Celebrating Noah Webster’s spelling reforms on World Dictionary Day
The world is awash with obscure celebratory days to mark pretty much anything you can think of, and languages are no exception. There’s the European Day of Languages on 26th September, originally conjured up in 2001 by the European Union and the Council of Europe. Specific languages often have their own day, for example the […]
Some thoughts on reviewing translation projects
Reviewing translation work is an essential part of the QA process to ensure no errors have slipped through and the text is of a sufficiently high quality to deliver to the client. It’s tricky work for a freelancer to take on because when you agree to a review assignment you have no idea about the […]
Geckos, chiffchaffs and dik-diks: sounds and animal names
My daughter recently revealed that a friend had become an unlikely corona virus lockdown hero by adopting two geckos that were due to be “disposed of” due to the closure of her local pet store. This was the perfect excuse for my husband to recount for the thousandth time the story of how he once […]
Covid-19 and language change
When the world undergoes rapid change, language also evolves at pace to keep up. As the obvious recent example, Covid-19 and language change have gone hand-in-hand. Over the last few months, we have all seen our vocabulary enriched with various scientific and sociological terminology to describe the experience of dealing with the corona virus. Much […]
When foreign-language typos lead you astray
Typos can crop up even in documents that have been carefully proofed, particularly if the typographic mistake involves a real alternative word. So, translators should not be surprised to come across them in their source texts. The number of typos can be a good indication of how much care the client has taken with the […]
How fast can you listen? It depends…
The recent blog post about portmanteaus could have included the ubiquitous “podcast”, a blend of iPod and broadcast, coined in about 2004 to describe digital audio files available to download for listening. You might be less familiar with another portmanteau phenomenon: the “podfasters”. These are people whose time is so precious they elect to listen […]
Vocal fry – it’s everywhere (once you notice it)
Vocal fry has been my latest experience of frequency illusion, or the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, as it is sometimes known. In other words, the experience of learning about something new then encountering references to it absolutely everywhere. Maybe this blog post will trigger a similar experience for you. Anyway, back to vocal fry, which I somehow […]
Shakespeare’s vocabulary and pronunciation
In 2002 David and Ben Crystal published “Shakespeare’s words: a glossary and language companion”, a detailed linguistic analysis of Shakespeare’s texts, giving up-to-date definitions of vocabulary and links to source quotations. Professor Jonathan Bate praised the book as “the most comprehensive guide to Shakespeare’s astonishing linguistic inventiveness”. The book was hugely successful and clearly […]
Wonderful, and not so wonderful portmanteaus
Over the Christmas season this blog debated politically correct seasonal greetings, reflecting on a phenomenon that has been referred to a as a “manufactroversy” or manufactured controversy (or more pithily perhaps a “nontroversy”). Both these lexical items are fine examples of portmanteaus, “a linguistic blend of words, in which parts of multiple words […]
A dive into colour etymology
The fun of colour etymology: the colour orange or the fruit My previous blog on the differences between languages in the way they categorise the colour spectrum prompted an exploration of the etymological origins of colour words in English. Maybe you’ve always wondered which came first: the colour orange or the fruit*, at any rate, […]
Translating the colour spectrum
A while ago, esteemed linguistic tweeter @HaggardHawks recounted: “Not all languages have words for all the basic colours. But a study in 1969 found that some constants in translating the colour spectrum: all languages have words for BLACK and WHITE—and if a language has a third colour in its vocabulary, then it is always […]
Spelling bee or spellcheck addict?
Were you one of those kids who effortlessly scored 10/10 in spelling tests at school? Me too! My husband, on the other hand, has an uncanny ability to remember phone numbers, vehicle licence plates and passport numbers, but still struggles with getting the double letters correct in “carrots” and “broccoli” on the shopping list. My […]
Translators in movies
Last month I wrote a blog post about the title of the latest instalment in the Star Wars movies series, “The Last Jedi“. I confessed my almost complete ignorance when it comes to this particular movie franchise as I have somehow reached middle age without ever having seen any of the movies in their entirety. […]
The Challenges Of Translating Knitting Patterns
As an avid knitter and occasional crocheter, I was really excited recently to deploy my yarn-related knowledge to translating knitting patterns for a publishing company. Technique The target audience for the translated patterns was very much the general crafter and hobby knitter rather than an advanced fairisle sock knitting maestro. So the first thing to […]
The Beauty Of A Linguistic Family Tree
For a little while now, I have been contemplating writing something about the way different languages are related to each other. Then I stumbled across this beautiful linguistic family tree and I knew this was the moment. What a glorious thing it is. If ever a non-linguist asks you why French shares so much […]
Will Google Pixel Buds Remove The Language Barrier?
