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Charles Tiayon
March 24, 2012 4:12 PM
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Homenaje y herencia asumida de El surco y la brasa. Traductores mexicanos, de Marco Antonio Montes de Oca y Ana Luisa Vega, Traslaciones. Poetas traductores 1939-1959 (FCE, 2011), preparada por la poeta, ensayista y traductora Tedi López Mills, establece criterios más estrictos en cuanto a los límites temporales. Explica a este respecto en la “Aclaración”: “quise, por una parte, reordenar un final arbitrario para que fuera un principio necesario y, por la otra, fijar un ejemplo; es decir, instaurar el rito de otra costumbre”. Homenaje y herencia asumida de El surco y la brasa. Traductores mexicanos, de Marco Antonio Montes de Oca y Ana Luisa Vega, Traslaciones. Poetas traductores 1939-1959 (FCE, 2011), preparada por la poeta, ensayista y traductora Tedi López Mills, establece criterios más estrictos en cuanto a los límites temporales. Explica a este respecto en la “Aclaración”: “quise, por una parte, reordenar un final arbitrario para que fuera un principio necesario y, por la otra, fijar un ejemplo; es decir, instaurar el rito de otra costumbre”.
Researchers across Africa, Asia and the Middle East are building their own language models designed for local tongues, cultural nuance and digital independence
"In a high-stakes artificial intelligence race between the United States and China, an equally transformative movement is taking shape elsewhere. From Cape Town to Bangalore, from Cairo to Riyadh, researchers, engineers and public institutions are building homegrown AI systems, models that speak not just in local languages, but with regional insight and cultural depth.
The dominant narrative in AI, particularly since the early 2020s, has focused on a handful of US-based companies like OpenAI with GPT, Google with Gemini, Meta’s LLaMa, Anthropic’s Claude. They vie to build ever larger and more capable models. Earlier in 2025, China’s DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup, added a new twist by releasing large language models (LLMs) that rival their American counterparts, with a smaller computational demand. But increasingly, researchers across the Global South are challenging the notion that technological leadership in AI is the exclusive domain of these two superpowers.
Instead, scientists and institutions in countries like India, South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are rethinking the very premise of generative AI. Their focus is not on scaling up, but on scaling right, building models that work for local users, in their languages, and within their social and economic realities.
“How do we make sure that the entire planet benefits from AI?” asks Benjamin Rosman, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and a lead developer of InkubaLM, a generative model trained on five African languages. “I want more and more voices to be in the conversation”.
Beyond English, beyond Silicon Valley
Large language models work by training on massive troves of online text. While the latest versions of GPT, Gemini or LLaMa boast multilingual capabilities, the overwhelming presence of English-language material and Western cultural contexts in these datasets skews their outputs. For speakers of Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Xhosa and countless other languages, that means AI systems may not only stumble over grammar and syntax, they can also miss the point entirely.
“In Indian languages, large models trained on English data just don’t perform well,” says Janki Nawale, a linguist at AI4Bharat, a lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. “There are cultural nuances, dialectal variations, and even non-standard scripts that make translation and understanding difficult.” Nawale’s team builds supervised datasets and evaluation benchmarks for what specialists call “low resource” languages, those that lack robust digital corpora for machine learning.
It’s not just a question of grammar or vocabulary. “The meaning often lies in the implication,” says Vukosi Marivate, a professor of computer science at the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. “In isiXhosa, the words are one thing but what’s being implied is what really matters.” Marivate co-leads Masakhane NLP, a pan-African collective of AI researchers that recently developed AFROBENCH, a rigorous benchmark for evaluating how well large language models perform on 64 African languages across 15 tasks. The results, published in a preprint in March, revealed major gaps in performance between English and nearly all African languages, especially with open-source models.
Similar concerns arise in the Arabic-speaking world. “If English dominates the training process, the answers will be filtered through a Western lens rather than an Arab one,” says Mekki Habib, a robotics professor at the American University in Cairo. A 2024 preprint from the Tunisian AI firm Clusterlab finds that many multilingual models fail to capture Arabic’s syntactic complexity or cultural frames of reference, particularly in dialect-rich contexts.
Governments step in
For many countries in the Global South, the stakes are geopolitical as well as linguistic. Dependence on Western or Chinese AI infrastructure could mean diminished sovereignty over information, technology, and even national narratives. In response, governments are pouring resources into creating their own models.
Saudi Arabia’s national AI authority, SDAIA, has built ‘ALLaM,’ an Arabic-first model based on Meta’s LLaMa-2, enriched with more than 540 billion Arabic tokens. The United Arab Emirates has backed several initiatives, including ‘Jais,’ an open-source Arabic-English model built by MBZUAI in collaboration with US chipmaker Cerebras Systems and the Abu Dhabi firm Inception. Another UAE-backed project, Noor, focuses on educational and Islamic applications.
In Qatar, researchers at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Qatar Computing Research Institute, have developed the Fanar platform and its LLMs Fanar Star and Fanar Prime. Trained on a trillion tokens of Arabic, English, and code, Fanar’s tokenization approach is specifically engineered to reflect Arabic’s rich morphology and syntax.
India has emerged as a major hub for AI localization. In 2024, the government launched BharatGen, a public-private initiative funded with 235 crore (€26 million) initiative aimed at building foundation models attuned to India’s vast linguistic and cultural diversity. The project is led by the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and also involves its sister organizations in Hyderabad, Mandi, Kanpur, Indore, and Madras. The programme’s first product, e-vikrAI, can generate product descriptions and pricing suggestions from images in various Indic languages. Startups like Ola-backed Krutrim and CoRover’s BharatGPT have jumped in, while Google’s Indian lab unveiled MuRIL, a language model trained exclusively on Indian languages. The Indian governments’ AI Mission has received more than180 proposals from local researchers and startups to build national-scale AI infrastructure and large language models, and the Bengaluru-based company, AI Sarvam, has been selected to build India’s first ‘sovereign’ LLM, expected to be fluent in various Indian languages.
In Africa, much of the energy comes from the ground up. Masakhane NLP and Deep Learning Indaba, a pan-African academic movement, have created a decentralized research culture across the continent. One notable offshoot, Johannesburg-based Lelapa AI, launched InkubaLM in September 2024. It’s a ‘small language model’ (SLM) focused on five African languages with broad reach: Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, isiZulu and isiXhosa.
“With only 0.4 billion parameters, it performs comparably to much larger models,” says Rosman. The model’s compact size and efficiency are designed to meet Africa’s infrastructure constraints while serving real-world applications. Another African model is UlizaLlama, a 7-billion parameter model developed by the Kenyan foundation Jacaranda Health, to support new and expectant mothers with AI-driven support in Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Xhosa, and Zulu.
India’s research scene is similarly vibrant. The AI4Bharat laboratory at IIT Madras has just released IndicTrans2, that supports translation across all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Sarvam AI, another startup, released its first LLM last year to support 10 major Indian languages. And KissanAI, co-founded by Pratik Desai, develops generative AI tools to deliver agricultural advice to farmers in their native languages.
The data dilemma
Yet building LLMs for underrepresented languages poses enormous challenges. Chief among them is data scarcity. “Even Hindi datasets are tiny compared to English,” says Tapas Kumar Mishra, a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela in eastern India. “So, training models from scratch is unlikely to match English-based models in performance.”
Rosman agrees. “The big-data paradigm doesn’t work for African languages. We simply don’t have the volume.” His team is pioneering alternative approaches like the Esethu Framework, a protocol for ethically collecting speech datasets from native speakers and redistributing revenue back to further development of AI tools for under-resourced languages. The project’s pilot used read speech from isiXhosa speakers, complete with metadata, to build voice-based applications.
In Arab nations, similar work is underway. Clusterlab’s 101 Billion Arabic Words Dataset is the largest of its kind, meticulously extracted and cleaned from the web to support Arabic-first model training.
The cost of staying local
But for all the innovation, practical obstacles remain. “The return on investment is low,” says KissanAI’s Desai. “The market for regional language models is big, but those with purchasing power still work in English.” And while Western tech companies attract the best minds globally, including many Indian and African scientists, researchers at home often face limited funding, patchy computing infrastructure, and unclear legal frameworks around data and privacy.
“There’s still a lack of sustainable funding, a shortage of specialists, and insufficient integration with educational or public systems,” warns Habib, the Cairo-based professor. “All of this has to change.”
A different vision for AI
Despite the hurdles, what’s emerging is a distinct vision for AI in the Global South – one that favours practical impact over prestige, and community ownership over corporate secrecy.
“There’s more emphasis here on solving real problems for real people,” says Nawale of AI4Bharat. Rather than chasing benchmark scores, researchers are aiming for relevance: tools for farmers, students, and small business owners.
And openness matters. “Some companies claim to be open-source, but they only release the model weights, not the data,” Marivate says. “With InkubaLM, we release both. We want others to build on what we’ve done, to do it better.”
In a global contest often measured in teraflops and tokens, these efforts may seem modest. But for the billions who speak the world’s less-resourced languages, they represent a future in which AI doesn’t just speak to them, but with them."
Sibusiso Biyela, Amr Rageh and Shakoor Rather
20 May 2025
https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2025.65
#metaglossia_mundus
"Cerys D in Year 12 has been crowned the winner for the East of England in the 2025 Anthea Bell Translation Competition for Spanish.
This year’s competition was especially competitive, with over 5,000 entries submitted from more than 22,000 participants nationwide. Judges praised the exceptionally high standard of submissions, making Cerys’s win all the more impressive..."
https://www.greshams.com/cerys-d-crowned-winner-of-prestigious-translation-competition/
#metaglossia_mundus
"...Escritor, professor e crítico literário já publicou mais de uma dúzia de livros, além de ser conhecido pela tradução de cerca de 120 obras de autores de língua inglesa
O escritor e professor Paulo Henriques Britto foi eleito nesta quinta-feira (22) para a Cadeira 30 da Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL), na sucessão da escritora Heloisa Teixeira, morta em março deste ano. Ele foi escolhido por 22 votos. Britto já publicou mais de uma dúzia de livros e também é conhecido pela tradução de cerca de 120 obras de autores de língua inglesa, como Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, V. S. Naipaul, Thomas Pynchon e James Baldwin.
