Will Slang Be the Ruin of the English Language?

Posted On December 19, 2009By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages/ 1 Comment

The answer, according to some detractors, is yes. But is slang really damaging the English language or is it just a natural part of its evolution?

Though colloquialisms have long been a part of the richness of the language, experts say that slang-filled “multicultural English” is overtaking proper English as teens’ preferred method of communication. Concerned parents and educators worry that their children’s inability to differentiate between slang and more formal speech could result in serious setbacks for them in the work world. As a result, some schools have gone to such lengths as to ban the use of slang; however, others disagree with such a hard-line approach. They argue that “slang is…a natural human tendency,” and they favor teaching youngsters about the appropriate uses of informal language as well as its origins, rather than trying to impose an outright ban that they say just won’t work.

Read more on the debate here at BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8388545.stm

New Inclusive Grammar Guidelines from the Real Academia Española

Posted On December 14, 2009By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators/ 3 Comments

Spanish speakers around the world, take heart; you don’t speak incorrectly, just differently. The Real Academia Española (RAE), Spain’s language authority, is finally acknowledging the diversity of grammar and vocabulary among the Spanish language’s nearly 500 million speakers in some 20 countries. The language mavens at the RAE just released a two-volume set detailing the state of grammar in the Spanish language; however, unlike their previous guidelines dating to 1931, this time they’ve gone beyond the borders of Spain to include acceptable grammar usage in other parts of the world. Instead of taking a purely prescriptive approach, the RAE’s new set of grammar books aims to document how the Spanish language is currently being used with indications for what scholars consider proper grammar. The project was 11 years in the making, and the finished tomes span some 4,000 pages. A third volume is due out within the next few months.

Read more information (in Spanish) at Real Academia Española

Google Adds Dictionary to its offerings

Posted On December 7, 2009By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 2 Comments

Google adds another language tool to its arsenal with the introduction of Google Dictionary. Google’s new dictionary offers up results in close to 30 languages, including the major Western European languages, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, and Hindi. Notable exceptions from the line-up include Japanese and Persian (Farsi), though surely Google will work to support these languages at some point in the future.

Dictionary results in English show the main definition with pronunciation, synonyms, related phrases, and “web definitions” pulled from various sources throughout the Internet. Users can also star words for future reference. Google Dictionary features a minimalist design that makes it ideal for mobile devices and those with slow Internet connections. The absence of ads makes for a simple, distraction-free user experience.

Both monolingual and bilingual, bidirectional dictionaries are available. While the results provided by the English dictionary and the Spanish<>English dictionary were fairly comprehensive, the monolingual Spanish dictionary only returned a few sketchy web definitions. Many users would probably be better off sticking with an academic dictionary such as the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española for Spanish definitions.

Indeed, while Google’s new dictionary feature will be useful to some, it won’t be a solution that meets everyone’s needs. “Alex Zudin is the owner of Paragon Software, which works closely with Merriam-Webster, Oxford and other renowned keepers of language to build applications based on their data. Zudin says that Google could provide a service in the low-level consumer market, but higher-ed students and professionals would still buy the unabridged versions.” [1]

Google previously returned links to web definitions by entering “define:” plus a search term; however, Google Dictionary offers a more elegant solution with extra features. In addition, many users were unaware of this search trick, even though it existed for some time.

Google Dictionary is a natural complement to the company’s other language tools. The dictionary joins Google Translate, Google Translator Toolkit (which includes a basic translation memory (TM) tool and offers the ability to share glossaries), and a newly integrated search feature called Google Translated Search that makes it easier to search for results written in other languages.

[1]Los Angeles Times, Google quietly rolls out Dictionary

The Differences between Translators and Interpreters

Posted On December 2, 2009By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 Comment

At the most basic level, the difference between a translator and an interpreter is simple: one works with the written word while the other deals with spoken language; however, while each is well-versed in both a source and a target language, a good translator does not necessarily make for a good interpreter and vice versa. Vast differences exist among the skill sets, training, and talents required for each job.

The following are key skills for a translator: 1) the capacity to understand the source language and the cultural nuances of the country where the material originated; and 2) the ability to render the text clearly, accurately and naturally into the target language. Though many translators work under the pressure of tight deadlines, time is often not as critical a factor in translation as it is in interpretation. In addition, translators have the advantage of working with reference materials and other resources at hand. While solid linguistic and cultural knowledge are of utmost importance, a translator’s most critical skill is the ability to write well in the target language.

A translator’s linguistic counterpart, an interpreter, must possess the following skills: 1) the ability to render the speaker’s message on the fly, without the aid of dictionaries or other reference materials; 2) excellent listening abilities, particularly for simultaneous interpreting; and 3) exceptional public speaking skills, including the capacity to instantly convert idiomatic expressions, colloquial language and other culture-specific references into analogous statements in the target language. An interpreter must come up with linguistic solutions on the spot; therefore, the pressure of interpreting can be rather intense.

