What certified means
11 of 20 translations
A familiar source is an obliging companion. Leave it beside the English and it may quietly lend a pronoun or an image that the Phi never owned. It means well. That is the trouble.
A certified Phi translation has been made in two separate directions. The source first becomes Phi. Only after the Phi is settled does that Phi become English. The mark tells a reader that the published layers completed this separation and still match the version that was checked.
A certified text can still contain errors. Certification is a record of method, not a medal for perfection. A reader may still find a missed distinction or a grammatical fault. The mark says how the present translation was made and what must happen if it changes.
The first desk: source into Phi
At the first desk, the source is open. The translator identifies the witness and divides the chosen passage into ordered units. Each unit gets a small proposition record of who is present and what happens. Details that matter to the source have their own place in it. The whole Phi vocabulary is available, including optional modules, and a new word may be coined when composition would blur a useful distinction.
The English reading is absent. So are any older glosses or summaries that might steer the Phi towards wording already familiar in English. Each Phi sentence is first read on its own terms. Canon and lexicon checks follow, then the full-sentence validator. The adjacent source citations must also reconstruct the chosen source passage exactly.
When those checks are complete, the Phi is frozen. A digital fingerprint records the complete sentence stream that will cross to the second desk.
source -> Phi frozen Phi -> English
The second desk: Phi into English
At the second desk, the source is gone. The title is gone too, since a well-known title can bring half a sentence in through the side door. A fresh reader receives the frozen Phi. Phi's canon and grammar remain at hand, along with the lexicon, but no source wording or earlier English.
The reader first identifies each assertion and its participants. Particle scope and modifier attachment are settled before pronoun references. From that analysis come two English layers: an exact gloss that exposes the Phi structure and a natural reading that says the same thing in ordinary English. The natural line may move words into English order, but it may not recover a name, gender, emphasis, or image that the Phi did not encode.
Another reading for the difficult parts
A second fresh reader examines the units most likely to hide a structural disagreement, along with a sample of the rest. Different English phrasing is harmless. The reader does have to settle who did what. Modifier attachment and pronoun reference must also come from the Phi.
Sometimes that reading finds a fault in the Phi itself. The affected gloss and English are then discarded. The Phi returns to the first desk, the sentence is repaired, and a fresh reader derives both English layers again. Unchanged units keep their place; the repaired unit does not inherit an English sentence made for its predecessor.
What the mark promises
| Published layer | What has been checked |
|---|---|
| Phi | The sentence stream carries the chosen source reading and passes Phi's grammar and vocabulary checks. |
| Exact gloss | Every form keeps its lexical and grammatical identity, with the structure made visible. |
| Derived English | The natural reading was made from the frozen Phi without access to the source. |
| Source citation | The citations cover the chosen witness in order and reconstruct its complete selected passage. |
| Certified mark | The checked layers still match the recorded version. |
The repository keeps one fingerprint for the frozen Phi and another for the four published layers together. Its automated checks recompute both. If a certified sentence, gloss, English reading, or citation changes, publication stops until the affected work has gone through the necessary checks again.
A mark that can be reopened
Certification does not close a translation to criticism. It makes revision accountable. A useful correction may reopen the Phi, and any English that depended on the changed sentence must follow it back through the second desk.
That is the point of the mark. It does not ask a reader to trust that the English looks plausible. It shows that the English had to answer to the Phi.
Current certified translations
The website adds its current list from the same register that guards the published layers. A translation appears in that list and carries the mark on its own page only while its record is certified.