The Origin of the Word “Carnival”

Posted On February 12, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, The origin of.../ 4 6 Comments

The term Carnival (or Carnaval, in Spanish), has an etymology that can find little accord among those who explain its origins. Perhaps beginning with the question of whether the roots of the word date back to latin, and which terms they seem to derive from, several theories about the origin of Carnival persist, each with its own explanation.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 The timing of Carnival celebrations around the world also plays an important role in these theories, in particular as it relates to Christianity. Taking place in February, Carnival occurs just before Lent, a time in which Christians all over the world choose to fast, involving the avoidance of eating meat as dictated by the Church. In this context, one theory claims that the term is derived from the latin carne and vale, literally, saying goodbye to meat. Others who support this theory link it to the Italian expression, carne levare, with the same meaning.

In this explanation — often referred to as “folklore” by proponents of other theories — Carnival represents the final blowout before saying goodbye to eating meat. More broadly, a similar theory also states that it could represent a farewell to matters of the flesh, or carne, in general. The essence of the celebrations of Carnival, in their displays of excess and letting go, contrast with the mood of Lent in which the matters of the spirit outweigh the importance of worldly things.

An alternate origin involves the Roman festival Navigium Isidis (ship of Isis). In this traditional festival, the image of Isis was carried in a procession to the shore in order to bless the beginning of the sailing season. The procession involved elaborate masks and a wooden boat that was also carried. These characteristics could be the precursors of modern Carnival tradition involving floats and masks.

The etymological connection with this last theory rests in the term carrus, meaning car, as opposed to carne. The festival mentioned above was known by the latin term carrus navalis. It should be noted, however, that this festival was associated with both agricultural seasons (taking place just before the beginning of spring) and sexuality. As a result, it is also possible that when the festival became Christianized some time later, these two aspects were simply replaced by carne vale, a more appropriate beginning to Lent.

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The Origin of Hashtag

Posted On February 7, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, The origin of..., Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

This week we’re starting a new blog series called “The Origin of …” In it, we’ll be discussing the origin of a new word each week, including it’s translations or adaptations in other languages. We begin the series with a word that has become widely recognized among Internet parlance in a short amount of time: hashtag.

Going Viral

Most people recognize the hashtag (#) as a symbol used on Twitter to introduce a topic or conversation so that other Twitter users may search for, follow and contribute to the conversation. Of course now it is so popular that it’s not uncommon to see the symbol pop up on other social networks as well, but without the corresponding search function. Yet the hashtag was not an original creation from Twitter’s founders. The concept was originally thought up and given its ubiquitous symbol by a user experience designer working on Google+. That designer, Chris Messina, pitched the idea to Twitter’s guys in August of 2007 as a way to organize groups on the social network, giving him the nickname “hash godfather.”

Some reports indicate that the first time the hashtag was actually used was in relation to the miraculous landing of Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in early 2009. Among the many tweets flying around in relation to the event which had temporarily taken over the country’s news cycles, one user included #flight1549 at the end of their tweet. After that it was picked up by others tweeting about the incident, and quickly went viral.

Hashtag in Other Languages

There is always the question of whether new technology terms will be translated into other languages, or simply adopted as they are. As is to be expected, the French government has chosen to introduce their own word meaning hashtag in French. That word, mot-dièse, is not a literal translation, but rather means word and sharp — as in the designation of pitch in music, represented by a symbol similar to the pound (or hash) sign but without its inclination to the right.

It should also be noted, however, that not all French-speaking countries follow the lead of France when it comes to language developments. In francophone Quebec, Canada, for example, they prefer the term mot-clic.

But just as the French have done what they usually do — declare a new word to avoid adopting the English term — Spanish speakers have also done what they usually do in these situations. That is, they adopt the word with slight variations in spelling and pronunciation, effectively making it their own. Other words related to Twitter stand as examples of this: tuit (tweet), tuitear (verb of “tweet”), tuitero (a person who tweets), etc. In the case of hashtag, the literal translation would be etiqueta de almohadilla. And while this Spanish phrase is used in some areas, others choose to simply go with the original English term, adapting it to their own accent. As with French, it just depends on the region or the individual.

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Managing Work Overload

Posted On February 5, 2013By TranspanishIn Tips for Translators/  No Comments

too-much-work

Being confronted with too much work is not necessarily what every freelance translator fears when they branch out on their own. Not having enough work to make is usually higher up on the list of worries. But once you get going with your freelance business, it’s not uncommon to find yourself on the other extreme — with too many projects to finish in too little time, and more requests coming to your inbox seemingly by the minute.

