Distributed Language Translation (, DLT) was a project to develop an interlingual machine translation system for twelve European languages. It ran between 1985 and 1990. :The distinctive feature of DLT was the use of version of

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

as an

intermediate language An intermediate representation (IR) is the data structure or code used internally by a compiler or virtual machine to represent source code. An IR is designed to be conducive to further processing, such as optimization and translation. A "good" ...

(IL) and the idea that translation could be divided into two stages: from L1 into IL and then from IL into L2. The intermediate translation could be transmitted over a network to any number of workstations which would take care of the translation from IL into the desired language. Since the IL format would have been disambiguated at the source, it could itself serve as a source for further translation without human intervention. — Job M. van Zuijlen (one of the DLT researchers) DLT was undertaken by the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

software house BSO (now part of

Atos Origin Atos SE is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company with headquarters in Bezons suburb of Paris, France, and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communicatio ...

) in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

in cooperation with the now defunct Dutch airplane manufacturer

Fokker Fokker (; ) was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer that operated from 1912 to 1996. The company was founded by the Dutch aviator Anthony Fokker and became famous during World War I for its fighter aircraft. During its most successful period in the 19 ...

and the

Universal Esperanto Association The Universal Esperanto Association (, UEA), also known as the World Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5,501 individual members in 121 countries and 9,215 through national associations (i ...

. A prototype application of DLT in technical translation (through 'AECMA Simplified English', in collaboration with Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker) achieved an accuracy rate of around 95 percent. Not only the specific technical vocabulary was checked, but also narrow and broad contexts. For more general texts (e.g. reports from UNESCO meetings), the accuracy of the translation was around 50 to 60 percent. BSO failed to attract investment for a further development phase after 1990, and DLT was abandoned unfinished. However, the value of this research project, which according to external experts was very promising, remains in the form of published articles and a whole series of books, detailed and comprehensive enough to support future developments, as if according to the concept of "open source".

External links

Examples of DLT

References

Translation Machine translation Esperanto organizations Controlled natural languages 1985 establishments in the Netherlands Projects established in 1985 1985 software 1990 disestablishments in the Netherlands Products and services discontinued in 1990 {{machine-translation-stub

See also

External links

References