Faculty of foreign languages a handbook of

6 
 
Historical background
II.
Interpretation has existed since people used the spoken language. The oldest 
reference dated back from the Ancient Egypt when an epitaph from the 3
rd
century B.C. 
was found referring to a “headman interpreter”. Some documents showed that interpreters 
provided their services in administrations, trades, religious activities, and in the armed 
forces of Egypt. Likewise, in the Ancient Greeks and Romans interpreters were needed 
because very few Romans and Greeks learned the languages of the peoples they had 
conquered. Thus, the use of interpreters carried a political dimension in order to 
demonstrate Roman superiority; their roles were not respected as most of them were 
slaves or prisoners. In some cases, interpreters might suffer bad endings after their 
assignments. The Roman Emperor Caracalla, for instance, slaughtered his interpreters 
after every allied agreement was signed. 
In Medieval Times, this profession was highly valued as interpreters were members 
of the courts. Besides their role in international negotiations, interpreters were also 
necessay for the spread of Christianity and trade expeditions. They were employed in 
monasteries staffed by monks of different nationalities, and accompanied missionaries to 
faraway lands. Attempts were made to come up with universal languages without success, 
and interpretation remained the only effective communication method between people of 
different tongues.
The era of great discoveries overseas and expansions worldwide in the 14
th
-16
th
century were other heydays for this profession. Many empires employed the services of 
captured natives or those who had been taken prisoners and later released by the natives 
whose languages had been learnt during the imprisonment. These interpreters were 
essential for developing trade relations between the colonists and the natives. For example, 
Canada had its resident interpreters from the French natives who had settled with the 
Hurons/Iroqueans.
During the 16
th
-19
th
century, things took a similar course upon the exploration of 
the Asian continent. To facilitate communication with Chinese officials and intellectuals, 
the missionaries exploited the effectiveness of interpreters. The 17th century saw one 
Greek interpreter embark on an astonishing career – Constantin Phaulcon, who after 
having started off as a ship’s boy, learnt English, French, Portuguese, and Siamese, joined 
the East-Indian Company where he quickly advanced to the highest rank, and ended up as 
Prime Minister at the court of the King of Siam. In Europe, whereas French was the lingua 

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franca of the diplomatic world due to its political power, many countries started 
employing interpreters in their contacts with other countries to show their independence 
and army power. As a result, professional interpreter training institutes came into being. 
Constantinople, for example, set up the Dragoman School while in Vienna Empress Maria 
Theresia founded the Oriental, and both of these schools are still in existence today.
In the 20
th
century, interpreters continued to be used by missionaries and 
tradesmen, while diplomats up to WW I mainly relied on French. At the Paris Peace 
Conference followed WW1, negotiators requested the use of other languages and ended up 
employing the services of consecutive interpreters. The time between the two World Wars 
saw the speedy development of international institutions with a lot of high-level 
international meetings, thus multiplying the need for interpreting services. At first 
consecutive interpretation was chosen; however, this method took too long and extended 
meetings unbearably. Soon efforts were made to develop a new approach that would be 
less time-consuming and more advantageous for everyone involved - simultaneous 
interpretation. This approach was developed almost at the same time both in the US and in 
the Soviet Union, providing a direct connection between speakers and interpreters who in 
turn translate simultaneously to the audience. At first, it was not popular with those who 
feared being condemned to demeaning tasks with a complicated system of cables, 
microphones, and headsets, repeating word by word without anytime to render elegantly. 
Later on, this new method proved indispensable since it not only cut the time considerably 
but also reatly improved the quality and accuracy of the message significantly. That was 
the triumph of simultaneous interpretation over consecutive which by now is limited to 
special occasions such as dinner speeches when no interpreting systems are available or 
can be installed.
Machine translation was introduced in 1990s. Though it is quite efficient, this 
method can never really understand language in all its nuances and subtle variations such 
as the underlying cultures, traditions and social conventions, the characteristics and moods 
of the speakers, or their implicit intentions, etc. Only human brains are fit enough to fully 
grasp the multi-faceted manifestations of these characteristics in the respective context and 
render them correctly. In short, machine translation is now a useful assistant but cannot 
replace a human interpreter.
(
http://lrc.wfu.edu/community_interpreting/pages/history.htm
) 
 

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