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A Study on the Effectiveness of Using Google Translate in Legal Translation:

With Special Reference to Selected Legal Documents of the Registrar
General's Department

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 Sri Lanka Journal of Humanities and Language Studies p-ISSN: 2961-5828; e-ISSN: 2989-0527
Email: [email protected] LOGOS, Vol.1, No.,1
©2023

A Study on the Effectiveness of Using Google Translate in Legal Translation:

With Special Reference to Selected Legal Documents of the Registrar
General’s Department
Ubhayawardhana P.D.N.M.1, Hansani J.A.M.2,
Department of Languages, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka 1&2

[email protected]

ABSTRACT
Article Info
Legal translation, as a specific genre in the field of translation,
Article history:
is the translation of documents related to the regulations of
Received :18.09.2022 legal relationships. In legal writing, the specialized
Accepted : 20.12.2022 terminology and the text style are considered more challenging
Available Online
At present, the usage of machine aided translation tools for
Keywords: translating has gradually increased. Among such tools, Google
Translate application is considered much reliable for an instant
Effectiveness
translation output. The main aim of this study was to identify
Google Translate
the effectiveness of Google Translate method to translate the
Legal translation
specialized terminology in the legal documents. In this study,
Terminology
as primary data, birth, marriage and death registration forms
and certificates and two acts and one ordinance taken from
Registrar General’s Department were refereed and as
secondary data, previous research papers, e-books, and website
sources were used. In this qualitative research, the selected data
were entered into the selected categories of the Google
Translation: voice, typing and camera and the output were then
compared with the human translation. As a conclusion, it was
investigated that the Google Translation output is more
effective when translating terminology from English to Sinhala
than vice versa. When translating the legal terminology from
English to Sinhala, both typing and camera options were found
more effective. Since the camera option does not support in
Sinhala- English language pair, compared to the typing and
voice option, typing option is found more effective. Further, it
was observed that in some instances the output of Google
Translation is totally unacceptable.

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 A Study on the Effectiveness of Using Google Translate in Legal Translation: With
Special Reference to Selected Legal Documents of the Registrar General’s Department

Abbreviations

ST – Source Text GT – Google Translate

TT – Target Text HT – Human Translation
SL – Source Language VO – Voice Option
TL – Target Language TO – Typing Option
MT – Machine Translation CO – Camera Option

INTRODUCTION

Translation is the process of transferring text from one language to another while
preserving the content and sense of the original text culturally, technically or
linguistically depending on the requirement of the perceptions and practices of the target
audience. Translation has now become more interactive within the cross-cultural
connections, trade, economy and educational sections to share new knowledge
throughout the world. From the first known significant translation of the Hebrew Bible,
the process of translation has significantly passed different eras providing a valuable
service to bridge the gap between language and culture. However, in most cases
translation remains ‘invisible’. With the English translation of Bible by William
Tyndale, and the German Translation of the Bible by Martin Luther in 16 th century,
translation becomes more prominent. At the beginning of the 19 th century, the
translators changed their approach of being a slave of the source text revering
faithfulness and in the 21st century, translation has become an academic discipline and
spread all over the world. With the invention and the widespread of the internet,
translations are carried by using latest technology, as a machine aided translation.

With the help of the computer science, the process of translation is utilized by adhering
to the Machine Translation (MT) process, which can be defined as the process of using
Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically translate content from SL (Source language)
to TL (Target language) without any human input. With the development of the AI
technology, the system of machine aided translation has spread throughout the world
rapidly. Bilinguals or specially monolinguals, who are eager to communicate with
another language, but cannot afford the cost of a human translator, within a short
timeframe simply shift to the machine translation technique provided by a simple
software application.

Although there are several MT tools in usage like: Deep L, Linguee, Baidu Translate,
Youdao, Microsoft Translate, iTranslate, Trip Lingo, none of them has succeeded as the
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Google Translation. Google Translation is a complementary translation service

developed by Google Company in April, 2006 as a Statistical Machine Translation
process to translate various texts, words, phrases or web pages. Despite the mistakes
made by this machine translation tool, it has now been popular all over the world. Rather
than directly translating languages, it converts text to English before converting to the
target language. It searches millions of papers for patterns to help in deciding which
words to use and how to arrange them according to the target language. Its accuracy has
been measured to differ substantially among languages, which has been questioned and
ridiculed on multiple occasions. In November 2016, Google Translation (GT) switched to
a Google Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) engine giving access to the thousands of
the people at the online platform, GT provides various features: Written Words
Translation, Website Translation, Document Translation, Speech Translation, Mobile app
Translation, Image Translation and Hand Written Translation. After introducing as a
mobile app for android and IOS, the usage of this MT tool has increased rapidly with
minor errors comparing to the early versions.

The process of translation is engaged with various steps, to provide more accurate,
reliable translation. SL text has been comprehended, formulated and recreated and
replace into the TL as the normal procedure of the translation done by a human. Either
literary or non- literary, human can easily adjust to the process of translation rather the
translations done by AI because of his brain power. Humans are able to overcome the
linguistic challenges by applying their experiences rather the AI which is operated by the
binary code system. Yet no any MT system has been adopted to consider the whole
context, while accomplishing a translation. MT can be used in unedited form or in post-
edited form by human translator.

In general, the documents which are maintained or exercised in the professional duty,
are called as legal documents. Legal documents have very specific characteristics.
Accuracy and the precision which are required in any legal background are highly
essential. Neither ambiguity nor metaphors can happen in the legal document. Because
of the high percentage of valuable but strict information lay upon the legal documents,
they are in an unclear, very long sentence structural pattern. The language of the legal
document should be neutral and objective.

Legal documents are in various types: transcripts from court and witness, confidentially
agreements, formal complaints, legal statements, legal disclaimers, license, wills and

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trusts, court orders and consent agreements etc. Also, the acts, circulars, ordinances,
constitution, memorandum belong to the legal documents.

