Translatable But Debatable - 'ענף, מחלקה וכד
Translatable but Debatable
'ענף, מחלקה וכד
Everyone knows that ענף is a branch. And a company is like the tree of the field. A company can have a logistics branch, a manufacturing branch, and so on. On the other hand, when we think of our economy’s two dominant businesses — banking and pizzerias — it’s not the ענפים that we call branches, it’s the סניפים.
Like any translator who works for agencies, I’ve handled material from banks and other big businesses. I’ve decided, for example, that ענפים are divisions only to find myself facing a problem later: if ענף is a division, what’s אגף? What’s מדור? One day as I grappled with an assignment, I started a chart of the words that insisted on being distinguished, and I got this far:
אגף – Sector
מדור – Section
מחלקה – Department
ענף – Division
תחום – ?
I didn’t like using both sector and section, but Hebrew uses both ענף and אגף — try that on a bad phone connection — so I figured I wasn’t doing much worse than the original.
For תחום I had no pleasing translation, and the dictionaries are not helpful. (They suggest area, domain, sphere, dominion.) I did have unit left unused, and like most of these words unit can refer to something as large or small as you like; but unit should really stay reserved for יחידה. Similarly, there’s office, but it should stay reserved for משרד or לשכה.
In this particular case, I was able to finesse תחום entirely by leaving it out. If someone was the ראש תחום המחקר or if something was the responsibility of תחום השותפויות, I said merely head of Research and responsibility of Partnerships. If there had been a reference to a ישיבה של ראשי תחומים, then I would have been in trouble.
Comments are welcome. The Hebrew and English words can be matched in many different ways, and I’d be especially happy if anyone can point to a definitive list that translates each uniquely.
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The problem is even worse when it comes to such terms in the IDF - I recently had a client who translated Agaf Mivtzaim as Operations Corps.
Then there is the use of the term gaf, which is a cognate of agaf, but is used alongside it to denote a different level of hierarchy.
As you rightly point out, the use of rosh along with one of these hierarchy terms also leads to problems. But that's a good topic for another column.
The real problem is that there is no clear hierarchy and these terms are sometime used interchangeably by various companies/agencies. What is called makhlaka in one place becomes tehum in a different one.
And I agree with Perry that the IDF nomenclature is a nightmare. Thankfully, there are lots of official online English-language army resources that could be used for reference (though you can't always vouch for their linguistic soundness).
I did some of my own head-scratching and some quick research on this, and have concluded that as in most fields, terminology is different from area to area.
Thus, don't expect one definitive list, but rather by field. For example, "Agaf" for a hospital is a building or maybe even a set of buildings ("Agaf haMizrahi"=East building/wing). Similarly, "Makhleket" is a ward ("Makhleket Yoldot"=Maternity Ward).
Remember also, that these words don't just come out of the blue. "leAgof" means to (out)flank. "leKhalek" means to divide.
Very interesting, though. Keep up the good work
Add this to the list - used in a document I translated just today - חטיבה . For a commercial company, not the military.
The also use סמכ"לות - referring to the office of some bigwig.
It can be a nightmare.
Thanks, as always.