San Sebastian Triatlón 2010 by MiguelSicari
While translating a text comparing
Australia & Argentina yesterday, we came across several sports we either had never heard of or we didn't know how to translate.
One of them was
indoor soccer, which we thought was
fulbito in Spanish. My sons play it and have told me it is also called
fútbol sala,
futsal o fútbol de salón. Do a small search and you'll find alternative terms in English, like
five-a-side or
six-a-side.
I remember that ages ago in Spain
fútbol was also called
balompié. One of my brothers was a great
hand ball (balón mano)player
, all my brothers did
judo and we all played
baloncesto and
vóleibol, vólibol, or balonvolea in High School.
Other popular sports played in Spain are
el bádminton, el tenis,
el tenis de mesa, el golf. Some sports like
el rugby, cricket, sófbol or
el béisbol are not as popular as in English speaking countries.
What about traditional sports, like
el deporte de equipo celta hurling? In Spain we have
el tiro de barra aragonesa, the famous basque
jai alai also called
pelota vasca or cesta punta (zesta punta in Euskera), Argentina has
el pato. There must be hundreds of vernacular sports particular to a region with matching names, only known by the people living in the area.
If you analise the Spanish terms for these sports (which were mostly invented in English speaking countries), there is a range of ways in which they have been translated into Spanish. Some are left in English (
rugby, hurling), others are spelt in Spanish (
fútbol, bádminton) while others are translated into Spanish ( balompié, cesta punta from The basque/Euskera).
I leave you with the terms above to start a glossary of sport terms for your translating/interpreting reference resources. We can also start a common glossary in our
wiki. Visit it and add to it. But get up from that chair and run around the block or kick a ball in the back yard!