Cross-locale adaptation is a process that copies translations from a primary locale to a secondary locale, allowing you to then adapt those translations to capture any regional differences and nuances. The adaptation itself is done by a human linguist in an Edit or Review step.

Use cross-locale adaptation when your project's source language is different from the language variants you are adapting between. For example, an English source project that needs both Portuguese (Portugal) [pt-PT] and Portuguese (Brazil) [pt-BR]. You translate into the primary locale (pt-PT) and then adapt those translations to the secondary locale (pt-BR).

Cross-Locale Adaptation vs. Language Adaptation

Smartling offers two different ways to adapt content between regional variants of the same language. They are not interchangeable, and the one you can use is determined by your project's source locale.

The deciding question: is the language you are adapting the source language of your project, or a target language?

*Smartling Language Adaptation is built into Smartling Auto Select LLM, so if you already have a workflow that uses Auto Select LLM as the translation provider, you don't need a separate workflow for adaptation. It will automatically recognize that the languages match and use an adaptation prompt instead of a translation prompt. 

Smartling projects have only one source locale. This point is key in choosing the right feature. If neither variant is your project source, for example an English-source project translating into both pt-PT and pt-BR, you cannot adapt directly between the two Portuguese targets with Language Adaptation. Use cross-locale adaptation: translate into the primary locale, then adapt to the secondary locale as described below.

Locales

In Smartling, languages are displayed with the language name, the specific country or region (locale), and an alphabetic identifier (locale ID). Locales help us distinguish between different regional nuances and variations of the same language.

For example, French is understood in both France and Canada, but there are some subtle differences in vocabulary and spelling between these two countries. This is why we distinguish between two separate locales: French (France) [fr-FR] and French (Canada) [fr-CA].

To get the best translation quality and to ensure that your translated content sounds native to your local audience, we recommend being as precise as possible with the selection of your locales.

Primary & Secondary Locales

Content can be translated into two or more locales that belong to the same family of languages. For example, your content can be translated into both French (France) and French (Canada). There is often a hierarchy between these locales.

One is typically considered the "primary locale" (sometimes called the "parent locale"), which means content is usually translated into this locale first. Other variations of the same language were derived from the primary locale at a later stage.

In our example, French (France) is the primary (parent) locale, and French (Canada) is the "secondary locale" (also called the "child locale"), as it derived from French (France).

While there are some slight differences between the primary and secondary locales, most translations are usually very similar. With many locale pairs, only a few small tweaks are needed to adapt the translations from the primary locale to the secondary locale.

Translating with Cross-Locale Adaptation

Smartling allows you to translate your content into the primary locale and then automatically apply those translations to the secondary locale, saving you from paying for the Translation step twice (you only pay for the edit). The translations can then be edited and adapted by a linguist of the secondary locale, so all regional differences and nuances are taken into consideration.

How to set up Cross-Locale Adaptation

1. Add both locales to your Project
2. Create an Adaptation Workflow for the secondary locale
3. Make the Adaptation Workflow the default workflow for the secondary locale
4. Enable cross-locale leverage in your Linguistic Package
5. Enable SmartMatch
6. Add glossary terms for the secondary locale (optional)
7. Create a Job

Step 1: Add the locales to your Project

Add both the primary locale and the secondary locale to your Project. This can be done from the Languages tab under your Project Settings.

For steps on how to add a language to your Project, read Checklist to Translating in a New Language.

Step 2: Create an Adaptation Workflow for the secondary locale

It is recommended that cross-locale adaptation happens in a dedicated adaptation workflow that contains a Translation step and an Edit or Review step.

Follow these steps to learn how to create a translation workflow. The target language should be the secondary locale.

Translation Step

Once you have created the workflow, you will find it in your workflow list. For now, it only includes a Translation step. Although the translation provider is set to human, no Agency or users are assigned to this Translation step. It is an automatic step, with no human input or configuration required.

Think of it as the "cross-locale" part of cross-locale adaptation. In this Translation step, translations from the primary locale are leveraged from the translation memory and applied automatically to the secondary locale, using SmartMatch.

To reiterate, no human translators are assigned to this step, and this should be clear in your naming convention. We recommend naming this step something explicit, e.g., "Cross-locale SmartMatch".

How SmartMatch leverage works (and why secondary strings may wait): When SmartMatch is enabled, once content is authorized for translation it first moves into the Processing step, where SmartMatch checks your translation memory for an exact match. If an exact match is found, it is applied automatically, the string skips the Translation step, and it moves to the step configured in your SmartMatch Rules (for cross-locale adaptation, your Edit or Review step), with no human effort required.

Only published translations are used for SmartMatch. This means the primary-locale translations must be published before the secondary-locale strings can SmartMatch against them. Until the primary locale's translations are published, the secondary-locale strings will sit in the Translation step. Once the primary translations are published, SmartMatch leverages them to the secondary locale and the strings move on to the Edit or Review step for adaptation.

Edit Step

The "adaptation" part of cross-locale adaptation happens in the Edit step of the dedicated workflow. If you are using Smartling Language Services, this step type should be Review.

Follow these steps to add an Edit step to the adaptation workflow. The step name should be explicit about its use, e.g., "Adaptation".

Unlike the Translation step, this Edit step requires human input. Ensure you follow the steps to Assign Linguists to a Workflow Step.

Step 3: Change the default workflow for the secondary locale

In the Languages tab, this new adaptation workflow can now be set as the default workflow for the secondary locale. The default workflow for your primary locale should be your regular translation workflow, using your preferred translation vendor.

Follow these steps to learn how to Change a Default Workflow for a Language.

Step 4: Enable cross-locale leverage in your Linguistic Package

The Linguistic Package used by your Project is where you enable cross-locale leverage, so translations from the primary locale can be reused for the secondary locale.

Follow these steps to learn how to Enable Cross-Locale Leverage.

Step 5: Enable SmartMatch

To fully automate copying translations from the primary locale to the secondary locale, you also need to enable SmartMatch.

On the cross-locale leverage source, under SmartMatch, click Disabled to open your SmartMatch settings.

Under Text with variant, select the First Edit Step, so that translations for the primary locale are automatically sent to the Edit step for the secondary locale, where they can be tweaked and adapted to local markets. If you are using Smartling Language Services, this step type should be First Review Step.

Step 6: Add glossary terms for the secondary locale (optional)

Don't forget to add your new locale to your Glossary and add any entries or individual terms that you always want adapted in a particular way.

Step 7: Create a Job

The final step is to create a Job with the primary and secondary locales.

The information in this article applies only when the same content is translated into both the primary and secondary locales. If some new content needs to be translated into the secondary locale only (but not the primary locale), simply create a Job to translate content into just the secondary locale, and be sure to choose an appropriate alternative workflow for that Job (the adaptation workflow will not work for this scenario).

FAQ

Prefer watching to reading? Check out our video tutorial on Cross-Locale Adaptation.