Since a translator generally has time to revise and reconsider the text before delivering it to the client, a high degree of accuracy is expected. In contrast, an interpreter may be held to a different standard of accuracy than a translator. While an interpreter aims for complete accuracy at all times, details of the source speech may be omitted when converted into the target language.

Although translators and interpreters utilize differing approaches for communicating ideas, they both serve as a linguistic bridge that unifies people of varying backgrounds and promotes international understanding.

Globalization and Its Effect on the World’s Languages

Posted On November 19, 2009By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages/ 5 No Comments

“Globalization is a social process characterized by the existence of global economic, political, cultural, linguistic and environmental interconnections and flows that make many of the currently existing borders and boundaries irrelevant.” [1] As the process of globalization expands its reach in the 21st century and linguistic barriers begin to fall, what are the possible implications on the world’s languages?

»Impact on Minority Languages
As mentioned in this recent blog post here at Transpanish, one of the greatest casualties of globalization is the loss of some of the world’s more obscure languages. Dialects and regional languages are becoming more marginalized as they succumb to languages such as English that wield greater perceived social and economic value.

Although the future admittedly looks grim for some minority languages, globalization doesn’t necessarily spell the end for all of them. Indeed, globalization can bring to the forefront the plight of some of these endangered languages, sparking attempts to revive them. In Andean nations such as Peru, there is increasing awareness that indigenous populations require special support if their minority languages are to survive. The Peruvian government now sponsors Educación Intercultural Bilingüe, a program that benefits speakers of the indigenous language Quechua as well as other minority languages.

»Loss of Uniformity among the Big Languages
Major languages such as English and French will likely “become victims of the Babelisation process” as these languages take on more and more local flavor in the various regions where they are spoken. Some researchers speculate that this phenomenon could lead to eventual non-comprehension between the variant forms of English. [2]

»Taking Grammar for Granted
Without a doubt, one of the driving forces behind globalization has been the Internet. With the ease of communication through digital means such as email, IM, and chat, it seems that many users across the globe have traded in style and form for speed. Use of SMS shorthand and the informal style pervasive in emails and the like have prompted some to say that good writing is gradually becoming a lost art.

» Decline in Foreign Language Learning among English Speakers
While today there are almost two billion people learning English and more bilingual individuals than ever before, the globalization of languages means that there’s even less motivation for English speakers to learn a second language. Despite the many benefits of picking up a second language, foreign language learning in both the U.S. and the U.K. is on the decline.

Sources:
[1] Globalization 101
[2] Languages in a Globalising World, p.28-9

Babies cry in their mother tongue

Posted On November 6, 2009By TranspanishIn Languages/ No Comments

An article published in Science Blogs reports:

Telling the difference between a German and French speaker isn’t difficult. But you may be more surprised to know that you could have a good stab at distinguishing between German and French babies based on their cries. The bawls of French newborns tend to have a rising melody, with higher frequencies becoming more prominent as the cry progresses. German newborns tend to cry with a falling melody.

These differences are apparent just three days out of the womb. This suggests that they pick up elements of their parents’ language before they’re even born, and certainly before they start to babble themselves.

Birgit Mampe from the University of Wurzburg analysed the cries of 30 French newborns and 30 German ones, all born to monolingual families. She found that the average German cry reaches its maximum pitch and intensity at around 0.45 seconds, while French cries do so later, at around 0.6 seconds.

These differences match the melodic qualities of each respective language. Many French words and phrases have a rising pitch towards the end, capped only by a falling pitch at the very end. German more often shows the opposite trend – a falling pitch towards the end of a word or phrase.

These differences in “melody contours” become apparent as soon as infants start making sounds of their own. While Mampe can’t rule out the possibility that the infants learned about the sounds of their native tongue the few days following their birth, she thinks it’s more likely that they start tuning into the own language in the womb.

In some ways, this isn’t surprising. Features like melody, rhythm and intensity (collectively known as prosody) travel well across the wall of the stomach and they reach the womb with minimum disruption. We know that infants are very sensitive to prosodic features well before they start speaking themselves, which helps them learn their own mother tongue.

International SEO Tips to Expand Your Site’s Reach

Posted On November 4, 2009By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

With companies looking to reach out to customers around the world, it’s important to understand how to optimize a web site for the international market. One of the best-known methods for improving international page rank and driving traffic to your site is through search engine optimization (SEO). Webmasters employ SEO techniques, which factor in the complexities of search engine algorithms and how people search using keywords, to improve “the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via ‘natural’ or unpaid…search results.” [1]

Keyword density is the single most crucial parameter used in search engine optimization. The majority of SEO experts suggest aiming for a keyword density of 1 to 3 percent in your site’s text. Search engines like Google frown upon the overuse of keywords – a practice known as keyword stuffing – and will penalize a site that engages in this practice.

