Culture
Tell no one
January 14, 2008
Do you like the idea of a French film based on a best-selling American crime novel? Watch Tell no one. It's brilliant....
Language maps
January 10, 2008
Three interesting language maps for you, courtesy of strange maps (via Language Log) and Wikipedia (thanks Xavier!). Click on the images to go to the relevant articles. World map showing the countries with the biggest number of languages. Papua New...
Sunday blogging: interesting facts
December 9, 2007
Sorry about the lack of posts lately but work has been insane. In fact, I’m just taking a break from my current translation (working on a Sunday! Whatever next?) to share with you two interesting language and translation-related facts...
Why England lost against Croatia
November 23, 2007
Stop blaming the coach, the bling generation or even the terrible pitch. Blame language. Tony Henry, who sang the Croatian national anthem, made a simple pronunciation mistake, which ultimately led to England not qualifying for Euro 2008. The line...
Remembrance day
November 12, 2007
Yesterday was this blog’s fourth anniversary, but more importantly, it was Remembrance Day. This is a day that unites my birth country and my adoptive country through shared history, and it always reminds me of a passage in Sebastian...
You'd is better in addition to renting a professional translator*
November 7, 2007
How Babel Fish almost caused a diplomatic incident You probably know that the Babel fish, in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a species of fish which, when put into someone's ear, allows the "wearer" to...
Cymraeg
September 20, 2007
I’m off to Wales for a holiday. As I’ll be the co-pilot on this journey and due to the fact that we’ll be going through places such as Eglwysbach, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Abergwy-gregyn and the like (I’ll do my best to...
Being bilingual protects the brain
September 18, 2007
Being fluent in two languages may help to keep the brain sharper for longer, a study suggests. It's interesting how bilingual (able to speak two languages with the facility of a native speaker) and fluent (able to speak or write...
The translation of the haka
September 10, 2007
The rugby World Cup has started, and watching the All Black perform their famous Haka, I started thinking about how you don’t need to understand Maori to know exactly what they’re singing about. Their facial expressions and body language say...
L'élégance du hérisson
September 3, 2007
It’s been quiet in this little corner of the blogosphere, hasn’t it? August was slightly crazy and now that September has finally arrived, things are calming down. I’ve read a few excellent books over the summer and I thought...
Shrugs, pouts and chopped fingers
June 15, 2007
It’s great being from a country whose inhabitants are perceived as being inherently rude. It means that you can occasionally be bad-mannered and get away with it: people will just attribute your rudeness to the fact that you were brought...
Mystery castle
June 1, 2007
This castle appears in a famous film, which features an English Queen and a French King who both conquered England 400 years apart. What's the name of the castle? For maximum points, if you're feeling very clever, you can...
How bilinguals switch between tongues
May 21, 2007
Bilingualism is a topic which interests me, and it's been mentioned on this blog in my entry language and the brain and Caroline and Daniel's second language acquisition and bilingual language processing. Now Xavier has sent me a link to...
Tony Blair congratulates Nicolas Sarkozy in French
May 10, 2007
Not bad, Tony, not bad. via Omniglot...
Goodbye to la belle France?
May 9, 2007
There is an article in today’s Guardian about how France might change now that Sarkozy is in charge. What interested me most was a few statistics comparing the USA, which the new president openly admires and wants to emulate, and...
French election: the lexical world of the candidates
April 20, 2007
On Sunday, I’ll be going to London to cast my vote in the first round of the French presidential elections, along with some of the other 100,000 French expats who live in the area. This being a language blog, I...
The "N word"
March 2, 2007
New York to impose a voluntary ban on the "N word" Some argue that doing so [weaving the term into music and entertainment] is empowering, and that reclaiming a slur and giving it a new meaning takes away its punch....
Guest blogger: Right of reply to Xavier
February 15, 2007
By Jim Tyson "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?" (Henry Sweet) Jim: The French never care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly. ibid Xavier: What's my problem? […T]he Brits are, more...
Chandeleur, Shrove Tuesday, etc.
February 2, 2007
Today is Chandeleur in France and Groundhog Day in the USA and Canada. Why aren't we celebrating anything in the UK on this day? Shrove Tuesday is similar to Chandeleur in the sense that the tradition is to eat pancakes...
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...
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...
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....
La Javanaise
December 18, 2006
On Friday evening I was lucky enough, along with a few friends, to have tickets to see Madeleine Peyroux at The Dome in Brighton. She performed songs from her latest album, Half The Perfect World, including a cover of "La...
