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Charles Tiayon
April 11, 2017 12:47 AM
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Some books on Sindhi literature were ready to be viewed and downloaded for teaching purposes.
Researchers across Africa, Asia and the Middle East are building their own language models designed for local tongues, cultural nuance and digital independence
"In a high-stakes artificial intelligence race between the United States and China, an equally transformative movement is taking shape elsewhere. From Cape Town to Bangalore, from Cairo to Riyadh, researchers, engineers and public institutions are building homegrown AI systems, models that speak not just in local languages, but with regional insight and cultural depth.
The dominant narrative in AI, particularly since the early 2020s, has focused on a handful of US-based companies like OpenAI with GPT, Google with Gemini, Meta’s LLaMa, Anthropic’s Claude. They vie to build ever larger and more capable models. Earlier in 2025, China’s DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup, added a new twist by releasing large language models (LLMs) that rival their American counterparts, with a smaller computational demand. But increasingly, researchers across the Global South are challenging the notion that technological leadership in AI is the exclusive domain of these two superpowers.
Instead, scientists and institutions in countries like India, South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are rethinking the very premise of generative AI. Their focus is not on scaling up, but on scaling right, building models that work for local users, in their languages, and within their social and economic realities.
“How do we make sure that the entire planet benefits from AI?” asks Benjamin Rosman, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and a lead developer of InkubaLM, a generative model trained on five African languages. “I want more and more voices to be in the conversation”.
Beyond English, beyond Silicon Valley
Large language models work by training on massive troves of online text. While the latest versions of GPT, Gemini or LLaMa boast multilingual capabilities, the overwhelming presence of English-language material and Western cultural contexts in these datasets skews their outputs. For speakers of Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Xhosa and countless other languages, that means AI systems may not only stumble over grammar and syntax, they can also miss the point entirely.
“In Indian languages, large models trained on English data just don’t perform well,” says Janki Nawale, a linguist at AI4Bharat, a lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. “There are cultural nuances, dialectal variations, and even non-standard scripts that make translation and understanding difficult.” Nawale’s team builds supervised datasets and evaluation benchmarks for what specialists call “low resource” languages, those that lack robust digital corpora for machine learning.
It’s not just a question of grammar or vocabulary. “The meaning often lies in the implication,” says Vukosi Marivate, a professor of computer science at the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. “In isiXhosa, the words are one thing but what’s being implied is what really matters.” Marivate co-leads Masakhane NLP, a pan-African collective of AI researchers that recently developed AFROBENCH, a rigorous benchmark for evaluating how well large language models perform on 64 African languages across 15 tasks. The results, published in a preprint in March, revealed major gaps in performance between English and nearly all African languages, especially with open-source models.
Similar concerns arise in the Arabic-speaking world. “If English dominates the training process, the answers will be filtered through a Western lens rather than an Arab one,” says Mekki Habib, a robotics professor at the American University in Cairo. A 2024 preprint from the Tunisian AI firm Clusterlab finds that many multilingual models fail to capture Arabic’s syntactic complexity or cultural frames of reference, particularly in dialect-rich contexts.
Governments step in
For many countries in the Global South, the stakes are geopolitical as well as linguistic. Dependence on Western or Chinese AI infrastructure could mean diminished sovereignty over information, technology, and even national narratives. In response, governments are pouring resources into creating their own models.
Saudi Arabia’s national AI authority, SDAIA, has built ‘ALLaM,’ an Arabic-first model based on Meta’s LLaMa-2, enriched with more than 540 billion Arabic tokens. The United Arab Emirates has backed several initiatives, including ‘Jais,’ an open-source Arabic-English model built by MBZUAI in collaboration with US chipmaker Cerebras Systems and the Abu Dhabi firm Inception. Another UAE-backed project, Noor, focuses on educational and Islamic applications.
In Qatar, researchers at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Qatar Computing Research Institute, have developed the Fanar platform and its LLMs Fanar Star and Fanar Prime. Trained on a trillion tokens of Arabic, English, and code, Fanar’s tokenization approach is specifically engineered to reflect Arabic’s rich morphology and syntax.
India has emerged as a major hub for AI localization. In 2024, the government launched BharatGen, a public-private initiative funded with 235 crore (€26 million) initiative aimed at building foundation models attuned to India’s vast linguistic and cultural diversity. The project is led by the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and also involves its sister organizations in Hyderabad, Mandi, Kanpur, Indore, and Madras. The programme’s first product, e-vikrAI, can generate product descriptions and pricing suggestions from images in various Indic languages. Startups like Ola-backed Krutrim and CoRover’s BharatGPT have jumped in, while Google’s Indian lab unveiled MuRIL, a language model trained exclusively on Indian languages. The Indian governments’ AI Mission has received more than180 proposals from local researchers and startups to build national-scale AI infrastructure and large language models, and the Bengaluru-based company, AI Sarvam, has been selected to build India’s first ‘sovereign’ LLM, expected to be fluent in various Indian languages.
In Africa, much of the energy comes from the ground up. Masakhane NLP and Deep Learning Indaba, a pan-African academic movement, have created a decentralized research culture across the continent. One notable offshoot, Johannesburg-based Lelapa AI, launched InkubaLM in September 2024. It’s a ‘small language model’ (SLM) focused on five African languages with broad reach: Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, isiZulu and isiXhosa.
“With only 0.4 billion parameters, it performs comparably to much larger models,” says Rosman. The model’s compact size and efficiency are designed to meet Africa’s infrastructure constraints while serving real-world applications. Another African model is UlizaLlama, a 7-billion parameter model developed by the Kenyan foundation Jacaranda Health, to support new and expectant mothers with AI-driven support in Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Xhosa, and Zulu.
India’s research scene is similarly vibrant. The AI4Bharat laboratory at IIT Madras has just released IndicTrans2, that supports translation across all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Sarvam AI, another startup, released its first LLM last year to support 10 major Indian languages. And KissanAI, co-founded by Pratik Desai, develops generative AI tools to deliver agricultural advice to farmers in their native languages.
The data dilemma
Yet building LLMs for underrepresented languages poses enormous challenges. Chief among them is data scarcity. “Even Hindi datasets are tiny compared to English,” says Tapas Kumar Mishra, a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela in eastern India. “So, training models from scratch is unlikely to match English-based models in performance.”
Rosman agrees. “The big-data paradigm doesn’t work for African languages. We simply don’t have the volume.” His team is pioneering alternative approaches like the Esethu Framework, a protocol for ethically collecting speech datasets from native speakers and redistributing revenue back to further development of AI tools for under-resourced languages. The project’s pilot used read speech from isiXhosa speakers, complete with metadata, to build voice-based applications.
In Arab nations, similar work is underway. Clusterlab’s 101 Billion Arabic Words Dataset is the largest of its kind, meticulously extracted and cleaned from the web to support Arabic-first model training.
The cost of staying local
But for all the innovation, practical obstacles remain. “The return on investment is low,” says KissanAI’s Desai. “The market for regional language models is big, but those with purchasing power still work in English.” And while Western tech companies attract the best minds globally, including many Indian and African scientists, researchers at home often face limited funding, patchy computing infrastructure, and unclear legal frameworks around data and privacy.
“There’s still a lack of sustainable funding, a shortage of specialists, and insufficient integration with educational or public systems,” warns Habib, the Cairo-based professor. “All of this has to change.”
A different vision for AI
Despite the hurdles, what’s emerging is a distinct vision for AI in the Global South – one that favours practical impact over prestige, and community ownership over corporate secrecy.
“There’s more emphasis here on solving real problems for real people,” says Nawale of AI4Bharat. Rather than chasing benchmark scores, researchers are aiming for relevance: tools for farmers, students, and small business owners.
And openness matters. “Some companies claim to be open-source, but they only release the model weights, not the data,” Marivate says. “With InkubaLM, we release both. We want others to build on what we’ve done, to do it better.”
In a global contest often measured in teraflops and tokens, these efforts may seem modest. But for the billions who speak the world’s less-resourced languages, they represent a future in which AI doesn’t just speak to them, but with them."
Sibusiso Biyela, Amr Rageh and Shakoor Rather
20 May 2025
https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2025.65
#metaglossia_mundus
"A disabilities advocate and vice-president of the Barbados Horizon Deaf Charity (BHDC), Scott Williams is calling for greater access to education for the deaf, including more interpreters and the introduction of deaf-led sign language instruction in schools.
Williams, who became deaf as a child, said his early exposure to sign language came from hearing individuals who, while well intentioned, did not fully understand the lived experiences of deaf people. As a result, he is advocating for more deaf educators to teach sign language.
“With a hearing person, who is teaching a language that is not theirs, how do you know when they are teaching sign language correctly? It is better for a deaf person to teach the language because deaf people, we know our own sign language,” Williams told Barbados TODAY, while stressing the importance of accuracy and cultural understanding.
He further explained that while learning from hearing people has its place, deaf people should be leading the instruction of their own language.
“We learn English from hearing people and that’s fine, it’s your language, just like with a deaf person their language is ASL. So yes, we should have ASL taught in schools, but it would be beautiful to have deaf teachers or deaf teacher’s assistants, having a deaf person there that can make sure the language is being taught correctly.”
Williams said his advocacy extends beyond children in classrooms, noting that access to education for deaf people at all stages of life remains limited in Barbados.
“Learn sign language. That is not the first time we have said that. Just learn the basics.”
He said people who find it difficult to learn sign language can also use gestures to communicate with the deaf.
“Some deaf people can read lips pretty well; some deaf people can talk. Just try to find ways to communicate. Move your hands, use gestures, like you would with a drinking cup or a bag, or telling someone to come here. It’s easy. It doesn’t have to be complicated…”
Willams explained that education is just one of several challenges facing the deaf community.
“Some of the biggest challenges that we face are communication, education, access to interpreters, employment, and finances,” he said.
“At BHDC we recognize they are some of the challenges the deaf community faces, so we are working together trying to create solutions. We don’t have government support yet, but we’re still figuring it out.”
He also sought to dispel common misconceptions about deaf and disabled people, saying stigma often prevents meaningful inclusion.
“Hearing people tend to view us as charity cases, ‘oh you poor thing.’ They perceive us as if we can’t do things. We can’t have quality access. We don’t need to have that because we’re deaf. It’s not only deaf people that face this, but I would also say it’s people with disabilities. We are one big family,” he said.
Williams appealed for broader support to help disabled people achieve their goals, particularly in employment and funding opportunities.
He said the lack of employment opportunities remains a pressing concern for the deaf community.
“If a person with a disability is looking for a job, give them a job. If they need funding, let’s support that. Whatever a deaf person or a person with a disability needs. If they have a dream, it should be supported. We don’t want any more discrimination.”
“There are a lot of deaf people in Barbados who really need access to jobs and right now we don’t have that,” Williams said.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2025/12/20/deaf-advocate-calls-for-greater-access-to-education-and-interpreters/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Plein feu sur (i)elles : visibiliser le genre en traduction. Gender in the Spotlight: (In)Visibility in Translation (Sorbonne nouvelle)
Date de tombée (deadline) : 01 Mars 2026
À : Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France
Publié le 19 Décembre 2025 par Marc Escola (Source : Amanda Murphy)
Appel à contributions
Plein feu sur (i)elles : visibiliser le genre en traduction
Gender in the Spotlight: (In)Visibility in Translation
L’épineuse notion de la visibilité et son pendant négatif, l’invisibilité, hantent depuis longtemps la traduction. Selon Kate Briggs, Helen Lowe-Porter — la traductrice de Thomas Mann vers l’anglais — décrivait sa mission traductive comme celle d’un « instrument inconnu, un outil utile pour le service qu’il fournit, occupé à déshabiller puis à rhabiller avec précaution le texte d’art littéraire afin qu’il convienne à un nouveau marché ; comme une femme de chambre » (Briggs 2018 : 36, notre traduction). Et de fait, c’est ce que déplorait déjà Lawrence Venuti en 1998, à l’encontre d’une traduction « vitre » (Kratz & Shapiro 1986), que la voix de l’auteur sacralisé serait censée traverser sans que l’on décèle qu’elle a changé de système linguistique, de culture-cible, ou même de geste écrivant. Venuti rappelle que c’est justement parce que la traduction est « stigmatisée en tant que forme d’écriture, découragée par les lois sur le droit d’auteur, minimisée au sein du monde universitaire, exploitée par les maisons d’édition et les entreprises, les États et les organisations religieuses » (Venuti 1998 : 1, notre traduction) que les traductaires doivent adopter des stratégies de visibilisation. Ces stratégies de résistance visent à contrer le projet hégémonique et homogénéisant mené par l’Occident, qui n’a fait, pendant les 25 dernières années et avec l’avènement de la traduction automatique, que devenir plus productiviste.
Dans une industrie de la traduction contemporaine où les femmes et minorités de genre représentent 78% des traductaires en activité (Gilbert : 2025), la question de la visibilité se pose à l’intersection de celle du genre. Depuis les années 1970, la traduction trouve sa place au sein des débats sur le genre, grâce notamment à des traductrices militantes féministes canadiennes telles que Barbara Godard et Lori Chamberlain. Ces dernières soulignent le caractère perçu comme secondaire et ancillaire de la traduction, supposément soumise à l’original. Dans son article phare de 1988, Chamberlain démontre notamment que les métaphores genrées, omniprésentes dans le discours portant sur la traduction (telles les “belles infidèles”), contribuent à inscrire la traduction dans un cadre patriarcal. La traduction, considérée comme féminine et dérivative, se devrait ainsi de servir un texte source masculin et autoritaire. Aujourd’hui encore, la figure de la traductrice — envisagée au sens large et incluant l’ensemble des minorités de genre — demeure discrète, et son éthique traductive est souvent régie par l’injonction à la transparence.
