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"Translators’ Voices: China's diplomatic philosophy paves ‘road of hope’ for people of two nations, says former advisor to Cambodian Senate
By Hu Yuwei
Published: Apr 20, 2025 11:19 PM
Editor's Note:
"At present, China's relations with its neighboring countries are at their best in modern times, and are also entering a critical phase of deep linkage between the regional landscape and the world changes" — the recent Central Conference on Work Related to Neighboring Countries held in Beijing made such a profound judgment. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia from April 14 to 18, highlighting the guiding role of head-of-state diplomacy in neighborhood relations. In the first volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, President Xi emphasized that China's basic policy of diplomacy with neighboring countries is characterized by "amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness."
In the third installment of the "Decoding the Book of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" series, the Global Times continues to invite Chinese and international scholars, translators of the work, practitioners of its concepts, and overseas readers to share their insights, understandings and reflections on the ideas of China's neighborhood diplomacy, which emphasizes amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, China's advocacy for building a community with a shared future with neighboring countries as well as its vision of creating a peaceful, safe and secure, prosperous, beautiful and amicable home.
In the third installment of "Translator's Voices" column comprised of interviews with translators of the book series from various countries, GT reporter Hu Yuwei talked to Dr Chea Munyrith (Chea), president of the Cambodian Chinese Evolution Researcher Association and the former advisor to Cambodia's Senate, who shared how China's diplomatic philosophy inspires him to convey President Xi's wisdom to the Cambodian people.
Dr Chea Munyrith works on the translation of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China. Photo: Courtesy of Chea
GT: Thank you for accepting the interview with the Global Times on decoding the book of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China. In a previous interview, you mentioned that you first read the book in a library in Beijing in 2014. Could you still recall the moment? What inspired you to translate the book?
Chea: In December 2014, as the Cambodian Director of the Confucius Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, I attended the Confucius Institute Annual Conference in Beijing. During that time, I came across the English version of the book. One article titled "Work Together to Build the Silk Road Economic Belt" deeply impressed me. The article states, "We should expand regional cooperation with a more open mind and broader vision, and achieve joint progress." Through the article, I understand that China is a major power which has always stood with developing countries. This becomes a driving force for my motivation to translate this great book and share the Chinese leader's wisdom with the Cambodian people.
Therefore, upon returning home, I immediately recommended this book to the office of the Cabinet of Cambodia. The Royal Academy of Cambodia also attached great importance to it by establishing a translation working committee for the translation and promotion of the book in Khmer. I was fortunate to be involved in this effort.
GT: You have served as the Cambodian Director of the Confucius Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia for eight years and are a well-known China expert. You once described the book of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China as "a golden key to understanding China's development." How do you interpret the "Oriental Wisdom" embedded in China's neighborhood diplomacy? How is the wisdom manifested in China-Cambodian exchanges?
Chea: Peaceful diplomacy and opportunities for countries to stand shoulder to shoulder, standing on equality and win-win cooperation are the Chinese philosophy and the wisdom of President Xi.
I believe China's neighborhood diplomacy philosophy profoundly embodies the "Oriental Wisdom" of "harmonious coexistence." It is mainly reflected in three dimensions.
First is building a new form of international relations with the civilizational ethos of "being kind to your neighbor." China's diplomacy has always adhered to the principle of "forging friendship and partnership with our neighbors," which stems from the traditional worldview of "promoting harmony among all nations."
Second is deepening practical cooperation with the advocacy of "valuing both righteousness and interests in shaping international relations." In China-Cambodia cooperation, there are not only "hard connectivity" projects like the Chinese-invested Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, but also "soft connectivity" achievements in education, healthcare, and poverty reduction.
Third is guiding regional governance with the global sentiment of "a shared future. From the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism to the building of an all-weather China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era, China has consistently practiced the "Oriental Wisdom": if you yourself desire rank and standing, then help others to get rank and standing.
GT: President Xi pointed out in the first issue of the book series that "China's basic policy of diplomacy with neighboring countries is to treat them as friends and partners, to foster an amicable, secure, and prosperous neighboring environment. This policy is characterized by amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness." You said that you carefully deliberated over the phrase "amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness" during translation. How did you understand these four principles at the time? And how did you employ language to help Cambodian readers genuinely comprehend the wisdom behind China's diplomatic concept?
Chea: China's diplomacy adheres to building relations with neighboring countries based on amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness. Through translating the book series and reading Xi's important speeches, I have come to understand the meaning of these four words more clearly and translated them into Khmer to share with Cambodians.
Amity involves good-neighborly interactions, mutual support and assistance, and frequent reciprocal visits, and is informed by equality, cultural affinity, and empathy. China contributes to stronger ties, and enhances the appeal of Cambodia and our region as a whole and its impact on world affairs.
Sincerity is required in working with our neighbors. Both China and Cambodia, as well as the world as a whole need more friends and partners.
Mutual benefit is the foundation on which China cooperates with its neighbors. China helps strengthen networks for Cambodia and those who share common interests, and enables China and Cambodia, as well as China's other neighbors to benefit from each other as they pursue their development strategies.
Inclusiveness is indispensable to regional cooperation. Underpinned by the belief that the Asia-Pacific region is large enough to accommodate us all, it encourages open-mindedness as China works more proactively with the whole world toward shared goals.
To ensure translation quality, the Royal Academy of Cambodia specially established an expert review panel comprising eight senior sinologists to rigorously examine the translated text. The translation process lasted six months, with three months dedicated to translation and another three months to proofreading.
During this process, I felt particularly connected to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu's famous quote that President Xi cited in the book: "Governing a big country is as delicate as frying a small fish." Cambodia has been profoundly influenced by Chinese philosophy and culture, particularly the teachings of Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Mencius. The literal meaning — that governing a nation is like frying a small fish in a pan — makes its profound wisdom immediately comprehensible to Cambodian readers."
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202504/1332502.shtml
#metaglossia_mundus
Translator Bui Xuan Linh shares his thoughts on Shakespeare and literature, focusing on the needs of Vietnamese readers.
"Shakespeare translator Bui Xuan Linh: “Taking the reader as the centre helps visualise what the reader expects”
By Trịnh Nam Trân
Apr 20, 2025
In the warm, understated setting of the Saturday Café Văn Hóa Salon, translator Bui Xuan Linh—soft-spoken and unassuming—shares his reflections on Shakespeare: the man, his world, and the enduring richness he gifted to literary tradition.
Most of those attending that day had only encountered Shakespeare in passing, and yet they felt deeply moved by the translator’s own reverence—he who had pioneered the ambitious Shakespeare Bookcase project. At the time, few in the audience knew how the journey began, or how demanding it had been. Only at the conclusion of the launch did fragments of that story emerge, not from Linh himself, but through the words of the salon’s host, musician Duong Thu. With heartfelt candour, the musician revealed that Bui Xuan Linh had not only undertaken the translations, but had poured in personal time, energy and resources—travelling to England, the United States, and beyond—to collect materials and acquire original works in service of his vision for the Shakespeare Bookcase.
He contributed far beyond the translations, developing concepts, refining layouts, and overseeing the publication and distribution of Shakespeare’s plays for general readership. Alongside this was the painstaking translation of three substantial works of Shakespearean scholarship: William Shakespeare: Life and Works by Lois Potter, Shakespeare’s Comedies by Alexander Leggatt, and Shakespeare’s Tragedy by Claire McEachern.
In those final moments of an already brief gathering, as musician Duong Thu spoke of admiration and trust, Bui Xuan Linh remained quietly composed—treating it all, perhaps, as no more than a responsibility he was destined to shoulder. A path he was called to walk, without question or hesitation.
A journey from first thoughts, through years of research and realisation—two decades in the making.
A journey sparked when a fifteen-year-old boy stumbled across a passage from Macbeth in an English textbook. Now, years on, that spark has blossomed into something luminous: a Shakespeare for all time.
ABOVE A journey from first thoughts, through years of research and realisation—two decades in the making. Photo: Tatler Vietnam
Before the Shakespeare Bookcase came to be, had the works of the great poet ever been systematically translated or introduced in Vietnam, sir?
There had been earlier translations of Shakespeare’s plays, albeit not in great number, both in the North and the South. In the South, a few versions by Bui Giang were available, though to my mind, his personal imprint overwhelmed much of Shakespeare’s original artistry.
In the North, there was a more structured approach. At the time—when the country remained divided—Northern intellectuals were trained under the Soviet model, which meant deep engagement with the classics, especially Shakespeare. Scholars from the Northern Institute of Literature translated around a dozen plays with care and rigour. Yet, more than seventy years have passed since then, and those works are now scattered and lack coherence.
In 2000, the Hanoi Theatre Publishing House compiled and published two volumes—tragedies and comedies. It could be seen as a complete edition of sorts. However, the language felt outdated, the word choices and expressions difficult to follow. And those efforts focused solely on the plays; there were almost no translations of the wider body of academic and critical work—biographies, essays on Shakespeare’s artistic style, or in-depth studies.
I once came across such a book, though it was a translation of a Soviet edition, offering a rigid, ideologically framed view of Shakespeare. Published in 1976, it is likely no longer in circulation."
https://www.tatlerasia.com/power-purpose/impact/translator-bui-xuan-linh-william-shakespeare-en
#metaglossia_mundus
"Meta-owned popular messaging platform, WhatsApp, is now reportedly testing a new ‘message translation’ feature in its Android beta version 2.25.12.25. As the name suggests, this feature enables users to translate chat messages and channel updates directly within the app, according to a report by WABetaInfo.
It clearly aims to enhance cross-language communication while maintaining user privacy. Speaking of the working process, translations are processed locally on the user’s device, ensuring that message data is not sent to external servers.
To use this feature, users must download specific language packs – supported languages currently include Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese (Brazil), Hindi, and Russian. Even an optional language pack is also available for automatic detection of the message language, which is particularly useful in multilingual group chats.
Interestingly, users can activate the translation feature on a per-chat basis through the chat settings, allowing for automatic translation of incoming messages. Alternatively, individual messages can be translated manually by selecting the ‘Translate’ option.
However, since translations are handled on-device, they may not always match the accuracy of cloud-based services. But at the same time, this method ensures that end-to-end encryption is preserved, and user data remains confidential. This becomes significant considering earlier this year, the social media giant added a memory feature to its AI assistant – ‘Meta AI’. This feature enables the AI assistant to remember certain details that users share with it during one-on-one chats on WhatsApp and Messenger.
The platform also gives users the option to provide feedback on translations to help improve the feature, but no message content is shared with Meta unless explicitly submitted by the user. In terms of availability, the translation feature is gradually rolling out to beta testers and is expected to become available to all users after the testing phase completes.
The latest move is noteworthy as WhatsApp’s global user base has reached around 2.5 billion active users, with projections indicating a rise to 3.14 billion by the end of 2025. Also, India remains the largest market, with over 535.8 million users.
Meanwhile, the development comes at a time when the social media powerhouse is undergoing major regulatory challenges. Actually, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated a historic antitrust trial against Meta, aiming to compel the divestiture of WhatsApp and Instagram. The FTC contends that Meta’s acquisitions of these platforms were strategic moves to eliminate competition and establish a monopoly in the personal social networking market."
https://thetechportal.com/2025/04/20/whatsapp-begins-testing-in-app-message-translation-in-latest-beta-report/
#metaglossia_mundus
People in Michigan, Texas, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. contemplate President Trump's executive order establishing English as the official language of the United States.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6371562745112
#metaglossia_mundus
Elizabeth Mirabal, third-year Spanish Ph.D student at the University, wrote “Herbarium” as a 205 page collection of free verse poems about the flora of Cuba. Two years ago, “Herbarium” was translated by a group of six undergraduate students in Professor Nieves Garcia Prados’ class, SPAN 4040, “Translation from Spanish to English.”
