact that English isn’t the primary language in all developed markets. For this reason, international companies must consider translation to overcome such communication gaps.
When it comes to language translation, most projects require the translation of English content into one or more target languages. So, English is mostly paired with other languages. Why? Because English is no doubt the most popular language in the world. It has approximately 1132 million speakers around the world. So. the highest in-demand languages paired with English are as follows:
- English – Spanish
- English – Chinese
- English – French
- English – German
If we look at these target languages, they are generally languages of large and developed countries or markets. Either the multinationals are involved in import and export business in these markets, or they are operating their manufacturing plans, local offices, or subsidiaries there.
English – Spanish
It seems like everyone loves Spanish. This language holds the status of official or main language in 22 countries across the world. These countries are located on four different continents.
Spanish is the mother or native language of almost 489 million individuals. Overall, 586+ million people in today’s world speak Spanish. If we consider the most popular native languages in the world, Spanish comes second after Mandarin Chinese. In terms of total speakers, both native and non-native, Spanish becomes the fourth-most popular language in the world after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi.
By considering English to Spanish translation of your content, you will have tremendous business opportunities not just in Spain and Latin America but also in countries around the globe. The nations in which Spanish has a huge number of speakers include Spain, South America, Central America, the USA, Equatorial Guinea, the Philippines, and more.
English – Chinese
This is not a surprising fact that Chinese has become the world’s fastest-growing language. It’s already the first language of nearly 16% of the whole population on Earth (i.e. 1.3 billion people). Chinese is also the world’s most spoken native language and the second most spoken language in terms of total native and non-native speakers of it.
Countries in which Chinese is the official language include China as well as Taiwan and Singapore. It’s also the official language of the UN (the United Nations) which has a total of 6 official languages.
As a language, Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family. It has around 7-10 different dialects and Mandarin is the largest of all its dialect groups. In fact, more than 70% of all Chinese people (800 million) use the Mandarin dialect.
Research shows that consumers in China prefer marketing communications in their own language. Therefore, translating your English content into Chinese will attract a lot of customers to your brand and influence their purchase decision.
English – French
French is a primary language in twenty-nine (29) countries across different parts of the world. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that we find French in the top language pairs of the 2023 list.
Approximately 76 million native people speak this language. It has daily fluent speakers of around 235 million. It also has 77-110 million other secondary speakers with varying degrees of French proficiency. These secondary speakers are mainly in Africa.
According to OIF estimates, nearly 300 million people in the world have some degree of proficiency in the French language. Making it the 6th most popular language by number of speakers worldwide. As per Bloomberg’s rankings, French is the 3rd most effective language for business, coming after English (of course) and Mandarin Chinese.
English – German
English and German both belong to the Germanic language family. Of all 40+ Germanic languages in the world, German comes 2nd on the list with English being on the top. Moreover, it’s the most widely spoken native language in the European Union.
German is a West Germanic language that has roughly 132 million speakers worldwide. Nearly 100 million people speak it natively. It’s the only official or state language of Germany and Austria. Moreover, it has a huge presence in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and more.
Another important fact that makes English – German a strong language pair is that Germany is the biggest economy in Europe, and 4th largest all across the world. So, translating your website or business from English to German can definitely give you a good starting point.