Legal language refers to the language related to law and legal process and it is considered
as a type of register, that is, a variety of language appropriate to different occasions and
situations of use, and in this case, a variety of language appropriate to the legal situations
of use. Considered as a sub language, and a restricted register, it owns specialized
grammar, a limited subject matter with special lexical, semantic and syntactical
variations. Thus, legal language or the terminology is a complex collection of linguistic
habits that cannot be easily changed or misinterpreted.

Legal translation is the transformation of legal documents and materials from one
language to another preserving the source document. Legal translation requires the
understanding about the legal background. Thus, some argue that to do a legal
translation, he/she must be a lawyer or any other profession related to the legal field.
However, the legal translators must have a proper understanding about the legal context,
relevant terminology and understanding about the legal implications of what are being
translated. Unlike the literary translation, legal translator cannot add, omit or change the
structure, terms or the information provided in the ST.

With the vision of assisting the public to secure their rights by registration, the Registrar
General Department was established in the first day of January 1864 with the governance
of MR. W.J. Mac Cathy. The mission of registration of legal documents pertaining to
movable and immovable properties and registration of titles in Sri Lanka and registration
of marriages, births and deaths, the primary domestic events of the populace and the
preservation of such documents and the issue of certified copies there from at request
and thereby assisting the populace to protect their rights. Through the registration of
Marriage, Birth and Death under civil registration system has not been started by this
department in 1867, the civil registration system was centralized to Divisional Secretariat
level to give a fast service to the public for their convenient in 1992. In 2020, the
department has been taken under the Ministry of Defense. At present, through 07 zonal
offices and 45 land registries, governing by the head office, Registrar General
Department facilitate to obtain all kind of Birth, Marriage, and Death registration, Title
Registration and Land Registration. In here the translated copies of the Birth, Marriage
and Death certificates will be provided as for the public need by seven professional
translators.

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The legal terminology, which is specific to the legal subculture, is a prominent part of the
legal translation. With the development of the information technology, though most of
the terms could be translated by using MT, it is doubtful that the original meaning has
been provided. Therefore, the present study is conducted with the aim of investigating
the effectiveness of Google Translation, to translate the legal terminology. The main
objective of this study was to realize how the Google Translation affects the specialized
terminology in legal documents with the sub objectives of identifying the factors related
to the Machine Translation process, legal documents, terminology and translation
Though the impact of GT for the field of translation has been discussed broadly in
literature, the research related to the GT with reference to Sinhala- English could not be
found adequately. Those existing research basically focused on the accuracy of both
literary and non -literary texts altogether. Therefore, the present study focuses on the
effectiveness of GT (by using the mobile app version) for the terminology of legal
documents comparing Sinhala and English texts. The specialized terminology is
translated by using the functions available in GT app which is Typing, Camera, and
Voice Typing and they will be compared with the actual translation which is t already
used. The present study has been limited to the terminology related to the selected legal
documents of the Registrar General Department, Battaramulla and Google Translate was
the selected machine translation system.

LITERATURE RIVIEW

Translating is decoding a written piece of discourse from the source language according
to our private language but considering the private language of the original writer and
the original context as much as possible, and then coding that piece again according to
our corrected-to-an extreme vision of the target language and context. (Pinheiro, 2014).
According to Goudec as per cited in Sorina, general translation refers to the translation
of documents and materials that do not belong to any specific type or domain area, do
not belong to any particular type, do not entail a specific translation process or the use of
equipment beyond an ordinary computer and word processor (Sorina, 2016).

Providing an overview of the history of translation, Datta G. Sawant Sengaon considers

the 16th century as a turning point in translation, not just in Bible translation. The great
age of French classicism is the seventeenth century. Between 1625 and 1660, the
translation of French classics rose dramatically in France, The translator was equated to
an artist in the seventeenth century, having a moral obligation to both the original
author's work and the receiver. Furthermore, when new theories and volumes on the

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translation process were developed, the study of translation became more methodical.
The nineteenth century saw Romanticism flourish, with several theories and translations
in the field of literature, particularly poetry translation. During the eighteenth century,
bizarre beliefs emerged in the realm of translation. In the twentieth century, religious
and political forces with many societies and organizations viewed translation as a social
action, and studies on translation became an academic discipline, resulting in the
development of translation research products such as Machine Translation and
Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools (Sengaon, 2013).

As cited in Shehab, Chalabi 2001 states that, Machine Translation (MT) is a process that
utilizes computer software to translate text from one natural language to another and
Trujillo states that, MT is the area of information technology and applied linguistics
dealing with the translation of human languages. He adds that MT has grown up as a
result of globalization and expanding of trade. It has been applied to increase and
improve the speed of translation, and to reduce translation’s cost (Shehab, 2013).

According to Vauquois (1998), as cited by Lin, MT is aimed at enabling a computer to

transfer natural language utterances, or to process a natural language in terms of lexical,
syntactic and semantic dimensions. For both of texts or speeches from one language in
the original texts to another language for the receivers, and even for both of explicit and
implicit meanings, the MT productions can be found working in an effective way (Lin,
2009).

Linguist Eugine Nida states three important facts about MT as: MT is possible for certain
restricted types of documents dealing with limited subject matter treated in a relatively
simple manner (2) with present technical developments in the “hardware” (i.e. the
computer machines) presently or soon to be available, machine translation of a “rough
and ready” type and for semantically limited texts is practically attainable at an
economically feasible price (3) important theoretical considerations in machine
Translation throw considerable light on problems of traditional translation, and are
proving highly stimulating to various developments in linguistic theory (Nida, 1964).