"
The origin, translation and publication of Elizabeth Mirabal’s “Herbarium”
A group of six University undergraduates translated the free verse poetry collection, opening a window in to Cuba’s diverse plant life
Herbariums, a practice dating back to 15th century Italy, are collections of botanical specimens that are dried and pressed onto paper for scientific study.
Courtesy UVA Casa Bolivar
By Ty Lolak
April 20, 2025
Publishing house Valparaíso Editions’ newest poetry publication, “Herbarium” was written by Elizabeth Mirabal, third-year Spanish Ph.D student at the University. Originally from Havana, Cuba, Mirabal wrote “Herbarium” as a 205 page collection of free verse poems about the flora of Cuba.
Two years ago, “Herbarium” was translated by a group of six undergraduate students in Professor Nieves Garcia Prados’ class, SPAN 4040, “Translation from Spanish to English.” The English edition was published in November 2024 and presented to the public last month at an event in collaboration with the University’’s Sigma Delta Pi chapter, a national Spanish language honor society.
Herbariums, a practice dating back to 15th century Italy, are collections of botanical specimens that are dried and pressed onto paper for scientific study. Mirabal’s “Herbarium” does not contain physical plants but rather poems, all of which relate somehow to the vegetation of her home country in contexts ranging from the medicinal to the culinary to the purely aesthetic.
“My grandmother and my aunt, they used to have this garden in my house, but I have been living in the U.S. for 10 years. I have been far away from those plants,” Mirabal said. “Because I cannot have the plants of my homeland near me, I decided to write a book with all the memories that I have about the plants in my life.”
Mirabal describes the book as being made up of memories characterized by plants of her youth in Cuba and vignettes from the perspective of past writers with connections to Cuba. This blend of Mirabel’s personal nostalgia for Cuba and its herbage, as well as similar reflections from writers that preceded her, allowed her to fully embrace the complex emotions that memory can elicit.
“I think the book is written around nostalgia, and nostalgia is like a bittersweet feeling,” Mirabal said. “If we think in the origin of the word, ‘nostos algia’, ‘nostos’ is’ place’, and ‘algia’ is’ pain’, and it's a pain for a place that you cannot be anymore.”
The book features tones both sad and humorful, and the poems themselves range in length from a single sentence to paragraphs. This decision, according to Mirabel, allows for readers to flip back and forth between pages on their own accord and approach the book with total freedom when reading.
The process of translating the book started a little over two years ago in Garcia Prados’ translation class. A normal final project in SPAN 4040 consists of translating four or five poems or pages of a novel as part of the class’s coursework. According to Bliss Bodawala, student translator and fourth-year College student, Garcia Prados typically selects several students to work on a special translation project. This time, however, Garcia Prados met with Gordon McNeer, director of Valparaíso Editions and professor at the University of North Georgia, who agreed to publish some poetry that had never been translated into English. After Garcia Prados proposed a few different projects, the two settled on “Herbarium” as the work to be translated.
“This book has some cultural references that we talk about in the translation class, how to translate very specific cultural references [of] plants, plants, trees, and she used the colloquial term of the plants,” Garcia Prados said. “So how can you translate that into English? I thought that it could be very interesting to see [what] would be the solution for that.”
After Garcia Prados’ conversations with McNeer, students now had an opportunity to be selected to do a professional translation for the publishing house. Students in the class submitted their translations of the poems, and in the end, a group of six were selected off of the quality of their samples to translate “Herbarium” — Bodawala, Class of 2023 Alumna Leah Baetcke and fourth-year College students Mitchell Francis, Amelia Pearson, Ben Riley and Thomas Tayman.
Bodawala said that the process of translating poetry is complex, as poems often contain literary devices and a rhythm specific to its original language, so translators must find a delicate balance between word-for-word translation and capturing the spirit of the original text. Trying to find this balance was Bodawala’s central focus in her translation of “Herbarium”.
“One of the hardest parts is to find that fine line in between literal translation and completely figurative and poetic translation, because you don't want to distort what the author's original message is,” Bodawala said. “So what I would try and do is translate the feeling of it, and then again, incorporate that feeling into the English version.”
When asked about the most challenging factor in the translation process, Mirabal and Garcia Prados pointed to the balance between literal and poetic translation. Mirabal’s description of Cuban flora often uses the colloquial terms for the plants, rather than the scientific names. According to Bodawala, identifying what plants Mirabal refers to in some of her poems was a major difficulty in this balancing act. Still, the choice to use the colloquial names was an intentional one, and the translators worked hard to maintain the nostalgic feeling that comes with them when translating.
“We had to find botany books just to understand which plants were which so we could have an accurate translation of them,” Bodawala said. “We were also trying to avoid using the scientific names, because the scientific names kind of take certain emotions out of the feelings that are associated with such plants, like poison ivy.”
For Mirabal, having her work translated means a continuation of the literary connection between the United States and Cuba. She cited examples from American novelist Ernest Hemingway, who spent much of the last part of his life in Havana, to José Martí, a Cuban writer and national hero who helped unite Cubans in the United States.
“It's always a joy of inspiration and sometimes also a sort of comfort, because even when I am alone, I feel that the spirits of the writers that used to live and write and think and feel here are with me, and they are part of my tradition,” Mirabal said. “I am not alone.”
The last 60 years of damaged relations between the United States and Cuba has led to a lack of cultural exchange and common ground between the two countries, Mirabal said. However, with Mirabal’s “Herbarium” and the students’ translation of it, a window into Cuba and its diverse plant life tied so deeply to Mirabel, is opened for Americans to experience.
“If you are not translating, you are not showing the world of the people who are writing, of the authors,” Garcia Prados said. “If you are translating a work in another language, you are opening possibilities, opening windows and you are showing the culture of the author.”"
https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/04/the-origin-translation-and-publication-of-elizabeth-mirabals-herbarium
#metaglossia_mundus
Explaining some of the football finance terms you're likely to see most often in the modern game
"The Athletic has appointed Chris Weatherspoon as its first dedicated football finance writer. Chris is a chartered accountant who will be using his professional acumen as The BookKeeper to explore the money behind the game. He is starting with a series this week analysing the financial health of some of the Premier League’s biggest clubs.
You can learn more about Chris and pitch him your ideas here, and read his first articles exploring the books at Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.
One of The Athletic’s ambitions in hiring Chris is to help every football fan understand as clearly as possible the financial complexities of the modern game. To help with that, the BookKeeper’s glossary is here to explain some of the terms you’re likely to see most often. Let us know any you would like us to add.
Agent fees
Costs incurred by clubs through use of intermediaries, generally in the buying and selling of players and the signing of contract extensions.
Agent fees are not included in club wage bills and instead form part of a club’s player and football staff registration figure (see: ‘Squad cost’) in the accounts of UK-based clubs (different treatments are applied elsewhere).
Allowable expenditure
Usually used in the context of Profit and Sustainability Rules (see: ‘PSR’), these are deemed ‘good’ expenditure by governing bodies and are deductible from a club’s pre-tax result in arriving at a PSR profit or loss figure.
See also: ‘Deductions’.
Amortisation
Similar to depreciation, comprises the writing down of asset values across their useful life, specifically in relation to intangible assets (under which player registration costs fall).
For football clubs, this primarily relates to player registration costs (see: ‘Player amortisation’), though clubs do often hold other intangible assets too.
Arm’s length
A transaction in which the buying and selling parties act independently of one another, with neither party influencing the other.
Balance sheet
A statement of a club’s assets, liabilities and capital at a given date (see ‘Period end’ and ‘Year end’).
Break cost
The expenditure incurred by a club repaying borrowing facilities before the agreed term date, ostensibly to compensate lenders for lost future interest payments.
Capex
Shortened version of capital expenditure, often used interchangeably with capital investment or fixed asset investment. Comprises spend on infrastructure and facilities (e.g. stadium builds, training ground improvements).
Note: a club’s capital expenditure per its balance sheet can differ from the amounts paid out in cash per the cash-flow statement. Unless otherwise stated, we will refer to the latter.
Deductions
See: ‘Allowable expenditure’.
Depreciation
Comprises the writing down of fixed asset values across their useful life.
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Exceptional item(s)
One-off, non-recurring items that are separated in a club’s profit or loss statement to identify them as unusual transactions (e.g. owner loan write-offs).
Note: club treatment here is inconsistent.
Equity injection
Cash funding in the form of purchasing new shares — i.e. not debt/loan funding — and increasing a club’s capital.
Football net debt
A club’s gross financial debt minus its cash and cash equivalents balance, plus or minus its net transfer balance.
Free Cash Flow (FCF)
A measure determining a club’s cash generation after capital expenditures required to maintain a club’s asset base.
There are varying FCF definitions – The Athletic’s use of FCF comprises a club’s operating cash flow, less cash expense on capital items including infrastructure and player purchases, plus cash receipts on fixed asset or player sales, plus or minus net cash interest payments.
Headroom
Usually used in the context of Profit and Sustainability Rules (see: ‘PSR’), this term is used to refer to how much extra money a club could lose without breaching their respective loss limit.
In almost all cases, PSR headroom in our articles is an estimate.
Impairment
Most often used by clubs in respect of player registration amounts. Comprises a reduction in the value of an asset, based upon a change in circumstances and carried out to ensure an asset value is not higher than the amount said club could reasonably expect to recover from it in an arm’s-length transaction.
Leveraged buyout (LBO)
The acquisition of a club using primarily borrowed money, with the assets of that company (the ‘target’) used as collateral against the borrowed money.
Net debt
A club’s gross financial debt minus its cash and cash equivalents balance.
Net profit or loss
Another name for pre-tax profit or loss.
Net spend
Comprises a club’s gross spend on player additions per their balance sheet, less gross player sales per their balance sheet and profit on player sales.
Net transfer balance
The net amount a club is owed from, or owes to, other clubs in respect of outstanding transfer fee payments.
See also: ‘Transfer creditors/payables’ and ‘Transfer debtors/receivables’.
Operating profit or loss
A club’s financial result before the impact of player sales, any ‘Exceptional item(s)’, or the impact of net interest costs or tax.
Period end
Sometimes used interchangeably with ‘Year end’, though the two are not always synonymous. Clubs occasionally shorten or lengthen their accounting end dates, meaning the most recently published financials might not cover a 12-month period.
Player amortisation
Comprises the writing down of player registration costs over the length of that player’s contract.
For example: Player A signs for Club X for £50million on a five-year contract. The annual hit to Club X’s profit or loss statement is £10m, being initial cost of £50m divided by five years.
Private equity
Medium- to long-term financing provided to companies not publicly traded, with a view to the investors making a gain on investment upon ‘exit’.
Profit on player sale(s)
The accounting profit (or loss) recorded upon a player’s registration being transferred to another club. Comprises the fee received by the club for the player, less that player’s accounting value at the date of sale.
For example: Player A signs for Club X for £50m on a five-year contract, so the annual amortisation cost is £10m (£50m divided by five years). After exactly two years at the club, Player A is sold to Club Y for £40m. The player’s accounting value at that time is £30m, being the original £50m written down by two years of £10m annual amortisation. The profit on player sale is therefore £10m, being the £40m sales price less accounting value of £30m.
Profit or loss
Unless otherwise stated, The Athletic refers to club’s profits or losses on a pre-tax basis. Most clubs pay little or no corporation tax – using pre-tax loss allows for greater comparability.
PSR
Stands for Profit and Sustainability Rules: industry-specific regulations designed to encourage good financial practice among clubs.
