The month of March is chock-a-block with special days: the Ides of March, International Francophonie Day, St Patrick’s Day, St David’s Day, the vernal/autumnal equinox, Pi Day, and this year the Hindu festival of Holi also fell in March. Anyway here are some more of this month’s articles and stories about language and translation.
March 14 is a day when people like to indulge in pie
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- Many articles published this month were devoted to the debate about translating Amanda Gorman’s poetry, leading to a wider discussion about who can and should translate who. Rather than post them all here, I’ve included them in a single Twitter thread
- Staying on the subject of literary translation, Tim Mohr talks about translating Alina Bronsky’s My Grandmother’s Braid
- Colleague Claire Cox blogs about being organised
What are your organisational skills like?
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- There may be an easier way of earning an obituary than coining new words
- Did you know that the English word “disinformation” was adopted from the Russian “dezinformatsiya”?
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Do you know what a “propaganda-condom” is?
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- Classic Disney films were dubbed into Icelandic when they were first released, but those versions are absent from Disney+, and now people in the country – intent on preserving their language – want to know why
- A dialect coach went on a virtual tour of different accents across English-speaking North America
- E-commerce giant Amazon apologised after rejecting a review written in Welsh for a Welsh language book … then after saying the issue was ‘resolved’ promptly rejected another Welsh language book review
- Is there a gender gap in emoji use?
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Women use emojis more than men and generally understand their meanings better, researchers say. (Illustration: Max Benwell)
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- Lastly, another news story that dominated the last week of March was the supertanker stuck in the Suez Canal. Here’s a look at what the “Suez Canal” is called in various European and Middle Eastern languages
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Elsewhere on the blog
A Smart Translator's Reunion 