Le petit prince
December 15, 2006
Frequent commenter bathrobe has a site on the translations of Saint Exupéry's Le Petit Prince. A very interesting, in-depth analysis. Extracts of Le Petit Prince read in 100 languages Le Petit Prince in Wikipedia...
The evolution of the Queen's English
December 12, 2006
As the common tongue continues its inexorable slide towards a new dark age of glottal stops and "innits", news comes that even the Queen is drifting slowly down river towards Estuary English....
Language and familiarity
December 8, 2006
During my first tea-break today, I was saying to a friend that although I have a fairly wide vocabulary, which I rely on heavily in my work, I actually don’t make use of it in everyday speech. I tend to...
France24
December 4, 2006
Thanks a lot Ron for letting me know about France24, a new 24 hour French news channel which will broadcast from December 6. Chirac wants it to be a "French CNN", which is quite an exciting idea, but... there doesn't...
Sloe gin or patxaran?
November 27, 2006
During a walk in the Downs with friends this weekend, we came across sloes, a berry which, in rural England, is infused with gin to make sloe gin. I had had home-made sloe gin last year, loved it, and...
Est-ce que mon visage est bovvered?
November 25, 2006
Amanda has posted Catherine Tate's sketch on an unlikely interpreter on her blog and I thought I'd post this week's language-themed gem from her weekly show. Watching it reminded me of the Laurens I met after I qualified as an...
Paris Syndrome
October 24, 2006
Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday. "A third of patients get better immediately, a...
Murray's postbox
October 17, 2006
Today is an important day of action in the History Matters campaign, so I thought I would write about a landmark which has a very special place in the history of the English language. This postbox is unique in the...
Free access to LOTS of dictionaries
August 30, 2006
Before I leave on holiday, I’ll share with you this fantastic (slightly old) news: 144 public library authorities in England have joined together for the first time to share the cost of a 2-year national licence for a range of...
Sark
August 22, 2006
Photo courtesy of Phillip Capper Sark is the last feudal State in Europe, which lies between the British Isles and France, and whose language is Sercquiais. Sark on Wikipedia Official website of the Isle of Sark Government of Sark...
Rouen
August 12, 2006
I’m back from spending a few days in Rouen in northern France. I was there on an interpreting job in June and happened to mention to my client that I’d love to go back and spend some more time discovering...
100 words for 100 years
July 17, 2006
Askoxford.com mentions Susie Dent's Fanboys and Overdogs, in which she selects one word to represent each of the last hundred years. "Not all of them bear heavy historical significance, but each captures something of the cultural vibrancy of the year...
The most common nouns in the English language
June 22, 2006
The most common noun in the English language is "time" "The thing that struck me when I put together this list was that 90% of the top 100 words were one syllable, and that a large proportion were actually from...
Guaraní
June 9, 2006
What do cougar, toucan and jaguar have in common? Not much, apart from all being loanwords from Guaraní, Paraguay's second language (its first language being Spanish). "Paraguay" itself is a Guaraní word that means "place of great water", probably because...
English as the national language of the USA
May 19, 2006
English would be declared the "national language" of the United States under a measure the Senate approved Thursday, a largely symbolic move that supporters said would promote unity and encourage assimilation by immigrants. I don't know what I think about...
Suite française
March 27, 2006
Suite française, by Irène Némirovsky, has been translated into English by Sandra Smith and is now available. I can't comment on the translation, but I have read the French original and it is an amazing first-hand account of life in...
The Simpsons, humour and linguistics
March 24, 2006
Margaret links to a post on HeiDeas on The Simpsons, linguistics and humour (extra helping here). Just what I needed to brighten up this dreary Friday morning. (via kalebeul)...
Le Bureau
February 10, 2006
So it turned out that The Office was a huge hit in the USA; I explained before why I thought it might be difficult to adapt, and was proved wrong. I haven’t seen the American version, but apparently they changed...
The bear and the bee
January 31, 2006
Have you heard of Jean de La Fontaine's Fables? He used animals to depict various characters and everyday situations and draw a moral story from it all. I had to memorise quite a few of them when I was at...
Tonton, Petit Nicolas, Raffarinade and Éléphant
January 5, 2006
Who is Tonton? Who is le petit Nicolas? And what is a raffarinade? Or an éléphant (on the political scene)? What do these terms, that one may read in the French press, mean, and where do they come from? Hint:...
Guest blogger: E-mail and communication
November 25, 2005
By Paul Sharville Let’s talk about e-mail. Back in the old days, Edwardian Britain was nuts about writing. There were at least seven postal deliveries a day – from early morning to tea-time. Some of those were letters of epic...
