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Animals hear other species communicate around them every day. Do they understand what they're saying? "... Communication in the animal kingdom is complex. But with all of these unique ways to communicate, is it possible for an animal to learn the "language" of another species?... First off, it's important to note that, although "language" is a useful metaphor when we're thinking about one species understanding another, animals don't actually have languages in the way humans do... When it comes to picking up on sounds from other species, birds are one of the best-studied animals. One study on songbird migration suggested that solitary birds could understand the calls of other bird species on their migration pathway, perhaps helping them to stay safe and navigate the long journey... The research dispels the notion that songbird migration is a lonely journey, as was once thought. However, their data still isn't able to decode exactly what the birds are "saying." "It's logical to wonder if there are social connections among species," Van Doren said. "I think these calls could contain more information than we currently understand." But learning a "language" is about more than just understanding what you hear; it's about being able to speak it, too. That's where the fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis) — a small, black bird found across Africa — excels. Drongos have a habit of following other animals around in the hope of stealing some of their food. Thomas Flower, a biology instructor at Capilano University in Canada, studied these birds in the field as they followed a mob of meerkats. He found that the drongos would use their own alarm calls — a squawk that indicates a predator is approaching — to scare the meerkats into their holes, allowing the drongos to swoop in and grab any food scraps. But that strategy eventually leads to a "boy who cried wolf" situation, Flower said. The meerkats realize the drongo-specific alarm calls are a ruse, so they stop dropping their food and hiding when they hear one. This is where the drongos' special talents come in. Fork-tailed drongos not only recognize the warning calls of the other animals around them, but they also learn to replicate those calls to their own advantage. When the birds realize their own alarm call is no longer working, they start mimicking the alarm calls of other birds — or even replicating the meerkats' own alarm call. By regularly swapping out alarm calls from different species, the drongos keep the meerkats on edge and keep the food flowing... Flower said he still hasn't seen evidence that young drongos understand that they're deceiving other animals when they start mimicking alarm calls. But he pointed out that young humans also repeat noises they don't understand and eventually learn meaning through trial and error. For now, drongos do show some of the hallmarks of "language" learning, but much remains a mystery." By Marilyn Perkins
Content Manager https://www.livescience.com/animals/can-animals-learn-another-species-language
"The word metaglossia was coined in 2010 from a number of traceable sources: Greek meta, specifically in the sense of beyond or behind; early Latin glossa, i.e. language, dialect or idiom; and the affix -glos- as widely attested in the English words gloss, glossary, and most especially diglossia, heteroglossia, monoglossia, polyglossia, etc. or the French glose, glossaire, and more precisely diglossie, hétéroglossie, monoglossie, polyglossie, etc.. In this light, metaglossia literally means beyond/behind the Word, beyond/behind languages; more specifically, metaglossia is an ubuntu-rooted sociolinguistic sphere, an interpersonal and intercultural communication space, notably the ideal translation or interpreting setting, whereby mutual understanding between the addresser and the addressee is ever made possible over and beyond the words or languages that have been chosen by each interacting party at any one time."
REFERENCES
- https://twitter.com/metaglossia;
- https://metaglossia.com/about-us/ ;
- https://www.blogger.com/profile/11481867605244394299;
- http://metaglossia.wordpress.com/
- https://issuu.com/wcat/docs/asa_magazine_final_version
Now Hiring: CTU Communications Associate By CTU Human Resources | March 17, 2025 | _News
File under: CTU Job Posting The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), an organization of educators, who for more than 75 years, has been dedicated to advancing and promoting quality education, improving teaching and learning conditions, and protecting members’ rights while serving and representing almost 30,000 teachers, paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel, and school clinicians. CTU sits at the forefront of the Chicago movement for working families and seeks to ensure that every student attends a safe, welcoming and thriving neighborhood public school. The CTU communications department sits at the intersection of developing and communicating that message to the people of Chicago. Summary: Under the supervision of the Chicago Teachers Union Director of Communications, the Communications Associate will support earned media relations and content production across digital platforms such as the CTU Website, email, social media, video production, podcasts, blogs, and radio to create diverse, innovative, empowering, and participatory communications/content for our members. This role is integral in sharing the mission and work of the CTU with members, students, families, the media, the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois and the Nation. Position Duties & Responsibilities: - Use oral and written communication skills including copy-editing, writing, & proofreading to plan, create, and generate content to tell CTU’s story across platforms and earned media
- Receive and respond to incoming earned media requests including identifying, providing talking points, and managing the scheduling of potential spokespeople,
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- Collaborate with communication team and other staff members on content that will enhance awareness of organizational campaigns and department specific campaigns.
- Assist in photographing and recording events, programs, and activities during CTU and partner events for marketing and messaging purposes.
- Maintain brand and style standards to help ensure proper application.
- Catalog and maintain a library of multimedia presentations, branding, graphic designs/images, photos, video and other digital assets and resources.
- The above list does not represent an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, included may be other duties as assigned and deemed appropriate.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: - Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Journalism or related field or at least two (2) years of hands-on communications experience in the field of labor, non-profit, governmental relations
- Strong technical, desktop publishing, digital organizing, and graphic application skills
- Detail oriented
- Exceptionally fast and effective writing, proofreading, & copy-editing skills.
- Self-starter with ability to judge rapidly shifting priorities and handle a high volume work environment with multiple competing priorities
- Collaborative team member who can take direction and complete high quality projects in a timely manner.
- Background in union/labor, education and/or politics is desirable.
- Familiarity with local and state education and political topics/issues.
- Experience with Black and Brown media outreach.
- Experience working with community partners and civil rights groups
Compensation: Salary range – $80k – $100k Benefits: Health Insurance, Short Term Disability Insurance, Voluntary Long Term Disability Insurance, Life Insurance, 401K, Paid Holidays, PTO and Vacation. Application Requirements: Applicants should submit a cover letter, writing sample and resume via email to HR@ctulocal1.org . Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Please reference CTU Communication Jobs in the subject line. https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/hiring-communications-associate/
Job description PURPOSE OF THE POSITION As a Data Scientist at the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) you will have the opportunity to initiate and lead projects focusing on Human Language Technology and Digital Humanities stemming from your own research interests. You will work closely together with a team of researchers as part of SADiLaR’s extended network, both on your own and commissioned projects. Dissemination of project results at national and international conferences will be encouraged and supported. This position is crucial for research and development in Human Language Technology and Digital Humanities, fields that form the essence of SADiLaR, which is a national Research Infrastructure supported by the Department of Science and Innovation. Read more at https://www.sadilar.org. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: Research • Research in the area of Human Language Technology and Digital Humanities. Project work • Initiating and contributing to Human Language Technology and Digital Humanities projects. Teaching • Teaching in the area of Human Language Technology and Digital Humanities. Mentorship • Mentorship of researchers in the field of Human Language Technology and Digital Humanities. Minimum requirements • A PhD (NQF level 10) in one of the following fields: Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, Human Language Technology, Digital Humanities, Data Science, Computer Science, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, or related fields. The PhD should have a focus on computational aspects of linguistics. • A minimum of (five) 5 years’ experience in the use of Python (other programming languages used within the computational linguistics or Digital Humanities domain can also be considered). • Evidence of peer-reviewed academic publications. • A minimum of (three) 3 years’ experience as a supervisor/co-supervisor of students or playing a mentorship/supervising role for individuals. • A minimum of (three) 3 years’ experience with using and/or developing computational tools. • A minimum of (three) 3 years experience related to research within the domain of Language Technology or Digital Humanities. • A minimum of (one) 1 year experience related to teaching or training within the domain of Language Technology or Digital Humanities. ADDED ADVANTAGE • Membership with Academic subject communities. Functional / Technical Competencies (Knowledge and Skills) • Advanced computer literacy. • Ability to lead research projects. • Experience in the presentation of research-based results at national and international conferences. • Experience with writing research reports. • Evidence of acquiring research funding. KEY BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES: • Ability to work independently or as part of a team. • Ability to effectively liaise and communicate with public, students, colleagues, and other stakeholders at various levels and from diverse backgrounds. • Demonstration of language proficiency in order to function optimally in the various multilingual environments of SADiLaR. • Strong interest in the advancement of under-resourced South African languages. REMUNERATION The annual total remuneration package will be commensurate with the level of appointment as advertised and in line with the NWU policy guidelines. ENQUIRIES REGARDING JOB CONTENT MAY BE DIRECTED TO: Prof. Menno van Zaanen, E-mail: Menno.VanZaanen@nwu.ac.za ENQUIRIES REGARDING RECRUITMENT PROCESS MAY BE DIRECTED TO: Mr. Byron Louw, Tel No. 018 285 2304 CLOSING DATE: 20 April 2025 PLANNED COMMENCEMENT OF DUTIES: As soon as possible Kindly take note: applications must be submitted online through the official nwu vacancy website. Incomplete applications and those submitted through any other platform will not be considered. The University subscribes to and applies the principles of Employment Equity (EE) Act and is committed to transformation. Preference will be given to candidates from the designated groups, in accordance with the principles of the EE Act and NWU Employment Equity Plan. The University reserves the right not to make an appointment. Communication will be limited to shortlisted candidates only. If you are not contacted within two months from the closing date of this advertisement, please accept that your application was unsuccessful. https://nwu.ci.hr/applicant/index.php?controller=Listings&method=view&listingid=f117e63d-8385-4be0-a6f8-386057fed602 #metaglossia_mundus
La revue Atlantide vient de mettre en ligne son dernier numéro intitulé "Échanges intellectuels, dynamiques transnationales, France/Italie, 1945-1980". Ce volume se propose d’étudier les influences mutuelles, les intersections et les projets communs intervenant dans le processus de création entre domaine italien et domaine français. Les contributions qui y figurent ont toutes pour vocation de découvrir, dans une optique transnationale, des aspects peu connus des relations, par ailleurs très productives, entre auteurs issus de différents contextes et de différentes orientations idéologiques. Les angles de vue envisagés sont hétérogènes et relèvent de la diversité expressive des relations intellectuelles entre la France et l’Italie au cours d’une période d’environ trente-cinq ans, de 1945 à 1980. Le volume compte neuf articles répartis en quatre sections ainsi intitulées : traduction et réécritures ; regards politiques et perspectives féministes ; textes, critiques et images en mouvement ; parcours et productions cinématographiques. Sommaire en ligne… Vittoriano Gallico & Jessy Simonini - Avant-propos Andrea Bongiorno - La poésie de René Char comme source de traduction et de création intellectuelle chez Giorgio Caproni et Vittorio Sereni Jessy Simonini - « La più grande romanziera d’Italia è una donna… ». Prime cartografie dell’autorialità femminile: Francia-Italia, anni Cinquanta Micol Bez - Ce sexe qui n’est pas un cheveu. Réévaluer les critiques féministes-matérialistes du consentement : le groupe de Questions féministes Luca Mozzachiodi - Fanon in Italia. Tra terzomondismo, psichiatria e sinistra operaista Alessandro Fiorillo - De l'Évangile à l'Enfer ou la subjective indirecte libre Vittoriano Gallico - La terre, l’écriture, l’image : Pavese et Straub-Huillet Sylvie Dubois - Au-delà des grilles de René Clément : une démarche cinématographique italienne grâce à la réalisation française Michelangelo Cardinaletti - A dieci mani: la coproduzione di un film a episodi. Le più belle truffe del mondo (1964) Vincent Leroy - Rencontre franco-italienne dans La prima notte di quiete (Le Professeur, 1972) de Valerio Zurlini
L’Académie Mallarmé a annoncé la première sélection du Prix Mallarmé 2025 et du Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction 2025, qui distinguent chaque année des œuvres poétiques remarquables en langue française et en traduction. Publié le : 17/03/2025 à 10:15 Sélection du Prix Mallarmé 2025 Vincent Annen, Que j’étais des cailloux (La Veilleuse, 2025) Kamel Bencheikh, Printemps de lutte et d’amitié (Kaïros, 2024) Jean-Pierre Boulic, Un ciel de patience (La Part commune, 2025) Guillaume Decourt, Un temps de fête (La Table Ronde, 2024) Anne Dujin, Noyau manquant (Gallimard, 2024) Raymond Farina, Les Grands jaseurs de Bohême suivi de L’Oiseau de paradigme (Noir et blanc, 2024) Arnoldo Feuer, 9 Fenêtres sur l’infini (L’Atelier du Grand Tétras, 2024) Réginald Gaillard, Une écharde dans la chair (Corlevour, 2024) Benjamin Guérin, Quand nous étions des loups (Corlevour, 2024) Jack Keguenne, À la lanterne (Asmodée Edern, 2024) Jean-Claude Pinson, Vies de philosophes (Champ Vallon, 2024) Catherine Pont-Humbert, Quand les mots ne tiennent qu’à un fil (La Tête à l’envers, 2025) James Sacré, Rue de la Croix, à Celleneuve ses escaliers, puis d’autres (Méridianes, 2025) Hélène Tyrtoff, De là (LansKine, 2025) Sélection du Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction 2025 Mariano Rolando Andrade, Chansons des mers du Sud, traduit de l’espagnol (Argentine) par l’auteur et Christophe Manon (L’Herbe qui tremble, 2024) Elsa Cross, Inflexions de la lumière, traduit de l’espagnol (Mexique) par Ana Cristina Zúñiga (Écrits de Forges, 2024) Saleh Diab, Esquisses pour une île, traduit de l’arabe (Syrie) par l’auteur et Annie Salager (Tarabuste, 2024) Salah Faïk, Cette feuille est ma patrie, traduit de l’arabe (Irak) par Saleh Diab (Grèges, 2024) Kadhim Jihad Hassan, Éclats d’Irak, traduit de l’arabe (Irak) par l’auteur et André Miquel (Actes Sud, 2025) Yannis Ritsos, Les jeux du ciel et de l’eau, traduit du grec (Grèce) par Faber Fabbris (Éditions Bruno Doucey, 2024) Le Prix Mallarmé, l’une des distinctions les plus prestigieuses en poésie, récompense un poète d’expression française pour un recueil ou l’ensemble de son œuvre. Présidé par Sylvestre Clancier, le jury est composé des vingt-neuf membres de l’Académie Mallarmé. Le lauréat bénéficiera d’une dotation offerte par la ville de Brive, ainsi que d’une résidence poétique d’un mois. L'an dernier, Alain Breton était récompensé pour son recueil Je ne rendrai pas le feu (Hommes sans Épaules). Créé en 2022, le Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction met en avant la poésie internationale et le travail des traducteurs qui permettent aux lecteurs francophones d’accéder à des œuvres venues d’ailleurs. En 2024, la lauréate était Marie Vrinat, pour sa traduction de Là où nous ne sommes pas de Guéorgui Gospodinov (Les Carnets du dessert de lune). https://actualitte.com/article/122600/prix-litteraires/le-prix-mallarme-2025-devoile-ses-selections #metaglossia_mundus
"“Everything is translation” — focus theme of the 13th International Book Arsenal Festival — is announced; festival to be curated by Marci Shore and Oksana Forostyna. The festival will run between May 29 and June 1, 2025.