Dans un entretien, la poétesse québécoise Nicole Brossard évoque pourtant l’idée que l’écriture permet de « faire exister ce qui existe ». Elle engendre « du réel inédit, qui n’avait pas d’existence à l’intérieur de l’univers patriarcal ». Ainsi, « lancer sur la page quelques énoncés, prendre le risque d’affirmer quelque chose qui n’avait pas droit de cité, bousculait, à mon sens, la loi » (Karim Larose et Rosalie Lessard : 2012). La traduction peut être directement liée à cette idée, en tant que pratique qui, par définition, fait exister dans la langue d’arrivée quelque chose qui n’existait pas dans la langue de départ. Cependant, tout ne trouve pas le droit d’exister à tout moment dans toutes les langues : les écritures du matrimoine ont été et continuent d’être négligées par le canon littéraire. Comme la traductologie nous le montre, les langages de l’inclusivité se développent différemment selon les langues, tandis que certains textes d’autrices tardent à voir le jour, et que d’autres sont sujets à des suppressions ou altérations ne donnant pas toujours au public cible les moyens de pleinement percevoir les enjeux du texte source.
Le tournant représenté par le féminisme canadien des années 1970 donne lieu à une nouvelle conception de la traduction, sous-tendue par des travaux théoriques comme ceux de Luise von Flotow et de Sherry Simon, ainsi que des pratiques féministes de traductrices telles que Barbara Godard et Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood. La traduction y est désormais envisagée comme geste symbolique et politique qui met en avant et exploite le pouvoir performatif du langage. Réciproquement, on peut dire que les discours féministes et queer sont traduction. Comme l’explique Godard, la traduction est un élan vers l'altérité ; elle est « mouvance et pluralité » (Lamy, 1979 dans Godard, 1989). « Je suis une traduction », écrira Lotbinière-Harwood (1989), qui dans son ouvrage Re-Belle et Infidèle/The Body Bilingual (1991) expose ses pratiques traductives hétérodoxes. Par exemple, écrire « amante » et le traduire par « lovher » (Barbara Godard, 1986), ou encore écrire « auteure » et le traduire par « auther » (de Lotbinière-Harwood 1995) sont des gestes créatifs s’inscrivant dans une démarche de développement d’un véritable lexique. Il s’agit de rendre visible et dicible l’expérience des femmes et de toute autre minorité de genre, là où les langues et leur historicité tendent à les invisibiliser.
Plus de 50 ans après le numéro “Femme et langage” de la revue littéraire d’avant-garde La barre du jour (1975), nous ne pouvons donc que saluer la tenue de colloques internationaux tels que « Les mots du genre » en partenariat avec le très pertinent Dictionnaire du genre en traduction, ou « L’émancipation par la traduction ? Trajectoires féminines en Europe centrale et orientale », ainsi que de publications telles que Gender and Translation: Understanding Agents in Transnational Reception (2018), le Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender (2020) ou encore la traduction française de l’ouvrage fondateur de Sherry Simon : Le Genre en traduction. Identité culturelle et politiques de transmission (2023). Citons enfin l’émergence du groupe de recherche Feminist Translation Network à l’université de Birmingham, ou la création de la revue Feminist Translation Studies en 2024.
Le colloque Plein feu sur (i)elles : visibiliser le genre en traduction aura lieu du 22 au 23 octobre 2026 à la Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (4, rue des Irlandais 75005 Paris, Salle Athéna). Il s’inscrit dans une lignée de recherche féministe cherchant à remettre au centre de la scène les voix de praticiennes et de chercheuses. Cet évènement est organisé en collaboration avec le laboratoire PRISMES et le groupe de recherche TRACT (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle), le laboratoire IMAGER (Université Paris-Est Créteil) et l’université d’Oxford Brookes. Il s’inscrit dans le programme de recherche HERMES « Les écritures du matrimoine à l’ère du numérique : (re)découverte, découvrabilité et reconnaissance » de la Sorbonne Nouvelle et a le soutien de l’Institut du Genre.
Le colloque sera ouvert par nos deux premières conférencières, Luise von Flotow (University of Ottawa) et Charlotte Bosseaux (University of Edinburgh).
Axes de réflexion :
On pourra, dans le cadre des contributions, s’interroger sur de nombreux aspects de la visibilité des traductrices, et sur les processus de visibilisation et d’agentivité qui s’offrent à elles.
Inclusion et visibilité : Quelles stratégies pratiques, granulaires, professionnelles ou artistiques permettent la visibilisation des femmes et autres minorités de genre dans les travaux de traduction féministe ? Quelles sont les spécificités des traductions littéralement visibles, quoique pas toujours visibilisées, comme la traduction en langue des signes, la traduction audiovisuelle, ou les formes d’interprétation performées et incarnées ? En quoi les jeux sur les contraintes formelles (écriture inclusive, néologismes, subversion des normes typographiques, etc.) peuvent-ils constituer autant de gestes de résistance féministe et/ou queer ? Quelle influence peut avoir la traduction dans la résistance politique, à l’intersection des questions féministes, queer, postcoloniales et éco-critiques ? Comment pratiquer, penser, enseigner la traduction au prisme du genre, dans un rôle de passeuse interculturelle ? Quelle est la place aujourd’hui de pratiques interventionnistes telles que le « hijacking » (von Flotow 1991), par exemple dans le cas de femmes traduisant des hommes ? La correction elle-même peut-elle contribuer à invisibiliser le sexisme du texte source de façon contre-productive (Zoberman 2014) ?
La traductrice dans le monde professionnel : Comment les femmes et autres minorités de genre se voient-elles représentées dans les métiers de la traduction et le monde de l’édition aujourd’hui ? Dans quelle mesure sont-elles agentes de leur propre stratégie de visibilité lors de traductions commissionnées par un·e client·e ou un·e éditeur·rice? Quel rôle jouent les instances de légitimation (prix, jurys, collections, festivals...) dans la reconnaissance ou, au contraire, l’invisibilisation des traductrices et de leurs choix de traduction ? Quid de l’interprétation et de l’audiovisuel, où le travail de la traductrice est littéralement visible et audible ? Sans oublier l’impact que peut avoir la généralisation de la traduction automatique et de la post-édition, et plus récemment de l’intelligence artificielle avec son lot de biais genrés, sur les conditions de travail, la visibilité et la reconnaissance des traductrices.
Nouveaux enjeux de visibilisation des traductrices : Quels sont les nouveaux lieux, acteurs, formats et procédés de visibilisation de la traductrice aujourd’hui ? Quels rôles jouent la collaboration, les tiers-lieux, les nouveaux outils de cette visibilité et de ces échanges ? On pourra réfléchir, par exemple, à la multiplication des collectifs de traduction indépendants et engagés, tels que UnderCommons ou Cases Rebelles. On pourra aussi s’intéresser à la multiplication de mémoires de traduction sur la scène littéraire, tel A Ghost in the Throat de Doireann Ní Ghríofa, ou encore à l’utilisation des réseaux sociaux pour visibiliser le processus traductif, comme l’a fait Emily Wilson sur Twitter tout au long de sa traduction de l’Odyssée et de l’Iliade. On pourra également s’interroger sur le rôle des paratextes (préfaces, postfaces, notes de bas de page, quatrièmes de couverture, entretiens, etc.), et sur la façon dont les maisons d’édition, rééditions et nouveaux supports numériques (bibliothèques, corpus en ligne…) redéfinissent la place accordée à la traductrice dans ces espaces.
La traductrice-créatrice : Comment mettre en valeur le rôle actif de création qu’opère la traductrice ? En quoi cette dimension créatrice peut-elle contribuer à rendre la traductrice plus audible ? On pourra notamment s’interroger sur les pratiques d’auto-(re)traduction, ainsi que sur les formes de traduction performative et incarnée (lectures, performances scéniques, surtitrage en direct, etc.), où le corps et la voix de la traductrice deviennent partie intégrante du geste créateur. On pourra également explorer les apports de la recherche-création ou de la transcréation, ainsi que le rôle des outils de conservation (anciens et nouveaux) des archives de traductrices dans la préservation et mise en lumière de leurs processus créatifs.
Cartographies et réceptions de la traduction féministe : Comment les pratiques de traduction féministe et queer se déploient-elles dans des contextes non occidentaux et/ou dans des langues minorisées ? Quels récits critiques, médiatiques, universitaires ou militants se construisent autour de ces traductions ? On pourra par exemple explorer dans quelle mesure les circulations transnationales des traductions féminines et féministes (particulièrement sud–sud et sud–nord) redessinent les hiérarchies entre langues et aires culturelles. On pourra également s’interroger sur la façon dont les attentes et les goûts des différents publics contribuent à orienter, encourager ou au contraire freiner certaines pratiques traductives féministes ou interventionnistes dans différents contextes culturels.
Le colloque Plein feu sur (i)elles : visibiliser le genre en traduction accueillera des présentations et intervenant·e·s variées. Nous acceptons des propositions de communications de recherche (20 minutes environ), en anglais ou en français, mais aussi des propositions hétérodoxes comme, entre autres, des témoignages de praticien·ne·s en traduction, en édition ou au sein de collectifs transcréatifs ; des lectures performatives de traduction ; des propositions de table-rondes ; des ateliers sur les pratiques de féminisation ou de queerisation de la langue, sur la traduction et la diffusion numérique de matrimoines, etc.
Les propositions de 300 mots et les courtes bio-bibliographies correspondantes seront envoyées avant le 1er mars 2026 aux trois organisatrices, Pauline Jaccon, Enora Lessinger et Amanda Murphy, à l’adresse suivante colloquegenretraduction@gmail.com. Les propositions peuvent être rédigées en anglais ou en français.
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Call for Papers
Gender in the Spotlight: (In)Visibility in Translation
Plein feu sur (i)elles : visibiliser le genre en traduction
The complex question of visibility and its counterpart, invisibility, has troubled the study and practice of translation for a long time. According to Kate Briggs, Thomas Mann’s English translator Helen Lowe-Porter described her own task as that of an “an unknown instrument: a tool to be used, a service provider, engaged in undressing and carefully redressing the literary work of art for the purposes of a new market … Like a lady’s maid” (Briggs 2018: 36). This fantasy of invisibility, whereby the voice of the sanctified author would be expected to pass through a translational “glasspane” (Kratz & Shapiro 1986) into a new language without the reader becoming aware that the text has been transformed through linguistic, cultural and stylistic shifts, is a phenomenon that Venuti already rose against in 1998. Venuti reminds us that if translators must adopt strategies of visibility, it is precisely because translation is “stigmatized as a form of writing, discouraged by copyright law, depreciated by the academy, exploited by publishers and corporations, governments and religious organisations” (Venuti 1998: 1). These strategies of resistance aim to counter the homogenising and hegemonic project of the West, which has only grown more productivist in the past 25 years with the advent of machine translation.
In today’s translation industry, where women and other gender minorities account for 78% of practising translators (Gilbert 2025), the question of visibility directly intersects with that of gender. Since the 1970s, translation has found its place in gender debates, for example through the works of feminist activist translators such as Barbara Godard and Lori Chamberlain. These translators have highlighted the perceived secondary and ancillary status of translation, supposedly subordinate to the original. In her seminal 1988 article, Chamberlain demonstrates that gendered metaphors – such as the so-called “belles infidèles” – are pervasive in translation-related discourse, and contribute to anchoring translation within a patriarchal framework. Translation, construed as feminine and derivative, is then expected to serve a masculine, authoritative source text. The figure of the translator, The figure of the translator, and especially a translator belonging to a gender minority, remains discreet even today, and translational ethics is often governed by the pressure to be “transparent”.
In an interview, the Québecoise poet Nicole Brossard touches on the idea that writing allows one “to bring into existence what already exists”. Writing generates “a new kind of reality, one that had no existence within the patriarchal universe”. Thus, “casting a few sentences onto the page, taking the risk of asserting something that had no right to exist, was, in my view, a way of disturbing the law” (Karim Larose and Rosalie Lessard 2012, our translation). This statement largely applies to translation too, as a practice that literally brings into existence something that did not previously exist in the target language. However, not every text is granted the right to exist at any given time in every language: many works by women and gender minorities have been and are still neglected by the literary canon. As demonstrated by Translation Studies, languages of inclusivity develop differently across languages, while some texts written by women take longer to emerge, or undergo suppressions and alterations that fail to give the target audience the means to fully grasp the source text in all its complexity.
The shift brought about by Canadian feminism in the 1970s introduced a new conception of translation, underpinned by theoretical works such as that of Luise von Flotow and Sherry Simon, as well as feminist practices by translators like Barbara Godard and Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood. Translation was then redefined as a symbolic and political gesture foregrounding and making use of the performative power of language. Conversely, feminist and queer discourses are arguably translations in and of themselves: in Godard’s words, translation is an impetus towards the other; it is both “movement and plurality”. “I am a translation,” wrote de Lotbinière-Harwood (1989) in Re-Belle et Infidèle/The Body Bilingual (1991), where she analyses her own dissident translational practices, such as writing “amante” and translating it as “lovher” or translating “auteure” as “auther”, a creative gesture that contributes to building a visibly gendered vocabulary. These practices aim to give a voice and visibility to the experiences of women and all other gender minorities, when languages and their histories tend to erase them.
More than 50 years after the special issue “Femme et langage” of the avant-garde journal La barre du jour (1975), we can only welcome the organisation of international conferences such as “Les mots du genre”, in partnership with the World Gender IRN, or “L’émancipation par la traduction? Trajectoires féminines en Europe centrale et orientale”, as well as publications such as Gender and Translation: Understanding Agents in Transnational Reception (2018), the Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender (2020), and the recent translation into French of Sherry Simon’s foundational Gender in Translation (2023). Equally encouraging are the creation of the Feminist Translation Network at the University of Birmingham and the Feminist Translation Studies journal in 2024.
