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XLIFF with multiple target languages?

We would like to use XLIFF format as a basis for translating certain texts from German into French and Italian. (Translations will be done using SDL Trados.)

From the specification there appears to be one target language in the XLIFF file, but additional "alternate languages" may be specified in addition. Therefore, the specification of the two target languages ​​will be possible from the specification:

<xliff xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:1.2" version="1.2">
  <file source-language="de" target-language="it">
    <body>
      <trans-unit id="hi">
        <source>Betrieb</source>
        <target>Divisione</target>
        <alt-trans>
          <target xml:lang="fr">Site</target>
        </alt-trans>
      </trans-unit>
    </body>
  </file>
</xliff>

Is XLIFF being used in the expected sense? Or would it be better to create two documents, one with the target language fr

and the other with the target language it

? (I don't like repetition)

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2 answers


I work for a translation agency. I haven't seen multilingual xliff files yet. Therefore, to make your life and your agency easier, I would create separate files. Also other tools like CenShare create separate files.



And this makes it easier to pass it on to other translators.

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<alt-trans>

not intended for <target>

more than one language in each trans block; it is rather intended to be a match match is a translation memory, machine translation matches, or a simple obsolete target string that needs to be updated with the latest changes in the source string. Having said that, in some cases it is <alt-trans>

perceived as a workaround for translating what the industry calls "adaptive languages" (often adapted from French translation for French for Canada) without separate files. As a localization professional who has to deal with Xliffs from different sources and presented in different schemes, I recommend avoiding this hack. It is more common and accepted to use the tag<file>

to embed trans units for multiple languages ​​into one Xliff file:



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<xliff version="1.1" xml:lang='en'>
 <file source-language='en' target-language='de' datatype="plaintext" original="Sample.po">
  ...
   <body>
    <trans-unit id="1" restype="button" resname="IDC_TITLE">
     <source>Title</source>
    </trans-unit>
    <trans-unit id="2" restype="label" resname="IDC_STATIC">
     <source>&amp;Path:</source>
    </trans-unit>
  ...
 </file>
 <file source-language='en' target-language='fr' datatype="plaintext" original="Sample.po">
    <trans-unit id="1" restype="button" resname="IDC_TITLE">
  ...
   </body>
 </file>
</xliff>
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