Number of Living Languages
Did you know that there are 6909 living languages in the world? Distribution of languages by area of origin Area Living languages Number of speakers Count Percent Count Percent Mean Median Africa 2,110 30.5 726,453,403 12.2 344,291 25,200 Americas 993 14.4 50,496,321 0.8 50,852 2,300 Asia 2,322 33.6 3,622,771,264 60.8 1,560,194 11,100 Europe 234 3.4 […]
Transpanish Blog’s Newest Feature: “Did You Know?”
As American author and scholar William Lyon Phelps noted, “One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.” So, in the interest of uncovering some engaging linguistic facts and promoting intellectual curiosity among our readership, here at the Transpanish blog we have decided to add a new feature titled “Did You […]
Some Linguistic Features May Be Genetically Linked
Linguistic researchers came to a consensus some time ago that humans’ capacity for language is genetically hardwired. It would seem, however, that with over 7,000 languages currently spoken worldwide, that this hardwiring of language is rather flexible. It’s no wonder, then, that scientists recently began to explore whether some of this tremendous linguistic diversity can […]
Cutting Translation Costs
Everybody who has ever needed to translate a document knows that translation costs can be expensive. There are several ways in which you can make your translation cheaper. In this article, we discuss tactics that can help you lower your quote by a good margin. All translation buyers can adhere to the following tips, and […]
Castilian Spanish Versus Latin American Spanish
Castilian Spanish – so named for its roots in the region of Castile – emerged from Spain’s many regional languages and dialects to become the primary language of the nation. Castilian Spanish was later brought to the New World through the colonization efforts of the Spanish, where the language enjoyed widespread adoption throughout the Americas. […]
Spanish Language Among Top Three on Internet
Spanish has earned a place among the top three most widely used languages on the Internet. Trailing behind English and Chinese, it’s estimated that 136 million users – or roughly one third of all Spanish speakers – communicate and consume content on the web en español. Spanish speakers account for eight percent of the world’s […]
Translated Literature Reveals Cultural Similarities
Americans notoriously read very little in the way of foreign literature. With translations representing a paltry 3 to 5 percent of books being published annually in the United States, authors and translators alike are crying out for more fiction to be translated. Intellectuals argue that exposure to writing by foreign authors will help us to […]
World Cup Attracts Multilingual Audiences
The FIFA World Cup – soccer’s premier sporting event – is coming to African soil for the first time in history. South Africa will play host to 32 national soccer teams and 350,000 foreign visitors during the month-long event, requiring that both linguistic and cultural barriers be bridged for the global cast of players, organizers […]
Recent Translation and Language News
Here are some of the top language-related stories from the last month: 1. The recently elected president of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, sports an animal last name. Could the warm and fuzzy appeal of her name have helped her to get elected? 2. As part of the state’s new comprehensive immigration reform, Arizona now requires […]
Concern for Trademark Infringement in Spanish
With an ever-growing number of businesses looking to cash in on the growth of the Hispanic market in the U.S., English-language trademarks have become increasingly susceptible to infringement by companies looking to take marketing shortcuts. So, what exactly constitutes trademark infringement? To qualify as infringement, the translation into Spanish must be determined to be direct […]
