{"id":36856,"date":"2016-12-05T17:26:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T17:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.consilio.com\/resource\/eye-discovery-global-businesses-internal-investigations-challenges-multilingual-keyword-searches\/"},"modified":"2021-07-19T12:46:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T16:46:21","slug":"eye-discovery-global-businesses-internal-investigations-challenges-multilingual-keyword-searches","status":"publish","type":"avada_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/cn.consilio.com\/resource\/eye-discovery-global-businesses-internal-investigations-challenges-multilingual-keyword-searches\/","title":{"rendered":"Eye on Discovery – Global Businesses and Internal Investigations: The Challenges of Multilingual Keyword Searches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eye on Discovery – Global Businesses and Internal Investigations: The Challenges of Multilingual Keyword Searches<\/h1><\/span>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Global businesses speak many languages. Conducting business in multiple languages creates business opportunities and business risks as some of the most egregious compliance issues become much harder to detect when employees write in a language other than English.\u00a0 If you do not want to miss critical documents during internal investigations, then it is important to get the multilingual keyword searches right.\u00a0 A literal translation of keywords is often ineffective.\u00a0 Taken from our previous cross-border eDiscovery work, we highlight below some examples that we feel are particularly surprising.<\/p>\n

1. How to spell foreign first names and place names in English<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When speakers of languages with a non-Latin script (Asian languages, Russian, Hebrew, Greek, etc.) write emails in their native tongue they might render place names and first names in different ways when they write in English.\u00a0 When searching documents, we would therefore need to be conscious of different ways to spell names where the original language uses non-Latin script.<\/p>\n

As an example, the common Greek first name Thalia (\u201c\u0398\u03ac\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u201d in Greek) could also be spelled \u201cThaleia\u201d, and Greek employees writing in English might use both spellings.\u00a0 We would want to reflect those different spellings in our keyword searches.<\/p>\n

2. Chat language and diacritics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

There are several reasons why \u2013 especially in informal communications \u2013 speakers of languages with a non-Latin script may in fact use English script to communicate.\u00a0 Maybe their native language keyboard is not installed at work, maybe it is quicker to type without switching between different scripts.\u00a0 Whatever the reason, conventions have formed in many languages to render non-Latin letters using Latin script.<\/p>\n

As an example, the Greek letter \u201c\u03b8\u201d could be rendered as \u201cth\u201d (because that is how you pronounce it) or as the number \u201c8\u201d (because the \u201c8\u201d looks a little bit like the Greek letter).\u00a0 So if we want to detect the Greek phrase \u201cI will be\u201d, we will need to search for the strings \u201ctha eimai\u201d as well as the informal \u201c8a eimai\u201d.<\/p>\n

3. Transliteration of English words into another language<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Languages using non-Latin script need to find ways to spell \u201cimported\u201d words for which there are no local equivalent.\u00a0 Take Japanese as an example.\u00a0 The katakana script \u2013 one of the three Japanese scripts alongside hiragana and kanji \u2013 is used to spell words of non-Japanese origin, and you can spell some English words in different ways.\u00a0 If, for instance, you want to search your Japanese employees\u2019 documents for the keyword \u201cvendor\u201d you would need to search for the string\u00a0 “\u30d9\u30f3\u30c0\u30fc\u201d (the letters form the sounds \u201cbenda\u201d) as well as the different spelling of \u30f4\u30a7\u30f3\u30c0\u30fc\u3000(a newer spelling with a \u201cvee\u201d-sound in the beginning).<\/p>\n

On the other hand, not every English word will even be transliterated by those who speak the target language of the investigation.\u00a0 Some first names or place names may be left in their more common Latinized form, especially if the translation is not in common use.\u00a0 If you were crafting keyword searches to identify whether a meeting took place in London\u2019s beloved Hyde Park you might simply look for the expression \u201cHyde Park\u201d, even if you were searching foreign language documents because the place name either was not translated or does not have a translation.<\/p>\n

4. Creative nicknames<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The creativity that goes into nicknames is boundless, and when we search for a first name in another language we reflect nicknames that are in common usage: \u201cJon OR Jonathan\u201d, \u201cTim OR Timothy\u201d, etc.<\/p>\n

Some languages take the range of nicknames to extremes.\u00a0 In Russian, for instance, the names Dima, Dimka, Dimochka, Dimulia, and Dimych and six other variations are all common nicknames for the name Dmitry.\u00a0 Knowing that this is the case, we would include those nicknames in our search.<\/p>\n

5. Lots of grammar \u2013 verbs<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

One of the things that makes English documents easy to search is that English grammar is simple.\u00a0 You can search for the term \u201cconceal*\u201d and catch \u201cI conceal\u201d as well as the expressions \u201cthey will conceal\u201d and \u201cyou had concealed\u201d and so on.\u00a0 This simple stemming-type search would be perfectly serviceable in English but fail even in some mainstream European languages like Italian, where a search for \u201ccela*\u201d (the equivalent wildcard search for \u201cconceal\u201d) would miss \u201cio celo\u201d (I conceal), \u201cnoi celiamo\u201d (we conceal) and many other grammatical inflections.<\/p>\n

6. Even more grammar \u2013 nouns and adjectives<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In English, the spelling of a noun only changes to reflect the grammatical number (one garden, two gardens) and not the grammatical case (nominative, accusative, dative, etc. depending on the target language).\u00a0 When you search foreign language documents, beware that the word \u201cbribe\u201d might have different spellings in the target language depending on whether you search for \u201ca bribe was accepted\u201d or \u201cI accepted a bribe\u201d.<\/p>\n

7. Synonyms and local culture<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Most lawyers investigating data would intuitively use synonyms where appropriate.\u00a0 When you ask your search term consultant to find suitable synonyms, they will also be aware of similar concepts in the target language which may not technically be synonyms.\u00a0 For example, in several South-East Asian countries, Chinese mooncake is given as a gift as part of corporate hospitality.\u00a0 The translation of the word \u201cmooncake\u201d should therefore be added to the translation if one was investigating, say, a Singaporean custodian since the mooncake could be a euphemism for an inappropriate gift.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

To minimize the risk of regulatory sanctions, global businesses need a plan for how to search and review documents in different languages.\u00a0 If your search methodology is flawed, then you risk missing critically important documents, missing documents that the investigating regulator found and drawing the wrong conclusions from your review exercise.\u00a0 Culturally aware multilingual consultants can help minimize these risks for you and help you iteratively refine keyword searches until you find exactly what you need to keep your business or your client\u2019s business safe.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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