Na poesia, traduziu Byron, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop e Frank O’Hara, entre outros. Na PUC-Rio atua em duas linhas de pesquisa, tradução de poesia e poesia brasileira contemporânea. O presidente da ABL, Merval Pereira, disse que Paulo Henriques Britto vai permitir explorar mais profundamente a relação entre poesia, dramaturgia e cultura nacional. “Ele é o maior tradutor de língua inglesa que nós temos, crítico literário e poeta. Tem múltiplas funções e será muito útil para a Academia. Buscamos a representação da cultura em vários setores. Estes momentos são importantes porque são a renovação do inevitável. Por isso chamam de imortal. Quem foi da Academia é sempre lembrado”.
Para Lilia Schwarcz, Paulo Henriques Britto é excelente poeta de sensibilidade impar e grandissíssimo tradutor. "O trabalho dele como tradutor é muito memorável. Conhece as pessoas e vai colaborar muito. E os poetas são sempre bem-vindos". O acadêmico Antonio Torres também comemorou a eleição. “É um belo poeta, um grande tradutor. Tradutor com poucos no Brasil. E, além do mais, é uma pessoa de muito bom convívio. É um professor, um mestre das letras. Ou seja, ele vem para o lugar certo. Ele vem para a Academia Brasileira de Letras. É o lugar dele”.
Sobre Paulo Henriques Britto
Paulo Henriques Britto (Rio de Janeiro, 1951) é escritor, tradutor e professor de tradução, literatura e criação literária. Publicou quatorze livros: oito de poesia — Liturgia da matéria (Civilização Brasileira, 1982), Mínima lírica (Duas Cidades, 1989), Trovar claro (1997), Macau (2003), Tarde (2007), Formas do nada (2012), Nenhum mistério (2017) e Fim de verão (2022); e dois de contos — Paraísos artificiais (2004) e O castiçal florentino (2021) – todos esses pela Companhia das Letras.
Entre os livros de ensaios, estão Eu quero é botar meu bloco na rua, de Sérgio Sampaio (Língua Geral, 2009), Claudia Roquette-Pinto (Eduerj, 2010) e A tradução literária (Civilização Brasileira, 2012) — e um infantojuvenil, As incríveis aventuras do super-herói Cupcake Gigante e seu fiel escudeiro Jarbas (Editora 34, 2025). Antologias de poemas seus foram publicadas em inglês (2007) e em sueco (2014), e sua poesia reunida foi editada em Portugal (2021); seu ensaio A tradução literária foi publicado em espanhol no Chile (2023).
Na PUC-Rio, atua em duas linhas de pesquisa: tradução de poesia e poesia brasileira contemporânea. Alguns dos seus artigos e capítulos de coletâneas sobre os assuntos estão disponíveis neste link: https://www.letras.puc-rio.br/....
Além das traduções do inglês para o português, também verteu para o inglês dez livros de autores brasileiros, inclusive obras de Luiz Costa Lima, Flora Süssekind e Ferreira Gullar. Ganhou diversos prêmios literários, como o Portugal Telecom (atual Oceanos), o Prêmio Bravo! Bradesco Prime e o da Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, e o segundo ou terceiro lugar do Jabuti em três ocasiões.
[23/05/2025 09:55:29]"
https://mobile.publishnews.com.br/materias/2025/05/23/paulo-henriques-britto-e-eleito-para-a-academia-brasileira-de-letras
#metaglossia_mundus
"Wilmington City Council is launching a real-time language translation service at its regular meeting on Thursday, May 22, marking a significant step toward making local government more accessible to non-English-speaking residents.
The new service, powered by the AI software Wordly, provides live translations in over 50 languages and will be available during council meetings both in-person and online. The rollout of the tool is part of a broader effort to address longstanding language barriers faced by Wilmington’s Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities.
“We recognize that many of our residents speak a different language,” said Council President Trippi Congo. “Government should never be out of reach because of language. With Wordly, we’re breaking that barrier and inviting everyone to the table.”
The initiative was led by 2nd District Councilwoman Shané Darby, who said the goal is to build a more inclusive city government, starting with Spanish and expanding to other languages as needed.
“Government must reflect the people it serves,” said Darby. “When we make space for more voices, we make better decisions.”
Users can access the service by scanning a QR code available in the Council Chambers or Council Committee Room, or by visiting a specific link. They can then select their language of choice to receive real-time captions or audio through their personal devices, without the need for an app or special equipment. Spanish captions will also appear on TV monitors for in-person attendees. Translated recordings of meetings will be available on demand at WITN22.org.
At-Large Councilwoman Maria D. Cabrera, the first Hispanic woman elected to City Council in 2012, has long advocated for language inclusivity and praised the new service.
“The information we release should have an option for translation, not just to Spanish, but to other languages as well,” said Cabrera. “The Wordly software allows for more participation from those groups who may not have accessibility to this information in their language. I applaud everyone who made this happen. This is just one of the other initiatives we are working on to make government inclusive.”
6th District Councilwoman Yolanda McCoy also supported the move, noting the cost-effectiveness and reach of AI translation.
“I support this initiative as a large population of non-English speakers in Wilmington live in my district,” said McCoy. “It allows the city to better communicate with residents who do not speak English, without the need to hire multiple translators. This technology improves efficiency while helping us reach more people in an inclusive and fiscally responsible way.”
Council members say they hope the new technology sets a precedent for other cities in the state.
“We are proud to be a city that leads with heart and innovation,” said Congo. “We hope other cities across Delaware follow Wilmington’s example in creating space where everyone’s voice is heard and understood.”"
https://townsquaredelaware.com/city-council-introduces-ai-tool-to-improve-language-access-in-wilmington/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Patients in Walsall, who don’t have English as their first language, will experience better communication around their appointments, treatment and care thanks to a new system.
The Patients Relations Team at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust has delivered four additional Wordskii on Wheels (WoW) pads to clinical areas including Endoscopy, Fracture Clinic, Pharmacy, and Wards 24 and 25.
WoW pads enable staff to access video interpreting in more than 350 languages, including British Sign Language.
Bradley Cox, Head of Patient Relations, said: “Our latest delivery has been generously supported by the Well Wishers charity, with the aim of improving our patients’ experience and reducing delays in care delivery.
“As a Trust, we now have more than 30 WoW devices in use across our inpatient, outpatient, and community services, allowing staff to access interpreters on demand without delay.
“In addition, the Patient Relations Team has recently developed a Language Services E-Learning Module.
“This module guides staff through the various interpreting and translation options available, including how to book telephone, video, and face-to-face interpreters, as well as how to request document translations.”
The Language Services E-Learning Module is now available to all staff via MyAcademy.
Dorathy Davidson, Unit Manager of the Endoscopy Unit, said: “We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Well Wishers for the kind donation of our new interpreting iPad here.
“This invaluable tool will make a real difference by helping us communicate more effectively with our language barrier patients, ensuring they feel informed, safe, and supported whilst making informed decisions about their care.
“This will in turn, enable our staff to deliver high quality and person-centred care.
“Thank you again for your ongoing support, it enhances the service we provide.”
Georgie Westley, Fundraising Manager, said: “It is great to support something that fits our vision and mission statement which is ‘to raise money for things over and above what the NHS is able to provide and ‘to provide the best experience possible for patients, service users and families’.
“I hope the IPads will help appointments run smoother for patients and staff.”"
https://www.walsallhealthcare.nhs.uk/news/2025/05/23/new-interpreting-system/
#metaglossia_mundus
"The Translator
Volume 31, 2025 - Issue 2
Research article
Has the use of AI-translated live captions in simultaneous interpreting changed the role of the interpreter? A study based on professional interpreters’ perceptions
Taojie Yin
Pages 214-231 | Received 05 Feb 2024, Accepted 16 Sep 2024, Published online: 15 Nov 2024
Cite this article
https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2024.2412923
ABSTRACT
This study employs a mixed methods research approach to examine whether the role of interpreters using AI-translated live captions in simultaneous interpreting undergoes changes. This study posits that the interpreters’ roles change in tandem with modifications in their working modes. A total of 51 professional interpreters (n = 51), each possessing more than five years of experience in simultaneous interpreting and who used AI-translated live captions in simultaneous interpreting, participated in this research. To validate this hypothesis, the research utilised both questionnaires and semi-structured one-on-one interviews. As for the interview data, they were subjected to word frequency analysis, case analysis, and thematic coding. In general, respondents acknowledged that their working modes had indeed been influenced by AI-translated live captions. Despite this, the fundamental roles of interpreters remained largely unchanged. However, when compared to traditional simultaneous interpretation without the aid of AI-translated live captions, the primary role of interpreters had diminished somewhat. Participants in this study commonly hold the belief that the employment of AI-translated live captions diminishes their visibility, primarily because a portion of the target language output is derived directly from AI-translated live captions, rather than their own contributions.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13556509.2024.2412923
#metaglossia_mundus
Translating Europe Workshops offer a unique opportunity to explore key topics shaping the future of translation and language technologies, connect with experts and gain valuable insights into the profession.
"DG Translation in a city near you: June events
NEWS ARTICLE 23 May 2025
Directorate-General for Translation1 min read
DG Translation in a city near you: June events
Translating Europe Workshops
Translating Europe Workshops offer a unique opportunity to explore key topics shaping the future of translation and language technologies, connect with experts and gain valuable insights into the profession. Join us at one of our upcoming events:
10 June 2025: Translation Industry Snapshot: machine translation and AI - what's in it for translators? (Zagreb, Croatia)
European Day of Languages
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the European Day of Languages (EDL). We’re celebrating with a wide variety of language-themed events across Europe in the lead-up to 26 September. The first events kicked off in May - discover what’s happening in a city near you!