“Everything is translation” is both the focus theme and the main metaphor of the 13th Book Arsenal Festival, as the curators reveal in their curatorial essay.
“[W]hat do the numerous untranslatables tell us—words that exist in one language but are absent in another? Are then slightly different realities meant, from language to language, from society to society? And what if the experiences of these societies differ radically? Can language reliably convey the experience of one to another? … The answer is in the curators’ conversation, but to find it, you need to read the conversation to the end,” Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, the Director General of Mystetskyi Arsenal, wrote in an introduction to the essay.
The main program will be curated by a journalist, host, translator, literary critic and producer of Radio Kultura, Iryna Slavinska.
“I fear an enormous amount of human suffering is left silent for eternity. And given this, we should all the more so appreciate what language can do, however imperfectly, and appreciate those who attempt to translate moments at the very border of human experience into words … We will never understand anyone else’s experience perfectly, all the more so in situations of extremity. That said, the act of translating–of translating our own experiences into language, and of translating someone else’s experiences from one language into another–is a leap of faith that some kind of understanding is possible,” Marci Shore, the co-curator of the Focus Theme of the 13th Book Arsenal, said.
The Book Arsenal festival will host the Kids and Teens Program, and will be curated by writer, journalist, translator and author of books for kids and teens Olya Rusina. A special program for teenagers will also be presented by the participants of the Literary Laboratory for Teenagers.
Manager of cultural and educational projects, editor and literary scholar Yuliia Konopliana will be the curator of the Professional Program this year.
Translatorium Literary and Translation Festival will host a special program, curated by co-founder and director of the festival Tania Rodionova.
Under the supervision of Oksana Karpiuk, the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program will be held for the second time, providing a platform for industry discussions, exchange of experience, meetings and acquaintance of foreign publishers, rights managers and literary agents with the Ukrainian book market..."
https://chytomo.com/en/everything-is-translation-focus-theme-of-the-13th-international-book-arsenal-festival-announced/
"Registration is now open for the sixth edition of the European Colloquium on Gender and Translation. This international event has explored gender in translation and interpreting through an intersectional lens. Early bird registration available until April 30, 2025.
12/03/2025
Since 2016, the European Colloquium on Gender and Translation has been periodically offering an overview of the latest trends in translation and interpreting research and practice in its interaction with gender, with gatherings in Valencia, Naples, Valencia, Bergamo and Ferrara. By placing an emphasis on intersectionality, the 6th edition of this Colloquium in Barcelona proposes to overcome traditional approaches to gender as a monolithic entity, to embrace more nuanced understandings of gender as a multidimensional category that necessarily intersects with other layers of oppression and discrimination such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, age, class or religion, to name a few. Our aim is to explore gender from a more thorough perspective that considers how racism, cis-hetero-sexism, classism, ableism, ageism, etc. are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another.
Programme and Keynote Speakers
The programme will be shared as soon as it is available, over the next few days.
The Call for Papers can be accessed here...
The keynote addresses will be delivered by:
Ruth Abou Rached, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Denise Carrascosa, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil
REGISTRATION
Key dates for registration
Deadline for registration (Early Bird): 30 April 2025
Registration period (Full Fee): 1 May to 15 June 2025
Conference Fee
Speaker fee: EUR 95 / EUR 115
Speaker discount for PhD and MA students: EUR 65 / EUR 85
General Public: EUR 50 / EUR 70
Students and Academic Staff at the UAB: no cost (but registration is mandatory)
Conference dinner (Wednesday 9th July 2025)
The conference dinner will take place on Wednesday 9th July at the Antic Forn restaurant (https://lanticforn.com/en/). The restaurant is located near Plaça Catalunya, in the heart of Barcelona.
The conference set menu includes a variety of starters (tapas), main course, dessert and drinks. It will cater for any dietary requirements, which must be clearly indicated in the registration form.
Dinner costs 38 euros. Those who wish to attend the conference dinner must indicate it on the registration form and include the dinner cost in their conference fee payment....
Contact
Area of Communication & Promotion
Edifici Rectorat
08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès)
(Barcelona)
Tel. +34 93 586 82 28
g.premsa@uab.cat
RSS Feeds:
UAB website news"
https://www.uab.cat/web/newsroom/news-detail/registration-for-the-european-colloquium-on-gender-and-translation-is-now-open-1345668003610.html?noticiaid=1345948624112
The lack of translation services will lead to more people being improperly denied benefits or jobs, experts say.
"
longer provide translation services for individuals or businesses calling the Homeland Security Department on questions related to their employment status or benefits, according to a memorandum obtained by Government Executive.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will cancel a contract that provides that translation capacity, the memo stated. Forthcoming instructions to employees, a summary of which was reviewed by Government Executive, directed employees to discontinue any call when they are not fluent in the caller’s language. Employees will not integrate the third-party vendor into the call to provide translation, nor will they transfer calls to other employees who may speak the caller’s language...
The contract termination, according to one employee affected by the change, will impact those who call with questions regarding programs such as E-Verify, which tracks individuals’ employment status, and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which federal, state and local entities, as well as other licensing agencies, use to determine individuals’ immigration status and their eligibility for benefits. Individuals, companies or agencies who call USCIS to inquire about discrepancies in work authorization papers, for example, or to correct errors will no longer have translation services available.
The contract, with Legal Interpreting Services, Inc., was set to last at least through November with the option to extend it through November 2026. USCIS has obligated $422,000 on the contract since it was awarded in 2022 and was slated to spend up to $587,000. USCIS has previously exercised options to extend the contract and modified it to include additional translation time.
Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel with the American Immigration Council, noted that SAVE provides immigration status verification to more than 1,100 agencies, while E-Verify is used by more than 5,000 employers. The databases those programs rely on are not always accurate or updated, he said.
“Lack of interpretation services will only make it harder for many workers and families whose dominant language is not English from being able to correct immigration status errors in these databases,” Orozco said. “This risks people being wrongly denied benefits or being unfairly terminated from their jobs."
The agreement is part of a larger one DHS holds with the company, to which the department has obligated $3.6 million and is slated to spend up to $13.5 million. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent the most money on the contract, providing translation services to hurricane victims. USCIS has also tapped into the contract for its asylum division. The fate of those awards was not immediately clear. ."
https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/03/trump-administration-cancels-translation-services-those-seeking-access-or-correct-their-immigration-status/403778/?oref=ge-author-river
"A recent statement from the Indigenous Languages Media in Africa research group at North West University in South Africa highlighted the crucial role of indigenous languages.
These languages play a key role in fostering inclusive communication across the continent.
Professor Abiodun Salawu, a leading academic in media and language studies, said that neglecting the use of these languages in media and public discourse alienates a large segment of Africa’s population.
Professor Salawu explained, “The majority of our people still speak these languages. These are the languages they feel most at ease with; they are the languages through which they can understand information and express their views on social issues.”
He added that by not promoting and effectively using indigenous languages, many people are excluded from national discussions. “Without the use of these languages, we are leaving a lot of people out of the conversations happening in the country. They can’t grasp most of what is said in English, and they don't speak the language in a way that allows them to communicate their thoughts or opinions clearly.”
Salawu’s remarks underline the importance of integrating indigenous langages into African media to encourage broader participation in societal debates and decision-making.
--ChannelAfrica--"
http://www.channelafrica.co.za/sabc/home/channelafrica/news/details?id=782f834c-2637-48fb-9620-81f3447c58bc&title=%E2%80%98Indigenous%20language%20use%20in%20African%20media%20vital%20for%20inclusivity%E2%80%99
Social media has become a powerful tool for public discourse, shaping opinions and the emotional landscape of communities. The extensive use of social media has led to a massive influx of online content. This content includes instances where negativity is amplified through hateful speech but also a significant number of posts that provide support and encouragement, commonly known as hope speech. In recent years, researchers have focused on the automatic detection of hope speech in languages such as Russian, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Bengali. However, to the best of our knowledge, detection of hope speech in Urdu and English, particularly using translation-based techniques, remains unexplored. To contribute to this area we have created a multilingual dataset in English and Urdu and applied a translation-based approach to handle multilingual challenges and utilized several state-of-the-art machine learning, deep learning, and transfer learning based methods to benchmark our dataset. Our observations indicate that a rigorous process for annotator selection, along with detailed annotation guidelines, significantly improved the quality of the dataset. Through extensive experimentation, our proposed methodology, based on the Bert transformer model, achieved benchmark performance, surpassing traditional machine learning models with accuracies of 87% for English and 79% for Urdu. These results show improvements of 8.75% in English and 1.87% in Urdu over baseline models (SVM 80% English and 78% in Urdu).
Bob Holmes, Knowable Magazine
March 14, 2025
During conversations, interjections act as vital traffic signals. XiXinXing / Getty Images Plus
Listen carefully to a spoken conversation and you’ll notice that the speakers use a lot of little quasi-words—mm-hmm, um, huh? and the like—that don’t convey any information about the topic of the conversation itself. For many decades, linguists regarded such utterances as largely irrelevant noise, the flotsam and jetsam that accumulate on the margins of language when speakers aren’t as articulate as they’d like to be.
But these little words may be much more important than that. A few linguists now think that far from being detritus, they may be crucial traffic signals to regulate the flow of conversation as well as tools to negotiate mutual understanding. That puts them at the heart of language itself—and they may be the hardest part of language for artificial intelligence to master.
Ouija Board: The Mysterious Origins of a Cultural Obsession
“Here is this phenomenon that lives right under our nose, that we barely noticed,” says Mark Dingemanse, a linguist at Radboud University in the Netherlands, “that turns out to upend our ideas of what makes complex language even possible in the first place.”
For most of the history of linguistics, scholars have tended to focus on written language, in large part because that’s what they had records of. But once recordings of conversation became available, they could begin to analyze spoken language the same way as writing.
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When they did, they observed that interjections—that is, short utterances of just a word or two that are not part of a larger sentence—were ubiquitous in everyday speech. “One in every seven utterances are one of these things,” says Dingemanse, who explores the use of interjections in the 2024 Annual Review of Linguistics. “You’re going to find one of those little guys flying by every 12 seconds. Apparently, we need them.”
