100 years ago today, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was shot in Sarajevo, triggering what H.G. Wells called the “war that will end war”; it wasn’t long before the irony of that phrase was felt. The Oxford English Dictionary has…
Blog Archives
100 years of pacifism 1914-2014
Tagged with: Émile Arnaud, English, First World War, French, Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Pacifism, Translation, words
Posted in history, international, language, words
Posted in history, international, language, words
moral language?
If you speak a language well enough to get along, but not really well, it’s an effort. You need time to think and process and a lot of energy can go into making sure you get the grammar right. As…
Tagged with: Albert Costa, English, French, international, Korean, language learning, moral language, Spanish, Translation
Posted in international, language, translation
Posted in international, language, translation
waiting for translation: Tokarczuk’s Bieguni
You know that feeling when you’re waiting at an airport, trying to guess where other are from and where they are going? You start writing in your notebook, observing the man across from you, who is writing in his notebook,…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Bieguni, English, Language, Literature, Olga Tokarczuk, Polish, Translation
Posted in books, international, language, literature, translation
Posted in books, international, language, literature, translation
dragons are equally important: Tolkien’s Beowulf
For those of us who can’t let go of the world of the rings, today is a good day. J. R. R. Tolkien’s translation of and commentary on the Anglo Saxon epic Beowulf is published today, edited by his 89-year-old…
Tagged with: Beowulf, critics, dragons, English, J. R. R. Tolkien, Literature, monsters, Old English, Seamus Heaney, Translation
Posted in literature, poetry, translation
Posted in literature, poetry, translation
holy languages for holy week
The holy books of Christians and Jews are a complex mixture of languages and manuscripts that gloriously overlap and contradict. There are more and more chances to see this huge diversity coming together. Two exhibitions, similar content, different title: verbum…
Tagged with: Agnes Lewis, Aramaic, Bible, codex sinaiticus, English, German, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Old English, Russian, Syriac, syriac sinaiticus, Translation, Verbum Domini exhibition
Posted in faith, international, language, translation
Posted in faith, international, language, translation
april fish!
Happy April Fool’s Day! If you’re English, you’ve only got till noon to play your tricks or you’re the fool. If you’re over the channel, your day may involve April Fish, usually made of paper and attached to someone’s back…
Tagged with: April Fool, English, Flemish, French, Idioms, Italian, Language, Languages, Translation, words
Posted in April Fool's Day, international, language, words
Posted in April Fool's Day, international, language, words
three per cent: best translated book from German 2014
Just three percent of books published in the US are in translation, and less than one percent are literary fiction and poetry. The University of Rochester is trying to change that, with its three per cent website and Best Translated…
Tagged with: Austria, books, Christa Wolf, Damion Searls, drama, Elfriede Jelinek, English, feminist, German, Language, Literature, Nobel Prize, three per cent, Translation, translator, writing
Posted in Best Translated Book Award, books, gender, international, literature, translation
Posted in Best Translated Book Award, books, gender, international, literature, translation
flying stones: the European poet of freedom 2014
The European Poet of Freedom Festival starts in Gdańsk today. The poet’s award is 100,000 złoty (about 24,000 euros), and their translator into Polish wins a tenth of that. Seven nominees, from Kazakhstan to Estonia, face some very sharp judges…
Tagged with: Contemporary, Croatian, Dorta Jagić, English, Europe, freedom, Gdańsk, German, Iren Baumann, Literature, Małgorzata Wierzbicka, Miloš Đurđević, Poetry, Polish, Ryszard Wojnakowski, Switzerland, Translation, translator
Posted in European Poet of Freedom, gender, international, literature, poetry, translation
Posted in European Poet of Freedom, gender, international, literature, poetry, translation
¡habla conmigo! – talk with me!
If you want someone’s mind to grow, you have to start a conversation with them as soon as they’re born. It’s not enough for them to hear language around them, adults talking to each other, people talking on TV or…
Tagged with: bilingualism, conversation, English, language learning, Languages, linguistics, Polish, Spanish, Welsh, words
Posted in Illustration, language, words
Posted in Illustration, language, words
more gender pronouns: they
Facebook has finally broadened its pronoun options from 2 to 50. This should theoretically stop those odd posts with the “wrong” gender assignment, and make a lot of transgendered and queer people very happy. The only problem is that you have to…
found in translation 