Ongoing: Multilingual book exhibition at Experience Europe (Vienna, Austria)
Details
Publication date
23 May 2025
Author
Directorate-General for Translation
Department
Directorate-General for Translation"
https://commission.europa.eu/news/dg-translation-city-near-you-june-events-2025-05-23_en
#metaglossia_mundus
"Microsoft Notepad s'enrichit d'un peu d'IA pour les testeurs
Par Mia Ogouchi
Spécialiste Bureautique, Messageries, Création de sites web
Publié le 23 mai 2025 à 12h33
Les participants au programme Windows Insiders ont du pain sur la planche : ils vont pouvoir tester en avant-première plusieurs fonctionnalités IA au sein des outils Notepad, Paint et Capture d'Écran.
L'info en 3 points
Microsoft teste des outils IA sur Notepad, Paint et Capture d'écran pour enrichir l'expérience utilisateur de Windows.
Un générateur de texte IA dans Notepad permet de rédiger facilement à partir de suggestions et prompts.
Paint et Capture d'écran reçoivent des fonctionnalités IA comme un générateur d'autocollants et une capture intelligente.
Misant de plus en plus sur la puissance de l'intelligence artificielle, Microsoft continue de peaufiner les outils disponibles nativement dans Windows 11. L'an passé, le géant de la Tech avait, par exemple, doté le logiciel Notepad d'une option de correction orthographique, activée par défaut pour certains formats de documents. Il y a deux mois, une option de résumé automatique et une fonctionnalité de réécriture, toutes deux boostées à l'IA, ont également été déployées.
Microsoft a dévoilé hier plusieurs nouveautés IA, qui seront intégrées au sein de Notepad, Paint et Capture d'écran. Découvrons-les ensemble !
Un générateur de texte déployé dans Notepad
Dans un article paru hier sur le blog Windows, Dave Grochocki, chef de produit principal du groupe Applications Windows Inbox, a partagé plusieurs avancées intéressantes. Proposée aux Windows Insiders dans les canaux Canary et Dev sur Windows 11, elles concernent notamment le logiciel Notepad.
Les testeurs pourront découvrir une nouvelle fonctionnalité permettant « de rédiger rapidement un texte en fonction de vos suggestions, ce qui vous permet de partir d'une page blanche ou de développer du contenu existant grâce à l'assistance de l'IA. »
Pour y accéder, il suffira de sélectionner du texte, de faire un clic droit, de sélectionner l'option « Écrire » et de rédiger un prompt. Les utilisateurs pourront ensuite conserver le texte et l'affiner, si besoin est, ou choisir de le supprimer. Des crédits IA et un compte Microsoft seront nécessaires pour utiliser cette option.
Un assistant à la rédaction arrive sur Notepad.
Des nouveautés débarquent aussi sur Paint et Capture d'écran
Les développeurs ont également déployé une mise à jour pour Paint. Le logiciel d'édition d'images inclut désormais un générateur d'autocollants IA. Disponible dans le menu Copilot, l'outil proposera plusieurs versions de stickers sur la base d'un prompt. L'utilisateur pourra ensuite les ajouter à son travail ou les enregistrer pour un usage ultérieur.
Un générateur d'autocollants IA à tester sur Paint.
Mais ce n'est pas tout : un outil de sélection intelligente a aussi été ajouté dans Paint pour sélectionner et modifier des éléments spécifiques. De plus, Microsoft a aussi mis en place une nouvelle boîte de dialogue afin de présenter aux nouveaux utilisateurs les fonctionnalités phares du logiciel.
L'outil Capture d'écran a également été amélioré : une fonctionnalité nommée « Capture d'écran parfaite », disponible uniquement pour les PC Copilot+ a notamment été intégrée. Les testeurs Windows Insiders peuvent la trouver dans la barre d'outils de l'application : « Une fois activée, la capture d'écran parfaite se redimensionne intelligemment en fonction du contenu sélectionné ».
Les développeurs ont aussi optimisé le sélecteur de couleurs du service pour lui permettre de « capturer davantage d'informations à l'écran grâce au sélecteur de couleurs. »
Ces avancées étant encore en test, il est impossible, à l'heure actuelle, de savoir quand elles seront déployées globalement."
https://www.clubic.com/actualite-566601-microsoft-notepad-s-enrichit-d-un-peu-d-ia-pour-les-testeurs.html
#metaglossia_mundus
"La traduction du monde
Juan Gabriel Vásquez, traduit par Isabelle Gugnon, Seuil, Paris, 2025, 160 pages
Invité à s’exprimer sur le rôle et le pouvoir de la fiction dans le cadre d’une série de conférences à l’Université d’Oxford à l’automne 2022, l’écrivain colombien Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Le bruit des choses qui tombent, Le corps des ruines) nous donne avec La traduction du monde le fruit de ces réflexions. Convaincu qu’il « existe un lien direct entre la place occupée par la fiction dans une société et la bonne santé de sa démocratie », le roman, genre dont les meilleurs ouvrages nous révèlent « ce qui est invisible, caché, ignoré », lui semble indissociable d’une certaine éthique de l’ambiguïté. Il est aussi pour lui « toujours un acte de révolte ». Convoquant Cervantès, Conrad, Defoe, Kundera, García Márquez, Yourcenar et Proust (pour qui le « devoir et la tâche d’un écrivain sont ceux d’un traducteur »), le romancier explore également les liens étroits, en particulier dans son œuvre, qui existent entre l’Histoire et la littérature. Un plaidoyer intelligent et vibrant pour la littérature et pour la liberté de conscience.
La traduction du monde
★★★★
Juan Gabriel Vásquez, traduit par Isabelle Gugnon, Seuil, Paris, 2025, 160 pages"
Par Christian Desmeules
https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/883024/traduction-monde-juan-gabriel-vasquez
#metaglossia_mundus
"Bilingual Health-Care Staff Are Not Interpreters
Speaking two languages doesn’t make a person qualified to interpret complex medical information. Patients and health-care workers deserve better.
Bilingual health-care staff are often asked to informally take on interpretation work for patients, work that should be the domain of medical interpreters.
In health-care settings across Canada, bilingual staff are frequently asked to interpret for patients with limited English proficiency. This may seem like a practical solution, but the reality is more complex and potentially harmful for both patients and staff.
As a certified medical interpreter, I’ve seen first-hand how often informal interpreting arrangements happen in health-care settings. Even when professional interpreters like me are available, we are sometimes turned away, and bilingual staff — often nurses or unit clerks — are pulled in to interpret instead.
These staff are rarely given a choice, much less formal consent or adequate support. When time is short and the needs are pressing, asking a nearby bilingual clerk to relay vital information might seem like a practical solution.
But when we cut corners like this, critical nuances are missed — and that can have serious consequences.
It is increasingly common in Canada for patients to speak a first language other than English or French, Canada’s two official languages. According to Statistics Canada’s 2021 census, more than half a million people in Canada speak predominantly Mandarin at home, and another half a million speak Punjabi at home; 393,430 Canadians speak Yue (Cantonese), 317,365 speak Spanish, 285,915 speak Arabic, and 275,040 speak Tagalog.
Being a bilingual health professional does not mean you are qualified to interpret medical information. Medical interpreting is a specialized profession. Medical interpreters have training in medical terminology, accuracy, confidentiality and cultural nuance, among other skills. The work also requires impartiality — something that is nearly impossible to maintain when the work of interpreting is added on top of a health-care worker’s existing role.
When nurses, clerks or other staff are asked to interpret, they’re placed in a dual role that directly conflicts with their primary responsibilities. Even when the interpreting nurse is familiar with the patient — such as a charging nurse overseeing their care — that familiarity can make things worse, not better.
Instead of neutrally conveying what the patient is saying, they may insert their own opinions, summarize or offer a clinical interpretation rather than an accurate translation. This undermines patient-centred communication and shifts the focus away from the patient’s voice. The pressure to support colleagues, manage time or maintain team dynamics only further compromises neutrality.
Cultural proximity adds another layer of complexity. Many bilingual staff share cultural backgrounds with the patients they are asked to interpret for. While this might initially appear beneficial, it can lead to unconscious bias or emotional entanglement. Professional interpreters are trained to recognize and manage this, but bilingual staff typically are not.
The burden falls particularly hard on immigrant women, who make up a significant portion of Canada’s health-care support workforce. They are often expected to interpret without language assessment, without training and without pay. Over time, this leads to emotional exhaustion and burnout.
This is not just anecdotal. A 2017 study titled “Risk and Protective Factors Impacting Burnout in Bilingual, Latina/o Clinicians” found that bilingual clinicians suffered higher levels of emotional fatigue and depersonalization. Many reported being routinely asked to take on extra duties like translating documents, interpreting clinical conversations or educating colleagues about a patient’s culture.
None of this was officially part of their job description, and it was rarely acknowledged or compensated.
The risks of informal interpretation will only grow over time
This problem isn’t new, but it is becoming more urgent. As Canada ramps up recruitment of internationally trained health-care professionals, many of whom are multilingual, the risk of informal interpreting will only grow. Canada is not hiring these workers to act as interpreters, but in the absence of clear policies and accountability, it’s likely they will still be asked to interpret, just as many already are.
Language interpretation work in health care should be delivered by trained, qualified professionals, whether on site, by phone or through video remote platforms. Research has repeatedly shown that this is not just best practice, but essential. Reports such as 2005’s “Pay Now or Pay Later: Providing Interpreter Services in Health Care” and 2021’s “Investing in Language Access to Optimize Health System Performance” have demonstrated that the use of professional interpreters reduces medical errors, prevents costly complications and improves patient outcomes.
Yet across Canada, access to trained interpreters remains inconsistent. We lack a government-level policy that mandates or enforces the proper use of language services in health care.
Other countries have already set a higher standard. In Australia and the United States, legislation requires health-care providers to use qualified interpreters when language barriers are present.
Failing to do so can constitute a breach of the legal duty of care. Canada needs to follow this example with clear policy, proper funding and real accountability.
We also need to invest in the long-term sustainability of professional interpreting. That means creating pathways for interpreter training, offering fair compensation and recognizing this work as a vital part of the health-care system.
Without these supports, we will continue to face a shortage of qualified interpreters, leaving the burden to fall on bilingual staff who are not trained or positioned to take on this responsibility.
Language access is not an optional service. It’s a core element of safe, equitable and effective health care. We must stop treating interpretation as a favour or an afterthought and start treating it as a standard of care.