“…a good translator be constantly sweeping back and forth from one aspect of the
procedure to another, but he will also inevitably analyze in the direction of what he
knows must do in the re -structuring”. “You cannot transfer a message from Language
A to Language B in the form of a series of individual cores. In other words, the transfer

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is not at the extreme level of the individual kernels, but where they are connected to form
meaningful lines” (Nida, 1964:104).
Arnold, 2013 as per cited in Hijaz, summarizes the limitations of computers in the field
of MT, namely the inability of computers to: Perform vaguely specified tasks. 2. Learn
things 3. Perform common-sense reasoning. 4. Deal with some problems where there are
a large number of potential solutions (Hijaz, 2013).

Google Translate is a free online MT service that enables users to translate sentences,
documents, and even websites instantly. It functions when a user types or pastes the
material in the SL and Google Translate detects the ST and translates it into English as a
default language. However, Google Translate has its drawbacks just as any other MT.
Though it helps the reader to comprehend the content of ST, it does not usually produce
accurate results. The accuracy depends on the language pair being used. For example,
the accuracy of Google Translate increases substantially when translating a text from
English into a European Language. Results of analyses were reported in 2010, showing
that French into English translation is very accurate (Shen, 2010).

“Technical translation refers to the process of translating those texts belonging to what
are called specialized languages and is usually classified along with other varieties such
as legal translation, scientific translation or the translation of medical texts” (Cea & Rego
2004, 289). “Unlike pure science, law remains a national phenomenon. Each national law
constitutes an independent legal system with its own terminological apparatus,
underlying conceptual structure, rules of classification, and sources of law,
methodological approaches and socio-economic principles” (Sarcevic 1997: 13).

Sorina categorized the legal documents as, private legal documents, domestic legislation,
and international legal instruments. Private legal documents are those that are drafted
and used by lawyers in their daily practice on behalf of their clients. Domestic legislation
has two types of situations, first type is found in bilingual and multilingual jurisdictions
and the other, where two or more languages are the official legal languages. Legal
instruments in international or supranational bodies are the documents referred by the
United Nations and the European Union.
“Each legal system or family has its own characteristics and a vocabulary used to express
concepts, its rules are arranged into categories, it has techniques for expressing rules and
interpreting them, it is linked to a view of the social order itself which determines the
way in which the law is applied and shapes the very function of law in that society” (Cao,
2010).

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“Choosing the right words to each term when translating is key, not only to preserve the
specific register/style, but also to maintain and support the communicative function that
the translated text is supposed to fulfill in the target context”(Sorina, 2016). "When
translating, it is the jargon that is less of a problem for translators, often documented in
specialized dictionaries, glossaries, or science and technology textbooks, and can also be
standardized." (Gomez, 2013)
Although many scholars seem to believe that translating specialized terminological units
is basically a straightforward, almost automatic process, which requires nothing more
than matching the terms in the source text with their dictionary equivalent in the target
language, any translator with some practical experience in specialized contexts knows
this is far from the truth. Multilingual dictionaries and terminological databases do not
cover every possible field of knowledge and activity (Sorina, 2016). Newmark estimated
that terminology represents at most 5-10% of the total content of technical texts
(Newmark, 1988).

In his thesis, ‘Assessment of Google’s Translation of Legal Texts’, Basel Abd-AlKareem

Hijazi by using six different contracts regulating different matters and fourteen articles
extracted based on certain criteria, came to a conclusion that “The evaluation conducted
on the legal discourse and more specifically contracts shows that Google Translate is not
successful in producing outputs which are fully comprehensible to the target reader nor
does it render the accurate legal sense exhibited in the inputs. From a feasibility test
perspective, Google Translate does not perform well in translating legal discourse
specifically contracts, regardless of the type of contracts under assessment. Because of
the peculiarity and importance of precision the legal discourse has, people who are
aiming at translating legal texts are cornered in an ultimate alternative which is
‘professional human translation’”(Hijaz, 2013) . Mohammad Al Shehab has done a
research on “The Translatability of English Legal Sentences into Arabic by Using Google
Translation” on functional equivalence levels: near-equivalence, partial equivalence and
non-equivalence of Šarčević, comparing six English Legal Articles with a test. He came
to a conclusion that, “Google translation shares a lot of features with any of MT. In
general, the evaluation of GT is not fixed; it frequently enhances its systems by adding
new languages and concepts. The analysis of Google translation shows that translation
for English legal sentences into Arabic is good with the level of partial equivalent. It poses
a number of problems in translating the archaic English terms, in dealing with passive
voice, and, as previously mentioned, in translating the modal shall. Although GT

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performance is never likely to reach the level of professionals, it can provide a quick
translation for English-Arabic languages” (Shehab, 2013).

Since no research was found based on the legal terminology in English to Sinhala and
Sinhala to English, comparing the out-put of Voice, Typing and Camera translation of
the Google Translation mobile app this research was aimed to fill this gap.

METHODOLOGY

This qualitative research focuses on identifying the effectiveness of using Google

Translate to translate the terminology in the legal documents acquired from the Registrar
General’s Department, Battaramulla. The selected data were extracted from the legal
documents through the stratified sampling technique, and they were analyzed by using
content analyzing method. The selected terminologies were compared with the actual
human translations. For that purpose, the Birth, Death and Marriage registration forms
and certificates and two Acts: Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act, and
Kandyan Marriages and Divorce Act and the Adoption of Children Ordinance were
referred. The Google Translate mobile app was referred to get the machine translation
output. The selected data were entered into the three selected functions of the Google
Translation mobile app: Typing, Voice, and Camera within the time period of 10 th
November to 10th December 2021. The machine translated out-put were then compared
with the actual human translation. As for understanding the effectiveness of Google
Translate output, comparing both translations with the human translation the results
were categorized as: acceptable (without changings of the meaning and the pattern), less
acceptable (with minor changes of the meaning and the patterns), and not acceptable
(with major changings of the meaning and the pattern). Finally, by using content
analyzing method the selected data were categorized to identify the final result of this
research.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1) Birth Registration and Birth certificates

Birth registration is the process of recording a child’s birth. It is a permanent and official
record of a child’s existence, and provides legal recognition of that child’s identity. At a
minimum, it establishes a legal record of where the child was born and who his or her

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parents are. Birth registration is required for a child to get a birth certificate – his or her
first legal proof of identity (Selim, 2019).

