THE INDONESIAN LANGUAGE

Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia, based on the Riau version of Malay language, was declared the official language with the declaration of Indonesia's independence in 1945, following the 1928 "unifying language" declaration in the Indonesian Youth Pledge.

With fluency approaching 100% among the quarter billion inhabitants of the world's fourth most populous nation, Bahasa Indonesia has become one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE

Italian (italiano or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino and is widely spoken in Vatican City, although Latin is the official language. Standard Italian, adopted by the state after the unification of Italy, is based on Tuscan and is somewhat intermediate between Italo-Dalmatian languages of the South and Northern Italian dialects of the North.

THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE

Japanese (日本語 Nihongo) is a language spoken by over 140 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities around the world. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages, but there is no widely accepted evidence of a relationship with any other languages. It is an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of speaker and listener.

THE KOREAN LANGUAGE

Korean (한국어/조선말) is the official language of both North Korea and South Korea and one of the ten most spoken languages in the world. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 80 million Korean speakers, with large groups in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, the United States, CIS (post-Soviet states), and more recently the Philippines.

The translation marketplace

Twenty of the largest translation and localization suppliers are located in North America and Europe. Seven are from the United States, four from the United Kingdom, two each from Switzerland and the Czech Republic, and one each from Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, and France.

The list also includes a consortium of companies with headquarters in Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Spain. Finally, Lionbridge, SDL, STAR, and TransPerfect, are smaller players, but the amounts do not affect the rankings.

Interpretation providers tell us that their work in judicial, over-the-phone (OPI), and other forms of oral interpretation differs enough from mainline translation firms that they need to be discussed on their own merits. LanguageLine leads the U.S. interpretation market, with 2005 revenue exceeding US$140 million.

Then there is a big drop to companies turning over less than US$25 million, including Cyracom, Network Omni, LSA, and Teleinterpreters.

For nearly two decades Ireland was the Mecca of the localization industry, but both suppliers like Lionbridge and large buyers like Microsoft have been gradually transferring operations and staff out of Dublin to lower-wage production and project management centers around the world.

As the nexus of the language service industry shifts eastward and to the south, longtime players will find both new rivals and opportunities in other regions. Some North Atlantic firms will subcontract work to companies in those areas, others will compete head-to-head for business in local languages, and still others will acquire or merge with these up-and-coming firms. Within five years, we expect to see greater representation from these regions in our top 20 list.