Patients deserve clear communication. Health-care providers deserve support. And bilingual staff deserve clear professional boundaries that don’t require them to bring skills from their home lives to work. We owe it to everyone to build a health-care system that gets this right."
Young Joe
TodayThe Tyee
Young Joe is a certified medical interpreter and a language access advocate in Vancouver.
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/05/23/Bilingual-Health-Care-Staff-Not-Interpreters/
#metaglossia_mundus
"L’histoire des dictionnaires de langue française : de l’impossible inventaire à l’épopée des mots
Par Clara Cini
Le désir de classifier, d’expliquer et de traduire nos mots semble inhérent au langage lui-même. Au fil des siècles, les ouvrages exhaustifs qui prennent le nom de glossaire, de dictionnaire ou d’encyclopédie répondent à des ambitions pragmatiques et politiques, pour affirmer une langue, le français.
A l’automne 2024, lorsque la neuvième édition du Dictionnaire de l’Académie française est publiée, quatre-vingt-dix ans se sont écoulés depuis l’édition précédente, en 1934. Cette lenteur dont l’institution est coutumière depuis sa fondation a suscité nombre de quolibets. Comme par le passé : en 1694, lorsque les académiciens avaient remis la première édition du dictionnaire à Louis XIV, le roi n’avait pas manqué de mentionner les soixante ans nécessaires à l’écriture du volume : « Messieurs, voici un ouvrage attendu depuis longtemps. »
Lire aussi | La Ligue des droits de l’homme appelle l’Académie française à rectifier « d’urgence » la définition de plusieurs mots de son dictionnaire
Aujourd’hui, ce n’est plus seulement le temps d’élaboration du dictionnaire qui est décrié, mais ses définitions. La Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH) a ainsi fait état de sa « stupéfaction » au sujet d’entrées qui participent, selon l’association, d’une « vision au mieux archaïque de notre monde ». L’« hétérosexualité » y est ainsi définie comme une sexualité « naturelle », impliquant ipso facto que l’homosexualité ne le serait pas, et le mot « femme » y désigne un « être humain défini par ses caractères sexuels, qui lui permettent de mettre au monde des enfants », ce qui étonne la LDH..."
https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2025/05/24/l-histoire-des-dictionnaires-de-langue-francaise-de-l-impossible-inventaire-a-l-epopee-des-mots_6608178_3232.html
#metaglossia_mundus
Datos Lexicográficos y Diccionarios Digitales: Aproximaciones Teóricas y Prácticas para el español, en la UR.
"Datos Lexicográficos y Diccionarios Digitales: aproximaciones teóricas y prácticas para el español
27 Jun 2025
Online
Inscripción necesaria
Presentación
La relevancia de los datos en el mundo actual es incuestionable. Varios organismos internacionales han señalado que la inversión en “centros de datos” ha superado los 300 mil millones de dólares en el año 2024 y prevén que dicha inversión irá en aumento en los próximos años porque este tipo de infraestructuras son necesarias para el desarrollo de la Inteligencia Artificial (IA), la computación en la nube (cloud computing), el desarrollo del 5G y el Internet de las cosas, y la consolidación del
streaming y los servicios digitales. En este marco se sitúa el curso, que analizará la relación entre los datos lexicográficos y el diccionario digital.
Un diccionario digital es una aplicación informática que sirve de herramienta de consulta. Está compuesta por tres componentes principales: la base de datos lexicográfica, la interfaz gráfica del usuario o GUI (Graphical User Interface) y el sistema (o sistemas) de acceso a los datos o búsqueda de los mismos. La interrelación de estos tres sistemas se manifiesta de forma clara en una serie de ideas, que, con especial referencia al español, serán objeto de estudio y debate durante el curso.
Primero, el diseño, construcción y actualización de una herramienta de consulta están íntimamente relacionados con el concepto de dato lexicográfico, que es tanto una unidad de representación “fungible” (es decir, que puede aislarse, venderse, modificarse, por sí misma) como “cognitivamente independiente” (es decir, diseñada para evitar el estrés cognitivo que se produce cuando se usan abreviaturas, definiciones recursivas y otras estructuras lexicográficas que obligan al usuario a llevar a cabo más de un proceso para comprenderlo y poder usarlo con garantías).
Segundo, el dato lexicográfico es objeto de trabajo de la lexicografía, que es una disciplina independiente con una gran vocación interdisciplinar. Como tal, colabora con otras disciplinas en la búsqueda de soluciones específicas a problemas concretos, como son las diferencias entre sense y reference y su descripción específica, las diversas posibilidades que existen de acceder y presentar los datos lexicográficos, o el diseño de la página web del diccionario.
Tercero, la tecnología es un elemento central en el diseño, construcción y actualización de cualquier diccionario digital; por ejemplo, la llegada de tecnologías “disruptivas” (o desestabilizadoras) como la Inteligencia Artificial generativa está modificando sustancialmente tanto el trabajo lexicográfico como la propia investigación en lexicografía.
Cuarto, las tres ideas que acabamos de mencionar influyen claramente en los aspectos concretos que debemos abordar a la hora de diseñar, construir y tener siempre actualizado un diccionario concreto como puede ser el Diccionario Digital del Español (DIDES).
https://www.unirioja.es/actividades/datos-lexicograficos-y-diccionarios-digitales-aproximaciones-teoricas-y-practicas-para-el-espanol/
#metaglossia_mundus
Le procès de l’influenceur Imadtintin soulève des questions sur la traduction et la provocation au terrorisme. Découvrez les enjeux d’une affaire complexe.
"Procès Imadtintin : La Traduction au Cœur du Débat
Steven Soarez
24/05/2025
Un influenceur algérien jugé pour provocation au terrorisme : le procès d’Imadtintin met la traduction sous les projecteurs. Quels enjeux pour la justice ?
Dans une salle d’audience baignée par la lumière froide de Grenoble, un homme de 31 ans, connu sous le pseudonyme d’Imadtintin, se tient à la barre. Ce vendredi 23 mai 2025, Imad Ould Brahim, influenceur algérien suivi par des milliers de personnes sur TikTok, fait face à une accusation lourde : provocation directe à un acte de terrorisme. Mais au-delà des vidéos incriminées, c’est une question bien plus subtile qui émerge au fil des débats : celle de la traduction. Comment des mots prononcés en arabe, sous-titrés en français, peuvent-ils faire basculer un destin dans une salle de tribunal ?
Un Procès aux Enjeux Multiples
L’affaire débute par une dénonciation. Un activiste politique, exilé en France et opposé au régime algérien, repère des vidéos sur le compte TikTok d’Imadtintin. Ces publications, selon lui, incitent à la violence contre les opposants du pouvoir en place à Alger. Il les reposte, accompagnées de sous-titres en français, et alerte les autorités. Ce signalement conduit à l’arrestation d’Imad Ould Brahim début janvier. Mais dès l’ouverture du procès, un problème central se pose : les traductions des vidéos sont-elles fiables ?
Le tribunal correctionnel de Grenoble doit trancher. Les accusations reposent sur des extraits vidéo où l’influenceur semble appeler à des actes violents. Pourtant, la défense soutient que les sous-titres, réalisés par un tiers, pourraient avoir déformé le sens originel des propos. Ce n’est pas seulement une question de mots, mais de contexte, de culture et d’intention.
La Traduction : Un Pont ou un Mur ?
Traduire, c’est transporter une idée d’une langue à une autre, mais c’est aussi, parfois, trahir. Dans le cas d’Imadtintin, les sous-titres français des vidéos en arabe ont joué un rôle clé. Ont-ils exagéré, voire altéré, les propos de l’influenceur ? Les experts linguistiques convoqués au tribunal soulignent la difficulté de traduire des expressions idiomatiques ou des références culturelles spécifiques. Une phrase anodine dans un contexte peut devenir incendiaire dans un autre.
« Une traduction n’est jamais neutre. Elle porte toujours une part d’interprétation, surtout dans des affaires sensibles comme celle-ci », explique un traducteur assermenté au tribunal.
Pour mieux comprendre, imaginons une expression populaire algérienne. Prononcée avec ironie ou dans un cadre humoristique, elle pourrait être mal interprétée si traduite littéralement. La défense d’Imadtintin argue que les vidéos, souvent tournées dans un style théâtral propre aux réseaux sociaux, relevaient davantage de la provocation verbale que d’un véritable appel à la violence.
Contexte clé : Les vidéos incriminées ont été publiées sur TikTok, une plateforme où l’exagération et l’humour sont monnaie courante. Mais dans un tribunal, ces nuances s’effacent souvent au profit d’une lecture littérale.
Réseaux Sociaux : Une Arme à Double Tranchant
Les réseaux sociaux, comme TikTok, amplifient les voix, mais ils amplifient aussi les malentendus. Imadtintin, avec ses milliers d’abonnés, s’est bâti une notoriété en publiant des contenus parfois polémiques, souvent dans un registre émotionnel. Mais ce qui peut passer pour une performance sur une plateforme peut devenir une preuve accablante dans un cadre judiciaire.
Le cas d’Imadtintin illustre un phénomène plus large : la responsabilité des influenceurs dans un monde hyperconnecté. Une vidéo de quelques secondes peut être vue, partagée, et reinterpretée par des millions de personnes. Dans ce procès, les juges doivent non seulement évaluer les propos tenus, mais aussi leur portée réelle. Les abonnés d’Imadtintin ont-ils perçu ses vidéos comme un appel à l’action ou comme une simple provocation ?
Portée des vidéos : Des milliers de vues, mais une audience principalement jeune, habituée aux codes de TikTok.
Contexte politique : Les tensions entre la France et l’Algérie influencent la perception des propos.
Rôle des sous-titres : Une traduction non officielle peut transformer un message.
Un Contexte Politique Chargé
L’affaire Imadtintin ne peut être dissociée du contexte diplomatique tendu entre la France et l’Algérie. Les relations entre les deux pays, marquées par des décennies de crises et de gestes d’apaisement, influencent ce procès. Les accusations portées contre l’influenceur s’inscrivent dans un climat où chaque mot peut être perçu comme un acte politique. Les opposants au régime algérien, comme l’activiste à l’origine de la dénonciation, sont souvent sous pression, ce qui ajoute une couche de complexité à l’affaire.
