In a world in which technology is bringing people from different parts of the globe all together and allowing them to work side-by-side, it is only natural that problems should arise through having speakers of many different languages. It is hoped that science can solve this problem via the creation of a universal translator, but much work has yet to be done on such devices.
The first barrier in creating a universal translator is the sheer amount of data that such a device would need to hold. It is estimated that there are 6,900 languages alive in the world today, and each of these languages has a limitless vocabulary, with new words coming into use frequently while older words fall out of use. A universal translator would need to be updated often to account for these changes or people would need to modify what language they used in order that their language be recognised by the translator. In order to be truly universal, the device would also need to be able to translate things from many languages into many other languages without using a language in between, for that would create less accuracy in the final translation.
Beyond there being many languages in the world, each of those languages has a plethora of dialects, each with slightly different sentence structures, vocabularies, pronunciations, etc. There is the potential for these differences to confuse the translators, so even more data would need to be input for each individual language to account for each of the infinite number of things a person might say, else a conversation has the potential to become stilted as a person attempts to figure out how to say only things the translator will understand.
The next issue is how these translators would interact with the external world. There are two major options here: the device could work through speech or through text. While it would be faster in many cases for the device to operate from what it could “hear” from the external world, the technology is not yet accurate enough that a person’s speech could always be accurately recorded and translated, which could hamper such things as negotiations and make even aimless chats a bit strained. Typing out text would take longer and could lead to stilted conversations that left all parties unsatisfied.
Universal translators, however, would have very many advantages both in private and public spheres. Think of the benefits to negotiations if all parties were able to speak in the language in which they felt comfortable, instead of needing to utilise a non-native language, which prospect can often be intimidating; think of the benefits to the workplace. Families might be closer to their more distant relations who lived in different countries and spoke different languages; it would seem that such a device might spur more cultural awareness and, thereby, acceptance.
While the creation of a universal translator is a rather daunting prospect, it is a goal that linguists and scientists and programmers alike are working towards, the point when all cultures (perhaps even non-Earth cultures!) can freely communicate amongst people with whom they have very little in common, indeed. Such technology has the very real potential to allow humankind to flourish beyond its current capabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_translator
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Universal_translator
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/travel/universal-translator.htm