Guest blogger: The language of civil partnership
October 28, 2005
By Jemima Kingsley Are you in a long-term romantic relationship? Is she your wife, your girlfriend, or your better half? Is he your partner, him indoors, your significant other, or your spouse? Are you married? How much of the way...
Asterix and the falling sky
October 25, 2005
During my recent trip to Brussels, the latest Asterix book was published, so I was able to buy the thirty-third adventure in both French (Le ciel lui tombe sur la tête) and English (Asterix and the Falling Sky). For...
Test your French!
October 14, 2005
Test your French Shall I confess or not? Hmmm. Ok. I got 10 out of 12. How embarrassing....
Podcasting
October 4, 2005
I really thought podcasting was the answer to my prayers. You see, I used to listen to French radio a lot when I was working from home. Now that I work in an office, I don't spend quite as much...
Guest blogger: The languages of Guernsey
September 30, 2005
By Xavier Kreiss My mother is a Guernseywoman, and I've known and loved Guernsey all my life. The Channel Islands have always held a particular attraction for me - I'm a half-British Frenchman, which probably explains the affinity between myself...
Nushu
September 23, 2005
Nushu, the world's only language to be created and used solely by women, was finally declared extinct last year. But try telling that to the women still using it. Click here to read this Guardian article by Jon Watts....
The Oxford English Dictionary
September 22, 2005
How are dictionaries created? How do people collect all these words and make sure they don't forget any? These are the types of questions that led me to read Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything (also, it was a birthday...
Translating Harry Potter
August 3, 2005
The BBC website reports that unofficial translations of the latest Harry Potter book have started reaching certain markets and being sold. According to the story, "the unofficial translation omitted several paragraph of actions and contained some mistranslations, such as swapping...
Dykes on Bikes
July 20, 2005
Transblawg reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the "Dykes on Bikes" name on the grounds that "dyke" is vulgar, offensive and "scandalous". I'm sure the attorneys in question are very clever people, but brandishing a dictionary...
Saint Swithin and Saint Médard
July 19, 2005
According to the Sunday Times, today is Saint Gervais in France, which is the equivalent of Britain's Saint Swithin (July 15), which helps predict the weather for pretty much the whole of the summer: St Swithin's Day, if it does...
Origins of place names
July 8, 2005
There are lots of place names ending in –dene or –dean around Brighton: Westdene, Rottigdean, Saltdean,Woodingdean, Coldean, Holligdean, Ovingdean, Roedean, Varndean, Withdean. Of course I had to find out what this ending means. This is what the Concise Oxford Dictionary...
So you want to be a rosbif?
June 17, 2005
I've decided to compile my own citizenship test ; it covers all useful areas of life in the UK: work, socialising, transport, leisure, sport (NOT sex – I'm trying to become British, remember?). I've decided not to translate it, because...
Becoming British - becoming doubtful
June 16, 2005
I'll never be allowed to join this fine nation! I only got 9 right answers to this citizenship test, although I'm proud I gave the right answer to the following question (and it only goes to prove that I’m right...
Is language just a communication tool?
June 9, 2005
Fancy a little challenge? The title of this entry is the topic of the philosophy exam in this year's Bac. I want your essays on my desk tomorrow morning. Mine, in 1990, was "Is art work or leisure?". I loved...
Levi's upsets Belgium
June 6, 2005
This weekend, I had a very interesting conversation with a friend who told me about a localisation faux-pas on the Levi’s website that led to a major upset in Belgium. If you click on your country on the site, the...
New translation of Out of Africa
June 3, 2005
Going on holiday is normally the time for me to read a lot, and especially to catch up with my unread Nouvel Observateurs. In one of them, I found an article on why Karen Blixen's Out of Africa had to...
Little link list
May 20, 2005
A few interesting things I've read recently in the blogosphere: Americans learn how to speak in English (via Transblawg) … and Geordie! The entrenched translator on how to use free association of words in your translation work Geoffrey K. Pullum's...
Becoming British
May 9, 2005
I found it very frustrating to not be able to vote in the latest elections; I knew that in my constituency (Hove), it would be a close battle between the Labour and Tory candidates and that every vote would count....
Man Booker prize for translators
May 6, 2005
Today's Guardian tells us that whoever translated the book which will win the international fiction prize awarded by the Man Booker prize organisation next month will get a £15,000 reward (the author gets £60,000). This will be the first time...
When the Web lingo was new
April 11, 2005
It's amazing how new words and expressions get assimilated by language in the Internet age, to the point where a word that is new one year is commonly and globally used the next. I found this article called "When the...