Since the GT does not support with the Camera Option in the selected language pairs:
Sinhala to English, in here it was discussed by using the output of Typing Option (TO)
and Voice Option (VO).

In general the term ‘උපත සිදුවූ ආයතනයේ නැවතී සිටි අය’ has the meaning as it is provided
in VO- ‘Those who stayed at the institution where the birth took place’, and TO- ‘Those
who stayed at the institution where the birth took place’, while the actual HT is far more
different than all above, “Occupier”. Since the birth certificate as a special kind of legal
document, rather depending on long confusing sentences for certain term, using a simple
single term is more effective. Though these terms from Google Translator have preserved
the meaning regarding the changes of pattern of the output of both VO and TO, they can
be considered as less acceptable translations.

‘උපන්යෙයි පදිංචිකරු’ has HT output as ‘The resident’, the VO follows as ‘Hometown

resident’ and the TO refer as, ‘Resident of the home’: which is more acceptable than the
VO output. The term ‘ෙෘහ බලපත්‍රය’ has been translated in VO as ‘Home Permit’, and TO
as ‘Home license’. Regarding the pattern of the selected words, the actual HT ‘House
License’ will be more effective.

• ST- උපන් ස්ථානය පිළිබඳ විස්තර

VO- Details of place of birth

TO- Details of place of birth, and the actual HT is ‘Particulars of place of birth’.
Though in general, both VO and TO output is considered acceptable, as a document for
the legal purpose, the word ‘Particulars’ would be more suitable. In general ‘නිවුන් දරුවන්’
has the meaning of ‘Twins’. As a machine translated output, which was inserted by a
common person, VO out-put provides, ‘Twins’, and TO out-put also provides the same,
while the HT is referred to as ‘Multiple Births’. In here considering the meaning both GT
outputs are acceptable.

Google Translator as a human aided machine translation tool has no capacity or ability
to fulfill all the necessities of the natural language. Also it has no ability to identify the
language patterns and sound difficulties relates to the original language especially in
Sinhala language. Therefore, the term ‘මළ උපතක්’ which includes differences of sound,

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the output of VO has become ‘a flower birth’ which is more familiar concept to the inputs
of the database. Though it is not acceptable, ‘A still birth’: the out-put in TO which is
similar to the HT is considered acceptable.

In general the output of the MT is more likely to be word for word translation. Though
the word for word translation does not fit well in aforementioned situations, it became
acceptable in some occasions. Both birth certificates and birth registration forms
sometimes carry out similar terminological phrases which are specific to them. The
language of the legal documents is considered to be formal, precise and accurate.
However, as the lowest level of the hierarchy, the general legal document relates to each
person, sometimes the certificate of birth carries out some terms that are not considered
as formal. As an example: ‘Concealment’ has the formal meaning of ‘සැඟවීම’ and come
into use in both VO and TO as ‘Concealment of the nation’ for the term ‘ජාතිය වසන් කිරීම’
while the actual term refers as the most general term, ‘Change the race’. But when it
comes to ‘සටහන යවනස් කිරීමට’ and ‘ලියාපදිංචිය සඳහා ඉදරිපත් කරයි’ despite the general term
provided by both outputs of the GT: ‘To change the note’ and ‘Submit for registration’,
the actual translation has become formal as ‘To update the register’ and ‘Forward for
registration’ respectively. However, as the legal documents though the both terms of GT
are linguistically correct, they are less acceptable than the HT. The same can be applied
for ‘Must be completed’ in both VO and TO for the term ‘Should be perfected’ which has
the meaning of ‘සම්පූර්ණ කළ යුතු ය’.

The term ‘යමයින් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි’ in the original document, VO has translated it as ‘I request
this’ and the result of the TO is also the same, while the actual translation becomes ‘Do
hereby apply’. Actual translation is ‘Delete inapplicable words’ for the term ‘අනවශ්‍ය
වචන කපා හරින්න’ and has been translated in both GT types as ‘Cut out unnecessary
words’. Regarding the language pattern of the legal documents, it is considered as not-
acceptable in this context.

2) Notice of Marriage, Marriage License, and Marriage Certificate

According to D. Bruce Hanes, Esq., Montgomery County Register of Wills, Clerk of

Orphans' Court. As cited in Jamie Mackey and Kristi Kellogg “A marriage license is a
legal document obtained by a couple prior to marriage. Once the license is signed (during
or after your ceremony) and returned by an officiator to the county, a marriage certificate
is issued”. (Mackey J, Kristi K. 2021). Merriam Webster dictionary defines: marriage
certificate is a document which certifies that a marriage has taken place, which

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contains information (as time and place) about the ceremony, and which is signed by
the parties, witnesses, and officiate (Merriam- Webster, n.d.). In Sri Lanka, registration
of marriages includes: general marriage, marriage by a Christian minister, process for
foreign nationalities, Kandyan marriages and Muslim marriages. In a notice of marriage,
‘විවාහ දැන්වීම’ has the general meaning of Marriage notice as resulted as in the VO and
TO while the original term occurs as ‘Notice of marriage’ and the both GT output are
slightly acceptable.