Many of these interjections serve to regulate the flow of conversation. “Think of it as a tool kit for conducting interactions,” says Dingemanse. “If you want to have streamlined conversations, these are the tools you need.” An um or uh from the speaker, for example, signals that they’re about to pause, but they aren’t finished speaking. A quick huh? or what? from the listener, on the other hand, can signal a failure of communication that the speaker needs to repair.
That need seems to be universal: In a survey of 31 languages around the world, Dingemanse and his colleagues found that all of them used a short, neutral syllable similar to huh? as a repair signal, probably because it’s quick to produce. “In that moment of difficulty, you’re going to need the simplest possible question word, and that’s what huh? is,” says Dingemanse. “We think all societies will stumble on this, for the same reason.”
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Other interjections serve as what some linguists call “continuers,” such as mm-hmm—signals from the listener that they’re paying attention and the speaker should keep going. Once again, the form of the word is well suited to its function: Because mm-hmm is made with a closed mouth, it’s clear that the signaler does not intend to speak.
Sign languages often handle continuers differently, but then again, two people signing at the same time can be less disruptive than two people speaking, says Carl Börstell, a linguist at the University of Bergen in Norway. In Swedish Sign Language, for example, listeners often sign yes as a continuer for long stretches, but to keep this continuer unobtrusive, the sender tends to hold their hands lower than usual.
Different interjections can send slightly different signals. Consider, for example, one person describing to another how to build a piece of IKEA furniture, says Allison Nguyen, a psycholinguist at Illinois State University. In such a conversation, mm-hmm might indicate that the speaker should continue explaining the current step, while yeah or OK would imply that the listener is done with that step and it’s time to move on to the next.
Wow! There’s more
Continuers aren’t merely for politeness—they really matter to a conversation, says Dingemanse. In one classic experiment from more than two decades ago, 34 undergraduate students listened as another volunteer told them a story. Some of the listeners gave the usual “I’m listening” signals, while others—who had been instructed to count the number of words beginning with the letter “t”—were too distracted to do so. The lack of normal signals from the listeners led to stories that were less well crafted, the researchers found. “That shows that these little words are quite consequential,” says Dingemanse.
Nguyen agrees that such words are far from meaningless. “They really do a lot for mutual understanding and mutual conversation,” she says. She’s now working to see if emojis serve similar functions in text conversations.
Storytellers depend on feedback such as mm-hmm and other interjections from their listeners. In this experiment, some listeners were told to count the number of times the storyteller used a word starting with the letter "t"—a challenging task that prevented them from giving normal feedback. The quality of storytelling declined significantly, with problems like abrupt endings, rambling on uneven or choppy pacing and overexplaining or justifying the point. Adapted from J.B. Bavelas et al. / Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2000 / Knowable Magazine
The role of interjections goes even deeper than regulating the flow of conversation. Interjections also help in negotiating the ground rules of a conversation. Every time two people converse, they need to establish an understanding of where each is coming from: what each participant knows to begin with, what they think the other person knows and how much detail they want to hear. Much of this work—what linguists call “grounding”—is carried out by interjections.
“If I’m telling you a story and you say something like ‘Wow!’ I might find that encouraging and add more detail,” says Nguyen. “But if you do something like ‘Uh-huh,’ I’m going to assume you aren’t interested in more detail.”
A key part of grounding is working out what each participant thinks about the other’s knowledge, says Martina Wiltschko, a theoretical linguist at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Barcelona, Spain. Some languages, like Mandarin, explicitly differentiate between “I’m telling you something you didn’t know” and “I’m telling you something that I think you knew already.” In English, that task falls largely on interjections.
One of Wiltschko’s favorite examples is the Canadian eh? “If I tell you, ‘you have a new dog,’ I’m usually not telling you stuff you don’t know, so it’s weird for me to tell you,” she says. But “You have a new dog, eh?” eliminates the weirdness by flagging the statement as news to the speaker, not the listener.
Other interjections can indicate that the speaker knows they’re not giving the other participant what they sought. “If you ask me what’s the weather like in Barcelona, I can say ‘Well, I haven’t been outside yet,’” says Wiltschko. The well is an acknowledgement that she’s not quite answering the question.
Wiltschko and her students have now examined more than 20 languages, and every one of them uses little words for negotiations like these. “I haven’t found a language that doesn’t do these three general things: what I know, what I think you know and turn-taking,” she says. They are key to regulating conversations, she adds: “We are building common ground, and we are taking turns.”
Details like these aren’t just arcana for linguists to obsess over. Using interjections properly is a key part of sounding fluent in speaking a second language, notes Wiltschko, but language teachers often ignore them. “When it comes to language teaching, you get points deducted for using ums and uhs, because you’re ‘not fluent,’” she says. “But native speakers use them, because it helps! They should be taught.” Artificial intelligence, too, can struggle to use interjections well, she notes, making them the best way to distinguish between a computer and a real human.
And interjections also provide a window into interpersonal relationships. “These little markers say so much about what you think,” she says—and they’re harder to control than the actual content. Maybe couples therapists, for example, would find that interjections afford useful insights into how their clients regard one another and how they negotiate power in a conversation. The interjection oh often signals confrontation, she says, as in the difference between “Do you want to go out for dinner?” and “Oh, so now you want to go out for dinner?”
Indeed, these little words go right to the heart of language and what it is for. “Language exists because we need to interact with one another,” says Börstell. “For me, that’s the main reason for language being so successful.”
Dingemanse goes one step further. Interjections, he says, don’t just facilitate our conversations. In negotiating points of view and grounding, they’re also how language talks about talking.
“With huh? you say not just ‘I didn’t understand,’” says Dingemanse. “It’s ‘I understand you’re trying to tell me something, but I didn’t get it.’” That reflexivity enables more sophisticated speech and thought. Indeed, he says, “I don’t think we would have complex language if it were not for these simple words.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/huh-interjections-are-critically-important-to-communication-180986170/
"Our species, Homo sapiens, is about 230,000 years old. Estimates of when language originated vary widely, based on different forms of evidence, from fossils to cultural artifacts. The authors of the new analysis took a different approach. They reasoned that since all human languages likely have a common origin—as the researchers strongly think—the key question is how far back in time regional groups began spreading around the world.
"The logic is very simple," says Shigeru Miyagawa, an MIT professor and co-author of a new paper summarizing the results.
"Every population branching across the globe has human language, and all languages are related."
Based on what the genomics data indicate about the geographic divergence of early human populations, he adds, "I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before."
The paper, "Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 thousand years ago," appears in Frontiers in Psychology.
Co-authors include Rob DeSalle, a principal investigator at the American Museum of Natural History's Institute for Comparative Genomics, and Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus of human origins at the American Museum of Natural History, and others.
The new paper examines 15 genetic studies of different varieties, published over the past 18 years: three used data about the inherited Y chromosome, three examined mitochondrial DNA, and nine were whole-genome studies.
All told, the data from these studies suggest an initial regional branching of humans about 135,000 years ago. That is, after the emergence of Homo sapiens, groups of people subsequently moved apart geographically, and some resulting genetic variations have developed, over time, among the different regional subpopulations.
The amount of genetic variation shown in the studies allows researchers to estimate the point in time at which Homo sapiens was still one regionally undivided group.
Miyagawa says the studies collectively provide increasingly converging evidence about when these geographic splits started taking place.
The first survey of this type was performed by other scholars in 2017, but they had fewer existing genetic studies to draw upon. Now, there are much more published data available, which, when considered together, points to 135,000 years ago as the likely time of the first split.
The new meta-analysis was possible because "quantity-wise we have more studies, and quality-wise, it's a narrower window [of time]," says Miyagawa, who also holds an appointment at the University of São Paulo.
Like many linguists, Miyagawa believes all human languages are demonstrably related to each other, something he has examined in his own work. For instance, in his 2010 book, "Why Agree? Why Move?" he analyzed previously unexplored similarities between English, Japanese, and some of the Bantu languages. There are more than 7,000 identified human languages around the globe.
Some scholars have proposed that language capacity dates back a couple of million years, based on the physiological characteristics of other primates. But to Miyagawa, the question is not when primates could utter certain sounds; it is when humans had the cognitive ability to develop language as we know it, combining vocabulary and grammar into a system generating an infinite amount of rules-based expression.
"Human language is qualitatively different because there are two things, words and syntax, working together to create this very complex system," Miyagawa says. "No other animal has a parallel structure in their communication system. And that gives us the ability to generate very sophisticated thoughts and to communicate them to others."
This conception of human language origins also holds that humans had the cognitive capacity for language for some period of time before we constructed our first languages.
"Language is both a cognitive system and a communication system," Miyagawa says. "My guess is prior to 135,000 years ago, it did start out as a private cognitive system, but relatively quickly that turned into a communications system."
So, how can we know when distinctively human language was first used? The archaeological record is invaluable in this regard. Roughly 100,000 years ago, the evidence shows, there was a widespread appearance of symbolic activity, from meaningful markings on objects to the use of fire to produce ocher, a decorative red color.
Like our complex, highly generative language, these symbolic activities are engaged in by people, and no other creatures. As the paper notes, "behaviors compatible with language and the consistent exercise of symbolic thinking are detectable only in the archaeological record of H. sapiens."
Among the co-authors, Tattersall has most prominently propounded the view that language served as a kind of ignition for symbolic thinking and other organized activities.
"Language was the trigger for modern human behavior," Miyagawa says. "Somehow, it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 100,000 years ago."
To be sure, as the authors acknowledge in the paper, other scholars believe there was a more incremental and broad-based development of new activities around 100,000 years ago, involving materials, tools, and social coordination, with language playing a role in this, but not necessarily being the central force.
For his part, Miyagawa recognizes that there is considerable room for further progress in this area of research, but thinks efforts like the current paper are at least steps toward filling out a more detailed picture of language's emergence.
"Our approach is very empirically based, grounded in the latest genetic understanding of early Homo sapiens," Miyagawa says. "I think we are on a good research arc, and I hope this will encourage people to look more at human language and evolution."
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-genomic-capacity-language-emerged-years.html
"Chinese internet search giant Baidu released a new artificial intelligence reasoning model Sunday and made its AI chatbot services free to consumers as ferocious competition grips the sector.
Issued on: 16/03/2025 - 05:25
Modified: 16/03/2025 - 07:43
1 min
Chinese internet search giant Baidu has released a new artificial intelligence reasoning model and made its AI chatbot services free © ADEK BERRY / AFP/File
Technology companies in China have been scrambling to release improved AI platforms since start-up DeepSeek shocked its rivals with its open source and highly cost-efficient model in January.
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In a post on WeChat, Baidu announced the launch of its latest X1 reasoning model -- which the company claims performs similarly to DeepSeek's but for lower cost -- and a new foundation model, Ernie 4.5.
Baidu also made its AI chatbot Ernie Bot free for individual users more than two weeks ahead of schedule. Previously, users had to pay a subscription to access the company's latest AI models via Ernie Bot.
Ernie 4.5 "outperforms" US-based OpenAI's GPT-4.5 model in "multiple benchmarks", while Ernie X1 features "enhanced capabilities in understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution", Baidu said.
The Beijing-based company was one of China's first to roll out a generative AI platform publicly, in 2023, but rival chatbots from companies such as TikTok owner ByteDance and Moonshot AI have since gained more users.
Baidu faces stiff competition in the consumer-facing AI sector where startup DeepSeek shook up the industry at home and abroad with a model that performed comparably to competitors such as US-made ChatGPT, but cost much less to develop.
Since then, Chinese companies and local government agencies have rushed to incorporate DeepSeek's open-source model into their work, while other technology companies have been playing catch-up.
Baidu itself has integrated DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model into its search engine.
In February, WeChat owner Tencent released a new AI model that it claimed answers queries faster than DeepSeek, even as it incorporated its rival's technology into its messaging platform.
The same month, Alibaba, which has partnered with Apple to develop AI for the US company's phones in China, said it would invest 380 billion yuan ($52 billion) in AI and cloud computing over the next three years.
Alibaba this month also released a new version of its AI assistant app powered by its open-source Qwen reasoning model.
Baidu has also announced plans to follow DeepSeek's lead by making its Ernie AI models open-source from June 30.
© 2025 AFP"
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250316-china-s-baidu-releases-new-free-ai-model-to-compete-with-deepseek
"Titre de l’ouvrage : « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp », 40 pages, 2024. (Traduction en créole haïtien de la Charte québécoise des droits et libertés de la personne simplifiée.)
