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Charles Tiayon
December 31, 2014 6:15 AM
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Comprendre l’autre quand on ne parle pas la même langue, ce n’est jamais facile. Cependant, grâce à Skype Translator, la barrière des langues pourrait être franchie plus vite qu’on ne pourrait le penser.
Microsoft Research a récemment dévoilé la version bêta de Skype Translator, qui est désormais disponible pour les personnes qui se sont inscrites en novembre dernier pour tester le programme.
Le principe est tout simple: quand vous vous connectez sur Skype, une nouvelle fonction affiche la traduction des paroles de votre interlocuteur étranger à l’écran. Si il y a un léger temps d’attente le temps que la traduction se fasse une fois que ledit interlocuteur a fini sa phrase, l’ensemble reste pour le moment assez prometteur.
Une démonstration a été faite lors d’une grande conférence donnée par Microsoft. On y voir deux personnes converser, l’une en anglais et l’autre en allemand, pendant que le logiciel traduit tout, sous les bravos de la foule.
Pour le moment, la preview de Skype Translator ne peut convertir les conversations qu’entre l’anglais et l’espagnol. De nouvelles langues vont arriver au fur et à mesure dans les prochains mois.
Skype s’est efforcé de trouver des moyens pour aider les communautés à être plus efficaces et à créer des connexions plus solides. Grâce aux innovations de Microsoft Research, Skype franchit à présent une autre barrière pour permettre aux gens de communiquer entre eux peu importe la langue qu’ils parlent.
explique Gurdeep Pall, le vice-président de Skype.
Skype Translator va ouvrir un champ de possibilités infinies pour que les utilisateurs du monde entier se rapprochent, communiquent et collaborent ; désormais, ils ne seront plus entravés par la distance ou la barrière de la langue.
Cependant, il ne faut pas se réjouir trop vite. La vidéo de la conférence présentée sur les réseaux sociaux a été coupée et montée pour enlever les couacs qu’a connu l’application pendant la démonstration.
De plus, il n’a pas été précisé qu’il faut tout de même parler plutôt lentement et en articulant, faire des pauses, et de préférence éviter les bruits parasites comme «Heu» «Hum» et autres raclements de gorge.
Une autre question se pose, celle de la finesse de la traduction de la langue, et bien entendu de l’apprentissage des langues. Certains utilisateurs crient déjà au miracle en disant que tout le monde pourra parler à tout le monde dans quelques temps: ce qui en soit n’est pas faux, mais il reste encore de nombreuses améliorations à apporter à la version bêta.
En revanche, l’application ne pourra pas dispenser d’un vrai apprentissage de la langue pour ceux qui voudraient voyager par exemple, car une fois face aux autochtones, Skype ne sera plus là pour traduire ! Que les traducteurs professionnels et les professeurs de langues se rassurent: : l’apprentissage des langues et la traduction ont encore de très beaux jours devant eux.
Je commente en 1 clic !
Beyond words and languages: Building bridges across worlds.Twenty stories on translation, interpreting and language technology, with one question at the centre: in an age of machine translation, whose judgement and whose languages count?
đ Anne Carson wins the Nobel, and the Academy calls her translations works in their own right. Kafka speaks RĂ©union Creole.
đ€ A BBC look at how long humans will be needed, and a survey in which 37% of literary translators have considered changing careers.
đ Africaâs languages and AI, Indigenous keyboards, and a 1,278-page Amazigh Quran translation.
đŻ Prizes, calls for papers and research that shape the profession.
đ Read the issue: đ
METAGLOSSIA WEEKEND DIGEST · Issue No. 002 (1)Download đŹ Who should decide when a machine translation is good enough? Tell us."
đ METAGLOSSIA WEEKEND DIGEST, Issue No. 002 https://metaglossia.com/%f0%9f%8c%8d-metaglossia-weekend-digest-issue-no-002-is-out/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Police say they are using two AI-powered translation tools because this cuts down the chance of errors.
RNZ revealed this week police set up an AI lab a year ago at the same time they were grappling with officers breaching AI safeguards and exposing sensitive information.
Police said the lab set up last October ran tests of generative AI in a secure isolated sandbox that did not involve live cases or public-facing work.
They have this year added a translator from the US company Meta, called Seamless, alongside another called Whisper AI used since 2024.
Having two allowed investigators to use the model that was most accurate for a particular language and reduced errors, they said.
The 'TransScriptor' platform the tools run on had an audit function to track who used it for what and no data was transmitted outside of the organisation, police added.
Internal reports and emails have revealed a struggle between investigators and technology overseers over deploying Whisper over the last two years. They agreed it was a big help to assess masses of digitally gathered evidence for later human checking, but debated the controls over it.
RNZ repeatedly asked police for an interview. They have instead issued statements on Monday - which did not mention AI - and Thursday afternoon.
Police have previously said "policing with consent" was vital to their adopting crime-fighting technologies.
Police in Thursday's statement said the AI Lab was set up to develop and test proof of concept AI solutions for police use cases, and explore the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI "that could potentially enhance policing outcomes and operational efficiency".
It ran testing only in a secure, isolated, sandbox and only historic police data was utilised.
"It was secured to handle up to restricted information and no public notification was required."
They listed various governance documents that applied to AI.
In addition, Detective Inspector Stu Mills, acting director of the National Criminal Investigation Group said in another statement Meta Seamless was added around May this year to transcription and translation services.
Users securely submitted audio files through a web-based interface to the TransScriptor platform that used Seamless and Whisper AI, and then returned the done job to them.
"All processing occurs internally and no data is transmitted outside of the organisation."
TransScriptor included an audit function that provided visibility of system use, including who submitted requests, the length and language of recordings and the number of jobs processed, Mill said.
Providing users with a choice of translation models reduced reliance on a single AI engine and allowed investigators to select the model that produced the most accurate results for a particular language, dialect, recording quality or operational use case, he said.
"This helps mitigate the risk of translation or transcription errors that may arise when a single model performs poorly on specific languages or audio conditions."
He said the tools would be added to the police Technology Capabilities List when it was updated this month.
As for a forensic data AI analyser police looked into last year, called Belksoft X, including BelkaGPT, while it offered enhanced search, analysis, triage and data exploration feature, approval to trial the software had not been granted." https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/science-and-technology/2092147/police-use-two-ai-translation-transcription-tools-to-reduce-errors
#metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
"Few words seem to irritate grammar-conscious readers as quickly as irregardless. For years, many of us have been taught that the only acceptable form is regardless and that irregardless is unnecessary, illogical, or simply wrong. The usual explanation is that regardless already means âwithout regard,â so adding the prefix ir- is redundant. It is the kind of argument that sounds sensible enough that we rarely stop to ask whether language has ever really behaved according to neat rules of logic.
Then someone checks the dictionary and discovers that irregardless is there. This usually creates an even bigger argument. If the dictionary includes it, does that mean it is correct? Has a mistake somehow become acceptable just because enough people have made it? Not quite. What the argument really shows is that many of us misunderstand what dictionaries are meant to do. A dictionary does not simply decide which words people are allowed to use. It also records the words people are already using, including those that are informal, regional, controversial, old-fashioned, or nonstandard.
Merriam-Webster, for example, recognizes irregardless and labels it ânonstandard.â The word is not a recent invention, either. Merriam-Webster traces its documented use to 1795. This does not mean that irregardless and regardless have exactly the same standing. Regardless remains the standard and safer choice, particularly in formal writing. But saying that irregardless is ânot a wordâ is difficult to defend when English speakers have been using it for more than two centuries and dictionaries have plenty of evidence of that use.
This is where dictionary-making becomes interesting. Lexicographers do not simply sit around a table inventing words and deciding which ones the public may use. They study language. Modern dictionaries draw on books, newspapers, conversations, websites, and large electronic collections of language called corpora. These sources help lexicographers determine whether a word is actually being used, what it means, how frequently it occurs, and in what contexts it appears. Corpus evidence has become an important part of contemporary lexicography precisely because dictionaries are expected to reflect real language use (Frankenberg-Garcia, 2012).
William Shakespeare provides a useful historical example. We have probably encountered claims that Shakespeare âinventedâ hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of English words. Popular lists credit him with words such as gloomy and eyeball. It is an appealing story: Shakespeare was a linguistic genius, so perhaps he simply created words whenever English failed him. The truth, however, is more complicated.
For many words, what scholars could actually say was that Shakespeare provided the earliest known written example available to dictionary editors. That is not the same as proving that he invented the word. It may already have been circulating in speech, or it may have appeared in an earlier text that researchers had not yet found. As more historical texts have become searchable, earlier examples of some supposedly Shakespearean coinages have surfaced. Hope (2017), for instance, questions popular claims about words such as gloomy and eyeball. The Shakespeare story therefore tells us something important about dictionaries: they work with evidence, and the record can change when better evidence becomes available.
The same principle helps explain irregardless. Dictionaries did not put the word into English. Speakers did. Lexicographers found enough evidence of its continued use to record it. The entry tells us one linguistic fact: irregardless exists and is understood. Its usage label tells us another: it remains nonstandard. Those facts are not contradictory.
Debates about âcorrect Englishâ often overlook this distinction. A word can exist without being appropriate everywhere. A form can be widely understood while still attracting criticism in formal writing. Dictionaries contain slang, vulgar expressions, regional words, obsolete terms, and nonstandard forms. Nobody would argue that everything appearing between the covers of a dictionary belongs in an academic paper or a business letter. Usage labels such as informal, regional, dated, and nonstandard are there precisely because context matters. As Mugglestone (2016) explains, dictionaries occupy a complicated space between describing language and offering guidance about its use.
So, are irregardless and regardless both acceptable? It depends on what we mean by acceptable. Both are established words in the sense that both occur in English, are understood by speakers, and are recorded by dictionaries. They do not, however, have the same status. Regardless is standard and appropriate across a much wider range of contexts. Irregardless remains nonstandard and can easily distract readers, especially in edited or formal writing. If a student asked me which one to use in a research paper, I would recommend regardless. If someone insisted that irregardless is ânot a word,â I would disagree.
Dictionaries are neither museums preserving English exactly as it once was nor courts issuing final rulings on what speakers may say. They document a language that keeps moving. Shakespeare reminds us that even the history of a word can be revised when new evidence turns up. Irregardless reminds us that disliking a word does not make it disappear.
The status of irregardless as a word derives from its established use among English speakers, rather than its inclusion in a dictionary. The dictionary documents that usage.
***
Michael Caesar C. Tubal teaches language, literature, and pedagogy at West Visayas State University College of Education..." October 22, 2026 By Michael Caesar C. Tubal https://www.dailyguardian.com.ph/blog/if-irregardless-is-in-the-dictionary-is-it-correct #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
TB (Translation bureau) a ainsi Ă©tĂ© traduit par Tuberculose Mike, utilisĂ© dans un texte en anglais, est devenu StĂ©phanie dans un texte en français Lâoutil a parfois traduit indigenous par indigĂšne au lieu de suggĂ©rer le mot autochtone Persons with disabilities est devenu personnes handicapĂ©es, plutĂŽt que personnes en situation de handicap
Dans un autre texte traduit de lâanglais au français, le logiciel avait aussi remplacĂ© le prĂ©nom Julia par StĂ©phanie.
Depuis son lancement, GCtraduction a traduit plus de 725 millions de mots."
"OttawaâGatineau Lâoutil de traduction avec IA du fĂ©dĂ©ral gĂ©nĂšre des erreurs
Lors du lancement de GCtraduction en septembre 2025, le gouvernement assurait que lâoutil devait permettre « de rĂ©aliser des Ă©conomies dâĂ©chelle et de renforcer lâutilisation des deux langues officielles au sein de la fonction publique ».
"Radio-Canada a appris que lâoutil de traduction du gouvernement fĂ©dĂ©ral alimentĂ© par lâintelligence artificielle, GCtraduction, a gĂ©nĂ©rĂ© de nombreuses erreurs pendant ses six premiers mois dâutilisation par les fonctionnaires.
Un document obtenu par le biais de la Loi sur lâaccĂšs Ă lâinformation dĂ©taille plusieurs incongruitĂ©s, la majoritĂ© concernant des traductions de lâanglais vers le français.
TB (Translation bureau) a ainsi Ă©tĂ© traduit par Tuberculose. Des expressions couramment utilisĂ©es par le gouvernement de Mark Carney, comme projet dâintĂ©rĂȘt national, ont elles aussi Ă©tĂ© mal traduites.
Lâoutil a parfois traduit indigenous par indigĂšne au lieu de suggĂ©rer le mot autochtone, sâalarme une fonctionnaire inquiĂšte de lâutilisation du vocabulaire liĂ© Ă lâĂ©quitĂ©, la diversitĂ© et lâinclusion.
GCtraduction a mĂȘme traduit ou changĂ© complĂštement des prĂ©noms. Par exemple, Mike, utilisĂ© dans un texte en anglais, est devenu StĂ©phanie dans un texte en français.
Un fonctionnaire a notĂ© que lâoutil GCtraduction est incapable de traduire correctement son propre nom. Il a Ă©tĂ© traduit en anglais par GCtranslation au lieu de GCtranslate.
Dans le document de Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada (SPAC) obtenu par Radio-Canada, un fonctionnaire dit ĂȘtre sous le choc en voyant les erreurs gĂ©nĂ©rĂ©es par lâoutil avec du vocabulaire de base.
