Here’s your February 2023 round-up of news, articles, and blog posts about language, translation and interpreting.
- What are the most lucrative ways to specialise as a freelancer?
Standing out from the crowd
- This Guardian article looks at the vicarious trauma involved in several professions, including interpreting.
- Levels of violent extremist Incel language have steadily increased in the main online spaces over the past 6 years
- In The Economist: Genuine etymology is enough to keep life well-seasoned without the need for “folk etymologies” and People still hope to remake the world through language
Lots of genuine etymologies are fascinating and entertaining
- ChatGPT will gladly spit out defamation, as long as you ask for it in a foreign language
- What do multilingual dreams reveal about our night-time brain?
Sleep has a more powerful role in language-learning than was previously thought.
- What happens when your name becomes shorthand for unattractive – or even racist – behaviour?
- Did you know that spoken Latin is making a comeback?
Instead of transitioning between Latin and English, spoken Latin keeps the cognition all in one language.
- A look at UK vs US differences between the words “veteran”, “veterinarian” and “vet”
- Welsh place names are being erased – and so are the stories they tell
The Welsh name Yr Wyddfa is now used for the mountain instead of Snowdon by the national park authority
- Justine Miles went viral for her energetic sign language interpretation of Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show
- Why do so many of us feel that we now need subtitles to understand dialogue in the things we watch?
On a final note, if you haven’t already done so, do take a few minutes to answer both these surveys:
- The 2nd edition of the freelance translator survey organised by Inbox Translation and the ITI is open to freelance translators worldwide, and the closing date is 13 March
- Emma Goldsmith’s survey on ergonomics and health among translators and editors is also open to freelancers worldwide, and the closing date is 5 April
Further reading on the blog:
A Smart Translator's Reunion 