Traduction : Sabine Monpierre, Conseillère en éducation et promotion des droits, Direction de l’éducation et de la promotion des droits, Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec.
Éditeur : Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec.
Mention : « Komisyon dwa moun ak dwa jèn yo remèsye Éducaloi pou kontribisyon li nan redaksyon vèsyon orijinal dokiman sila a. »
Revizyon : Walph Ferentzi Youyou. Pou Komite entènasyonal pou pwomosyon kreyòl ak alfabetizasyon (KEPKAA) : Pierre-Roland Bain, Marvens Jeanty, lengwis, tradiktè.
Avètisman. « Vèsyon senp sila se yon zouti pou edikasyon ki pa gen okenn valè legal. Li pa ranplase tèks orijinal Chat la. Nou dwe refere nou nan tèks orijnal Chat la pou tout revandikasyon politik osnon tout sipò jiridik. »
Le spectacle inaugural de la 23ème édition du Mois du créole à Montréal a tenu le pari de ne pas enfermer la langue créole dans l’enclos de la myopie historique ou du discours identitaire clivant, sectaire et dogmatique. Le fil conducteur de ce spectacle a ainsi mis en lumière une langue d’ouverture, rassembleuse et solidaire, le créole, langue native et usuelle de plus de 14 millions de locuteurs vivant en Haïti, en Martinique, en Guadeloupe, à l’île de La Réunion, à l’île Maurice, aux Seychelles ainsi qu’en diaspora…
Au seuil de la 23ème édition du Mois du créole à Montréal, il est hautement significatif que le créole, langue d’ouverture, rassembleuse et solidaire, ait fait son entrée, le 9 octobre 2024, parmi les documents de référence et d’éducation citoyenne relevant du champ législatif du Québec.
La Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec a en effet lancé le 9 octobre 2024 la traduction en créole haïtien de la Charte des droits et libertés de la personne simplifiée. Cet ouvrage de 40 pages s’intitule « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » et il a été élaboré « pour les organismes qui travaillent auprès des populations immigrantes, particulièrement des personnes haïtiennes qui viennent d’arriver au Québec et qui ne maitrisent pas encore le français ». Le lancement a eu lieu le 9 octobre 2024 au Bureau de la communauté haïtienne de Montréal en présence de plusieurs représentants d’organismes.
Voici en quels termes la Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec présente la « Charte simplifiée » :
« La Charte simplifiée est un outil en langage clair qui permet de mieux comprendre la loi fondamentale qu’est la Charte et les droits qu’elle garantit. La Commission des droits a produit il y a quelques années une version simplifiée de la Charte pour le grand public, afin de rapprocher le contenu de cette loi importante des gens qu’elle protège. Depuis, l’outil a été traduit en plusieurs langues pour les peuples autochtones et les personnes nouvellement arrivées au Québec.
« La Charte des droits et libertés de la personne est une loi fondamentale au Québec. C’est la loi qui garantit notamment le droit à l’égalité de toutes les personnes qui se trouvent au Québec, peu importe leur statut. Un des rôles de la Commission des droits est de faire connaitre les droits protégés par la Charte afin qu’ils soient respectés, que ce soit dans le domaine du travail, du logement, de l’accès aux services, entre autres ».
Pour sa part, la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » est un document de 40 pages édité au Québec en 2024. Cette version créole de la Charte québécoise des droits et libertés de la personne simplifiée regroupe les cinq grands chapitres suivants :
–« Libète ak dwa fondamental » (atik 1 jiska 9) ;
–« Dwa pou egalego nan rekonesans egzèsis dwa ak libète yo » (atik 19 jiska 20) ;
–« Dwa politik » (atik 21 ak 22) ;
–« Dwa jidisyè » (atik 23 jiska 38) ;
–« Dwa ekonomik ak sosyal » (atik 39 jiska 48).
Sous la supervision de Pierre-Roland Bain et du linguiste-traducteur Marvens Jeanty, le KEPKAA a été associé à la révision linguistique de la traduction en créole haïtien de la Charte des droits et libertés de la personne simplifiée. Il y a lieu de préciser que dans le domaine hautement normatif et codifié de l’administration de la justice au Québec, c’est la première fois qu’un document officiel du Québec –la « Charte québécoise des droits et libertés de la personne » ayant auparavant fait l’objet d’une sanction législative à l’Assemblée nationale du Québec le 27 juin 1975–, est traduit en créole haïtien. Manifestement, il s’agit là d’un événement historique à la fois pour l’administration de la justice au Québec –qui reconnaît de la sorte l’apport de la communauté haïtienne (elle compte aujourd’hui 150 000 individus) à la modernisation de la Belle Province–, et pour la langue créole elle-même, qui accède ainsi, au plan jurilinguistique, à une explicite reconnaissance.
Évaluation traductologique/lexicographique
Bien qu’il ne soit ni un lexique ni un dictionnaire ni un glossaire, la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » est dans le présent article l’objet d’une évaluation traductologique/lexicographique car elle comprend des termes (des unités lexicales simples ou complexes) qui relèvent du vocabulaire spécialisé du droit. Exemples : « Dwa pou sekirite », « dwa pou entegrite », « dwa pou libète », « pèsonalite jiridik » (page 5), « dwa pou egalego », « motif pou entèdi diskriminasyon » (page 12). Sur le registre d’un document à la fois traductologique et lexicographique, une évaluation exhaustive permettra, à l’avenir, d’isoler la totalité du lexique créole consigné dans ce document et d’en faire une analyse détaillée. Nous procédons à une présentation générale de la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » destinée, dans un premier temps, à identifier ses éventuels acquis traductologiques et, surtout, à éclairer les problèmes qui sont apparus au plan méthodologique et quant à la pertinence des équivalents créoles disséminés dans le document.
Sur le plan lexicographique, la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » est riche d’enseignements. De manière générale, les unités lexicales créoles repérables dans ce document renvoient à la problématique de la pertinence des équivalents créoles au regard des notions consignées en français dans le texte source : les termes français « créolisés » par la traductrice, lorsqu’ils sont de type « emprunt / transfert », proviennent-ils de documents juridiques haïtiens tous rédigés en français (divers textes de loi, documents de jurisprudence, conventions, contrats, code civil, etc.) ? Les équivalents créoles sont-ils de type « néologisme » forgés par la traductrice ou proviennent-ils de documents juridiques rédigés en créole ? Au plan méthodologique et en l’absence d’un dictionnaire français-créole de référence, la traductrice a-t-elle fait appel à une sorte de « stratégie traductionnelle » consistant à « créoliser » les termes français –« créoliser » au sens de conférer aux termes français du document source un « habillage phonique » créole ? Qu’il s’agisse d’« emprunt / transfert » ou de « néologisme », selon quel protocole méthodologique la traductrice a-t-elle effectué ses choix ? Ce sont là des questions de fond, elles sont d’autant plus incontournables que tous les instruments légaux d’Haïti (textes de loi, jurisprudence, conventions, etc.) ont été rédigés en français de 1804 à 1987 et de 1987 à 2025. L’on observe que malgré la co-officialisation du créole et du français dans la Constitution de 1987, malgré les obligations consignées à l’article 40 du texte constitutionnel de 1987, l’État haïtien continue de produire ses textes légaux en français uniquement. D’autre part, les dictionnaires juridiques élaborés en Haïti et en outre-mer sont la plupart du temps lourdement déficients, parfois fantaisistes, à l’exception notable de l’excellent dictionnaire juridique de Me Philippe Volmar paru en Haïti aux Éditions Charesso en mai 2024 (voir notre article « Le « Dictionnaire de droit du travail » de Me Philippe Junior Volmar, une œuvre de grande qualité lexicographique », Madinin’Art, 1er octobre 2024).
Il est utile de rappeler que dans le domaine de l’administration de la justice, de 1998 à 2023, trois lexiques juridiques, improprement désignés sous le vocable « Glossary », ont été publiés aux États-Unis. Ils ont pour titre « New Jersey Judiciary Glossary of Legal (and Related) Terms – English/Haitian Creole » (New Jersey Courts, Administrative Office of the Courts, version de juillet 2023) ; « Haitian-Creole Glossary of Legal and Related Terms » (The University of Arizona Press, 1998) ; « English Haitian Creole Legal Glossary » de Jean-Robert Cadely et Joelle Haspil (Educa Vision, 1999). Notre évaluation analytique de ces trois lexiques est consignée dans les articles suivants : (1) « Le naufrage de la lexicographie créole au « New Jersey Judiciary Glossary of Legal (and Related) Terms – English/Haitian Creole » (Rezonòdwès, 16 septembre 2023) ; (2) « Le traitement lexicographique du créole dans le « Haitian-Creole Glossary of Legal and Related Terms » du National Center for Interpretation (University of Arizona) » (Rezonòdwès, 25 septembre 2023) ; (3) « Le traitement lexicographique du créole dans le « English Haitian Creole Legal Glossary » de Jean-Robert Cadely et Joelle Haspil » (Rezonòdwès, 15 février 2024). À ces titres il convient d’ajouter le « Diksyonè jiridik kreyòl » de Price Cyprien et Nathalie Wakam Cyprien publié en Haïti à compte d’auteur en juin 2024 (voir notre article « Le naufrage de la terminologie juridique créole dans le « Diksyonè jiridik kreyòl » de Price Cyprien et Nathalie Wakam Cyprien » (Rezonòdwès, 27 août 2024). Nous avons procédé à l’examen comparatif de ces ouvrages selon les critères méthodologiques de la lexicographie professionnelle : (1) pertinence du projet éditorial et identification du lectorat visé ; (2) critères d’établissement du corpus de référence ; (3) critères d’établissement de la nomenclature ; (4) caractérisation des rubriques dictionnairiques et traitement lexicographique des termes de la nomenclature (catégories grammaticales, conformité des définitions, système de renvoi notionnel, identification des domaines d’appartenance des termes : droit civil, droit criminel, droit du travail, etc.).
Dans la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp », les choix méthodologiques de nature lexicographique ne sont nulle part explicités : cela s’explique aisément car, il importe de le signaler encore une fois, cette publication n’est ni un lexique ni un dictionnaire ni un glossaire. Le projet éditorial à l’origine de la version créole de cette publication grand public est adéquatement explicité comme suit : « La Charte simplifiée est un outil en langage clair qui permet de mieux comprendre la loi fondamentale qu’est la Charte et les droits qu’elle garantit. La Commission des droits a produit il y a quelques années une version simplifiée de la Charte pour le grand public, afin de rapprocher le contenu de cette loi importante des gens qu’elle protège. Depuis, l’outil a été traduit en plusieurs langues pour les peuples autochtones et les personnes nouvellement arrivées au Québec » (déclaration de la Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec, 9 octobre 2024).
En revanche, le projet éditorial de la version créole intitulée « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » n’est pas défini de manière spécifique. La ligne éditoriale emprunte plutôt la voie de l’éclairage explicatif, de l’utilitaire, du fonctionnel de la manière suivante : « Chat dwa ak libète moun la pou pwoteje prensipal dwa ak libetè ou yo. Se yon manman lwa tout lòt lwa kebekwa yo dwe respeke nan majorite ka yo. Menm lè chat la esansyèl pou byennèt moun an jeneral, li pa fin twò fasil pou konprann. Pou nou pi byen konprann li, Komisyon dwa moun ak dwa jèn yo pwopoze yon vèsyon pi senp ki soti nan atik 1 pou rive nan atik 48 Chat la ».
Alapapòt, un « emprunt / transfert » qui pose problème : le terme « chat »
1 / Le terme « chat » dans le titre de l’ouvrage pose problème à tous les locuteurs créolophones auxquels nous l’avons soumis en le contextualisant. Ce terme fait tout naturellement penser à l’animal « chat » plutôt qu’à une « charte », un document juridique. La migration (le transfert) du terme « chat », l’animal, de la langue générale vers la langue de spécialité, la langue juridique, semble à la fois superficielle et a-sémantique à tous les locuteurs créolophones auxquels nous l’avons soumis. La greffe ne prend pas en raison de la confusion sémantique entre les deux acceptions du terme « chat » (l’animal) et celle que lui confère la traductrice, « chat » (le document juridique), et cette confusion donne lieu à une sorte de « sémantisme zéro ». Le locuteur créolophone, qui d’ailleurs ne possède pas une culture juridique attestée, ne déchiffre pas l’« image sémantique » identifiant LA « chat » (LA charte juridique) en la différenciant DU / LE « chat » (l’animal). Dans son répertoire lexical personnel, aucun locuteur créolophone, même lorsqu’il évolue dans un environnement francophone, ne possède le terme « chat » au sens différencié de « charte juridique ». D’autre part, l’emploi du terme « chat » –placé en début de syntagme/phrase au titre d’un « qualifiant » des autres constituants de l’expression « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp »–, « détermine / qualifie » ces autres composants du syntagme/phrase. Dans cette hypothèse, là encore, la greffe ne prend pas puisque l’on aboutit au « sémantisme zéro » : dans la configuration syntaxique « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp », c’est LE « chat », l’animal, qui aurait des « droits », des « droits humains », des « droits et libertés » (« dwa moun ak libète moun ») et non pas LA « charte », le document juridique. NOTE – Sur l’« image sémantique », voir l’article de Laura Sageaux, « L’image et sa sémantique. Regards sur les stratégies figuratives dans l’Antiquité. Introduction », Pallas, Revue d’études antiques, 120 / 2022.