The conference Gender in the Spotlight: (In)Visibility in Translation, to be held on 22–23 October 2026, is part of this lineage of feminist research aiming to (re)centre translation around the voices of women and queer practitioners and scholars, and more generally to give more visibility to gender minorities. This event is supported by PRISMES and TRACT at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, IMAGER at Paris-Est Créteil University and Oxford Brookes University. It is part of the HERMES research programme “Les écritures du matrimoine à l’ère du numérique: (re)découverte, découvrabilité et reconnaissance” at the Sorbonne Nouvelle and has the support of the Institut du Genre.
The conference will feature two keynote presentations by Luise von Flotow (University of Ottawa) and Charlotte Bosseaux (University of Edinburgh).
Possible themes and topics:
Inclusion and visibility
Participants may wish to explore the many aspects of the visibility, visibilisation and empowerment of translators belonging to gender minorities. What practical, professional or artistic strategies enable the visibility of women and other gender minorities in feminist translation practices? What specificities emerge for translations that are literally visible, though not always visibilised, such as sign language translation, audiovisual translation, or any form of performed and corporeal interpretation? How can formal innovation (inclusive writing, neologisms, subversion of typographical norms, etc.) be a feminist and/or queer act of resistance? How can translation influence political resistance at the intersection of feminist, queer, postcolonial, and ecocritical concerns? How can translation be practised, conceptualised, and taught through a gendered lens? How much scope is there today for interventionist practices such as “hijacking” (von Flotow 1991) – for instance in the case of women translating men? Might interventionism itself contribute to the counter-productive invisibilisation of sexism in the source text (Zoberman 2014)?
Translation as a professional practice
How are women and gender minorities represented in translation and publishing industries today? To what extent do they act as agents of their own strategies of visibility when working on translations commissioned by clients or publishers? What role do official and awarding bodies such as juries or festivals play in either recognising or invisibilising translators and their translational choices? What about interpreting and audiovisual translation, where the translator’s work is literally visible and audible? Also crucial to consider is the impact of machine translation, post-editing, and more recently artificial intelligence with its well-documented gendered biases, on translators’ working conditions, visibility, and recognition.
New forms of visibilisation
What are the new sites, actors, formats and processes impacting translators’ visibility today? What, in particular, is the role of collaboration, marginal and collective spaces, and new digital tools in this work of visibilisation? Participants might want to examine the rise of independent translation collectives (such as UnderCommons or Cases Rebelles); the emergence of translation memoirs (among many others, Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat); or the use of social media to make one’s translational process more visible, as Emily Wilson did on Twitter during her translation of The Odyssey and The Iliad. Papers addressing the question of paratexts (prefaces, afterwords, notes, book-jackets…) are also welcome, as well as those exploring how publishers are redefining the translator’s place within these spaces, and how new digital platforms can develop the visibilisation of their work (online corpus, online libraries…).
Feminist translation as creation
Recognising the translator’s active agency and creativity is equally central to making the translator more visible and her voice more audible. Participants may want to explore self-(re)translation, performative and embodied forms of translation (readings, stage performances, live surtitling…), in which body and voice become integral to the creative gesture; the contributions of practice-based research and transcreation; or the role of archives and conservation tools in bringing to light creative processes often rendered invisible.
Reception and transnational mapping
How do feminist and queer translation practices unfold in non-Western contexts and/or in minority languages? What narratives emerge among critics, activists or in the media around these translations? Contributors may examine how transnational circulations – particularly south–south and south–north – reshape linguistic and cultural hierarchies, or how audience expectations and tastes shape or hinder feminist or interventionist translation practices across cultural contexts.
Guidelines for submission
The conference Gender in the Spotlight: (In)Visibility in Translation will take place on 22–23 October 2026 at the Maison de la Recherche of the Sorbonne Nouvelle (4, rue des Irlandais 75005 Paris, Salle Athéna) and aims to welcome a wide range of presentations and speakers. We accept 20-minute research papers (in English or French), as well as less traditional forms of contributions such as practitioner testimonies, performative readings, roundtables, workshops, etc.
Abstracts (300 words) and short bios should be sent before 1 March 2026 to colloquegenretraduction@gmail.com, in English or in French.
Comité d’organisatrices/Organizing Committee:
Pauline Jaccon (Maîtresse de conférences, IMAGER, LanguEnact, Université Paris-Est Créteil)
Enora Lessinger (Senior Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University, CIOL)
Amanda Murphy (Maîtresse de conférences, PRISMES, TRACT, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)
Comité scientifique/Scientific Committee:
Charles Bonnot, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Olga Castro, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona & University of Warwick
Audrey Coussy, McGill University
Amélie Florenchie, Université Bordeaux-Montaigne
Anne-Isabelle François, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Hepzibah Israel, University of Edinburgh
Julie Loison-Charles, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Jean-Charles Meunier, Université Paris-Est Créteil
Lily Robert-Foley, Université de Montpellier
Sara Ramos Pinto, University of Leeds
Sara Salmi, ESIT Paris
María Laura Spoturno, Universidad Nacional de La Plata & Oxford Brookes University
Bibliographie indicative/Bibliography:
Álvarez Sánchez, P. (Ed.). (2022). Traducción literaria y género: estrategias y prácticas de visibilización, Editorial Comares, Universidad de Alcalá
Arrojo, Rosemary (1993). "A Tradução Passada a Limpo e a Visibilidade do Tradutor," Tradução, Desconstrução e Psicanálise. Rio de Janeiro, Ática, pp. 71-89
Arrojo, Rosemary (1994) “Fidelity and the gendered translation”. TTR, 7(2), 147–163
Bosseaux, Charlotte et Lee Ling (dir.) (2023) Surviving Translation, A Multilingual Documentary, University of Edinburgh. https://ethicaltranslation.llc.ed.ac.uk/full-online-versions/
Bosseaux, Charlotte (2025) ‘Surviving Translation: why we need feminist ethics in translation research and practice’, Feminist Translation Studies, 2(1), pp. 91–98. doi: 10.1080/29940443.2025.2561561.
Briggs, Kate (2018). This Little Art, Fitzcarraldo Editions: London.
Castro, Olga, & Ergun, Emek (Eds.) (2017). Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives, Routledge.
Castro, Olga, Ergun, Emek, von Flotow, Luise, & Spoturno, María Laura (2020). Towards transnational feminist translation studies. Mutatis Mutandis. Revista Latinoamericana de Traducción, 13(1), 2–10. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.mut.v13n1a01.
Chamberlain, Lois (2018). “Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation”. In Rethinking Translation (pp. 57-74), Routledge.
DeLisle, Jean (2022). Portraits de traductrices, Ottawa, coll. « Regards sur la traduction », Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa.
Dictionnaire du genre de la traduction. (n.d.). World Gender [CNRS]. https://worldgender.cnrs.fr/.
von Flotow, Luise (1991). Feminist translation: Contexts, practices, and theories. TTR: Traduction, terminologie, rédaction, 4(2), 69-84. https://doi.org/10.7202/037094ar.
von Flotow, Luise, & Kamal, Hala (Eds.). (2021). The Routledge handbook of translation, feminism and gender, Routledge.
Gilbert, Marion (2025). Analyse de l’enquête sur les conditions de travail en traduction d’édition de l’ATLF, www.atlf.org.
Godard, Barbara (1989). “Theorizing feminist discourse/translation”, Tessera, 6, pp. 42-53.
Hildalgo, Marian Panchón (2026). “(In)visibilised women translators: recovery through the use of archives”, Parallèles, issue 38:1 (à paraître).
hooks, bell (1990). Yearning, South End Press.
hooks, bell (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, Routledge.
Kratz, Dennis (1986). “An Interview with Norman Shapiro,” Translation Review 19: pp. 27–28.
Larose, Karim, & Lessard, Rosalie (2012). Entretien avec Nicole Brossard, Voix et Images, 37(3), pp. 13-29. https://doi.org/10.7202/1011281ar.
López Isis Herrero, Alvstad Cecilia, Akujärvi Johanna et Lindtner Synnøve Skarsbø (Eds) (2018), Gender and Translation: Understanding Agents in Transnational Reception, Montréal : Vita Traductiva.
Lotbinière-Harwood, Susanne de (1991). Re-belle et infidèle / The body bilingual: Translation as a rewriting in the feminine, Women’s Press.
Robert-Foley, Lily (2018). “Vers une traduction queere”, Revue Trans- [En ligne], https://journals.openedition.org/trans/1864.
Simon, Sherry (2023). Le Genre en traduction. Identité culturelle et politiques de transmission, trad. par Corinne Oster, Artois, Artois, Presses Université.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (2008). Outside in the Teaching Machine, Routledge.
Venuti, Lawrence (1998). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, 2nd Edition, Routledge : New York.
Waquil, Marina Leivas (2025). Traducción literaria y género: estrategias y prácticas de visibilización: édité par Patricia Álvarez Sánchez, Albolote, Spain, Editorial Comares, 2022, Feminist Translation Studies, 2(1), pp. 99–101.
Zoberman, Pierre (2014). "“Homme” peut-il vouloir dire “Femme”? Gender and Translation in Seventeenth-Century French Moral Literature." comparative literature studies 51.2: 231-252.
Responsable :
Pauline Jaccon, UPEC; Enora Lessinger, Oxford-Brookes; Amanda Murphy, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Url de référence :
https://gendertrad.sciencesconf.org/
Adresse :
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France"
https://www.fabula.org/actualites/131710/plein-feu-sur-i-elles-visibiliser-le-genre-en-traduction-gender.html
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"The debate between anime dubs (English voiceovers) and subs (subtitled versions in the original Japanese) has been a long-standing topic among anime fans, often dividing the community. Supporters of dubs argue that they make anime more accessible, especially for casual viewers or those who find reading subtitles distracting. Over the years, dubbing quality has improved dramatically, with talented voice actors, better localization, and greater respect for the source material.
That said, there’s no denying that some poorly handled dubs have left lasting scars on the anime community. Ultimately, the choice between dubs and subs comes down to personal preference, but the history of poorly executed dubs has shown why some fans remain fiercely loyal to subtitles..."
Read more 👇🏿👇🏿
https://comicbook.com/anime/list/7-worst-anime-english-dub-translations-that-ruined-the-original-sub/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Renowed Maltese poet, author and translator Alfred Palma has died at the age of 86.
Palma remains mostly known for his complete and rhymed translation of Dante's Divine Comedy for which he was honoured with the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia by Italian president Sergio Mattarella in 2021. He also translated Shakespeare's 38 plays.
He was awarded the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika in 2009..."
https://timesofmalta.com/article/translator-poet-alfred-palma-dies-aged-86.1121490
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
Interview with Yair Frank on how the Bible Society in Israel modernized the Hebrew Bible into contemporary Hebrew while preserving meaning and literary depth.
"From Hebrew to Hebrew: How the Bible got a new language in Israel
Bridging the gap: Modernizing the Hebrew Bible's ancient text for today’s Israeli readers – An interview with Yair Frank, the project leader
Izraelinfo Staff | Published: December 20, 2025
What does it mean to "understand" the Bible in Israel today? The Bible Society in Israel has worked for five years to make the text of the Hebrew Bible speak in modern Hebrew – without losing its meaning, its layering, or its cultural weight.
We spoke with Yair Frank, the project leader, about where the line lies between translation and interpretation, why the new text did not end up as "street language," and why this edition could be crucial even for those who haven’t opened the Bible since their high school final exams.
Interview by Judit Kónya, Izraelinfo:
Could you introduce yourself in a few words? What do you do?
I have been working at the Bible Society in Israel for over eleven years; currently, I manage the Society's larger projects. For the past five years, our most important work has been the modernization of the Hebrew Bible – that is, transplanting the text into today's modern Hebrew language.
Previously, I led the revision of the Hebrew translation of the New Testament. That is a completely different field: there, we had to translate ancient Koine Greek text into Hebrew. In summary, I manage all projects at the Society that are directly related to the text of the Bible.
My professional background: I studied Tanakh – at is, the Hebrew Bible – and the History of the Jewish People at the Hebrew University.
In the name of the Bible Society, does "kitvei ha-kodesh" – "holy scriptures" – refer to the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament together?
Yes. The Bible Society in Israel was established in 1948, the year the state was founded. Before the establishment of the State of Israel, during the British Mandate, the British and Foreign Bible Society operated an office here, which became an independent, local society in parallel with the founding of the state.
Which religion or church is the organization affiliated with?
Just as in other countries around the world, the Bible Society in Israel is not tied to any single church or denomination. The Society's goal is to disseminate the Bible, meaning to make the biblical text accessible to everyone regardless of linguistic, cultural, or religious background.
At the same time, the historical background is clearly rooted in Christianity: the international movement of Bible Societies originated from that sphere. We make the Bible – both the Old and New Testaments – equally available.
The staff of today's Bible Society in Israel are local Jews, the majority of whom are Messianic Jews. Accordingly, we accept both the Old Testament and the New Testament as holy scripture.
There are Bible Societies in most countries of the world, but where is the "head" of the organization? Who coordinates the operations of the local societies?
There is no "head." One of the most interesting features of the system is that it is not built hierarchically, but operates like a network. For example, I know some staff members of the organization in Hungary, I know who works there, but beyond that, there is no institutional connection between us. Every local society is completely autonomous and independent, makes its own decisions, and operates with its own responsibility.
This year, in December 2025, the Bible Society in Israel published the text of the Bible transposed into modern Hebrew. This is a "bilingual" edition, correct?
Not exactly. The volume is monolingual, but it contains two texts. The Masoretic text based on the Leningrad Codex appears in one column, and on the same page, the version transposed into modern Hebrew can be read.
So, the text of the Hebrew Bible and its modernized version stand side by side – meaning you translated the Hebrew Bible into Hebrew.
Actually, this is not a classic translation, but an intra-lingual modernization.
Who worked on the project?
At least twelve people participated in the work with varying degrees of intensity.
Are they all Israelis and Messianic believers?