Certains observateurs estiment que ce procès reflète une volonté de contrôler les discours en ligne, notamment ceux émanant de la diaspora algérienne. Mais pour d’autres, il s’agit avant tout de protéger l’ordre public face à des discours potentiellement dangereux.
« Les réseaux sociaux sont un miroir déformant. Ils amplifient les passions, mais aussi les malentendus », note un sociologue spécialisé dans les médias numériques.
La Justice Face à un Dilemme
Le tribunal de Grenoble se trouve dans une position délicate. D’un côté, il doit juger des faits graves : la provocation au terrorisme est une accusation lourde, passible de plusieurs années de prison. De l’autre, il doit prendre en compte les nuances linguistiques et culturelles. Les charges pourraient-elles être requalifiées en un délit moins sévère, comme l’apologie du terrorisme ou une simple infraction liée à la liberté d’expression ?
La défense d’Imadtintin insiste sur l’absence d’intention criminelle. Selon elle, les vidéos s’inscrivent dans un style provocateur, mais sans volonté réelle de nuire. Les procureurs, eux, mettent en avant le risque que de tels propos, même mal interprétés, puissent inspirer des actes violents.
Accusation Arguments de l’accusation Arguments de la défense
Provocation au terrorisme Vidéos incitant à la violence contre des opposants. Mauvaise traduction, absence d’intention criminelle.
Contexte des vidéos Publiées sur une plateforme influente, risque d’impact. Style théâtral propre à TikTok, non destiné à nuire.
Les Enjeux de la Liberté d’Expression
Ce procès soulève une question fondamentale : où se situe la frontière entre la liberté d’expression et l’incitation à la violence ? Dans un monde où les réseaux sociaux donnent une voix à tous, les paroles des influenceurs sont scrutées. Mais juger un contenu numérique, souvent produit dans l’instantanéité, avec les outils rigides de la justice traditionnelle est un défi. Les mots d’Imadtintin, qu’ils soient maladroits ou mal interprétés, ont-ils vraiment le pouvoir de déclencher des actes violents ?
Les experts en droit s’accordent à dire que ce type de procès marque une nouvelle ère. Les influenceurs, autrefois perçus comme des amuseurs, sont désormais considérés comme des acteurs politiques potentiels. Leur parole peut peser lourd, surtout dans des contextes sensibles comme celui des relations franco-algériennes.
Point clé : La justice doit évoluer pour intégrer les spécificités des réseaux sociaux, où le ton et l’intention sont souvent difficiles à cerner.
Un Débat qui Dépasse les Frontières
L’affaire Imadtintin n’est pas un cas isolé. Elle s’inscrit dans une série de tensions entre la France et l’Algérie, où la diaspora joue un rôle clé. Les influenceurs, qu’ils soient en France ou ailleurs, deviennent des porte-voix pour des communautés souvent marginalisées. Mais avec cette visibilité vient une responsabilité. Les mots, amplifiés par les algorithmes, peuvent traverser les frontières et alimenter des conflits.
En Algérie, le régime surveille de près les discours des exilés. En France, les autorités doivent jongler entre la protection de la liberté d’expression et la prévention des discours de haine. Le procès d’Imadtintin illustre ce délicat équilibre.
« Les influenceurs sont les nouveaux pamphlétaires. Leur parole peut libérer, mais aussi diviser », observe un analyste des médias.
Vers un Verdict Incertain
Alors que le procès touche à sa fin, les regards se tournent vers le verdict. Les juges pourraient requalifier les faits pour éviter une condamnation trop lourde, mais le message envoyé sera scruté. Une condamnation sévère pourrait être perçue comme une atteinte à la liberté d’expression, tandis qu’une décision clémente pourrait être interprétée comme une faiblesse face à des discours potentiellement dangereux.
Ce qui est certain, c’est que l’affaire Imadtintin marque un tournant. Elle rappelle que les mots, surtout sur les réseaux sociaux, ne sont jamais anodins. Et que la traduction, loin d’être un simple exercice linguistique, peut devenir une arme dans un tribunal.
Verdict attendu : Une possible requalification des faits en délit moins grave.
Impact diplomatique : Une décision qui pourrait influencer les relations franco-algériennes.
Rôle des influenceurs : Une responsabilité croissante dans un monde connecté.
Ce procès, au-delà de l’histoire d’un homme, interroge notre rapport aux mots, à la technologie et à la justice. Dans une société où chaque publication peut devenir une preuve, comment préserver la liberté tout en protégeant l’ordre public ? L’histoire d’Imadtintin, entre TikTok et tribunal, n’a pas fini de faire parler."
https://viralmag.fr/proces-imadtintin-la-traduction-au-coeur-du-debat/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Can a digital platform save a language from fading away?
by Mafumane Tlhapi
A recent study by Phenyo Mokgothu, a master's graduate and communication practitioner with the North-West University (NWU), has shown that digital community newspapers can indeed preserve language and culture, even in the shifting landscape of online media.
"Every issue is published in an indigenous language, it’s not just about news; it’s about preserving local indigenous language," says Mokgothu, who led a study examining the role of digital community newspapers in safeguarding indigenous languages and cultural heritage in South Africa.
Mokgothu’s research, titled “The role of digital community newspapers in indigenous languages and culture preservation: The case of Seipone Madireng”, found that digital community newspapers do more than report local stories; they serve as cultural anchors for their readers. "We wanted to understand how users see the role of this platform. They told us it reflects their daily experiences and traditions in a way that national outlets do not," Mokgothu says.
The study also revealed that community newspapers promote cultural preservation through active community engagement, bilingual advertising and educational initiatives. "Publishing advertisements in both English and the indigenous language bridges cultural gaps and ensures inclusivity," Mokgothu adds. The research highlighted that this approach not only strengthens community bonds but also promotes pride in linguistic heritage...
However, Mokgothu’s findings also pointed to significant challenges faced by community newspapers, including limited financial support, weak digital infrastructure and minimal visibility in mainstream media. Accessibility issues and the imbalance between cultural preservation and technological adaptation were also noted. Despite these barriers, Mokgothu remains optimistic. "There is a clear link between digital access and cultural survival. Community media must be part of future language strategies," he says.
To overcome these obstacles, the study recommends investing in digital literacy programmes to equip indigenous communities with the necessary digital skills, enhancing community engagement through regular feedback, and collaborating with government bodies, cultural organisations and educational institutions for financial sustainability. According to Mokgothu, such collaborations could provide critical funding and resources to support digital community newspapers...
The findings suggest that sustaining indigenous languages in the digital age demands more than community effort; it requires broader investment and strategic support.
*Phenyo Mokgothu...holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Corporate Communication. An Honours degree in Media and Journalism, a master’s degree in communication and currently pursuing a PhD in Communication."
https://news.nwu.ac.za/can-digital-platform-save-language-fading-away
#metaglossia_mundus
"NCAC: National Language Policy Development Takes Shape with Focus on Minority Languages
As part of its mandate as the National Focal Point for National Languages, the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) on Tuesday, 20th May 2025, convened a daylong stakeholder workshop focused on the role, contributions, and expectations of minority languages within the emerging National Language Policy.
The workshop, held at the NCAC’s RDD Annex along Kairaba Avenue, was supported by the African Union’s Academy of Languages (ACALAN) and brought together a diverse group of academic and cultural stakeholders.
Key issues discussed included the expectations from a National Language Policy, the potential contributions of minority languages to enrich such a policy, and the challenges and threats facing these languages, challenges the policy aims to address. The forum provided a platform to strategize on the valorization, preservation, and promotion of The Gambia’s national languages.
In his opening remarks, NCAC Director General Hassoum Ceesay commended the participants for their strong response to the centre’s invitation, describing it as a clear sign of their commitment to shaping a National Language Policy Document by mid-2025.
DG Ceesay highlighted that the development of the National Language Policy is funded by ACALAN, a specialized agency of the African Union responsible for the implementation of the Language Plan of Action for Africa (LPAA).
He emphasized that the policy should be inclusive and empowering, reflecting the linguistic diversity of The Gambia.
“Our national languages are rich and hold significant potential for national development. Unfortunately, they remain underutilized. This policy will explore ways to empower, promote, and preserve them,” he stated.
Since the program’s inception in The Gambia in 2023, the NCAC has conducted several activities to raise awareness and advance the drafting of the policy. These include training sessions, sensitization workshops, and creative initiatives such as commissioning a kora maestro to compose a song celebrating national languages.
Speaking at the forum, Mr. Nana Grey-Johnson of the University of The Gambia described the workshop as timely and significant, noting that the eventual National Language Policy will be a major milestone in the country’s cultural and linguistic development.
“This initiative deserves commendation,” he added, thanking the NCAC for taking on the responsibility of coordinating the project on behalf of ACALAN."
By: Yunus S. Saliu
thevoice
14 hours ago
https://www.voicegambia.com/2025/05/23/ncac-national-language-policy-development-takes-shape-with-focus-on-minority-languages/?amp=1
#metaglossia_mundus
"Déclaration : Pour une politique linguistique inclusive, gage de la cohésion nationale et de la diversité culturelle en Mauritanie
La Coordination des Associations culturelles de langues a exprimé dans une déclaration rendue publique ce vendredi 23 mai 2025, sa vive préoccupation face au débat qui agite depuis quelque temps l’opinion nationale, à propos du statut des langues en Mauritanie.
Composée de l’Association pour la Renaissance du Pulaar en Mauritanie (ARPRIM), de l’Association Mauritanienne pour la Promotion de la Langue et de la Culture Sooninke (AMPLCS), et de l’Association pour la Promotion de la Langue Wolof (APROLAWO), la coordination a appelé entre autres dans sa déclation dont ci-après l'intégralité, à l’officialisation effective du pulaar, du sooninke et du wolof, par une loi claire définissant leurs rôles, leurs domaines d’usage et les mécanismes concrets de mise en œuvre.