La problématique de l’« emprunt / transfert » au regard de la « stratégie traductionnelle » consistant à « créoliser » les termes français
Tel que nous l’avons mentionné plus haut dans le déroulé de cet article, le terme « créoliser » s’entend au sens de conférer aux termes juridiques français du document source un « habillage phonique » créole. En l’absence d’un dictionnaire français-créole de référence, c’est cette « stratégie traductionnelle » que privilégie la traductrice de la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp ». Exemples : « libète ak dwa fondamental », « dwa pou egalego », « rekonesans egzèsis dwa ak libète yo », « dwa politik », « dwa jidisyè », « dwa ekonomik ak sosyal », « tab matyè », etc. Habituellement les traducteurs vers le créole estiment qu’au plan méthodologique cette « stratégie traductionnelle », mise en œuvre au moyen de l’« habillage phonique » créole, est linguistiquement justifiée en raison de la « parenté lexicale » et/ou de la « parenté génétique » existant, selon certains auteurs, entre le créole et le français. NOTE – Sur la « parenté génétique » entre les langues, voir entre autres Wolf Thummel, « Contacts et changement. Différentes approches des correspondances entre langues : parenté génétique, alliance linguistique, substrat », Documentation et recherche en linguistique allemande, Vincennes, 28 / 1983. Voir aussi Guy Jucquois, « La linguistique génétique revisitée : la controverse du proto-mondial », La linguistique, vol. 45, 2009. Voir également l’étude de Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, Université de Liège, « Évolution et parenté des langues » (Venues à pied du fond des âges), parue dans « Des langues romanes – Introduction aux études de linguistique romane », Éditions De Boeck Supérieur, 1999. Cette problématique a été étudiée par d’autres linguistes, notamment Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux dans « Les créoles à base française : une introduction » (Travaux interdisciplinaires du Laboratoire parole et langage, 2002, no 21).
En ce qui a trait à la « stratégie traductionnelle » mise en œuvre dans « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp au moyen de l’« habillage phonique » créole, il est utile de rappeler que cette problématique avait auparavant été étudiée par la linguiste Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux. Elle est l’auteure de l’étude « La traduction de la Bible en créole haïtien : problèmes linguistiques, littéraires et culturels » parue dans la revue Présences haïtiennes, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, 2006. Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux nous fournit un éclairage daté sur des chantiers sectoriels antérieurs de traduction : « Au XIXe siècle, « La Parabole de l’enfant prodigue » a donné lieu à plusieurs versions créoles (en créole haïtien vers 1818, vers 1830 ?) ». Parmi les nombreux mérites de cette étude, il faut retenir l’exemplification des procédés de traduction mis en œuvre dans la traduction de la Bible :
« la ‘’créolisation’’ du terme français :
Apôtres : zapòt
Disciples : disip
Pharisiens : farizyen
les calques : les noces de l’Agneau : mariaj pitit mouton Bondyé = lit. Le mariage du petit mouton de Dieu
les périphrases explicatives :
Jour des azymes : jou fèt pen san ledven an = lit. Le jour de la fête des pains sans levain
Pâques : fèt delivrans (fête qui commémore la sortie d’Égypte, et donc la délivrance des Hébreux retenus en esclavage par Pharaon)
Résurrection : lè mò yo va gen pou leve = lorsque les morts obtiendront de se lever
Païen : moun ki pa jouif = les gens qui ne sont pas juifs
Boucliers : plak fè protèj = les plaques qui protègent
Les justes : moun kap maché douat devan Bondié = ceux qui marchent droit devant Dieu
l’adaptation aux nouveaux contextes (« culture locale ») :
Holocauste : boule = brûler (verbe et nom)
Lentilles (de Jacob) : pwa wouj, sòs pwa wouj = les pois rouges, la sauce pois rouges
Deniers : goud = gourdes (monnaie haïtienne) »
L’on observe que la complexe question de la néologie lexicale créole et celle des emprunts lexicaux du créole aux langues usuelles du bassin Caraïbe –principalement l’anglais et l’espagnol–, n’est pas une terra incognita dans le vaste champ de la créolistique. Elle a été étudiée par des linguistes de premier plan, notamment par Albert Valdman dans « L’évolution du lexique dans les créoles à base lexicale française » paru dans L’information grammaticale no 85, mars 2000), dans « Vers la standardisation du créole haïtien » (Revue française de linguistique appliquée, 2005/1 (vol. X) et dans « Vers un dictionnaire scolaire bilingue pour le créole haïtien ? » (revue La linguistique, 2005/1 (vol. 41). Dans l’un de ses livres majeurs, « Haitian Creole. Structure, Variation, Status, Origin » (Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2015), Albert Valdman effectue une description détaillée des stratégies productives de développement du vocabulaire et traite de l’origine du lexique du créole haïtien (chapitres 5 et 6, pages 139 à 188 : « The Structure of the Haitian Creole Lexicon »).
La problématique de l’« emprunt / transfert » vers le créole haïtien a été longuement étudiée par le linguiste haïtien Renauld Govain, ex-Doyen de la faculté de linguistique appliquée de l’Université d’État d’Haïti, en particulier dans son livre de référence « Les emprunts du créole haïtien à l’anglais et à l’espagnol » (Éditions L’Harmattan, mai 2014). L’éditeur présente l’ouvrage comme suit : « L’emprunt, passage d’un élément (phonologique, morphologique ou lexical) d’une langue à une autre, est un moyen d’enrichissement d’une langue quand il est bien contrôlé. Il provient du contact de langues, de l’expérience migratoire et d’autres facteurs… Cet ouvrage est divisé en 3 parties : 1. les emprunts du créole haïtien à l’anglais : environ 1400 entrées ; 2. une étude sur des mots créoles d’origine anglaise terminés en -mann (de man signifiant homme en anglais) ; 3. les emprunts du créole haïtien à l’espagnol : plus de 300 entrées ».
Dans une entrevue accordée le 3 juin 2014 au site eKarbe suite à la parution de son livre « Les emprunts du créole haïtien à l’anglais et à l’espagnol » (Éditions L’Harmattan, 2014), Renauld Govain fournit un ample éclairage théorique et méthodologique sur la problématique des emprunts du créole haïtien à l’anglais et à l’espagnol. Nous citons longuement cette entrevue en raison de sa pertinence à plusieurs égards et également en raison de la distinction établie par Renauld Govain entre « l’emprunt de parole » et « l’emprunt de langue ».
Renauld Govain, précise le site eKarbe, « (…) nous offre de mieux comprendre le caractère utile, enrichissant, ou inévitable des « Emprunts du créole haïtien à l’anglais et à l’espagnol » et, de façon circonstanciée, les types d’emprunts que ses observations de spécialiste mettent en évidence. Le livre déroule sur plus de 400 pages les emprunts du créole haïtien à l’anglais, une étude sur des mots créoles d’origine anglaise [qui se terminent] en -mann (de « man » signifiant « homme » en anglais) et enfin les emprunts du créole haïtien à l’espagnol. L’interview ci-dessous aide à appréhender la finalité de l’étude entreprise par Renauld Govain, dont les observations sur l’évolution du créole haïtien dans différents domaines permettent aussi de comprendre de façon plus globale comment et pourquoi se régénère une langue. (…) [Renauld Govain] précise qu’il a « été attiré par les nombreux termes que le recours au téléphone portable, aux outils informatiques et des technologies a fait « atterrir » dans le parler créole haïtien durant ces 15-20 dernières années. Les termes empruntés à l’espagnol sont généralement plus anciens que les trois quarts de ceux empruntés à l’anglais et sont en nombre inférieur à ceux faits à l’anglais ».
« (…) L’emprunt de parole s’observe dans le parler de l’Haïtien au contact de l’anglais (ou de l’espagnol) qui intègre parfois dans son énoncé produit en créole des mots d’anglais ou d’espagnol, qu’on ne rencontre guère dans le répertoire des individus monolingues. Tandis que l’emprunt de langue consiste en ce qu’une langue au contact d’une autre lui emprunte des termes. Ces emprunts s’intègrent dans le système de la nouvelle langue et s’y acclimatent normalement. Ils sont présents même dans le répertoire des monolingues. Parfois, les locuteurs ne savent même pas s’il s’agit d’éléments empruntés. Ainsi, l’emprunt de parole précède l’emprunt de langue dont il serait une étape.
L’emprunt de parole est favorisé par la gestion de l’urgence communicative dans une situation de communication par un locuteur donné. Cette urgence communicative amène le locuteur à ne pas laisser passer de temps – à courir après les espaces blancs – au cours du processus d’échange. Ainsi, il recourt au mot de l’autre langue de son répertoire bi-plurilingue pour effacer ces blancs. Mais aussi l’emprunt de parole peut être l’expression d’un certain snobisme : employer des mots d’origine anglaise dans le parler de certains jeunes haïtiens est souvent vécu comme faisant distingué. Les media (radio et télévision) sont des lieux privilégiés de manifestation de l’emprunt de parole ».
« (…) L’emprunt de langue quant à lui se produit généralement par la nécessité d’expression dans des domaines formels spécifiques où l’emprunt s’impose comme un choix stratégique nécessaire pour exprimer une réalité spécifique à valeur partagée par un certain nombre de locuteurs de communautés linguistiques différentes. On peut placer dans ce cadre les emprunts intégraux ou les mots internationaux qui sont adoptés dans diverses langues avec les mêmes signifiant et signifié, voire les mêmes référents. Les domaines de la littérature, de la presse, de la politique… font partie des lieux de manifestation de l’emprunt de langue.
Les emprunts de parole constituent une étape vers les emprunts de langue suivant la fréquence d’utilisation des premiers et l’appropriation communautaire qui en est faite. Une fois intégrés dans le système interne de la langue emprunteuse, ces emprunts de langue s’y acclimatent et deviennent des éléments lexicaux de la langue. Quant à l’emprunt du discours, il renvoie généralement à des segments de discours.
L’emprunt de parole est conscient, mais pas forcément. Le locuteur est rarement conscient du recours à l’emprunt de langue. L’emprunt de discours est tout à fait conscient. Il est même une stratégie de communication en vue d’attirer l’attention des interlocuteurs sur un fait communicatif donné. Si l’emprunt de parole et/ou de langue fait souvent l’objet d’une improvisation, dans l’emprunt de discours, le locuteur n’improvise pas autant. Au contraire, ce type d’emprunt est une forme de comportement communicatif planifié en vue d’un effet particulier en termes de rétroaction. L’emprunt de discours dépasse le simple cadre du lexème pour concerner davantage des segments discursifs plus grands tels des phrases, des énoncés entiers ou des slogans ».
Il y a lieu de rappeler que Renauld Govain est aussi l’auteur d’études qui ont des liens transversaux avec la néologie lexicale créole et la traduction : (1) « Enseignement du créole à l’école en Haïti : entre pratiques didactiques, contextes linguistiques et réalitésde terrain », in FrédéricAnciaux, Thomas Forissier et Lambert-Félix : voir Prudent (dir.), dans « Contextualisations didactiques. Approches théoriques », Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013 ; (2) « L’état des lieux du créole dans les établissements scolaires en Haïti », revue Contextes et didactiques, 4, 2014 ; (3) « Le créole haïtien : description et analyse » (sous la direction de Renauld Govain, Paris, Éditions L’Harmattan, 2018 ; (4) « Enseignement/apprentissage formel du créole à l’école en Haïti : un parcours à construire », revue Kreolistika, mars 2021 ; (5) « De l’expression vernaculaire à l’élaboration scientifique : le créole haïtien à l’épreuve des représentations méta-épilinguistiques » (revue Contextes et didactiques 17 | 2021).