Knowing how to deal with these times of too much work can mean the difference between maintaining your client relationships and managing your business for the long-term, or gradually losing control of your work.

Organize and Prioritize

When it seems like there are too many jobs coming in too fast, and you’re worried about losing track of deadlines and clients, the best way to get a hold on everything is to sit down and organize your requests. This includes grouping them into smaller jobs and jobs that will require more time. That way, you will be able to identify the assignments that you can finish quickly and cross off your list before tackling the larger ones with longer deadlines. In addition to being a great way to face the problem of too much work and get a handle on it, it can also give you some relief by shortening your to-do list.

Be Honest

The ability to be honest about how much work you’re facing is something that a lot of freelancers take for granted. They don’t want to appear as though they’re a novice who can’t manage their own work flow. But heavy times and lean times are just part of the game, and usually clients will understand that. Even if they’re not very interested in your schedule, being upfront about the overload that you’re facing can give them the opportunity to clarify that the deadline for their project is either very strict, or that it can be put on the back burner if need be. This kind of transparency could offer you an amount of much needed flexibility. Alternatively, if every client says their project is urgent, then you can either choose to turn down a few or try the next option.

Outsource When Necessary

This is a common suggestion, but an effective one. If you’ve organized your jobs and gotten the smaller, faster ones out of the way; if you’ve been honest with yourself and your clients about facing too much work all at once, but you still don’t have a solution, the final option is to outsource some of your work. Ideally, you would be able to establish relationships with other freelance translators with flexible schedules that would allow them to help when you have lots of work, and be on stand-by when things are lighter. Managing that is another thing altogether. But outsourcing in any capacity can ultimately help preserve your reputation with your clients as someone who finishes work on time, and as someone who is available to take jobs. And that will certainly help your business.

Say Goodbye to Social Sites

You are probably not aware of how much time you loose every time you comment on those photos your best friend posted or when you are checking twitter every ten minutes. Try closing all those apps and websites that are not necessary for translating and you will realize you can get much more work done.

Take Breaks

Working long hours non-stop will not help your productivity. Your body and mind need short breaks so that you can go back to work with a fresh head. Go for a short walk, take some minutes to listen to your favorite music and relax or just take 10 minutes to stretch your body.

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Dos and Don’ts of Translation Project Management

Posted On January 31, 2013By TranspanishIn Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators/  No Comments

For freelance translators, project management can end up being one of the more time-consuming roles that they fill. It is a multi-faceted set of responsibilities, and mastering it is essential to making sure everything runs like a well-oiled machine. It covers everything from managing time schedules and deadlines, to setting rates and communicating expectations. It means covering your bases up front to avoid potential miscommunications later on, but also being prepared to deal with situations that don’t go according to plan.

  • Always plan. Planning involves several aspects, including working within deadlines. As a project manager, you are responsible for assigning projects and making sure that deadlines are realistic given the availability of the translators and proofreaders that you work with.
  • Get to know your workers. Understanding the abilities and shortcomings of the people that work under you can help avoid surprises along the way. If you know, for example, that a particular translator takes longer to do a particular type of job, first make sure that the agreed deadline takes that into account, or that you have someone else on hand to do it. And this leads us to the next point.
  • Avoid putting people in the wrong roles. For example, don’t assign a medical translation to someone who specializes in legal translations. Not only would it likely take longer to get the job done, but the end product may not be up to standards.
  • Form the right teams. This is an extension of knowing the people that you work with, but we’ll expand on it here because managing people is always one of the most difficult, and important things that a manager must do. If you know that certain translator doesn’t get along with a proofreader, don’t put them to work together. Get to know their skills as well as their personalities to make the most effective team combinations.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Very few translators are experts in every field, even project managers. At some point or another, everyone could use a little help or advice. And even the best project manager can meet their downfall by failing to ask for help when it’s needed. Instead of taking that risk, seek collaboration among the people that you work with. Not only is the communication good for everyone on the team, but it also reminds them — and you — that you hired them for a reason.
  • And the final point is that if you ever see a battle brewing between the members of your team, don’t take sides. Neutrality is an important quality in a manager and once lost, you may never get it back. On the other hand, don’t avoid problems or try to ignore them. Dealing with issues head-on, in a neutral, problem-solving way, can keep them from cropping up again in the future.

