I canabalized the solutions of @fossilcoder and @Smandoli and merged it in one solution:
SELECT
IIf (
NZ(TRANSLATION.Text,"") = "", DEFAULT.TEXT, TRANSLATION.TEXT)
FROM
TRANSLATIONS AS TRANSLATION,
TRANSLATIONS AS DEFAULT,
PROGDATA
WHERE
TRANSLATION.Tag="prog_" & PROGDATA.Id
AND
DEFAULT.Tag="prog" & PROGDATA.Id
AND
TRANSLATION.LanguageId=1
AND
DEFAULT.LanguageId=2
I never thought of referencing a table twice under a different alias