"La Coordination des Associations culturelles de langues — composée de l’Association pour la Renaissance du Pulaar en Mauritanie (ARPRIM), de l’Association Mauritanienne pour la Promotion de la Langue et de la Culture Sooninke (AMPLCS), et de l’Association pour la Promotion de la Langue Wolof (APROLAWO) — exprime sa vive préoccupation face au débat qui agite depuis quelque temps l’opinion nationale, à propos du statut des langues en Mauritanie.
En effet, certaines prises de position et revendications risquent plutôt de porter atteinte aux droits culturels et linguistiques d’une partie importante de Mauritaniens. Elles pourraient ainsi fragiliser davantage la cohésion sociale d’un pays historiquement riche de sa diversité linguistique et culturelle.
En plus, ces positions exclusivistes vont à l’encontre de l’esprit de la Constitution mauritanienne et des engagements internationaux pris par notre pays, notamment :
la Convention de l’UNESCO de 2005 sur la protection et la promotion de la diversité des expressions culturelles, qui invite les États à favoriser le multilinguisme et à garantir l’accès à la langue des communautés dans les domaines de l’éducation, des médias et de l’administration.
le Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques (article 27), qui reconnaît aux communautés linguistiques le droit d’« utiliser leur propre langue ».
la Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples (article 17), qui garantit à chaque peuple le droit à sa culture, à sa langue et à leur promotion.
Face à ce débat, qui pourrait engendrer des interprétations et confusions regrettables, nous, Coordination des Associations culturelles de langues, appelons à une politique linguistique inclusive, fondée sur la reconnaissance égale de toutes les langues nationales, dans un esprit de justice, de respect mutuel et de dignité partagée. Concrètement, cela implique :
l’officialisation effective du pulaar, du sooninke et du wolof, par une loi claire définissant leurs rôles, leurs domaines d’usage et les mécanismes concrets de mise en œuvre.
la généralisation rapide de l’enseignement dans les langues nationales à l’école fondamentale, comme recommandé lors des évaluations du BREDA/UNESCO en 1984, et par le ministère de l’Éducation nationale en 1988. Il s’agit là d’un levier essentiel pour une éducation de qualité, inclusive et équitable.
la promotion d’un multilinguisme équilibré, valorisant également les langues étrangères — notamment le français et l’anglais — comme outils de travail, d’apprentissage et d’ouverture sur le monde.
Nous sommes convaincus que la Mauritanie ne pourra bâtir une unité nationale durable qu’en respectant la dignité linguistique de toutes ses composantes. Officialiser l’ensemble des langues nationales, c’est affirmer en effet l’égale citoyenneté de tous les Mauritaniens.
La Coordination des Associations culturelles appelle donc à la mise en place d’une politique linguistique équitable, inclusive et progressiste, gage d’un avenir commun, de cohésion sociale et de paix durable.
Nouakchott, le 20 mai 2025
La Coordination"
https://alwiam.info/fr/ar/14709
#metaglossia_mundus
"¿Cómo funciona la traducción literaria?
¿Es el traductor siempre un traidor?
Traidores o fieles, los traductores interpretan, consciente o inconscientemente, su visión del texto original. La ‘Odisea’ de Emily Wilson y el ‘Orlando’ de Jorge Luis Borges así lo representan.
22 MAYO
2025
Gudrun Palomino
Los traductores literarios, además de ser transmisores de un mensaje escrito en un idioma a otro distinto, son creadores. Esta creación surge de la interpretación que da un traductor al texto, que acaba presentándose como un texto nuevo en la lengua meta. ¿Hasta qué punto un traductor cambia una novela, un poema o una obra de teatro más allá de la cuestión idiomática? ¿Su interpretación puede cambiar el sentido y el significado del texto tal y como lo escribió el autor original?
Los traductores en España están considerados como autores por la actual Ley de Propiedad Intelectual. Es decir, son autores de una obra derivada del texto origen. Sin embargo, el rol del traductor como intérprete del texto ha dado lugar a muchas reflexiones, que a su vez han derivado en polémicas públicas.
La expresión traduttore, traditore (traductor, traidor) refleja el debate que se ha mantenido durante siglos. ¿El traductor es un traidor de la obra origen? ¿Es, o debe ser, fiel al texto? La idea del traduttore, traditore se remonta al principio de intraducibilidad, a la idea de que ningún texto se puede traducir del todo, sin poder hacer una equivalencia real entre un idioma A y un idioma B. También hace referencia a la fidelidad al texto origen, a que el autor es el único propietario del texto y el traductor es un mero reproductor de las palabras y el mensaje que transmite. ¿Existe acaso un punto medio?
La dicotomía intraducibilidad-fidelidad ha dado lugar a que el debate se abra a lectores de traducciones literarias. Umberto Eco expresó en el ensayo Decir casi lo mismo: la traducción como experiencia que «la traducción no debe ser más bonita que el original», sino que debe haber un límite en la libertad creativa. ¿Qué ocurre cuando la interpretación de un texto por parte de un traductor genera cierta polémica?
Jorge Luis Borges y su ‘Orlando’
Jorge Luis Borges tradujo a autores como Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde y William Faulker. En el texto de no ficción «Siete noches», Borges presentó su visión sobre la traducción: «(…) comprendí que las traducciones no pueden ser un sucedáneo del texto original. La traducción puede ser, en todo caso, un medio y un estímulo para acercar al lector al original; sobre todo, en el caso del español».
La polémica de la traducción de Jorge Luis Borges de Orlando de Virginia Woolf resurge cuando se veta en España en 2023 una obra de teatro sobre la novela. Tras este veto, se develaron ciertas cuestiones éticas de su traducción. Según la traductora e investigadora Itziar Hernández Rodilla, que ha traducido gran parte de la obra narrativa y ensayística de Woolf (como Un cuarto propio, Las olas u Orlando. Una biografía), una traducción de Borges tal vez no pasaría una prueba editorial porque están marcadas por gestos de extrema visibilidad. Para Borges, «el original es infiel a la traducción», pero en su versión, para «mejorar el estilo», eliminaba la sintaxis fragmentada y la indeterminación del sujeto intencionales de la autora, además de prescindir del humor de Virginia Woolf.
Emily Wilson: la traducción contemporánea de la ‘Odisea’
Emily Wilson es filóloga clásica, pero destaca por ser traductora de la Odisea y la Ilíada de Homero al inglés. Su traducción de la Odisea coincide con el número de versos del original griego y está escrita en pentámetros yámbicos, con un lenguaje claro y accesible que se leyera en voz alta. Fue la primera mujer en traducir el poema épico al inglés: la primera vez que se publicó en este idioma fue en 1615.
En su Odisea, Wilson optó por traducir el término griego douloi no como «sirvientes», sino como «esclavos», para resaltar las relaciones de poder que presentaba Homero. También fue consciente de las elecciones de términos de otros traductores, que utilizaban un lenguaje misógino cuya connotación no estaba presente en la Odisea original. Se trata de un ejercicio de retraducción consciente, aunque varios críticos como Janey Tracey declararon que su traducción se contextualiza en el ambiente político actual.
El ejercicio de traducción de Wilson recuerda a la traducción y edición de José María Micó al español de la Comedia de Dante que publicó Acantilado. Micó lo explica en su «Nota sobre el texto y la traducción»: «El texto de los clásicos goza el privilegio de la perennidad pero que cada época requiere sus traducciones (…). La lengua de la traducción debe ser equivalente en lo posible a la lengua del autor, pero no a una lengua de época, para que el lector pueda sentir como contemporáneo a un gran poeta que vivió hace siete siglos».
La libertad creativa en el proceso de publicación
Emily Wilson y Borges representan dos formas distintas de abordar la cuestión de la libertad creativa en la traducción literaria. Wilson es transparente acerca de sus elecciones interpretativas, las justifica dentro del contexto de una nueva sensibilidad crítica de los lectores. Borges, en cambio, plasma en sus traducciones conscientemente su estilo como escritor.
En la actualidad, si comparamos las polémicas con la experiencia traductológica del mercado editorial en España, son anecdóticas: detrás del proceso de edición de un libro (independientemente del género literario) hay una cadena de profesionales, en la que cada uno forma parte de un engranaje complejo para que el libro quede lo más profesional posible, sin creaciones literarias extremas y manteniendo el mensaje del texto original. Si hay aspectos creativos en los que la decisión traductológica tiene un peso importante, se comentan y se deciden. Es decir, el traductor promedio no tiene la libertad que tuvo Borges para reescribir prácticamente Orlando de Virginia Woolf, aunque sí podría tenerla si justificara (y la editorial aceptase esas justificaciones) sus decisiones como lo hizo Emily Wilson."
https://ethic.es/traductor-traidor
#metaglossia_mundus
Manga translators face linguistic puzzles, cultural minefields and online backlash — all for the love of a perfectly written speech bubble.
"Translating manga might seem like a dream job — until the フレーミング (furēmingu, “flaming” or online abuse) starts.
Professional translators for such manga titles as “One Piece” and “My Hero Academia” have faced major harassment for their decisions. These highly publicized online feuds can get pretty fierce, especially when identity politics get involved. In one such highly publicized case involving the manga “I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl,” a cross-dressing character in the Japanese original was rendered as a trans woman in English. In this world, nuance is everything and peace is rare.
And that’s before you even get to the truly hard part: the Japanese language itself. From grammatical ambiguity to context-dependent particles that defy logic and Western equivalents, translating manga isn’t just a job — it’s a balancing act between fidelity, clarity and, sometimes, not getting yelled at online..."
BY ERIC MARGOLIS
May 23, 2025
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2025/05/23/language/manga-translation-japanese/
#metaglossia_mundus
"VOX POPULI: Translators are an indispensable asset to the literary world
Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of The Asahi Shimbun.
May 23, 2025 at 13:11 JST
...
In the past, Japanese authors available in translation were primarily limited to Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) and Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965). Today, however, novels by Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto and a wider array of contemporary Japanese writers are available in multiple languages.
In recent years, translations of Japanese-language books spanning a much broader range of genres and authors have become increasingly accessible.