If you’re currently working under a project manager, or if you are one yourself, consider the effectiveness of those efforts in relation to the points listed above. A small change could make a big difference.

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Cocoliche and the origins of a regional dialect

Posted On January 30, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 No Comments

Regional differences in the way Spanish is spoken can usually be attributed to either the influence of native languages that exist in a particular area or the languages brought by immigrants that blend with Spanish to create a unique regional dialect. The Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires, as we have discussed in our series on Lunfardo words, is no exception.

Another example of a language influence is Cocoliche, which takes its name from Antonio Cuculicchio, a theater worker in the Podestá theater company established in Argentina and Uruguay towards the end of the nineteenth century. An Italian immigrant, Cuculicchio’s accent was apparently often mocked by others, giving rise to the comical caricature of a figure called “Cocolicchio”, representing a southern Italian.

Cocoliche is a hybrid language that arose from the meeting of Spanish in Argentina and Italian brought to that country by immigrants around the turn of the twentieth century. The result was a pidgin — an oral form of communication that blended elements of two languages to foster communication between diverse groups of people, in some cases simplifying the grammar and lexicon of each language.

Over time, as the Italian immigrants in Argentina spread out geographically and blended more into their new culture, Cocoliche began to disappear. Yet as it became more and more rare to hear the language spoken, per se, its remnants were left — and still remain — in the form of surviving words and turns of accent. Indeed, Cocoliche is the origin of some characteristics commonly associated with the Argentinian accent of Italian immigrants, such as the “ch” sound in “diche” (dice).

Italian family arriving in Buenos Aires

Some cocoliche words:

 

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A Call to “Erase” Racism from Spanish

Posted On January 28, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Uruguayan Musician Rubén Rada supports the campaign

A new campaign is picking up steam to eradicate instances of racism in the Spanish language. The contentious phrase, “trabajar como un negro” (“to work like a black person”), is unifying musicians, famous athletes, and officials in a call to Spain’s Real Academia Española (RAE) to eliminate the phrase for being discriminatory and outdated.

The RAE is a royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language including its lexicon, grammar, orthography and other linguistic aspects. The institution received an open letter signed by several figures which was then published and disseminated around the Spanish-speaking world by various media outlets.

The phrase has roots in the history of African slavery on the continent, and is sometimes compared to the expression “to slave away” in English. Proponents for its eradication from common speech argue that it recalls a time of discrimination, inequality and subjugation which Uruguay — and the Spanish-speaking world as a whole — would best leave in the past. They also argue that removing it from the Spanish language would help break the cycle of using pejorative language in reference to certain ethnic groups.

The petition can be viewed at http://www.borremoselracismodellenguaje.com/s.php. Those who would like to add their name to its list of supporters can also sign the petition at the same web address.

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Do Children Benefit From Language Mixing?

Posted On January 24, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Tips for Translators/  1 Comment

More information continues to come out about the challenges and benefits of young children learning two or more languages simultaneously. Studies in recent years have largely focused on how early bilingualism or multilingualism affects learning in other areas, as well as the effect on a child’s vocabulary both short-term as well as long-term.

 

A recent study in Canada looked at the specific issue of language mixing — borrowing words from one language while speaking in another, often resulting in individual sentences with two languages. Children who were raised bilingual from birth were found, as toddlers, to have slightly smaller vocabularies as a result of their parents engaging in language mixing while communicating with them or teaching them new words.

There were a few reasons for mixing languages thus which many parents cited, such as the nonexistence of an exact translation for a particular word, not remembering the equivalent of a word in the language they are using, or difficulty with pronunciation. It was also noted in the study that parents will often mix languages when teaching new words, so their child could learn the word in both languages at the same time.

Yet while the study pointed to resulting vocabularies that were smaller in the short term, the researchers noted that it is likely that a bilingual child’s vocabulary would expand at a faster rate later on. The short-term challenge of categorizing and distinguishing between two different languages when they were so mixed would eventually be counterbalanced by the learner’s increased ability to compensate for such challenges in reasoning and other cognitive skills. These skills include, for example, an increased ability to switch between strategies as well as the ability to learn two new rules at the same time.

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Understanding the Hispanic Labour Force

Posted On January 23, 2013By TranspanishIn Latinos, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

As the largest ethnic minority group in the U.S., Hispanics constitute a significant and growing percentage of the workforce. Many of these workers are involved in the construction and landscaping industries, though they are present in just about every industry and region of the U.S. As such, it’s important that employers understand the complexity of cultural differences which they present in order to effectively manage their team of workers.

