Turns of the centuries. The Transkribus automated tool for recognition, transcription and translation of handwritten historical documents: A German-Serbian case study

Vukčević, Miodrag M.

doi:10.1075/babel.00159.vuk

Article published In:

Übersetzen und Dolmetschen im juristischen Bereich / Traduction et interprétation juridiques / Legal Translation and Interpreting: Technologie – Outsourcing – Veränderungen / Technologie – externalisation – transformations / Technology – Outsourcing – Shifts
Edited by Frans De Laet, Reiner Heard and Miodrag Vukčević
[Babel 66:2] 2020
► pp. 294–310

Turns of the centuries. The Transkribus automated tool for recognition, transcription and translation of handwritten historical documents

A German-Serbian case study

Miodrag M. Vukčević | University of Belgrade,

The translation of handwritten historical documents faces many challenges due to variation in the writing style, local language, and an inevitable language change. Even the transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin characters is standardized by the bijective transliteration standard ISO 9. This presentation introduces a number of tools offered by Transkribus for the automated processing of documents, such as Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) and Document Understanding, which are needed for the translation of historical documents. Next to the problem of decoding handwritten documents, written for example in Kurrentschrift using ancient terminology, changed meanings and different spelling have additionally to be considered during the translation of texts from earlier centuries. Resolution strategies on a case study show different methods for ensuring quality translations.

Keywords: HTR, Kurrentschrift, scripture, Transkribus, transliteration

Article outline

1.Cultural rapprochement process and digital era
2.Standards in German-Serbian cooperation in the administrative area
3.Historical handwritten documents in legal translation process
4.Conclusion
Notes
References

Published online: 7 April 2020

https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00159.vuk

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