Not everyone. For instance, the linguistic editor of the modern Hebrew text is not a Messianic believer: he is an atheist Jew who also works with the Academy of the Hebrew Language (*HaAkademia LaLashon HaIvrit*), and he participated in this project with great joy.
Can the contributors be named?
A decision was made within the Bible Society that the names of the contributors would not appear in the publication. The book contains neither my name nor anyone else's – only the text. If this decision changes, the names may be published later. My role is known regardless of this.
What was your specific task?
Coordinating the work of the entire team. In the first phase of the work, we transposed the biblical text into modern Hebrew. This was followed by a second, research phase: we examined the finished text verse by verse and checked, using philological tools, how faithful the modernized version was to the original meaning, and to what extent the translators followed the source text.
I participated actively in this phase myself.
Did the translators have linguistic competence to interpret Greek, Latin, and other Bible translations?
The translators are professional translators who have been working in the profession for twenty to thirty years. They translate from other languages into Hebrew; Hebrew is their mother tongue. Furthermore, they have all read the biblical Hebrew text for many years, know it well, and use it on a daily basis.
So they do not have a background in biblical studies.
No. Biblical studies is not their field of expertise.
But they know biblical Hebrew deeply.
Yes. They grew up on it, they read it, and they use it every day.
Is that why the second phase was necessary?
Exactly. That is why it was important that in the second phase of the work, experts who are researchers in various fields of biblical studies worked on the text. They went through the translated text verse by verse, and where the translators misunderstood the text, they corrected the translation.
Every translation is actually an interpretation, and here it is worth discussing the Christian background of the project again. Interpreting the text of the Bible is a theologian's task. To what extent do you consider this modernized text to be theologically thought-out?
Indeed, every translation is interpretation. Therefore, one of the basic principles of the project was to approach the text with the greatest possible philological fidelity. We consciously had no prior theological goal or direction that would have influenced the translation.
We performed philological work: we tried to reproduce the meaning of the text accurately in modern Hebrew without "conveying" any theological message. We paid special attention to this during the work.
I looked at a few biblical passages on the Bible Society's website – for example, the psalm beginning "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept..." [Ps. 137:1], and the Song of Songs – and I see that the changes are primarily lexical. You intervened in the text where a Hebrew word is now unintelligible or its meaning has changed over time. For example, in the modernized version of the cited psalm, they do not hang a "kinor" [Heb., in modern sense: "violin"] on the willow tree, but a lyre [Heb. lira]. Was this the goal?
Yes. It was a fundamental criterion for us to preserve the original meaning of the biblical text while making it accessible in modern Hebrew. To do this, we often had to swap words, but the sentence structure also differs fundamentally in biblical Hebrew, so we had to change almost every sentence. If the meaning of a word has become obscured or changed by today, we had to use a different expression so that the reader truly understands what the text originally meant.
Like in the case of "kinor," the meaning of which has changed in the meantime.
Yes.
I found another interesting example in the Song of Songs [Song of Songs 1:5]: the tent cloth [Heb. yeriot] of Solomon's tents appears as curtains – vilonot – in the modernized text. What justified this solution? The word yeriot is indeed difficult to understand today, but how did you arrive at the interpretation of vilonot?
We strove to find the most accepted interpretation of rare words – or even hapax legomena, expressions that occur only once in the Bible – one that the majority of biblical scholars also accept.
In this case, based on the historical context, the text refers more to the interior spaces and curtains of Solomon's palace, not to tent cloths. That is why we chose the term vilonot.
Here, the role of Greek, Latin, and other translations comes in as well. But then, is the source text for the modernization not only the Hebrew Bible but also these translations?
No, because it was a fundamental stipulation for us that the source text be exclusively the Leningrad Codex.
At the same time, other translations and commentaries are still needed to interpret the text, aren't they?
Of course, but this [the Codex] was the base, with all its faults. The Leningrad Codex does have clear textual problems.
Are you referring to errors stemming from text copying?
Yes. We translated these errors as well, but where it was clearly visible that the text was damaged or problematic, we indicated in a footnote, for example, that "the Septuagint translates it this way," or we indicated other text variants, such as the different readings of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
However, the translation itself is consistently based on the text of the Leningrad Codex.
What provided the most work: the lexical, syntactic, or stylistic changes?
All of them, but perhaps the lexical questions took up the most time. We worked for long months, even years, to find the right words. Additionally, however, the text had to be stylized. When the modernized Hebrew version was completed, it was an important criterion that it should not sound like street language, but rather high-level, literary Hebrew.
For example, you kept the word hinne [Heb. "behold"].
Yes. You can feel that you are reading a carefully formulated, understandable text that also has literary value.
What kind of reader did you imagine?
We didn't think of a single, well-defined reader. The goal was for the text to be understandable to as many readers as possible. To readers for whom Hebrew is their mother tongue and who have finished elementary school – so that even a teenager could understand the text.
Israeli society is extremely complex, with many new immigrants whose Hebrew language skills are not necessarily at a high level. We knew that for them, this text might still pose a challenge because we placed the linguistic standard above their level. We tried to set this standard so that the text reaches as many people as possible, while also being aware that it is impossible to speak to everyone at once.
So you are providing a text of literary value that is nonetheless accessible. Where is the modernized Bible available? Are you distributing it in book form as well?
The printed volumes arrived from the press about a week or a week and a half ago. The text is also available online, and the book can be purchased at the Bible Society's three local bookstores – in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.
In addition, we are already working on getting the edition to major book distributors as well.
So there is an intention for the text to be physically present before people.
Definitely. The goal is for it to become common knowledge in Israeli society: a modernized text exists.
Have there been reactions to the text yet?
Yes, there is feedback, and so far it is specifically enthusiastic. Those who have a principled problem with us touching the text of the Bible won't pick up the book in the first place.
It is quite certain that there will be negative reactions as well. At the same time, it is important to see that we did not invent the idea of modernizing the Hebrew Bible. The necessity of this work is self-evident, as the Bible is a collection of books that are more than two thousand years old.
Already in the early 2000s, a similar initiative was born: the Yediot Aharonot publishing house launched the Tanakh Ram project (תנ”ך רם), in which they transposed the Torah and the Early Prophets into modern Hebrew. However, the work was left unfinished, partly due to professional criticism. The translation was the work of a Bible teacher, but professionally it did not stand up to scrutiny.
They also started from the premise that there is a need to modernize the biblical Hebrew text.
They reached a point – the narrative books are relatively easier to transpose – but the truly difficult parts are the prophetic books, wisdom literature, and similar texts.
Has your relationship with the Bible changed during these five years? Am I right to think that dealing with the text took up most of your workday?
Absolutely. I grew up on the Bible and it is no coincidence that I studied this at university as well. I taught Bible and history for a few years, but when I embarked on this project, from then on, I literally woke up and went to bed with it. Day in and day out, I dealt only with the text. One learns an enormous amount this way; newer and newer layers of the text are revealed.
You now know the Bible as few do.
Yes, that is true.
Was your connection to it not as close before, or am I mistaken?
My connection was always very close. I read it continuously, I dealt with the text constantly. I moved to Israel at the age of sixteen, learned Hebrew, and barely a year later I already had to take my matriculation exam (*Bagrut*) in Tanakh. It was then that I decided I would no longer read the Bible in Hungarian. I already knew the Hungarian translation well, but I was increasingly interested in what was in the original text. From then on, I dealt with this continuously; I know and love the text. In this sense, my relationship hasn't changed, only deepened: for the past five years, I have dealt with this eight hours a day.
Is distribution also your task, meaning does it also depend on you how this text – on which twelve people worked for five years – reaches as many readers as possible? This is a work of huge volume.
This is not a one-person task, but the work of the entire Bible Society. Naturally, I have influence on how we do it, but the whole thing does not rest on my shoulders.
With what feeling would you go to your university professors with this volume? What would you say to them?
Just earlier this week I was at the Hebrew University, and I went in to see one of my former lecturers. I gave him the book, told him I worked on it – and he even asked for a dedication.
He was very curious; we leafed through the book and looked at a few specific translation decisions, precisely in the topic he was writing an article about at the time. The initial reaction was specifically positive.
At the same time, I am sure there will be critical feedback as well. I await with curiosity how academic circles will react and whether they will point out places where they think it could have been translated better.
The text can always be revised.
So you are waiting for the criticism?
Of course. I welcome it. Let them show the errors, and if we indeed made mistakes, we will change them. The main thing is that the translation is finished and is laid on the table.
What is the most important thing for you in this project?
When the thought of modernizing the Hebrew Bible first arose within the Society, I was the only one who received it with reservations. Precisely because I love the text of the Bible very much: it is extremely layered, rich, and beautiful, and not all the treasures and subtleties of the original text can be fully preserved in a modernized version.
For a long time, I argued that perhaps there is no need for this. Then I realized that yes, there is. Because the vast majority of people do not understand the text on first reading and cannot enjoy reading it.
The Hebrew Bible is not just a religious text, but in a cultural sense, it is the foundational text, the charter of the Jewish people – the text upon which we stand as a people and as a nation. Zionism, which brought us back to this land and made the founding of the state possible, is also deeply rooted in the Bible. If this text is not accessible to modern Hebrew speakers, then there is a serious deficiency there that must be corrected.
We cannot expect people to invest years in mastering the biblical language just so they can read without problems the book upon which this entire culture is built. I taught Bible in high school, and I saw with my own eyes how difficult it is for modern Hebrew-speaking students – young and old alike – to interpret, or even simply enjoy, the text.
That was when I understood that I had to put aside my own reservations, and yes, the text must be transposed into modern Hebrew. Knowing as well that the Masoretic text is not disappearing: it stays here with us, anyone can learn it, can delve into it. But regardless, there is a need for an accessible, modern text of literary quality that faithfully returns the original meaning.
And since the original text, the Hebrew Bible, is also included in the edition, it is conceivable that some readers will encounter it for the first time in this very way.
In Israel, everyone takes matriculation exams in the Bible, but after the exams, most put it aside and never look at it again because a large part of the text is unintelligible to them.
They still get it in the army, right?
Yes. They receive it for the swearing-in ceremony.
But not so they actually read it.
No. Even though it is a beautiful, extremely rich text. Independent of questions of religion and faith, it is of enormous value in a cultural sense, one of the foundational works of Jewish culture, which everyone should read at least once. The modernized Hebrew Bible provides an opportunity for exactly this.
The interview was first published here and is republished with permission.
The text of the Contemporary Hebrew Bible is available on the website..."
An interview with Yair Frank, the project leader
Izraelinfo Staff | Published: December 20, 2025
https://allisraelnews.com/from-hebrew-to-hebrew-how-the-bible-got-a-new-language-in-israel
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Language-specific Neurons Do Not Facilitate Cross-Lingual Transfer
Mondal, Soumen Kumar ; Sen, Sayambhu ; Singhania, Abhishek ; Jyothi, Preethi
Abstract
Multilingual large language models (LLMs) aim towards robust natural language understanding across diverse languages, yet their performance significantly degrades on low-resource languages. This work explores whether existing techniques to identify language-specific neurons can be leveraged to enhance cross-lingual task performance of lowresource languages. We conduct detailed experiments covering existing language-specific neuron identification techniques (such as Language Activation Probability Entropy and activation probability-based thresholding) and neuron-specific LoRA fine-tuning with models like Llama 3.1 and Mistral Nemo. We find that such neuron-specific interventions are insufficient to yield cross-lingual improvements on downstream tasks (XNLI, XQuAD) in lowresource languages. This study highlights the challenges in achieving cross-lingual generalization and provides critical insights for multilingual LLMs.
Publication:
eprint arXiv:2503.17456
Pub Date: March 2025 DOI:
10.48550/arXiv.2503.17456
arXiv: arXiv:2503.17456 Bibcode: Keywords:
Computation and Language; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning
E-Print Comments: Accepted (oral) at NAACL 2025 (InsightsNLP)"
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXiv250317456M/abstract
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"...As AI becomes ubiquitous, how will the UN ensure that its software is secure — using encryption, for example — given the many options that are now available? What about workflows, staff training and best practices covering quality control, intellectual property, data privacy and cybersecurity?
One current use of AI internally involves creating multilingual content. For example, AI is being used to take several sources of information — press releases as well as audio from conference summaries enhanced with background material from across the UN ecosystem. This content is used to whip a story into shape. It is also being used to create content around UN observances and international days. This creation involves risk as errors can happen when the content is further translated through AI.
UN language experts routinely using transcription and auto-translation are best positioned to assess the quality of producing content through AI. Since its early days, these teams, especially in the Department of Global Communications, have seen notable improvements in translating such material from several languages into English. Yet, there are many exceptions. Translating content from English into Arabic, Chinese and Russian remains imperfect; and French and Spanish only slightly better. The work of professional translators and communications experts often fill the gaps that AI cannot cover.
Indeed, some major media outlets have told the UN that they are leery about wholesale use of AI and only green-light it for limited fact-checking but not content production.
Meanwhile, the UN plays a leading global role in forging international AI governance and exploring regulatory frameworks for responsible use while bridging the digital divide.
In August 2025, Secretary-General António Guterres established an independent scientific panel on AI — 40 experts serving as a technical body conducting research similar to that of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The new panel will synthesize AI research and policymaking in annual reports, guiding a global dialogue on AI governance launched in September and beginning work in 2026 with sessions on the sidelines of the annual AI for Good Summit, hosted by the International Telecommunications Union to be held in July in Geneva.
These steps kickstart the search for an international framework in which all countries can participate and benefit. The panel acts as an early-warning system and evidence engine, providing scientific foundation while the “dialogue” handles policy discussion. The big-tent approach allows all countries and the private sector to participate, and many parties taking part from the global South are hopeful that it will bridge the digital divide and break the United States-China stranglehold on AI.