La problématique de l’équivalence (l’équivalence linguistique) dans la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp »
La « stratégie traductionnelle » mise en œuvre dans « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » au moyen de l’« habillage phonique » créole renvoie au phénomène concomitant de la « phraséologie traductionnelle » et de la « translittération », donc à la problématique plus large de la conformité de l’équivalence notionnelle et lexicale entre les termes de la langue de départ, le français, et ceux de la langue d’arrivée, le créole (voir l’article « La traduction scientifique et technique créole à l’épreuve de la « phraséologie traductionnelle », par Robert Berrouët-Oriol. Rezonòdwès, 4 août 2024).
Tel que mentionné auparavant, les équivalents créoles contenus dans le corps du texte de la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » devront faire l’objet d’un repérage exhaustif en vue de leur analyse traductionnelle et lexicographique. Sur ce registre, il faudra en amont déterminer si dans le processus d’élaboration de la « Chat dwa ak libète moun Vèsyon senp » le principe de base de l’« équivalence linguistique » est respecté.
« L’« équivalence », que l’on désigne aussi par « équivalence de traduction », est la « Relation de correspondance entre deux unités de traduction de langues différentes. Sur le plan lexical, on nomme équivalent le terme ou l’expression dont le sens correspond à celui d’un terme ou d’une expression d’une autre langue. Dans le domaine de la traductologie, il existe divers types d’équivalence, dont l’équivalence linguistique, l’équivalence stylistique et l’équivalence sémantique (Grand dictionnaire terminologique de l’Office québécois de la langue française).
« L’« équivalence linguistique » est le « Transfert direct sémantique ou formel des éléments du discours de la langue source vers ceux de la langue cible. En traductologie, l’équivalence linguistique fait partie d’un courant théorique prônant des approches de traduction sourcières, qui tendent à respecter le plus fidèlement possible le sens et la forme d’un texte de départ. Le fait de traduire l’expression anglaise good afternoon par bonjour en français, sans apporter de précisions sur le moment de la journée, serait un exemple d’équivalence linguistique » (Grand dictionnaire terminologique de l’Office québécois de la langue française).
Les équivalents créoles suivants respectent pleinement les critères définitionnels que nous venons d’énoncer : à partir du terme désignant en français la notion de « liberté » consignée dans le texte source, la « La Charte québécoise des droits et libertés de la personne », l’on obtient « libète konsyans », « libète relijyon », « libète opinyon », « libète ekspresyon », « libète asosiyasyon », « libète reyinyon pasifik » (chapitre 1, page 6).
L’équivalent créole du terme français « loi » figure à de nombreuses reprises dans le corps du texte, c’est « lalwa » (page 8). Exemple : « Ou gen dwa pou ou itilize epi pwofite byen ou genyen jan ou pi pito san traka. Ou gen dwa tou pou prete yo, vann yo, bay yo oubyen fè sa ou vle ak yo. Lalwa ka toujou limite dwa sa yo ». Sans entrer dans le détail du phénomène de l’agglutination en créole haïtien, il se révèle à l’analyse que le terme créole « lalwa » rend bien le terme français « loi ». NOTE – Voir l’étude de Renauld Govain, « Agglutination déterminativo-nominale en créole haïtien », Voix plurielles, vol. 9 No. 2 (2012). Voir aussi Juvénal Ndayiragije, « La source du déterminant agglutiné en créole haïtien », Cambridge University Press, 27 juin 2016. Cet auteur soumet à l’analyse la question de la distinction que fait le locuteur créolophone entre « listwa » / l’« histoire » et « istwa » / « une histoire ».
De manière générale, l’évaluation analytique de la version créole de la « Chat dwa ak libète moun / Vèsyon senp » actualise la nécessité pour la traductologie créole et la lexicographie créole de se doter des instruments théoriques adéquats pouvant contribuer à modéliser l’activité traduisante et à encadrer la néologie créole, notamment en ce qui a trait aux « emprunts lexicaux » lorsque la langue-cible ne dispose pas dans ses registres habituels d’un équivalent adéquat. Une attention particulière devra être apportée aux futurs chantiers de terminologie juridique créole où, sur le plan méthodologique, la règle de base –celle de la stricte conformité entre l’« équivalence lexicale » et l’« équivalence notionnelle »–, est d’application stricte. Sinon l’on aboutira à un capharnaüm dans lequel la « concordance », l’« équivalence lexicale / équivalence notionnelle » ne sera pas assurée… À propos de la « concordance / équivalence » lexicale, voir dans le Juridictionnaire, accessible dans Termium Plus, les ressources consacrées aux difficultés de la langue française dans le domaine du droit..."
https://rezonodwes.com/?p=353911
"Apple s’apprête à lancer le premier système de traduction en temps réel pour AirPods : une révolution attendue
Une innovation fascinante pourrait voir le jour avec l’annonce d’Apple concernant une fonctionnalité de traduction instantanée intégrée directement aux AirPods. Prévue pour la prochaine version d’iOS, cette avancée pourrait transformer la façon dont nous communiquons à travers les langues. Quelles seront les implications de cette technologie ?
Mark Gurman, reporter de Bloomberg, a révélé qu’Apple travaille sur une fonction dédiée à la traduction simultanée à utiliser directement avec les AirPods. La nouvelle fonction devrait arriver avec iOS 19, le prochain système d’exploitation attendu pour les iPhone. Apple n’a pas voulu commenter la nouvelle.
L’update devrait arriver avec iOS 19, la prochaine version du système d’exploitation qui gère les iPhone. Ou du moins, c’est l’anticipation de Mark Gurman, reporter de la revue Bloomberg. Selon Gurman, Apple travaille à une app pour la traduction simultanée. Il s’agit d’une fonction qui pourra être activée directement depuis les AirPods, les écouteurs Bluetooth développés par les ingénieurs de Cupertino.
Précisons que, pour le moment, Apple n’a pas encore fourni aucune réponse officielle et surtout n’a pas commenté les nouvelles qui ont émergé. D’après les dires de Gurman, le système de traduction simultanée devrait fonctionner via un passage sur iPhone. D’abord, nous sélectionnons la langue de notre interlocuteur, puis celle dans laquelle nous souhaitons traduire.
À ce stade, lorsque la conversation débute depuis les AirPods, une traduction simultanée arrivera qui suivra la voix de notre interlocuteur. Les informations, pour l’instant, sont celles-ci, donc nous ne savons pas dans quelles langues cela sera disponible et surtout nous ne connaissons pas bien les délais. Actuellement, Apple est également occupée à lancer les nouvelles fonctions de l’Intelligence Apple, son intelligence artificielle. Elles devraient arriver dans les mois à venir, même en Italie.
Les écouteurs déjà existants pour la traduction simultanée
La fonction dévoilée pour les AirPods est surtout intéressante pour les utilisateurs Apple. La traduction simultanée ne devrait pas avoir de coûts supplémentaires : il suffira de télécharger la mise à jour et de l’activer. Toutefois, sur le marché, il existe déjà des solutions, surtout dans les modèles plus avancés. Des fonctions de traduction simultanée sont déjà actives dans les modèles Samsung Galaxy Buds3 ou Buds3 Pro et également dans les Google Pixel Buds. De plus, si vous cherchez un outil dédié, même s’il n’est pas à un prix économique, il existe également des écouteurs spécifiquement destinés à la traduction comme les Timekettle WT2Edge."
par Cédric P.
15 mars 2025, 19h07
https://www.netcost-security.fr/actualites/246425/apple-sapprete-a-lancer-le-premier-systeme-de-traduction-en-temps-reel-pour-airpods-une-revolution-attendue/
"The global publishing industry is transforming, driven by the new ways people are discovering, consuming and sharing books — from the rise of audiobooks and BookTok to the influence of TV adaptations sparking wider reading trends. In this evolving landscape, Chinese books are becoming an integral part of a new reading culture in the West.
The just-concluded London Book Fair 2025 saw its largest-ever participation from China, drawing strong interest from global publishers. The London Book Fair is one of the major global marketplaces for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across different media.
From "romantasy" web novels to graphic novels and book-to-screen adaptations, Chinese storytelling is capturing the imagination of a new generation of readers. Take The Three-Body Problem, for example. According to Nielsen Book-Scan, the English edition sold nearly 26,000 copies in the United Kingdom in 2024, with almost half of those sales occurring within 10 weeks of the release of the Netflix series. This has made it the best-selling Chinese novel in the UK and significantly boosted Liu Cixin's reputation as a leading international science fiction writer.
But it's not just science fiction making waves. In recent years, Chinese web novels and graphic novels, too, have gained traction among international readers. Major book retailers in the UK such as Waterstones have introduced dedicated sections for different genres of Chinese fiction, reflecting the rising demand for diverse storytelling from China.
The British publishing market is experiencing a fiction boom. According to the UK Publishers Association, fiction sales hit a record £907 million ($1.17 billion) in 2023, with genres like "romantasy", or romance-fantasy, leading the way. These trends have created opportunities for Chinese web novels, which often blend fantasy, romance and adventure — resonating strongly with younger British readers on social media.
Following the inclusion of the first batch of Chinese online literature in 2022, the British Library expanded its Chinese collection last year by adding another 10 online novels by Chinese authors, including Lord of the Mysteries, Soul Land and The Joy of Life.
Besides, Chinese graphic novels are emerging as a powerful new storytelling medium. A major highlight at the London Book Fair this year was the unveiling of the first-ever graphic novel adaptation of The Three-Body Problem by Yilin Press, a literary imprint of Phoenix Publishing and Media Inc. A key moment was the signing of a major international rights deal between Yilin Press and leading French publisher Éditions Glénat. This partnership is set to generate even greater enthusiasm for the project, especially following the global success of Chinese animations such as Ne Zha 2.
The global BookTok phenomenon, in which TikTok creators make videos reviewing, discussing and sharing their opinions about the books they read, has been a game-changer for publishing, and China is no exception. The fusion of literature and social media is engaging young readers in innovative ways, making books more interactive and accessible.
One of the authors riding this wave is Liu Zhenyun, one of China's most celebrated literary figures. Known for his sharp wit and deep social insight, Liu is the author of the award-winning novel Someone to Talk To and the globally acclaimed film I Am Not Madame Bovary. His ability to blend comedy with profound commentary has earned him a devoted readership in China and beyond, with 15 million books sold in China and translations in 30 languages.
But Liu is not just a bestselling author — he is also a digital phenomenon. With over half a million followers on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and nearly 80 million views on viral videos from his comedy series and literary master classes, he is reaching a new generation of fans. His success is part of a broader movement in China, where literature and social media are merging in exciting and unexpected ways.
Liu had a conversation with Jenny Niven, director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and Nicky Harman, a leading British literary translator, at the London Book Fair, with their discussion exploring how Liu's storytelling resonates across cultures and how Chinese literature is shaping the global literary landscape.
But despite Chinese literature marching into foreign lands, challenges remain. The British publishing industry tends to adopt a cautious approach to acquiring new titles — translated fiction accounts for only 5.5 percent of the market. In contrast, in China, translated fiction makes up more than 22 percent of book sales. One Hundred Years of Solitude by the great Gabriel García Márquez, for instance, has sold more than 10 million copies in China in the past decade.
True, the importance of translation cannot be overstated, especially when it comes to Chinese fiction. But as Harman noted, it's not just about translating the language — it's about providing the cultural context to make these stories accessible to British readers.
Over the past few years, Singing Grass has been working to bridge the gap between Chinese and British publishing. We (at Singing Grass) are providing strategic consultancy services for major British publishing houses, such as Penguin Random House Children's Books and Hachette Children's Group, to help them better understand the Chinese market and build strategic partnerships.
With more Chinese books being adapted for film and TV productions, the rise of BookTok in China, and a growing demand for graphic novels in the UK, China's stories are traveling further than ever before. The just-concluded London Book Fair already witnessed the start of a new chapter for Chinese books in the English-speaking world.
The author is founder and CEO of Singing Grass, a UK consultancy focusing on art, culture and publishing."
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202503/15/WS67d4d011a310c240449daf4a.html
"Decline Of Language Programs Threatens Global Communication
Educational institutions face pressures to cut foreign language courses amid advancing technology and budget constraints.
Across the United States, colleges and universities are grappling with the alarming decline of enrollment in foreign language courses, resulting in institutions cutting these programs entirely. This trend occurs amid budget constraints prioritizing funding for more marketable STEM programs, which often overshadow the importance of languages and humanities.