Une employĂ©e du Bureau du conseil privĂ© souligne que le mĂȘme mot est parfois traduit correctement dans une partie du document, mais diffĂ©remment ailleurs, ce qui crĂ©e une incohĂ©rence. Elle ajoute que les acronymes restent en anglais, mĂȘme lorsque le terme complet a Ă©tĂ© traduit.
Une conseillÚre principale en ressources humaines dénonce pour sa part avoir constaté des erreurs dans la traduction de termes couramment utilisés dans le cadre de la dotation.
Le quotidien des traducteurs Ce sont des exemples vraiment flagrants de ce quâon voit au quotidien avec les textes passĂ©s dans GCtraduction, indique le traducteur Antoine Hersberger, qui est vice-prĂ©sident de lâAssociation canadienne des employĂ©s professionnels (ACEP) pour le groupe qui reprĂ©sente les traducteurs, les interprĂštes et les terminologues.
Il estime quâune traduction erronĂ©e peut entraĂźner de graves consĂ©quences pour les contribuables.
Sâil y a des erreurs ou des hallucinations qui se retrouvent dans un formulaire dâimpĂŽt, ça se peut quâun francophone nâait pas accĂšs Ă un crĂ©dit dâimpĂŽt auquel un anglophone pourrait avoir accĂšs.
La DĂ©fense nationale, qui connaĂźt dâimportants investissements, pourrait aussi subir les effets collatĂ©raux dâune mauvaise traduction gĂ©nĂ©rĂ©e par lâIA, selon lui.
Quelquâun pourrait se blesser en utilisant une arme, parce que le manuel dâinstruction nâĂ©tait pas adĂ©quatement traduit, illustre-t-il.
Ouvrir en mode plein Ă©cran Le prototype dâIA pour la traduction en langues officielles, GCtraduction, a Ă©tĂ© dĂ©ployĂ© en septembre 2025 au sein de six organisations : SPAC, le Bureau du Conseil privĂ©, le ministĂšre des Finances, Patrimoine canadien, le Centre dâanalyse des opĂ©rations et dĂ©clarations financiĂšres du Canada et la Gendarmerie royale du Canada.
Nuire Ă la qualitĂ© des communications au sein du gouvernement et avec la population canadienne francophone, ce nâest pas amĂ©liorer lâefficacitĂ© du gouvernement.
LâACEP demande au gouvernement dâencadrer adĂ©quatement lâutilisation de lâintelligence artificielle dans la traduction pour que les humains soient rĂ©ellement impliquĂ©s dans son utilisation.
Un outil en amĂ©lioration Comme tous les outils dâintelligence artificielle, GCtraduction peut commettre des erreurs, reconnaĂźt le cabinet du ministre de la Transformation du gouvernement, des Travaux publics et de lâApprovisionn!ement, JoĂ«l Lightbound.
Par exemple, il nâa pas Ă©tĂ© entraĂźnĂ© Ă traduire des expressions en langue familiĂšre ou des termes trĂšs spĂ©cialisĂ©s. Son objectif est de fournir des traductions instantanĂ©es pour les textes courants, explique par courriel lâattachĂ©e de presse du ministre, Shahnaz Mouhamou.
Pendant ses six premiers mois dâopĂ©rations, GCtraduction Ă©tait encore Ă lâĂ©tat de projet pilote, ajoute-t-elle.
Depuis, dâimportants efforts ont Ă©tĂ© consacrĂ©s Ă amĂ©liorer continuellement lâoutil qui vise Ă augmenter lâefficacitĂ© de la fonction publique fĂ©dĂ©rale, selon le gouvernement.
Des traducteurs Ă©valuent aussi la qualitĂ© des traductions et les modĂšles dâintelligence artificielle sont rĂ©entraĂźnĂ©s pĂ©riodiquement afin dâen maintenir et dâen amĂ©liorer la performance, assure-t-on.
Le Bureau de la traduction continuera Ă amĂ©liorer GCtraduction et Ă faire en sorte quâil soit accessible au plus grand nombre de fonctionnaires possible afin de favoriser une utilisation responsable de lâintelligence artificielle pour rĂ©pondre aux besoins de traduction courants.
Le ministre de la Transformation du gouvernement, JoĂ«l Lightbound, a annoncĂ© le lancement du prototype dâIA GCtraduction en septembre 2025. Le Bureau de la traduction devait par la suite explorer les possibilitĂ©s de recourir Ă lâIA pour la traduction de langues autochtones.
La commissaire aux langues officielles du Canada, Kelly Burke, estime que lâoutil GCtraduction dispose dâun trĂšs grand potentiel.
Toutefois, un professionnel qualifiĂ© doit superviser lâutilisation de cette technologie afin dâĂ©viter des erreurs graves, telles que des fautes ou des interprĂ©tations erronĂ©es au niveau du sens, de lâorthographe, du vocabulaire, de la grammaire, du contexte ou des codes et rĂ©fĂ©rences culturelles, ajoute-t-elle par courriel.
[Un encadrement garantit] que les rĂ©fĂ©rences et les codes culturels canadiens, tant en français quâen anglais, sont dĂ»ment pris en compte.
Pour Mme Burke, il est urgent dâintĂ©grer les langues officielles dans la StratĂ©gie en matiĂšre dâintelligence artificielle pour la fonction publique. Son rapport annuel recommandait un tel changement dâici la fin mars 2027.
Le cabinet du ministre JoĂ«l Lightbound est dâavis que GCtraduction contribue Ă une augmentation de lâutilisation du français dans la fonction publique fĂ©dĂ©rale, car environ 30 % des traductions se font du français vers lâanglais, dit-il. Cela est trois fois plus Ă©levĂ© que la proportion habituellement confiĂ©e au Bureau de la traduction.
Des problÚmes connus Dans les jours et les semaines précédant le déploiement du logiciel GCtraduction, des fonctionnaires avaient pourtant déjà répertorié plusieurs problÚmes.
Une personne dĂ©plorait que should et must avaient Ă©tĂ© traduits par doit, ce qui pourrait causer potentiellement des problĂšmes juridiques ou lĂ©gaux, peut-on lire dans le document de SPAC obtenu par le biais de la Loi sur lâaccĂšs Ă lâinformation.
Une version antérieure de GCtraduction avait été lancée sous le nom de SPAC Traduction en juin 2025. Pendant les trois premiers mois de fonctionnement, 60 millions de mots ont été traduits.
Persons with disabilities était devenu personnes handicapées, plutÎt que personnes en situation de handicap.
Dans un autre texte traduit de lâanglais au français, le logiciel avait aussi remplacĂ© le prĂ©nom Julia par StĂ©phanie.
Depuis son lancement, GCtraduction a traduit plus de 725 millions de mots." Estelle CÎté-Sroka Publié à 9 h 00 UTC+1 https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2294793/bureau-traduction-ia-erreurs-gouvernement-federal #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Prix Fu Lei de la traduction : les 10 finalistes de la 18e édition dévoilés La traduction littéraire exige non seulement une transmission fidÚle du texte original, mais aussi que les traducteurs laissent libre cours à leur créativité et explorent avec audace de nouvelles maniÚres d'exprimer la langue », a déclaré Alexis Lavis
La 18e édition du prix Fu Lei de la traduction et de l'édition a dévoilé ses dix ouvrages finalistes lors d'une conférence de presse tenue le 20 octobre au Centre culturel français de Beijing.
Florent Aydalot, ministre-conseiller pour les affaires culturelles, Ă©ducatives et scientifiques Ă l'ambassade de France en Chine, a soulignĂ© dans son discours d'ouverture que le prix Fu Lei revĂȘtait une importance particuliĂšre Ă l'heure oĂč l'intelligence artificielle (IA) suscite de nouveaux dĂ©bats dans le secteur de l'Ă©dition. Il a Ă©galement rendu hommage aux traducteurs qui ont fait dĂ©couvrir la littĂ©rature française aux lecteurs chinois et a rĂ©affirmĂ© le rĂŽle du prix dans la promotion du patrimoine littĂ©raire et des Ă©changes culturels entre la France et la Chine.
Dong Qiang, président du comité d'organisation du prix Fu Lei, doyen de l'Académie Yenching, professeur distingué (Boya) et directeur de recherche au département de français de l'Université de Pékin, s'est réjoui de constater que davantage d'ouvrages relevant des sciences humaines et sociales avaient été soumis cette année et que les jeunes traducteurs étaient de plus en plus nombreux à participer. Parmi les 60 traducteurs de l'édition 2026, 26 sont nés aprÚs 1990, contre 18 sur 61 lors de l'édition 2025.
Cette année, le prix a reçu 52 ouvrages candidats, dont 38 dans la catégorie « Essai » et 14 dans la catégorie « Littérature ». à l'issue d'une premiÚre sélection, dix traductions ont été retenues pour la finale.
Dans la catégorie « Littérature », les cinq ouvrages finalistes sont :
- « L'Heure comme une bĂȘte implacable et gloutonne », de Paul-Jean Toulet ;
- « L'Année a perdu son printemps », d'Edgar Morin ;
- « Notre-Dame du Nil », de Scholastique Mukasonga ;
- « Peste & Choléra », de Patrick Deville ;
- « La Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans », de Camille Laurens.
Dans la catégorie « Essai », les cinq ouvrages finalistes sont :
- « Le Village des âcannibalesâ », d'Alain Corbin ;
- « Le Musée, une histoire mondiale, Tome I. Du trésor au musée », de Krzysztof Pomian ;
- « Initiation à la philosophie pour les non-philosophes », de Louis Althusser ;
- « L'Anti-Ćdipe : Capitalisme et schizophrĂ©nie 1 », de Gilles Deleuze et FĂ©lix Guattari ;
- « Simulacres et simulation », de Jean Baudrillard.
Le jury de cette année sera présidé par Alexis Lavis, professeur associé de philosophie comparée à l'Université Renmin de Chine. Il réunira les huit membres permanents du jury ainsi que les deux lauréates de l'édition 2025, Huang Hong et Wang Su. Trois invités d'honneur participeront également à cette édition : l'écrivain français Jean-Baptiste Andrea et les écrivains chinois Su Tong et Zhu Hong.
« La traduction littĂ©raire exige non seulement une transmission fidĂšle du texte original, mais aussi que les traducteurs laissent libre cours Ă leur crĂ©ativitĂ© et explorent avec audace de nouvelles maniĂšres d'exprimer la langue », a dĂ©clarĂ© Alexis Lavis. InterrogĂ© sur l'impact de l'IA sur le secteur de la traduction, il s'est montrĂ© confiant quant Ă la place que continueront d'y occuper les traducteurs humains. Selon lui, la comprĂ©hension, le jugement et la crĂ©ativitĂ© de lâĂȘtre humain demeurent indispensables, notamment pour la traduction de poĂ©sie et d'Ćuvres philosophiques.
Les lauréats de l'édition 2026 seront annoncés lors de la cérémonie de remise des prix, prévue le 21 novembre au Salon international de littérature de Nanjing, chef-lieu de la province chinoise du Jiangsu (est). Une rencontre avec les traducteurs et éditeurs des ouvrages finalistes, ainsi qu'une conférence littéraire en présence des invités d'honneur du prix Fu Lei, se tiendront ensuite le 23 novembre à la librairie Fang Suo de Nanjing." french.china.org.cn | 21. 10. 2026 http://french.china.org.cn/culture/txt/2026-10/21/content_118743169.htm #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
"Traduction enquĂ©bĂ©coisĂ©e dâun roman de Kerouac
Jack Kerouac, Visions de GĂ©rard, roman traduit de lâanglais en quĂ©bĂ©cois par Maxime Catellier, MontrĂ©al, Ăditions du BorĂ©al, 2026, 184 pages, 24,95 $.
En 1963, Jack Kerouac a livrĂ© lâexpression la plus achevĂ©e de son message poĂ©tique et mĂ©taphysique en publiant Visions of Gerard. Pourquoi en parler quelque soixante ans plus tard? Parce que Maxime Catellier nous offre aujourdâhui une traduction en langue quĂ©bĂ©coise.
Jack Kerouac, NĂ© en 1922 Ă Lowell, dans le Massachusetts, au sein dâune famille franco-amĂ©ricaine, Jack Kerouac est considĂ©rĂ© comme lâun des auteurs amĂ©ricains les plus importants du XXe siĂšcle.
Son Ćuvre la plus connue, Sur la route (On The Road, 1957), est lâun des romans fondateurs de ce que Kerouac nomma lui-mĂȘme la Beat Generation.
Kerouac enfant Visions de GĂ©rard relate les impressions de Kerouac alors quâil Ă©tait enfant, et en particulier le choc quâil a ressenti lors de la mort tragique de son frĂšre aĂźnĂ©, GĂ©rard, ĂągĂ© de 9 ans.
Lâauteur le prĂ©sente comme un saint, comme un ange gardien qui aime chaque crĂ©ature et enseigne sa doctrine au petit Jack, alors ĂągĂ© de 4 ans. Lâaction se dĂ©roule Ă Lowell, Massachussetts.
Nouvelle traduction nĂ©cessaire Visions of Gerard a Ă©tĂ© traduit de lâanglais par Jean Autret et a paru aux Ăditions Gallimard en 1972.
