The Royal Academy of Spanish Language (RAE), the organization that defines the Spanish language standards, introduced spelling changes which came into effect on the 1st of January 2011. 

The new rules include:

New names for the letters B, V and Y, unique for all Spanish-speaking countries

B becomes be (it should no longer be called "be larga" in America).
V becomes uve ("be corta" disappears) and y becomes ye instead of i griega.

"ch" and "ll" are no longer considered separate letters of the alphabet

This brings the number of letters in the alphabet to 27, i.e. the 26 of the English alphabet, plus ñ.

Orthographic accents can be dropped

Writers may choose whether the word "sólo" used as an adverb, as well as demonstrative pronouns such as "éste" or "ésa" carry an accent.

The "q", used to represent the phoneme "k" is dropped

As a consequence, Iraq will now be written as "Irak" and Qatar as "Catar".
Also, quórum becomes cuórum.

Prefixes such as "ex" and "anti" are now attached to the word they precede

For example, in "exmarido", and "expresidente".
But prefixes will continue to be written with a space when they precede two words, as in the case of "pro derechos humanos".

Some words become monosyllabic, and are no longer accented

Examples of such words are: guión, Sión, and truhán.

The accent on the conjunction "o" between numbers can now be omitted.

Languages are living organisms ... that is what makes translation so exciting!

Research by the Boston Consulting Group, published in January 2011, states that medical device recalls in Europe and the United States occur at similar rates while the approval process in Europe is significantly faster.

By analyzing publically available data on severe recalls of medical devices in Europe (equivalent to a Class I recall in the US) the study shows that the number of recalls in Europe is identical to that in the United States, and the therapeutic mix and type of recalls is also similar to that in the US.

The report states that this initial assessment of comparable recalls between the US and Europe does not suggest that different approval processes, and earlier approvals, in Europe come at a cost in terms of patient safety.

Read the complete report here

Cogen's translation QA process goes full circle and is ISO 9001:2008 certified -
for your peace of mind.

Well translated documentation is crucial to the success of your company on your international markets.
Accurately translated and clearly phrased information will make your customers prefer your brands, time and time again.
It will make your products easy to use and to maintain without the help of a call center, and expedite their certification process by regulatory bodies.

Cogen applies a full circle translation QA which covers all the steps, from the selection of the best translators to the analysis and monitoring of your reviewers feedback.

It all starts with finding the right people -

Cogen's translator profiling process is unique: for each new customer, our Language Resources Team pre-selects translators on their experience in the subject matter and their references. After a first internal screening on their professional quality, at least three samples per language pair are submitted to the customer, asking for his preference.
Based on that feedback, a team is put in place (one main translator and at least one back-up), which will handle all your assignments and which Cogen's translation project management tool will assign by default to your projects.
From then on, a relationship grows between translators, in-country reviewers and customer contacts, strengthened over the years by training sessions, meetings, and exchanges through Cogen's translation project management portal.

But they need some help - a terminology tool, ...

Each company has a unique set of terms and expressions which, if used consistently in all languages, increases the quality and readability of product documentation. To make sure that terminology is adhered to, Cogen has developed a terminology management tool which highlights, in the content sent for translation and for review, all occurrences of your glossary terms, with their translation.

... in-context terminology searches in your translation memory,

For the duration of each translation project, Cogen opens the access to your translation memory to all translators and reviewers at work, so they can check terms and phrases in context. The search is multi-directional, from each source to each target language, and pulls up results within a paragraph and with the document name it comes from.

... feedback from your in-country staff,

The feedback of your in-country reviewers in precious: they know best how to talk to your customers. Cogen has developed an application which cross-references the reviewed content with the original translated content, and highlights the differences. At the end of each project, the output of this analysis is sent to the translator, for future reference.

... QA technology,

Cogen's validation application verifies that your source and translated content remain perfectly aligned at all times: it cross-checks, after translation and after each review iteration, the overall document length, the number of content segments, the figures, the formatting.

All supported by metrics.

My.cogen.com, Cogen's translation project management portal, illustrates the output of these tools with metrics about the content review percentages and the evolution of the quality ratings of your reviewers, as well as project status follow-up.

March 2010 - An independent report looking at the translation processes employed by 187 companies of various sizes, industries and geographies, has found that the best-in-class performers systematically track the reuse of translated content and, in so doing, reduce translation costs by 17%.

The report concludes :

"The best-in-class performers are 1.5 times as likely as the industry average to track the reuse of content.

By tracking performance in this way, they can identify where and when they are able to reuse translations.
This helps drive continuous improvement in how content is developed, applied and leveraged, ultimately enabling these companies to reduce translation costs by 17%".

To extend these advantages to its customers, Cogen provides online access to a content harmonization tool, and metrics about content reuse evolution, through a secure portal.

Read more ...

Directive 2007/47/EC amends Directive 90/385/EEC on active implantable medical devices and Directive 93/42/EEC on medical devices.

The changes concern, among others, the essential requirements which medical devices must satisfy in order to be lawfully placed on the market, the corresponding conformity assessment procedures and the classification of devices.

Since Directive 2007/47/EC is addressed to the Member States, preliminary transposition into national law is indispensable for the application of the corresponding provision by the various economic operators.

Article 4 of the Directive states that the Member States "shall apply the transposition measures as from March 21 , 2010".

As no provision is made for a period of transition, a number of questions have been raised, and the following interpretation by the Commission's services are meant to be a guide to uniform practice throughout the EU.

June 2009. Cogen's quality management system receives additional formal recognition.

Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), a worldwide quality registrar, has conducted an independent audit and found Cogen to be in full compliance with the ISO 9001:2008 standard.

"This certification is the result of the company's continuous commitment to quality" said Véronique Respaut, Quality Management Expert at Cogen, on receiving the news. "As our customers know very well, the whole company, from the CEO to each team member, has its mind set on improving quality on an everyday basis".

Cogen was previously ISO 9001:2000 certified. "Simply renewing that certification was not enough for us" Véronique Respaut adds. "We wanted to offer better guarantees to our customers that the way our customer-focused processes are managed perfectly meets their service requirements.

The standard addes more stringent requirements, such as:

• Inclusion of statutory and regulatory requirements alongside those of the customer;
• Integration of outsourced process control within the quality management system;
• Clarification on human resources competence requirements;
• Details regarding post-delivery activities;
• Extension of customer satisfaction monitoring sources
• Greater protection of customer assets, including personal and confidential data;

"What I am particularly proud of is that Cogen is awarded this certification for the full scope of its activities", notes Hélène Keufgens, CEO of Cogen. "That Cogen's repeatable processes should be recognised as watertight is invaluable to our international customers, some of which operate in highly regultated industries".

For further information, please contact :

Jérôme Legris : +32 6789 2504 - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cogen is an ISO 9001:2008 certified language service provider, serving customers in the US, Europe and Asia since 1980.

Our mission is to help manufacturers of industrial equipment, medical devices and complex consumer products to create more product documentation, in more languages, within controlled, repeatable and metrics-driven processes that guarantee quality consistency, cost containment and reduced throughput times.

Cogen offers international project management services, consultancy in translation process optimization, glossary management, translation and multilingual publishing services.