Around the web – February 2024

Here’s your round-up of news, articles, and blog posts about translation and language for February 2024.

• What is the future of translation? It’s to be brilliant, says Gwenydd Jones in this article on the CIOL website
• Are literary translators early casualties of the AI revolution?

A growing number of publishers are asking translators to work from an AI-processed version of the original text. These professionals, who are legally considered to be authors, find themselves faced with less attractive financial conditions and status.

• Corinne McKay on 4 sources of potential direct clients
• Woven into the fabric of language, metaphors shape how we understand reality. What happens when we try using new ones?

Metaphors make the world

• Linguistic diversity on Earth is far more profound and fundamental than previously imagined. But it’s also crumbling fast
• Hundreds of years ago, the people of Rapa Nui used a writing system that no one today can read. Scientists now believe that it may predate European contact with the island and be unrelated to any other script on Earth

New radiocarbon dating reveals astonishing insights.

• Is “second-guess” used differently in the US & UK? Lynne Murphy takes a look
• Washington may become the first US state to require licenses for translators and interpreters
• There were a number of stories this month (such as this BBC Future article) about a TikTok-specific accent named “TikTalk”, but Language Log isn’t actually convinced it’s a new thing

How TikTok created a new accent – and why it might be the future of English

• Staying on the subject of accents, why is AI software ‘softening’ accents problematic?
• Creole languages: the development of a linguistic phenomenon
• Why do Britons have 546 words for drunkenness?

Further reading on the blog:

• Around the web – January 2024
• Around the web – December 2023