Linguistic review of a questionnaire on achondroplasia
20th Sep 2019
There are more than 7000 languages in the world, but we need the be able to read and understand the same document when this is translated. We have supported a multinational project on validating the linguistic aspects of a questionnaire on achondroplasia in 15 countries.
A language is, fundamentally, a collection of dialects that are mutually intelligible. Each dialect is a collection of idiolects that are similar enough to be classified together. An idiolect is a single speaker’s version of a language. For example, an Irish person speaks his own idiolect of English, just others speak with a slightly different one. Yet, since English speaking people can understand each other, it can be defined as a single language.
This project has been run in 15 countries, from 4 continents: completed in the USA, Spain, Canada, Germany, UK, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Switzerland german and Switzerland French, and Poland. In total, 75 parents have collaborated in this project.
Thank you to all parents that have participated!
This was a multinational project for a linguistic validation of a questionnaire about achondroplasia that was conducted between May to August 2019. The questionnaire has been translated into 10 languages and validation was achieve with the support of these 75 parents.5 parents in each country participated in this project, to review the translation accordingly each country appropriate cross-cultural wording. Parents were not be asked to reply to the questionnaire. Parents' collaboration included a 1-hour phone call with a local moderator in their native language and all validation calls were scheduled accordingly parents availability.

Country | Language |
Australia | English |
UK | English |
New Zealand | English |
Ireland | English |
Bulgaria | Bulgarian |
Germany | German |
Mexico | Spanish |
Norway | Norwegian |
Portugal | Portuguese |
Switzerland | French |
USA | Spanish |
Switzerland | German |
Austria | German |
For the time spent and life experience in achondroplasia, parents that participated also received an honorarium.
Thank you again to all collaborators