Dans un long avant-propos, Maxime Catellier explique pourquoi une nouvelle traduction sâimposait: «Visions de GĂ©rard nâest pas un livre Ă©crit en anglais et parsemĂ© de bribes de joual. Câest un livre dont les images, le souffle, lâambiance, les odeurs sont franco-amĂ©ricaines. Kerouac a ensuite dĂ» le traduire dans sa tĂȘte pour pouvoir lâĂ©crire en anglais.»
Maxime Catellier redonne une saveur et une cadence que Jean Autret nâavait pas su vĂ©hiculer. Il ajoute que Jack Kerouac a tentĂ© «dâĂ©crire dans son parler natal, une langue purement orale, tout entiĂšre apprise dans la cabane de MĂ©mĂšre». Câest ce que nous entendons tout au long de Visions de GĂ©rard.
Je nâai pas lu la traduction de Jean Autret, mais jâimagine quâon nây trouve pas ces expressions qui Ă©maillent le texte ressuscitĂ© par Maxime Catellier: «Je mâen sacre. Va chier mon tabarnac! Heille, toĂ©! Ah, et tu as touchĂ© Ă se petite guĂ©digne? moi je crisse mon camp, astheure, enweille.»
Religion Catellier rehausse aussi le sentiment religieux trĂšs prĂ©sent dans lâenfance de Kerouac. On y lit que le cĆur de GĂ©rard sous son petit gilet est «aussi gros que le SacrĂ©-CĆur saignant plein dâĂ©pines quâon voit partout dans les humbles foyers du Lowell canadien-français».
Plus loin, Kerouac Ă©crit ce que sa mĂšre aimait bien lancer: «Je te le dis, GĂ©rard, tu vas finir prĂȘtre!» Il est aussi question de confessionnal oĂč «ce serait un gros pĂ©chĂ© dây cacher un pĂ©chĂ© comme ça».
Les enfants de chĆur rĂ©pondent amen, ainsi soit-il, sans trop savoir ce que cela veut dire. CâĂ©tait «une espĂšce de mot de passe mystique que le prĂȘtre invoquait sur lâautel». Quand au Je vous salue Marie, il se prononce avec une «innocente et pourtant pure clartĂ© intrinsĂšque».
RugositĂ© de la langue Cette traduction enquĂ©bĂ©coisĂ©e retrouve avec brio la rugositĂ© de la langue qui rĂ©sonnait depuis lâenfance dans la tĂȘte de Kerouac lorsquâĂ trente-quatre ans il dĂ©crivit en dix jours, la nuit sur une table de cuisine, lâagonie de son frĂšre de neuf ans quand lui en avait quatre."
Paul-François Sylvestre Chroniqueur https://l-express.ca/traduction-enquebecoisee-dun-roman-de-kerouac/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Reading the translated lyrics, youâll find that different cultures and languages express emotions and experiences differently than you might be used to Music: A Language On Its Own "As a native English speaker who, at this point in my life, almost exclusively speaks English, I have always loved listening to music in languages I donât understand. Maybe itâs the way I was raised- learning French in school, growing up with friends whose parent spoke another language while I was over and having a father who enjoyed Italian opera. There has always been this pull to listen more closely to words I cannot understand.
Some people find it hard to connect to music they cannot understand as they arenât completely sure what the artist is trying to say, which is a valid argument, but we are living in a world with access to translations.
Apple music and Spotify offer translation features on many songâs lyrics. However, I would recommend listening to the music without immediately trying to figure out what is being said. Instead, allow yourself to feel the beat and rhythm and try to assess the singerâs tone.
There have been times where Iâve been dancing around to songs, listening to them in the car, singing along based off the sounds Iâve memorized and then I finally read the lyrics and find out that itâs the most tragic things Iâve ever read. Sometimes sad thoughts are attached to really good beats. This new information doesnât change the fact that the song was enjoyable though. It might just change how I emote when I sing in the car.
Listening to music made in languages different than your own allows you to explore different cultures, methods of expressions as well as sounds since our typical âdo-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-doâ used in English isnât the standard scale around the world. Different languages make sounds that English does not have which translates into different methods of singing which I find the most interesting as I get to hear sounds that I forget humans can make. Youâll end up hearing instruments you wouldnât normally hear in English music as well.
Music from around the world can offer you so many new sounds and listening experiences that can broaden your outlook on music; it can also evoke emotions that could surprise you. You just need to allow yourself to not understand for a few minutes and just let yourself enjoy.
If you do end up reading the translated lyrics, youâll find that different cultures and languages express emotions and experiences differently than you might be used to. Sometimes, meaning can be giving to mundane things you wouldnât even think of as an English speaker. This can give you a new perspective when you see how feelings are explained and how someone from across that world can feel the same way as you put process it totally different because thatâs the way that their culture taught them to understand their own emotions.
Recently, RosalĂŹa performed two songs from her album Lux (an amazing album that I totally recommend) on SNL. Both of the songs that she performed were in Spanish which is her native language, but in general, this album features a total of fourteen languages.
The album follows themes of love, religion, devotion and personal transformation so, it makes sense why so many languages were featured; those themes are somewhat universal and not specific to just her world but the world of billions. Languages donât divide experience they just explain them differently.
RosalĂŹa herself doesnât speak all 14 langugaes that she sings in but her making an album that has parts that she wouldnât normally understand herself is so important and beautiful- all of these words, feelings and expression exist whether or not we know them. She allowed people to understand some of the words she sang better than she understood them herself.
This is so important in music consumption. When you cannot understand it, you have to remember that someone in the world can. The ability to listen to music from around the world is a modern gift that should be exploited.Â
Letting yourself explore the world through your headphones can be a nice reminder that you arenât the biggest thing in the world. It is also a good way to remember that the way youâre feeling isnât rare or unprecedented, they just come in all different sounds and shapes.
I have found comfort in know that people I would never be able to meet or understand if we started talking one on one can experience the same thing that I am. Through the music we enjoy we can become more connected than we could before but not more alike, not more human to one another. Thankfully there is no original experience. Thankfully we can explore different ways to get to know ourselves." https://www.hercampus.com/school/mcmaster/music-a-language-on-its-own/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Une étudiante chinoise remporte le premier prix de traduction littéraire grùce à son amour pour Nguyen Nhat Anh. Le matin du 20 octobre, la cérémonie de remise des prix de la deuxiÚme saison du concours de traduction littéraire vietnamien-chinois et sino-vietnamien, 2026, a eu lieu au Vietnam avec une liaison vidéo en direct depuis la Chine.
BĂĄo Thanh niĂȘn 20/10/2026
Mme Tran Oanh Oanh, lauréate du premier prix dans la catégorie traduction littéraire vietnamienne-chinoise, a partagé son expérience en ligne depuis la Chine lors de l'événement du matin du 20 octobre.
Le concours était organisé conjointement par le Consulat général de Chine à HÎ Chi Minh-Ville et la société par actions Chi Culture, avec le soutien de l'Université Hoa Sen (HÎ Chi Minh-Ville), de l'Université des études étrangÚres de Pékin (Centre de recherche sur le Vietnam), de l'Association des écrivains chinois, de l'Association des écrivains de HÎ Chi Minh-Ville et du Club de lecture de littérature chinoise au Vietnam.
OrganisĂ© simultanĂ©ment au Vietnam et en Chine, ce concours contribue Ă la dĂ©couverte et Ă la mise en valeur des talents de la traduction et Ă la promotion des Ă©changes culturels entre les deux pays. Il constitue Ă©galement une activitĂ© phare du cycle de manifestations « Ăchanges littĂ©raires Vietnam-Chine 2026 », qui prĂ©cĂšde le 76e anniversaire de lâĂ©tablissement des relations diplomatiques entre le Vietnam et la Chine.
Cette année, le concours a attiré plus de 1 200 participants venus de Chine et du Vietnam.
Deux Ă©tudiantes ont partagĂ© le premier prix. Dans la catĂ©gorie traduction vietnamien-chinois pour les candidats chinois, le premier prix a Ă©tĂ© dĂ©cernĂ© Ă Mme Tran Oanh Oanh (éèčèč), Ă©tudiante diplĂŽmĂ©e de l'UniversitĂ© des langues Ă©trangĂšres du Sichuan, pour sa traduction du poĂšme « Printemps mĂ»r » (Han Mac Tu) et d'un extrait de l'Ćuvre « Je vois des fleurs jaunes sur l'herbe verte » de l'Ă©crivain Nguyen Nhat Anh.
« Ce prix est non seulement une reconnaissance, mais aussi une grande source de motivation pour moi afin de continuer Ă apprendre et Ă explorer la littĂ©rature vietnamienne. J'adore "Je vois des fleurs jaunes sur l'herbe verte " et j'ai Ă©galement vu son adaptation cinĂ©matographique. Je connais aussi d'autres Ćuvres de l'auteur, comme "Donne-moi un billet pour l'enfance ", " Passe une bonne journĂ©e " et "Yeux bleus "... Ce sont des Ćuvres trĂšs innocentes et intĂ©ressantes qui me rappellent ma propre enfance », a confiĂ© Mme Tran.
Le deuxiĂšme prix a Ă©tĂ© dĂ©cernĂ© Ă Che Shihao (蜊äžè±Ș), de l'UniversitĂ© des langues Ă©trangĂšres du Sichuan, et Ă Shang Jiaqi (ć°äœłçŠ), de l'UniversitĂ© des langues Ă©trangĂšres de PĂ©kin. Le troisiĂšme prix a Ă©tĂ© attribuĂ© Ă Liao Jingfei (ć»ç«èČ), de l'UniversitĂ© du Yunnan, et Ă Chen Minjia (éæäœł), de l'UniversitĂ© normale du Yunnan.
En outre, le comitĂ© d'organisation a Ă©galement dĂ©cernĂ© des prix de consolation Ă Lu Xuanlin (ć蜩é), de l'UniversitĂ© des Ă©tudes Ă©trangĂšres de PĂ©kin ; Duan Yangxi (æź”æšç), de l'UniversitĂ© des nationalitĂ©s du Yunnan ; Luo Fen (çœèŹ), de l'UniversitĂ© normale du Yunnan ; Chen Huaiying (éæç), de l'UniversitĂ© d'Ă©conomie du commerce extĂ©rieur ; et Yang Lamping (æšćČćčł), de l'UniversitĂ© des nationalitĂ©s du Yunnan.
L'étudiante Nguyen Ngoc Kim Anh a remporté le premier prix dans la catégorie traduction littéraire sino-vietnamienne.
Vous aimerez peut-ĂȘtre Dans la catĂ©gorie traduction chinois-vietnamien pour les candidats vietnamiens, le premier prix a Ă©tĂ© dĂ©cernĂ© Ă l'Ă©tudiante Nguyen Ngoc Kim Anh de l'UniversitĂ© des sciences sociales et humaines (UniversitĂ© nationale du Vietnam Ă HĂŽ Chi Minh-Ville) pour sa traduction du poĂšme « Aux AmĂ©rindiens » (de Cat Dich Ma Gia) et d'un extrait de l'Ćuvre « La Peinture des arbres » (de Dong Tay).
« GrĂące Ă ce concours, j'ai compris que la traduction littĂ©raire ne se rĂ©sume pas Ă transfĂ©rer des mots d'une langue Ă l'autre. C'est un voyage Ă la recherche d'une harmonie entre deux cultures, afin que chaque mot, lorsqu'il franchit la barriĂšre de la langue, conserve l'Ă©motion et l'Ăąme de l'Ćuvre originale. Ce prix est Ă la fois un cadeau et un tremplin pour la suite de mon parcours », a dĂ©clarĂ© Kim Ănh.
Le deuxiÚme prix a été décerné à Nguyen Khanh Huyen de l'Université pédagogique n° 2 de Hanoï et à Nguyen Thi Bao Nhi de l'Université Dong Thap. Bach Thuy Kim Ngoc de l'Université des sciences sociales et humaines (Université nationale du Vietnam à HÎ Chi Minh-Ville) et Tran Thi Thanh Hoa de l'Université pédagogique n° 2 de Hanoï ont partagé le troisiÚme prix.
En outre, les prix de consolation ont été attribués à Doan Thi Phuong Linh, de l'Université ouverte de Hanoi ; Tran Thi Bich Vy, Université des langues étrangÚres et des technologies de l'information de HÎ Chi Minh-Ville ; Nguyen Quynh Nhu, Université de Hanoï ; Tran Thi Yen Linh, Université Thu Dau Mot ; et Nguyen Quyen Quyen, Université des langues étrangÚres et des technologies de l'information de HÎ Chi Minh-Ville.
Voici la traduction en chinois d'un extrait de « Je vois des fleurs jaunes sur l'herbe verte » par Mme Tran Oanh Oanh.
PHOTO : NGOC LONG
Un pont pour les Ă©changes culturels. Lors de son intervention, M. Tu Chau, consul gĂ©nĂ©ral par intĂ©rim de Chine Ă HĂŽ Chi Minh-Ville, a soulignĂ© que la littĂ©rature est un pont essentiel entre les esprits et les intellects. Par consĂ©quent, les traductions littĂ©raires de qualitĂ© transmettent non seulement la beautĂ© de la langue, mais aussi la profondeur de la pensĂ©e et la richesse de la culture. « JâespĂšre que vous profiterez de ce concours pour donner un nouvel Ă©lan Ă lâamitiĂ© entre nos deux pays, la perpĂ©tuant ainsi de gĂ©nĂ©ration en gĂ©nĂ©ration », a dĂ©clarĂ© M. Tu.
