Translating dates

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Emily Saunders wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I have a question for more experienced translators.  I've been handed a 
> couple of papers to translate from Russian to English about whales.  
> They are, I believe, to be delivered at an upcoming conference or 
> consortium or some such in Alaska.  They contain tables with dates of 
> whale sightings and periods of observations.  These dates are naturally 
> in the Russian format such as:  2.05 and  5.06-7.11, which Americans 
> could (would?) erroneously read as February 5 and June 5 - July 11 if 
> left in their current format.
> 
> A suggestion I've received is to switch the numbers, but put an American 
> slash "/" between them instead of the period to make it clear that this 
> is American format.  My gut, however, says to spell them out (May 2 and 
> June 5 - Nov 7) since simply switching the order would be potentially 
> confusing for Russians.  This will take up more column width in the 
> tables, which is a little awkward, but essentially doable.  Or should I 
> just leave them be because the scientific community out there follows 
> the European norm anyway (sort of like kilos and celsius)?  If there is 
> any set norm as to how this is dealt with, I'd be very grateful to know.

I'd suggest three-letter abbreviations for maximum clarity:
	12 Mar 1987 (this format is common in government circles,
		even in running text)
	Mar 12, 1987 (I'd do this in tables only, otherwise
		spell out the full name of the month)

 From what I can see of American websites on whales, there is no single 
standard, but 3/18/87 would be instantly clear, and 3/12/87 would be 
taken to mean March 12, 1987 unless there were something in the context 
to suggest otherwise.

This site (disclaimer requires cookies) uses yyyy/mm/dd:
<http://rwcatalog.neaq.org/Default.aspx>

This one uses the standard US m/d/yy date format:
<http://www.gowhales.com/sighting.htm>

This site uses the common US government format d-Mmm-yy (more commonly 
seen as d Mmm yyyy):
<http://www.facsfacjax.navy.mil/index.php?secid=21&id=6&filesystem_id=1998>
(click "Updated to 4 Mar 07 v.1" to download Excel spreadsheet 
containing circular reference)

This site uses standard Mmmm d, yyyy format in body text and Mmm. d in 
tables:
<http://npal.ucsd.edu/mammals/2001%20NPAL%20Report.pdf>


This site uses dd Mmm yyyy:
<http://whalesight.kissblogs.com/blog/_archives/2006/6/7/2011861.html>

And so forth.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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