Different governing bodies might have different PSR guidelines (e.g. UEFA and the Premier League).
Revolving Credit Facility (RCF)
A short-term form of debt financing that affords clubs flexibility to…
Secure funding
Usually used in relation to PSR, this is funding not in the form of a loan that comprises either a contribution from an equity participant (e.g. a shareholder), or an irrecoverable commitment from an equity participant to provide such funding in the future, confirmed by a legally binding agreement between the participant and the club.
Squad cost
The total cost of player and football staff registrations, per a club’s balance sheet, at the given accounting period end date (see: ‘Period end’ and ‘Year end’). Includes all costs associated with registering individuals, including agent fees (see: ‘Agent fees’).
Squad cost ratio (SCR)
One element of UEFA’s PSR regime, SCR limits a club’s spending on football-related expenditure (player and coaching wages, transfer fee amortisation and impairment).
Transfer debtors/receivables
Amounts owed from other clubs in respect of outstanding transfer fee payments.
See also: ‘Transfer creditors/payables’.
Transfer creditors/payables
Amounts owed to other clubs in respect of outstanding transfer fee payments.
See also: ‘Transfer debtors/receivables’.
Wages
Used interchangeably with ‘staff costs’. Unless otherwise stated, refers to a club’s staff costs figure in their financial statements. The figure is comprised of wages and salaries, social security and pension costs. Applies to all staff at a club, not just players.
Agent fees not included under wages. See: ‘Agent fees’.
Wages to turnover
A club’s annual wage bill divided by its annual turnover, presented as a percentage.
Unless otherwise stated, this refers to a club’s total wage bill, inclusive of non-playing staff.
Year end
Refers to a club’s accounting period end date. For UK-based clubs this is, more often than not, 30 June. Some clubs employ different dates – where comparisons are made and the difference in dates is deemed relevant, we will identify it as such."
By Chris Weatherspoon
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6218435/2025/04/22/bookkeeper-football-finance-glossary/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Words in a natural language are not strung together in random patterns; rather, there is a statistical structure that allows the model to guess the next word based on what came before. Yet these models overlook a crucial dimension of human communication: content that is not conveyed by words.
In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Prof. Elisha Moses's lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science reveal that the melody of speech in spontaneous conversations in English functions as a distinct language, with a "vocabulary" of hundreds of basic melodies and even rules of syntax that can be used to predict the next melody in the sequence. The study lays the foundation for an artificial intelligence that will understand language beyond words.
The melody, or music, of speech, referred to by the linguistic term "prosody," encompasses variations in pitch (intonation), loudness (for example, for emphasis), tempo and sound quality (such as a whisper or creaky voice). This form of expression predates words in evolution: Recent studies reveal that both chimpanzees and whales incorporate complex prosodic structures in their communication.
In human communication, prosody adds a nuanced layer of meaning beyond words. A brief pause, much like a comma, can change the meaning of a sentence ("Let's eat Grandma") and the tempo of spoken text can generate suspense. Linguists specializing in prosody have traditionally studied literary texts and ways in which prosody reflects historical changes.
This meant that, despite prosody's critical importance for the understanding of human language, its study remained a niche field for years, devoid of applications and filled with conflicting ideas about prosody's structure and significance.
"Our study lays the foundation for an automated system to compile a 'dictionary' of prosody for every human language and for different speaker populations," say the researchers.
Prosody, however, is an inherent part of every conversation. It assigns linguistic function to words—for instance, whether they pose a question or state a fact—and reveals the speakers' attitude toward what they say.
In the new study, led by linguist Dr. Nadav Matalon and neuroscientist Dr. Eyal Weinreb from Moses's lab in Weizmann's Physics of Complex Systems Department, the researchers analyzed prosody as an unfamiliar language, aiming to deliver a data-driven explanation for the linguistic mystery of prosody's structure and meaning. Rather than relying on literature, they used two massive collections of audio recordings of spontaneous conversations, one of telephone conversations between two participants and the other of face-to-face conversations in various locations, such as a kitchen or classroom.
The first task for the research team was to compile a dictionary of the short melodies that function as "words" in English-language prosody and to assign each of them a function and a meaning. "To understand why there is no prosodic dictionary yet, it's worth remembering that there wasn't even a comprehensive English dictionary until the nineteenth century," Moses says.
"When the University of Oxford was tasked with compiling one, it asked the public to help with the workload by sending quotes showing the historical changes in the meaning of words. One of the main contributors was a prisoner who spent more than 20 years reading books and sending quotes. In our study, instead of collecting information by ourselves over the course of decades, we analyzed massive collections of audio recordings, using AI."
The melody of each person's speech is unique, but the AI model found several hundred basic patterns that recur, with slight variations, in all spontaneous English conversations. While written words are sequences of letters, a prosodic "word" is a short melody, that is, a short sequence of sounds with varying pitch, lasting about a second on average. To work out the meaning of these "words," Matalon sampled 20 basic melodic patterns and then listened to the recordings again.
"We discovered that each pattern has several linguistic functions," he explains. "For example, depending on the context, a pattern can define whether someone is asking a question or making a statement. However, each pattern typically conveys one specific attitude of the speaker—such as curiosity, surprise or confusion—toward what's being said.
"One common prosodic 'word' is a sharp rise of the pitch followed by a quick drop. This pattern signals enthusiasm and, depending on the context, can express strong agreement or acknowledgment of receiving important new information.
"Oxford's first full English dictionary came out in the 19th century, with the public helping manage the workload—including a prisoner who contributed for 20 years."
Next, the researchers tried to identify syntactic rules governing the order of these prosodic patterns, which can potentially allow future language learning models to understand and use prosody.
"We noticed that there are patterns that tend to appear next to each other, in pairs, in spontaneous speech," Weinreb explains. "It's a simple statistical system, in which the correct choice of the next unit in a sequence depends solely on the previous one. This system works well for spontaneous conversation because it requires planning only a few seconds ahead, which is just as long as short-term memory lasts."
These pattern pairs, the researchers discovered, act as simple sentences, expressing "one new idea," so that each pair relates to a specific topic, adding a single piece of information about it—for example, referring to a fact mentioned in the conversation and providing positive feedback.
"Our study lays the foundation for the development of an automated system that will compile a 'dictionary' of prosody and identify its syntactic rules for every human language and for different speaker populations," Moses says.
"Prosody can vary depending on social status, historic events and the age of the speakers, and these variations can even manifest themselves in literary works that carefully reflect spontaneous speech," Matalon adds. "We analyzed audiobooks as part of the study and discovered that prosodic patterns are longer in scripted speech and that the simple paired syntax of spontaneous conversation has disappeared.
"There are other differences, too. It's safe to assume that the aging process and the acquisition of language in childhood are also accompanied by quantifiable prosodic changes. Moreover, there is evidence that prosody is important in internal speech—the language of thought—and that we can deepen our understanding of the existing prosody of robotic voices that are produced by speech-generating devices. The model we created promises to close the gaps that emerged over the centuries in research into expression beyond words."
A major future application of an automated prosodic dictionary might be the development of AI capable of understanding and conveying messages through the melody of speech rather than words alone.
"Imagine if Siri could understand from the melody of your voice how you feel about a certain subject, what's important to you or whether you think you know better than her," Weinreb adds, "and that she could adapt her response to make it sound enthusiastic or sad. We already have brain implants that convert neural activity into speech for people who can't speak. If we can teach prosody to a computer model, we'll be adding a significant layer of human expression that robotic systems currently lack."
Also participating in the study were Dr. Dominik Freche from Weizmann's Physics of Complex Systems Department; Dr. Erez Volk from NeuraLight Inc., Tel Aviv; Dr. Tirza Biron from Weizmann's Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Department; and Prof. David Biron from the University of Chicago.
More information: Nadav Matalon et al, Structure in conversation: Evidence for the vocabulary, semantics, and syntax of prosody, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403262122
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by Weizmann Institute of Science"
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-words-hidden-musical-grammar-natural.html
#metaglossia_mundus
Discover the best freelance translator job platforms to kickstart your language-based career today. Work remotely and earn flexibly.
"Language Translation Gigs You Can Start Today
April 13, 2025
If you’re someone who’s fluent in multiple languages and looking for a side hustle or a full-blown career opportunity, freelance translator job platforms are your golden ticket. In a world that thrives on global communication, your language skills are more in demand than ever. Whether you’re translating legal documents, subtitling YouTube videos, or localizing apps for international users, there’s a gig waiting for you. And the best part? You can start right from your couch, today.
Table of Contents
Top Freelance Translator Job Platforms to Start Today
The internet is buzzing with opportunities for language enthusiasts. Freelance translator job platforms offer the perfect environment to monetize your skills, build a portfolio, and establish a flexible career. Here are some of the best platforms to get started on:
1. Upwork
Upwork is one of the largest freelance marketplaces globally. With a dedicated category for translation jobs, it’s a great place to find steady work. You’ll need to create a profile showcasing your expertise, and clients post jobs you can bid on.
2. Fiverr
Fiverr allows freelancers to create “gigs” offering specific services. You can offer language translation starting at $5, and the tiered pricing model helps you earn more as your credibility grows. Include examples of past translation work for better visibility.
3. ProZ.com
This platform is built specifically for translators and language professionals. It offers a job board, forums, and certification options. You can also join translation contests and build a strong network of professionals.
4. TranslatorsCafe
With a strong community vibe, TranslatorsCafe is another niche platform for linguists. Here, clients post jobs with specific language pairs and topics. It also offers rate calculators and terminology databases to aid your work.
5. Gengo
Gengo offers a flexible and structured platform for translators. Once you pass their test, you can start taking jobs immediately. It’s beginner-friendly and provides training resources, so it’s ideal for those just starting out.
What Skills Do You Need to Succeed on Freelance Translation Platforms?
Success on freelance translator job platforms isn’t just about knowing multiple languages. Here’s what else you need to thrive:
Specialized Knowledge: Having subject-matter expertise in fields like legal, medical, or technical translations can help you land high-paying gigs.
Cultural Awareness: Being able to convey cultural nuance in your translations will make your work stand out.
CAT Tools: Familiarity with computer-assisted translation tools like SDL Trados or MemoQ can enhance your efficiency and credibility.
Strong Grammar and Writing: Your translated content should read as if it was originally written in the target language.
Time Management: Since many jobs come with tight deadlines, managing your time effectively is crucial.
How to Stand Out Among Thousands of Translators
There are thousands of translators competing for gigs. Here’s how to make sure your profile doesn’t get lost in the crowd:
1. Optimize Your Profile
Include relevant keywords like “English to Spanish translation,” “medical document translation,” or “subtitling services” in your profile description. Highlight your certifications and past experience prominently.
2. Start With Lower-Priced Gigs
When you’re just starting, pricing your services competitively can help you land initial jobs. Once you build a portfolio and earn reviews, you can increase your rates.
3. Deliver High-Quality Work
Meeting deadlines and exceeding client expectations will earn you positive reviews, which are crucial to growing on these platforms.
4. Collect Testimonials
Ask your clients for testimonials and display them on your profile or personal website. Social proof is a powerful way to build trust.
5. Keep Learning
Translation trends evolve. Stay updated by joining communities, reading industry blogs, and attending webinars.
Is Freelance Translation Sustainable in the Long Run?
Absolutely. With the rise of remote work and global expansion, the need for translation services continues to grow. As per Wikipedia, the translation industry has seen consistent growth over the past decade, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down.
By diversifying the languages you offer and specializing in in-demand niches like legal or marketing translation, you can create a sustainable freelance career.
Internal Linking and Income Growth
When discussing income potential, check out related resources like Gold Price or tech updates such as anymobile model price. These topics help contextualize earnings, spending, and the financial landscape of freelancers in today’s gig economy.