D'aprĂšs M. Tu, le concours de cette annĂ©e a attirĂ© 1 000 Ă©tudiants issus de 52 universitĂ©s et Ă©tablissements d'enseignement supĂ©rieur vietnamiens, ainsi que 288 Ă©tudiants provenant de 30 universitĂ©s et Ă©tablissements d'enseignement supĂ©rieur chinois. L'ampleur et la diversitĂ© de cette participation tĂ©moignent du vif intĂ©rĂȘt que portent les jeunes des deux pays Ă la langue et Ă la culture de l'autre, et reflĂštent Ă©galement le dynamisme croissant des Ă©changes littĂ©raires sino-vietnamiens, a dĂ©clarĂ© le consul gĂ©nĂ©ral de Chine.
M. Xuzhou prend la parole lors de cet événement.
PHOTO : NGOC LONG
Vous aimerez peut-ĂȘtre
Les enfants de l'école primaire Nguyen Tri Phuong suivent fiÚrement les enseignements de l'oncle Ho.
L'Académie politique récapitule les concours organisés pour célébrer le 75e anniversaire de sa fondation.
Ă compter du 1er dĂ©cembre, les Ă©lĂšves de 5e, 9e et 12e annĂ©e passeront des examens communs dans certaines matiĂšres. Le traducteur Nguyen Le Chi, vice-prĂ©sident du Conseil de traduction littĂ©raire de l'Association des Ă©crivains de HĂŽ Chi Minh-Ville et directeur de Chi Culture JSC (Chibooks), a indiquĂ© que lors du concours de cette annĂ©e, les participants ont eu l'opportunitĂ© de dĂ©montrer leurs compĂ©tences en traduction d'Ćuvres cĂ©lĂšbres d'auteurs vietnamiens et chinois, tels que Liu Zhenyun, Dong Xi, Li Yueyue, Fan Yiping, Yang Qingci, Tian Xiang, Yang Ke... et Nguyen Binh, Che Lan Vien, The Lu, Han Mac Tu, To Huu, Xuan Dieu, Bang Viet, Le Minh Khue, Nguyen Nhat Anh, Nguyen Huy Thiep, Ma Van Khang...
« Grùce à cette expérience, les participants ont acquis une meilleure compréhension du Vietnam et de la Chine, de leurs peuples, de leurs cultures et de leur richesse spirituelle, ce qui les motive fortement à poursuivre leurs efforts dans l'apprentissage des langues étrangÚres. Nous espérons et croyons que ce concours contribuera à rendre la jeune génération des deux pays plus confiante, plus aimante et plus généreuse⊠», a déclaré Mme Chi.
Le professeur agrĂ©gĂ© Nguyen Tan Duc, vice-recteur de l'universitĂ© Hoa Sen, a dĂ©clarĂ© que ce concours offrait aux Ćuvres littĂ©raires vietnamiennes une plus grande visibilitĂ© auprĂšs des lecteurs chinois. RĂ©ciproquement, de nombreuses richesses de la littĂ©rature chinoise Ă©taient Ă©galement mieux diffusĂ©es auprĂšs du public vietnamien. « La langue n'est pas seulement un moyen de communication, mais aussi un pont entre les cultures », a affirmĂ© le professeur Duc.
Mme TĂŽ OĂĄnh OĂĄnh, directrice de l'Institut asiatique de l'UniversitĂ© des Ă©tudes Ă©trangĂšres de PĂ©kin, a Ă©galement indiquĂ© que les laurĂ©ats de 2026 perçoivent la traduction non seulement comme une compĂ©tence de conversion linguistique, mais aussi comme une vocation noble, un vecteur de dialogue entre les civilisations. « Vous avez contribuĂ© Ă rapprocher les cultures chinoise et vietnamienne par-delĂ les frontiĂšres, touchant ainsi le cĆur de chacun », a-t-elle dĂ©clarĂ©." https://www.vietnam.vn/fr/nu-sinh-trung-quoc-gianh-giai-nhat-dich-van-hoc-tu-niem-yeu-thich-nguyen-nhat-anh #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
L'Institut coréen de la traduction littéraire participera aux Utopiales 2026 à Nantes 20.10.2026 à 11h24
"SEOUL, 20 oct. (Yonhap) -- L'Institut coréen de la traduction littéraire (LTI Korea) a fait savoir ce mardi qu'il participerait à la 27e édition des Utopiales qui aura lieu à Nantes, en France, du 29 octobre au 1er novembre.
Les Utopiales, un festival international de science-fiction, considéré comme l'un des plus grands événements du genre en Europe, ouvrent les imaginaires et les horizons à la croisée des sciences, de la littérature, du cinéma, de la bande dessinée, des mangas et des jeux.
Lors de l'Ă©dition de cette annĂ©e, quelque 280 personnes, dont des Ă©crivains, des traducteurs et des scientifiques, participeront Ă l'Ă©vĂ©nement, oĂč 124 programmes sont prĂ©vus.
LTI Korea y participera autour du thÚme «La littérature imaginaire coréenne» et les romanciers Kim Bo-young, Park Seo-ryeon et Dolki Min prendront part à sept programmes, dont un sur la «science-fiction coréenne», afin de rencontrer des lecteurs.
Les trois écrivains monteront sur scÚne avec des auteurs de science-fiction de renommée internationale, comme Robert Jackson Bennett, lauréat du prix Hugo du meilleur roman, et Audrey Pleynet, lauréate du prix Rosny aßné.
Ensuite, les trois romanciers coréens rencontreront des lecteurs à la librairie Les Nouveautés, située dans le 10e arrondissement de Paris, le 2 novembre, afin de présenter leur démarche créative et leur univers littéraire à travers leurs ouvrages traduits en français, «De l'origine des espÚces» de Kim, «Magical Girl» de Park et «Prendre Forme» de Min.
«Cet Ă©vĂ©nement constitue une occasion importante de faire dĂ©couvrir aux lecteurs français l'originalitĂ© et le potentiel d'expansion de la littĂ©rature imaginaire corĂ©enne», a dĂ©clarĂ© la prĂ©sidente de LTI Korea, Chon Soo-young. «A l'occasion du 140e anniversaire de l'Ă©tablissement des relations diplomatiques CorĂ©e-France, nous continuerons Ă prĂ©senter diverses Ćuvres et voix de la littĂ©rature corĂ©enne Ă la France.» rainmaker0220@yna.co.kr (FIN)" https://m-fr.yna.co.kr/view/AFR20261020001200884?section=sports-culture/index #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Oxford University Press (OUP) have this month added a variety of new words to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
Dictionary includes new words from around the globe Freddie Russel Oxford University Press (OUP) have this month added a variety of new words to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).Oxford City Guide
As the English language becomes more global, usages from around the world have become vital to include in a dictionary, and this OED release is no exception. New words include âShadeeshâ from Bermuda to refer to chorizo, and âhammaâ, a friendly Bermudian address term.
Caribbean and East African words added include the Trinidadian word âCanboulayâ, referring to the celebrations that were the islandâs carnival predecessor; the Ugandan term âCampuserâ referring to a university student and borrowed from America in the early 20th Century; and the Ethiopian word Azmari (1865) for a type of Ethiopian poet.
The word âKiwiâ, referring to a fruit or a colloquialism for New Zealanders, has been updated with a new definition, as a colloquialism for the Maori language too. This is not the only addition from the antipodes, with the Maori loan word âwhakapapaâ initially a noun used to refer to lineage, added to the newest edition.
Closer to Oxford, folklore of the British Isles is reflected in this new update, with âBwbachâ, a word for a Welsh supernatural creature with usage dating back to 1724 included for the first time. Other Welsh words have been added, including twpsyn, meaning an idiot or a fool.Oxford City Guide
The modern world too has influenced the OEDâs choice of new words â trends like âovernight oatsâ and âhot yogaâ now have official dictionary entries, and after a decade where social media seemed inescapable, the social media sense of a âtimelineâ as a collation of posts has now been added.
Etymologies too have been updated, with new links and lineages shown for words. The etymology of âfosterâ has been linked back to Old English, originating from the word for âfoodâ, as to foster means to provide for someone, historically including sustenance.
The dictionary has also updated a variety of etymologies, adding new Middle English borrowings. Yet as much as the OED may seem a timeless and steadfast institution, OUP more widely is today facing various difficulties. Over the last few months, the Press has faced strikes over plans to offshore nearly 50 finance jobs to India..." https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2026/10/18/oxford-university-press-dictionary-new-words/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Under-resourced Hausa language tools routinely miss idiom, innuendo and praise poetry, raising the risk of false translations, moderation errors and misguided newsroom decisions.
" AI can translate Hausa words but still misses what they mean Noah Wire 19 Oct 2026
Cartoon · AI-generated
Under-resourced Hausa language tools routinely miss idiom, innuendo and praise poetry, raising the risk of false translations, moderation errors and misguided newsroom decisions.
In newsrooms increasingly tempted to lean on artificial intelligence for translation and verification, Hausa remains a sharp reminder that fluent-looking output can still be badly wrong. The core problem, as Legit.ngâs head of the Hausa desk Salisu Ibrahim argues, is not simply that machines misread words; it is that they miss the cultural logic that gives those words meaning. A phrase, a proverb or a praise chant can easily be flattened into a hostile or misleading label when the system has no grasp of local idiom, social context or rhetorical convention. Research on Hausa NLP has long pointed to the same structural weakness: the language is still under-resourced, with too little annotated data and too little model support for reliable automated handling.
That matters because Hausa is not a marginal language. It is spoken by more than 100 million people across West Africa, yet it remains poorly represented in the datasets that shape moderation, translation and fact-checking tools. The result is a predictable pattern: systems trained mainly on English tend to misclassify Hausa posts, particularly when they rely on idiom, metaphor or political allusion. Hausa AI Studio has argued that this remains a live quality-control problem, and in July 2026 it said benchmarking of leading models still produced errors within ten prompts, underlining how fragile current performance remains.
Ibrahimâs article uses Hausa rhetorical forms to show why literal reading is so dangerous. Karin magana, the languageâs proverb tradition, often encodes meaning indirectly, while habaici, or innuendo, can carry criticism that appears harmless to an outsider. Kirari, the praise-poetry tradition, can sound like bravado or even violence to an automated system even when it is simply honouring a person or cause. That cultural depth is precisely what general-purpose tools struggle to detect, and it helps explain why researchers working on offensive Hausa datasets have stressed the difficulty of distinguishing banter, coded insult and genuine threat. The weakness is not confined to translation quality; it goes to the heart of whether the machine understands what kind of speech it is reading.
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Build yours â Or contact@noahwire.com The editorial risk is heightened by the confidence with which these systems answer. As Legit.ng notes, a tool that does not know it is uncertain can prompt editors to act on a false classification as though it were settled fact. That danger becomes larger in a media environment where many users already treat AI-generated summaries as fact-checks. The article points to previous public examples in Nigeria and elsewhere in which automated tools misread events, mislabelled content or failed to recognise the context in which a post appeared. This is not just a technical limitation; it is a newsroom governance problem, because a confident wrong answer can shape publication decisions, takedowns or accusations before a human expert has intervened.
There are also broader platform consequences. Automated translation is often used in moderation systems, but poor Hausa handling can lead to either wrongful removal of legitimate speech or the failure to detect harmful material. The article cites cases in which extremist or misleading content in African languages circulated because systems did not parse it properly, a risk that academic work on Hausa NLP has repeatedly linked to limited training data and weak language representation. In parallel, the wider African AI market is beginning to respond: TechRadar recently reported on MORENA, a 1.5 billion-parameter model from Vambo AI built for 12 African languages, including Hausa, as evidence that more tailored systems may outperform larger general-purpose ones. Even so, the articleâs underlying point stands: better tools are emerging, but newsroom practice is still lagging behind the reality of linguistic complexity.
The practical response, Ibrahim argues, is to slow down before deploying AI on Hausa content. That means insisting on human sign-off from Hausa-speaking editors, using native speakers in annotation and calibration, testing tools against real idioms before trusting them operationally, and setting uncertainty thresholds so low-confidence outputs are escalated rather than treated as final. It also means logging human overrides so repeated failure patterns can be identified, and supporting broader data-building efforts rather than waiting for commercial platforms to solve the problem unaided. The most recent work around Hausa transcription and special-purpose quality assurance points in the same direction: specialised language support works better than generic automation. For now, the lesson for newsrooms is simple. If a tool cannot understand the languageâs subtleties, it should not be allowed to decide what those subtleties mean."
Noah Wire
19 Oct 2026
https://tomorrowspublisher.today/news/ai-can-translate-hausa-words-but-still-misses-what-they-mean-a8a60e641c92/index.html #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Ahmet Ămit will welcome 20 translators and nine publishers who have brought his works to readers in different languages to Istanbul from Oct. 20 to 22. Prominent Turkish author to host intâl translators, publishers in Istanbul
"According to a statement by Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts, a panel titled âFrom Istanbul to the World: Ahmet Ămitâs Journey Through Wordsâ will be held at Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts on Oct. 21.
