A Brief History of Interpreting

Comparatively little research has been done on Interpreting throughout history. In part, this is because often there is no written record of the spoken word. There may be very little evidence of the interpreter's work. It may be clear from the context that an interpreter was present but all too often the interpreter is not specifically named or mentioned in historical documents. The interpreter may have been a linguist or a diplomat who was asked or offered to interpret.

Interpreting has existed for a long time. Whenever people met who had no common language they had to make do with sign language or find someone who could speak both languages. Some people grew up in a bilingual environment, because they lived in a border area or because their parents spoke different languages. Others moved from one country to another and acquired a second language.

At times in history groups of educated people have shared a common language across borders. A prime example is Latin, which was the language of the Catholic Church and was also used by scientists, writers and diplomats.

When Europeans began to move outside their own countries they had no knowledge of the languages of the peoples of America, Africa or Asia. In the process of colonisation of new continents language was important. The indigenous peoples outnumbered the colonisers and communication was the key to power and control. In their chapter titled Interpreters and the Making of History which appeared in Translators Through History (1995), Margareta Bowen, David Bowen, Francine Kaufmann and Ingrid Kurz provide a fascinating and detailed account of interpreters down through the ages. Their examples include the following: Christopher Columbus took six native Indians back to Spain with him so that they could learn to speak Spanish and then be used as interpreters once they returned to Central America. Other colonisers such as the French in Canada repeated this pattern. Subsequently the colonisers imposed their own language on the native people, thus reducing the need for interpreters. Some Europeans became proficient in the native Indian languages after being shipwrecked or captured. Missionary priests intent on spreading the Catholic faith drew up glossaries and dictionaries of the native languages.

French was the international language of diplomacy until the peace talks that took place in 1919 after the First World War. These were a turning point because for the first time English was used as a working language. According to historian David Thomson, most of the great powers were represented by their Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers rather than by kings and queens. President Woodrow Wilson of the United States and Prime Minister Lloyd George of the United Kingdom did not speak French. This was the beginning of conference interpreting. Consecutive interpreting was the order of the day with some interpreters exhibiting an amazing ability to recall speeches lasting up to fifty minutes.

Margareta Bowen et al. relate how in the 1920s another milestone was reached with the invention of equipment for simultaneous interpreting by Edward Filene, a businessman, Gordon Finlay, an electrical engineer and Thomas Watson, the president of IBM. Simultaneous interpreting was first used at the International Labour Organization Conference in Geneva in 1927. However, technical difficulties meant that almost twenty years would elapse before simultaneous interpreting was provided in English, French, German and Russian at the Nuremberg Trials, which lasted from November 1945 to October 1946. Some of the interpreters at the Trials went on to work as conference interpreters at the United Nations. In his article, How Conference Interpretation Grew, Jean Herbert related how, gradually, simultaneous interpreting began to be used in the United Nations in particular, first in French and English and later in the other official UN languages, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. The development of simultaneous interpreting was to facilitate the growth of international organizations after the Second World War. The interpreter's role also changed as the interpreter moved from a very visible, high profile position as consecutive interpreter to being a voice from a booth at the back of a venue.

Some of the first conference interpreters, such as Jean Herbert, wrote about their experiences. Many of those who worked as consecutive interpreters were really in the thick of things. However, although fascinating, these were personal memoirs and more historical documents than research into what exactly is going on when an interpreter is at work.

The first conference interpreters became interpreters by accident. They had one or more foreign languages and found themselves in the right place at the right time. As interpreting developed, universities began offering courses in the subject. This helped interpreters attain professional status. The University of Geneva School of Interpreting was founded in 1940 and the Vienna School of Interpreting in 1943. Georgetown University Division of Interpreting and Translation was founded in the United States in 1949. In 1952, Jean Herbert, a practising interpreter, wrote a book called Manuel de l'Interprète which was followed in 1956 by Jean-François Rozan's book La prise de notes en Consécutive. Both books were published by University of Geneva Press. AIIC, the International Association of Conference Interpreters, was set up in 1953 and became a proponent of better conditions for its members. Over the decades interpreting became a growth area. In 1957 two schools of Interpreting were established in Paris, the Institut Supérieur d'Interprétation et de Traducteurs (ISIT) and the École Supérieure d'Interprètes et de Traducteurs (ESIT). In 1965 Westminster was established, in 1967 Zurich and in 1968 Monterey Graduate School of Translation and Interpreting. More and more interpreting schools and courses were established around the developed world until interpreter training became the norm.

Once university courses were established, academics began to do research into interpreting. Some early research was not very scientific, being based more on personal judgement than on verifiable results. In the 60s research was done on Ear–Voice Span, i.e. the time lapse between what the speaker says and when the interpreter speaks. In the 70s Danica Seleskovitch of ESIT in Paris wrote about her 'théorie du sens'. Studies were carried out on interpreting errors and their causes. In the 80s and 90s research began on what happens in the brain while a subject is interpreting. Daniel Gile has provided a comprehensive account of conference interpreting research in his book Regards sur la Recherche en Interprétation de...