FAQs
What are the best freelance translator job platforms?
Upwork, Fiverr, ProZ.com, Gengo, and TranslatorsCafe are among the most popular and reliable platforms.
How much can a freelance translator earn?
Earnings vary by language pair, experience, and niche. Beginners may earn $10–$25/hour, while experienced translators can make over $100/hour.
Do I need a certification to start translating?
No, but certifications like ATA or university credentials can boost your credibility and attract higher-paying clients.
What languages are in high demand?
Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, German, and French are frequently in demand for translation services.
How do I get consistent clients?
Build a strong profile, deliver quality work, ask for reviews, and maintain client relationships through professionalism and timely delivery.
Freelance translator job platforms are an excellent gateway to independence, flexibility, and income. Whether you’re doing this full-time or as a side hustle, the key is consistency and quality. Your language skills are not just valuable—they’re profitable."
https://inews.zoombangla.com/language-translation-gigs-you-can-start-today/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Bonds Beyond Borders: Chinese films and shows dubbed into Vietnamese expand cultural understanding
Chinese films and TV dramas have found a loyal market in Vietnam due to geographical proximity and cultural similarities. These works are dubbed into Vietnamese, which have increased their popularity in this country of over 100 million people. CGTN's Tang Bo meets a talent from Hanoi who gives him tips on his first try at dubbing.
That's what happens when you team up with a professional voice actress.
TANG BO Hanoi "This is Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, where many people enjoy watching Chinese films and TV series. For decades, these shows have played a very important role in the local entertainment scenes. Today, I'm very excited to introduce you to the incredible and talented individuals behind the scenes who ensure that the characters in these productions speak authentic Vietnamese."
Meet Hellen Nguyen, a voice actress who has been dubbing movies for 30 years. She started to dub Chinese films in 2014. She said that the more she dubs, the more she enjoys the films, with Chinese family-themed movies being her favorite.
HELLEN NGUYEN Voice Actress "I grew up watching the Chinese drama 'Journey to the West,' and it sparked my love for Chinese movies and dramas. I find them heart-warming, especially since their stories feel quite similar to those in Vietnam. It's like watching reflections of my own culture."
Thanks to translation Apps on our cell phones, we didn't get lost in each other's language. And the dubbing work has created an ever stronger connection.
TANG BO Hanoi "I'm about to start my dubbing experience today. First, I'll learn a very short clip in Vietnamese, then I'll try dubbing it."
Nguyen said she needed only a few minutes to grasp Chinese rhythm, while I had to use my own spelling system to learn Vietnamese.
Now let's check out my dubbing debut.
HELLEN NGUYEN Voice Actress "Last year, I dubbed a Chinese TV program that introduced cuisine from China and ASEAN countries. Chinese TV shows and films made available in Vietnam help both nations understand each other's cultures better. It feels as if we are traveling through China and Vietnam right from our screens."
Chinese film and television culture has long been integrated into Vietnamese life. TV stations across over 50 provinces regularly air Chinese films and series, while online platforms and mobile devices also facilitate this trend.
TANG BO Hanoi "Now listening to familiar words in a new language made me really appreciate the cultural exchange between China and Vietnam. It's not just about movies and TV series; it includes a lot of talented individuals like Nguyen, who have been working very hard to promote the mutual understanding through their art. You can see this blend of cultures in their cozy little recording studio.""
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-04-13/VHJhbnNjcmlwdDgzOTgz/index.html
#metaglossia_mundus
By Alyssa Arns and Kristen LaRue-SandlerWhat if your language disappeared?Over the span of human existence, civilizations have come and gone. For many, the absence of written records means we know little about their languages, knowledge systems or ways of life.Those who did leave traces — like the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians — have inspired our imaginations. But not only that — the knowledge that these cultures amassed in some cases has even become the bedrock of later innovations.
Lost languages mean lost cultures
How an ASU professor and students are helping Native American communities in the Southwest revitalize their languages
Tyler Peterson is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University whose work focuses on the documentation, revitalization and maintenance of endangered languages, especially those of Native North America and the Southwest U.S. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU News
April 11, 2025
By Alyssa Arns and Kristen LaRue-Sandler
What if your language disappeared?
Over the span of human existence, civilizations have come and gone. For many, the absence of written records means we know little about their languages, knowledge systems or ways of life.
Join us for an oral history event with speakers of Kwevkepaya
At noon Tuesday, April 15, the ASU Humanities Institute hosts the presentation, “'há t'ámchoo 'úme: A Kwevkepaya Language Oral History of the Orme Dam,” featuring research by Tyler Peterson and members of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. Through a series of interviews and dialogues conducted in the Kwevkepaya language, guests will experience the unique history, insights and narratives of the Orme Dam events from the community’s perspective — one that is lacking in the received history of the Orme Dam project.
"This isn’t just a historical exhibit — it’s a living, breathing language reclamation effort shaped by community members,” Peterson said.
Register for the event.
Those who did leave traces — like the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians — have inspired our imaginations. But not only that — the knowledge that these cultures amassed in some cases has even become the bedrock of later innovations.
While it’s unlikely that the English language will disappear anytime soon, other languages are not in as fortunate a position.
Tyler Peterson is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University whose work focuses on the documentation, revitalization and maintenance of endangered languages, especially those of Native North America and the Southwest U.S.
According to Peterson, language revitalization benefits both the specific language community and nonspeakers alike. It deepens cultural understanding and enriches education for everyone.
“Language is a vessel for historical memory — it holds place names, cultural values, ceremonial knowledge, and the stories of resistance and survival.”
Indigenous languages around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate, with the United Nations estimating that a language goes extinct every two weeks.
“There are hundreds of Indigenous languages spoken in North America,” said Peterson. “Most of these languages are critically endangered, some with only a handful of fluent speakers, often elderly. Without sustained revitalization efforts and programs, that number could drop to a dozen or fewer within our lifetimes.”
Read more: Internship teaches ASU students the skills of language documentation; group works with Native communities to maintain languages
In addition to cultural loss, the problem has implications for community health, scientific research, ecological knowledge — and even national defense. Many Americans are now familiar with the Navajo Code Talkers, who developed an unbreakable military code based on their Native language during World War II. Their work is credited with helping the Allies win the war.
In the community, for the community, with the community
Peterson does not do this critical language work alone — or in a silo. He collaborates closely with several Native American communities in the Southwest, including the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and the Pueblo of Santa Ana, supporting the development of their language documentation, reclamation and education initiatives.
An Sakach (left), an assistant teaching professor of Vietnamese in the School of International Letters and Cultures and a graduate student in linguistics and applied linguistics at ASU, sits with Clissene Lewis, director of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation’s Cultural Center and Museum, to work on a language activity. Photo by Tyler Peterson/ASU
Peterson follows the tribes’ guidance on their priorities, whether it’s building an archive of oral histories, developing pedagogical materials or co-authoring scholarly work.
Last summer, for example, Peterson partnered with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community to co-lead a local gathering of CoLang, the biennial event put on by the Institute on Collaborative Language Research. ASU and Scottsdale Community College hosted the world’s leading Indigenous language activists, community scholars and students to provide training in language documentation, technology and collaborative practices in June 2024.
The focus of CoLang 2024 was on the two languages spoken in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community: Piipaash (Maricopa) and Pima. Through a series of intensive workshops, ASU students and participants from around the world had the special opportunity to work one-on-one with speakers of these languages, thus raising the visibility of language revitalization work at ASU and the fruitful partnerships the university has with its tribal neighbors.
Through a fellowship from the ASU Humanities Institute, Peterson was able to deepen his relationships with Native American community partners in the Southwest. An outcome of these enhanced community ties was the development of a writing system for Tamayame, the language spoken in the Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico, of which there are less than 100 living speakers.
The Humanities Institute funding also supported Native American collaborators and language consultants for their time and expertise, enabled sustained fieldwork, helped build accessible archives and community resources, and provided training opportunities for students.
Using this as a foundation, Peterson was awarded funding by the Administration for Native Americans — a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture NextGen program to further the research and language reclamation efforts on Yavapai and Tamayame.
Student participation and professionalization is key
The federal funding also enabled ASU students to attend CoLang 2024 and to develop research projects on Piipaash, Yavapai and Tamayame languages. Five graduate students in ASU’s linguistics and applied linguistics program were given the opportunity to work with Peterson and the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation on a linguistic oral history project.
In addition, there is now considerable interest among the undergraduate students in taking up the cause of Native American language documentation and community work. As part of the NSF grant, summer fellowships for undergraduates will be offered during summer 2025 to work with the Cocopah language, spoken in the Yuma area.
“Locally, these projects help sustain intergenerational knowledge transfer, support community-based education and affirm the cultural sovereignty of Indigenous nations,” Peterson said.
ASU graduate student An Sakach completes a linguistics exercise while working with the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. Sakach is completing her PhD research on the Yavapai language. Photo by Tyler Peterson/ASU
Peterson added that linguistic-historical synthesis also creates opportunities to re-evaluate and add accountability to the analysis of historical events. Finally, language preservation provides pathways for students with linguistics training to work for tribes and their language programs, showing how a linguistics degree can be put to meaningful use in the real world.
Linguistics graduate student William “Bill” Hartt is completing a mentored research project with Peterson this semester. Hartt is helping document the Yavapai language, a system with several dialects spoken exclusively by Arizona tribes, including Fort McDowell.
“Learning about the structure of language is extremely important, and the vast majority of what we as a society learn about human language is learned from languages which are underdocumented,” Hartt said.
The Tamayama Language Resources Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a direct outgrowth of the project funded by the Humanities Institute. This project is a collaborative initiative with the Pueblo of Santa Ana aimed at documenting and revitalizing the Tamayame language by supporting the creation of a digital, community-based archive of recorded texts, lexical and grammatical resources, and culturally grounded teaching materials.
Designed in close partnership with tribal leadership, the project aligns with intergenerational language transmission goals within the community.
However, funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities was revoked in early April as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts to that agency.
“Without funds to sustain these efforts, languages and the cultural worldviews they carry are put into further precarity,” said Ron Broglio, director of ASU’s Humanities Institute. “Nevertheless, I’m proud of our faculty and the Native American communities that persist in the work.”
https://news.asu.edu/20250411-arts-humanities-and-education-lost-languages-mean-lost-cultures
"Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing (Temporary Cover) (Part Time)
The Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, within the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) is seeking to appoint a temporary Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing. The role is part time at 0.4 FTE, starting on 1 October 2025 and is for 21 months.
The Assistant Professor will be expected to contribute to the teaching and examining of the undergraduate course in Computational Linguistics, to PhD and MPhil supervision in Natural Language Processing, and to administration. The successful candidate will have relevant teaching experience, hold a PhD in a relevant field (e.g. NLP, AI, Machine Learning) and be able to demonstrate active, collegial engagement in teaching, research, and administration, commensurate with their stage of career.
The candidate will work within the Language Technology Lab, with a world-leading team of researchers pushing the boundaries of NLP and AI research. The role is hybrid but teaching is expected to be in person.
Temporary cover: This post is fixed-term for 21 months or the return of the post holder, whichever is the earlier.
In order for your application to be considered, please upload the following documents to your application:
A covering letter
Your Curriculum Vitae (CV), including a full list of publications and the names of three referees
An article-length example of your written work (max 8,000 words, e.g. a previous publication or thesis dissertation chapter)
References will be requested at the longlisting stage
Informal inquiries may be addressed to Professor Nigel Collier at nhc30@cam.ac.uk. On questions of procedure, please contact the Schools HR Team on MMLLPersonnel@admin.cam.ac.uk.
