Swiss Avalanche Bulletin: Automated Translation With a Catalogue of Phrases

2 Tele.Translator.Network, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland ABSTRACT: In order to produce the new Swiss avalanche bulletin twice a day in four languages, a fully automated translation system was needed due to the lack of time available for manual translation. The newly developed system is based on a catalogue of predefined phrases with numerous predetermined combination options. To create an avalanche bulletin in the new system, the forecasters do not write the danger description from scratch but assemble it from a set of predefined phrases in German. Each of these phrases also exists in the database in French, Italian and English. Hence, the translations are available immediately and do not need to be proof-read or corrected. After the first operational winter season, users confirmed that the danger descriptions were correct and clear. Forecasters confirmed that it was possible to describe every situation with sufficient accuracy and within the short time span available. The cost-benefit ratio of the catalogue-based system is excellent. The savings from manual translations will exceed the initial cost of developing the phrase catalogue within a few years. A catalogue-based translation system remains limited to a very small sublanguage but is well-suited to avalanche forecasting. The database could conceivably be adapted to other multi-lingual countries or extended to other topics such as weather forecasting.