“The babel fish is a small, leech-like, yellow fish, and by putting this into one’s ear one can instantly understand anything said in any language” Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Techno-geeks and travellers are eagerly anticipating Google’s latest product launch this autumn – the Pixel Buds are “smart earbuds” which claim to offer […]
Women in Translation – A Retrospective Look
Rather belatedly on September 1st I stumbled upon an article informing me that August had been Women in Translation Month. In a spirit of “better late than never”, this blog post looks back at some of the highlights from the social media and newspaper articles written to celebrate the literary translations of work by female […]
Will Shakespeare be translated into the Dothraki language?
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past seven years, it will not come as a shock that the fantasy world of Game of Thrones, created by the genius of George R. R. Martin and brought to life – or rather, TV – by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, is […]
Is Scanlation The Black Sheep Of The Translation Family?
Scanlation refers to the process where foreign language comics are scanned, translated and then edited to make them available to a wider audience beyond their country of origin. It is most commonly associated with the production of English language versions of Japanese “manga” comics, particularly in the USA. The conversion process is generally done […]
The British Debate Over The Pronunciation Of Scone
What could be more British than an afternoon cup of tea and a scone with jam and cream? Visitors to Britain need to be aware that this innocent baked item is the source of all sorts of contentious debate: jam or cream first, double cream or clotted, is it /skəʊn/ or /skɒn/, not to […]
How Is Film Translation Approached?
Previously in this blog I wrote about the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film and, in particular, the somewhat arcane nomination process for this award. Here I thought I would look more closely at the three main approaches taken by the linguists who make these films accessible to foreign audiences: subtitling, dubbing and lectoring. Subtitling Film […]
Translating recipes and related cultural issues
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 […]
Can dialectal prejudice contribute to miscarriages of justice?
Can prejudice against a dialect potentially influence decisions made in the criminal justice system? That is the question at the heart of a fascinating paper by John Rickford and Sharese King published in Language: A Journal of the American Linguistic Society. The paper investigates whether a jury’s attitude towards a witness’s dialect could cause […]
The Oscars – Best Foreign Language Films for 2017
Excitement is mounting in the film industry at the prospect of the annual Oscars ceremony on February 26th and there is one award category in particular which will be of interest to those working in translation: the Best Foreign Film award. To be eligible for the award each film must be a feature-length motion picture […]
Marks and Spencer Translation Scandal in Wales
I spent Christmas in my home town of Aberystwyth in Wales and this gave me a chance to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes, flicking through my parents’ back copies of the local newspaper The Cambrian News. Regional newspapers are always a delight for the London escapee with the paper featuring, for instance, headline […]
Are Native Speakers at a Disadvantage in a Global Market?
We naturally assume that being a native speaker brings advantages in terms of being able to communicate clearly. Native English speakers, in particular, often feel that their prowess in a global language gives them a straightforward channel of communication to business colleagues all around the world. But a recent conversation with a London-based friend who […]
Do you speak American? The differences between American and British English…
The mighty United States of America is never far away from our news pages, particularly recently with the pending presidential election. The next few weeks will be an interesting time for Americans as the candidates ramp up their campaigns even more. November will be crunch time for voters to decide who will follow Barack Obama […]
Languages in focus: Basque
Languages in focus: Basque I’m spent a few days in Northern Spain (around Bilbao) this August with some Spanish family and friends who speak Basque. I’m intrigued by this language; an ‘island’ of a language surrounded by others which have nothing to do with it. Having also walked some of the Camino de Santiago […]
Language in focus: Marketing translation
In this series so far we have looked at the difficulties of the fields of medical and legal translation. Translating within the fields of marketing and media brings its own set of issues. As our readers should all be aware by now translation isn’t simply a case of replacing one word by another in […]
Language in focus: Medical translation
Translations of a medical or pharmaceutical nature can be highly sensitive, and the implications of an incorrect translation for dosage, for example, could prove to be catastrophic. This is why it’s vital to have a highly skilled and trained translator translate your medical text. A mistranslated drug leaflet or surgical procedure could leave many […]
Language in Focus: Legal Translation Services
Translation in and of itself is never a straightforward case of taking one word and translating it into its equivalent form in another language. Each type of translation presents its own difficulties, and legal translation is by no means an exception. Here we look at the two main difficulties of legal translation services […]
Interpreting for the European Institutions
Interpreting is a skill. Just because you speak more than one language does not mean that you are an interpreter. Training to be a consecutive, simultaneous or liaison interpreter takes years of education, work experience and continual professional development. Interpreters have many avenues for work; the corporate sector, public sector, entertainment and leisure industry. […]
Language in focus- Idiom
What is translation? The Oxford dictionary defines the term as: “A written rendering of the meaning of a word or text in another language”. I think this definition captures the true essence of translation; i.e. not simply replacing one word in one language with the exact equivalent in another, but capturing the meaning of a […]
Rosetta, Clarion and Crisis UK: a recipe for BSL interpreting success this Christmas
Rosetta Translation offers many language services to people all over the world: translating and interpreting in to and out of many foreign languages. We pride ourselves in the quality of the work we provide our clients, and the standards of freelancers we work with on a daily basis. We set the bar high in […]
Why is the Chinese language so difficult to learn?
