Whether ironic or appropriate, the language industry – especially the localization industry – has a language all its own. A basic understanding of many terms and acronyms specific to localization (ex: bi-di, simship, and MT) can make life easier when working in this arena.

In our excessive use of acronyms and abbreviations, we even refer to the localization industry as the “GILT” industry or the “L10n” industry. See the illustration below for a simple explanation of those abbreviations:

GILT Industry Abbreviations

Glossaries of Localization Terminology

To improve your knowledge of localization industry jargon, check out the following industry glossaries:

• The Globalization Glossary of the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA)
• The back of any issue of MultiLingual magazine
• The back of LISA’s Globalization Industry Primer
• Globalization Group Glossary
• “GILT: Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, Translation” by Pierre Cadieux and Bert Esselink in LISA’s Globalization Insider