In September, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence warned the UN Security Council that AI progress is concentrated among just a few companies and countries, limiting global benefits.
“When only a few have the resources to build and benefit from AI, we leave the rest of the world waiting at the door,” said Yejin Choi, who heads the Stanford center. She urged stronger linguistic and cultural diversity representation, noting that leading models underperform for non-English languages and reflect narrow cultural assumptions.
At the same time, Guterres told the Security Council that AI had become a daily reality and warned that without guardrails, it could be weaponized. He noted the closing window to develop useful regulatory frameworks and tasked his tech envoy, Amandeep Singh Gill, to lead.
AI use in a political organization offers advantages but can miss nuances, be manipulated and cause other problems. While irresponsible AI threatens journalism principles and feeds disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, UN member states lack consensus on how to use it in communications, translation and other sectors.
At the November committee meeting with Fleming, the United Kingdom lamented growing threats to information integrity fueled by AI, distorting truth and sowing division. The European Union representative at the meeting characterized AI for translation and multilingualism as promising. The group of friends of Spanish flagged that AI allows enormous possibilities with risks and challenges and that nothing the Department of Global Communications does in the name of budgetary constraints should undermine multilingualism.
The Group of 77 and China didn’t say anything at all about use of AI but cautioned about the need to reduce the disparity in the use of official languages.
South Africa was a lone voice warning against over-reliance on AI for UN reports and summaries, given the technology’s early-development inaccuracies and potential manipulation. Several countries remain concerned about a world of AI haves and have-nots.
The contradiction is stark: While the UN establishes global AI governance frameworks emphasizing transparency and human oversight, it lacks clear, approved internal guidelines for its own AI use in critical communications and translation functions. Many UN leaders have pushed to embrace AI, which can offer apparent quick wins, especially amid downsizing and slashed budgets.
AI is a fact of life — but “human oversight” is a loaded term that still demands a sizable cohort of language professionals with appropriate skills to manage the use of AI, and the UN cannot rush into it if it wants to lead with thoughtful internal governance.
This is an opinion essay."
https://passblue.com/2025/12/17/the-double-edged-sword-of-ai-use-by-the-un/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Digital health tools hold enormous promise. For pregnant women and new mothers navigating the physical and emotional challenges of the perinatal period, websites and apps offer the potential for instant support, accessible information, and a vital connection to care. In theory, these resources should break down barriers, providing a lifeline to women anytime, anywhere.
However, for many migrant women, this digital promise is not being met. Instead of building bridges, these tools can inadvertently erect new walls, reinforcing feelings of isolation and exclusion at a time when support is most critical. These failures are not just about cultural missteps; they are symptoms of a digital health ecosystem that overlooks the complex social and structural realities—from digital literacy gaps to the profound need for privacy—that shape a migrant mother's life.
New research led by Monash University researchers including Dr. Areni Altun, Dr. Rochelle Hine, Professor Andred Deussens, Dr Levita D'Souza, Professor Helen Skouteris and Associate Professor Jacqueline A. Boyle, reveals significant systemic barriers limiting the uptake of digital mental health tools among migrant women. The qualitative study of Chinese, Arabic, and Indian-language speaking mothers in Australia provides powerful, and often surprising, insights into why. By listening to their lived experiences, we can see exactly where well- intentioned digital design goes wrong. Here are the top five most impactful takeaways from their stories.
Takeaway 1: By the Time Help Arrives, It's Already Too Late
One of the most consistent findings was a critical mismatch in timing. Digital mental health resources are typically introduced to women postpartum, a period when new mothers are physically exhausted, emotionally overwhelmed, and consumed with caring for a newborn. Compounding this, many participants noted that after childbirth, the healthcare system’s focus shifts almost exclusively to the infant, leaving their own wellbeing unaddressed.
One mother articulated this frustrating reality perfectly:
"Because after delivery you’re not going to actually use those [websites], you really don’t have the time. I guess when you’re pregnant, I remember I had a good pregnancy, if I was given those resources at that time, I would have sat and read. I would have gone through those websites, I would have at least known.” (Indian Focus Group C).
This is a profound "missed opportunity" in the healthcare system. The ideal time to introduce these resources is during pregnancy, when women are actively seeking information and have more capacity to engage. By waiting until after birth, the system fails to provide support when it is most likely to be effective.
Takeaway 2: Language Access Is Often an Illusion
While some digital health platforms offer translated content, participants revealed that this access is frequently an illusion. The good intention is to offer multilingual support. The reality is a design that makes this support functionally invisible, rendering the intention meaningless. Language selection tools are often hidden behind unintuitive icons or buried in menus, making them nearly impossible to find for someone who cannot already read English.
A participant described the design failure on one prominent website:
“This website …my observation is about the language selection. It's not obvious to select Chinese language and you have to find this icon, that looks like a globe... But for someone who does not understand English we cannot read or speak English, it’s very difficult or inconvenient to find the language selection menu. It could feel inaccessible or too complex.” (Chinese Focus Group B).
This isn't a minor UX issue; it is a gatekeeping mechanism that locks out vulnerable users before they even begin. The consequences are significant: the study found that when faced with inaccessible local resources, women often default to health websites from their home countries, driving them toward information that may be irrelevant to the Australian healthcare context. It is a failure of digital hospitality at the most fundamental level.
Takeaway 3: "Inclusive" Imagery Can Feel Tokenistic and Erode Trust
Authentic representation is crucial for building trust, yet the well-intentioned goal of ‘inclusive’ marketing often backfires when it relies on tokenism. Participants observed a stark contrast between the "relatable, like someone next door" Caucasian women and the inauthentic depiction of women from their own backgrounds.
This powerful quote highlights the disconnect:
“The Caucasian women look relatable, like someone next door. The CALD women don’t always feel authentic. When they use faces of CALD women... they use supermodels... not relatable” (Indian Individual Interview).
But the problem runs deeper than unrelatable faces. Participants expressed a desire for imagery that demystifies an unfamiliar system, showing what help actually looks like, who provides it, and where it happens. This failure in representation sends a clear message that users are not truly seen or understood. To foster a genuine connection, digital resources must use imagery that reflects the reality of everyday mothers and visually explains how to access care.
Takeaway 4: When 'Professional' Design Feels Like a Funeral
This study uncovered a surprising and critical insight: seemingly neutral design choices can carry deeply negative cultural associations. A clean, "clinical" colour palette of grey and white, often used to convey professionalism, was perceived very differently by some participants from a Chinese background.
As one woman explained, the colours evoked a powerful and unintended negative feeling:
“...if you’re looking at black and white, sometime in Chinese culture, we use black and white in funerals. So … it’s not very culturally sensitive to us because when I was looking at that I was thinking about a negative thought.” (Chinese Focus Group A).
This finding underscores the vital importance of cultural humility in design. What is considered calming or professional in one cultural context may be stressful, inappropriate, or even frightening in another. Without deep cultural understanding, even the most well-intentioned design can inadvertently alienate the very people it is meant to support.
Takeaway 5: The Smartphone Is More Than a Convenience—It's a Safe Space
For many migrant women, the primary value of using a smartphone to access health information is not just convenience—it is privacy and emotional safety. Phones offer a discreet way to learn about sensitive topics like mental health, which is crucial in cultural contexts where stigma may be high or within shared family homes where privacy is limited.
The power of this discretion was summed up perfectly by one participant:
“Mobile is... more discreet. Just hit the button and the screen is black” (Chinese Individual Interview).
This insight reframes mobile-first design from a technical choice to a vital feature for user safety and empowerment. However, this safe space is not available to everyone. The study makes it clear that owning a device does not equate to being connected or confident. Significant barriers related to the cost of data, inconsistent internet access, and varying levels of digital literacy prevent many women from benefiting at all, potentially widening the equity gap for the most marginalized mothers.
Conclusion: Building Digital Bridges, Not Just Websites
The experiences of these women reveal a clear and consistent theme: good intentions are not enough. The evidence is clear: designing for migrant mothers cannot be an afterthought. It requires a fundamental shift from ‘translate and tolerate’ to ‘co-design and celebrate.’ Creating effective digital health tools demands deep cultural understanding, genuine community partnership, and thoughtful integration into trusted healthcare pathways.
We must demand that digital health equity becomes a non-negotiable metric of success for any tool that claims to support maternal health. As digital tools become central to healthcare, how can we ensure they are built not just to be looked at, but to be truly seen by every mother they are meant to serve?"
https://www.monash.edu/medicine/news/latest/2025-articles/beyond-translation-why-digital-health-tools-are-failing-new-migrant-mums
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"IALA announces 2025 creative writing and literary translation grant recipients
International Armenian Literary AllianceDecember 18, 2025Last Updated: December 18, 2025
The International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA) has awarded $2,500 to Nevdon Jamgochian for his work-in-progress, Intercessoress of Snakes, and $3,000 each to Maral Aktokmakyan to translate Heranoush Arshagyan’s Lusnyag «Լուսնեակ», Rupen Janbazian to translate Souren Chekijian’s Half-Drawn «Անաւարտ դիմանկար» and Nazareth Seferian to translate Secret of the Dragon Stone: Stone’s End «Վիշապաքարի գաղտնիքը․ Քարի վերջը» by Artavazd Yeghiazaryan.
IALA has also announced runners up for its 2025 Creative Writing Grant – applicants who hold great promise: Karen Babayan and Lena Dakessian Halteh.
Nevdon Jamgochian is an artist whose practice in painting, film and text explores cross-cultural narratives, memory and heritage. He holds an MFA in Painting with Outstanding Achievement from SCAD. His work has been exhibited internationally for over two decades, including at the Museum of Modern Art in Yerevan. His film was featured at Lincoln Center’s Armenians in Film series, and his writing has appeared in Hyperallergic and the Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, among other publications.
Jamgochian maintains a practice as an icon painter for the Armenian Apostolic Church while teaching fine art in West Africa, Europe, South and Southeast Asia, and currently East Asia. His current projects include oil paintings, short stories, a television series and a traveling exhibit that critically examines Turkish and Western perspectives of Anatolia. He can be found at @nevdon.bsky.social and @nevdonjamgochian on Instagram.
December 17, 2025
Maral Aktokmakyan is a scholar, writer and translator whose work centers on Western Armenian literature and its enduring creative legacy. She contributes to this legacy through her original writing, crafting essays, analysis and creative works that illuminate overlooked voices and literary traditions. In addition, she makes Armenian literature accessible to wider audiences through her translations (to and from Armenian, English and Turkish), preserving the nuance and richness of the original texts. Her research appears in both academic and literary venues, where she examines how literature carries memory, imagination and identity into new contexts. Through her writing, scholarship and translation efforts, Dr. Aktokmakyan is committed to expanding the visibility, vitality and future possibilities of Western Armenian literary art.

Rupen Janbazian is a writer, editor and translator from Toronto, currently based in Yerevan. He is the editor of Torontohye, a bilingual Armenian-English community print newspaper in Toronto, and the former editor of the Armenian Weekly. He writes in both English and (Western) Armenian, and his work often explores questions of homeland-diaspora, identity and community life between Canada and Armenia.
Janbazian has translated, co-translated and edited a range of literary works, memoirs, articles and short fiction. He is currently working on several original writing and translation projects. Among these is an English translation of his late friend Souren Chekijian’s novel Անաւարտ դիմանկար, for which he was awarded the 2025 IALA Israelyan Western Armenian Translation Grant. The novel is a Toronto-set Western Armenian work that examines exile, aging, desire and the inner world of a Lebanese-Armenian painter in Canada.
He lives in Yerevan with his partner, Araz, and their dog, Srjeni.
Nazareth Seferian was born in Canada, grew up in India and moved to Armenia in 1998, where he has been living ever since. His university education has not been specific to translation studies, but his love for languages led him to this work in 2001. He began literary translations in 2011 and his published works include translations of novels and short stories by Gurgen Khanjyan, Mushegh Galshoyan, Susanna Harutyunyan, Grig, Karine Khodikyan, Aram Pachyan, Levon Shahnur, Armen of Armenia (Ohanyan), Areg Azatyan, Avetik Mejlumyan, Anna Davtyan, Arman Aghlamazyan and more. Seferian’s typical work week includes activities in a completely different sector combined with several pages of translation. Driven by his desire to promote greater availability and recognition of Armenian culture for English speakers worldwide, one of Seferian’s dreams is to play a key role as the translator when an Armenian author wins a major international literature prize.

Karen Babayan is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and playwright. Born in Iran, she moved to the UK in 1978. Her well-established art career includes exhibitions in the UK, Armenia, Canada and Japan, and work in many public and private collections.
Her first book of short stories on the Armenians of Iran, Blood Oranges Dipped in Salt (2012) was born out of a Ph.D. in Contemporary Art Practice. Her first full-length theater production based on her second book of short stories, Swallows and Armenians (2019), toured venues in London and Leeds this year. It champions the Anglo-Armenian family from Aleppo who inspired English author Arthur Ransome to write a classic of children’s literature.
She is currently working on her first novel, set in historic Western Armenia/Eastern Turkey. Babayan lives near the English Lake District. Learn more at karenbabayan.com or on Substack at @karenbabayan and @babayan1654 on Instagram.

Lena Dakessian Halteh is a San Francisco–based writer, visual artist and storyteller. She holds a B.A. in English Literature and Art History and an M.J. in Journalism, all from the University of California, Berkeley. Her writing and artwork have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Al Jazeera’s AJ+, Chariot Press, Hyebred Magazine and Noor Magazine. She is a former multimedia reporting fellow at Al Jazeera’s AJ+. In 2019, she founded Pom + Peacock, an art and paper goods company showcasing her original fine art and illustrations. A dedicated performer and arts educator, Dakessian Halteh has trained and performed with ARAX Dance for two decades and now serves as the program’s artistic director. She is currently at work on her first novel. Alongside raising her three little ones, she continues to pursue storytelling across a range of literary and visual arts media. Learn more at lenahalteh.com or on Instagram at @lenahalteh.