The closing date for applications is midnight (BST) on Sunday 11 May 2025. We plan to hold interviews and selection activities in person the last week in May, subject to change.
Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.
Please quote reference GP45573 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and we particularly welcome applications from candidates from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background for this vacancy, as people from these backgrounds are currently underrepresented at this level in our Faculty.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK."
Further information 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50879/
Can you guess which languages score the highest for terms relating to ‘love’, ‘death’, ‘canoe’ or ‘sheep’? We made a tool to help you explore our extensive dataset.
"Do Inuit languages really have many words for snow? The most interesting finds from our study of 616 languages
Charles Kemp, The University of Melbourne; Ekaterina Vylomova, The University of Melbourne; Temuulen Khishigsuren, The University of Melbourne, and Terry Regier, University of California, BerkeleySee more
Fri 11 April 2025 at 2:02 am GMT+1
Languages are windows into the worlds of the people who speak them – reflecting what they value and experience daily.
So perhaps it’s no surprise different languages highlight different areas of vocabulary. Scholars have noted that Mongolian has many horse-related words, that Maori has many words for ferns, and Japanese has many words related to taste.
Some links are unsurprising, such as German having many words related to beer, or Fijian having many words for fish. The linguist Paul Zinsli wrote an entire book on Swiss-German words related to mountains.
In our recently-published study we took a broad approach towards understanding the links between different languages and concepts.
Using computational methods, we identified areas of vocabulary that are characteristic of specific languages, to provide insight into linguistic and cultural variation.
Our work adds to a growing understanding of language, culture, and the way they both relate.
Japanese has many words related to taste. One of these is umami, which is often used to describe the rich taste of matcha green tea.
Our method
We tested 163 links between languages and concepts, drawn from the literature.
We compiled a digital dataset of 1574 bilingual dictionaries that translate between English and 616 different languages. Since many of these dictionaries were still under copyright, we only had access to counts of how often a particular word appeared in each dictionary.
One example of a concept we looked at was “horse”, for which the top-scoring languages included French, German, Kazakh and Mongolian. This means dictionaries in these languages had a relatively high number of
words for horses. For instance, Mongolian аргамаг means “a good racing or riding horse”
words related to horses. For instance, Mongolian чөдөрлөх means “to hobble a horse”.
However, it is also possible the counts were influenced by “horse” appearing in example sentences for unrelated terms.
Not a hoax after all?
Our findings support most links previously highlighted by researchers, including that Hindi has many words related to love and Japanese has many words related to obligation and duty.
‘Silk’ was one of the most popular concepts for Mandarin Chinese.
We were especially interested in testing the idea that Inuit languages have many words for snow. This notorious claim has long been distorted and exaggerated. It has even been dismissed as the “great Eskimo vocabulary hoax”, with some experts saying it simply isn’t true.
But our results suggest the Inuit snow vocabulary is indeed exceptional. Out of 616 languages, the language with the top score for “snow” was Eastern Canadian Inuktitut. The other two Inuit languages in our data set (Western Canadian Inuktitut and North Alaskan Inupiatun) also achieved high scores for “snow”.
The Eastern Canadian Inuktitut dictionary in our dataset includes terms such as kikalukpok, which means “noisy walking on hard snow”, and apingaut, which means “first snow fall”.
The top 20 languages for “snow” included several other languages of Alaska, such as Ahtena, Dena'ina and Central Alaskan Yupik, as well as Japanese and Scots.
Scots includes terms such as doon-lay, meaning “a heavy fall of snow”, feughter meaning “a sudden, slight fall of snow”, and fuddum, meaning “snow drifting at intervals”.
You can explore our findings using the tool we developed, which allows you to identify the top languages for any given concept, and the top concepts for a particular language.
Language and environment
Although the languages with top scores for “snow” are all spoken in snowy regions, the top-ranked languages for “rain” were not always from the rainiest parts of the world.
For instance, South Africa has a medium level of rainfall, but languages from this region, such as Nyanja, East Taa and Shona, have many rain-related words. This is probably because, unlike snow, rain is important for human survival – which means people still talk about it in its absence.
For speakers of East Taa, rain is both relatively rare and desirable. This is reflected in terms such as lábe ||núu-bâ, an “honorific form of address to thunder to bring rain” and |qába, which refers to the “ritual sprinkling of water or urine to bring rain”.
Our tool can also be used to explore various concepts related to perception (“smell”), emotion (“love”) and cultural beliefs (“ghost”).
The top-scoring languages for “smell” include a cluster of Oceanic languages such as Marshallese, which has terms such as jatbo meaning “smell of damp clothing”, meļļā meaning “smell of blood”, and aelel meaning “smell of fish, lingering on hands, body, or utensils”.
Prior to our research, the smell terms of the Pacific Islands had received little attention.
Some caveats
Although our analysis reveals many interesting links between languages and concepts, the results aren’t always reliable – and should be checked against original dictionaries where possible.
For example, the top concepts for Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) include von (“of”), den (“the”) and und (“and”) – all of which are unrevealing. We excluded similar words from other languages using Wiktionary, but our method did not filter out these common words for Plautdietsch.
Also, the word counts reflect both dictionary definitions and other elements, such as example sentences. While our analysis excluded words that are especially likely to appear in example sentences (such as “woman” and “father”), such words could have still influenced our results to some extent.
Most importantly, our results run the risk of perpetuating potentially harmful stereotypes if taken at face value. So we urge caution and respect while using the tool. The concepts it lists for any given language provide, at best, a crude reflection of the cultures associated with that language.
This article is republished from The Conversation. It was written by: Charles Kemp, The University of Melbourne; Ekaterina Vylomova, The University of Melbourne; Temuulen Khishigsuren, The University of Melbourne, and Terry Regier, University of California, Berkeley
https://au.news.yahoo.com/inuit-languages-really-many-words-010244575.html
- #metaglossia_mundus
Are you an eager and driven graduate in search of an opportunity that’ll expose you to the dynamic world of online news publishing? One where you can develop your writing, editing skills, and nose for a good story? One with awesome people and a great working environment.
"Bizcommunity.com, SA's leading business-to-business news portal, is looking for a junior online content assistant to join our editorial team in Cape Town.
Working on the front line, you’ll be the first point of contact to provide support to our clients via email and telephone, so you need to be people-friendly.
You’ll be setting up, proofing, editing and approving online content including job ads, event listings, multimedia and other news items.
You’ll also play a supportive role to our team of editors - limited to start, but depending on your progress, you’ll soon be working on the fun stuff and producing your content.
In short, we need you to love and breathe writing and editing, so these skills are non-negotiable. In return, we’ll let your inner grammar-nerd run rampant, and you’ll get paid for it.
Again, we stress the need for strong people and English language skills. Computer literacy is a must, and you should have an interest in current affairs and the digital publishing environment.
This position comes with growth opportunities should you show initiative and commitment to building the Bizcommunity brand.
Requirements:
Journalism/language studies
Excellent verbal and written English communication skills are imperative
0-1 year experience in a similar environment
Customer service experience advantageous (those hours spent in the retail or food service industry were not in vain)
A profound sense of correctness when it comes to punctuation, spelling and grammar (we welcome your pernicketiness)
Good time management skills, with the ability to prioritise and meet deadlines
Computer literacy
Social media savvy
We need someone who:
Takes an interest in current affairs
Is meticulous and detail-oriented
Is assertive but friendly (can you smile through those crabby client calls?)
Is adept at working under pressure
Is self-motivated and disciplined (remote working means you’ll have to get the job done without us constantly looking over your shoulder.
Works well on their lonesome, but can also play well with others
Takes initiative!
Loves spending time on the internet
Enjoys reading and writing
How to apply:
Email your CV and a brief (200 words max) cover letter to applycontent@bizcommunity.com to apply, including #EDITORIALASSISTANT in the email subject line. Supplying examples of your writing will work in your favour. All potential candidates will be required to complete a competency test.
Note: This is an entry-level position with a basic starting salary. Only Cape Town-based applicants will be considered. If you have not received a reply within 1 month of applying, you have unfortunately not been considered for the position.
Posted on 10 Apr 12:01, Closing date 30 Apr
https://www.bizcommunity.com/job/cape-town/online-media/online-editorial-assistant-503944a
#metaglossia_mundus
"Breaking free from the Matrix: Web3 search engine can reshape the internet’s future | Opinion
Apr 10, 2025 at 10:55 AM GMT+1
The internet is at a crossroads. People are continuing to express their frustration and dissatisfaction with the internet—double that of what they felt 20 years ago—as centralized platforms are facing increasing scrutiny for their opaque algorithms, data exploitation, and bias in content curation.
Most online platforms today run on web2, where FAANG companies—Meta, formerly known as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet, formerly known as Google—control the data, serve ads, and track users for profit. Users are ultimately the product, and while these companies have added billions in market cap by turning users into the product, this is far from the best model for creating a sustainable knowledge engine like the internet. Participants in the internet ecosystem are starting to wake up to the fact that this model doesn’t really work for anyone except those FAANG companies.
Nowhere are these problems more evident than in search. Search is one of the most fundamental activities on the internet and, thus, stands at the forefront of “gatekept content.” If the internet really is our collective knowledge engine, then search is the first step in acquiring that knowledge.
It is sometimes even the last and only step in using the internet to acquire knowledge, considering that the first result on a Google page has a clickthrough rate of over 25 percent and the tenth result, proportionately, only has a tenth of that. Presumably, a fraction of that fraction even makes it to the second page of results.
Now, consider Google’s prominent position in all of search. Even while Google’s search market share last year dropped below 90 percent for the first time in 10 years, it is still within the range of the popular vote total for a third-world dictator. So, the One True Result that has been served up by Google’s algorithm is getting a quarter of the traffic for the search engine that still holds somewhere in the area of 90 percent of the search engine market share. That’s a lot of opaque and centralized power centered in one private company.
Even while competitors like DuckDuckGo and Bing try to carve out some of their own market share by offering AI-powered search or increased privacy, as centralized companies, they fundamentally present the same problem Google does, without the market share. The integrity of our search results has never been more crucial, and we can’t leave it to web2 structures to be good custodians of that integrity, especially when the priorities of those structures to protect their users can turn on a dime.
The solution is here: Enter web3
How do we put how information is organized back into the hands of users, especially as the search engines promise to become even more inscrutable with the implementation of AI and the obscuring of sources?
One possible way to put that power back into the hands of users is what has thus far been built with web3. Web3 can allow us to build a decentralized, community-powered search engine while participating in a truly open and trustless search ecosystem. A decentralized node-powered ecosystem can ensure fair, unbiased, and censorship-resistant search results, free from the corporate agendas that have shaped traditional search engines.
Instead of relying on corporations, web3 platforms are permissionless, sovereign, and decentralized. They are powered by blockchain and smart contracts instead of centralized corporate servers that open users to vulnerabilities and data insecurity. Web3 gives users control back over their data, identity, and digital assets.
There are a host of other ways in which web3 can empower the user. These include self-sovereignty, permissionless control of assets without fear of confiscation, self-custodial staking and earning, access for the unbanked, peer-to-peer transfers, and, perhaps most important of all, that fundamental decentralization, which eliminates single points of failure while being resistant to manipulation.
There is also no behavioral profiling, no centralized control, and no data tracking. This means no censorship risk, no suppression of competing voices, and a search experience that respects user privacy.
Users must work to reclaim power
Search engines today function as gatekeepers of information, with centralized platforms deciding which content is amplified, suppressed, or monetized based on user profiles and corporate interests. Users deserve a fairer and ultimately better search experience, one where ranking algorithms are not influenced by personal data, past behavior or profit-driven agendas.