• ST: අත්සන සඳහා සාක්ි

VO: Evidence for signature
TO: Evidence for signature
HT: Attesting witnesses
• ST: පහත අත්සන් කරන
VO: Signed below
TO: Signed below
HT: Undersigned
According to the pattern of the terminology of legal documents the results of the GT for
both, are considered less acceptable. The same applies for ‘Signed in front of me’ to the
term ‘මා ඉදරියේ අත්සන් කරන ලදී’, which is used in the legal document as a specialized
terminology ‘Signed before me’. ‘In witness whereof’ is the actual translation for the term
‘මීට සාක්ි වශ්‍යයන්’ where both GT output results as, ‘As evidence of this’ is less acceptable
according to the pattern and language of the legal documents.

The term ‘පදිංචි ලිපිනය’ has the translated meaning of ‘Residence’ in both types of GT,
where the actual translation refers as ‘Dwelling Place’ and both outputs are acceptable
according to the measuring criteria. However, when it comes to the ‘Resided in the
division’ in VO and ‘Time of residence in the division’ in TO for the ‘යකාට්ඨාසයේ පදිංචි ව
සිටි කාලය’ and where the actual translation is as ‘Length of residence in division’, though
the TO output is considered acceptable, the VO output considered as not acceptable. Both
outputs in the GT: VO and TO for ‘නීතිමය බාධාවක්’ as ‘A legal hurdle’ and ‘A legal hurdle’
respectively to the actual human translation ‘lawful hindrance’ and for the term ‘Lawful
hindrance’ and ‘නෑකයම්ප වරදක්’ as ‘Kinship fault’ and ‘Kinship error’ for ‘Impediment of
kindred’ are considered as not acceptable. Further the term ‘අඩු වයස් ඇත්තකු’, has been
translated in all GT output of as ‘A young person’ while the HT is as ‘A Minor’.

Though the meaning has been preserved, as a matter of the pattern and the sense of the
legal document, both GT results for the selected terms are less acceptable. Same can be

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applied for ‘If the point is so’ for the term‘කාරණය එයස් නම්ප’: ‘If the case may be’. Though
the meaning has been preserved, the both GT output for ‘විවාහයට බැයදන්නට අදහස් කරන
බව යමයින් දැනුම්ප යදමි’ : ‘I hereby inform you that I intend to get married’ is not acceptable
according to the pattern of the legal terminology, where the actual translation occurs as
‘Hereby give the notice that a marriage is intended to be held’. Same applies for ‘Purpose
of procuring any marriage’ which has the meaning of ‘යම්ප විවාහයක් කර ෙන්නා අදහසින්’ and
where the GT appears as ‘With the intention of having a marriage’. Three different
translated outputs appear for the term ‘පුද්ෙලික ව හඳුනන’ as ‘Personally known’ (VO),
‘Identify personally’ (TO) and ‘Personally acquainted’ (HT), yet the both GT outputs are
less acceptable according to the changes of pattern. Because the literal meaning of the
term, ‘විවාහයේ ආකාරය’ has been preserved, but the pattern has been changed by both GT
output, as ‘How to get married’ for the actual translation ‘the manner of the marriage’,
GT cannot be considered as acceptable. Same applies for the term ‘Seriously’ has given
for the term ‘ෙම්පීරතා ූර්වක ව’ at the period of time these data were collected, and the
actual translation refers to it as ‘Solemnly’. However, the term ‘Signed in front of me’ in
both GT output for the term ‘මා ඉදරියේ අත්සන් කරන ලදී’, where actual translation is
referred as ‘Signed before me’ is less acceptable according to the change of pattern of
word order and the legal terminology.
Some terms which we consider unacceptable in using in a standard legal document, are
used as it is in these general legal documents. As an example, the general term ‘well
aware’, where both GT outputs occur as acceptable for the term ‘යහාඳට ම දැනයෙන’ also
has the HT meaning as ‘Well Knowing’. And all three translation outputs, VO, TO, HT
‘Knowingly and willingly’ are same and acceptable for the term ‘දැනයෙන ම කැමැත්යතන්
ම’.

3) Death Registration and Death Certificate

A death certificate is an official document issued by the government, which declares

cause of death, location of death, time of death and some other personal information
about the deceased. (Science Care, 2016)

The certification of death and the form of registration of death also include several
specialized terminologies. ‘මරණයේ ස්වභාවය’ has the general meaning of ‘The nature of
death’ which equals to the GT outputs and more acceptable than the HT ‘Type of Death’.
The general term for ‘තහවුරු’ is ‘confirm’, but when it comes to the legal language it has
become ‘establish’. Following ‘මරණයට යහ්තුව තහවුරු ය’ has been translated by using the
both GT types as ‘The cause of death was confirmed’ where the actual HT appears as

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‘The cause of death has been established’ and the GT results were acceptable, since the
meaning and the pattern were preserved. However, the both translations of VO and TO
‘Inform as to who’ for ‘දැනුම්ප යදන්යන් කවරකු වශ්‍යයන් ද’ is not acceptable according to the
meaning and the changes of pattern which requires the meaning of ‘Capacity of giving
information’. When it comes to the both machine translated outputs appeared as
‘estimated age’ and ‘Sudden death’ for ‘අනුමාන වයස’ and ‘හදසි මරණය’ respectively,
though the term ‘sudden death’ and all of other outputs can be considered as acceptable
as the actual human translation, ‘estimated age’ is less acceptable, where ‘Probable age’
is the specialized term in that regard.

4) Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions Act)

An Act is a decree or law that is approved by the respective legislature i.e. State
Legislative Assembly or Parliament. Acts are provisions that enacted by the government
or legislative body for the people to understand the meaning of specific circumstances,
how they are expected to react or behave in that particular situation, and why it is so
important to follow such act.