The International Armenian Literary Alliance’s 2025 Creative Writing Grant, now in its fourth year, was awarded for a work of fiction. In previous years, IALA has also offered writing grants for poetry and creative nonfiction. The 2025 grant was judged by Chris McCormick, and was made possible by a generous donation from author Aline Ohanesian.
IALA’s 2025 Israelyan Eastern Armenian Translation Grant was awarded for a work of literature (in any literary genre) written in Eastern Armenian and published any time after 1915, including the Modernist and Contemporary periods. It was judged by Dr. Margarit Ordukhanyan, and was made possible by a generous donation from Souren A. Israelyan.
IALA’s 2025 Israelyan Western Armenian Translation Grant was awarded for a work of literature (in any literary genre) written in Western Armenian from any period. The grant was judged by Dr. Tamar Marie Boyadjian and Dr. Jennifer Manoukian, and was made possible by a generous donation from Souren A. Israelyan.
IALA also offered the 2025 Israelyan English Translation Grant, judged by Arevik Ashkharoyan and Dr. Shushan Avagyan, and made possible by Souren A. Israelyan. Based on IALA’s review criteria, however, the judges chose not to award the grant this year."
https://armenianweekly.com/2025/12/18/iala-announces-2025-creative-writing-and-literary-translation-grant-recipients/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"A Nigerian-American Engineer and Entrepreneur, Omolabake Adenle, is breaking ground in preservation of African languages through cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI).
As founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AJALA.ai, formerly known as AJA.LA Studios, she is developing voice automation systems that give under resourced languages a place in the global digital space.
Her company builds automatic speech recognition and speech synthesis software for Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Kiswahili, and Kinyarwanda, helping businesses connect with people in their native languages.
The technology is already enhancing customer engagement, security processes, and operational efficiency for organisations serving both urban and rural populations. One of her standout products, the SpeakYoruba app, has earned global commendation for making Yoruba learning simple and accessible in a Duolingo style format.
Adenle was born and raised in the United States to Nigerian parents and followed a demanding academic path that prepared her for a career at the intersection of engineering and advanced technology.
She earned a doctorate in Bayesian Signal Processing from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where she specialised in high level computational techniques. Her academic excellence was recognised early through awards such as the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Tau Beta Pi Honors Fellowship.
After completing her PhD, Adenle moved into the finance sector and rose to become Vice President of Quantitative and Derivative Strategies at Morgan Stanley.
It was during her years on Wall Street that her interest in developing natural language processing tools for African languages deepened, driven by the need to digitise dialects often overlooked by global tech companies.
She later left the financial world to establish AJALA.ai, focusing on building scalable voice technologies for education, business, and daily communication across Africa.
Adenle’s groundbreaking work has earned her international acclaim. In 2021, she received the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Voice Award from Women in Voice for her role in creating the SpeakYoruba app. The app was also shortlisted for the Innovation Prize for Africa in 2017.
In 2025, she was selected as a Leshner Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a platform through which she promotes public understanding of artificial intelligence and its growing influence on African enterprises.
Through her efforts, Adenle continues to champion linguistic diversity and digital inclusion, ensuring that African languages remain vibrant and relevant in the future of global technology."
By Efa Sunday
https://newspeakonline.com/meet-nigerian-american-engineer-preserving-african-languages-with-cutting-edge-ai/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Language is the soul of a people. It is not merely a tool for communication but the living essence of identity, culture, and belonging.
Our mother tongues weave the intricate fabric of who we are, shaping worldviews, preserving histories, fostering solidarity, and transmitting traditions across generations.
When we speak our indigenous languages, we affirm our heritage and connect deeply with our communities.
Yet, when foreign tongues supplant them, the consequences are profound: eroded identities, uprooted generations, and a lingering sense of cultural dislocation.
The intimate bond between language and identity is undeniable. As Frantz Fanon, the revolutionary thinker and Pan-Africanist, powerfully argued, a colonized people’s adoption of the colonizer’s language internalizes their worldview, breeding inferiority complexes and hindering genuine liberation.
Mastering the oppressor’s tongue often means embracing their standards, while suppressing indigenous languages constitutes profound cultural theft.
True decolonization, Fanon asserted, demands reclaiming native tongues to rebuild authentic selfhood and collective power.
This insight remains as urgent today as during the struggles against colonialism.
In stark contrast, Europe exemplifies linguistic pride through multilingualism, a cornerstone of the European Union.
The EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees citizens the right to interact with institutions in any of its 24 official languages, safeguarding linguistic diversity as a pillar of unity and identity.
Africa, however, has often undervalued its own rich tapestry of over 2,000 languages.
Colonial legacies have fostered tribal divisions, viewing speakers of different tongues as outsiders or aliens.
This self-imposed fragmentation undermines continental integration and perpetuates elusive dreams of true liberation and unity.
Nonetheless, a beacon of hope emerges from the African Union (AU).
In a landmark move aligned with its Year of Reparatory Justice, the AU has appointed Kim Poole, a distinguished founding fellow of the Teaching Artist Institute from Baltimore, United States, to the African Languages Week Coordinating Committee (ALWCC).
Poole, renowned for her innovative work in arts, education, and cultural advocacy, brings international acclaim to this vital role.
Her mission: to lead the revitalization of African languages across the continent and diaspora as an essential act of reparatory justice.
Operating under the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), the AU’s dedicated body for linguistic promotion, the ALWCC seeks to decolonize education, governance, and cultural expression.
Poole views language restoration as holistic reparations: “Reparations isn’t just about financial restitution, but about restoring everything that was stripped from us”.
For her, language is a pathway to healing and empowerment.
“Language is how we tell our stories,” she declares. “If we are serious about reparatory justice, we must ensure that our stories are told in our own tongues.”
Poole’s efforts will culminate in African Languages Week 2026, a milestone event uniting artists, educators, and leaders to deploy creative strategies for revival.
Initiatives include embedding African languages in music, theatre, literature, and digital platforms, developing community-based education programmes, and leveraging arts to spread global awareness.
This appointment marks a historic bridge between the African Diaspora and the continent, positioning Poole as a pivotal force in reclaiming linguistic sovereignty.
The challenges are immense. Africa’s publishing sector starkly illustrates neglect: 95% of books produced are textbooks, starving readers of fiction and poetry that nurture imagination and creativity.
Building indigenous languages into vehicles for knowledge, science, education, and professionalism demands deliberate political and cultural investment.
Africans must actively learn one another’s languages, granting them the currency needed for pan-African communication and solidarity.
The persistent elevation of colonial languages rests on a debunked myth: that Western tongues alone embody modernity and civilization.
Counterexamples abound in the Global South – China and Singapore have modernized spectacularly while centring their indigenous languages, proving decolonization and progress can coexist.
Africa stands at a crossroads. We must develop our languages into instruments of prosperity and innovation, or remain shackled by colonial tyranny.
Indigenous languages, intertwined with native knowledge, values, and histories, form the unfinished package of postcolonial liberation.
Restoring them is not nostalgia, but revolutionary justice.
By reclaiming our tongues, we reclaim our future, fostering a united, empowered “Africa We Want” where cultural pride fuels continental renaissance."
Abdelmonem Fawzi
https://egyptian-gazette.com/op-ed/the-africa-we-want-the-urgent-call-to-restore-african-languages-for-true-liberation/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"What is it like to teach at an international school, surrounded by different languages, cultures and educational traditions? The World Teachers Programme (WTP), a profile within the teacher training programme at ICLON Leiden University, offers students the opportunity to experience this.
The bilingual profile prepares future teachers for a career at international and bilingual secondary schools. In addition to an internship at a bilingual or international school in the Netherlands, students have the option of doing a few weeks' internship abroad.
Charlotte van Beek: ‘In 2022, I studied at ICLON to become a biology teacher and I chose to participate in the WTP. For my international internship, I went to Curaçao with a classmate (and friend). We taught at a bilingual havo/vwo school. Since the island is part of the Dutch Antilles, the school system there is identical to the one in the Netherlands...
The WTP broadens your perspective on education. I truly believe it makes you a better teacher, especially in today’s society. On top of that, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss the adventure I described above. It was awesome.
I’m still enjoying a career in education. I love my job, even though it’s hard work. If you have a passion for education, enjoy helping and supporting teenagers and want to make a positive impact on the world, become a teacher! We need more (good) teachers!'
Leipzig: from internship to new home base
Malou den Dekker’s international internship took her to the Leipzig International School (LIS) in Germany for two weeks. This school, without her knowing it at the time, would become her home for the next three years.
‘I followed the Teacher Education Programme and the WTP programme at ICLON to become a Social Studies teacher and I loved it. I was looking forward to going abroad, though I initially worried that two weeks would be too short to really get a sense of a school. Upon arrival in Leipzig, however, I was quickly immersed in school life: I taught a wide range of classes (from Grade 6 Individuals & Societies to Grade 12 Geography) and was welcomed into department meetings.
One seemingly small difference with the school I had been teaching at – the fact that every lesson lasted at least 75 minutes – felt daunting at first. The benefits of this schedule quickly became clear to me, and I found it deeply rewarding to explore how much was possible in a longer lesson. I also appreciated the curriculum’s flexibility, particularly in secondary school, where there was a lot of scope to develop our own guiding questions and learning goals.
What stood out most in those two weeks was a collaborative planning meeting with the Individuals & Societies team. The department was developing a new cross-disciplinary unit on empire. I loved watching the concept-based teaching we had been taught at ICLON in Vakdidactiek come to life. There were discussions on the meaning of the concept and how students could approach it from multiple perspectives. With my broad academic background, this interdisciplinary approach suited me well..."
19 December 2025 text: Louise de la Motte image: pictures courtesy of the interviewees https://share.google/r0Gu8uittf37HH0Y2
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - A new translation device is helping bridge language barriers for patients and families at Augusta Health.
The technology, called Pocketalk, is a translation device that supports more than 90 languages. Ty Cashatt, patient advocate for Augusta Health, said it has already been making everyday conversations easier.
“The patient experience piece is what we’re really leaning towards with this,” Cashatt said. “Can we fill in that gap of not just your clinical visit, but was your family taken care of in the waiting room? Did they get that cup of coffee while they were waiting on you to get out of surgery that maybe they wouldn’t have been able to ask for before?”
Cashatt said that since Pocketalk’s rollout earlier this year, the system has already been used nearly 25,000 times.
“It has been hot and heavy. It is well received with the practices,” Cashatt said. “It’s really nice to take something out to train people, where the nursing team wants to learn, that the front desk team wants to learn. Everybody wants to huddle up and figure out how to use it.”
Cashatt added that more industries should use this device, not just in health care, as it helps connect the community to each other.
Copyright 2025 WHSV. All rights reserved"
Mason Willett
Dec. 20, 2025
https://www.whsv.com/2025/12/19/new-translation-device-bridges-language-gap-augusta-health/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"A man who recently quit his job at the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) says that translator services are helping illegal aliens cheat to get state driver’s licenses despite a lack of English proficiency or understanding the rules of the road, and without even taking a road test.
John Morin, who worked for the BMV as a license examiner for more than a decade, said that he watched as translating services helped migrants cheat on driver’s exams by directly providing the migrants with the answers to the tests, not just offering to help them understand the questions during their exam, Maine Wire’s Steve Robinson reported.
“I had to quit that job because of all of the cheating going on with people from overseas that was happening regularly. I would witness up to 10 or 12 Class C permits a day being issued by us,” said Morin, who worked for the BMV from 2013 to 2024.
Morin noted that migrants using translators passed their tests at a 100 percent rate, compared to the only 70 percent pass rate of English-speaking drivers. Migrants, Morin says, are buying licenses, not translation services.
The former DMV employee also says that he repeatedly alerted his bosses to the cheating schemes, but his bosses ignored the warnings. In fact, he says he was punished for raising the concerns.
“I wrote him up and sent a referral for criminal prosecution to our detectives at BMV, and I was written up for writing him up,” Morin said. “This was after many, many attempts by me to clean up the cheating over the course of my time at BMV.”
“Examiners over my time there have brought this up with our superiors many, many times only to be told that there is no cheating going on, or ‘How do we know that there is cheating going on?’” Morin explained. “All examiners who deal with this in person, day-to-day know that there is cheating going on.”
“The Secretary of State’s office, which runs the BMV, will always cover for these illegal and unsafe practices,” he added. “I saw this personally from the time that Matt Dunlap was Secretary of State to Shenna Bellows’ time there.”
State officials have denied that cheating has occurred and have insisted that an investigation failed to find any substantive proof. They also claimed that whistleblowers are never punished for reporting problems.
Morin’s whistleblowing in Maine comes amid reports from across the country of multiple road accidents at the hands of illegal aliens who have been given driver’s licenses by blue state authorities. Many of these incidents have resulted in the deaths of Americans, deaths that could have been prevented if left-wing Democrats had not prioritized the welfare of illegal migrants over Americans.
Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston"
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/12/20/maine-whistleblower-translator-services-helping-illegal-aliens-to-cheat-on-drivers-exam/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"AI video translation is not yet a perfect substitute for human translation, according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
The new study, "Generative AI for Video Translation: Consumer Evaluation in International Markets" published in the Journal of International Marketing, shows that AI tools can be useful when speed and clarity are priorities.
But human translators remain crucial for tone, cultural nuance and for sounding natural.
Jiseon Han, a lecturer in digital marketing at UEA's Norwich Business School, said, "As brands race to reach global consumers on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, a new question has emerged—can generative AI truly replace humans in video translation?
"We decided to put it to the test."
How the research happened
Researchers examined how consumers in different countries respond to marketing videos translated by generative AI tool HeyGen compared to videos translated and performed by human speakers.
In two experiments, one with Indonesian consumers and another with US and UK consumers, participants watched marketing videos delivered either by native human speakers or by AI-translated versions.