The problem is bound to get worse as the AI race heats up and companies look for new data sources on which to train these AIs. Whatever promises a centralized company might have once made to the user about not tracking or using data, again, these priorities can shift very quickly in something like an AI technology realignment. The beauty of web3 is that the structure of the technology itself prevents such exploitation.
Web3 may seem abstract right now, but it’s not all that different from the kind of technical fluency users needed to acquire as they went from the personal computer to the networked personal computer of web2. Users essentially just have to trade out an encrypted password shared with a central web service (and who knows where else) for an encrypted wallet that only they can control and access. The benefits of full control over assets and data will far outweigh whatever stumbling blocks there are to this learning curve.
Users have shown that they are willing to trade a lot for convenience, but perhaps they’ve reached a breaking point in that bargain. Now is the time for web3 to take advantage."
By Timothy Enneking
https://crypto.news/web3-search-engine-can-reshape-the-internets-future/
"...C’est parce qu’il craint pour son unité que notre pays a puni des millions d’enfants "coupables" d’employer une langue régionale et prête à sa langue nationale des vertus qu’elle n’a pas.
Les langues régionales ont été un « instrument de division de la nation », notamment déclaré Emmanuel Macron lors de la séance solennelle de présentation de la 9e édition du Dictionnaire de l'Académie française...
"Un Etat = une nation = une langue." Cette équivalence est souvent présentée sous les dehors de l’évidence. Et pourtant, rien n’est plus faux. D’une part, on ne sache pas que les Suisses parlent le suisse ni les Canadiens le canadien. D’autre part, et surtout, la France rassemble depuis l’origine des Basques, des Picards, des Provençaux, des Flamands et tant d’autres, chacun de ces peuples parlant sa langue. Et cela ne l’a jamais empêché d’exister. Au contraire..."
Par Michel Feltin-Palas
Publié le 08/04/2025
👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://www.lexpress.fr/culture/letrange-obsession-de-la-france-pour-la-langue-unique-7QJAOQTKEJFW3IUPKGW3V7ATMQ/
#metaglossia_mundus
Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute loses vital NEH grant for translating Ukrainian literature, including works addressing Russian cultural imperialism.
"Trump administration cuts funding for Ukrainian literature translations at Harvard
The termination threatens an anthology of Ukrainian-Jewish poetry that would counter Putin’s narrative of Ukrainian cultural insignificance.
BY
ALYA SHANDRA
05/04/2025
10 books of Ukrainian classic and modern authors translated into English from the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, part of the prestigious Harvard Library of Ukrainian Literature series launched in 2021. Photo: Oleh Kotsyuva/Fb
Trump administration cuts funding for Ukrainian literature translations at Harvard
The US National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has terminated a grant for publishing Ukrainian literature in English translation at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI), citing a repurposing of funds “in furtherance of the President’s agenda,” according to Oleh Kotsyuba, Director of Print and Digital Publications at HURI.
“The way that this termination affects us is that it basically limits our ability to work on these projects,” Kotsyuba told Euromaidan Press. “We were supposed to be able to hire a part-time editor to work on the projects for the next two years, and now, because of the termination of this grant, we won’t be able to do that, which obviously puts them in jeopardy.”
The termination comes at a critical time when preserving and promoting Ukrainian culture and pushing back against Russian imperial narratives has taken on heightened significance during Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, which began with the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.
HURI’s publications program has published 14 volumes of Ukrainian literature in translation over the past three and a half years, establishing itself as a leading platform for making Ukrainian voices accessible to global audiences. This was the first such federal grant the institute had received for its publications in over 30 years, according to Kotsyuba.
In August 2021, HURI launched the Harvard Library of Ukrainian Literature series dedicated to publishing outstanding Ukrainian literature in English translation. The inaugural titles included “The Voices of Babyn Yar” by Marianna Kiyanovska, “Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond” edited by Ostap Kin, “In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas” by Stanislav Aseyev, and “Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love” by Volodymyr Rafeyenko. Two of these works were awarded Ukraine’s National Shevchenko Prize, the country’s highest award in literature and culture.
Projects in jeopardy
Several significant translation projects are now at risk, including an anthology of Ukrainian Jewish poetry edited by Ostap Kin, which Kotsyuba describes as “an absolutely unique publication bringing together for the first time in Ukrainian and in English Ukrainian Jewish poetry and presenting it to the wide international audience.”
Other endangered projects include the novel “The Learned Dr. Leonardo’s Journey to Sloboda, Switzerland with his future lover, the beautiful Alceste,” by Maik Yohansen, a Ukrainian writer executed by Stalin’s secret police NKVD in 1937, and two plays by Lesya Ukrainka: “The Blue Rose,” her first play, and “The Boyer’s Wife,” which addresses Russia’s cultural and political incorporation of Ukraine and ways to resist it.
Oleh Kotsyuba next to an exposition of translations from Ukrainian published at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University. Photo: Kotsyuba’s Fb
“Lesya Ukrainka, of course, is a cultural icon of Ukrainian literature that is very little known outside of Ukraine. And these two plays were supposed to change that perception,” Kotsyuba explained.
“In terms of future publications, there is definitely a lot of demand and need to publish Ukrainian classics as well as the works of Ukrainian modernist literature, which remains almost entirely unknown to the world,” Kotsyuba notes. “And of course, the more contemporary works also need to be published because they basically inform the people outside of Ukraine about what it looks like on the ground when your country is attacked.”
The voice of a Ukrainian-language translator
Why I translate Ukraine’s silenced poets
Financial strain amid crucial cultural mission
The termination places significant financial strain on HURI, which operates independently from Harvard University’s general endowment.
“We are entirely self-funded. We pay rent, utilities, maintenance, and so on out of our own funds that were collected back in the 1960s and 70s in the course of a grassroots campaign to create the institute and endow the three positions in Ukrainian studies at Harvard,” Kotsyuba noted. “We do not receive any direct support from the Harvard general endowment.”
According to the Kyiv Independent, the grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, was just under $200,000. It would have allowed the Institute to showcase Ukrainian contemporary and classic literary works to English-language audiences, bringing them from out of the shadow of Russian imperial narratives.
The institute is now seeking alternative funding sources to continue its vital work in preserving and promoting Ukrainian literature. “At this time we are primarily trying to find sources to replace this funding and so we call on all people of goodwill, on people who have meaningful wealth to be able to support this project, this program, to contribute, to donate to the publications and help us continue with publishing these works,” Kotsyuba said.
The de-imperialization moment
Why post-Russian Studies are the future for a post-Russia world
Cultural visibility in wartime
HURI’s translation work is important beyond academia. It addresses a critical gap in global awareness of Ukrainian culture.
“The importance of publishing translations of Ukrainian literature is because that format allows us to make content from Ukraine available for the public,” Kotsyuba explains. “For example, there are a number of other projects that would help inform the international community and broad audiences about Ukraine, Ukrainian history, and culture. For example, you cannot create a film without first having text. The same goes for graphic novels and other formats. If we speak, for example, about a popular format such as an audiobook, it first requires a translation to be published.”
The lack of translated Ukrainian literature contributes to what Kotsyuba calls “the invisibility of Ukrainian culture, which indirectly would support the claims that the Russian ruler has made, Vladimir Putin, about Ukraine being, quote-unquote, an artificial country, artificial people, seemingly the same as Russians.”
This invisibility of Ukrainian culture in the Anglophone world has deeper historical roots, as noted by British-Ukrainian poet and translator Stephen Komarnyckyj.
“I could pick up English University textbooks in the seventies and see Ukrainian described as a dialect and its literature as ‘minor.’ The West was blind to the reality of intra-European colonization. The views of Ukraine’s colonizing power, Russia, were treated as if they had the scientific validity of Boyle’s law,” Komarnyckyj wrote, discussing the challenges of introducing Ukrainian literature to English-speaking audiences.
“What I might call the Russian paradigm of a primitive Ukrainian peasantry being civilized by its more advanced neighbor prevailed. This is a gross untruth, yet it means that Ukrainian is reflexively treated as inferior,” Komarnyckyj added, highlighting the importance of initiatives like HURI’s that present Ukrainian literature on its own terms.
Russian war puts academic focus on Ukraine
It’s time to free Ukrainian studies from behind the Russian curtain
Part of broader funding cuts
The NEH grant termination appears to be part of a larger pattern of funding cuts to cultural and international aid programs under the Trump administration. In late March, the US State Department informed Congress of plans to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and has already cut 83% of USAID programs globally.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified these cuts, stating, “We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” according to a post on X on 28 March.
For Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute, which has been cultivating scholars in Ukrainian history, language, and culture since its founding in 1973, the path forward now relies on public support through donations as it navigates this unexpected funding crisis during a critical period of Ukraine’s cultural resistance.
Readers can also help by purchasing books directly from HURI or requesting their local libraries acquire these important works of Ukrainian literature.
More on Ukrainian literature
Eleven books to understand Ukraine’s ongoing struggle: a shortlist by Ukrainian politicians
Discover Ukrainian literature, movies in the largest-yet English-language database
Transreading Ukrainian Poetry: the first course inspiring English writers through Ukraine’s literature
Ukrainian translations, Russian oppression, and soft power
Trump administration cuts funding for Ukrainian literature translations at Harvard
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/04/05/harvards-ukrainian-book-program-falls-victim-to-trumps-budget-cuts/
#metaglossia_mundus
"In 2025, as part of the Translate Ukraine translation support program by the Ukrainian Book Institute, 81 books by Ukrainian authors will be translated into foreign languages.
In total, as part of the 2025 Translate Ukraine program, Ukrainian books are planned to be translated into 25 languages across 28 countries. Most of the translations are planned into Polish (seven), Spanish (six), Latvian (six), and Slovak (six).
Among the selected projects are five books to be translated into English:
“Girl with a Teddy Bear” by Viktor Domontovych, Dedalus Limited (UK);
“The Diary of Taras Shevchenko, Glagoslav Publications B.V. (Netherlands);
“dasein: The Defense of Presence” by Yaryna Chornohuz, Jantar Publishing Ltd (UK);
Short Stories by Ivan Franko, Volume 1, Glagoslav Publications B.V. (Netherlands);
“Transit Culture and Postcolonial Trauma” by Tamara Hundorova, Academic Studies Press (USA).
Additionally, Ukrainian books will be translated into:
Arabic (2);
Bengali (1);
Bulgarian (3);
Greek (2);
Georgian (3);
Hebrew (1);
Italian (4);
Chinese (1);
Lithuanian (3);
Macedonian (5);
German (3);
Portuguese (3);
Romanian (2);
Serbian (1);
Hungarian (4);
Finnish (2);
French (4);
Croatian (2);
Czech (3);
Swedish (2).
“An increasing number of countries are joining the program, and that is great news. The projects that received support won in real competition, and among those that, unfortunately, were not supported, there are also some interesting ones,”
Valentyna Stukalova, chair of the Translate Ukraine expert council, said.
Stukalova added that the number of applications for the translation support program has grown, their quality has improved, and the geographic scope has expanded.
Among the most popular authors this year are:
Sofia Andrukhovych (her novel “Amadoka” will be released in Bulgarian, Romanian, Finnish, and Swedish,” Catananhe” will be translated into Macedonian, and “Felix Austria” will be translated into Serbian);
Eugenia Kuznetsova (“The Ladder” will be published in Georgian, Lithuanian, and Slovak, the novel “Ask Miechka” will be released in Greek, and “The Sheep Is Whole” will be translated into Finnish);
Serhiy Zhadan (The short story collection “Arabesques” will be published in Romanian and Swedish translations, the novel “Voroshilovgrad” will be translated into Slovak, “Mesopotamia” will be released in Hungarian, and “Internat” will be translated into Croatian).
