Around the Web – April 2017

Easter fell during the month of April this year and I found out that the Hungarian word for the holiday is húsvét, which literally means ‘meat-taking’ (with reference to the end of Lent). Anyway here’s your April round-up of popular articles about language, interpreting, and translation.

• Twin colleagues Judy & Dagmar Jenner looked at what an interpreter has in common with a tennis player, a cross-country skier, a ski jumper, and a gymnast.
• How can note-taking improve your interpreting skills?
• The Economist examined whether translation platforms are ready to replace humans (and postmodern poets) yet.

Translation platforms cannot replace humans

• What are the difficulties involved in translating science fiction into Arabic?
• Thirteen countries and nine languages are among the finalists for this year’s Best Translated Book Awards.
• Here are eight English words that are (mostly) the inventions of ground-breaking pioneers.
• Can you ‘ungender’ language? How? It’s been done with hurricane names, for example.
• I always thought the word with the most different meanings in English was ‘set’. But now it turns out I’m wrong.

Three little letters, 645 meanings.

• The UK and France are in the run-up to important elections. Here are 15 old words for duplicitous that (maybe) we should revive.

The term double-headed has sometimes been part of the lexicon of duplicity, much like double-hearted.

• There’s still a week before the second round of the French presidential election, which will be followed by the country’s legislative elections on June 11th and 18th. If you’re not fluent in French, here’s a handy guide to some terms used in the elections.

How do you say ‘fake news’ in French?

• Staying with the theme of French, this Word of Mouth radio programme looked at how much of the English language comes from French roots.

 

Further reading:

• Around the web – February 2017
• Around the web – March 2017