As my search for translations of Japanese books extends beyond foreign bookstores, I also turn to international book reviews and explore literary award nominees.
Recently, the shortlist for Britain’s prestigious International Booker Prize was announced, and Hiromi Kawakami's novel “Under the Eye of the Big Bird” was among the six books selected.
This award, which is part of the globally renowned Booker Prize, is presented annually to the best work of fiction from around the world that has been translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland. It is awarded to both the author and the translator.
The 2025 International Booker Prize was awarded to “Heart Lamp,” a short story collection by Indian author Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada. This marks the first time a work originally written in Kannada, a language spoken by an estimated 65 million people in southern India, has won the award.
In the world of translation, works translated from English into other languages far outnumber translations from other languages into English. However, if the latter category grows and expands, we may begin to see more works originally written in languages other than English gaining recognition.
The Japanese author I have encountered most frequently on foreign bookshelves is Haruki Murakami, whose works have been translated into more than 50 languages.
With the help of talented translators, I hope Japanese literature will continue to be translated into even more languages, further extending its global reach.
—The Asahi Shimbun, May 23..."
https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/15786596
#metaglossia_mundus
"Le Goethe-Institut Tunis est heureux d’annoncer le lancement d’un projet de résidence de traduction exceptionnel, porté par l’auteur et traducteur Dhia Bousselmi.
Pendant une période de dix mois, Dhia Bousselmi se consacrera à la traduction du célèbre roman “Le Loup des steppes” de Hermann Hesse vers le dialecte tunisien.
Ce projet s’inscrit dans une volonté de rendre accessible au public tunisien un chef-d'œuvre de la littérature mondiale dans une langue vivante, quotidienne et qui émane de l’imaginaire collectif tunisien.
La résidence permettra un travail de fond sur la langue et les choix de traduction.
Des moments choisis du processus créatif et de la recherche autour de la traduction seront éventuellement partagés. Ce sera également l’occasion de réfléchir ensemble à la place des dialectes dans la traduction littéraire et dans la valorisation du patrimoine linguistique.
Ce projet est une invitation à redécouvrir Le Loup des steppes sous un jour nouveau, et à faire dialoguer littérature allemande et culture tunisienne avec audace et sensibilité.
À l’issue de cette période de recherche et de concrétisation de la traduction, le Goethe-Institut organisera un événement de lancement du livre à la fin de l’année 2025. Restez connectés !"
https://www.goethe.de/ins/tn/fr/m/kul/sup/sbl.html
#metaglossia_mundus
The LMU is one of the most prestigious and traditional universities in Europe. It combines outstanding research with a challenging range of courses.
"Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster of Excellence: moving beyond the Eurocentric perspective in philology
22 May 2025
The new Cluster of Excellence studies philological traditions over 5,000 years to foster intercultural understanding.
The Cross-Cultural Philology cluster takes a cross-cultural approach to the study of philological practices and cultural dynamics over a 5,000-year period. The focus is on the wealth of philological traditions in the Near East and Middle East, in East Asia, on the Indian subcontinent, in North, East, and West Africa, and in Europe. By adopting a comparative cultural approach, the researchers in the cluster hope to gain insights that go far beyond the findings of previous research.
Professor Beate Kellner, Chair of Medieval German Literature at LMU Munich and spokesperson for the Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster of Excellence, explains the cluster’s focus and its objectives.
We will be taking a comparative look at philological practices around the world over a period of 5,000 years.
BEATE KELLNER, CHAIR OF MEDIEVAL GERMAN LITERATURE AT LMU MUNICH
Safeguarding the global cultural heritage
Prof. Dr. Beate Kellner
Spokesperson for the Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster of Excellence | © Hans Herbig
What objectives are you pursuing with the cluster?
Beate Kellner: We will be taking a comparative look at philological practices around the world over a period of 5,000 years. Our aim is to develop a comprehensive history of scholarship and to move beyond the Eurocentric perspective that has largely characterised research to date. The cluster is going to be studying a significant part of the global cultural heritage and safeguarding it. The work will help to overcome the pressing social challenge of improving understanding and communication between cultures.
How do you view the social significance of the humanities disciplines involved in the cluster?
We live in an age dominated by fast, loud, and simple messages. As a contrast to this, we have philological research, which deciphers complex texts in order to preserve and explain them for humanity in the long term. This task is more topical and more necessary than ever. In the midst of today’s flood of information and the declining attention span of each individual in society, philology forms a necessary counterbalance through its approach guided by critical reading and analysis. Our cluster draws on a worldwide archive of texts, cultural achievements, and techniques spanning thousands of years. The cluster’s joint research aims to explore these cultural traditions anew from a comparative perspective.
It’s not just researchers who should have basic philological skills and powers of critical thinking, but every person in our society. In the interests of achieving this, we want to give the humanities at LMU a refresh and position them for the future in the best way we can.
We are able to build on the extraordinary diversity of philological disciplines at LMU to make the cluster an internationally unique center.
BEATE KELLNER, CHAIR OF MEDIEVAL GERMAN LITERATURE AT LMU MUNICH
Seven LMU faculties are involved
What does the cluster build on and who is involved?
The cluster brings together 25 Principal Investigators and numerous Key Researchers, many of whom are international leaders in their respective research areas and have already collaborated on interdisciplinary projects. I would particularly like to highlight International Doctorate Program Philology. This pilot project has shown how fruitful our research approach is and how enthusiastically it is being taken up by early-career researchers. This experience is partly what motivated us to apply to become a Cluster of Excellence.
Researchers from seven LMU faculties are involved in the Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster, as well as one colleague from the University of Würzburg. We are able to build on the extraordinary diversity of philological disciplines at LMU to make the cluster an internationally unique center. The range of subjects extends from Assyriology and Egyptology to Greek Philology and Sinology, to name just four disciplines.
The cluster’s research covers a period of 5,000 years and focuses on numerous cultures. How is the work structured?
The cluster is divided into five research areas and three transversal perspectives that address overarching issues and objectives. We have also developed a network of different forms of collaboration that spans the entire cluster. We are going to establish a number of working formats such as annual working groups, regular meetings and panels with international participants. There will be summer schools and master classes for early-career researchers, for example.
We will examine how philological practices were embedded in different cultures, religions, ethnicities, and legal and political systems.
BEATE KELLNER, CHAIR OF MEDIEVAL GERMAN LITERATURE AT LMU MUNICH
Diversity is at the heart of the research project
© Stefan Pörtner
Can you give us an example of the type of questions you will be answering?
Part of what scholars in the Writing Systems research area are studying is how writing systems developed and spread in different cultures, how they were linked to different forms of knowledge, and why they sometimes disappeared again.
How do you deal with the diverse range of research questions in the cluster?
Diversity is at the heart of our research project. We will examine how philological practices were embedded in different cultures, religions, ethnicities, and legal and political systems. These thematic aspects of diversity will also be reflected in the cluster’s structure.
Are you also planning some formats for science communication?
We will establish a range of digital publication formats and outreach measures to communicate our research findings not only to the scientific community but also to the broader public. Among these will be public lectures series, Massive Open Online Courses, philological training courses for teachers, a science blog, and podcasts. And of course, we will also be present on social media.
Methods from the digital humanities
News
Major achievement for LMU: seven Clusters of Excellence approved
Read more
What role do digital technologies play for the research happening in the cluster?
We will be integrating methods and approaches from the digital humanities into our research. This will make it possible to make texts and the data associated with them available long term, for example, and to compare them with each other and investigate them using machine learning approaches. We are able to build on a very good infrastructure at LMU, which includes the Leibniz Supercomputing Center, the Humanities IT Group, and the services of the University Library.
We will take the philological and digital skills applied in the cluster and pass them on to the next generation of researchers, as well as to teachers, students, and schoolchildren, and disseminate them throughout society.
The five research areas of the Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster of Excellence:
Researchers from various disciplines work together in all of the research areas within the cluster. They study philological practices and cultural dynamics over a period of around 5,000 years and explore the richness of philological traditions from a comparative cultural perspective.
„Writing Systems“:
How are writing systems related to the development and transmission of knowledge, to political and socio-cultural factors, to trade networks and administrative practices? And how do they influence the formation of communal identities and the rise and fall of empires? These are the questions that scholars in the Writing Systems research area are addressing.
„Practices in the Layout, Preservation, and Archiving of Texts“:
In the context of philological work, texts are also considered in terms of their materiality and mediality. They exist, for example, as cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, as Egyptian papyri, as inscriptions on stone, as handwritten codices, or as prints. Scholars working in this research area will therefore also examine the layout of the surviving texts as well as the connection between texts and paratexts and between texts, illustrations and diagrams.
„Practices of Editing”:
Scholars in the Practices of Editing research area will examine the history of editorial practices in an intercultural comparison and at the same time develop new methods in this field. In doing so, they will make use of the new possibilities opened up by the technologies within the digital humanities.
„Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship”:
At the heart of the Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship research area are the processes of canon formation and their entanglement with the selection, correction, translation, dissemination, and censorship of texts. The scholars also plan to take a comparative look at the relationship between texts and commentaries across different cultures.
„Migration and Translation of Texts“:
The migration of texts interests scholars in the Migration and Translation of Texts research area in a number of ways: they study how texts were moved across place, time, and media. They examine practices of textual adaptation, translation, retextualisation, summarisation, and abridgement, as well as the possible changes that these can bring about."
https://www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/news-overview/news/cross-cultural-philology-cluster-of-excellence-moving-beyond-the-eurocentric-perspective-in-philology.html
#metaglossia_mundus
"On the 20th of May, the winner of the International Booker Prize will be announced, crowning the best piece of fiction translated into English in the last year. Introduced officially in 2016, with the first winner being Han Kang with the brilliant novel The Vegetarian, the ever growing influence of the International Booker Prize mirrors a current trend within UK reading habits which show ever increasing interest in translated fiction, where 1.9 million copies of translated fiction were sold in 2022, a 22% increase from 2022. However, this 1.9 million still only makes up 1.5% of all fiction sold, and the proportion of translated fiction published in the UK still remains very low. With this in mind, it is still very important to encourage people to keep on reading translated fiction, for two key reasons. Firstly, a lot of translated fiction is just so good. Secondly, and I do truly believe this, reading translated fiction makes you a more well-rounded person. I’ll explain, I promise.
