January 2007
Harry Potter et les?
January 30, 2007
So it’s going to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Of course, French fans are feverishly trying to work out a translation. Should it be Harry Potter et les saints mortuaires Harry Potter et les saints mortels Harry Potter...
Bitch
January 26, 2007
While I believe that words can be reclaimed, and even though some of my female friends feel that it is the case of the word "bitch", which they feel able to use in a positive way, I still find it...
Glossolalia
January 25, 2007
The excellent Word of Mouth on BBC Radio 4 has signed off until April. The last edition was particularly interesting and dealt with glossolalia, or speaking in tongues (go to the Word of Mouth page on the Radio4 website and...
Brass monkey weather
January 24, 2007
It’s brass monkey weather in the South-East of England at the moment, as heard on the BBC weather forecast last night. This expression is in fact the shortened version of "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass...
Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie: The Subject of Language
January 23, 2007
I'm much too busy to watch Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie ramble on about language. But I did it anyway. "Thanks" Der....
Sacrebleu!
January 17, 2007
Newly uncovered documents have shocked historians by revealing that in the 1950s, Britain and France discussed the possibility of uniting and Queen Elizabeth II becoming France's head of state. Former Europe minister Denis MacShane said: "France and England are like...
The state of the translation industry
January 16, 2007
So is the translation industry booming or in crisis? Thanks to Babelport news and Hang-VLS ----------------- UPDATE I've just realised that Danilo Nogueira's article dates back to 2002. Oops. The Time article is, however, recent....
Language and propaganda
January 12, 2007
One of the many, many things I found fascinating in Cuba is the use of language for political ends. Wherever you go, you are bound to end up reading political messages, all of them to the glory of the revolution....