Despite technology’s advancements providing quick translations, the need for proficiency in foreign languages remains significant, echoing louder than ever. A recent commentary by Enrico Pontelli, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University, emphasizes, "Learning a foreign language helps students develop..." important cognitive skills, enhances cultural comprehension, and broadens access to new and diverse information sources. He argues vehemently against diminishing language programs at institutions where they are needed the most.
Interestingly, the enrollment drop reflects broader workforce trends, particularly as sectors like business, international relations, and medicine increasingly demand graduates equipped with foreign language skills. Understanding different cultures enhances communication and collaboration, especially for teams distributed worldwide. Employers recognize this; multilingual candidates can effectively engage with diverse clients, fostering intercultural awareness and problem-solving capabilities. It’s evident: graduates proficient in foreign languages often emerge as more competitive candidates..."
https://evrimagaci.org/tpg/decline-of-language-programs-threatens-global-communication-265063
#metaglossia_mundus
"UNESCO Promotes Multilingual Education in Cameroon on Mother Language Day
During key events hosted by Cameroon’s Ministries of Education, UNESCO highlighted the importance of preserving and promoting mother languages.
Commemoration Ceremony at the Ministry of Basic Education
On Thursday, 6 March 2025, the Ministry of Basic Education hosted the 26th edition of International Mother Language Day, slightly delayed from its official date. Under the theme "Languages Matter," the event highlighted the crucial role of linguistic diversity and multilingual education in Cameroon. UNESCO played a central role in the celebration, emphasizing the importance of preserving and promoting mother languages worldwide. Mr. Ould Saïd, representing UNESCO, delivered the official message from the UNESCO Director-General, reaffirming the organization’s commitment to linguistic diversity as a cornerstone of education and cultural identity.
Commemoration Ceremony at the Ministry of Basic Education
The ceremony marked the culmination of a week-long series of activities aimed at fostering awareness and engagement in multilingual education. This milestone celebration provided an opportunity to reflect on Cameroon’s progress in integrating multilingual education into its national framework. It reinforced the urgency of continued efforts to ensure that linguistic heritage remains a vital part of education, strengthening cultural identity and promoting inclusive learning environments. The event was presided over by Dr. Vivian Asheri Kilo, Secretary of State to the Minister of Basic Education, on behalf of Minister Professor Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa. The occasion brought together a distinguished gathering of officials, educators, and stakeholders in the education sector.
Ministry of Secondary Education 25th Edition of International Mother Language Day
In the dimension of linguistic diversity, UNESCO equally joined the Ministry of Secondary Education and other key stakeholders to celebrate the 25th Edition of International Mother Language Day at the National Museum in Yaoundé. A key highlight of the celebration was the participation of students from various secondary schools in Yaoundé, who showcased their linguistic talents through quizzes, sketches, and poems performed in national languages. These engaging presentations reinforced the importance of promoting multilingualism among Cameroon’s youth. To encourage excellence and inspire more engagement in mother tongue preservation, UNESCO awarded prizes to students who delivered outstanding performances. Presided over by the Inspector-Coordinator General of Letters, Arts, and Languages on behalf of the Minister of Secondary Education Professor Nalova Lyonga, the event brought together high-level representatives from the education sector." #metaglossia_mundus
La Semaine de la francophonie se déroule du 15 au 23 mars. Plus de 320 millions d'habitants parlent français sur la planète. Le sociologue Jean Viard analyse l'évolution de la langue et son pouvoir d'influence.
Article rédigé parBenjamin Fontaine - Jean Viard
Radio France
Publié le 15/03/2025 10:00
Temps de lecture : 3min
La langue française compte plus de 320 millions de locuteurs dans le monde. (PhotoAlto / Anne-Sophie Bost)
Ce samedi 15 mars débute la semaine de la langue française et de la francophonie(Nouvelle fenêtre). Jusqu'au 23 mars des ateliers, conférences, débats sont organisés en France et à l'étranger pour promouvoir la langue française parlée par plus de 320 millions de locuteurs sur cinq continents(Nouvelle fenêtre). Le français est aujourd'hui la cinquième langue la plus répandue dans le monde.
franceinfo : La langue française a été un outil de pouvoir diplomatique et d'influence. Est-ce que ce pouvoir est toujours aussi fort ?
Jean Viard : Il est très difficile de répondre en faisant une généralité. Le développement du français est en grande partie lié à la colonisation. Il y a des pays, notamment en Afrique, où le français est la langue qui rassemble les gens, parce que s'ils ne parlaient pas français entre eux, ils ne se comprendraient pas. Mais il y a aussi des pays comme l'Algérie où le français est en recul, car perçu comme la langue du colonisateur. Le français est aussi une langue de migration. Parler anglais ou français, ça permet de migrer. Les migrants se déplacent le plus possible dans les pays dont ils parlent la langue. Mais le soft power d'une langue dépend aussi de son attractivité, de sa force. Regardez ce qui arrive aux États-Unis en ce moment. La culture américaine qui nous a tant fait rêver repousse un certain nombre d'entre nous. Peut-être que les langues européennes vont connaître un nouvel essor.
franceinfo : Le français a beaucoup évolué, sous l'influence d'autres langues. Est-ce qu'il y a des mouvements dans la société qui ont accéléré ces évolutions ?
Les langues sont vivantes et faites pour être enrichies. Regardez le nombre de mots qui viennent de l'arabe, sans compter tous les nouveaux mots techniques. On peut prendre l'exemple de "frigidaire" et en trouver de nombreux comme cela. La langue est vivante, elle se métisse en permanence.
franceinfo : Certains estiment que ce métissage est un appauvrissement, d'autres diront que c'est une richesse...
Jean Viard : Je pense que c'est plutôt une richesse. Il nous arrive parfois d'utiliser un mot qui vient d'une autre langue parce qu'il apporte une précision à ce que l'on veut dire. Je pense que les langues s'enrichissent mutuellement, mais elles doivent garder leur unicité. Une langue, c'est une vision du monde. C'est une façon d'associer des images, des objets mémoriels, etc. Ca s'appelle une culture. Même la plus petite langue, il faut la préserver. Nous allons de toute façon vers un monde bilingue. Il faut protéger la langue parce que la langue, c'est un costume identitaire et un costume culturel.
franceinfo : Selon les estimations, nous pourrions compter 500 à 800 millions de locuteurs francophones d'ici 2070, grâce à la croissance de l'Afrique...
Jean Viard : Il y aura bientôt deux milliards d'habitants en Afrique et donc tout naturellement le français progresse. Il faut se poser des questions politiques. Quel soin mettons-nous à protéger et diffuser la langue ? Qu'est-ce qu'on fait pour que les étudiants d'Afrique qui viennent dans les universités françaises, etc. La politique d'accueil, notamment des jeunes, est un enjeu majeur pour protéger la puissance de la langue française.
#metaglossia_mundus
"Plenty of researchers already study how to tell if online writing bears the traits of artificial intelligence — but Michael Laudenbach, at NJIT’s Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts, is studying what traits indicate that digital prose was crafted by analog humans. The risk of not knowing the difference is that if instructors and business managers too openly adopt AI writing tools, then children and college students might wrongly learn that AI writing is good writing, Laudenbach said. Even though some people are bad writers, at least what they’re writing is their original thoughts. Laudenbach was working on his doctoral dissertation using corpus linguistics, the study of analyzing large blocks of text, when the generative AI wave washed into universities at the end of 2022. Large language models such as ChatGPT can produce impressive text to a lay person, but Laudenbach was in the right field at the right time to analyze that text in ways nobody else would. “With all of the fervor surrounding LLMs, we as researchers need to pause and consider what kinds of writing choices LLMs make, and what specific stylistic choices we risk showing students without reflecting on them. We don't want students to start picking up on the writing style of LLMs because right now, the research tells us that this looks very different from existing human writing,” he said. “So the big takeaway is, instructors and administrators beware — carefully consider which model you use and for which tasks. We can't let the AI hype cycle dictate how we expose students to these tools. We need a careful, evidence-based plan for writing pedagogy.” Working with colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, “We generated something like 12,000 texts using six different LLMs and compared that to a corpus of human writing. It’s one of the largest collections of American English that a lot of researchers turn to in this field, and we used a long-established framework to tag linguistic features. So 66 linguistic features, everything from pronouns, type-token ratio, adverbs, participial phrases, lots of grammatical and functional categories. And we were basically able to distinguish between LLM-generated and human-generated output with surprising accuracy on a simple model that we trained,” Laundenbach explained. Popular AI-checking applications are made by software developers, not linguists, and their approach is to see if the text is computerized or not. Laudenbach and peers have specialized knowledge of human language, so they’re doing the opposite by checking to see if the text is human or not. They also wondered: could AI satisfactorily evaluate a college student’s writing, as if it’s a teaching assistant or writing center tutor? Can AI be good enough to do more important work than checking for grammar, spelling and sentence structure? “Spoilers: They can't! So far, it looks like they're wildly inconsistent, and even if they weren’t, would we really want AI doing those kinds of tasks?” Laudenbach found. Currently, “If you submit just what the LLM produced, it’s likely not going to be tuned to audience expectations, genre expectations or the rubric that we used in our research. Linguistically, it looks very different. A lot of LLM writing is more noun-heavy and informationally dense.” “LLMs are an extremely useful research tool for writing pedagogy, because we can use them to help highlight a lot of the features of human writing that make it so nuanced and dynamic. So it's not just about saying the LLMs could do this better, it's about asking what actually are we doing in writing? What are the latent linguistic features that we don't notice that distinguish human and machine writing?” “It all comes at a time where I think that the LLMs make a better case for rhetoric and composition education, and a better case for discipline-specific writing classes,” Laudenbach said, “because I think in order to be able to evaluate the output, you have to have that knowledge to begin with.”"
"Today is World Speech Day, a day where we are called upon to embrace public speaking opportunities. Unfortunately, this call to action is unlikely to be widely embraced given that the majority of people are affected by speech anxiety and the fear of public speaking. Fortunately, however, there is now a free and highly effective solution.
At Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, researchers are using emerging digital technology to enrich and accelerate learning. Their Immersive Technology Lab received a national innovation award for a project that uses VR to better translate and visualise emissions data. Today, they are launching a free online platform where users transform into skilled and confident public speakers. On the platform, tailored course material develops key skills and life-like virtual reality training environments build confidence.
Lab Director and platform founder, Dr. Chris Macdonald, explains, "In physical reality, a user might be practising a presentation alone in their bedroom but on the new virtual reality platform, they can experience the sensation of presenting to a wide range of increasingly challenging photorealistic audiences."
Impact at scale:
By developing a method that converts smartphones into VR headsets, Dr. Macdonald has made sure that the platform is accessible to all. For reference, only 5% of UK households have a VR headset but 99% have smartphones. And while VR headsets can cost thousands, a device mount (pictured below) costs around £15. A device mount could be thought of as a low-cost 'conversion kit' that transforms a user's smartphone into a functional VR headset. Importantly, the platform has been built in such a way that whether a participant is using the latest standalone VR headset or an old smartphone inserted into a device mount, they will get the same content and the same experience.
Impact at speed:
As recently revealed in the academic journal, Frontiers, the platform has been clinically proven to significantly increase levels of confidence for most users after a single 30-minute session. And, in the most recent trial with students from Cambridge and UCL, it was found that a week of self-guided use was beneficial to 100% of participants; the platform helped all users in one or more of the following ways: to feel more prepared, more adaptable, more resilient, more confident, to be better able to manage nerves, and to feel less anxious. Further findings will be revealed at the upcoming International Conference on Research in Psychology at Oxford.
User-centric design:
A user-centric iterative process ensured that the platform would work 'in the wild'. In between each rebuild thus far, the platform has hosted over 50,000 practice presentations from remote beta users. To further stress test the software and hardware, in-person events were organised, one of which involved over 1000 members of the public using the platform in suboptimal conditions in a demo room in Cambridge. To further expand and deepen the participant pool, the lab went on tour. This included stops at the largest science and technology events such as New Scientist Live as well as less formal settings such as a local market, library, community centre, church, and even someone's living room.
Dr. Macdonald says, "I wanted to build something that is not only highly effective but that can and will be used by those who need it the most. As a result, it was essential to gather diverse user feedback from a variety of settings. The lab cannot develop in a silo, it needs to work closely with end users. Through constant public engagement, we can maximise our positive impact and ensure that we remain deeply grounded in public service."
World firsts:
Multiple firsts were achieved to make the platform uniquely accessible and effective.
