Transadaptation. What it is, and what it is not.

While there are a number of services under the umbrella term of ‘localization’, transadaptation might be one of the least well known.

That’s partly because it’s a relatively new term, with one of its most widely accepted definitions coming from Yves Gambier, author and researcher with a focus on translation studies and audiovisual translation, among other fields. The Gambier definition of transadaptation is as follows: “a term which might allow us to go beyond the usual dichotomy (literal/free translation, translation/adaptation, etc.) and take target audiences into consideration more directly”.

Of course, this is a rather broad definition. So how is transadaptation typically put into practice?

Transadaptation is often considered to be the process of taking content available in one language, and adapting it to be suitable for other markets that speak the same language. For example, content created in the UK would need to be adapted for audiences in the US.

Recipes are a common field for transadaptation between British and US audiences, as units of measurement need to be converted (eg. replacing Fahrenheit with Celsius) and food names will need to be changed (eg. zucchini to courgette).

Content created for Spanish audiences might need to have more stringent transadaptation processes applied, as there are more significant differences between European Spanish and the various Spanish variants used in Latin America. Of course, when the changes are more substantial, a more thorough process such as translation, transcreation, or even multilingual copywriting might be more useful.