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21 17:00 In parallel to the special meeting, the legal ex- perts, linguists and specialists from the official publica- tions centre are working on the ordinances on the freez- ing of bank accounts. 17:30 The translator from the Italian language service in Bellinzona studies the German version of the ordi- nance on bank accounts. He looks for the Italian transla- tion of the term ‘Beteiligungstitel’ (ordinary share) in the terminology database and finds: ‘Titoli aventi carattere di partecipazione.’ The translation of legal texts is a par- ticularly subtle art. It does not simply involve replacing the words in one language with words from another, but requires the ability to express concepts clearly and accurately in the target language. The demanding job of editing legislation is one of the language services’ main tasks. Fate has been sealed 19:00 Staff from the Official Publications Centre con- duct a final check of the three language versions of the text on the ordinance on the freezing of bank accounts. They then upload the ordinance onto the internet and notify the cantons of the special publication via email. The ordinance is now in force and the fate of the former head of state’s possibly illegal bank accounts has been sealed. Terminology The terminologists of the Federal Chancellery compile and manage the terminology of the administra- tion and the different areas of policy. The quality of terminology essentially determines the quality of a technical text. This is because a text’s clarity and intelligibility largely depend on the terminology used in the text. The work of the terminologists is available online in the TERMDAT terminology database. The database contains 1.5 million entries in German, French and Italian, many of which are also available in Romansh and English. www.termdat.ch Language Services The Central Language Services of the Federal Chan- cellery ensure that laws, ordinances and treaties are translated as clearly and intelligibly as possible in the three official languages (German, French and Italian). Many federal government and administrative texts are now also translated into Romansh and English. The language services provide the federal administra- tion with guidelines and other aids for drafting and editing texts in order to ensure their high quality and consistency. Languages Topics www.bk.admin.ch Terminology Languages Topics www.bk.admin.ch Publications on Terminology Languages Documentation www.bk.admin.ch Glossary of political rights 135 terms on political rights with definitions in five languages (DE, FR, IT, RM, EN):

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