{"id":1416,"date":"2022-11-30T13:33:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T13:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2023-01-27T14:38:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T14:38:16","slug":"a-funny-but-extremely-common-mistranslation-lapp-lactase-deficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/en\/2022\/11\/30\/a-funny-but-extremely-common-mistranslation-lapp-lactase-deficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"A funny but extremely common mistranslation: Lapp lactase deficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A funny but extremely common mistranslation:
Lapp lactase deficiency<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What is the Lapp lactase deficiency?<\/span><\/h2>

The Lapp lactase deficiency is a rare hereditary condition, but not rare at all in the pharmaceutical industry! You will see why. Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose molecules into smaller sugar molecules (glucose + galactose), which we are able to further process. Lactase deficiency results in improper digestion of lactose or “lactose intolerance”.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

What does Lapp mean?<\/span><\/h2>

Lapp is the name of the inhabitants of Lapland, an area in the North of Sweden, Finland and Norway. Lapp is a derogatory term for the Samis, which total around 100.000 people. Well, incidentally, a form of lactose intolerance has developed among the Lapps due to insufficient genetic distance or, in other words, a too high degree of “consanguinity”.<\/p>

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Then why is Lapp lactase deficiency so common in the pharmaceutical industry?<\/span><\/h2>

On the package leaflet of virtually every drug product containing lactose, the following warning can be read: \u201cPatients with rare hereditary problems of galactose intolerance, the Lapp lactase deficiency<\/u><\/strong>, or glucose-galactose malabsorption should not take this medicine.\u201d<\/p>

Everything was fine until this standard statement was translated into other languages! In turn, in many languages, its mistranslation also became a standard sentence that pharmaceutical companies just copy and paste onto their package leaflets without questioning it anymore. Well, here at ARGOS TSP, we like questioning things, so let’s do so!<\/p>

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How is “Lapp lactase deficiency” being translated into other languages?<\/span><\/h2>

Spanish:<\/span> Los pacientes con intolerancia hereditaria a la galactosa, insuficiencia de lactasa de Lapp<\/u><\/strong> o malabsorci\u00f3n de glucosa-galactosa no deben tomar este medicamento.<\/p>

French:<\/span> L\u2019utilisation de ce m\u00e9dicament est d\u00e9conseill\u00e9e chez les patients pr\u00e9sentant une intol\u00e9rance au galactose, un d\u00e9ficit en lactase de Lapp [or sometimes, \u201cd\u00e9ficit en Lapp lactase\u201d]<\/u> <\/strong>ou un syndrome de malabsorption du glucose ou du galactose (maladies h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaires rares).<\/p>

Italian:<\/span> I pazienti con rari problemi ereditari di intolleranza al galattosio, carenza di Lapp lattasi<\/u> <\/strong>o malassorbimento di glucosio-galattosio non devono assumere questo medicinale.<\/p>

Portuguese:<\/span> Doentes com doen\u00e7as heredit\u00e1rias raras de intoler\u00e2ncia \u00e0 galactose, defici\u00eancia de lactase de Lapp<\/u><\/strong> ou malabsor\u00e7\u00e3o de glucose-galactose n\u00e3o devem tomar este medicamento.<\/p>

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Why can all these translations be considered inaccurate?<\/span><\/h2>

As happens so often in English, \u201cLapp lactase deficiency\u201d could mean many things\u2026 unless you know what Lapp means. In plain words, this expression means: \u201clactase deficiency typically observed among Lapp people\u201d. Yes, English can be a very concise language and English speakers can be shortcutters and acronymaniacs sometimes\u2026 but it just takes a minute to look it up in the dictionary and find out that the Lapps are actually the people of Laponia.<\/p>

In Spanish, French and Portuguese, the translation sounds like the lactase deficiency was discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Lapp in their lab. Or maybe it was discovered at the Lapp University in Laponia\u2026 Why not? The Italian Lapp lattasi<\/em> and the German Lapp-Lactase<\/em> are just weird concepts, as if the chemical compound called \u201clactase\u201d was imported from Laponia. Well, \u201cLapp lactase\u201d doesn\u2019t exist by itself as a chemical concept.<\/p>

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Then how do we believe should it be translated?<\/span><\/h2>

It should be translated by whatever expression that makes it clear that the disease is typically observed among Lapp people! For instance:<\/p>

Spanish<\/span>: insuficiencia de lactasa de los lapones, insuficiencia de lactasa propia de los lapones<\/p>

French<\/span>: d\u00e9ficit en lactase propre des lapons, d\u00e9ficit en lactase propre des populations lapones<\/p>

Italian<\/span>: carenza di lattasi propria dei lapponi, carenza di lattasi propria della popolazione lappone<\/p>

Portuguese<\/span>: defici\u00eancia de lactase dos lap\u00f5es, defici\u00eancia de lactase pr\u00f3pria dos lap\u00f5es<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

A very simple way to avoid further mistranslations…<\/span><\/h2>

\u2026 would be for pharmaceutical companies to just take out the word Lapp in \u201cLapp lactase deficiency\u201d. If the drug product contains lactose, it can affect negatively any lactase deficient person and it doesn\u2019t really matter that their deficiency is typically observed among Lapp people!<\/p>

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The moral of this story is…<\/span><\/h2>

Until internet opened new horizons, what was written in books, in the law or in publications by recognised institutions was often considered spotless. It was a common belief that there couldn\u2019t be any typos or mistakes because\u2026 \u201cIt must have been carefully proofread by knowledgeable people\u201d. What shows this article is that there is no harm in questioning well-established standards!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to the blog<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A funny but extremely common mistranslation: Lapp lactase deficiency What is the Lapp lactase deficiency? The Lapp lactase deficiency is a rare hereditary condition, but not rare at all in the pharmaceutical industry! You will see why. Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose molecules into smaller sugar molecules (glucose + galactose), which we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categoria"],"blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/argos_pharma_lapp_lactase-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/argos_pharma_lapp_lactase.jpg",450,300,false]},"categories_names":{"1":{"name":"Sin categor\u00eda","link":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/en\/category\/sin-categoria\/"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2555,"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions\/2555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argos-tsp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}