Just as search engine optimization is of great importance to a website written in English, it’s equally important to consider SEO when optimizing your site for other languages such as Spanish, Chinese or German. Here are some steps you can take to improve your international SEO and ensure that your site ranks well with your target audience.

1- Never use direct translation to create keywords and page titles in your target language. Direct translation is rarely a wise idea, but even less so in the case of keywords, which “have evolved directly to serve the everyday needs of the people of a particular country,” [2] according to multilingual search marketing guru Andy Atkins-Krüger. A direct translation of a keyword may yield the correct term, but what you’re looking for is the most popular term.

2- Remember that keyword translation may differ even within the same language, especially in languages as diverse as Spanish. For example, Spanish speakers in Latin America are likely to search for “computadora” while users in Spain will use the keyword “ordenador,” even though they’re both looking for “computer.”

3- When performing keyword research for your target country, use the search engine’s advanced search feature to restrict your query by specifying the international domain extension (for example, Argentina [.ar], Spain [.es] or Chile [.ch]).

4- The most sound approach to conducting international keyword research is to hire a native speaker of the target language, as only a native will be familiar with the critical nuances that make all the difference. Include the keywords yielded through your research in your page titles, descriptions, and tags, as well as advertising keywords and links.

5- Make sure your web host’s servers are located in your target country, and secure a domain name with the appropriate corresponding country extension. A site that meets these criteria will take a major hit in its ranking.

[1] Wikipedia, Search Engine Optimization
[2] Search Engine Watch, Translating Keywords Should Never EVER Happen

FBI’s lack of translators

Posted On November 3, 2009By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators/ No Comments

An article in Reuters reports:

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has lost 3 percent of its linguists and failed to sift through millions of documents as the agency’s workload of terrorism cases grows, according to a report issued on Monday.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies were widely and repeatedly criticized for failing to have enough linguists, especially for languages spoken in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In addition to losing 40 of the 1,338 linguists the FBI had at its peak in March 2005, the agency now takes 19 months on average to hire a contract linguist, up from 16 months, the Justice Department’s inspector general found.

The FBI had 883 translators in 2001 and despite stepped-up efforts since then to recruit more they still face lengthy security clearance reviews which can take up to 14 months and another five months for proficiency testing.

The report also found that the FBI fell short in its hiring goals last year in all but two of the 14 languages for which it had hiring goals, but the review did not identify which ones because that information was classified.

“Failing to hire an adequate number of linguists in a timely manner adversely affects the FBI’s ability to manage the growing translation workload and reduce the current backlog of unreviewed material,” Justice Department inspector general Glenn Fine said in the report.

While the FBI reviewed all of the 4.8 million foreign language documents and intercepts it collected for terrorism and criminal cases from fiscal year 2006 to 2008, 31 percent of some 46 million electronic files were not examined, most of them collected in fiscal 2008, the report said.

Further, some 25 percent of the 4.8 million audio hours collected from wiretaps and other surveillance between fiscal 2003 and 2008 had not been reviewed, mostly counterintelligence information but also some English material, the report said.

To wade through that backlog, it would take 100 linguists and other personnel more than seven years if they worked the typical 40 hours a week, according to the report.

Included in the material that had not been reviewed were some 737 hours of audio and 6,801 electronic files — some of it in English — that were deemed part of the FBI’s top tier of counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases in fiscal 2008.

Responding to the report, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said the agency’s translation capabilities, including hiring and retaining linguists, are better than ever before.

“I am confident that with respect to counterterrorism translation matters, we have made progress to address our collected material in a timely way,” Pistole said in a statement.

“With regard to counterintelligence collections, we are doing a careful job of prioritizing and monitoring the most important material,” Pistole added.

The FBI also disputed some of the numbers, saying that some material was duplicates. The agency also said it would be a waste of resources to translate and review every single electronic file it collects and it has a system for identifying the information in files it needs.

Internationalized Domain Names Officialy Approved

Posted On October 31, 2009By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

An Article from NY Times reports:

By the middle of next year, Internet surfers will be allowed to use Web addresses written completely in Chinese, Arabic, Korean and other languages using non-Latin alphabets, the organization overseeing Internet domain names announced Friday in a decision that could make the Web more accessible.

In an action billed as one of the biggest changes in the Web’s history, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — or Icann — voted Friday during its annual meeting, held in Seoul, to allow such scripts in Internet addresses.

The decision is a “historic move toward the internationalization of the Internet,” said Rod Beckstrom, Icann’s president and chief executive. “We just made the Internet much more accessible to millions of people in regions such as Asia, the Middle East and Russia.”

