Unsurprisingly, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine occurring late February, the March 2022 round-up has a number of language and translation-related articles, blog posts, and stories about the war.
Fantasy awards, among others, rarely ever feature a work of long-form or short-form fiction originally written in another language or translated into English
It’s said that if you find a four-leaf clover, it will bring you good luck
In other news, I was honoured to be featured in the “Meet our members” section of ITI’s FrenchNet newsletter: you can see the interview here. At the beginning of March I enjoyed participating in a careers event at a local high school with a class of penultimate year pupils. And I’ve also signed up for the BP22 conference in Lisbon: will I see you there?
I was away at the end of December and for part of January, so I’ve decided to do a combined post with the most popular news articles, blog posts, and stories about translation, interpreting and language for both months.
Mona Kareem: “What poets who are not translators fail to understand is that it is exactly ‘style, tone, and content’ that makes or breaks a translator”
In this Ted Talk, The Language Game, former UN chief interpreter Ewandro Magalhaes explores how interpreters connect the world:
A slab on display at the Acropolis Museum in Athens shows decrees written in the Greek alphabet around 446 B.C. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Even Boris Johnson’ critics reproduce the image he has chosen to project by repeatedly using language that reinforces it, said Deborah Cameron in December
5 striking ways the internet era has changed British English, according to new research
Here are September’s most popular news stories and blog articles about translation, interpreting, and language.
Ahead of International Translation Day, Zingword took a look at all the ways translators and translator organisations raise translator visibility
2020 has seen a number of changes forced upon the language profession
Not only was September 30th International Translation Day, but the whole of September was World Kid Lit Month. In this article Publisher’s Weekly spoke with 10 acclaimed translators about the unique challenges and rewards of adapting international children’s books for English-speaking readers
Shadow Heroes is an organisation that proposes an alternative approach to (literary) translation by running creative translation workshops for secondary school pupils, taking on the myth of the “good translation”
The language of lockdown in South Africa: Broadcasters, translators & language practitioners have had to scramble to find ways to translate COVID-related terms into indigenous languages
This month’s incredible-but-true language story is a sign of thetimes 2020: a Spanish local politician hid behind his face mask to pretend he spoke perfect English
Do you know how the month of May got its name? It may (pun intended) seem a simple word, but the origin is actually fairly complex and interesting. We could say the same about several articles listed here in the May 2020 round-up of this month’s most popular stories about language, translation and interpreting.
was Maia a Greek or Roman goddess?
Colleague Judy Jenner blogged about interpreting depositions via Zoom. Is it possible, and how does it work?
US/UK language specialist Lynne Murphy took a look at the different ways – linguistically speaking – that Americans and Brits are talking about COVID19/the coronavirus. She also looked at whether we “stay home” or “stay at home”. (Incidentally France’s Académie Française have decided that COVID is preferably feminine in gender).
In times past, when frustrating circumstances demanded new ways of expressing what it means to be alive, it was often female writers who sculpted the fresh coinages that kept language rippling with poignancy and power.
Colleague Nikki Graham helpfully shared her templates for purchase order checklists. There are different ones for translation, revision, edition, and localisation.
En français : Quelles sont les leçons linguistiques de la crise du coronavirus ?
Lastly, a nod to the island where I live and its (food) culture: for week 41 of her ongoing #ThatTranslatorCanCook challenge, colleague Hannah Lawrence cooked “rougail saucisse” and discussed the meaning of rougail, Creole, and Creole sausages in her blog article.
A recent request from a colleague on Facebook looking for interesting podcasts to listen to got me compiling the following list. I’ve listed podcasts that are about language, translation and/or interpreting, but none about language learning (there are plenty out there if that’s what you’re looking for). Depending on how much time you have available you might want to listen to all of a podcast’s episodes or just cherrypick here and there. The list is in alphabetical order and, with two exceptions, only includes podcasts in English. Podcasts in italics are now defunct/have stopped producing new episodes.
