Can Translations Achieve Comparability? The Case of Translating IFRSs into Swedish

Abstract

Since 2005, all listed EU/EFTA companies are obliged to prepare their consolidated statements fully in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). The requirement is a consequence of an EU decision, in Lisbon in March 2000, aiming at improving the flow of capital within a free internal market. Since the IFRSs are in the English language, this has made it necessary to translate them into all the languages in the European Union. The purpose of the translation is to produce the same quality regulation in each member state and consequently achieve comparability. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the comparability objective from an accounting language perspective. We do this by using the translation of IFRSs into Swedish. Since the IFRSs are translated from English to every other language within the EU, the Swedish experience is potentially relevant to all the other member states. The discussion is based on translation theory and the result indicates that comparability is not achieved simply by using words from another language. To achieve true and genuine comparability, contexts need to match or be made congruent.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the valuable comments we received from Professor Christopher Nobes and Professor Stephen Zeff on earlier versions of the paper. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.

Notes

One of the authors, Sven-Arne Nilsson, was a member of the committee.

Cf. ‘il pleut dans mon coeur comme il pleut sur la ville’ translated into English as ‘it weeps in my heart as it rains over the town’ (Eco, 2001, p. 11).

The English word ‘trainee’ has been imported into Swedish with the same meaning as in English. This is an example of an unproblematic exchange. Care should, however, be taken with other languages. In French ‘trainée’ means slut (and the correct French word for trainee is ‘stagiaire’).