This change affects domain names — anything that comes after the dot, including .com, .cn or .jp. Domain names have been limited to 37 characters — 26 Latin letters, 10 digits and a hyphen. But starting next year, domain names can consist of characters in any language. In some Web addresses, non-Latin scripts are already used in the portion before the dot. Thus, Icann’s decision Friday makes it possible, for the first time, to write an entire Internet address in a non-Latin alphabet.

Initially, the new naming system will affect only Web addresses with “country codes,” the designators at the end of an address name, like .kr (for Korea) or .ru (for Russia). But eventually, it will be expanded to all types of Internet address names, Icann said.

Some security experts have warned that allowing internationalized domain names in languages like Arabic, Russian and Chinese could make it more difficult to fight cyberattacks, including malicious redirects and hacking. But Icann said it was ready for the challenge.

“I do not believe that there would be any appreciable difference,” Mr. Beckstrom said in an interview. “Yes, maybe some additional potential but at the same time, some new security benefits may come too. If you look at the global set of cybersecurity issues, I don’t see this as any significant new threat if you look at it on an isolated basis.”

The decision, reached after years of testing and debate, clears the way for Icann to begin accepting applications for non-Latin domain names Nov. 16. People will start seeing them in use around mid-2010, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand for the new “internationalized” domain name system has been among the strongest, Icann officials say.

Internet addresses in non-Latin scripts could lead to a sharp increase in the number of global Internet users, eventually allowing people around the globe to navigate much of the online world using their native language scripts, they said.

This is a boon especially for users who find it cumbersome to type in Latin characters to access Web pages. Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not based on the Latin alphabet.

Hong Jong-gil, an Internet industry analyst at Korea Investment and Securities in Seoul, said the new names would help children and old people who had not learned the Latin alphabet. But he did not foresee any major increase in the number of Internet users because Internet penetration has less to do with whether one has to type in English-alphabet domain names and more to do with “whether you can afford a PC and your community has broadband access.”

Agencies that help companies and individuals get Internet domains welcomed the Icann decision, noting it would be good for their own businesses.

“This is great news for us. This opens a new demand for domain names,” said Yang Eun-hee, an official at Gabia.com, an Internet domain agency. “There will be a rush among businesses to get new local-language Web addresses to protect their brand names. These days, a big company typically has dozens or hundreds of domains for their products, and it will be quite a cost to get all the new names.”

Observers agree that the change could make a difference for many businesses. “A lot of companies will end up having double domains — the existing one in English and a new one in the local script,“ said Choi Kyoung-jin, an analyst at Shinhan Investment. “A Korean domain name may be useful for Koreans but it’s not for foreign customers.”

Users who do not use the Latin alphabet can now reach Web sites by asking search engines to provide their links.

But a change in the domain name policy has become inevitable, Internet industry officials said. For example, there are so many .com Web addresses that it has become next to impossible to find an English word or an intelligible combination of two English words not already in use, they said.

“Today’s decision opens up a whole new Internet territory,” Ms. Yang said. “The Internet will become more multi-lingual than before.”

English Words with a Spanish Pedigree

Posted On October 22, 2009By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages, Spanish Language/ No Comments

Over the centuries, Spanish has made a significant contribution to the English language. When American settlers began exploring the west in the early 19th century, they crossed paths with an established Mexican culture that supplied the English language with a number of everyday words. Merchants conducting trade in the Spanish-influenced Caribbean brought back not only goods but new words as well. Novel foods introduced to us through exposure to Hispanic cultures have expanded both our menu options and our vocabulary.

Let’s explore some of the Spanish loan words that you probably use all the time but never gave a second thought as to their origins.

Chocolate – When the Spanish conquistadors took their first sip of xocolatl, a beverage made from the pods of the cacao tree, they knew the Aztecs were on to something. The Spanish returned to Europe with their newfound chocolate, a word they derived from the Aztec language Nahuatl and later passed on to English.

Hurricane – With the constant threat of these severe storms looming over the tropics, it’s no surprise that the English word “hurricane” comes from huracán, a word picked up by the Spanish explorers from Taino, an indigenous language from the Caribbean.

Aficionado – Aficionado came into the English language from Spanish in the mid-1800s. While the word was initially only used within the context of bullfighting, it later came to mean a “practitioner or enthusiast of any sport or activity.”

Rodeo – The word “rodeo” is derived from the Spanish verb rodear, which means “to surround.” In the past, rodeo was used to refer to the pen where cattle were corralled and eventually to the informal events involving horses and livestock that took place there. Related words like lasso, rancho, hacienda, bronco and even buckaroo passed to English from Spanish back in the days of the Wild West.

Tomato – This vegetable’s (or is it a fruit?) moniker comes from the Spanish word tomate, a corruption of the Nahuatl word “tomatl”. A number of other fruits and vegetables that may grace your plate such as banana, papaya, jicama and potato have their roots, so to speak, in Spanish.

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