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Janus Words
meaning one word which has two completely opposite meanings (eee gads!)
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New Word-Watching
What makes a new word stick?
Do you google for background info on your dates?
Do you ping your friends?
Are you operating at full bandwidth?
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Retronyms
We use them almost every day, but most people don't even know what they are.
As in: Acoustic guitar. Rotary phone. Whole milk.
Woodburning fireplace. Natural turf.
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Where pronunciation rules
Nouns versus verbs
(produce, project, rebel, reject, etc.)
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The Unfaithful Art of Translation
Louise Steinman, Los Angeles Times © 2001
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“There is little public awareness or understanding of the demanding art of translation.....is creating the same work even an option?”
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Many Languages, A Common Passion
Trying to Retain Meaning,
Spirit of a Writer's Work
Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times © 2002
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“The alchemy of translation occurs precisely at that point where an essentially new work is created.”
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“Translation, like any form of literary interpretation, is subject to manipulation and ‘contamination’ by foreign values and biases, whether by
intention or subconsciously. At the same time, the only people who truly ‘know’ how to read and write are translators.”
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Navajo Code Talkers:
Prime Example of Cultural Adjustment
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Some of the languages of the Navajo tribe were utilized during the two World Wars for military information transmissions in deciphered forms, as they were so little known to outside. Yet for those
Navajo, most military jargon was far from the cultural settings in which they lived. There were no tanks, amphibians, bombers, fighter planes, no five star generals or Marines. Yet they transferred the new concept
of English language into their own – for instance “dive bomber”= “chicken hawk,” “fighter plane”= “hummingbird,” or “battleship”= “whale.”
A huge list has now been declassified by the
Dept. of Defense and it’s an amazing read!
See: Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
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(but did they know the Sanskrit word for
war means:“desire for more cows” - ?!
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An easy translation job
“There is no such a thing as an easy translation job for the simple reason that experience should never lead to complacency.”
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On "soiling one's hands" with 'low' literature or 'mere' technical documents or corporate reports and why the client who asks for a
volume discount may not realize that the longer a job is, the more difficult it actually becomes.
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Translator Danilo Nogueira contributing to
Translation Journal Vol.5 No.4, Oct. 2001
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Bulk Discounts: The Ins and Outs
“You can’t be completely black and white
in a grey world!”
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The Germanization of English
actually published close to 15 years ago in Verbatim,
and still a wonderful (and timely) piece today,
even if highly critical of us “upstart” Yanks!
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The Chaos of English
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...say break and steak,
but bleak and streak,
blood and flood are not like food,
say even aver, but ever, fever;
though, through, plough, dough, cough
yet hiccough has the sound of cup...
The author's advice: Just give it up!!
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Missing the Big Picture
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Transforming sow’s ears:
A growing niche market
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Translators need to understand how vertical markets like finance or telecoms use their work – or the results may be useless.
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Chris Durhan is a Paris-based freelance translator
Reprinted with permission from
Language International, Vol.11 No.3, June 1999
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The Future of English
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), writer, editor, philologist and wit, wrote this
article for the
April 1935 issue of Harper's Magazine
Reprinted with permission (September 1999)
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Why English is hard to learn
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What scientists really mean
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The First Patent in the New World
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click here to: read text click here to: view patent
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Patent trivia:
The number of U.S. patents issued to U.S. residents in 2001 was 101,619, according to the patent office.
U.S. patents issued to residents of
foreign countries that same year was 86,203.
Roughly 80 percent of patent applications are rejected the first time around.
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Laughing at Language
unfortunately somewhere along the way
I lost the original author’s information /credits
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Quotes for the Future
A great selection of quotes made down through the years which are quite funny
from the vantage point we enjoy today.
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What the movies teach us
49 things you would never know without movies.
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Items you wish your computer had
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Clever recycling of computer in absence of above
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Translation: Getting it Right
A guide to buying translations
© A. Aparicio & C. Durban, 2001
Institute of Translation & Interpreting
a very well-written
pdf brochure that sums up
quite a lot of pressing issues!
There are hundreds of ways a translation project can go off track – ridiculous deadlines, ambiguities in the source text, no proofreading,
poor cheap freelance translator,
poor expensive freelance translator,
no client input, and on and on.
And perhaps the most important
and yet most commonly disregarded question bar none:
How much time did your team
spend producing the original?
By applying even half the tips in this leaflet, you will improve your chances of getting a translation
that works.