Organized under the theme âTranslation, Publishing and Reader Stories from Around the World,â the event will explore how Ămitâs works have been received in different cultures, the linguistic and cultural challenges encountered during translation and the international circulation of Turkish literature.
Focusing on the authorâs journey across the literary world through translations ranging from Chinese and Portuguese to German and Mongolian, the panel will bring together translators and publishers to share their experiences.
Following an opening address by TĂŒlay GĂŒngen, general manager of Yapı Kredi Culture, Arts and Publishing, Ămit will deliver a speech titled âThe Journey of Stories.â
The first session, âBringing Ahmet Ămit into Other Languages,â moderated by Nermin MollaoÄlu, will examine the challenges of translating the authorâs works, cultural transfer and the translatorâs role in recreating a literary text.
A second session under the same title will focus on translating Ămitâs literary world into Russian, the literary bridge between TĂŒrkiye and Italy established through translation and the publication of his works in Spanish and Slovenian.
Moderated by Ayça Ăakmak, the session âAhmet Ămit Through the Publisherâs Eyesâ will examine the publication of Turkish literature in countries including Pakistan, Bulgaria and Croatia, as well as publishersâ experiences of introducing the works to local readers.
Another session led by Ăakmak, titled âIstanbul, History and Memory,â will explore how the cityâs multilayered character is reflected in translation, cultural exchange through literature and the role of crime fiction in understanding historical events.
The dayâs final session, âBeyond the Boundaries of Crime Fiction,â will address how suspense and atmosphere are preserved in translation, the genreâs capacity to encourage critical reflection and literatureâs contribution to dialogue between TĂŒrkiye and Greece.
Moderated by Zehra Dilaver, the session will feature experiences from translators working in English, Arabic and Greek." October 19 2026 09:16:09 https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/amp/prominent-turkish-author-to-host-intl-translators-publishers-in-istanbul-228265 #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
The translation and three-volume commentary of Hafezâs ghazals into Italian is considered one of his most important scholarly works Professor Giovanni Maria DâErme, the late professor of the University of Naples and translator and commentator of Hafezâs Divan into Italian, was honoured at a ceremony commemorating Hafez "Iran honors Italian translator and commentator of Hafezâs Divan Minister of Agriculture Jihad Gholamreza Nouri-Ghezeljeh, who has traveled to Rome to take part in international food security programs, honored the scientific and cultural services of Professor Giovanni Maria DâErme, the late professor of the University of Naples and translator and commentator of Hafezâs Divan into Italian, at a ceremony commemorating Hafez. During the ceremony, which was held in the presence of Iranâs Ambassador to Italy, a gift was presented to Professor DâErmeâs son, and his efforts in introducing Hafezâs poetry and Iranâs literary heritage to the Italian community were appreciated. Addressing the event, Nouri Ghezeljeh praised the services of Iranologists and those active in introducing Iranian culture and literature in Italy. Professor Giovanni Maria DâErme was one of the prominent professors of Persian language and literature at the University of Naples, who devoted an important part of his scientific activities to research on Iranâs classical literature. Published between 2004 and 2008, the translation and three-volume commentary of Hafezâs ghazals into Italian is considered one of his most important scholarly works. Meanwhile, Giacomo Longhi, a researcher and translator of Persian literary works into Italian, delivered a speech on ways to expand Persian language education. Nouri-Ghezeljeh traveled to Rome at the invitation of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to participate in the World Food Day ceremony and the 54th session of the Committee on World Food Security. Source: IRNA" 18 October 2026 https://nournews.ir/en/news/353292/iran-honors-italian-translator-and-commentator-of-hafez-divan #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Lauréat-es de l'édition 2026 du concours de traduction Saint-JérÎme, organisé chaque année par les Nations unies
AmĂ©lie Guffond, fraĂźchement diplĂŽmĂ©e de la FacultĂ© de traduction et dâinterprĂ©tation (UnitĂ© de français), et Matthew TrojiÄ, Ă©tudiant en master Ă l'UnitĂ© dâanglais, sont laurĂ©at-es de l'Ă©dition 2026 du concours de traduction Saint-JĂ©rĂŽme, organisĂ© chaque annĂ©e par les Nations unies. Connu pour avoir rĂ©alisĂ© la Vulgate, la traduction officielle de la Bible en latin Ă partir des textes originaux en hĂ©breu et en grec aux IVe et Ve siĂšcles, Saint-JĂ©rĂŽme est le saint patron des traducteurs et traductrices. Il est cĂ©lĂ©brĂ© chaque annĂ©e le 30 septembre." 15 octobre 2026 - UNIGE https://www.unige.ch/lejournal/distinctions/printemps-2026/amelie-guffond-matthew-trojic/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
«Dieu nâa pas de frontiĂšres», affirme le cardinal Koovakad depuis Londres Lors dâune messe prĂ©sidĂ©e ce dimanche Ă la cathĂ©drale de Westminster, le prĂ©fet du dicastĂšre pour le Dialogue interreligieux a invitĂ© chacun Ă rester fidĂšle Ă son identitĂ© chrĂ©tienne, «afin de pouvoir rencontrer les autres sans crainte ni confusion ». Le dialogue entre personnes de confessions diffĂ©rentes, a-t-il soulignĂ©, permet de surmonter «lâignorance et les prĂ©jugĂ©s» et de collaborer Ă la rĂ©solution pacifique des conflits. Edoardo Giribaldi â CitĂ© du Vatican
La figure biblique de Cyrus, roi de Perse et non israĂ©lite, donc Ă©tranger au peuple Ă©lu mais nĂ©anmoins dĂ©signĂ© par Dieu comme son libĂ©rateur, montre Ă quel point lâaction divine peut surprendre et nâest pas limitĂ©e «par les frontiĂšres gĂ©ographiques, lâethnie, la culture ou lâappartenance religieuse» a affirmĂ© le cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, prĂ©fet du dicastĂšre pour le Dialogue interreligieux, alors quâil prĂ©sidait la messe cĂ©lĂ©brĂ©e dimanche 18 octobre, dans la cathĂ©drale de Westminster, Ă Londres. Le cardinal se trouve dans la capitale britannique depuis le 13 octobre et y restera jusquâau 22 pour participer Ă une sĂ©rie dâĂ©vĂ©nements Ă caractĂšre interreligieux. Son sĂ©jour Ă Londres est lâoccasion de rĂ©affirmer que, dans «un monde de plus en plus multiconfessionnel, il est plus nĂ©cessaire que jamais de promouvoir des relations cordiales entre les diffĂ©rentes religions».
ReconnaĂźtre le «vrai et le saint» Ce quâaffirme la dĂ©claration conciliaire Nostra Aetate concernant la capacitĂ© de lâĂglise Ă reconnaĂźtre dans les autres religions ce qui est «vrai et saint» ne signifie pas renier sa propre foi, a prĂ©cisĂ© le cardinal dans son homĂ©lie. Cela signifie plutĂŽt jeter des ponts par le dialogue, concrĂ©tisant ainsi le souhait du Pape François «afin que chacun puisse trouver en lâautre non pas un ennemi, ni un concurrent, mais un frĂšre Ă accueillir et Ă embrasser».
La grandeur de lâaction divine Le cardinal Koovakad a ensuite Ă©voquĂ© la figure de Cyrus, protagoniste de la premiĂšre lecture, pour rappeler comment lâaction divine peut transcender toutes sortes de frontiĂšres. Cela ne signifie pas pour autant que les diffĂ©rences religieuses sont sans importance ou que toutes les confessions sont identiques. La foi invite plutĂŽt à «reconnaĂźtre que lâaction de Dieu est plus grande que notre capacitĂ© Ă la comprendre».
Les vertus du dialogue interreligieux Les trois vertus thĂ©ologales Ă©voquĂ©es par saint Paul dans la PremiĂšre lettre aux Thessaloniciens sont Ă©galement essentielles pour construire des relations et favoriser des rencontres interreligieuses authentiques, selon le cardinal. Tout dâabord la foi, qui permet de rester «fermes dans notre identitĂ© chrĂ©tienne, afin de pouvoir rencontrer les autres sans crainte ni confusion». Ensuite, lâamour, qui signifie ne pas rĂ©duire son prochain Ă une Ă©tiquette ou Ă un stĂ©rĂ©otype, mais reconnaĂźtre la personne, avec sa tradition et son histoire. Enfin, lâespĂ©rance: croire, comme lâa rappelĂ© LĂ©on XIV, que «Dieu peut transformer les cĆurs et faire naĂźtre lâamitiĂ© lĂ oĂč rĂ©gnait auparavant la peur».
LĂ©on XIV: «Face Ă la radicalisation, chrĂ©tiens et musulmans doivent Ćuvrer pour la paix» 25/03/2026 LĂ©on XIV: «Face Ă la radicalisation, chrĂ©tiens et musulmans doivent Ćuvrer pour la paix» Ă CĂ©sar et Ă Dieu Le cardinal sâest ensuite attardĂ© sur le passage de lâĂvangile lu pendant la cĂ©lĂ©bration eucharistique, dans lequel JĂ©sus prononce la cĂ©lĂšbre phrase: «Rendez donc Ă CĂ©sar ce qui est Ă CĂ©sar, et Ă Dieu ce qui est Ă Dieu». Un «ordre clair des prioritĂ©s». «La piĂšce de monnaie porte lâeffigie de CĂ©sar, affirme le prĂ©fet, mais chaque ĂȘtre humain porte en lui lâimage de Dieu». Si lâon peut remettre une piĂšce Ă lâempereur, il est fondamental de se donner soi-mĂȘme Ă Dieu. Un enseignement qui «revĂȘt une importance particuliĂšre pour les relations interreligieuses».
âSi chaque ĂȘtre humain porte en lui lâimage de Dieu, personne ne peut ĂȘtre traitĂ© comme un ennemi et les diffĂ©rences religieuses ne peuvent en aucun cas devenir un prĂ©texte Ă la haine, Ă la discrimination ou Ă la violence.â
La nature du prochain La collaboration entre les diffĂ©rentes confessions constitue donc un «service rendu Ă toute la famille humaine». Lorsque des personnes appartenant Ă des religions diffĂ©rentes se rencontrent en toute sincĂ©ritĂ©, a soulignĂ© le cardinal, «elles peuvent surmonter lâignorance et les prĂ©jugĂ©s, dissiper les malentendus et identifier des domaines dâintĂ©rĂȘt commun. Elles peuvent collaborer en vue dâun rĂšglement pacifique des conflits et pour mettre fin aux guerres et Ă la violence». Il ne sâagit pas simplement de diplomatie ou de courtoisie sociale, mais de lâĂvangile vĂ©cu concrĂštement: «Le prochain nâest pas seulement celui qui appartient Ă notre communautĂ© ou qui partage nos convictions de foi. Le prochain est la personne que Dieu place devant nous pour quâelle soit aimĂ©e et dont nous sommes appelĂ©s Ă reconnaĂźtre, respecter et apprĂ©cier la dignité».
La diversitĂ© au Royaume-Uni Ă cet Ă©gard, Mgr Koovakad a rendu hommage au Royaume-Uni, et Ă Londres en particulier, pour les exemples quâils offrent quant aux opportunitĂ©s et aux dĂ©fis liĂ©s Ă la diversitĂ© religieuse. «Cette diversitĂ© peut devenir une grande bĂ©nĂ©diction lorsquâelle sâaccompagne de respect mutuel et dâun engagement pour le bien commun. Elle peut toutefois aussi devenir une source de tension, lorsque les diffĂ©rences sont instrumentalisĂ©es pour alimenter la peur ou la division.» La communautĂ© chrĂ©tienne est donc appelĂ©e Ă rester fidĂšle au Christ et, dans le mĂȘme temps, Ă aller Ă la rencontre des personnes dâautres religions «avec humilitĂ© et respect», en reconnaissant en chacune dâelles lâimage de Dieu. En dĂ©but dâaprĂšs-midi, le cardinal a participĂ© Ă un Ă©vĂ©nement interreligieux avec des reprĂ©sentants de la communautĂ© juive, Ă nouveau dans la cathĂ©drale de Westminster sur le thĂšme «En priĂšre pour la paix».
Dans son homĂ©lie, le cardinal a saluĂ© lâarchevĂȘque de Westminster et prĂ©sident de la ConfĂ©rence Ă©piscopale dâAngleterre et du Pays de Galles, Mgr Charles Phillip Richard Moth; lâarchevĂȘque de Birmingham et coprĂ©sident de la Commission internationale anglicane-catholique (ARCIC), Bernard Longley, ainsi que lâĂ©vĂȘque de Nottingham, Patrick McKinney."
«Dieu nâa pas de frontiĂšres», affirme le cardinal Koovakad depuis Londres - Vatican News https://www.vaticannews.va/fr/vatican/news/2026-10/cardinal-koovakad-dialogue-interreligieux-londres-jainisme.html #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
âLoreâ crowned the 2026 social media word of the year, according to Sprout Social 'Lore' received over 10 million mentions as social users shift from surface-level content to deeper narrative and context
CHICAGO, Oct. 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sprout Social (Nasdaq: SPT), a leading AI-powered Social Intelligence platform, today released its second annual Social Media Dictionary, a comprehensive analysis of the words, phrases and viral movements that shaped global culture in 2026.