 

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

To begin with, Hispanics immigrating to the U.S., even on a seasonal basis, are not a homogenous group. Coming from more than 20 different countries, they present distinct cultural habits and expectations. Some of them are educated and some are not; some speak English while others do not. A worker who comes from a rural area with little formal education and no knowledge of English, for example, may show exceptional creativity and problem-solving abilities. So the Hispanic labour force represents a heterogeneous group that a manager would do best to try to understand in order to effectively navigate.

However, it is natural that language plays a significant role in managing Hispanic workers, due to the primacy of communication. The idea that immigrants coming to the U.S. should learn English is not only limiting for business purposes, it is also limited in perspective in many cases. For example, it is sometimes the case that a Hispanic worker does not know how to read or write in their own language, making it a significant hurdle for them to learn a new language. But even those with formal education, many report that English is simply a very difficult language to learn. Managers who recognize these limitations are better prepared to accommodate them — providing safety manuals in Spanish, for example, or video tutorials with images, or illustrations to clarify company standards.

Accommodating language difficulties, as such, can go a long way in preventing injuries and even fatalities on the job, in addition to familiarizing Hispanic workers with safety precautions that may be nonexistent in their countries of origin.

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The Meaning of the Lunfardo Word ‘Gamba’

Posted On January 22, 2013By TranspanishIn Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

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 defining characteristic of the Rioplatense dialect. Add a dash of Argentine flavor to your Spanish vocabulary with the Transpanish blog’s ongoing feature highlighting some of the most frequently used terms in Lunfardo.

 

What does gamba mean?

As with many Lunfardo words, the origin of ‘gamba’ is dubious at best. However, it does have a documented history which elucidates its presence in modern Argentinian parlance.

We can begin with it’s equivalent in Italian, also ‘gamba’, meaning leg. The Italian term fits with its usage in Argentinian Spanish in the common phrase “haceme la gamba” — referring to someone who is helping or has good intentions. Similarly, it’s verb form in Italian, ‘gambettare’, is along the lines of to avoid a conflict — as one who helps a situation may do. This usage often comes up in the context of football (American soccer). That is, a player who handles the ball in such a way that a member of the opposite team cannot steal it.

However, the word takes on an opposite meaning in its usage in the Spanish expression “meter la gamba”, similar to the expression “meter la pata”. Both of these expressions of course mean to screw something up, more or less — the polar opposite of helping a situation, and sometimes at odds with having good intentions. This last meaning perhaps stems from the latin usage of the term ‘camba’, as in leg, referring to that of cavalry.

Another, unrelated usage of the Lunfardo term is in reference to money: 100 pesos or other currency in use, to be exact. ‘Tres gambas’, for example, might be 300 pesos.

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Language Barrier Linked To Worse Diabetes Control

Posted On January 20, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

The ability to receive effective health care and follow recommendations is contingent on open communication between doctor and patient. Barriers to communication not only hurt the doctor’s ability to understand what is ailing their patient, but they prevent patients from understanding treatment options and, often, how to implement them. Indeed, health-related problems are some of the most costly effects — both in terms of costs to society and personal costs — that come from language difficulties.

People involved with the healthcare industry have long been able to identify the problem. But what has been less clear are the scope of the problem and it’s immediate consequences. A recent study has shed some light on these questions, conducted by researchers at UCSF and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. Their study analyzed the ability of Latinos with limited English skills to adequately manage and control their diabetes. The findings were surprising.

Among Latino patients with limited English abilities, those who saw doctors for their diabetes which did not speak Spanish were twice as likely to have little or no control over their blood sugar levels than those whose doctors spoke Spanish. In addition to highlighting the huge discrepancy in how these patients were able to handle their disease, the study was also able to draw a clear and direct connection between doctor-patient communication and the ability of patients — in this case, diabetes patients — to receive effective health care.

As the largest minority in the U.S., the Latino population has one of the highest rates of diabetes of any ethnic group. In addition, roughly 14 million adults in this group speak English less than “very well”. It should also be noted that as far as ailments go, diabetes is a very complex and relatively difficult-to-manage disease to begin with. Among these patients in particular, access to Spanish-speaking doctors and information translated to Spanish could have a tremendous effect on patient outcomes.

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