To increase accessibility, it was essential that the platform worked on both Android and iOS operating systems. To achieve this, a first-of-its-kind, dual-compatible VR player was created. As a result, not only is this the first time that this treatment is available for free worldwide, but it is also the first time it is accessible via multiple devices and multiple operating systems. In short, many firsts were completed to achieve impact at scale.
The efficacy is increased with Overexposure Therapy (the ability to repeatedly practice in extreme scenarios that one is unlikely to encounter in real life, such as hyper-distracting stadiums—a concept Dr. Macdonald pioneered). It provides the psychological equivalent of running with weights or at high altitudes; it builds extra adaptability, grit, and resilience.
Dr. Macdonald explains, "Prior to a presentation, most students tend to practice on their own, in a highly-controlled environment—normally in their bedrooms to an 'audience' of zero. As a result, it will feel like a significant 'step up' when they present to even a small group of people—and even a subtle audience gesture can throw them off. By contrast, students who use the VR platform can practice in a different venue every night to a wide range of highly distracting audiences and fear-inducing scenarios. They can, for example, practice in a stadium in front of 10,000 animated spectators, with loud noises, stadium lights, and flashing cameras. Accordingly, a subsequent presentation to a small group can feel like a significant 'step down'. The data shows that this process not only increases confidence, adaptability, and resilience but also the enjoyment of public speaking. Students are enjoying the challenge of pushing themselves and progressing to each new level. This increased enjoyment is highly encouraging because we know that fear and anxiety are maintained or worsened through avoidance."
"In addition to the range of presentation-style audiences, the platform also provides more specialised environments and challenges, such as reading a teleprompter in a virtual TV studio or responding to questions in a job or radio interview. To offer additional support on perfecting your scripts, I built and embedded an AI coach. And beyond the main platform that is now freely available via a dedicated website, I have created licensing plans and an app for healthcare providers. I am also collaborating with organisations that seek to support specific groups such as children who stammer; the goal is to create more targeted treatment options for those who need it the most."
"Speech anxiety and the fear of public speaking impact most people, and it is becoming increasingly more common over time. This is concerning because we know that it is detrimental to mental health, physical health, academic attainment, and career progression. Therefore, the problem is prevalent, it is getting worse, it is causing harm, and ultimately, it is capping human potential. However, this no longer needs to be the case. If you or anyone you know would like to become a skilled and confident public speaker, there is now an effective and accessible solution—please do make use of it."
"It is very promising to see how effective the platform is given that we already know ways to make it even more effective. However, to continue its development, expand it long-term, and launch additional features and platforms, we need funding. Therefore, I encourage philanthropists and sponsors to reach out. We are data-driven and uniquely committed to impact at scale. With the right funding, together, we could transform millions of lives."
"The platform has immense potential to empower individuals to overcome their fear of public speaking, ultimately enhancing not only their quality of life but also their capacity to become a driving force of positive change in the world."
"I set out with a simple but ambitious mission: make the most effective treatment for the most common fear and make it freely accessible to all. Today, with the launch of the free platform, I believe I have achieved that. Please do use it. It will transform your life and greatly expand your opportunities."..."
https://sciencex.com/wire-news/503478061/cambridge-scientist-launches-free-vr-platform-that-eliminates-th.html
#metaglossia_mundus
"Japanese poet and translator of Han Kang's "We Do Not Part" (2021), Saito Mariko, received the Yomiuri Prize for Literature, announced the Literature Translation Institute of Korea on Thursday.
She won in the Research and Translation category, one of the six permanent sections of the award,
Established by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in 1948, the Yomiuri Prize is considered one of the most prestigious Japanese literary prizes. This year marked the event's 76th ceremony, and it celebrated books published in Japan between November 2023 and November 2024.
Born in 1960 in Niigata, Japan, Saito began studying Korean while participating in a Korea-Japan student group during her archaeology studies at Meiji University’s Department of History. In 1991, she came to Seoul to study abroad at Yonsei University and Ewha Womans University’s language institutes. In 1993, she published "Entry," a poetry collection written in Korean without translation.
Other Korean books that she has translated into Japanese include "The Dwarf" (1978) by Cho Se-hui, "Castella" (2005) by Park Min-gyu and "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982" (2016) by Cho Nam-ju."
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-03-14/culture/books/Japanese-translator-of-Han-Kangs-We-Do-Not-Part-wins-Yomiuri-Prize-for-Literature/2262102
#metaglossia_mundus
"Pour saisir la situation linguistique au Canada, il faut connaître la distinction entre « bilinguisme » et « diglossie ».
Au Canada, sur le plan politique, c’est de diglossie qu’il s’agit et non de bilinguisme.
Il y a diglossie quand deux langues coexistent (qui peuvent être “officielles”, même performatrices) dont l’une est celle du dominant et l’autre celle des dominés. La première est celle des lieux de pouvoir (politique, économique, culturel) dans la société globale ; la deuxième est la langue domestique de la minorité dominée, utilisée dans la communauté minoritaire, qui peut entretenir un folklore local, mais qui cesse d’être en usage dès lors qu’on tombe dans la sphère où s’exerce le pouvoir du groupe dominant.
Dans Qu’est-ce qu’une nation ? (2020, p. 245), Pascal Ory affirme qu’« avant la submersion nationale, la diglossie règne ». Tout ça n’est pas très rassurant pour la suite du français au Canada, mais on persiste à croire au bilinguisme institutionnel canadien sans vouloir voir ce qu’il cache."
https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/lettres/854749/bilinguisme-ou-diglossie
#metaglossia_mundus : cf. metaglossia/métaglossie
AI dubbing company Dubformer has secured £2.78 million ($3.6 million) in seed funding to continue developing its proprietary technology aimed at improving how dubbed content is created and distributed. The round was led by Almaz Capital, with participation from s16vc, FinSight, and several angel investors including Arul Menezes, founder of Microsoft Translator, and Funa Maduka, former head of international original film at Netflix.
"AI dubbing company Dubformer has secured £2.78 million ($3.6 million) in seed funding to continue developing its proprietary technology aimed at improving how dubbed content is created and distributed. The round was led by Almaz Capital, with participation from s16vc, FinSight, and several angel investors including Arul Menezes, founder of Microsoft Translator, and Funa Maduka, former head of international original film at Netflix.
The funding comes just months after Dubformer introduced its Emotion Transfer technology, a system designed to replicate not only the words of a speaker but also the emotional tone—capturing pitch, speed, and volume. Unlike voice cloning or traditional pre-recorded dubbing methods, this AI-driven approach aims to create more natural-sounding localized content. The technology is accessible via both a platform interface and API, offering flexibility for media companies integrating dubbing into their workflows.
Dubformer currently works with over 200 clients across Europe and the United States, including media groups such as Paramount, Little Dot Studios, and Mainstream Media. The company has also established partnerships with Voxx in Los Angeles, Presto in the Czech Republic, and Gobavo in Turkey, as part of its broader strategy to support international content distribution.
Founder and CEO Anton Dvorkovich commented on the company’s direction, stating that Dubformer is “committed to driving the industry forward by addressing its key challenges.” He emphasized that the technology enables media companies to reach wider audiences while reducing localization costs, all “without compromising viewer satisfaction.”
With the latest investment, Dubformer plans to accelerate the development of its dubbing infrastructure and strengthen its position in the global market. As AI continues to reshape the media localization process, the company is focusing on enhancing the emotional authenticity of dubbed content, an area that remains a significant concern for content producers and distributors aiming to maintain the original impact of their media across languages and cultures..."
https://n24.com.tr/en/dubformer-secures-278m-to-expand-ai-dubbing-technology
#metaglossia_mundus
Application Deadline: Unspecified Applications are now open for the 2025/2026 Google Africa Travel and Conference Grant. Google believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to pursue connections in the industry, networking with peers, and a career path in technology. To help break down the barriers that prevent underrepresented groups in technology and business from attending leading conferences, we’re excited to offer Google Conference Scholarships for selected conferences in the tech industry and related fields. Eligibility To be eligible for a scholarship to attend an international conference, applicants must: - Be a full-time student enrolled with a recognized university in Africa who is in need of conference travel funds.
- Have a paper accepted at a top-tier computer science conference. We prefer to support conferences in research areas where Google has a strong interest. Please visit research.google.com for a list of areas.
- Be the sole or joint first author of the accepted paper.
- Google employees are not eligible to apply for Google scholarships. Persons who are (1) residents of embargoed countries, (2) ordinarily resident in embargoed countries, or (3) otherwise prohibited by applicable export controls and sanctions programs may not apply for this scholarship.
To apply Please submit this form by the deadline for the conference that you wish to attend. **Given the shift to virtual mode for conferences, we are currently accepting applications to cover conference fees. For More Information: Visit the Official Webpage of the Google Africa Travel and Conference Grant #metaglossia_mundus
"Google announced it will make its Deep Research feature available to all users for free on a limited basis, while introducing several updates to Gemini. With this rollout, Gemini is now equipped with enhanced reasoning capabilities, personalization features, and expanded app connectivity. Free Access with Limitations Google’s Deep Research tool, which processes information from multiple websites and documents, will now be accessible to non-paying users “a few times a month.” Gemini Advanced subscribers will continue to have more extensive access to the feature. The company describes Deep Research as an AI research assistant that searches and synthesizes web information. Google reports the feature has been updated with its Flash Thinking 2.0 model, which displays its reasoning process while browsing. Google stated in its announcement: “Gemini users can try Deep Research a few times a month at no cost, and Gemini Advanced users get expanded access to Deep Research.” The feature is rolling out in more than 45 languages. Model Updates The Flash Thinking 2.0 model has been updated to include file upload capabilities and faster processing speeds. For paid subscribers, the system now processes up to 1 million tokens in a context window. Dave Citron, Senior Director of Product Management for the Gemini app, stated in the announcement that the updated model is “trained to break down prompts into a series of steps to strengthen its reasoning capabilities.” Testing has shown the system can still make errors in both analysis and conclusions, the company acknowledged. Additional Features Google also announced a new experimental personalization feature that connects with users’ Google apps and services. The feature uses data from search history to provide tailored responses to queries such as restaurant recommendations. See: Google Search History Can Now Power Gemini AI Answers Additional app integrations now include Calendar, Notes, Tasks, and Photos, allowing users to make requests involving multiple applications. Google Photos integration is planned for the coming weeks. Lastly, announced that its Gems feature, which lets users create customized AI assistants for specific topics, is now available to all users at no cost. These updates are available now at gemini.google.com." https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-opens-gemini-deep-research-to-free-users-with-limits/542022/
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"... Communication in the animal kingdom is complex. But with all of these unique ways to communicate, is it possible for an animal to learn the "language" of another species?...
First off, it's important to note that, although "language" is a useful metaphor when we're thinking about one species understanding another, animals don't actually have languages in the way humans do...
When it comes to picking up on sounds from other species, birds are one of the best-studied animals. One study on songbird migration suggested that solitary birds could understand the calls of other bird species on their migration pathway, perhaps helping them to stay safe and navigate the long journey...
The research dispels the notion that songbird migration is a lonely journey, as was once thought. However, their data still isn't able to decode exactly what the birds are "saying."
"It's logical to wonder if there are social connections among species," Van Doren said. "I think these calls could contain more information than we currently understand."
But learning a "language" is about more than just understanding what you hear; it's about being able to speak it, too. That's where the fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis) — a small, black bird found across Africa — excels.
Drongos have a habit of following other animals around in the hope of stealing some of their food. Thomas Flower, a biology instructor at Capilano University in Canada, studied these birds in the field as they followed a mob of meerkats. He found that the drongos would use their own alarm calls — a squawk that indicates a predator is approaching — to scare the meerkats into their holes, allowing the drongos to swoop in and grab any food scraps.
But that strategy eventually leads to a "boy who cried wolf" situation, Flower said. The meerkats realize the drongo-specific alarm calls are a ruse, so they stop dropping their food and hiding when they hear one.
This is where the drongos' special talents come in. Fork-tailed drongos not only recognize the warning calls of the other animals around them, but they also learn to replicate those calls to their own advantage. When the birds realize their own alarm call is no longer working, they start mimicking the alarm calls of other birds — or even replicating the meerkats' own alarm call. By regularly swapping out alarm calls from different species, the drongos keep the meerkats on edge and keep the food flowing...
Flower said he still hasn't seen evidence that young drongos understand that they're deceiving other animals when they start mimicking alarm calls. But he pointed out that young humans also repeat noises they don't understand and eventually learn meaning through trial and error. For now, drongos do show some of the hallmarks of "language" learning, but much remains a mystery."
By Marilyn Perkins
Content Manager
https://www.livescience.com/animals/can-animals-learn-another-species-language