The list of winning projects includes books by military authors, including:
The poetry collection “We Were Here” by Artur Dron will be published in Polish and French;
“Hunters for Happiness” by Valeriy Puzik will be translated into Polish;
“I See You’re Interested in Darkness” by Illarion Pavlyuk will be released in Hungarian;
The poetry collection “Poetry from the Gunport” by Maksym Kryvtsov will be translated into Portuguese, French, and Bulgarian;
“The Bright Path” by Stanislav Aseev will be published in Georgian;
The collection “[dasein: the defense of presence]” by Yaryna Chornoguz will be released in English;
As part of Translate Ukraine, 11 children’s books, 41 works of fiction, six books of Ukrainian classics, eight nonfiction books, and 15 poetry collections are planned to be published.
Find the detailed list here.
Translations that will be funded under the program have been selected by the Expert Council of Translate Ukraine.
The members are:
Chairwoman: Valentyna Stukalova, head of the Media Library at the French Institute and curator of events in literature and publishing.
Deputy chair: Polina Horodytska, expert in international grant programs EU4Culture in the cultural sector.
Iryna Baturevych, journalist, co-founder of the cultural media outlet about books and literature Chytomo.
Yulia Laktionova, specialist in marketing and publishing at Amsterdam University Press.
Yaroslava Strikha, translator, literary critic, PhD from Harvard University.
Dmytro Chystiak, translator, member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Sheiko, General Director of the state institution Ukrainian Institute.
Maria Shubchyk, head of the Information and Library department at the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine.
A total of 161 applications were submitted for the translation support program, with 28 of them failing to pass the technical selection.
Translate Ukraine is a program of the Ukrainian Book Institute that partially reimburses the costs of publishing Ukrainian literature in foreign languages. UBI supports books written in Ukrainian and published by Ukrainian publishers. These include fiction (prose, poetry, drama), nonfiction and humanities, as well as children’s and young adult literature.
The UBI provides support to new and experienced translators. The UBI covers the costs of transferring rights and translation. At the same time, the program does not cover printing and other costs (editing, proofreading, design, layout). The maximum amount reimbursed by the Ukrainian Book Institute is up to EUR 4,000 per edition."
https://chytomo.com/en/the-list-of-ukrainian-books-to-be-translated-into-foreign-languages-in-2025-announced/
"Lost in translation: sentiments English cannot do justice, with a focus on Camus’s ‘The Stranger’
George Orwell stated within his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ that using Latin, Greek, or other foreign words and phrases in writing is ineffectual. “Bad writers, and especially scientific, political and sociological writers, are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones,” he claimed. He uses examples of phrases such as cul de sac, deus ex machina, or status quo to argue that, when faced with a foreign word or expression, the author should always seek to find and instead use the English equivalent.
Although I very fundamentally agree with the rest of Orwell’s essay, I disagree with his opposition to the use of foreign phrases within writing. As we have developed a greater understanding of cultural psychology and its impact on linguistics, we are now able to acknowledge the impact that language has on the brain. We are able to recognise that there exists in some languages concepts which are simply absent in others – for instance, how is cul de sac translated into English? It literally translates to bottom of the sack, but is translated in a more colloquial way as dead end. However, even this translation falls short of the meaning that cul de sac evokes in its original French. When we use the term cul de sac to describe a group of houses which form a small, enclosed neighbourhood, does the word dead end really suffice? Not quite. The French phrase cul de sac instead serves a perfectly adequate purpose.
In this way, it becomes difficult for translators to pinpoint an exact translation for the title of the novel as each translation conveys different connotations
The term cul de sac is just one of the many foreign expressions which cannot be translated literally or simply into English. When we apply this phenomenon to the more general realm of literature, we face an issue – can we truly appreciate the intended meaning of a book if it has been translated from another language into English? I will look at the novel L’Étranger by French author Albert Camus to examine whether some foreign concepts and ideas are simply lost in translation.
The title of the book itself presents an issue for translators of Camus. L’Étranger can be translated into an array of different words in English – ‘the stranger’, ‘the outsider’, ‘the foreigner’. Each of these translations depict a different interpretation of the title of the book, as well as a different interpretation of the character of Meursault, who is l’étranger. For Meursault to be a ‘stranger’, he becomes a slightly weird man, someone to be met with caution. For him to be an ‘outsider’, he becomes an estranged and unknowing person, perhaps someone shy or someone to be sympathised with. And as a ‘foreigner’, his unfamiliarity with the novel’s greater environment is put down to be due to his cultural values rather than aspects of his character. In this way, it becomes difficult for translators to pinpoint an exact translation for the title of the novel as each translation conveys different connotations. Is the original meaning and nuance of the word L’Étranger therefore lost in translation?
Although the most suitable option out of the four translations, the word ‘mother’ doesn’t quite depict the intimacy which is contained in the word maman
My copy of the book, translated by Sandra Smith, contains a foreword on her translation and some of the decisions she had to make regarding French words and expressions which don’t have a literal translation in English. She notes that the first sentence of the novel, Aujourd’hui, maman est morte (translated literally as ‘Today, mother has died’) brought her some difficulties during the translation process. What should the French word maman be translated to? She considers the terms ‘mother’, ‘mummy’, ‘mommy’, and ‘mama’ – each containing their own meaning of the word used to describe one’s maternal parent. ‘Mother’ is slightly too formal and distant, whilst ‘mummy’ and ‘mommy’ are too juvenile. ‘Mama’ is more appropriate, but is a term not so frequently used within British English. Smith decides to use the word ‘mother’, translating the first line of the novel as ‘My mother died today’. Although the most suitable option out of the four translations, the word ‘mother’ doesn’t quite depict the intimacy which is contained in the word maman. Smith’s choice of words therefore subconsciously influence the reader’s perception of Meursault’s relationship with his mother, as well as his emotional state. Is the meaning evoked by the word maman therefore lost in translation when L’Étranger is translated into English?
The issues surrounding translation are continued throughout the novel – Camus writes of the concept of existentialism within L’Étranger, a philosophical movement popular in postwar France. However, this sentiment is slightly lost on a British audience as the movement never reached the same level of popularity in its English environment as it did in the French. Is the greater sentiment and meaning of the novel therefore also lost in its translation to a British audience?
We should research the original author’s intentions, become aware of certain cultural dimensions which may have been lost in translation, and be slightly cautious when taking texts out of their original context
Although it may seem futile and it may deter us from picking up a translated book in the future for fear of not receiving the same message that the original author had intended, this issue of translation within literature illustrates to me the beauty of the reading process. It shows us that literature is an art, one with nuances and subjectivities which surpasses borders and languages – yet also a science which involves the reader as much as the author in how it is interpreted. Different translations of the same book allow for openness, criticism and debate, which are central to the reading process.
Within this article, I have sought to shed some light on the importance of translators in the reading process. Perhaps we should pay greater attention when choosing the specific translation of the book we are reading – we should research the original author’s intentions, become aware of certain cultural dimensions which may have been lost in translation, and be slightly cautious when taking texts out of their original context – and overall, let’s appreciate the subjectivity and art and the cultural universality which translated literature summons."
By Emily Hearn
Apr. 4, 2025 Posted in Books, Books in Culture, Learn from Literature
https://theboar.org/2025/04/lost-in-translation-sentiments-english-cannot-do-justice-with-a-focus-on-camuss-the-stranger/
#metaglossia_mundus
On April 3, Stephanie McCarter spoke for the Humanities Studio’s Connections series about restoring female agency and voice in literary translation. She is most well-known for being the first woman in 60 years to fully translate Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.”
Ovid, Translation, and the Female Gaze': Stephanie McCarter on female agency in the classics
The Student Life
"...Attendee Clara Meyers PO ’25 found that the lecture completely changed her perspective on literary translation.
“I didn’t realize how wrong other translations were, and how much translators have historically inserted their own biases into the text, and just how vastly that changes the meaning of the work,” Meyers said.
Following an explanation of her approach to translation, McCarter presented a close reading of the myth of Apollo and Daphne. As Apollo chases Daphne, attempting to rape her, she runs toward the river and asks her father, the river god, to protect her. He turns her into a laurel tree.
“Her body is therefore much like a text that does not lend itself to easy intelligibility and relies upon the witnessing eyes of knowing others.”
In popular translations, translators use adjectives that objectify Daphne and overemphasize her beauty, creating a male gaze.
“Her story is about the danger of being viewed solely as a body and the dehumanizing violence of [this] … Translators objectify Daphne while she is a person, [but] they personify her once she becomes an object,” McCarter said.
In her translation, McCarter protects Daphne’s agency. Near the end of the story, when Daphne is turning into a tree, most canonical interpretations translate “ora” as face or head — “Her face was lost in the canopy,” for example. McCarter chooses to translate this word as mouth — “The tree top takes her mouth.”
This choice allows the reader to be a witness to Daphne’s objectification by the male gaze, emphasizing the violence of losing one’s voice.
“‘Face’ and ‘head’ focused us on the experience of seeing Daphne as if we were Apollo, whereas ‘mouth’ suggests a function she has lost. It is this loss of voice that is the most psychologically devastating for the transformed [women] throughout the epic,” McCarter said.
While these small differences in word choice may seem trivial, they are critical to reimagining narratives under a female spectator lens."
https://tsl.news/ovid-translation-and-the-female-gaze-stephanie-mccarter-on-female-agency-in-the-classics/
#metaglossia_mundus
A new study offers compelling evidence that any kind of exercise positively affects overall cognitive function, memory, and executive skills across all populations and ages.
"...A recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has provided the most comprehensive review to date of research on the impact of exercise on cognitive health. Their review encompassed more than 2,700 controlled trials with more than 250,000 participants.
Researchers found that regardless of age or health status, regular exercise improved executive function, memory, and/or general cognition. All exercise modalities were effective, and gains were observed irrespective of the frequency, duration, or intensity of the exercise.
Lead researcher, Ben Singh of the University of South Australia, says, "What this study confirms is that even low-intensity exercise—like yoga or walking—can improve cognition, making it accessible to people of all ages and abilities.”
Although any intensity of exercise was found to be beneficial for cognitive health, effects were generally larger for low- to moderate-intensity interventions. Further, children and adolescents experienced the greatest improvements in memory, while those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experienced the greatest improvements in executive function.
Among different types of exercise, exergames (active video games) were found to provide the most benefits for general cognition. The authors speculated that "the cognitive potency of exergaming, which likely merges physical exertion with cognitively stimulating tasks, enhancing general cognition through the dual demands of physically and mentally demanding tasks that require participants to recall movements, recognise visual and verbal cues and memorise sequences and steps."
Mind-body exercises such as yoga and Tai Chi were found to have the most benefits for brain function and memory. The authors noted that these exercises "often involve complex movement patterns, mindfulness practices, and mental engagement that may contribute to cognitive stimulation independently of physical exertion." For example, yoga emphasizes breath control and mind-body connection, while Tai Chi requires spatial awareness and memorizing sequences of movements.
"This study presents compelling evidence that exercise should be integrated into healthcare and education settings to promote cognitive well-being," says Carol Maher, coauthor and senior researcher with the University of South Australia. “Knowing that even small amounts of exercise can improve memory and brain function—especially for those at higher risk—presents a clear opportunity for exercise to be included in clinical and public health guidelines.”