The report analyzes public social media posts across major platforms throughout the year to reveal the key words shaping online culture. Sproutâs analysis breaks down what this changing language tells us about shifting user preferences, evolving consumer behavior, and broader cultural trends, highlighting a clear move away from quick, surface-level content toward depth, real community, and human effort.
The Top Words of 2026
At the top of the list, Lore was named Sprout's 2026 Word of the Year after generating over 10 million social mentions. Driven by everyday trends like "realizing your friend has lore," the term's rise reflects a broader cultural shift away from fast, surface-level posts toward content rich in context, history, and narrative. McDonaldâs proved the commercial value of this shift by tapping into The Backrooms, a viral internet mythology that inspired an A24 film. The brand's lore-inspired campaign earned over 16.6 million views and 744k engagements.
"Lore isn't just a viral moment, it's a signal of how audiences want to engage with brands and culture in 2026," said Scott Morris, Chief Marketing Officer at Sprout Social. "The future of social strategy isn't about chasing surface-level attention or fleeting trends. It's about understanding the deeper context and narrative that audiences are craving, and showing up with content that rewards that curiosity rather than exploiting it. When brands invest in that kind of depth, relevance and connection can grow exponentially."
The other top words of 2026 included Slop, which generated 8.8 million mentions across platforms as audiences continued to push back against low-quality, mass-produced AI content.
The year also saw Niche become a badge of honor, mentioned 4.2 million times as communities retreated from algorithm-driven feeds into smaller corners of shared interest. Meanwhile, Maxxing reached 3.5 million mentions and broke into frontline news coverage, appearing in over 67k news articles as media outlets tracked culture's obsession with optimization.
The Year's Top Marketing Words
The Dictionary also identified the terms marketers leaned on most in 2026. These concepts moved from social feeds directly into campaign briefs, executive approvals, and brand positioning, reflecting the strategies that shaped marketing throughout the year.
Unhinged emerged as a key term with 4.6 million mentions, describing the chaotic brand voice popularized by consumer brands, such as Grilloâs Pickles, whose viral "pickle sees the Statue of Liberty" stunt generated $8.5 million in Earned Media Value. Meanwhile, Episodic content gained strong momentum with 115,960 mentions, as 57% of social users expressed a desire for original, multi-part brand video series that mirror TV storytelling.
Looking Ahead to 2027
While the Dictionary looked back, it also looked forward to the words set to define digital conversation in 2027. Polyester (264,424 mentions) is being used figuratively by Gen Z to describe anything cheap or over-polished, signaling a sharp sustainability and content backlash against synthetic marketing.
Meanwhile, terms like Influencer Fatigue (62,238 mentions) reflect growing audience weariness with paid influencer posts, and viral conversation surrounding MySpace (203,070 mentions) underscores a broader hunger for nostalgic, less-algorithmic corners of the internet.
"Looking toward 2027, we are seeing an incredible opportunity for brands to stand out through genuine creativity and effort," added Morris. "Audiences are craving content that feels thoughtful, authentic, and distinctly human. Success in the year ahead will belong to brands that lean into bold, creative storytelling, leverage nostalgia, and create meaningful experiences that build lasting, trust-based relationships.â
Read the full 2026 Social Media Dictionary [here] or learn more about Sprout Social [here].
About Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a leading AI-powered social intelligence platform, built on the belief that All Business is Socialâ . Powered by Trellis, Sproutâs proprietary AI agent, the platform is designed to transform real-time social media signals into actionable insights that drive business forward. Consistently recognized as a top software by G2, Sprout enables brands to deliver smarter, faster business impact through a suite of solutions including comprehensive publishing and engagement, customer care, influencer marketing, advocacy and predictive media intelligence. Sproutâs software operates across all major social networks and digital platforms. For more information about Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT), visit sproutsocial.com." October 14, 2026 09:01 ETÂ | Source: Sprout Social, Inc https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/14/3380805/0/en/lore-crowned-the-2026-social-media-word-of-the-year-according-to-sprout-social.html #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Les GML rĂ©pondent diffĂ©remment dâune langue Ă lâautre Pour Ă©viter les biais culturels, les managers ont intĂ©rĂȘt Ă tester leurs questions dans plusieurs langues
Une nouvelle Ă©tude rĂ©vĂšle que la langue que vous utilisez pour interroger lâIA gĂ©nĂ©rative peut avoir un impact sur ses rĂ©ponses. Pour Ă©viter les biais culturels, les managers ont intĂ©rĂȘt Ă tester leurs questions dans plusieurs langues.
Les GML rĂ©pondent diffĂ©remment dâune langue Ă lâautre
Par Harvard Business Review France Publié le 18 octobre 2026 à 08h00.
Une nouvelle Ă©tude rĂ©vĂšle que la langue que vous utilisez pour interroger lâIA gĂ©nĂ©rative peut avoir un impact sur ses rĂ©ponses. Les chercheurs ont analysĂ© plus de 10 000 rĂ©ponses de deux modĂšles de pointe : GPT, dâOpenAI, et Ernie, de Baidu. Ils les ont questionnĂ©s sur deux concepts fondamentaux de la psychologie culturelle : lâorientation sociale (la maniĂšre dont les individus se dĂ©finissent par rapport aux autres) et le style cognitif (la maniĂšre dont les individus traitent habituellement les informations)..."
https://www.hbrfrance.fr/innovation/les-gml-repondent-differemment-dune-langue-a-lautre-61391 #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Volume 5, Issue 2 (2026) 2026.  iii, 118 pp. Publishing status: Printing; Print edition expected October 2026 Published online on 15 October 2026 © John Benjamins Publishing Company  Subscription info
Table of Contents
Articles
Emplotting the self:Â Migrant self-translation in digital transnational spaces
Sara El-Sayed & Salah Basalamah | pp.â159â184
Bibliomigrancy from periphery to semi-periphery:Â Hispanophone and Hispanic Caribbean literature in Swedish translation, 1990â2015
Yvonne Lindqvist | pp.â185â210
Translation and imperial ambitions:Â Language dynamics in the Italian colonization of Libya
Mohamed Ebrahim Alafi Alshniet, Mustafa Abdullah Abdulrahman Bashir, Haani Belhaj & Hamza Ethelb | pp.â211â236
From reality to simulacra:Â Eco-translation and the visual representation of the environment
Ali Arjmandi & Samin Salajegheh | pp.â237â261
Book reviews
Claire Chambers & Ipek Demir (eds.). 2024. Translation and Decolonisation: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Reviewed by Siri Nergaard | pp.â262â264
Ali Almanna & Juliane House (eds.). 2023. Translation Politicised and Politics Translated
Reviewed by Angyang Li & Yan Qin | pp.â265â270
Regina Rogl,Daniela Schlager & Hanna Risku (eds.). 2025. Field Research on Translation and Interpreting
Reviewed by Zhaolong Liu | pp.â271â276
Subjects and metadata
Main BIC Subject
Main BISAC Subject
29 chapters and more than 60 exercises and activities covering vocabulary, grammar, and everyday conversations The textbook aims to address a shortage of updated educational resources for Haitian Creole, the third-most-spoken language in Florida
"A University Of Florida Professor Creates Haitian Creole Textbook To Preserve Language And Culture The textbook aims to address a shortage of updated educational resources for Haitian Creole, the third-most-spoken language in Florida
A University of Florida professor is working to modernize Haitian Creole education with a new textbook designed to address outdated learning materials while strengthening language accessibility and cultural representation, The Independent Florida Alligator reports.
Benjamin Hebblethwaite, a professor in the universityâs Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, collaborated with University of Alabama assistant professor David Tezil to develop KreyĂČl pale, a Haitian Creole textbook published in August 2025 following nine years of work.
"We wanted to bring some more balance where we showed the culture in a more well-rounded, more representative way,â Hebblethwaite told the outlet.
The textbook features 29 chapters and more than 60 exercises and activities covering vocabulary, grammar, and everyday conversations. Lessons address practical situations, including ordering food, dating, and searching for employment, to help students develop conversational skills.
The resource also offers Haitian American students an opportunity to strengthen their connection to their heritage.
Georffrey Pierre, a first-generation University of Florida student, told The Alligator that speaking Haitian Creole helps him maintain relationships with family members who are not fluent in English. He also emphasized the importance of making language-learning resources more widely available.
Duchnah Richard, another first-generation student, said she speaks Haitian Creole but struggles to write it. She believes the textbook could help students navigate language barriers and improve their literacy skills.
The initiative addresses a broader challenge facing Haitian communities, where some native speakers have limited access to formal instruction in reading and writing their language.
KreyĂČl pale is available as a free PDF through the University of Florida Digital Collections, expanding access to Haitian Creole education beyond the university classroom." by Sidnee Michelle October 18, 2026 https://www.blackenterprise.com/haitian-creole-textbook-language-culture/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
"The challenge in making the national language a vessel for unity
Drawing from the spirit of tolerance in East Malaysia, Bahasa Melayu can begin to be viewed not as a tool of division, but as a bridge that unites.
From Moaz Nair
In the noble effort to elevate Bahasa Melayu as the core of national identity, a topic frequently discussed among language enthusiasts is the level of mastery and fluency of the national language among multi-ethnic communities.
Most narratives typically focus on daily communication, the corporate sector, or administrative affairs.
However, from a sociolinguistic perspective, there is a dimension that is rarely explored deeply but carries significant influence over language assimilation: the use of the national language within the religious and cultural expressions of non-Muslim communities.
On one hand, there are high expectations for all citizens to anchor their lives around Bahasa Melayu. On the other, when touching upon the spiritual realm, a more complex dynamic emerges.
Understanding these contrasting approaches is not meant to assign blame, but rather to examine how language can function more inclusively as a bridge for unity without disrupting established socio-religious sensitivities.
Historical framework and the unique situation in the peninsula
The difficulty of expanding the use of Bahasa Melayu in non-Muslim religious affairs in Peninsular Malaysia is rooted in a combination of legal history, demographics, and the evolution of the languageâs corpus itself.
Under Article 160 of the Federal Constitution, Malay identity is clearly defined by three main elements: professing the religion of Islam, habitually speaking the Malay language, and conforming to Malay custom. This close alignment has caused Bahasa Melayu to evolve with a heavy Islamic imprint over hundreds of years through the absorption of Arabic theological terms into everyday vocabulary.
To preserve harmony and prevent theological confusion, most states in the peninsula enforce the Enactment on the Control and Restriction of the Propagation of Non-Islamic Religions, guided by the principles of Article 11(4) of the Federal Constitution. These laws restrict the use of certain religious terms to ensure the doctrinal integrity of the majority community remains protected.
Aware of these legal and social sensitivities, non-Muslim communities in the Peninsulaâcomprising largely Chinese and Indian ethnic groupsâopt for a cautious approach.
To maintain racial harmony and safeguard their respective theological purity, they feel more comfortable retaining their mother tongues (such as Mandarin or Tamil) or English in their religious affairs. This situation inadvertently creates a linguistic divide in spiritual matters, even though they are fluent in Bahasa Melayu in other daily affairs.
Diverse models in East Malaysia and Indonesia
The reality in the peninsula presents a stark contrast when looking at the socio-political models in Sabah, Sarawak, and Indonesia. In East Malaysia, a unique demographic structure has long positioned Bahasa Melayu as the primary unifying vessel.
For hundreds of indigenous sub-ethnicities such as the Iban, Kadazandusun and Bidayuh, Bahasa Melayu has served as the daily lingua franca, including in church services and their Alkitab (Bible) texts.
The general practice and sharing of religious terms rooted in the same language are accepted with high tolerance as a historical norm, in line with the socio-political guarantees under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Looking at our neighbour, Indonesia underwent a comprehensive language assimilation process because Bahasa Indonesia was established as a neutral and inclusive national asset. There, all recognised religions fully utilise Bahasa Indonesia in rituals and scripture translations.
Major Islamic figures and organisations like Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah play a mature role in guiding society.
They have successfully educated the public by decoupling the languageâs function as a national communication tool from the essence of an individualâs personal faith.
This approach allows for the harmonious sharing of certain religious vocabularies, anchored by the concept of inter-citizen brotherhood or âukhuwah wathaniyahâ.
Building harmony through mutual understanding
These differing linguistic approaches have a tangible impact on daily social relations. In the peninsula, the separation of language in religious affairs shapes a model of âcautious coexistenceâ.
Multi-ethnic communities deeply respect each otherâs boundaries, yet opportunities for deeper cross-cultural dialogue can sometimes be limited by fears of stepping on legal sensitivities. Social interactions remain largely concentrated in secular spaces like economics, education and sports.
Conversely, the dynamics in Sabah, Sarawak and Indonesia demonstrate that when a national language is shared in the most deeply personal aspect of lifeâspiritualityâit can erode suspicion and strengthen a sense of togetherness. The national language is no longer seen as the exclusive property of one group, but as a grand canopy sheltering all citizens.
Conclusion
The desire to see Bahasa Melayu fully embraced by all Malaysians is a noble dream that deserves support. However, discourses on elevating the language must look beyond casual conversation.
We must acknowledge the sociolinguistic challenge that arises when the national language is restricted in non-Muslim spiritual realms to safeguard faith, while simultaneously expecting these communities to assimilate the language into every facet of their lives.
