Aphorme: An Intralingual Translation Tool for Emergency Management and Disaster Response

Abstract

While multilingual translation needs (from one or more language(s) to one or more others) in disaster events are a “perennial issue” among responders in crisis-affected communities (Crowley & Chan, 2011) and calls are being made to consider the access to (and translation of) information during crisis a human right (Greenwood et al., 2017), the literature that deals with intralingual translation in disaster is limited in places where it should thrive, such as crisis communication, translation studies, and rhetoric. Intralingual translation is of increasing relevance in disaster not only because of potential variability in literacy levels among those affected (O’Brien, 2020) but because responding to/planning for disaster requires an understanding of the ‘operational’ terms used (but not always shared ) by other responding agencies in the field. This paper calls for increased attention to intralingual translation needs in disaster and introduces a translation technology (“Aphorme”) designed to mitigate those needs.