Gurkensalat: Harry Potter
Kritisches Kompendium zur deutschen Harry-Potter- Übersetzung -
Sammlung von Merkwürdigkeiten, kleinen und krassen Fehlern ...
to be astounded by the magnitude
of the entire website, click here.
for a quick one-page excerpt of the
literally hundreds of things that
have caught the eye of a circumspect
critic from the German Harry Potter
translations, click
here.
More Harry Potter
A bootleg Spanish-language version of
Harry Potter in Venezuela comes complete
with translator’s apologies for its errors.
(BBC article)
But Star Wars fans
feel the heat, too!
As posted on the proz.com
translator website in May 2005:
Recently, on one of the German TV channels, the invited guest was George Lucas, on the occasion of the release of Episode III. The host and Lucas spoke
with each other through an interpreter in the studio.
When the host asked Lucas what was a common element in all six episodes of
“Star Wars,” Lucas just smiled and said:
“May the force be with you.”
The interpreter translated this as:
“See you on May 4th.”
Filserbriefe
One of the most entertaining amusements
for those who have a good command of
both English and German...
.... perhaps also an apt example of why
one should stay away from computer
translation programs!
A Bavarian’s letter to NASA
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The following letters reprinted from:
“Die besten englischen Filserbriefe.
Your true Gisela”
published by F.A. Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung and available at: Amazon
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______________________________
Real Live Translation Errors
I would really like to showcase all the wonderful translation errors we all come across in our daily lives.
Not those funny forwarded emails
which cannot be traced or verified,
but real live actual examples we come across in our daily lives.
Please send me actual attributable contributions as you see fit.
I'm starting this "campaign" off with but one great example I found some time ago in the local TV Guide... but I guarantee, many more to follow!
even, to some degree, like:
The Massachusetts Miracle
Colours and contentents
A wonderfully droll contribution
from David Koblick:
How many words does it take in various languages to say “error” ?
Two very interesting “multi-lingual” greeting signs:
Sign 1 Sign 2
More funny signs; Signspotting
Meanwhile, as seen on a website
offering jobs to translators:
I am looking for native speakers of
Spanish resident in Germany who are
interested in a long-term partnership
in the area of software localization.
Profound knowledge of SAP software
is inevitable. (I'd say so!)
Language vs. Machine
Ambiguities Hinder Translation by Computer
“Machine translation is far more difficult
to program than code-breaking....
computer systems do not do a good job
of making use of the context...and the
next 40 years don’t look much better... “
Easy Ways to Get it Almost Right
+ Getting through Babble:
Where to look online
“There is a greater market for poor-
quality translation... every time you
machine-translate something, there will
be some deterioration of quality... “
Fun (and informative)
Wordsmithing Links
a whopper list of German slang
(note: even the really baaad words!)
good listing of UK slang
a light-hearted look at some differences between UK and USA English usage
very helpful compendium of
common errors in English
The Word Detective
On Word Origins
World Wide Words
what English words & phrases mean,
where they came from, how they have evolved, and the ways in which people have been known to misuse them.
Have you read your
Starbucks cup lately? 
I love some of these contributions from
the “The Way I See It” series, the “collection of thoughts, opinions and
expressions provided by notable figures” as printed on Starbucks cups,
such as this one:
The Way I See It #29
Every language is an old-growth forest – of the mind, a watershed
of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities. Of the 6,000 languages spoken today, fully half are not being taught to children.
Every two weeks an elder dies and carriers into the grave the last syllables of an ancient tongue. Within a generation or two we are losing half of humanity’s social, cultural and intellectual legacy.
– Dr. Wade Davis
National Geographic
Explorer-in-Residence
Xenoglossophobia!
fortissimodesign
orchestrating word&image
the monthly newsletter on all things
multilingual and typographic
by Chuck Mountain
His October 2006 edition is given completely over to a wonderful article written by Doug and Cindi Bower, authors of the book The Plain Truth about Living in
Mexico: The Expatriate's Guide to Moving, Retiring, or just hanging out
Learn Spanish: Why Americans Don’t
or: Xenoglossophobia!
“Another concern I have is that when Mexicans expatriate to America there is
an American cultural expectation for
them to learn English. You hear this all
the time and currently it is one of the
battle cries of the anti- Mexican move-
ment in America. Yet, when Americans
expatriate to Mexico, particularly retirees, they do not do what they expect the Mexicans to do when they expatriate to America—learn the language.”
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