Lunfardo favorites: what Argentine women just love to say!
Argentine Spanish, or “Castellano,” differs to the more “neutral” forms of Spanish, found in Bolivia or Perú for example, in that it incorporates a distinctive kind of verb conjugation in the second person singular. It’s also crammed to the brim with phrases taken from “Lunfardo;” a dialect developed by working class Porteños (natives to Buenos […]
Could a Hebrew text translation reveal where King Solomon’s treasures are hidden?
University of St Andrews professor, James Davila, is the first to translate an ancient Hebrew text, the Massekhet Kelim (“Treatise of the Vessels”), into English. Davila’s translation of the text, taken from the 1648 Hebrew book, Emek Halchah, reveals further information about the whereabouts of King Solomon’s treasures. King Solomon, the third King of Israel […]
Don’t be a nincompoop!
British English is full of fun and fanciful terms. The phrase, “Don’t be a nincompoop!” is just one prime example. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net “Nincompoop,” meaning fool or idiot, was traced back to its first usage in the 1670s by Jonson in his Dictionary of 1755. He believed the word to have come from the […]
Where does the word Christmas come from?
“Christmas” is an Old English word, constructed from the combination of two words, namely “Christ” and “Mass”. The first recorded Old English version of the phrase, “Crīstesmæsse,” dates back to 1038, but by the Middle Ages the term had already morphed into “Cristemasse;” a slightly more modern version of the phrase. The origins The two […]
New Campagin for English Speakers: Learn 1,000 words of another language
English is widely recognized as, if not the most important language, at least one of the most important languages in the world. As such, there is a great interest in learning it. English as a Second Language (ESL) classes are always in demand and non-native speakers are usually eager to find ways to improve their […]
September 30: Happy International Translation Day!
Did you know that the Bible has been translated into 310 languages and that some of its text passages have been translated into 1597 languages and dialects? Did you know that the works of Lenin have been translated more often than Shakespeare’s dramas (321 compared to 93) or that Jules Verne was published in more […]
Why it’s Not Too Late to Learn a Language
A popular myth is that if you don’t start learning a language from an early age, you can never really learn it. If you choose to believe this, chances are that you will believe you are “too old to learn” and will not bother trying. Although children have an impressive capacity for learning more than […]
Machine Translation or Professional Translation?
Since Google Translate made its first appearance in the translation market, many people thought that translators had seen their days. In fact, many believed that these language professionals were no longer needed: why spend money in hiring their services when there was an automatic translation machine that could deliver the same results? But, is a […]
“Wasap” and “Wasapear”: New Additions to the Spanish Language
Languages are living creatures. They are not static; they grow, change and adapt to the current times thus adopting new words that express their speakers’ reality and discarding others that are not useful any longer. Over the last years, most of the changes that languages have experienced are influenced or triggered by the massive use […]
When a Bad Translation Affects Legal Rights
Unless you are in the legal department, you study International Law or you are a fan of American police TV series, the Miranda Rights mean nothing to you. However, if you have ever watched any chapter of Law & Order or CSI Miami and you have seen the scene in which the bad guy is […]
