Tips for Proofreading Translations
Proofreading a translation before sending it off to a client is a final yet important step in every translator’s workflow. Careless errors not only reflect poorly on the translator, but they can have serious consequences for the client as well. Keep the following proofreading tips in mind to ensure that the client receives a polished, […]
The Value of Professional Translators
Ever since the advent of machine translation, naysayers have been predicting the extinction of the human translator. In their opinion, it’s only a matter of time before this new technology renders professional translators completely obsolete. However, it’s not as easy to replace a human translator as some would have you think. Trained professional translators possess […]
The Field of Translation Ranks among Top Recession-Proof Industries
With the global economy still feeling the effects of the recession, some industries are holding their own while others are floundering. Fortunately, the prospects for the field of translation look extremely promising, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projecting industry growth of 42% during this decade, a figure that exceeds growth estimates for […]
The Meaning of ‘Chamuyar’ / ‘Chamullar’
Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a […]
New Additions to the Dictionary of the Real Academia Española (DRAE)
Last Friday, the Real Academia Española—the absolute authority on all aspects of the Spanish language—updated its online dictionary by means of 1,697 modifications, including new words, abbreviations, anglicisms and more. This update constitutes the fifth revision to the venerable dictionary since 2001. With an average of more than 2,000,000 visits per day, the DRAE is […]
How Math Can Save a Language from Extinction
With more and more languages fading into obscurity each year, linguists and other interested scholars find themselves frantically trying to record the details of these rare tongues before they completely disappear. Ultimately, while a language’s salvation lies in the hands of its population of current and potential speakers, the field of mathematics may be able […]
Spanish Words Disguised as English
Long before the hybrid Spanglish came on the scene, the two languages—Spanish and English—were mixing it up in dusty border towns and far-flung tropical locales. Over the years, English has been enriched by the addition of numerous Spanish loan words, some borrowed with virtually no changes while others have been anglicized to a certain extent, […]
The Fate of the Spanish Language in the United States
The Spanish language is putting up a valiant fight. With 52 million Hispanics in the U.S. and the number of Spanish speakers on the rise, it looks as though Spanish is here to stay; however, historically speaking, the United States has earned a reputation as the place where good languages go to die. In the […]
Does Language Shape Our Thought?
The idea that different languages may bestow different cognitive abilities has existed for hundreds of years, but only recently have cognitive researchers gradually uncovered evidence that the language we speak may have an impact on the way we think and process events that take place in the world around us. According to scientists, our understanding […]
Spanglish Spoken Here
Spanglish, the love child born of the relationship between Spanish and English, features a rather inventive mix of the two languages. English words frequently get a “makeover” before being adopted by Spanglish users, with spelling often changed to loosely fit the rules of Spanish. Check out these examples of Spanglish at its finest. Breakfast might […]