Some of the best books I’ve ever read have been translated from other languages, and if we’re thinking about it logically, is this really a surprise? In the world, only around 7% of people are native English speakers. Roughly 20% of books are originally published in English. There are so many writers out there, writing in their native languages, which would probably blow most English writing out of the water. Take, for example, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most famous writers from South America. When I first read his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, I was awestruck. Never had I read a more creative book, nor had I read such descriptive writing anywhere else. This clearly shows the importance in reading translated fiction; you will undeniably find some of your favourite books. To assume that the best books are ones written originally in English is completely false, and arguably, rather obtuse.
Now onto my second point, that reading translated fiction makes you a more well-rounded person. To illustrate this point, let me refer to one of my most recent reads, a book called Katalin Street, by Magda Szabo. Originally published in Hungarian in 1969, it was not until 2017 that this novel was translated into English. Depicting trauma, loss and grief during and following WW2, reading this book offered me a completely new perspective; that of WW2 from the perspective of a Hungarian family, written by someone where this had been a lived experience. Without reading this book, would I have had any knowledge on the experience of Jewish people in Hungary during the war, or the way in which families were ousted from their homes, and crammed into miniscule Soviet apartments? It’s not to say that I now understand the experience of Hungarians during the war, it’s that I now have an awareness. Reading this book allowed me to recognise part of the war which I had never even considered, never even heard of. Only through translated fiction would this have been possible.
With these points in mind, and the upcoming International Booker Prize approaching, I’d strongly encourage readers to have a look at the shortlist for the award. I guarantee that you’ll find books which are both extremely enjoyable, and also incredibly interesting, giving you a greater knowledge and appreciation for other parts of the world. "
https://www.yorkvision.co.uk/scene/books/why-everyone-should-be-reading-translated-fiction/22/05/2025
#metaglossia_mundus
Google's family of "open" AI models, Gemma, is growing.
"The latest Google Gemma AI model, can run on phones. On the horizon is SignGemma, an open model to translate sign language into spoken-language text
During Google I/O 2025 on Tuesday, Google took the wraps off Gemma 3n, a model designed to run “smoothly” on phones, laptops, and tablets. Available in preview starting Tuesday, Gemma 3n can handle audio, text, images, and videos, according to Google.
Models efficient enough to run offline and without the need for computing in the cloud have gained steam in the AI community in recent years. Not only are they cheaper to use than large models, but they preserve privacy by eliminating the need to transfer data to a remote data center.
During a keynote at I/O, Gemma Product Manager Gus Martins said that Gemma 3n can run on devices with less than 2GB of RAM. “Gemma 3n shares the same architecture as Gemini Nano, and is engineered for incredible performance,” he added.
In addition to Gemma 3n, Google is releasing MedGemma through its Health AI Developer Foundations program. According to the company, MedGemma is its most capable open model for analyzing health-related text and images.
“MedGemma [is] our […] collection of open models for multimodal [health] text and image understanding,” Martins said. “MedGemma works great across a range of image and text applications, so that developers […] can adapt the models for their own health apps.”
Also on the horizon is SignGemma, an open model to translate sign language into spoken-language text. Google says that SignGemma will enable developers to create new apps and integrations for deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
“SignGemma is a new family of models trained to translate sign language to spoken-language text, but it’s best at American Sign Language and English,” Martins said. “It’s the most capable sign language understanding model ever, and we can’t wait for you — developers and deaf and hard-of-hearing communities — to take this foundation and build with it.”
Worth noting is that Gemma has been criticized for its custom, non-standard licensing terms, which some developers say have made using the models commercially a risky proposition. That hasn’t dissuaded developers from downloading Gemma models tens of millions of times collectively, however."
Kyle Wiggers
2:40 PM PDT · May 20, 2025
https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/20/the-newest-google-gemma-ai-model-can-run-on-phones/
#metaglossia_mundus
The Second Circuit on Thursday tossed a case claiming the New York State court system illegally underpays court interpreters.
"NY Court System Defeats Interpreter Pay Discrimination Case
Plaintiffs lack concrete statistics about court personnel
Interpreters aren’t similarly situated to court reporters
The Second Circuit on Thursday tossed a case claiming the New York State court system illegally underpays court interpreters.
State court interpreters who brought the lawsuit failed to provide concrete statistics about the race, ethnicity, and national origin of other courtroom personnel to show the New York Unified Court System’s pay practices violate the equal protection clause, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said in its summary order.
The court interpreters’ argument that they’re underpaid when compared to state court reporters—who the lawsuit claims are majority white—is a “vague and conclusory allegation that’s insufficient to state ..."
Beth Wang
May 22, 2025, 6:49 PM GMT+1
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/ny-court-system-defeats-interpreter-pay-discrimination-case
#metaglossia_mundus
"County officials approved a couple of agreements as a means of looking for ways of cost cutting now that changes on the state level will significantly roll back funding at the health’s department disposal.
The Bartholomew County Commissioners on Monday approved two agreements related to translation services and waste disposal at the county health department.
An agreement with Heartland Interpretation & Translation Services LLC outlines that translation will be provided to patients needing it at $1.30 per minute as opposed to the $1.59 to $1.65 per minute rate they are provided with the county’s current vendor, Stratus.
The second agreement approved for the health department regarding disposal of waste is with Indianapolis-based Medical Waste Solutions, replacing two separate vendors and resulting in what county officials said would be a cost savings.
Director of Nursing Amanda Organist told commissioners that the new agreements are part of an effort “to reduce some costs that we have due to some funding adjustments that the health department will be having.”
Organist was referring to slashes lawmakers made to the Health First Indiana Initiative last session. Passed in 2023 and aimed at improving the state’s health outcomes, Health First Indiana gave participating counties funding for things such as immunizations, chronic disease prevention, and maternal and child health.
A priority of Health First Indiana at its inception was to bring health departments in smaller counties up to speed with larger ones in providing basic services. The program was also in response to Indiana’s generally poor public health spending rating when compared to states across the country, state health officials said previously. In addition to matching funds, each county opting into the program must comply with extensive reporting and metrics requirements.
The Indiana General Assembly appropriated $225 million for the program when it was passed, with $75 million going out in 2024 and $150 million in 2025. The latest approved budget cuts that down to $40 million per year.
Bartholomew County received $1.8 million in Health First Indiana funding this year, and Organist told commissioners that will be down to $429,865 in 2026.
“It’s substantial,” Organist said, explaining that she’s looking for ways to save where they can. With the new translation vendor, the county would have saved about $400 last month, according to Organist.
Before the initiative, the county health department received $84,058 in state funding in 2023 through the Local Health Maintenance Fund/Trust, according to state records.
Translation services are used with patients daily, speaking a variety of languages from Spanish to Haitian Creole to American Sign Language, county officials said.
Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz, R-District 1, said he was going to “be a stick in the mud here,” recounting how when he lived two years in Japan he didn’t receive free translation when he visited a doctor.
“I guess my question is: is it fair for taxpayers to pay for a translator for someone that’s coming into our health department for services?” the commissioner asked, wondering: “Why don’t you put the onus on them to bring someone with them that can either understand the language or—”
Organist said the patient might understand the language, but have trouble with specific terminology being used. She also said that some of what is translated during appointments may not necessarily be appropriate for a child brought along with a parent to their appointment, for example.
“We just need to make sure that everyone has informed consent,” Organist said.
Commissioner Tony London, R-District 3, asked Organist what is done for translation at private doctor’s offices. The director of nursing noted that Columbus Regional Health, for example, uses the vendor the county is poised to transition away from.
Kleinhenz asked if there is an option to charge the customer for translation services, to which Organist said she didn’t know, but would look into it because he asked. London wondered if there would be an option to bill the services to the patient’s insurance."
By Brad Davis -May 22, 2025
https://www.therepublic.com/2025/05/22/county-proposes-cutting-back-on-translation-services-as-part-of-state-cuts/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Langues, savoirs et conceptualisations : une diversité insoupçonnée
Jimena Terraza
Résumé
Cet article se veut une réflexion sur l’apport des langues minoritaires et minorisées à la diversité culturelle mondiale, aux connaissances portées par celles-ci et à la façon dont elles contribuent à mieux comprendre les capacités de l’esprit humain. Il y est question de l’épineuse notion de relativité linguistique et du jeu entre l’influence de la langue sur la pensée et le reflet des catégories conceptuelles des groupes humains dans la langue qu’ils parlent. Les patrons de lexicalisation, les mots et les grammaires culturellement spécifiques cités dans ce texte contribuent à illustrer la diversité linguistique à laquelle nous accédons par le biais des langues. La sauvegarde de cette diversité est évidemment implicite dans mes propos, mais j’insiste fortement sur l’importance du rôle des usagères et usagers des langues dans ce processus.
Mots-clés : diversité linguistique, relativité linguistique, conceptualisation, savoirs, langues autochtones
Abstract
This article aims to reflect on the contribution of minority and minorized languages to global cultural diversity, the knowledge they hold and how they contribute to a better understanding of the capacities of the human mind. It deals with the thorny notion of linguistic relativity and the interplay between the influence of language on thought and the reflection of the conceptual categories of human groups in the language they speak. The patterns of lexicalization and the culturally specific words and grammars cited in this text help to illustrate the linguistic diversity we access through languages. Safeguarding this diversity is obviously implicit in my remarks, but I strongly stress the importance of the role of language users in this process.
Keywords: linguistic diversity, linguistic relativity, conceptualization, knowledge, indigenous languages"
Diffusion numérique : 9 mai 2025
Un article de la revue Minorités linguistiques et société / Linguistic Minorities and Society
Numéro 24, 2025
Décennie internationale des langues autochtones 2022-2032 : réflexion sur les moyens à mettre en oeuvre afin de préserver, de revitaliser et de promouvoir les langues autochtones
https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/minling/2025-n24-minling010026/1117935ar/
#metaglossia_mundus
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