Posted by Helen on March 19, 2010 under Language Study | 
“My pen is in my hand.”
Understanding Afrikaans is not terribly hard for a native English speaker (the above example is in Afrikaans). Lowland Scots does not prove much of a challenge to an English speaker, either: “D’ye see yon hoose ower yonder?” English is said to have a high degree of mutual intelligibility with these two languages. 
Mutual intelligibility describes the degree to which speakers of two different languages could understand one another without previous knowledge of the other language. For example, Norwegian has a high degree of mutual intelligibility with Swedish and Danish, as does Bosnian with Croatian and Serbian. However, intelligibility is not always the same for both speakers – sometimes, the conversation can be rather one-sided.
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Posted by Helen on March 17, 2010 under Language Study |
As China has begun to allow more Western culture to flow in, senior government officials are struggling to keep English words out of Chinese vocabulary, reported the London Telegraph. On Monday, Huang Youyi, chairman of the International Federation of Translators, stated: “If we do not pay attention and we do not take measures to stop Chinese mingling with English, Chinese will no longer be a pure language in a couple of years.” 
English words have recently become popular in China, especially slang and words related to technology and pop culture, such as “DVD,” “bye-bye,” and “guitar.” The rise in popularity of English words is mirrored in the increasing popularity of Western movies, television shows, and music. More students are opting to study English, because, according to Mr. Huang, of a desire to seem more international and cosmopolitan.
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Posted by Helen on March 11, 2010 under History, Language Study |
Spoiler Alert! In our prolonged Oscar fever, this post is inspired by another 2009 Best Picture Nominee, Inglorious Bastards. If you haven’t seen the film, and would like to, please be advised that plot elements are contained below. 
In Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 WWII hit Inglorious Bastards, one of Lt. Aldo Raine’s soldiers is impersonating a German soldier successfully at a bar with his excellent command of the language, that is, until he raises his hand to order glasses. His words are perfect German; his hand gesture, however, is not, and gives away his cover to a German officer.
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Posted by Helen on March 9, 2010 under Language Study |
In James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar, the planet Pandora may just be special effects, and the story just an updated version of Pocahontas, but the Na’vi language spoken is a complex and original language developed for the film by a University of Southern California linguist, reported ABC News on Friday.
The language, four years in the making, boasts a 1000-plus word vocabulary, conjugated verbs, and specific pronunciation. It was designed by Dr. Paul Frommer to be easily pronounced by the film’s actors and to fit the aesthetic of the film, but to sound like no other recognizable language. It has been growing in popularity among Avatar fans since the release of the movie, with the emergence of Na’vi Skype chat rooms and YouTube videos. The site Learnnavi.org provides an extensive overview of the language for those who would want to fit in on Pandora.
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Posted by Deepthi on January 21, 2010 under History, Language Study |
With the world becoming a global village, the necessity to improve one’s communication and social skills in order to climb up the ladder of career success is more than ever. This is because the kind of relations that an individual develops and maintains at his/her workplace is the defining factor of the success in career and has a direct impact on the performance. At work place, the relationship between the team members/clients/managers has a major contribution towards the performance of not just the team/organization, but also individuals.
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Posted by Deepthi on January 6, 2010 under Language Study, Translation |
One of the main aims of translation is to open the window to the variety of culture, art, and lifestyle across the globe. However, there exist a few cases which require adapting the content to suit local sensibilities. Translators are often asked to change not just the content but also the graphics of softwares/tools/games. The change or adaptation varies from modifying the look of the characters in the game to screenshots in softwares.
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Posted by Mike on October 15, 2009 under Language Study, Translation News |
We’ve blogged before about the French Academie, a group that purports to preserve and protect the French language, particularly against encroaching Anglicisms.
This week, the Wall Street Journal reports on the Academie’s attempts to come up with French equivalents for English-language computing terms such as cloud computing (which, for those not in the know, consists of accessing remote data over a network, so as to preserve the resources of the computers on the receiving end). The suggested phrase was “informatique en nuage,” literally “computing in cloud,” a phrase which left the board of the Academie cold.
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Posted by Martha on September 25, 2009 under Language Study, Translation News |
On the Island of Miyako in Japan, there is a smaller island that connects to Miyako called Ikema. This island is known for its isolation and it once flourishing bonito fishing.
There are about 800 inhabitants and a majority of them are elderly individuals. The inhabitants of this island have their own specific dialect that a native, standard-Japanese speaker would consider unintelligible. The dialect is called Ikema…
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Posted by Mike on September 18, 2009 under Language Study, Translation |
Okay, so maybe there’s no such thing as “inter-language translation,” but that hasn’t stopped Lucy Tobin from writing a “dictionary of teenage language” to help parents understand their children.
The UK’s Telegraph has recently reported on her new book, Pimp Your Vocab, which “aims to demystify the jargon adopted by British youngsters.”
What’s most interesting when reading the some of the examples of colorful and varied slang words and phrases contained within is that the slang used may be as foreign and baffling to American ears (of all ages!) as they do to the British parents for whom the book is intended. Take for example…
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Posted by Martha on August 28, 2009 under Language Study |
In the European Union, English is the most widespread language, but that is soon to change. Surprisingly, the future for the European Union me lie with Latin because of its practicality and convenience. According to Wolfgang Jenniges, a Latin word can be pronounced and mean something in all 23 languages that are used in the European Union. Latin is the only politically neutral language because it doesn’t belong to one nation. Latin could always be found in the root of many technical, scientific, religious and legal terms in Europe. It is a welcomed mixture between the ancient world and the modern world. In its efforts to utilize Latin, the EU has adopted Latin titles for some of its high ranking internet sites. The EU is also trying to include Latin in the names of their projects which is bringing back classical names for EU military missions such as Althea or Themis. The decision to extend the use of Latin on a larger scale would bring forth the teaching of Latin in schools and universities.