Pope Joan
April 4, 2005
The extensive coverage of Pope John Paul II's death reminded me of a poem by Carol Ann Duffy (from The World's Wife), which, to me, is a perfect example of how language can be used to challenge established ways of...
Guest blogger: Pakis and Queers
March 28, 2005
By Charlotte Hinge As every school child will testify, the phrase 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me' isn't always true. It can be very difficult to ignore verbal abuse that is accompanied by...
Guest blogger: Post Valentine’s Day – Are we losing the language of love?
February 25, 2005
By Kate Smith Don’t get me wrong: when I was at school, getting a card on Valentine’s Day mattered. Anything was better than the indignity of the empty pigeonhole, even a card from my dad, (except when he signed it)....
A Very Long Engagement
February 2, 2005
Living in England means that I miss a lot of French films I would certainly go and see if I was in France, so it's nice when they're successful or big enough to make it across the Channel, like A...
Lexilogos
January 26, 2005
First seen over at Language Hat and rediscovered thanks to Transblawg, I had great fun on lexilogos, a brilliant resource about languages, French names, etc. I discovered that Céline was a very popular name to be given in France between...
BBC Voices
January 17, 2005
The BBC website has a Voices section with lots of interesting resources for language-lovers. By clicking on the coloured dots on the UK map, I discovered the existence of polari or gay slang language. You learn something new every day....
Libraries online
December 14, 2004
The libraries of five of the world's most important academic institutions are to be digitised by Google "The goal of the project is to unlock the wealth of information that is offline and bring it online," said Susan Wojcicki, director...
Links links links
December 7, 2004
A few links provided by readers (thanks Laura, Stéphanie and Kevin): A la française forum, to talk about the French language and everything French. A Europe 1 program by Pascale Lafitte-Certa about language, every Saturday from 6pm to 7pm (French...
The top 10 words of 2004
December 2, 2004
Merriam-Webster has compiled a list of the most researched words on its Web sites, and this is the result: 1. blog 2. incumbent 3. electoral 4. insurgent 5. hurricane 6. cicada 7. peloton 8. partisan 9. sovereignty 10. defenestration Blog...
Langue sauce piquante
November 30, 2004
Thanks to Transblawg and Language Hat for mentioning Langue sauce piquante, a very promising new blog written (in French! Hurrah!) by Le Monde's proofreaders. They talk about language, expressions, words, in fact, everything I like. Their most recent entry on...
What is Britishness?
November 16, 2004
All is revealed in this report published by The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) (via The Guardian)...
Comme une image
November 15, 2004
For those of you who love French cinema (and just cinema!), do not miss Comme une image (English title: Look at me). It's an excellent social satire, with brilliant dialogues and performances. As an aside, I think the title is...
France's national emblem
November 9, 2004
It's funny how you sometimes accept things without thinking twice. I had never really questioned why the cockerel should be the emblem for France, and found it perfectly natural to see them run around on football and rugby pitches later...
Wanted: English speaker
October 4, 2004
I received an e-mail from Jenny, a theatre director who's working on translating a French play into English. She asked for my help understanding and translating the following sentence: Elle s'imposait, en une sorte d'excuse, d'indulgence préalable. This is the...
Animal noises
September 24, 2004
The following dilemma is tormenting petite anglaise, an English 30-something living in Paris : should she teach her daughter animal noises in English or in French? It is a tricky issue, although I'm sure the little girl will grow up...
Favourite blogs
August 4, 2004
This website has a links page and whilst everyone is obviously welcome to have a rummage, I thought I'd share with you my favourite translation and language-related blogs, which I read daily, along with how their authors describe them. Funny...
Conkers
August 2, 2004
Leafing through my weekly Nouvel Observateur, I came across an article describing how much British people love the Dordogne region. A lot of them have bought properties there, recreating a little Britain by importing some of their sports and customs....
Translation and the FBI
July 30, 2004
Thanks Caroline for sending me this slightly disturbing article from the New York Times and for perfectly summing up my feelings on the whole story: "It's so refreshing to learn that US intelligence employs non-reliable, inaccurate translators while firing those...
EU language barrier "costing lives"
July 28, 2004
This article in the Guardian today tells us that Doctors in some of the world's poorest countries are being denied cheap life-saving drugs for patients because Brussels lacks enough linguists to translate a new patent law into the 20 languages...
My Way
July 16, 2004
Margaret Marks mentions a comparison of the translations of the song 99 Luftballoons on this site (via inthe80s and PapaScott). I thought I'd do a similar thing with Frank Sinatra's "My Way." I bet most people will be surprised to...
