I have been translating medical documents from French to English for maybe 10 years. Have been translating for 20 years, mostly IT, computers, etc. I earned lacks of rupees doing medical translation. Imagine losing all this business, for one of the biggest translation agencies in the world one fine day. Why? Because I did not know the difference between URETER and URETHRA. If you are a doctor, reading this you may smile, laugh, grin, give a stern look. Probably, same if you are a translator. For me, this meant a loss of income. They stopped sending me work.
Translation is tough. Journalists and translators have a tough time. In Marathi, it is even more difficult, because we do not have adequate terminology, dictionary, resources.
CERVIX
I think the first thought which comes to mind when we hear "cervix" is "cervical cancer".
Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cervical-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20352501) tells us:
Cervical cancer is a cancer that occurs in the cervix — the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina.
Cervical cancer = गर्भाशयाच्या ग्रीवेचा कर्करोग or गर्भाशयाच्या मुखाचा कर्करोग.
If you had a pain in the neck (oh, I don't mean the Twitter troll, a nasty colleague, or the brat jisne aapke naak mein dam kar rakha hai), probably, you have heard of Cervical Spondylosis. If someone has a collar around his neck (as someone with decent knowledge of English, I had avoided adding "around his neck"), you immediately explain: Spondylosis? As a medical translator I came to know yesterday that it is called a cervical collar.
Cervical spondylosis = ग्रीवाचा स्पॉन्डिलोसिस. (गर्भाशय ग्रीवाचा स्पॉन्डिलोसिस would be confusing, if not wrong.)
Spondylosis is the age-related wear and tear of the spine, or more precisely, the spinal discs (vertebrae). Oxford defines it as: a painful condition of the spine resulting from the degeneration
of the intervertebral discs.
Thanks to CM of Maharashtra, surgery of the cervical spine or cervical spine surgery is in the news. I admire newspapers who said he had neck surgery, but also admire newspapers who
said he had cervical spine surgery.
What will we call cervical spine surgery in Marathi? I read MaTa (मटा), Maharashtra Times for you English brats. I do not remember reading the news, so don't know what it called the surgery. My
guess (joke...it is not true)
Cervical spine surgery = सर्वाइकल स्पाइन सर्जरी
Interestingly, Loksatta, MY arbiter for good Marathi wrote like MT:
सर्व्हायकल स्पाईन संबंधित शस्त्रक्रिया
BBC.Com Marathi site also used the same phrase.
Google Translate gets a lot of flak for its poor translations (specially for Indian languages). But people don't realize that it is MACHINE TRANSLATION. Millions of translations have been crunched and based on it -- you will find the results. Since Marathi is a complex language, it goofs up many times.
Cervical spine surgery = मानेच्या मणक्याची शस्त्रक्रिया or ग्रीवा मणक्याचे शस्त्रक्रिया (गर्भाशय मणक्याची शस्त्रक्रिया would be wrong, गर्भाशय मणक्याची सुरजरी
would be patently wrong, as सुरजरी is an unnecessary transliteration.)
Cervical vertebral surgery = ग्रीवाच्या कशेरुकाची शस्त्रक्रिया or ग्रीवा मणक्याचे शस्त्रक्रिया or मानेच्या मणक्याची शस्त्रक्रिया
vertebral = कशेरुकाची vertebra/vertebrae = कशेरुका, कशेरुका
Cervix = ग्रीवा or गर्भाशय ग्रीवा
Cervix refers to both: a) the narrow passage forming the lower end of the uterus b) the neck.
Cervical means: a) relating to the cervix b) relating to the neck.
Somebody who is not a doctor is definitely going to get confused. Medical students and interns would definitely struggle with this confusion -- as I did as a medical translator. "Cervical" seems
to be there throughout the body.
Cervix comes from the Latin root (cervix) which means neck. So anything like a neck becomes "cervical". There are many cervixes in the body. So we have a vast range of adjectival use of
"cervical".
Cervical Spine, Cervical Cancer, Cervical Collar, Cervical surgery, Cervical vertebrae,
Verywellhealth.com has an interesting, simple, article listing various such usages.
Understanding the Multiple Meanings of the Term Cervical by Jennifer Whitlock, RN, MSN, FN.
Here are some words she lists out in her excellent article:
Neck: The cervical vertebrae are the bones of the spine that are in the neck. When you see these terms, it relates to the area of the neck: cervical spine, cervical disc, cervical nerves, cervical rib, cervical lymph nodes, cervical myelopathy, cervical radiculopathy, and the cervical collar that is used to stabilize the neck when injured. However, cervical stenosis may or may not pertain to the neck.
Cervix: This is at the bottom of the uterus, where the uterus narrows to a neck-like passage in the female reproductive system, opening into the vagina. When you see the term cervical cancer, it is referring to the female cervix. Cervical dysplasia refers to abnormal cells seen on a cervical smear or Pap smear. Other terms that will generally pertain to the cervix include cervical cap, cervical mucus, and one of the two meanings of cervical stenosis.
Cervical stenosis: This is a confusing term as it may be applied to either the neck or the cervix. For the cervix, it is a narrowing of the passageway through the cervix that may cause infertility. For the neck, it is a narrowing of the space for the spinal cord and nerve branches in the neck vertebrae.
Medical terminology can be confusing in any language. We saw a few examples above. Indian languages like Hindi and Marathi do
not have excellent medical dictionaries. So the task of journalists, translators and media persons becomes difficult.
Hope this blog has helped. I am still learning Marathi, Medical terms and translation! So do bear with my shortcomings. Thank you for reading this blog.