The Registration of Deaths Act (Temporary Provisions Act) consists more general words
than other Acts. Unlike the Birth, Marriage and Death registration forms and certificates,
those Acts are originally drafted in English language. Therefore, all those selected types:
Voice, Type and Camera options could be applied when translating English terms into
Sinhala. ‘ජන කැළඹීම්ප’ is the word that has been used for ‘Civil commotion’ in the original.
The VO output, ‘සිවිල් කලබල’ TO term ‘සිවිල් කලබල’ and CO ‘සිවිල් කලබල’ all are
acceptable. Same applies for the term ‘Directly Attributable’, results as ‘සෘජුවම ආයරෝපණය
කළ හැකිය’. Though, ‘සිවිල් යකෝලාහල’ is the term used for ‘civil disturbances’, the all three
outputs of the GT ‘සිවිල් කැළඹීම්ප’ are also acceptable.

When it comes to the term, ‘In the course of’, the general translation refers to as ‘යහ්තුව
තුළ’ like in the VO output and also acceptable as the HT, ‘යහ්තුයකාටයෙන’. However, the
CO and TO output ‘පාඨමාලායේ දී’ is not acceptable in this context. And in the term, ‘ළඟ
ම නෑයයක්’ in all three translation output for the term, ‘a next of kin’ and ‘ඇත්යතන් ම විශ්‍්වාස
කරනවා’ for the term ‘verily believe’ are all acceptable. The actual translations for those
terms lie upon as ‘ළඟ ම ඥාතියකු’ and ‘තරයේ ම විශ්‍්වාස කරනවා’ respectively. ‘Substantially’
has the meaning of almost entirely, in essence and as in effect. Therefore the output of
VO, TO and CO: ‘සැලකිය යුතු යලස විය යුතුය’ can be considered as less acceptable as the
HT, ‘සාරානුකූල විය යුතු ය’. Mutatis Mutandis is a Latin derived legal term borrowed by

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English for legal purpose. When translating these Latin terms the output of Google
Translator refers to as follows.

ST: Mutatis mutandis, VO, Co, TO: Mutatis mutandis, HT: අවශ්‍ය යවනස් කිරීම්ප සහිත ව
Though these terms are coded in English because of the origin of those terms when they
are translated directly from English to Sinhala all the outputs from the selected categories
cannot be considered acceptable for the legal translation in to Sinhala.

Less legally bound term, ‘Habitually resident’ has been translated by using VO, CO and
TO as ‘පුරුද්දක් යලස පදිංචි’, ‘පුරුද්දට පදිංචිය’, and ‘පුරුද්දට පදිංචිය’ and ‘පුරුද්දක් වශ්‍යයන් වාසය
කළ ප්‍රයද්ශ්‍ය’respectively. ‘To the best of knowledge’ has been translated by HT as ‘උපරිම
දැනීයම්ප ප්‍රමාණයට’ and the translation outputs in all VO, CO and TO ‘ඔහුයේ දැනුයම්ප හැටියට’
is less acceptable, because the meaning of the original has not been preserved as it is.
Likewise, ‘කාර්යාලයේ භාරකාරත්වය සඳහා’ for ‘For custody in the office’ is less acceptable
as the HT ‘කාර්යාලයේ තබාෙැනීම සඳහා’. The term ‘Endorsed’ originally has the meaning of
‘පිටසන් කරන ලද’, therefore the GT outputs ‘අනුමත කළා’ is not acceptable. But in the
‘සතයාපනය මත’ for the term ‘Upon verification’ is more acceptable than the HT ‘සනාථ කර
ෙැනීම මත’ as in the legal context. ‘විවිධ ප්‍රතිපාදන, for the term ‘Miscellaneous Provisions’
is not acceptable, as HT ‘විවිධ විධිවිධාන’ where the term ‘provisions’ already has a given
terminological value as ‘විධිවිධාන’ in the legal context. ‘Forthwith furnish’ is another
specific terminology used in legal context with the meaning of ‘වහා ම දැනුම්ප දය යුතු ය .’
However, the output of GT refers to as follows.

ST: Forthwith furnish, VO, CO, TO: ෙෘහභාණ්ඩ සමෙ ඉදරියට, HT: වහා ම දැනුම්ප දය යුතු ය
Considering the change of the meaning, any of these outputs cannot be accepted in legal
translation.'Exercise’ has the general meaning of ‘වයායාම කරන්න’ as in the output of VO,
CO, and TO: where the legal bound meaning of this term refers as ‘. කරන්න’. Hence the
translations of GT cannot be acceptable in this context.

5) Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Act

Kandyan Law does not apply to all Sinhalese who are now resident in the Kandyan
provinces; however, Kandyan Law applies to Kandyan Sinhalese who now do not reside
in the Kandyan provinces in central Sri Lanka. Kandyan Law that remains applicable to
Kandyan Sinhalese in present day Sri Lanka relates to marriage, divorce, and interstate
succession.

