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"New Research Suggests Human Language Evolved More Than 135,000 Years Ago
By Emma Taggart on May 26, 2025 There are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, allowing humans to chat, tell stories, and share information. Being able to communicate our ideas is an integral part of being human, and a new study suggests we’ve been using language a lot longer than we initially thought—at least 135,000 years ago. Despite each language having its own unique sound and structure, new research suggests that all 7,000+ languages spoken today may trace back to a single linguistic family tree. A team of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the American Museum of Natural History, the Department of Linguistics at University of São Paulo, and other international collaborators explored the genetics of ancient humans and uncovered that the capacity for language was likely embedded in our DNA long before our ancestors began migrating across the globe. Miyagawa and his team looked at 15 different scientific studies, all using different methods, and noticed they all pointed to the same conclusion: humans started splitting into different groups about 135,000 years ago. This was based on studying things like our full DNA, Y chromosomes (passed down from fathers), and mitochondrial DNA (passed down from mothers). The researchers say that if language had developed after that split, then some human groups today might not have language, or they might communicate in a totally different way. But that’s not the case—all humans have language, leading the researchers to believe that language must have existed before humans spread out. “Every population branching across the globe has a human language, and all languages are related,” explains Shigeru Miyagawa, a professor emeritus of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT. “I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.” Some scientists believe that humans might have had the ability to use language a few million years ago, just by looking at how other primates (like apes) communicate. But according to Miyagawa, it’s not just about making sounds—it’s about having the mental power to combine words and grammar into a system that lets us express complex ideas. He says human language is special because it has two key parts: words, which are the names we give to things like “tree” or “run,” and syntax, which refers to the grammar or rules that help us put words together in a meaningful way. Miyagawa suggests that humans had the mental capacity for language before they began using it to communicate. At first, it may have been a private thinking tool, but by around 135,000 years ago, it evolved into social communication. Evidence of this shift appears in archaeology around 100,000 years ago, with behaviors like carving symbols in caves and tombs. “Language was the trigger for modern human behavior,” says Miyagawa. “Somehow it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 100,000 years ago.”
https://mymodernmet.com/human-language-history/?
#metaglossia_mundus
Researchers across Africa, Asia and the Middle East are building their own language models designed for local tongues, cultural nuance and digital independence
"In a high-stakes artificial intelligence race between the United States and China, an equally transformative movement is taking shape elsewhere. From Cape Town to Bangalore, from Cairo to Riyadh, researchers, engineers and public institutions are building homegrown AI systems, models that speak not just in local languages, but with regional insight and cultural depth.
The dominant narrative in AI, particularly since the early 2020s, has focused on a handful of US-based companies like OpenAI with GPT, Google with Gemini, Meta’s LLaMa, Anthropic’s Claude. They vie to build ever larger and more capable models. Earlier in 2025, China’s DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup, added a new twist by releasing large language models (LLMs) that rival their American counterparts, with a smaller computational demand. But increasingly, researchers across the Global South are challenging the notion that technological leadership in AI is the exclusive domain of these two superpowers.
Instead, scientists and institutions in countries like India, South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are rethinking the very premise of generative AI. Their focus is not on scaling up, but on scaling right, building models that work for local users, in their languages, and within their social and economic realities.
“How do we make sure that the entire planet benefits from AI?” asks Benjamin Rosman, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and a lead developer of InkubaLM, a generative model trained on five African languages. “I want more and more voices to be in the conversation”.
Beyond English, beyond Silicon Valley
Large language models work by training on massive troves of online text. While the latest versions of GPT, Gemini or LLaMa boast multilingual capabilities, the overwhelming presence of English-language material and Western cultural contexts in these datasets skews their outputs. For speakers of Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Xhosa and countless other languages, that means AI systems may not only stumble over grammar and syntax, they can also miss the point entirely.
“In Indian languages, large models trained on English data just don’t perform well,” says Janki Nawale, a linguist at AI4Bharat, a lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. “There are cultural nuances, dialectal variations, and even non-standard scripts that make translation and understanding difficult.” Nawale’s team builds supervised datasets and evaluation benchmarks for what specialists call “low resource” languages, those that lack robust digital corpora for machine learning.
It’s not just a question of grammar or vocabulary. “The meaning often lies in the implication,” says Vukosi Marivate, a professor of computer science at the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. “In isiXhosa, the words are one thing but what’s being implied is what really matters.” Marivate co-leads Masakhane NLP, a pan-African collective of AI researchers that recently developed AFROBENCH, a rigorous benchmark for evaluating how well large language models perform on 64 African languages across 15 tasks. The results, published in a preprint in March, revealed major gaps in performance between English and nearly all African languages, especially with open-source models.