References
Singh B, et al. (2025). Effectiveness of exercise for improving cognition, memory and executive function: a systematic umbrella review and meta-meta-analysis. Br. J. Sports Med. 0:1–11. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2024-108589"
By Ed Ergenzinger J.D., Ph.D.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/night-sweats-and-delusions-of-grandeur/202504/which-exercises-are-best-for-cognitive-health
"Niger: le haoussa devient langue nationale, le français réduit à une simple langue de travail
Au Niger, le décret de promulgation de la charte de la refondation a été publié, la semaine dernière, au Journal Officiel. Ce texte, qui se fonde sur les recommandations des assises nationales de février, a été entériné par Abdourahamane Tiani lors d'une cérémonie, à Niamey, le 26 mars. Il se substitue à la Constitution, suspendue à la suite du coup d'État du 26 juillet 2023. L'article 12 de cette charte évoque les langues du pays. Ainsi, le français n'est plus langue officielle.
Publié le : 08/04/2025
Le français devient une simple langue de travail. L'article 12 de la charte de la refondation ne mentionne plus de langue officielle. Il liste les onze langues parlées du Niger et définit une d'entre elles comme langue nationale, le haoussa.
Le haoussa est la langue la plus parlée sur l'ensemble du territoire. Selon un linguiste que RFI a pu joindre, elle est comprise par une grande majorité de la population. Vient ensuite le zarma-songhaï, la langue de l'Ouest, parlée par, à peu près, un quart des Nigériens.
Dans la Constitution précédente, les langues de toutes les communautés du Niger avaient, « en toute égalité », le statut de langues nationales. Le français, parlé par 13% de la population, était donc la langue officielle. Mais les nouvelles autorités, en froid avec Paris, ont quitté l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie le mois dernier, et rebaptisé récemment plusieurs rues de Niamey qui portaient des noms de Français.
Reste à savoir si ces changements auront des conséquences concrètes. Sur les réseaux sociaux, certains internautes nigériens s'inquiètent d'une hiérarchisation des langues du pays et d'un risque de communautarisme."
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20250407-niger-le-haoussa-devient-langue-nationale-le-fran%C3%A7ais-r%C3%A9duit-%C3%A0-une-simple-langue-de-travail
#metaglossia_mundus
"Este diccionario es una herramienta indispensable para cualquier persona que desee comprender el significado de palabras técnicas.
Redacción HuffPost
04/04/2025
Fachada de la Real Academia Española (RAE).ELIZABETH FERNANDEZ
La guía de la RAE para términos científicos se basa en varios pilares fundamentales. En primer lugar, se encuentra el Diccionario de la Lengua Española (DLE), que incluye definiciones precisas y actualizadas de términos científicos. Este diccionario es una herramienta indispensable para cualquier persona que desee comprender el significado de palabras técnicas y su correcta utilización en el contexto adecuado.
Además del DLE, la RAE ha desarrollado el Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas (DPD), que aborda las dudas más comunes sobre el uso del español, incluyendo términos científicos. Este diccionario es especialmente útil para resolver cuestiones relacionadas con la ortografía, la gramática y el uso adecuado de palabras y expresiones técnicas.
Otro recurso valioso es el CORPES XXI, un corpus de referencia del español contemporáneo que permite a los usuarios consultar ejemplos reales del uso de términos científicos en diferentes contextos. Esta herramienta es fundamental para entender cómo se utilizan las palabras en la práctica y para garantizar que su uso sea coherente con las normas del idioma.
La RAE también ofrece la Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española, que incluye un apartado específico sobre el lenguaje científico y técnico. Esta gramática proporciona una descripción detallada de las estructuras gramaticales y sintácticas utilizadas en la redacción científica, lo que facilita la correcta construcción de textos técnicos.
Para aquellos que buscan una guía más específica, la RAE ha publicado el Diccionario de Términos Científicos y Técnicos, que se centra exclusivamente en el vocabulario especializado. Este diccionario es el resultado de un esfuerzo colaborativo entre la RAE y diversas instituciones científicas, y ofrece definiciones claras y concisas de términos técnicos en múltiples disciplinas.
Además de estos recursos, la RAE ha desarrollado una serie de manuales y guías de estilo que abordan el uso del lenguaje en la divulgación científica. Estos manuales incluyen recomendaciones sobre cómo redactar artículos científicos, cómo presentar datos y resultados, y cómo comunicar de manera efectiva con diferentes audiencias.
Fiesta de Ofertas de Primavera de Amazon: los 10 mejores chollos con hasta un 70% de descuento
La RAE también ha implementado una plataforma en línea que permite a los usuarios realizar consultas específicas sobre términos científicos. Esta plataforma es interactiva y está diseñada para ser fácil de usar, ofreciendo respuestas rápidas y precisas a las dudas de los usuarios.
Redacción HuffPost"
https://www.huffingtonpost.es/sociedad/esta-guia-rae-dudas-sobre-terminos-cientificos-hpe1.html
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"Why AI can’t take over creative writing
Vancouver, Apr 6 (The Conversation) In 1948, the founder of information theory, Claude Shannon, proposed modelling language in terms of the probability of the next word in a sentence given the previous words. These types of probabilistic language models were largely derided, most famously by linguist Noam Chomsky: “The notion of ‘probability of a sentence’ is an entirely useless one.”
In 2022, 74 years after Shannon’s proposal, ChatGPT appeared, which caught the attention of the public, with some even suggesting it was a gateway to super-human intelligence. Going from Shannon’s proposal to ChatGPT took so long because the amount of data and computing time used was unimaginable even a few years before.
ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) learned from a huge corpus of text from the internet. It predicts the probability of the next word given the context: a prompt and the previously generated words.
ChatGPT uses this model to generate language by choosing the next word according to the probabilistic prediction. Think about drawing words from a hat, where the words predicted to have a higher probability have more copies in the hat. ChatGPT produces text that seems intelligent.
There is a lot of controversy about how these tools can help or hinder learning and practising creative writing. As a professor of computer science who has authored hundreds of works on artificial intelligence (AI), including AI textbooks that cover the social impact of large language models, I think understanding how the models work can help writers and educators consider the limitations and potential uses of AI for what might be called “creative” writing.
LLMs as parrots or plagiarists
It’s important to distinguish between “creativity” by the LLM and creativity by a human. For people who had low expectations of what a computer could generate, it’s been easy to assign creativity to the computer. Others were more skeptical. Cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter saw “a mind-boggling hollowness hidden just beneath its flashy surface.”
Linguist Emily Bender and colleagues described the language models as stochastic parrots, meaning they repeat what is in the data they were trained on with randomness. To understand this, consider why a particular word was generated. It’s because it has a relatively high probability, and it has a high probability because a lot of text in the training corpus used that word in similar contexts.
Selecting a word according to the probability distribution is like selecting text with a similar context and using its next word. Generating text from LLMs can be seen as plagiarism, one word at a time.
The creativity of a human
Consider the creativity of a human who has ideas they want to convey. With generative AI, they put their ideas into a prompt and the AI will produce text (or images or sounds). If someone doesn’t care what is generated, it doesn’t really matter what they use as a prompt. But what if they do care about what is generated?
An LLM tries to generate what a random person who had written the previous text would produce. Most creative writers do not want what a random person would write. They want to use their creativity, and may want a tool to produce what they would write if they had the time to produce it.
LLMs don’t typically have a large corpus of what a particular author has written to learn from. The author will undoubtedly want to produce something different. If the output is expected to be more detailed than the input, the LLM has to make up details. These may or may not be what the writer intended.
Some positive uses of LLMs for creative writing
Writing is like software development: Given an idea of what is wanted, software developers produce code (text in a computer language) analogously to how writers produce text in a natural language. LLMs treat writing code and writing natural language text the same way; the corpus each LLM is trained on contains both natural language and code. What’s produced depends on the context.
Writers can learn from the experience of software developers. LLMs are good for small projects that have been done previously by many other people, such as database queries or writing standard letters. They are also useful for parts of larger projects, such as a pop-up box in a graphical user interface.
If programmers want to use them for bigger projects, they need to be prepared to generate multiple outputs and edit the one that is closest to what is intended. The problem in software development has always been specifying exactly what is wanted; coding is the easy part.
Generating good prompts
How to generate good prompts has been advocated as an art form called “prompt engineering.” Proponents of prompt engineering have suggested multiple techniques that improve the output of current LLMs, such as asking for an outline and then asking for the text based on the original prompt augmented with the outline.
Another is to ask the LLM to show its reasoning steps, as in so-called chain of thought. The LLM outputs don’t just the answer a question, but explains the steps that could be taken to answer it. The LLM uses those steps as part of its prompt to get its final answer.
Such advice is bound to be ephemeral. If some prompt-engineering technique works, it will be incorporated into a future release of the LLM, so that the effect happens without the need for the explicit use of the technique. Recent models that claim to reason have incorporated such step-by-step prompts.
People want to believe
Computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum, describing his ELIZA programme written in 1964–66, said: “I was startled to see how quickly and how very deeply people conversing with (the programme) became emotionally involved with the computer and how unequivocally they anthropomorphized it.” The tools have changed, but people still want to believe.
In this age of misinformation, it is important for everyone to have a way to judge the often self-serving hype.
There is no magic in generative AI, but there is lots of data from which to predict what someone could write. I hope that creativity is more than regurgitating what others have written. NSA NSA
https://www.livemint.com/focus/why-ai-can-t-take-over-creative-writing-11743911803145.html
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"Abu Dhabi, Apr. 5 (BNA): The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC) has launched a new index to measure the strength of community engagement with the Arabic language, coinciding with the UAE's designation of 2025 as the “Year of the Community.”
According to WAM News Agency, the index is based on a statistical model that monitors the development of individuals’ connection to Arabic across personal, familial, and institutional dimensions. It incorporates empirical data on language use in reading, writing, speaking, and digital communication, with particular focus on the language's use within families, especially with children.
The index aims to assess how the community interacts with the Arabic language and supports its promotion. It also tracks institutional support through ALC initiatives such as book publishing, creative content development, talent nurturing, skill-building, literary festivals, and awards.
Dr. Ali bin Tamim, Chairman of the ALC, stated that the index reflects the leadership’s vision to build a cohesive society and strengthen national and cultural identity. He noted that the Centre, since its inception, has worked to connect society to the Arabic language across creative, knowledge-based, and cultural fields, engaging both Arabic speakers and non-speakers.
The index will be calculated for residents of Abu Dhabi across various demographic segments, producing values that reflect the degree of engagement, from full connection to complete detachment, with the aim of guiding policy and coordinating future initiatives.
The launch of the new index coincided with the announcement of the 2025 results of the Arabic Language Perception Index, which has been tracking public sentiment since 2021 regarding Arabic in comparison with English. The survey includes more than 6,000 individuals aged 15 and above.
Findings showed that Arabic scored highest in areas of creativity, such as language aesthetics and content, and culture, particularly heritage. English, by contrast, led in the knowledge category, particularly scientific content.
Dr. bin Tamim said that while speakers of each language believe in the prominence of their own, understanding how perceptions shift over time requires deeper social and linguistic study. He added that the indicators will support efforts to enhance Arabic’s role as a language of science, culture, and creativity, and to expand its presence in digital content and scientific research."
https://www.bna.bh/en/AbuDhabiArabicLanguageCentrelaunchesindextomeasurecommunityconnectionwithArabic.aspx?cms=q8FmFJgiscL2fwIzON1%2BDggXkiKHfFoF%2FCzdNvzAKLE%3D
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"Irish people are very particular when it comes to having weird and wonderful sayings. There are several sayings Irish people use in everyday life that would result in them receiving some very funny looks if they were said in any other nation. From 'grand' to 'shur lookit', here are 10 Irish sayings that have an entirely different meaning in other countries..."
Find out more👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/lifestyle/family-relationships/10-unique-irish-sayings-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-other-countries/ss-AA1BrgMF