I have a soft spot for The Allusionist – subjects are very varied and I like Helen Zaltzmans’ take on things
Because Language is a lengthy monthly podcast from Australia about linguistics and the science of language, with bonus episodes for paying subscribers. It was previously a weekly show called Talk the Talk for which there’s still an archive of 395 episodes.
Globally Speaking by Renato Beninatto and Michael W. Stevens is a podcast by and for localisation professionals
Grammar Girl with Mignon Fogarty and the occasional guest: more than 700 short episodes
Listen to Wordbee’s International Buzz for a podcast about international business, localisation, global marketing, and more. Yours truly recorded an episode on Creoles. Now renamed L10N Radio
LangFM by Alexander Drechsel tells the stories of interesting people from the world of language
Translation Confessional by Rafa Lombardino explores the aspects of a career in translation that aren’t often or openly talked about
Billed as a talk show for translators, Translators on Air (formerly known as ‘Blabbing Translators’) ran until 2018 with 71 episodes, many of which are also available on Youtube
In 2010 the University Oxford did a four-part podcast on translation called What is Translation? that is still available
Word Bomb by Canadian broadcaster TVO unpacks one explosive word per week
BBC Radio 4’s Word of Mouth explores the world of words and the ways in which we use them
The History of English is a chronological history of the English language examined through the lens of historical events that shaped the development and spread of the language
In Another Voice is a podcast about poets we might not have heard of, and their poetry in translation.
Language Chats is “a podcast for language-lovers in Australia and beyond”
Lingthusiam by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne is enthusiastic about linguistics
Parliamo di traduzione a podcast in Italian by Natalia Bertelli, Martina Abagnale and Eleonora Cadelli.
Source2Target is a podcast for new and prospective translators
Standing on Points is a cultural history of punctuation by Florence Hazrat
Three Percent podcasts is a weekly(ish) conversation about new books, the publishing scene, international literature in translation, and many other random rants and raves
Caroline Alberoni hosts the TradTalk podcast (mainly in Portuguese)
Vistatalks is a language industry podcast by Vistatec. It focuses on interesting discussions with interesting people from around the world
Long-running A Way With Words looks at language through family, history, and culture
Word Matters by the editors of American dictionary Merriam-Webster is billed as a podcast for “readers, writers, and anyone who ever loved their English class”
*podcasts that I don’t, occasionally, or no longer listen to, mainly due to lack of time!
Here’s your round-up of the penultimate month of the year’s most popular stories about language, translation and interpreting.
“Unspeakable things”: the vocabulary used to discuss sexual violence sometimes has drawbacks.
It is hard to tackle a problem you are afraid to name.
Urban Dictionary has long been looked down on by more traditional dictionaries, but now some linguists are using it for research. Certain U.S. states are referencing it to determine the acceptability of vanity plate names, and its definitions have also been brought up and debated in court cases.
Icelander Kristjan Asgeirsson lost $68,000 in an online scam. The people of Iceland are no longer protected from online fraud because of their linguistic isolation.
There was a time when the figurative meaning of ‘fishing’ was only used in terms like ‘fishing for compliments’. Now we have ‘catfishing’, ‘blackfishing’, and ‘sadfishing’: do you know what they all mean?
We’re fast approaching the end of the year, and MacMillan Dictionaries have already compiled a “Trending Words of 2019” quiz. Test your knowledge here. (In mid-October The Guardian also published an article with the Top 10 words of 2019 and both Oxford Dictionaries and Collins Dictionaries have named their words of the year.
What does “milkshaking” refer to?
Even if you speak French fluently, there are some words you may never manage to pronounce correctly (personally I don’t think I have much of a problem pronouncing these ten words, but have issues with other words not on the list!).
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 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.
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.
If you need to catch up with news about translation, interpreting, and language because you’ve been away over the holiday period, here’s a round-up of the most popular stories that you might have missed during July and August.
There were two interesting posts on Caroline Alberoni’s blog:
Some metaphors are so pervasive (arguments as a war to be won, time as a commodity, and happiness as up & sadness as down) that they are fundamental to how we culturally conceive of the world.
A Smart Translator's Reunion 