What if you want to create a whole new fantasy world, and you people it with beings who speak an utterly fantastic language that no mere earthling could understand? Where do you start? You start with Finnish, of course. And…
Blog Archives
One book is never enough
Last week, it seemed that a new subspecies of lumbersexuals was emerging in the most unlikely of places: among Budapest intellectuals and activists. It turned out that all these checked shirts were popping up in my feed for a reason.…
Tagged with: Checked Shirts, Clouded Sky, Corvina Books, Dick Slackman, education, Foamy Sky, Frederick Turner, Hungarian, Hungary, Kazinczy Ferenc, Orvath Zsuzsanna, Princeton University Press, Radnoti Miklos, S. J. Marks, Sheep Meadow Press, Stephen Berg, Steven Polgar, Translation
Posted in books, education, history, language, poetry, translation
Posted in books, education, history, language, poetry, translation
Black flower
A book that can be turned upside down and read from back to front in another language can be a wonderful thing. Formats like that came through our door in my childhood home, but they were mostly bilingual Welsh-English leaflets…
Tagged with: Black Flower, Clare Sullivan, Irma Pineda, Natalia Toledo, native languages of the Americas, Ploughshares, Poetry, Spanish, Translation, Welsh, Zapotec
Posted in books, language, poetry, translation
Posted in books, language, poetry, translation
Words to bridge the gap
From a capella to zeitgeist, English has always filched other people’s words and run with them. There are so many more waiting to be used. And Ella Frances Sanders has brought them to life. As she says in Lost in Translation:…
Tagged with: Ella Frances Sanders, Inuit, Japanese, The Bridge Called Langauge, Translation, Untranslatable Words, Welsh
Posted in books, Illustration, language, translation, words
Posted in books, Illustration, language, translation, words
Learn Finnish by Christmas
Finland is 98 today. You can celebrate all the way to Christmas by learning the language. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you think. You can learn a new word every day with the Finland emoji Advent calendar. Catch…
Tagged with: advent, emoji, Finnish, Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Santa Claus, Translation
Posted in Illustration, language, translation
Posted in Illustration, language, translation
Thanksgiving for native languages
It’s time to give thanks. What for, exactly? This Thanksgiving, give thanks for the 130 endangered native languages in the USA, and the people keeping them alive. Give thanks for Marie Wilcox. Born on Thanksgiving Day 1933, Marie is the last fluent…
Tagged with: American, Comanche, Juanita Pahdopony, Marie Wilcox, native languages of the Americas, thanksgiving, Translation, Words without Borders, Wukchumni, Yokuts
Posted in language, poetry, translation
Posted in language, poetry, translation
Happy Birthday translators!
Happy 60th Birthday to us! The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL) is 60 this year. The party has started: a lively exhibition opens tomorrow. The opening tonight was a celebration of linguistic skills and challenges in a multicultural…
Tagged with: Anne Kerhola, Caisa, diaspora, Finnish, Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters, happy birthday, Illustration, Poetry, Sivuvalo, Swedish, Translation
Posted in international, language, literature, poetry, translation, words
Posted in international, language, literature, poetry, translation, words
Do Geese See God?
Do geese see God? (English) Knit again and you’ll get a beer (Neulo taas niin saat oluen, Finnish) It was raining bread in the garden (Aias sadas saia, Estonian) Maybe tomorrow that lady will give a cake to the hedgehogs…
Tagged with: English, Esperanto, Estonian, European Day of Languages, Finnish, Free Word Centre, German, Latin, Palindromes, Polish
Posted in language, translation, words
Posted in language, translation, words
Gendered gloss
At the end of women in translation month, where are all the women in the translator’s toolbox? Glossarissimo collates glossaries and resources on EVERYTHING from watermark terminology to a dictionary of Victorian slang. It really is useful and comprehensive. When you’re…
Tagged with: British Library, Glossarissimo, international, Terminology, Translation, Women in Translation Month, words
Posted in international, language
Posted in international, language
Women in Translation Month: Menna Elfyn
“Why write? It is so much easier to say when I started to write. I fell in love with words, and wordsmiths such as Dylan Thomas… in the ‘fifties, when I was growing up, the Welsh language was still seen…
Tagged with: Catrin Glyndwr, Gillian Clarke, Joseph P. Clancy, Menna Elfyn, Murmur, Poetry, Translation, Welsh, Women in Translation Month
Posted in books, language, poetry
Posted in books, language, poetry
found in translation 