The AI-generated videos automatically converted language, voice, and even lip movements to match the target language—replicating what many global marketers are now testing in real campaigns.
The results reveal a mixed picture.
AI less natural
Jiseon Han, a lecturer in digital marketing at UEA's Norwich Business School, said, "We found that viewers consistently found AI-translated videos less natural and less native-sounding than those performed by humans.
"However, AI performed better on language comprehension when translating into English, likely reflecting the greater availability of English-language training data in AI models.
"Interestingly, these perceptual differences did not affect engagement intentions that participants were just as likely to like, share, or comment on AI-translated videos as they were on human ones."
These insights suggest that AI video translation is not yet a perfect substitute for human translation, but it already offers practical value.
"For marketers, AI can be a great choice when speed and straightforward messaging matter most, but when it comes to capturing tone, personality, and cultural context, human expertise is still irreplaceable," she added.
"Generative AI can already handle parts of video translation that once required entire production teams," said the lead author Risqo Wahid from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
"But consumers still notice when something feels off. The human touch still matters, especially in how a message sounds and feels," he added.
As AI models evolve, the study provides a timely benchmark for understanding how consumers perceive AI-translated content today, highlighting both the opportunities and the limits of automation in global marketing communication."
by University of East Anglia
edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin
More information: Risqo Wahid et al, EXPRESS: Generative AI for Video Translation: Consumer Evaluation in International Markets, Journal of International Marketing (2025). DOI: 10.1177/1069031x251404843
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-ai-video-humans-edge.html
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"On February 12, the annual Albertine Translation Prize Ceremony returns, honoring translators and American publishers of English translations of contemporary French works.
This year, Villa Albertine is partnering with the Colloquy Series at World Poetry Books to celebrate the art of translation in a new and exciting way.
Bringing together translators and readers, the evening will feature translation jousts: two translators and a moderator will engage in a lively discussion of their different renderings of the same French texts, one a work of fiction, the other a poem. Through the translation jousts, the creativity, nuance, and choice behind each translation choice will be highlighted, and the often-invisible labor behind the books we read will be displayed.
Representing emerging trends across a variety of genres, including fiction, non-fiction, and comics, the Albertine Translation Fund helps cover publishing and translation costs for U.S. publishers of works translated from French to English.
We will announce the winner of the 2025 Albertine Translation Prize at the end of the evening.
We look forward to celebrating to the 2025 laureate with you!
The lists of titles supported by the program this year are available here (session 1) and here (session 2) (TBA).
To attend for the ceremony, please RSVP HERE.
The Albertine Translation Prize is made possible through the generous support of The Florence Gould Foundation and Albertine Foundation."
https://villa-albertine.org/va/events/albertine-translation-prize-ceremony-february-2026/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"(WXYZ) — A Macomb Township man has been identified as the interpreter who was killed in Syria over the weekend while working with the U.S. Army.
According to an online obituary, Ayad Mansoor Sakat, 54, was killed when soldiers were ambushed in Syria by the Islamic State group on Dec. 13. Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, who were part of the Iowa National Guard, were also killed.
The news came as a huge shock to our family, and we are still struggling to believe it. My father worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army during the Iraq invasion from 2003–2007, which is why my family was granted Special Immigrant Visas to come to the United States. Service to this country has been in his blood for a very long time, and all four of us—his children—have the utmost respect for everything he did alongside American soldiers.
Everything we have accomplished is a testament to his sacrifice and perseverance. Because of him, we became a general surgeon, a police officer, a medical student, and an IT coordinator.
We will honor his legacy by continuing to live the kind of life he worked so hard to make possible.
He was a devoted father and husband, a courageous interpreter, and a man who believed deeply in the mission he served.
Sakat, affectionately known as Eddie, was born in Bakhdida, Iraq, according to the obituary, and previously worked as an interpreter along with U.S. soldiers from 2003-2007.
"Ayad died in Syria while supporting U.S. forces, serving with the same courage and devotion that defined his life. His fellow soldiers affectionately called him Eddie, a nickname that reflected the trust, warmth, and friendship he inspired," his obituary reads.
Sakat is being remembered as a loving husband and father of four.
President Donald Trump was on hand on Wednesday and witnessed the dignified transfer of the two soldiers and Sakat."
By: WXYZ Web Team
Posted 8:26 PM, Dec 17, 2025 and last updated 5:51 AM, Dec 18, 2025
https://www.wxyz.com/news/macomb-man-identified-as-interpreter-killed-with-u-s-service-members-in-syria
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"CLACS Faculty Affiliate Professor Amy Olen (UWM Translation & Interpreting Studies) has recently published a new literary translation: the short story collection Marayrasu, released in December 2025 with Northwestern University Press.
The new book is the first English-language collection of short stories by award-winning Peruvian author Edgardo Rivera Martínez, and includes a foreword by CLACS Faculty Affiliate Professor César Ferreira (UWM Spanish).
The publisher’s website notes that “Amy Olen’s translation smoothly captures Rivera Martínez’s impressive stories, offering a unique lens into the region at the heart of this canonical author’s inimitable work.”
Read more about this new release on the publisher’s website."
https://uwm.edu/clacs/professor-publishes-new-translation-of-peruvian-authors-short-stories/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Japan may require language proficiency for permanent residency as new visa rules take shape
Japan may require language proficiency for permanent residency as new visa rules take shape
Japan may require language proficiency for permanent residency as new visa rules take shape
Japan is exploring the possibility of requiring Japanese language proficiency for foreign nationals seeking permanent residency, sources confirmed Thursday. This potential change is part of the government's preparations for an anticipated increase in applicants, according to the Japan Times. The new language requirement is expected to be incorporated into proposals for updated residency criteria by April 2027, when an amendment to Japan's Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act is set to take effect.
The shift is not limited to language proficiency. The revised law would also introduce provisions for revoking permanent residency if individuals intentionally neglect essential public responsibilities, such as paying taxes.
According to the Immigration Services Agency, the number of foreign residents in Japan reached a record high of 3.96 million by the end of June, with permanent residents comprising the largest group, at approximately 930,000, or 23.6% of the total foreign resident population.
Currently, applicants for permanent residency in Japan must have lived in the country for at least 10 years and demonstrate the ability to financially support themselves, among other requirements. With a projected increase in the number of permanent residents, the government is considering additional criteria, including proficiency in the Japanese language and participation in programs that promote community norms. There is also talk of raising the minimum income threshold for applicants.
The government is also reviewing stricter regulations for international students' part-time work. Under the current system, students are allowed to work up to 28 hours per week, provided they have received permission from immigration authorities. There are discussions to shift toward a system that evaluates factors like academic performance before granting work permissions, rather than allowing unrestricted work upon arrival.
Concerns have also been raised about foreign nationals holding engineer or humanities specialist visas being employed in unskilled labour, a violation of their residency status. The government is considering implementing stricter monitoring of staffing agencies and employers to ensure compliance with visa rules."
Story by Business Today Desk
19 December 2025
https://share.google/Z3byXXdOXvVVb5UM8
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
Prix international Cheikh Hamad pour la traduction et la compréhension internationale
"La langue pulaar figure officiellement parmi les langues sélectionnées pour l’édition 2026 du Prix international Cheikh Hamad pour la traduction et la compréhension internationale, dans la prestigieuse catégorie « Réalisation », aux côtés de langues de rayonnement mondial telles que le chinois, l’anglais, l’italien, l’azéri et l’arabe.
Cette sélection constitue une reconnaissance sans précédent pour le pulaar, langue africaine parlée par des millions de locuteurs en Afrique de l’Ouest et au-delà.
Elle souligne les efforts soutenus menés ces dernières années pour la valorisation, la normalisation et la traduction de cette langue, longtemps marginalisée dans les grandes initiatives internationales de traduction.
Créé en 2015 et placé sous le haut patronage de Son Altesse l’Émir de l’État du Qatar, Cheikh Tamim ben Hamad Al Thani, le Prix Cheikh Hamad est aujourd’hui considéré comme l’une des plus importantes distinctions internationales dédiées à la traduction et au dialogue interculturel.
Il vise à encourager la traduction d’ouvrages majeurs entre les langues, à renforcer la compréhension entre les peuples et à promouvoir la diversité linguistique comme pilier du vivre-ensemble.
La catégorie « Réalisation », dans laquelle le pulaar a été retenu, récompense des contributions professionnelles structurantes, des initiatives collectives et des efforts durables ayant un impact significatif sur le développement de la traduction dans une langue donnée...
La nomination du pulaar ouvre de nouvelles perspectives académiques, culturelles et institutionnelles. Elle offre un cadre international propice à la traduction d’ouvrages de référence – littéraires, scientifiques, religieux ou philosophiques – vers et depuis le pulaar, renforçant ainsi sa présence dans les circuits mondiaux du savoir.
Dans les principales catégories linguistiques, la dotation globale peut atteindre 200 000 dollars américains, tandis que les prix d’excellence, notamment pour les langues moins courantes, peuvent aller jusqu’à 100 000 dollars. Les candidatures pour la session 2026 seront ouvertes du 1er janvier au 31 mars 2026, offrant aux traducteurs, chercheurs et institutions une occasion concrète de valoriser leurs travaux...
Au-delà du cas du pulaar, cette sélection envoie un signal fort en faveur de la diversité linguistique mondiale et de la reconnaissance des langues africaines dans les grandes instances culturelles internationales. Elle consacre le pulaar non seulement comme langue de communication, mais aussi comme langue de savoir, de création et de transmission universelle.
...Le pulaar s’affirme désormais comme un acteur à part entière du dialogue interculturel mondial, illustrant la capacité des langues africaines à contribuer pleinement à la construction d’un espace culturel international plus inclusif et équilibré."
https://www.cridem.org/C_Info
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"What is multilingual SEO?
Multilingual SEO optimizes your website for discovery via search in other languages. It accounts for “linguistic, cultural, and technical differences to ensure the website performs well globally and the message resonates with users wherever they’re located,” says Antonio Santarsiero, senior SEO specialist at Shopify.
“Practically speaking, multilingual SEO involves considering technical aspects such as URL structure, as well as implementing hreflang tags and creating a market-specific site map,” Antonio says.
Multilingual SEO can be part of a broader multilingual marketing strategy or an effort that is layered on top of content localization work. Whereas localization involves translating and making your content culturally relevant for a specific market, while multilingual SEO ensures that this localized content is search engine optimized in the corresponding language.
Multilingual SEO vs. international SEO
While they may sound similar, there are key differences between multilingual SEO and international SEO. Multilingual SEO targets users’ languages (such as Spanish, German, or French), while international SEO targets the right country or region, but the language might stay the same (for example, English pages for Canada versus the United Kingdom).
In some cases, you may need a combined approach. For example, Represent, a British fashion label, uses both language and regional targeting. As the company expanded to international markets, it launched separate sites for the United States and Europe. The European site features a regional subdomain: eu.representclo.com, but the content is in English. The European site includes euro pricing and local shipping options.
Then, they took it a step further, launching a German version (eu.representclo.com/de/) with a /de/ subfolder, and translated calls to action and payment options. This strategy doubled organic traffic and boosted conversions 30%.
How to implement multilingual SEO
Identify your markets
Do keyword research for each country you expand to
Choose a URL structure
Translate your pages
Implement hreflang tags
Build local backlinks
Before implementing multilingual SEO, you need a localization strategy. Once that foundation is in place, SEO ensures your pages are discoverable in those markets. Here’s Antonio’s step-by-step framework:
1. Identify your markets
Your existing search traffic can help guide your decisions about which languages to prioritize in your localization and multilingual SEO work. Check Shopify Analytics or Google Search Console to see where your organic visitors are coming from.
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For example, consistent traffic from countries such as Mexico or France signals interest. Even though your pages may not appear for local language queries, global users can land on English pages if they search in English or if information in their native language is limited. This would be a strong indicator that there is demand for your content in these regions.
Source: Shopify Analytics
You can also look at competitor successes. If similar brands in your niche have successfully launched in certain international markets, it’s worth investigating why. Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to see which language version of your competitors’ site ranks the best locally and which local-language keywords they’re winning.
Once your localization priorities are set, you can focus on SEO optimization in each target language.
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2. Do keyword research for each country you expand to
Once you know which markets you’re geographically targeting, learn a little more about the search behavior of the people who live there.
“Understanding the nuances of each market and tailoring your approach to local search behaviors is definitely the starting point,” Antonio says. “In English, users might search for ’luxury watches’ while in French, the equivalent ’montres de luxe’ might have different search patterns. Understanding these differences is crucial for targeting the right audience.”
Another way to conduct local keyword research is to use Google Translate, layered with Google autocomplete. For example, translating “luxury watches” into Spanish yields “relojes de lujo.” Next, Antonio advises using a tool like valentin.app to access the Spanish Google search results page (SERP). “Once there, start typing ’relojes de lujo’ into the search bar. You’ll notice several autocomplete suggestions appearing, which can provide valuable insights into popular local keywords.”
Antonio advises reviewing Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush to find high-volume, low-competition keywords specific to each market. Filter by language and region to spot missed opportunities and keyword gaps.
Keyword volume can differ between countries, even in the same language, because of nuances in regional terminology and differences in search behavior. For example, the term “paella” has a varying search volume in Spanish-speaking countries:
Argentina: 9,400 monthly searches
Mexico: 19,000 monthly searches
Spain: 43,000 monthly searches
US: 127,000 monthly searches
Finally, consult native speakers to validate your terms for local nuance. “A native speaker can tell you which term fits your brand best,” Antonio says. For example, in French, both “POS” and “PDV” mean “point of sale,” but one may sound more natural depending on the audience or industry.
Free keyword research template
Use this free keyword research template to unlock opportunities and manage your SEO strategy. Drive targeted traffic to your website by tracking search volume, ranking difficulty, user intent, and content ideas.