To move forward, the best path is to construct a harmonious, localised understanding. Drawing from the spirit of tolerance in East Malaysia, we can begin to view Bahasa Melayu not as a tool of division, but as a bridge that unites.
Without compromising the legal protections that safeguard the faith of Muslims in the peninsula, the cultivation of the national language in cultural and literary spaces across all communities must continue to be nurtured maturelyâfor the future of a truly integrated Bangsa Malaysia.
Moaz Nair is an FMT reader." https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2026/10/18/the-challenge-in-making-the-national-language-a-vessel-for-unity #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
"La valorisation des langues africaines au cĆur des enjeux de dĂ©veloppement octobre 17, 2026 Kinshasa, 17 octobre 2026 (ACP).- La valorisation des langues, des cultures et de lâhistoire millĂ©naire africaines au service du dĂ©veloppement du continent est au cĆur dâune tribune intitulĂ©e ââLangues, sociĂ©tĂ©s africaines et dĂ©veloppementââ, rĂ©digĂ©e par un professeur congolais et consultĂ©e samedi par lâACP en RĂ©publique dĂ©mocratique du Congo (RDC).
«Il nâexiste pas, au sens scientifique, de langues intrinsĂšquement pauvres ou riches. Toutes les langues humaines possĂšdent une grammaire et permettent Ă leurs locuteurs dâexprimer des idĂ©escomplexes, mĂȘme si elles le font avec des structures diffĂ©rentes», a dĂ©clarĂ© le professeur Raoul Ekwampok Kaândum, linguiste et enseignant Ă lâUniversitĂ© pĂ©dagogique nationale (UPN) de Kinshasa.
Dans cette tribune, lâuniversitaire remet en question la distinction entre langues riches et langues pauvres, estimant que leur statut dĂ©pend davantage de leur histoire, de leurs usages et de leur reconnaissance sociale que dâune quelconque supĂ©rioritĂ© linguistique.
«Une langue peut sembler riche parce quâelle possĂšde un vocabulaire trĂšs dĂ©veloppĂ© dans certains domaines, de nombreuses façons dâexprimer les nuances, les temps, les modes, les relations ou les Ă©motions, ou encore une forte diffusion sociale, politique ou Ă©conomique», a-t-il expliquĂ©.
Ă lâinverse, une langue peut paraĂźtre moins dĂ©veloppĂ©e lorsquâelle est marginalisĂ©e, insuffisamment documentĂ©e ou peu prĂ©sente dans les systĂšmes Ă©ducatifs.
Le manque de dictionnaires, de manuels scolaires et dâoutils pĂ©dagogiques peut alors limiter son utilisation dans lâenseignement et la transmission des connaissances.
Le professeur Ekwampok Kaândum estime que le mĂ©pris dont font lâobjet certaines langues africaines, y compris de la part de leurs propres locuteurs, sâinscrit dans un contexte historique marquĂ© par la domination occidentale.
Il Ă©voque notamment la traite nĂ©griĂšre, lâesclavage, la colonisation et la nĂ©o colonisation, dont les consĂ©quences culturelles et sociales continueraient dâinfluencer la perception des langues africaines.
Cette situation appelle, selon lui, Ă restaurer la confiance des populations dans leurs langues maternelles et Ă renforcer leur place dans lâĂ©ducation, la recherche et la production des connaissances.
Les langues africaines comme vecteurs de connaissances
Pour cet universitaire, les langues africaines disposent des capacitĂ©s nĂ©cessaires pour exprimer des savoirs scientifiques et accompagner lâĂ©volution des sociĂ©tĂ©s, Ă condition de bĂ©nĂ©ficier dâune promotion et dâun travail de documentation adaptĂ©s.
«Toute langue valorisée et dont on assure la promotion est un instrument réformable, adaptable à de nouveaux besoins de communication», a-t-il affirmé.
Il estime que les langues peuvent enrichir leur vocabulaire afin dâintĂ©grer de nouveaux concepts, notamment dans les domaines scientifiques et techniques.
Leur dĂ©veloppement nĂ©cessite ainsi des efforts de documentation, la production dâoutils pĂ©dagogiques et leur adaptation aux exigences contemporaines.
Lâuniversitaire rappelle Ă©galement que lâoralitĂ© prĂ©cĂšde historiquement lâĂ©criture et quâaucune langue nâestdestinĂ©e, par nature, Ă rester exclusivement orale.
Toutes peuvent évoluer et servir à la production, à la conservation et à la transmission des connaissances.
Journalistes et chercheurs appelés à agir
Le professeur Ekwampok Kaândum interpelle les professionnels des mĂ©dias ainsi que les scientifiques et les chercheurs sur leur responsabilitĂ© dans la valorisation des langues africaines et lâĂ©volution des mentalitĂ©s.
«Vous, journalistes, et nous, scientifiques et chercheurs, avons le devoir de dire la vérité et de faire changer les choses. Positivement !», A-t-il souligné, insistant particuliÚrement sur le rÎle des journalistes.
Il considĂšre que les mĂ©dias peuvent contribuer Ă cette dĂ©marche en accordant une place accrue aux langues africaines dans lâinformation, la transmission des savoirs et la mise en valeur du patrimoine culturel du continent.
Cet engagement doit, selon lui, sâaccompagner dâun travail scientifique visant Ă documenter les langues, Ă dĂ©velopper les ressources pĂ©dagogiques et Ă favoriser leur utilisation dans diffĂ©rents domaines de la connaissance.
Le thÚme «Langues, sociétés africaines et développement» a été développé lors des mélanges offerts au professeur émérite Mayaka Ma Kanda, les 19 et 20 août 2025.
Il constitue Ă©galement le titre dâun ouvrage collectif publiĂ© le 20 aoĂ»t 2026, selon les prĂ©cisions apportĂ©es par le professeur Ekwampok Kaândum.
Pour cet universitaire, la promotion des langues africaines doit aller de pair avec celle des cultures et de lâhistoire millĂ©naire du continent afin de prĂ©server le patrimoine, de renforcer les identitĂ©s et de favoriser un dĂ©veloppement davantage ancrĂ© dans les rĂ©alitĂ©s culturelles africaines.
«Valoriser ou promouvoir les langues, les cultures et lâhistoire millĂ©naire africaines pour mieux penser le vrai dĂ©veloppement du continent africain», a-t-il rĂ©sumĂ©.
Le professeur Raoul Ekwampok Kaândum enseigne Ă lâUniversitĂ© pĂ©dagogique nationale (UPN) de Kinshasa.
Il défend notamment la valorisation des langues africaines et leur contribution à la transmission des connaissances et au développement culturel en République démocratique du Congo. ACP/Bob Ambongo" https://acp.cd/culture/la-valorisation-des-langues-africaines-au-coeur-des-enjeux-de-developpement/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
Confusion autour du code « CH » Ă lâorigine de cette erreur se trouve lâabrĂ©viation « CH », utilisĂ©e pour dĂ©signer la Suisse. Ces deux lettres correspondent à « Confoederatio Helvetica », le nom latin de la ConfĂ©dĂ©ration suisse. Dans la traduction chinoise du panneau, ce code aurait toutefois Ă©tĂ© compris comme faisant rĂ©fĂ©rence Ă la Chine. Or, le code international de la Chine est « CN », et non « CH». Le traducteur semblait ne pas avoir la moindre idĂ©e que âCHâ signifie Suisse (Confoederatio Helvetica). »
'"Une erreur de traduction a provoquĂ© une situation pour le moins surprenante Ă lâaĂ©roport Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle.
Sur un panneau consacré au contrÎle automatisé des passeports, la Suisse a été remplacée par la Chine dans la version chinoise du message.
Lâinformation, rapportĂ©e par 20 Minutes, qui cite le mĂ©dia spĂ©cialisĂ© Aerotelegraph, concerne les indications relatives aux portiques automatiques PARAFE. Le panneau indiquait notamment que les ressortissants suisses pouvaient utiliser ce dispositif de contrĂŽle.
Erreur de traduction Ă lâaĂ©roport de Paris : Une confusion autour du code « CH »
Ă lâorigine de cette erreur se trouve lâabrĂ©viation « CH », utilisĂ©e pour dĂ©signer la Suisse. Ces deux lettres correspondent à « Confoederatio Helvetica », le nom latin de la ConfĂ©dĂ©ration suisse.
Dans la traduction chinoise du panneau, ce code aurait toutefois été compris comme faisant référence à la Chine. Or, le code international de la Chine est « CN », et non « CH».
Cette confusion a donc conduit Ă une indication erronĂ©e sur les conditions dâaccĂšs au contrĂŽle automatisĂ© des passeports dans lâaĂ©roport de Paris-CDG.
Les portiques automatisĂ©s PARAFE sont notamment accessibles aux ressortissants majeurs de lâUnion europĂ©enne, de lâEspace Ă©conomique europĂ©en et de la Suisse, Ă condition de disposer dâun passeport biomĂ©trique.
Certaines nationalités extérieures à cet ensemble peuvent également utiliser ces dispositifs sous certaines conditions. Les ressortissants chinois ne font toutefois pas partie des nationalités concernées par cette possibilité, précise 20 Minutes.
Lâerreur sur le panneau pouvait donc crĂ©er une confusion pour les voyageurs chinois en leur laissant penser quâils Ă©taient concernĂ©s par le dispositif.
Lâerreur a Ă©tĂ© repĂ©rĂ©e par Pascal Lottaz, qui a partagĂ© une photographie du panneau sur le rĂ©seau social X. Dans son message, il a soulignĂ© avec ironie la confusion entre la Suisse et la Chine : « Quelquâun doit dire Ă lâaĂ©roport de Paris que la Chine ne fait pas partie de Schengen. Le traducteur semblait ne pas avoir la moindre idĂ©e que âCHâ signifie Suisse (Confoederatio Helvetica). »
Paris AĂ©roport a rapidement rĂ©agi Ă cette publication, avec une rĂ©ponse elle aussi teintĂ©e dâhumour. « Oups⊠On dirait que nos panneaux ont dĂ©cidĂ© de faire un tour du monde un peu plus vite que prĂ©vu », a rĂ©pondu lâaĂ©roport, avant de remercier lâinternaute dâavoir signalĂ© le problĂšme.
Paris AĂ©roport a Ă©galement prĂ©cisĂ© que lâerreur avait Ă©tĂ© transmise aux Ă©quipes concernĂ©es afin quâelle soit corrigĂ©e." https://voyagerdz.com/aeroport-paris-cdg-erreur-traduction-surprend-voyageurs/
"Ă LomĂ©, le gouvernement veut faire entrer les langues locales du Togo dans lâĂšre de lâintelligence artificielle. La ministre de lâEfficacitĂ© du Service public et de la Transformation numĂ©rique, Cina Lawson, a lancĂ© le 5 octobre dernier le Challenge national des langues locales, premiĂšre Ă©tape du programme « Voix du Togo ». Apprendrelangue
Lâinitiative ouvre une plateforme de contribution oĂč les citoyens peuvent fournir des textes, des enregistrements et des traductions. Ces donnĂ©es serviront Ă entraĂźner des modĂšles capables de comprendre puis de traiter les langues parlĂ©es dans le pays. Lâobjectif est clair : permettre Ă un citoyen dâĂ©changer un jour avec un service public numĂ©rique dans sa propre langue.
Une collecte citoyenne et encadrĂ©e Le dispositif dĂ©marre par une phase pilote dâun mois consacrĂ©e Ă trois langues : lâĂ©wĂ©, le kabiyĂš et le moba. Les organisateurs veulent dâabord tester la mĂ©thode de collecte avant de lâĂ©tendre progressivement aux autres langues du pays.
Les participants crĂ©ent un compte Ă partir de leur numĂ©ro de tĂ©lĂ©phone et indiquent les langues quâils parlent, lisent ou Ă©crivent. La plateforme leur propose ensuite des tĂąches adaptĂ©es Ă leurs compĂ©tences : lire des phrases Ă voix haute, transcrire des enregistrements, traduire des textes ou vĂ©rifier les contributions dâautres utilisateurs. Apprendrelangue
Cette organisation cherche à transformer la connaissance linguistique des citoyens en une ressource numérique collective. Chaque enregistrement, traduction ou correction alimente un corpus destiné à améliorer la compréhension automatique des langues togolaises.
Des garde-fous linguistiques La qualitĂ© des donnĂ©es constitue un enjeu central. Les contributions ne seront pas exploitĂ©es sans contrĂŽle : des linguistes et des membres des communautĂ©s linguistiques devront les valider avant leur utilisation. Le Togo AI Lab, avec des Ă©tudiants, des chercheurs et des dĂ©veloppeurs, prendra ensuite le relais. LâĂ©quipe exploitera les corpus validĂ©s pour entraĂźner et affiner les modĂšles dâintelligence artificielle. Des compĂ©titions organisĂ©es sur la plateforme Zindi devraient Ă©galement mobiliser la communauté technologique autour de ces donnĂ©es. Cartesdu monde
Cette approche associe ainsi citoyens, universitaires et dĂ©veloppeurs. Elle vise Ă Ă©viter que les langues locales restent absentes des outils numĂ©riques, alors mĂȘme quâelles structurent la vie quotidienne, les Ă©changes administratifs et la transmission culturelle.