Well, the short answer is: the Chinese language isn’t so difficult to learn, and here is why. Ease of learning depends on (linguistic) distance The difficulty of a new language that we want to learn is very relative, and is significantly related to how similar it is to our mother tongue(s), or other languages […]
What’s the best way to learn a foreign language?
If you aren’t lucky enough to be multilingual, then chances are you’ve at least tried to learn a foreign language at some point in your life, or at least considered it. The skill of mastering a new tongue certainly comes easier to some than it does to others, but that’s not to say you should […]
How to make a document easy to translate
Here are some tips on how to produce a document that will be easy to translate into another language. If you’ve never used the services of Rosetta Translation Ltd before, then you might be surprised to know that we do much more than just translate a document from one language into another. On the contrary, […]
What are the least common languages in Europe?
There are 33 European languages that are on the verge of extinction, according to new research – but what are these least common languages, and how close are they to disappearing? When you think of European languages, the obvious examples are always going to spring to mind – English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, the […]
Are we really a nation of language novices?
Brits abroad – two words that are enough to make any respectable English person cringe. However, aside from the lager lout behaviour and general debauchery that springs to mind with this phrase, are we really as bad as the stereotype suggests? In particular, are we a country of language novices? Ask yourself a question: How […]
What do I need to think about when localising my website?
When moving into a foreign market, it’s important that you do as much background work as possible before your ‘launch’ to ensure you hit the ground running. In modern business, your website is your shop window – so it’s vitally important that everything is in the right place and makes sense to casual browsers who […]
Endangered species: Why languages are dying out
Can you ever imagine the English language no longer existing? It seems like an unlikely thought, but that is what has happened to an estimated 400 languages over the last 100 years, which roughly equates to one tongue dying out every three months. In addition to this, the BBC reports that around half of the […]
Why there’s no reason older people can’t learn a new language
Learning a new language can do wonders for your brain – regardless of age. ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, or so the saying goes. However, this might be true for certain aspects of life (who wants to learn how to ‘freerun’ any way?), it’s certainly not the case for language. […]
One country one language? It’s not that simple
It was quite close in the end, wasn’t it? However – as many predicted – Scotland voted in favour of staying in the United Kingdom, with 55.3 per cent voting ‘No’ to independence and 44.7 per cent choosing ‘Yes’. So, for the meantime at least, we’re still all one big, moderately happy family – although […]
When translations go wrong
Translating – if it’s not done right – can be a risky business. As well as words that have multiple meanings, there are also cultural connotations with certain phrases that can have an adverse effect on the message you’re trying to communicate. This post is about what can happen when translations go wrong, sometimes spectacularly […]
How an interpreter can help your business
If you are already trading overseas or have ambitions to move into a foreign market, it’s likely that at some point you will have to consider if you need a business interpreter to assist with your venture. While some might see this as an unnecessary cost based on the assumption that most people can speak […]
Things you didn’t know about the Thai language
Despite it being almost literally a world away from English, it’s not impossible to understand the Thai language. However, you’ll have undoubtedly noticed that learning how to speak, read and write this fascinating tongue is likely to take a wholly different approach to learning German, French or Spanish, for example. Whether you have ambitions to […]
The challenges of legal translation
It’s no secret that translation is a difficult process at the best of times, with those doing the work needing to possess a number of key skills in order to be successful in their jobs. However, the best translators are not only talented in the act of reproducing literature from one tongue into another, but […]
Things you didn’t know about Punjabi
As the tenth most widely-spoken language in the world, Punjabi – the official language of the Indian state of Punjab – is used primarily in India and Pakistan. In the former country, the most recent census shows around 30 million people use this tongue, while there are 70 million speakers in the latter, even though […]
What type of interpretation do I need?
Whether you need help with interpreting to facilitate conversation between a group, during a conference or similar event, or on a one-to-one basis, at Rosetta Translation Ltd, we can provide services to assist you. However, there are a number of different modes of interpreting that we offer, each suited to a range of scenarios. So, […]
A guide to different types of translation
It is often the case that translating a piece of text from one language to another is never as straightforward as it seems to someone who hasn’t done it before. As well as being skilled in understanding at least two tongues, the best translators also specialise in a professional sector. The reason for this is […]