Our look at the most popular stories about language and translation for September starts with an article referencing the most important day of the month (year?) for language professionals: International Translation Day!
- Why do
translators and interpreters deserve a special day of recognition? - When translating into English we should should prefer words of Germanic origin if we’re aiming for a lively and earthy feel.
Why your Latin teacher was wrong
- While we’re on the subject, did you know that the berry family is a linguistic invention particular to Germanic languages like English? (Other languages like Spanish and French don’t combine the berry family into one group, but have different words).
Why do we call them ‘berries’?
- Chinese speech recognition company iFlytek has been accused of faking AI-generated simultaneous interpreting.
- How do the US and UK use ‘racial’ and related words differently?
- What sort of jobs does a degree in linguistics lead to? Here’s an interview with a language creator.
- What exactly is the ‘-hood’ in ‘neighbourhood’? Where does it come from?
- Zero waste freelancing? – colleague Fuschia Hutton explains why, what, and how.
How green is your freelance business?
- Did you know how different quotation marks can be from one European language to the next? And what are the official languages of European countries?
- The fact that southern France’s Occitan language is so intertwined with the culture is perhaps why it has never completely faded away.
Occitan: the language the French forbade
- En français : pourquoi on a une voix plus grave ou plus aiguë lorsqu’on parle une autre langue ?
On a personal note this month has seen the following two items published:
- An interview with colleague Françoise L’Heveder about my professional history and experience.
- Episode 18 of Wordbee’s International Buzz podcast is an interview with me about Creole(s).
In the podcast I explain what Creole is, its origins, and share how Creole is used on Reunion Island today.
Further reading:
- Around the web – July & August 2018
- Around the web – June 2018
- Bastard Tongues
- 7 facts about Reunion Creole
A Smart Translator's Reunion 