Around the web – October 2019

October 10th marked a minor milestone for me, as I celebrated the 10th birthday of my Twitter account. Partly based on results from my Twitter feed, here’s your monthly round-up of October’s most popular stories about language, translation and interpreting.

• In a world of people striving for more public professional recognition, there’s a reason why interpreters and translators remain invisible. We allow the show to go on, carrying out projects that significantly affect people’s lives, while often remaining anonymous.
• The BBC took a look at what it’s like to have to interpret for your parents (interesting article but it’s a shame the BBC *still* doesn’t know the difference between a translator and interpreter!).
• In this Year of Indigenous Languages, here’s a timely reminder of what we lose when lose traditional, indigenous language and knowledge.

A collection of Native American utensils and weapons. (source: Getty)

• The interviewee for this month’s Greatest Women in Translation series was Marilyn Booth, translator (and joint winner with the author) of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.
• The words that shock have changed: traditional taboo words no longer have the punch of group-based insults about which Western societies are increasingly sensitive.

The polarisation of politics has led to a new lexicon of insults

• Slang and jargon specialist Tony Thorne also took a look at the pervasive, destabilising, discomfiting language of lying in public life.
• Claire Cox wonders if we can work more sustainably from home (see also Claire’s post about the METM Split conference).

Going greener in your office

• Will the French language make a comeback in European institutions once the UK has (finally) left the EU?

Could Brexit translate into a comeback for the French language?

• En français : “Jambonlaissé” de Guillaume Remuepoire : La fameuse pièce de William Shakespeare réécrite par Google traduction …
• On a final note, October 16th was World Food Day and colleague Alina Cincan curated a post in which several foodie translators (yours truly included) shared some favourite dishes along with their etymology and a food-related idiom.

Further reading:

• Around the web – September 2019
• Around the web – July & August 2019
• October 28th was International Creole Day. See here for all Creole-related posts on this blog.