Around the web – September 2017

Despite International Translation Day being celebrated by the International Federation of Translators since 1953, this year marked a milestone as it is the first since the 71st United Nations General Assembly declared September 30th to be the official UN International Translation Day, celebrated across the entire UN network, and unanimously adopted a resolution recognising the role of professional translation in connecting nations, and fostering peace, understanding and development. Without further ado, here is your round-up of popular news stories about language and translation for the month of September.

• The European Commission has published an updated English Style Guide for its authors and translators, which is available for download.
• Do you talk about a ‘glossary’ when you actually mean a ‘list of terminology’? Find out here.
• K International has updated their list of favourite books about translation – covering both fiction and non-fiction.
• Often a bugbear for French to English translators, why do the French use the umbrella term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ so much?

Not just American or British, the Anglo-Saxon is a mirror to Frenchness: the country’s alter-ego and most feared enemy

• Blog posts comparing US and UK English are always popular, and Lynne Murphy published two this month: one about ‘sorted‘, and another about sightedness (as in far-, short-, long-, and near-).
• This podcast episode by 20k.org looked at how accents evolved, and why American and British accents are so different.

Your accent tells others where you’re from, who you identify with, and maybe even where you’re going.

• There were two interesting items via the BBC: How to swear like a Swede, and on the Word of Mouth podcast Eat My Words: How to Describe Food Flavours.

You dirty lobster!

• Here’s a list of 19 literary translations from Arabic being published this autumn.
• In the UK, the pro-Brexit newspaper The Sun decided to publish an editorial in German on its website, justifying its position. Problem – it seems to have used Bing Translate, with predictably disastrous results.
• Did you know that the word ‘tall‘ originally has nothing to do with height?

Tall originally had nothing to do with lattes either

 

Further reading:

• Around the web – July & August 2017
• Around the web – June 2017
• Lingo – a language spotter’s guide to Europe (my review of one of the books in K International’s list)

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