Similar concerns arise in the Arabic-speaking world. “If English dominates the training process, the answers will be filtered through a Western lens rather than an Arab one,” says Mekki Habib, a robotics professor at the American University in Cairo. A 2024 preprint from the Tunisian AI firm Clusterlab finds that many multilingual models fail to capture Arabic’s syntactic complexity or cultural frames of reference, particularly in dialect-rich contexts.
Governments step in
For many countries in the Global South, the stakes are geopolitical as well as linguistic. Dependence on Western or Chinese AI infrastructure could mean diminished sovereignty over information, technology, and even national narratives. In response, governments are pouring resources into creating their own models.
Saudi Arabia’s national AI authority, SDAIA, has built ‘ALLaM,’ an Arabic-first model based on Meta’s LLaMa-2, enriched with more than 540 billion Arabic tokens. The United Arab Emirates has backed several initiatives, including ‘Jais,’ an open-source Arabic-English model built by MBZUAI in collaboration with US chipmaker Cerebras Systems and the Abu Dhabi firm Inception. Another UAE-backed project, Noor, focuses on educational and Islamic applications.
In Qatar, researchers at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Qatar Computing Research Institute, have developed the Fanar platform and its LLMs Fanar Star and Fanar Prime. Trained on a trillion tokens of Arabic, English, and code, Fanar’s tokenization approach is specifically engineered to reflect Arabic’s rich morphology and syntax.
India has emerged as a major hub for AI localization. In 2024, the government launched BharatGen, a public-private initiative funded with 235 crore (€26 million) initiative aimed at building foundation models attuned to India’s vast linguistic and cultural diversity. The project is led by the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and also involves its sister organizations in Hyderabad, Mandi, Kanpur, Indore, and Madras. The programme’s first product, e-vikrAI, can generate product descriptions and pricing suggestions from images in various Indic languages. Startups like Ola-backed Krutrim and CoRover’s BharatGPT have jumped in, while Google’s Indian lab unveiled MuRIL, a language model trained exclusively on Indian languages. The Indian governments’ AI Mission has received more than180 proposals from local researchers and startups to build national-scale AI infrastructure and large language models, and the Bengaluru-based company, AI Sarvam, has been selected to build India’s first ‘sovereign’ LLM, expected to be fluent in various Indian languages.
In Africa, much of the energy comes from the ground up. Masakhane NLP and Deep Learning Indaba, a pan-African academic movement, have created a decentralized research culture across the continent. One notable offshoot, Johannesburg-based Lelapa AI, launched InkubaLM in September 2024. It’s a ‘small language model’ (SLM) focused on five African languages with broad reach: Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, isiZulu and isiXhosa.
“With only 0.4 billion parameters, it performs comparably to much larger models,” says Rosman. The model’s compact size and efficiency are designed to meet Africa’s infrastructure constraints while serving real-world applications. Another African model is UlizaLlama, a 7-billion parameter model developed by the Kenyan foundation Jacaranda Health, to support new and expectant mothers with AI-driven support in Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Xhosa, and Zulu.
India’s research scene is similarly vibrant. The AI4Bharat laboratory at IIT Madras has just released IndicTrans2, that supports translation across all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Sarvam AI, another startup, released its first LLM last year to support 10 major Indian languages. And KissanAI, co-founded by Pratik Desai, develops generative AI tools to deliver agricultural advice to farmers in their native languages.
The data dilemma
Yet building LLMs for underrepresented languages poses enormous challenges. Chief among them is data scarcity. “Even Hindi datasets are tiny compared to English,” says Tapas Kumar Mishra, a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela in eastern India. “So, training models from scratch is unlikely to match English-based models in performance.”
Rosman agrees. “The big-data paradigm doesn’t work for African languages. We simply don’t have the volume.” His team is pioneering alternative approaches like the Esethu Framework, a protocol for ethically collecting speech datasets from native speakers and redistributing revenue back to further development of AI tools for under-resourced languages. The project’s pilot used read speech from isiXhosa speakers, complete with metadata, to build voice-based applications.
In Arab nations, similar work is underway. Clusterlab’s 101 Billion Arabic Words Dataset is the largest of its kind, meticulously extracted and cleaned from the web to support Arabic-first model training.
The cost of staying local
But for all the innovation, practical obstacles remain. “The return on investment is low,” says KissanAI’s Desai. “The market for regional language models is big, but those with purchasing power still work in English.” And while Western tech companies attract the best minds globally, including many Indian and African scientists, researchers at home often face limited funding, patchy computing infrastructure, and unclear legal frameworks around data and privacy.
