Localization for Latin America — What You Should Know
By: Sandvox Solutions Llc
Tags: Translation, Localization, Gaming Industry, Localization Companies, Latin America

Four Keys to Latin American Gaming Localization

1. Languages & Looks

Even if translation and localization are not the same thing, when expanding your gaming business in Latin America, translation is the first step. The predominant language in Latin America is Spanish, but it is different from the kind spoken in Spain.

Latin American Spanish

While originally brought by the Spanish colonizers, in Latin America, Spanish has adopted many words from native languages and others such as English. Around the world, about 450 million people speak Spanish as their native language, and over 300 million of these are in Latin America. While there are many dialects spoken in the Americas, speakers of almost all can understand each other without major difficulties.

This doesn’t mean that Latin American Spanish can safely be used to cover the whole region. Even if they understand the message, the audience will always recognize that the text had not been localized specifically for them.

Universal Spanish

To help the Spanish speakers understand each other, was created Neutral or Universal Spanish. It does not exist as a living language and nobody uses it in everyday life. It’s an artificial construct created to simplify the translation and localization process. Here are some pros and cons:

Universal Spanish is more suitable for technical content, but marketing and communication documents, such as ads, commercials, and brochures, should be localized for each market.

Often, it will not be possible to find a perfectly universal term that works in all Spanish-speaking countries. In some cases, you will have to decide between two mutually exclusive options. However, very rarely the message will be misunderstood.

Readers will be more forgiving if you are honest about your use of Universal Spanish. Include a note explaining that the choice was made to make the content as widely understood as possible.

Brazilian Portuguese

Maybe Spanish is the most widely spoken language in Latin America, but Brazilian Portuguese has more speakers due to the size of Brazil’s economy and its population of over 200 million.

Despite efforts at standardization by the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, Brazilian Portuguese differs significantly from the Portuguese spoken in Portugal and other lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) countries.

And this is the result of the rigid colonization policies of Portugal that banned the existence of institutions of higher education, local newspapers, and any kind of press in the American colonies. Therefore, Brazil lacked some of the most powerful means available to slow down the changing process that languages naturally undergo.

Other colonial languages

The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas split the entire non-European world between Spain and Portugal, with a line drawn through South America. However, in the 17th century, England, France, and the Netherlands succeeded in establishing permanent colonies in the New World.

So, excepting Spanish and Portuguese (the two dominant colonial languages in the Latin America region), other European languages are official in several countries. Dutch is the official language of Suriname; English is spoken in the Falkland Islands and is the official language of Guyana, while French is the official language of French Guiana. There are also small immigrant communities speaking many other European languages, such as German, Italian or Polish.

Indigenous languages

The European colonizers and their successor states had varying attitudes towards Native American languages. In many Latin American colonies, Spanish and Portuguese missionaries had to learn local languages and cultures to preach to the natives in their own tongues and relate the Christian message to their indigenous religions. However, since the European conquest, the fate of the native languages has overwhelmingly been one of decline.

There is an exception to the disappearance of the native languages of America: the Guaraní language. It is really developing, because it is spoken in parts of Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina, in Paraguay.

Indigenous languages in the Americas that make it to one million speakers or above are found in three areas: