UN French Language Day: Celebrating Linguistic Diversity and Cultural Heritage
What is the UN French Language Day? On 20 March, we once again celebrate UN French Language Day, a global celebration of linguistic diversity and cultural exchange. Created by the United Nations in 2010, this day is to remind us of the long history of the French language, as well as its continuing influence in international […]
Tips for Proofreading Academic Papers
Proofreading for non-native academic authors At Rosetta Translation we regularly receive requests to proof academic papers or research material. Most of these requests are from researchers whose work is written in English, yet they are not native speakers of English. Proofreading academic texts can dramatically increase their acceptance for publication. It can also make sure the material is as […]
International Day of Sign Languages
What is the International day of Sign Languages? The International Day of Sign Languages is one of the most recent arrivals in the annual procession of official days, having been introduced by the United Nations as recently as 2017. It is now celebrated annually on 23 September, and aims to recognise and promote the importance […]
Culture-bound syndromes and how language shapes illness
In her book Sleeping Beauties, neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan explores the phenomenon of culture-bound illnesses around the world. The conditions she is interested in are psychosomatic disorders which arise due to a complex interaction between the mind and body, but also the cultural context in which an individual finds themselves. And since language is essential both […]
Dog-tired and other doggie expressions
Having recently got sucked in to the joy of cycling, I have found myself adding long weekend bike rides to my existing schedule of regular runs and swims. That’s how I ended up cranking out a 60 mile lumpy bike ride one Saturday followed by a short run, then a swim and a run on […]
Matching verbs to singular or plural nouns
One distinctive difference between English and German is the greater flexibility over word order and sentence structure in the latter language. German is described as having a V2 word order “which allows any constituent to occupy the first position as long as the second position is occupied by the finite verb.” This allows Germans to […]
When slang migrates from TikTok to the mainstream
How Tiktok can influence mainstream language “This is why you need to go on TikTok mum, you are missing out on quality content for your blog”. That was the advice of my middle daughter after she had patiently translated her reference to “the cozzie livs guy”, which had left me baffled. Now that cozzie livs […]
Buckets and spoons: an etymological tour of death metaphors
The need to translate English into English is more common than you might imagine, where phrases of English are deployed in a foreign language and have taken on an alternative meaning that isn’t appropriate in actual English text. There are lots of examples where the meaning has diverged completely from the original and becomes metaphors, […]
When the obvious translation isn’t right
The topic of false friends comes up regularly in translation, and this week’s collection of translation glitches are similar but perhaps better described as “friends that might lead you astray”. All the examples we discuss here have what seems to be an obvious solution in the target language, but this initial translation turns out to […]
Translating punctuation: an overlooked detail
Previously, this blog touched briefly on the importance of punctuation when reviewing translation work, especially the need to adapt punctuation style from the source language style to your target language. But this topic is worth revisiting in greater depth as it seems quite a few translators regard the typographical symbols in between words as outside […]
Plagiarism: when language and politics collide
Language — or rather text — played a key role in the recent high-profile departure of the president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay. The simple story is that Gay was found to have plagiarised other scholars’ work on multiple occasions both in her doctoral dissertation and in several published articles during her academic career. As […]
The great English test scandal or another miscarriage of justice?
In 2014, the BBC’s Panorama programme reported on what was described as widespread cheating in English language tests that formed part of the international student visa approval process by the UK Home Office. This complex legal immigration story has been back in the news recently as new evidence has been put forward by people who […]
Dishwashers and double meanings
This blog previously described the pleasure a translator can find in perusing multilingual instructions for a new domestic appliance, which often feature some entertainingly dismal translations. Having said that, the consequences of attempting to dodge translation difficulties by providing an illustration-only user manual suggest manufacturers are best advised to stick with providing written instructions even […]
Delightful turns of phrase
One of the greatest pleasures in working with language every day is the appreciation you develop for neat turns of phrase or vocabulary possibilities in your non-native language, so this week’s blog brings you a little collection of “Germanisms” that have recently brought me delight. We begin with the application of “Wolf” as a suffix […]
Stoked about New Zealand slang, eh
We’ve had a New Zealand visitor with us for the last few months, which has provided a great opportunity to revel in regional linguistic differences, in the guise of New Zealand slang. In the UK, our main exposure to dialectal variation is through interactions with US media and culture. So, although I was familiar with […]
Proofreading prompts
Proofreading Checklist Part I: Vocabulary One of the benefits of doing regular review work as a translator is that it offers useful reminders of things to watch out for in your own translation tasks. It is always easier to spot errors or stylistic glitches in someone else’s work, so this is a great opportunity to […]
Definite articles and personal names
One of the first things I noticed many moons ago when working as an au pair in Germany, was the way the definite article was frequently stuck in front of people’s names “Die Petra …”, “Der Klaus …” etc. With certain regional variations, this definite article plus name formulation crops up frequently in spoken conversation […]
Sign language and translanguaging among deaf signers
My ever-expanding list of language topics I should know more about has long since had sign language on it, and my interest increased when my middle daughter selected a university credit in British Sign Language as part of her liberal arts degree. So I was primed to notice a recent headline about the UK’s first […]
Market forces and minority languages in the Welsh digital landscape
Back in 2018 Rhodri Williams, the outgoing director of Ofcom Wales, warned that the growth of streaming services such as Netflix could have a detrimental impact on original language content aimed at a “geographically-specific audience”. The power of the market means that global players are most interested in content that is accessible to the widest […]
Adoption vs adaption – loanword corruption in the world of Cryptocurrency
Every translator understands that dictionaries have their limits when it comes to selecting the right word. A fascinating example of this cropped up recently in a piece I was working on for a German financial services company. The topic was cryptocurrencies and particularly the evolving technologies in this rapidly changing field. At one point, the […]
What does “in writing” mean in German and English law?
Words do not have neat one-to-one mappings between languages. You do not need to be a very advanced language learner to be aware of that phenomenon, so it’s surprising how often this seems to trip up the unwitting translator. For example, German legal documents frequently distinguish between Schriftform and Textform, both of which refer to […]
Fashion translation will detonate your thesaurus
After another immersion in the world of fashion translation, I have once again emerged in awe of the repetitive and often vacuous nature of fashion marketing texts. Sorry fashion people, but it’s true. Once you get past the basic fact that you are promoting a pair of trousers, a dress, or a shirt, there is […]
Geography as an etymological treasure trove
A few years ago, my eldest daughter and I set ourselves the task of hiking the North Downs Way, a long distance trail which takes walkers from Farnham to Dover via the Surrey Hills and over the Kent Downs. The aim was to do a couple of days at time, gradually covering the 153 miles […]
A proper gander at Yorkshire dialects
Yorkshire dialects are an endangered species In the grand tradition of “things aren’t what they used to be”, discussions of globalisation and an increasingly mobile and interconnected world regularly bemoan the detrimental impact on linguistic diversity. The negative ramifications range from the annihilation of entire languages, allegedly “disappearing faster than species” to the loss of […]
Duolingo: language learning or phone addiction?
Duolingo: an addictive language learning tool I have a track record with new technology: phase one involves scepticism and refusal to engage, phase two is full-blown addiction and obsession (a third phase of disengagement often follows during which I wonder what all the fuss was about). Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or Strava, the pattern has […]
A catalogue of lexical curiosities
The allure of the smartphone makes it difficult to focus on reading an old-fashioned book. Even with notifications turned off, the tantalising prospect of the latest Twitter updates or WhatsApp messages easily win out over the printed word. In a bid to spend more time reading actual books rather than the latest hot-take, I’ve taken […]
Intentional typos — can misspellings ever be a good thing?
Typos and misspellings: the bane of a writer’s existence Typos send a chill down the spine of any translator or proofreader. Catching an unintended slip-up at the last moment before submitting a project always combines an element of relief with a sense of dismay at nearly allowing an embarrassing mistake to slip through to publication. […]
Stephen Pinker and The Sense of Style
In a recent post about the limitations of ChatGPT, this blog touched on the often mundane nature of the chatbot’s output. Having recently been immersed in Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, I suspect good writing is characterised by surprises and maybe even some rough […]
A helping human hand for machine translation
This week’s blog will boost the spirits of any translator feeling demoralised at the growth of machine translation by reminding us that a bit of human intervention goes a long way when it comes to quality. Machine translation struggles with passages of text that are amenable to literal translation but would benefit from rephrasing. For […]
Corporate language policies: a linguistic minefield
Attitudes to corporate language policies might best be summed up by the quote attributed to John Lydgate, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. There is no doubt […]
When translators are defeated – The Rök stone
Contemporary concerns over climate change and the threat of extreme weather conditions may not be entirely new. Researchers attempting to decipher the runic inscriptions on the Rök stone from Scandinavia now believe it may refer to fear of an impending climate crisis. They suggest that the 9th century stone alludes to the potential for an […]
The Nigel Molesworth guide to grammar and spelling
Like most kids, my three offspring regard parental advice with a hefty dose of suspicion, including when it comes to book recommendations. So, one of my proudest parenting successes was listening to the gales of laughter from my youngest child’s bedroom after I had cajoled him into reading my ancient copy of The Compleet Molesworth, […]
Translating recipes
Recently I have done several projects which involved translating recipes. On the face of it this seems like a simple task: take the list of ingredients and convert into the target language; then simply do the same for the recipe method. Recipes tend to be very well structured, written in a series of simple to […]
The language of the marathon
Obsession with the marathon This blog post on the language of the marathon is shamelessly influenced by your blogger’s obsession with running! April is the month when Londoners and Bostonians turn out in their droves for two of the finest city marathons. And this year I will be attempting to run both, a total of […]
Adlam – the story of a new alphabet
Most of the world’s alphabets are at least a thousand years old and we often take them for granted. The first alphabet is thought to be the Proto-Sinaitic script, which is the ancestor of most modern alphabets including Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin. An article published in 2016 in The Atlantic describes the unusual […]
To anglicise or not: translating place names
The trouble with being a linguist is that your familiarity with the source language can sometimes distract you from conventions in the target language. Or at least that’s my excuse when faced with translating place names. I instinctively want to resist removing the umlaut on Zürich to create a more anglicised version, and I’m never […]
Worst typos in history
In his book The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver talks about the proliferation of information following the invention and history of the printing press and the potential for misinformation and errors. One example he picks out is a 1631 edition of the Bible containing the unfortunate typo “Thou shalt commit adultery”. As mistakes go, […]
Worst translation errors by humans and machines
Worst human translation errors “To err is human, to forgive divine” and that is the spirit we will adopt for this week’s blog post, which delves into some decidedly second-rate translations. We all have bad days, but some of the examples of human translation errors here crop up sufficiently often or are so clunky, you […]
Census 2021: the changing linguistic landscape in the UK
As the data collected in the 2021 census is gradually processed and released by the Office for National Statistics, interesting patterns are emerging about the changing linguistic landscape in the UK. Covid caused the Scottish census to be delayed by a year, so the findings reported here focus exclusively on England and Wales. For […]
“Instruction manualese” – the deplorable yet delightful state of user guide translations
Who can resist a new gadget? The shiny box, the gleaming device, the prospect of some cool new technology to play with. But for translators there is an additional thrill in the form of the instruction manual or user guide, inevitably translated into multiple languages with varying degrees of success. So the recent arrival of […]
A proofreading mission: avoiding gobbledygook
“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” Wise words from American popular historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough. The challenge of marshalling your thoughts into lucid text will be familiar to anyone who wrangles with the written word for a living. Translators face the additional […]
Capturing language change in action: the unknown fate of adverbial good
Historical language shifts are easiest to describe after the fact when you can track how a particular usage has evolved over time. Spotting language change in action can feel like trying to capture lightning in a bottle due to the unpredictability of linguistic habits. A shift in usage might be adopted by a particular sub-group, […]
Exploring etymology through English translation
Etymology shows us that German has the honour of having loaned some spectacular vocabulary to English. Where would we be without Schadenfreude, Zeitgeist and Wanderlust? Some of the borrowings are more mundane in the sense that they have been fully absorbed into the English lexicon and would not strike most native speakers as foreign. Examples […]
Language diversity and the battle for political status in India
Recently this blog looked at updates to English language requirements to facilitate recruitment of medical professionals to the UK from overseas. In India, the government has also been attempting to address linguistic barriers to the medical profession by offering medical degrees in Hindi for the first time. Until now, medicine in India has been taught […]
Translating via an intermediate language: yoga translation from German to English via Sanskrit
I take up yoga on a regular basis and drop it again just as regularly in despair at my less than flexible limbs. There is only so much humiliation a person can take in an exercise class! Despite my inauspicious track record when it comes to sticking to a yoga routine, I was reasonably confident […]
Cambridge University grapples with gender-neutral German
As a former student of German at Cambridge University, the Times headline “Cambridge seizes Zeitgeist with gender-neutral German” immediately caught my eye. Despite the bold claim in the introductory paragraph that the university is saying “Auf Wiedersehen to teaching gendered German”, the reality is somewhat more mundane. Contrary to wild protestations on Twitter, there is […]
False friends in fashion translations
False friends are a favourite topic for linguists and translators and something this blog has covered previously, describing them as lexical con artists. In this week’s blog, we immerse ourselves in the world of fashion, where false friends seem to be particularly abundant. Fashion vocabulary in German is sprinkled with borrowings from English, and when […]
Retronyms and a sense of nostalgia
What are retronyms? The world changes and language races to keep up. Sometimes a word that had a very clear meaning becomes more ambiguous as a result of new inventions or discoveries. Enter the retronym, a type of neologism in which the new name helps distinguish between an existing form and a more recent one. […]
Ambrose Bierce and The Devil’s Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce (1842 – ca 1914) was an American author and journalist, best known to language lovers as the creator of the Devil’s Dictionary, first published in 1911. The dictionary is a collection of irreverent and amusing definitions, which began life in Bierce’s various contributions to magazines and newspapers in the late 19th century. His […]
Film industry jargon
A discussion of the specialised terminology and catchphrases used in different professions prompted my writer/director brother to give me a rundown of some of the jargon used in the film industry. I’ve picked my favourites to include here and am now trying to find ways to re-engineer some of these for use in the less […]