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The short title of an Act is a very specific area. By using GT method and its selected
options, ‘Application of Act’ has been translated as ‘පනයතහි යයදීම’, instead of the actual
translation‘පනත අදාළ වීම’ and is considered as less acceptable as the HT according to the
meaning of the selected words. ‘Legitimization of illegitimate children’ also has been
translated as ‘අවජාතක දරුවන් නීතයනුකූල කිරීම’ in all three types: VO, CO and TO. Than
the previous, it is more acceptable since there has only synonymic difference as the
original ‘අවජාතක දරුවන් සුජාත කරවීම’ and according to the legal genre the HT output is
short and precise and more acceptable. Foregoing is also applicable in the following and
in that situation the output of and TO is somewhat more acceptable than the actual
translation. ‘Lawful age of marriage’ or ‘විවාහය පිළිබඳ නීතයනුකූල වයස’ as ‘විවාහ වියම්ප
නීතයනුකූල වයස’ in VO, is more acceptable than ‘නීතයනුකූල විවාහ වයස’ in TO and CO. The
term ‘Competent’ has the meaning of නිසි or සුදුසු and GT has acquired it accurately as:
Competent authority - සුදුසු බලධරයා, Competent Court- නිසි උසාවිය. The translation of
‘තීරණය ලියවිල්ලකින් දැනුම්ප යදන්න’ is somewhat acceptable with changes of formality. The
VO output for the term ‘should communicate the decision in writing’ which is used as
‘ලියවිල්ලකින් දැන්විය යුතු ය’, and the CO ‘තීරණය ලිඛිත ව දැනුම්පදීම’ and TO ‘තීරණය ලිඛිත ව
සන්නියේදනය කරන්න’ is not acceptable. Unlike the above it can be stated that ‘නීතයනුකූල
ව විසුරුවා හරින ලද යහෝ අවලිංගු බව ප්‍රකාශ්‍ කරන ලද’ the translation of VO, TO, and CO is more
acceptable than the HT ‘නීතයනුකූලව අවලිංගු යහෝ නීතයනුකූල යනාවන බව ප්‍රකාශ්‍ කිරීම’ for
‘Lawfully dissolved or declare void’. However the followings are totally unacceptable as
a machine translation output in legal translation.
• ST: Full or the half-blood
VO: සම්පූර්ණ යහෝ අර්ධ රුධිරය
CO: සම්පූර්ණ යහෝ අර්ධ රුධිරය
TO: සම්පූර්ණ යහෝ අර්ධ යල්
HT: මේපිය යදපාර්ශ්‍්වයයන් ම යහෝ එක් පාර්ශ්‍්වයයන්

In general, , those word to word translated terms are acceptable as a GT output but yet
not slightly acceptable in the legal context. As a plus point to the GT ‘නීතිමය යනාහැකියාව’
and ‘නියම කළ වටිනාකම’ can be accepted for the terms ‘Legal incapacity’ and ‘Prescribed
value’ respectively.

Again, ‘පයසකින් තැබීම’ (VO), ‘පයසකට දැමීම’ (CO), ‘යවන් කිරීම’ (TO) for ‘Setting aside’:
where the actual HT is ‘අවලිංගු යකාට’ is less acceptable and, ‘පළමු ක්ෂණික ව යයාමු කළ යුතු
ය’ (VO), ‘පළමු ක්ෂණික ව ඉදරිපත් කිරීම’ in TO and ‘First instant be forwarded’ in CO:
‘පළමුයකාට ඉදරිපත් කළ යුතු ය’(HT) and ‘රැකියාව යහෝ ඇමතීම’, ‘රැකියාව යහෝ ඇමතීම’ in VO, TO,

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and CO that describes ‘Occupation or Calling’ which has the meaning of ‘රක්ෂාව යහෝ
වෘත්තිය’, is not acceptable.

‘Subscribe the declaration’ has the meaning of ‘ප්‍රකාශ්‍ය අත්සන් කිරීම’: however, the results
of VO, CO and TO were ‘ප්‍රකාශ්‍ය දායක වන්න’, ‘ප්‍රකාශ්‍ය දායක වන්න’ and ‘ප්‍රකාශ්‍ය දායක කිරීම’
respectively and all those cannot be considered as acceptable. ‘Subscribe’ has the
meaning of අත්සන් කිරීම not දායක කිරීම. ‘අනාචාරයේ හැසිරීම’ and ‘වයභිචාරය’ are the given
meanings for ‘Adultery’ and ‘incest’. Yet ‘කාමමිථයාචාරය’ and ‘අනියම්ප සබඳතා’ as in the GT
respectively can be considered acceptable. However, though the term ‘දරුණු කෲරත්වය’ in
VO and CO can be considered as less acceptable as the HT meaning ‘අති කෲරතාව’ for
‘Gross cruelty’, and the TO output ‘දළ කෲරත්වය’ is not acceptable. Considering the
meaning behind the term, ‘විවාහය විසුරුවා හැරීම’, the given meaning of all three aspects in
GT, is less acceptable for ‘dissolution of the marriage’ since ‘අවලිංගු කිරීම’ is the given
legal meaning for dissolution. While, ‘දවිෙලවාෙත් දරුවන්’ is the result of GT for ‘Surviving
children’ and it is also considered less acceptable as the HT, ‘ජීවත් ව සිටින දරුවන්’.

6) Adoption of Children Ordinance

Adoption of Children is an Ordinance to provide for the adoption of children. For the
registration as custodians of persons having the care, custody or control of children of
whom they are not the natural parents, and for matters connected with the matters
aforesaid.

In general ‘natural parents’ has the meaning of ‘ස්වභාවික යදමාපියන්’ as in all the output of
GT. However, the actual meaning of it is ‘සැබෑ යදමාපියන්’ and it cannot be considered as
acceptable. ‘Direct descendant’ has been translated as ‘සෘජු පරම්පපරාව’, ‘සෘජු ව පැවත එන’
and ‘සෘජු පරම්පපරාව’ in VO, CO and TO respectively. Considering the meaning and the
pattern, camera translation output is more acceptable than the other two, as the HT: ‘සෘජු
ව ම පැවත එන’. ‘Deserted or neglected’ is another specific term related to this ordinance.
In here all the GT outputs are similar as ‘පාළු යහෝ යනාසලකා හරින ලද’ and cannot be
considered acceptable, since the original meaning has been changed.

The results of ‘නිසි අධිකරණයක නියයෝෙයක්’ for ‘Decree of a competent court’ are acceptable
as the HT. the term ‘subject’ in legal context has several meanings: විෂයය, වැසියා, යටත් ව
likewise. The correct wording should be used according to the situation. However, as a
machine translation system which has no rational brain, the output in all three methods
came as the common word-to- word translation ‘බ්‍රිතානය විෂයය’ for ‘British subject’ where

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the correct term is ‘බ්‍රිතානය වැසියා’. ‘Solemnization’ in legal context has the fixed meaning
of ‘විවාහ චාරිත්‍ර සිදු කිරීම’. Therefore, the ‘උත්කර්ෂවත් කිරීම’ translated output in GT
considered not acceptable. ‘නීතයනුකූල විවාහය’ for ‘Lawful wedlock’ in all three methods
are also acceptable as the HT ‘නීතයනුකූල විවාහ බන්ධනය’. In this ordinance several Latin
terms derived into English has been employed.