La Marseillaise
July 14, 2004
It's Bastille day and I'd like to talk about the French national anthem. It is regularly discussed whether its words should be changed. Why? See for yourself why it might be deemed offensive: Let us go, children of the Fatherland...
The most untranslatable words
June 23, 2004
Thanks a lot to Zoe for bringing my attention to this article on the most untranslatable words in the world (full article here). The winner is.... ilunga : Tshiluba word for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse...
The Modern Language Association
June 18, 2004
Thanks to Caroline for sending me the link to a CNN article about The Modern Language Association. It gives a map of the languages spoken in the USA. I did a search on "French" and it appears that some of...
England's greatest icon
June 14, 2004
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport's Culture Online project is looking for icons representing England. The cup of tea is one of the candidates and it's my personal favourite. I didn't drink tea when I arrived in England but...
Klingon interpreter
May 28, 2004
Yesterday I watched last week's ER. One of the medical students had to do a shift in psychiatry and it turned out one of her patients only spoke Klingon, the language of the alien species from the same name in...
Irritating clichés
May 26, 2004
This article talks about a poll designed to determine the most irritating English phrases (via On English). This is the result: 1 At the end of the day 2 At this moment in time 3 The constant use of "like"...
Translating The Office
May 11, 2004
One of the best-loved British series of recent years, The Office, has been remade in America. The two series of The Office were a huge success in Britain, but this article in the Guardian seems to suggest that its American...
Language and diplomacy
May 7, 2004
A couple of weeks ago on Word of Mouth (Radio 4), there was a very interesting piece about the role of the French and the English languages in diplomacy. French was widely used in international diplomacy for two main reasons:...
It was as it was
April 29, 2004
This is a letter sent to Le Nouvel Observateur (2059) after their article on Mel Gibson's film The Passion (my translation): You say that "However, Jean-Paul II said : 'It was as it was' (ça s'est passé comme ça (this...
A hundred words for snow?
April 23, 2004
Language Hat has debunked one of my favourite linguistic facts, which has been around for ages and that I've often heard quoted by people who seemed to know what they were talking about. I genuinely believed that Eskimos had one...
Je ne parle pas français
April 21, 2004
Excellent entry on Language log based on this article in the New Yorker. During a recent press conference, Democrat candidate to the US presidency John Kerry pretended he couldn't understand or speak French (in which he is perfectly fluent), presumably...
Être et avoir
March 22, 2004
I finally saw the film Être et avoir (Nicolas Philibert, 2002) this weekend. Everything conspired against me seeing it when it was showing in Brighton, so, after months of hearing how wonderful it is, I got to watch it on...
Translation of EU laws by new members
March 19, 2004
A snippet of translation-related news for you courtesy of Le Nouvel Observateur: more than half of the ten countries that are going to join the European Union on May 1st still haven't finished translating 85,000 pages of European laws into...
Katharine Gun cleared of all charges
February 26, 2004
What would you do if, in the course of your work, you saw a document indicating that the US National Security Agency was putting pressure on your government to perform illegal acts of surveillance of other nations? Katharine Gun, a...
Cockney Rhyming Slang Translator
February 12, 2004
A little treat courtesy of whoohoo.co.uk: a cockney rhyming slang translator. I entered this: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who...
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
February 5, 2004
I recommend Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss, to anyone with a vague interest in punctuation but who can’t face an arid textbook on do’s and don’t’s. Or who feels that sitting on a bus or a train reading...
Tarzan and His Mate
February 2, 2004
When I said yes to subtitling Tarzan And His Mate (1934), I was never expecting to learn so much about feminism in the 1930s and censorship in Hollywood. But then, that's one of the perks of working with films: you...
Word of Mouth
January 26, 2004
Thanks Andy for letting me know about Word of Mouth, a half-hour weekly program on Radio 4, “Radio 4's open door on the world of words and the way we speak”. I listened online to the most recent program and...
Understatement
January 21, 2004
“We’re now going to try and land, cabin crew take your seats for landing.” We’d been circling Biarritz for 20 minutes, waiting for the storm raging below us to abate, and “trying to land” wasn’t a prospect that was filling...
Le Fish & Chips
January 9, 2004
We all know that the English owe the French very many wonderful things. I was delighted to hear that the beloved seaside favourite, the fish & chips, is one of them! It’s actually a mix of French frites and Jewish...
Belleville Rendez-Vous
December 22, 2003
For those of you who will be in the UK on Christmas day, do not miss Belleville Rendez-Vous, 7pm BBC2. This is how it’s described on my TV guide: Quirky feature-length animation from the imagination of Sylvain Chomet. Old lady...