Chicago Citation Style: Sources In Other Languages

Below are three sections from the Chicago Manual on about using sources in other languages. You can access the manual if you are logged into KPU.  

1. From CMS 11.11 – if you mention the title of the work in your text:

• If the translation has not been published, the English should be in parentheses and capitalized in sentence case and should appear neither in italics nor within quotation marks.
• Example:

Leonardo Fioravanti’s Compendio de i secreti rationali (Compendium of rational secrets) became a bestseller.

•  A published translation, however, is capitalized in title case and appears in italics or quotation marks depending on the type of work
• Example:

Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) was the subject of her dissertation.

1. From CMS 11.16 for your own translations:

• Authors providing their own translations should so state, in parentheses following the translation, in a note, or in the prefatory material—for example, “my translation” or “Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.”

2. From CMS 13.101 for both your footnotes and the bibliographic entry:

• If an English translation of a title is needed, it follows the original title and is enclosed in brackets, without italics or quotation marks. It is capitalized in sentence case, i.e. how you would write the words in a normal sentence
• Example:

2. W. Kern, “Waar verzamelde Pigafetta zijn Maleise woorden?” [Where did Pigafetta collect his Malaysian words?], Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde 78 (1938): 272.

Kern, W. “Waar verzamelde Pigafetta zijn Maleise woorden?” [Where did Pigafetta collect his Malaysian words?]. Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde 78 (1938): 271–73.