• ST: Fideicommissum, VO, CO, TO: Fidei commissum, HT: පීදු යකාමිසම
• ST: Ab intestate VO: - , CO, TO: Ab intestate, HT: අන්තිම කැමති පත්‍රයක් යනාමැති ව
• ST: Inter vivos or mortis causa, VO: - , CO, TO: Inter vivos යහෝ mortis causa, HT:
ජීවත් ව සිටියදී යහෝ මරණයත් සමෙ
Considering the meaning and the pattern, any of those Latin terms have not been
translated accurately by GT. ‘මූලික සාක්ිය’ in VO and CO and ‘ප්‍රාථමික සාක්ි’ in TO are
the translation outputs for ‘Prima facie evidence’. As the HT ‘බැලූ බැල්මට යපයනන සාක්ි’,
considering the changes of meanings they cannot be considered as acceptable.

The output of ‘අතුරු නියයෝෙය’ in all translation options, for ‘Interim order’ is acceptable
as original translation ‘අතුරු ආඥාව’. ‘ප්‍රතියරෝධය යහෝ බාධා කිරීම ’for ‘resists or obstructs’ is
less acceptable as the HT ‘වියරෝධය පෑම යහෝ බාධා කිරීම’. However, ‘Consanguinity යහෝ
ඥාතිත්වය’ in VO, ‘සිංසර්ෙය යහෝ බැඳීම’ in CO and ‘සිංසර්ෙය යහෝ හිතවත්කම’ in TO are totally
not acceptable for ‘Consanguinity or affinity’ which has the meaning of ‘යල් නෑකම යහෝ
හිතවත්කම’.

Following tables provide the percentages of acceptability of each and every category
acquired from the selected data throughout this research.

Table 1: Birth, Marriage, and Death Registration forms and Certificates

Sinhala to English
Acceptable Less Acceptable Not Acceptable
VO TO VO TO VO TO

Births 16.0 25.0 63.5 54.0 20.5 21.0

Marriages 21.8 33.7 48.2 51.5 30.0 14.8
Deaths 18.1 27.3 59.2 50.0 22.7 22.7

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Table 2: Acts and Ordinances: English to Sinhala

Acceptable Less Acceptable Not Acceptable

VO 38.0 28.0 34.0

TO 39.5 24.3 36.2

CO 41.0 21.6 37.4

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CONCLUSION

As a translation tool powered by artificial intelligence, Google Translate facilitates

translations of various kinds of text into various different languages. In accordance with
the evolution of the information technology, the Google Translate supports in various
text additions. The selected test addition types Voice, Typing and Camera options
facilitate the user to provide a proper translation output.

The effectiveness of using Google Translation method to translate legal terms and legal
documents, have widely come to the discussion in this era. In this respect, to identify
how effective is the Google Translation when translating legal terminology, Birth,
Marriage, and Death registration forms, and certificates and Registration of deaths
(Temporary Provisions Act), Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Act , Adoption of Children
Ordinance were referred as the selected legal documents from the Registrar General’s
Department, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka.

In this regard it was investigated that, when it comes to Birth, Marriage, and Death
registration forms, and certificates which are originally in Sinhala Language, only the
options of Voice translation and Typing option were found supportives to the selected
language pairs: Sinhala and English. Therefore, the comparison of the Google Translated
output and the human translated output were only conducted by using the outputs of
these two options. From the selected specialized terminologies in the Birth, Marriage,
and Death registration forms, and certificates most the translated words are considered
less acceptable according to the criteria.
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Therefore, as a conclusion about the output of the terminology in the Birth, Marriage,
and Death registration forms, and certificates it was investigated that, with the
development of the technology, though some options are not available for the selected
language type, the output can be considered acceptable with some changes. Hence, if the
person has some knowledge related to the document, he or she can have a better
translation output with the help of the Google Translation. However, it depends on the
variability of the selected terms.

Unlike the Birth, Marriage, and Death registration forms, and certificates, the Acts and
Ordinances are originally in English language. Therefore: the selected all methods: Voice,
Camera and Typing options were available when translating such terms into English.
After the investigation, it was found that, though it is considered as the Google
Translation provide much correct output in the legal documents which were in English
language, considering the level of formality of the selected terminologies, some cannot
be considered as acceptable. Also, when it comes to the translations of Latin derived
borrowed terms to the English translation, the output of the Google Translation cannot
be considered acceptable.

Therefore as a conclusion, after such inquiry it was investigated that, when it comes to
the effectiveness of Google Translation for translating selected specialized legal
terminology, the Typing option is more effective than the Voice option in Sinhala to
English translations and when it comes to English to Sinhala translation both Typing and
Camera options are equally effective. Therefore: unlike the past decades, at present with
the development of the technology, if the translator has some knowledge about the
related field, he/she can manage the output of translation with the help of GT especially
in English to Sinhala Translations.

Considering the outcome of this research, the researcher suggests that, with the help of
experts in the legal field and the translators, the specialized terminology in the relevant
field should be add to the Machine Translation system as a guide to the future researchers
or for the interested people. Moreover, the future research are encouraged to conduct
researches about Google Translation and Legal documents with special reference to
Sinhala to English documents.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We pen our gratitude to the Department and Languages, Sabaragamuwa University of

Sri Lanka, and to Senior Deputy Registrar General Mrs. G.L.D. Ganepola and all the staff
in Civil Registration Branch of Registrar General’s Department for their invaluable
support and guidance given in this regard.

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