Lâinclusion numĂ©rique en jeu Le programme poursuit un objectif plus large que la seule innovation technologique. En rendant les services publics accessibles dans les langues locales, les autoritĂ©s espĂšrent rĂ©duire les barriĂšres linguistiques qui Ă©loignent une partie de la population des administrations numĂ©riques. Les applications concernent plusieurs secteurs essentiels : lâaccĂšs aux services publics, la santĂ© et la justice. Un citoyen maĂźtrisant mieux lâĂ©wĂ©, le kabiyĂš ou le moba que le français pourrait ainsi obtenir une information, comprendre une procĂ©dure ou interagir avec une plateforme sans dĂ©pendre dâun intermĂ©diaire. Explorerla tech
Le gouvernement prĂ©voit Ă©galement dâenvoyer des agents de terrain dans les localitĂ©s oĂč lâaccĂšs au tĂ©lĂ©phone ou Ă Internet demeure limitĂ©. Ces Ă©quipes recueilleront directement les contributions afin dâĂ©viter que la fracture numĂ©rique ne prive certaines communautĂ©s de lâinitiative. Le dĂ©fi consiste dĂ©sormais Ă transformer cette mobilisation initiale en une base de donnĂ©es suffisamment riche, fiable et reprĂ©sentative. Si le pari rĂ©ussit, le Togo fera de ses langues locales un instrument dâinclusion numĂ©rique, et non un patrimoine laissĂ© en marge de la rĂ©volution technologique." Helene Sourou 14 octobre 2026 https://www.journaldutogo.com/togo-challenge-national-langues-locales-intelligence-artificielle/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
TranslationeTranslation reaches 1 billion requests in less than a year Published 7 hours ago on October 16, 2026By EU Reporter Correspondent
This week, the European Unionâs free and secure eTranslation tool passed a major milestone: more than 1 billion translation requests have been made this year so far. Thatâs more than the annual total for each of the previous years since the tool was launched in 2017.
eTranslation helps a wide range of users communicate across languages more fluently and efficiently. It is one of the EUâs flagship language technology services and supports multilingual communication across Europe and beyond.
Helping Europe communicate across languages Co-financed by Digital Europe and EU institutions and bodies and developed by the European Commission, eTranslation can be used to translate documents and text in all 24 EU official languages, plus a number of other high-interest languages.
eTranslation can be used by EU institutions, bodies and agencies, public administrations, small businesses (including self-employed people), academia, non-governmental organisations, Digital Europe projects, and candidates for EU posts. In addition, you must be based in the EU or in a country affiliated with Digital Europe.
Reaching 1 billion requests so far in 2026 highlights the growing need for reliable language technology in the EU that draws on top-quality multilingual data. eTranslation relies on data curated over decades by EU translators.
An AI tool built for Europe eTranslation is well suited to meet public-sector needs, with a strong focus on data security, confidentiality and high-volume multilingual workflows. It can be accessed through a web interface and integrated into other digital services via APIs. Users can upload their own glossaries or activate AI enhancements to support technical translator workflows.
The tool continues to evolve on the basis of user feedback, especially from language professionals. Over the years, eTranslation has supported many areas of EU cooperation, including public administration, justice, procurement, health, migration and online public services. By helping users understand and reuse information in multiple languages, it contributes to a more connected and inclusive Digital Single Market.
The milestone of 1 billion requests in less than a year shows how important language services have become in daily administrative and professional work. It also underlines the role of DG Translation in supporting digital multilingualism across the EU, combining linguistic expertise and technology for user-friendly AI-based services.
Find out more about eTranslation" https://www.eureporter.co/economy/translation/2026/10/16/etranslation-reaches-1-billion-requests-in-less-than-a-year/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
"The pleasures of translating Plato
Themes: Books, Classics, Culture, Philosophy The reissue of Hamilton and Cairnsâ celebrated edition of Platoâs dialogues shows how every translation bears the marks of its era and of its translatorâs taste.
Anselm Feuerbach, Plato's Symposium, painting in oil on canvas, 1869. Credit: incamerastock
The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, with a new foreword by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Princeton University Press, ÂŁ35
For a university student in the 1980s, The Collected Dialogues of Plato edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns and published by Princeton University Press (first in 1961) was a treasured possession. The volume brought together readable English translations of essentially all of Platoâs writings: the genuine dialogues, a few doubtful ones, and the Letters â in all, the work of 14 translators from Benjamin Jowett in the 1870s to Hugh Tredennick (1954). It had to be handled with care because its India paper was thin enough for a careless turn of the page to tear it. The volume now reappears in a new design, with sturdier paper (hence a thicker book), semi-hard covers, and a brief foreword by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein; inside, the pages are those of 1961, reproduced from the original typesetting.
Plato was a marvellous and elegant stylist, and his translators must try to do justice to his artistry. How does one set about translating a Platonic dialogue? The Republic begins with four words: katebÄn chthes eis Peiraia. Idiomatic English might say âYesterday I went down to the Piraeus.â Ancient sources report that a tablet was found among Platoâs effects on which these words had been written out in several different orders. Platoâs final choice puts katebÄn (âI went downâ) first.
The verb evokes katabasis, the descent to the Underworld from which an initiate into the Mysteries returns with secret knowledge. The Republic sets out to do just that: the philosopher who has left the Cave is told that he must âgo downâ again, and the tale of Er brings back a report from the land of the dead. George Grubeâs version (revised by CDC Reeve) in John Cooperâs rival one-volume Complete Works (1997) runs: âI went down to the Piraeus yesterday.â Paul Shorey, whose translation is used here, is scrupulous as regards word order: âI went down yesterday to the Piraeusâ (only âthe Piraeusâ sounds perhaps old-fashioned â Plato has no article, and another translator might well drop it).
There is much to consider, then, in translating just four simple words. In this case nothing is lost by staying close to the Greek. More often the translator must reshape, expand, or even paraphrase to produce fluent English. How far may a translator stray? Every translation bears the stamp of its period and of its translatorâs taste. Many of the versions Hamilton and Cairns chose were already decades old in 1961, and their idiom often looks back to the Victorians, not least because the most celebrated of Victorian Platonists, Benjamin Jowett, contributes seven of them (four more than any other translator).
A few lines after the opening of the Republic, Socrates remarks on the festival procession (in Shoreyâs translation): âI thought the procession of the citizens very fine, but it was no better than the show made by the marching of the Thracian contingent.â Shorey makes the Athenian procession the subject of both clauses. Grube renders epichĆrioi more accurately as âlocal residentsâ, loosens the syntax, and keeps the Thracian procession as the subject of his second clause: âI thought the procession of the local residents was a fine one and that the one conducted by the Thracians was no less outstanding.â Both translators call the procession âfineâ (kalÄ, the same adjective as to kalon in the Symposium), but today we might be happier with âsplendidâ, âimpressiveâ, or even âa great showâ.
The challenge is steep in the Symposium, which I have recently been translating for publication. Its speeches are a gallery of voices, and Michael Joyceâs exuberant version in this volume (dating from 1935) catches them well. Joyce tends to be expansive, as when the narrator Apollodorus near the start tells Glaucon what his life was like before he fell under Socratesâ spell: âBefore that I used to go dashing about all over the place, firmly convinced that I was leading a full and interesting life, when I was really as wretched as could be â much the same as you, for instance, for I know philosophyâs the last thing youâd spend your time on.â In this passage, Platoâs original oiomenos ti poiein, âthinking I was achieving somethingâ, has grown into âfirmly convinced that I was leading a full and interesting lifeâ. While the Greek has the narrator thinking that he himself should be âdoing anything rather than philosophyâ, Glauconâs response, âDonât have a go at me!â, shows that he takes it as a jibe. Joyceâs emphatic you makes this explicit, not unreasonably, and it is not necessarily a worse rendering than my own more concise version: âUp until then I was running around aimlessly, imagining that I was living a productive life. But in fact I was as pathetic as you can get â a bit like you are now, Glaucon â because I imagined that philosophy was the last thing I needed.â
Conversational passages in Plato leave a translator room for manoeuvre. The technical passages and arguments allow much less. These can turn on particular words or series of propositions, and the translator must stay close to them if their logic is to survive. When Diotima in the Symposium says that love is tokos en kalĆi, âgiving birth in beautyâ, the strange phrase binds physical procreation to the intellectual offspring of poets, lawgivers and philosophers. The word kalon should be rendered as recognisably the same term, as the ascent moves from beautiful bodies to beautiful souls, laws and knowledge, and finally to Beauty itself. A version that alternates âbeautifulâ, âfineâ and ânobleâ for elegance may read more easily, but at the expense of breaking the thread of argument.
Hamilton and Cairnsâ selection drew on some of the best Platonists of the 20th century; the prefatory notes are still a useful guide, and the remarkably full index lets the reader follow a name, theme, or term from one dialogue to another. The volume is in some respects a period piece, representing a Plato to be enjoyed by the English-speaking general reader in the decades before 1961. In many of the versions, hearing these voices can be a pleasure in itself. This reissue is a reminder that earlier attempts to render Plato have not lost their value; the treasury of Platonic thought can now be enjoyed, in one handy volume, by a new generation of English-language readers.
Author Armand D'Angour Armand D'Angour is a Professor of Classics at the University of Oxford and fellow of Jesus College, Oxford."
October 16, 2026 Armand D'Angour https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-pleasures-of-translating-plato/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
HarperCollins Switches to AI Translators for Their French Publication
Association des traducteurs littĂ©raires de France, also known as lâATLF, and the collective En chair et en os, stated that dozens of Harlequin France translators were informed that their contracts would be ending as soon as possible. HarperCollins, Harlequinâs parent company, confirmed they would be using an AI-assisted translation workflow with Fluent Planet rather than relying primarily on human translators to translate their books. The company pointed to their declining sales as the reason for partnering with Fluent Planet. âSales of our Harlequin collections have been declining in the French market in recent years,â the statement read. âWe want to continue offering readers as many publications as possible at the current low retail price.â
A Fluent Planet spokesperson told The Bookseller that the company uses a hybrid of âin-house language assistance tools with systematic human translation carried out by professional literary translators.â Their website states that the human translators have âstudied at the best translation universities or have decades of experience under their belt ⊠When compared to standard machine translation systems that use neural networks, BrIAn [the Fluent Planet AI software] can provide 2 to 3 times higher quality translations, that are more accurate, offer idiomatic phrasing, provide a deeper understanding of the meaning and a faithful representation of the style and emotions of the source text. BrIAn takes into account the authorâs tone and intention, making it highly effective for complex literary or marketing content.â Fluent Planet appears to believe their software is on par with human translators while also saying theyâre offering a tool not intended to replace human expertise or editorial judgment.
Much can be said about the ethical issue of firing people so they can be replaced by AI. However, I want to focus on the nature of translation and why as of now, even Fluent Planet admits, AI canât do it well, otherwise they wouldnât need human translators with decades of experience to check their work. Translation is complicated, delicate work that requires deep knowledge and understanding of both languages. Itâs about nuances and subtletiesâtwo key factors that AI is notoriously bad at. When thereâs a lack of nuance and subtlety, a great deal can be distorted or lost. Translation isnât simply about substituting words. It requires the human touch to most truthfully convey idioms, jargon, regional dialects, and even with humans the results are never perfect because thatâs the challenges of language. There is never a true one-to-one.
As someone who grew up bilingual, speaking both Spanish and English, Iâve always dealt with the frustration of needing to translate one thought from one language to another. Even when thereâs a word or phrase that appears to have a direct translation, it doesnât often hold the same meaning or intensity Iâm trying to express. This is a difficulty I feel in minor translation moments; I canât imagine needing to translate a whole novel. To translate a novel, the translator must first understand it in its entiretyâthe themes, the character arcs, the central truth. When there canât be a 100 percent word-for-word accurate translation of a book, then it becomes about being as faithful to the original work as possible. AI cannot yet do this in the same way humans can because it lacks lived experience and interpretive judgment.
When I read the news about HarperCollins decision, I couldnât help but think of R.F. Kuangâs âBabel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translatorsâ Revolution,â a book that utilizes language and translation to explore narrative themes of colonialism and exploitation. In Babel, our main characters contend with the brutality of translation. It shows how language can be weaponized, how the act of translating can be a betrayal of the original, violent and sharp, harming those at the hands of the people in power. Babel examines the harm of one group of people controlling the narrative, deciding which languages are prioritized over others. There is a reason that access to reading and writing has been used as a tool for oppression. Having access to knowledge gives you agency, when that knowledge is taken away, restricted, or watered down it prevents people from understanding themselves and each other.
Language is a constant shifting force, which is why dictionaries are constantly adding new words. It changes with the times, with environment, with societyâalways adapting. Something that is consistently changing and created by humans, can only be fully understood through the human experience. Even then language is a deeply internal thing. Emotions and thoughts canât always be perfectly conveyed from one person to another even when they are both fluent in the same languageâhow can a software ever get to the heart of that? The act of translating one book from one language to another is trying to bridge the gap from one human experience to another and itâs not something that can be reduced to an algorithm. By its very nature it must be different and specific to each book." Kelly Quintana https://scadconnector.com/2026/10/15/harpercollins-switches-to-ai-translators-for-their-french-publication/ #metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
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