Download template
3. Choose a URL structure
Your URL structure in a multilingual SEO strategy informs search engines which version of your site to display to each audience.
Country code domains (ccTLDs) like example.fr or example.de. These provide you the strongest country signal, but it can be costly to maintain. Since Google treats each of these as separate sites, you’ll have to build backlinks and authority from scratch for each one.
Subdomains like fr.example.com. While you can manage these on the same server and share a CMS (like Shopify), each subdomain still needs its own SEO work. This means you’ll need to optimize each subdomain’s metadata, content, internal links, backlinks, and hreflang setup. Subdomains will inherit some authority from the main domain, unlike country code domains, which are entirely separate from the main domain.
Subdirectories like example.com/fr/. This URL structure is the most efficient for most Shopify stores. All versions share the same SEO strength and are easier to track in analytics, since you can track all regions in the same Google Search Console property and from a single CMS like Shopify. However, this option has the weakest country signals, so you’ll need to rely on localized content and hreflang tags to clarify targeting.
“When it comes to deciding which approach to take to structure the website for different language versions, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every solution has its pros and cons. Make sure it aligns with your business goals, team structure, and technical capabilities,” Antonio says.
4. Translate your pages
Translation is a key step to building credibility within regions. Multilingual SEO ensures those translated pages can rank and be discovered. Prioritize optimizing high-impact pages that drive visibility and conversions, such as the homepage, product pages, checkout flow, and support content. Use GA4, Google Search Console, and internal data to identify these.
When translating pages, the best approach is to have a native speaker translate the page. At this point, you can also layer in local keywords. A native speaker would be able to confirm that keywords have been incorporated naturally. If you don’t have access to one, you can use Google Translate or ChatGPT to help by plugging in the English version verbatim. However, these often miss tone, idioms, and context.
“You can use AI to draft a first version, but you should never publish what a machine spits out. You need to capture the nuances of the language and make sure your message feels authentic,” Antonio says. If you must use AI, be sure to have a native speaker review and edit the content before publishing. If you don’t have access to one, you can use a professional translation service like RushTranslate or a freelance translator.
Don’t forget to translate your meta tags, including titles and meta descriptions, as well as your URL slugs. Once you have translated your pages, update your site map to include all translated pages so Google can find and index them quickly.
5. Implement hreflang tags
Hreflang tags tell Google which language or region a page targets, so that the right version appears for the right audience and reduces duplicate content issues. If the pages are in the same language, adding in even small regional cues like currency and spelling can help Google understand their differences.
Antonio advises adding as many tags as needed for every language and region your site supports, so Google fully understands your site structure. For example, you might have a French version for France, Canada, or Belgium:
France: hreflang="fr-FR
Canada: hreflang="fr-CA"
Belgium: hreflang="fr-BE"
This helps Google serve /fr/ pages to French users, /ca/ pages to Canadian users, and /be/ pages to Belgian users, even if all pages are in French.
In addition to hreflang tags, a language or country switcher lets visitors (and Google) easily move between site versions, like switching from English to French in one click. This improves the user experience and helps search engines discover all language versions easily.
Country switcher on Gymshark.com
6. Build local backlinks
After launching localized pages, help search engines trust them by adapting your link-building strategy for your multilingual sites. For example, French pages need links from French sites to rank well in France.
“Treat your local site like it’s a separate entity, even if the domain is the same,” Antonio says. “The goal is to have Google understand and distinguish between the English version and other versions, so the link-building strategy should focus only on those URLs in the subfolder.”
Localize your link-building efforts by connecting with regional media, influencers, blogs, and directories in your target language to increase your visibility. For example, you might try to get your German store featured in local fashion magazines or affiliate lists.
To support this effort, your localized site needs to feature content that is worthy of local attention. “Write content that’s so interesting to that specific market that other websites will want to cite it,” Antonio says. “For example, Square might have data about the top-selling items in retail in Japan. Then, other sites in Japan would want to use it as a data source.”
Each local link signals to Google that your store is relevant, trustworthy, and established in that market, not just translated for it.
Multilingual SEO FAQ
What is the difference between international and multilingual SEO?
International SEO helps your site target users in different countries (like Canada versus the UK), while multilingual SEO helps you reach users in different languages (like English versus French). Most global sites need both.
What is an example of multilingual SEO?
A brand that offers translated versions of its site, such as Represent’s German site at eu.representclo.com/de/, is practicing multilingual SEO. The content, URLs, and metadata are all optimized for German speakers.
How to get search results in multiple languages?
Create localized pages for each language, use hreflang tags to signal different language versions to Google, and build backlinks from local sites. This helps search engines show the right version to the right audience.
Azra Kassam
Dec 18, 2025
Reference:
https://www.shopify.com/blog/multilingual-seo
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"CoeFont Launches AI-Powered Interpreter to Break Language Barriers for Global Teams / Source: CoeFont (EZ Newswire)
TOKYO, Japan, December 18, 2025 (EZ Newswire) -- CoeFont, opens new tab, a leader in AI-driven communication solutions, launched the CoeFont Interpreter, an innovative AI-powered tool for simultaneous interpretation that enables seamless, real-time collaboration for international teams.
For any company expanding globally, the "language barrier" is more than just a hurdle, it is often a ceiling on growth. In the era of remote work, cross-border teams are common, yet true collaboration is frequently stalled by the inability to communicate nuance in real-time.
While text-based translation tools have existed for years, they often fail to capture the context of live business discussions. This leaves companies relying on human interpreters, a solution that is often prohibitively expensive, logistically difficult to schedule, and prone to creating bottlenecks.
CoeFont Interpreter has emerged as a solution to this deadlock, offering AI-powered simultaneous interpretation that allows remote teams to communicate naturally, cost-effectively, and without the lag of traditional translation methods.
How CoeFont Works for International Teams
Unlike standard text-to-speech tools or basic meeting captions, CoeFont focuses on the flow of conversation. It acts as a real-time bridge, listening to speech in one language and instantly delivering it in another with high accuracy.
For remote international teams, this shifts the dynamic from "waiting for translation" to "having a conversation." Key advantages include:
24/7 availability: It eliminates the need to schedule human interpreters for late-night or early-morning calls across time zones.
Context awareness: Unlike basic translation bots, it handles the context of business dialogue better than competitors, reducing the "broken telephone" effect.
Cost efficiency: Operating at a fraction of the cost of human consultants, it democratizes access to high-quality interpretation for internal meetings and daily stand-ups...
The CoeFont Solution
Manhattan Associates implemented CoeFont Interpreter in late 2025. The results were immediate.
The most significant change was the removal of the "bridge" role. Fortunately, the CoeFont Interpreter was able to cut out the middleman and help foster direct relationships. "Interpreters became unnecessary," Takatani stated. "We no longer wait for translations. Meeting times have been cut to a fraction of what they were."
Masahiro Sawada, Marketing Manager, highlighted the qualitative shift stating, "We can now speak directly with clients and overseas members. We can convey the temperature and nuance of our words without a filter. It allows us to build direct relationships rather than indirect ones."
Secondly, the tool helped unlock global resources, allowing the Japanese team to instantly tap into the company's global talent pool. "We can now assign a product manager from overseas who handles multiple projects to a Japanese case without needing a dedicated translator," Takatani said. "It allows us to utilize global know-how efficiently."
In terms of consistency and cost, the AI provided a consistent quality of translation that didn't fluctuate based on human fatigue or scheduling. At roughly 5,000 Japanese Yen (approximately $35) per hour, the cost was negligible compared to human interpretation, allowing the team to use it freely for internal syncs and late-night calls with its U.S. headquarters.
The Future of Cross-Border Collaboration
Manhattan Associates is now looking to expand the use of CoeFont beyond internal meetings to external marketing events.
"Organizing events with foreign speakers used to be a logistical nightmare involving expensive simultaneous interpreters who sometimes quit mid-event due to technical difficulty," Sawada recalled. "With AI, we can solve that instantly."
For foreign-affiliated companies and remote teams, the lesson is clear: The technology to bypass the language barrier is no longer science fiction. It is here, and it is reshaping how global business gets done.
https://www.reuters.com/press-releases/coefont-ai-powered-interpreter-language-barriers-global-teams-2025-12-18/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Alors que Christopher Nolan s’apprête à porter L’Odyssée à l’écran dans une superproduction très attendue, une question essentielle se pose, bien au-delà du casting prestigieux ou des effets visuels annoncés : comment rendre Homère intelligible sans le vider de sa substance épique ? Et surtout, quelle langue peut encore porter, près de trois millénaires plus tard, la puissance fondatrice de ce texte européen majeur.
Car L’Odyssée n’est pas seulement un récit d’aventures. C’est un poème fondateur, un chant de la mémoire, du retour, de l’identité, de la fidélité et de l’épreuve. Or, toute adaptation – et toute traduction – engage une vision du monde. Traduire Homère, ce n’est pas seulement transposer des mots : c’est choisir ce que l’on fait de l’épopée elle-même.
Le défi de l’épopée en langue moderne
Le cinéma, par nature, dispose d’armes puissantes : images, musique, rythme, spectaculaire. Mais il lui manque une chose essentielle : la densité du verbe. Chez Homère, le sublime ne tient pas seulement aux exploits d’Ulysse, mais à la cadence du récit, à la répétition, à l’élan oral, à cette musique du langage qui porte l’auditeur autant que le sens.
Tout dépendra donc du texte sur lequel Nolan s’appuiera. Et c’est là que la question des traductions devient centrale.
Trois visions de Homère, trois mondes
Depuis des décennies, le monde anglophone oscille entre deux pôles : la fidélité érudite et la modernisation radicale. La traduction de Richmond Lattimore, longtemps dominante dans les universités, privilégie la rigueur philologique. Elle colle au grec, respecte les structures, mais produit un anglais souvent rigide, solennel, presque administratif. Le texte est exact, mais la poésie peine à respirer.
À l’inverse, la version d’Emily Wilson, souvent citée comme possible source du film, assume une rupture nette : langue contemporaine, syntaxe fluide, vocabulaire psychologique. L’ouverture – « Tell me about a complicated man » – frappe par sa clarté, mais aussi par sa banalité. Ulysse devient un personnage presque sociologique, analysable, domestiqué. L’épopée perd alors sa verticalité, sa gravité, son étrangeté fondatrice.
Michael Solot : faire entendre l’épopée
C’est dans cet entre-deux que s’inscrit la traduction de Michael Solot, publiée en 2025. Son approche refuse à la fois l’archaïsme figé et la modernisation plate. Solot ne cherche pas à imiter mécaniquement l’hexamètre grec – impossible en anglais – mais à retrouver le mouvement, la houle du vers, la respiration du chant.
Son Ulysse n’est ni un concept abstrait, ni un héros désacralisé. C’est un homme façonné par l’épreuve, la ruse, la douleur et la fidélité. Le langage reste élevé sans être compassé, incarné sans être trivial. Le rythme, fondé sur les accents et non sur un carcan métrique, redonne au texte une oralité vivante, proche de ce qu’a pu être la récitation homérique. Là où Wilson raconte une histoire claire, Solot fait entendre un chant. Là où Lattimore conserve un monument, Solot rend un texte habitable.
Ce débat n’est pas technique. Il est profondément civilisationnel.
L’Europe est née de récits comme L’Odyssée. De récits qui parlent du retour au foyer, de la fidélité à la terre, de la mémoire des morts, de la transmission. Réduire Homère à une narration efficace ou à une grille psychologique moderne, c’est l’arracher à ce qu’il est : une matrice culturelle. À l’inverse, redonner chair à l’épopée, c’est rappeler que les Anciens ne nous parlent pas depuis un musée, mais depuis un temps encore vivant en nous.
Le pari de Nolan
Si le film de Christopher Nolan parvient à être autre chose qu’un spectacle impressionnant – s’il devient réellement épique – ce sera parce qu’il aura su s’adosser à une langue capable de porter le sublime sans l’aplatir. Car l’épopée ne supporte ni la tiédeur ni la neutralisation.
Lire Homère aujourd’hui, ce n’est pas chercher le confort du présent. C’est accepter l’étrangeté, la grandeur, parfois la dureté d’un monde qui nous a précédés et nous a faits. À ce titre, la traduction de Michael Solot apparaît comme bien plus qu’une nouveauté éditoriale : une tentative rare de réconciliation entre modernité linguistique et fidélité spirituelle.
Avant de juger l’Odyssée de Nolan, peut-être faut-il donc relire celle de Homère. Et entendre, à nouveau, la voix du chant.
Illustration : DR
[cc] Article relu et corrigé (orthographe, syntaxe) par ChatGPT.
Breizh-info.com, 2025, dépêches libres de copie et de diffusion sous réserve de mention et de lien vers la source d’origine"
https://www.breizh-info.com/2025/12/19/254876/lodyssee-a-lepreuve-du-cinema-traduire-homere-sans-trahir-lepopee/
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«Éclaircie» élu meilleur livre étranger 2024 par de nombreux journaux sera traduit en huit langues
"Littérature sans frontières
Carys Davies, lauréate du Prix du meilleur livre étranger 2025
Publié le : 19/12/2025
Carys Davies a grandi au Pays de Galles avant de partir aux États-Unis. Elle est l’auteure de trois romans dont le premier, «West» (Seuil, 2021), a obtenu le Prix du livre de l’année au Pays de Galles. Son deuxième roman, «Le Voyage de Hilary Byrd» (Seuil, 2022), a été élu roman de l’année 2020 par le Sunday Times. «Éclaircie» a, quant à lui, été élu meilleur livre 2024 par de nombreux journaux, il sera traduit en huit langues. Carys Davies vit aujourd’hui à Édimbourg."
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/litt%C3%A9rature-sans-fronti%C3%A8res/20251219-carys-davies-laur%C3%A9ate-du-prix-du-meilleur-livre-%C3%A9tranger-2025
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