“There’s still a lack of sustainable funding, a shortage of specialists, and insufficient integration with educational or public systems,” warns Habib, the Cairo-based professor. “All of this has to change.”
A different vision for AI
Despite the hurdles, what’s emerging is a distinct vision for AI in the Global South – one that favours practical impact over prestige, and community ownership over corporate secrecy.
“There’s more emphasis here on solving real problems for real people,” says Nawale of AI4Bharat. Rather than chasing benchmark scores, researchers are aiming for relevance: tools for farmers, students, and small business owners.
And openness matters. “Some companies claim to be open-source, but they only release the model weights, not the data,” Marivate says. “With InkubaLM, we release both. We want others to build on what we’ve done, to do it better.”
In a global contest often measured in teraflops and tokens, these efforts may seem modest. But for the billions who speak the world’s less-resourced languages, they represent a future in which AI doesn’t just speak to them, but with them."
Sibusiso Biyela, Amr Rageh and Shakoor Rather
20 May 2025
https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2025.65
#metaglossia_mundus
"Traduire l’Algérie : entre mémoire, fidélité et engagement
Par :
Djamal Guettala
Date :
jeudi 29 mai 2025
945
C’est à l’occasion du séminaire qui s’est tenu à Marseille autour de la thématique « Les défis de la traduction de l’histoire : entre fidélité au texte et réinterprétation du passé, et les enjeux de la traduction durant la période coloniale » que nous avons eu l’honneur de rencontrer M. Missouri Abbés, professeur à l’université Djilali Liabès de Sidi Bel Abbès.
Spécialiste passionné de langue et d’histoire, il s’est distingué récemment par la traduction de l’ouvrage du Pr Djilali Abdelkader Chekroun, L’Histoire de l’Algérie, un texte dense, engagé, et profondément ancré dans la mémoire collective du pays. Dans cet entretien accordé au Matin d’Algérie, il revient avec sincérité et acuité sur les enjeux d’un tel travail : comment concilier fidélité au texte source et clarté pour le lecteur contemporain ? Quelle posture adopter face aux passages sensibles de l’histoire nationale ? Et en quoi la traduction, au-delà des mots, peut-elle devenir un véritable acte de transmission, de compréhension, et parfois même, de réparation ?
Le Matin d’Algérie : Qu’est-ce qui vous a motivé à entreprendre la traduction de cet ouvrage du Pr. Djilali Abdelkader Chekroun ?
Missouri Abbes : D’abord parce qu’il s’agit d’un ouvrage qui a trait à l’histoire de mon pays. En plus, il y avait toujours une complicité entre M. Chekroun et moi-même, et, à mon sens, ce sont des raisons qui m’ont motivé pour me lancer dans ce travail de traduction. Je suis aussi fasciné par l’histoire en général, et celle de mon pays en particulier.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Quels ont été les principaux défis rencontrés lors de la traduction de ce livre, compte tenu de la densité historique du contenu ?
Missouri Abbes : C’est surtout l’enchaînement des événements historiques qui m’a poussé à rester accroché à ce travail. Certes, il m’a pris un temps considérable, mais cela n’a pas de prix devant la sainteté de la tâche. À travers la lecture et la relecture de l’ouvrage, j’avoue que j’ai appris beaucoup de choses.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Comment avez-vous abordé la question de la fidélité au texte original tout en le rendant accessible à un public francophone contemporain ?
Missouri Abbes : En vérité, oser affirmer être resté fidèle au texte source ne peut être vrai. Pourquoi ? Tout simplement parce qu’il y avait des passages où je devais emprunter un autre chemin (après approbation de l’auteur, bien sûr) pour que les idées soient plus claires et plus concises. Quant au public, cela va de soi, car tout lecteur pourrait avoir une autre interprétation, notamment à l’égard des événements que l’histoire a toujours retenus.
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Le Matin d’Algérie : Avez-vous privilégié une démarche littérale ou interprétative pour certains passages sensibles de l’histoire ?
Missouri Abbes : Plutôt une démarche interprétative en ce qui concerne ces passages sensibles, tout simplement parce que, tout au long du travail de la traduction, je me suis senti partie intégrante de l’histoire. En d’autres termes, et humblement, je me voyais dans cette histoire d’Algérie du fait que beaucoup de membres de ma famille soient des martyrs.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Le livre ouvre de nombreuses périodes historiques. Comment avez-vous géré la diversité des terminologies et des concepts historiques dans votre travail de traduction ?
Missouri Abbes : Sans peine, car il faut d’abord avoir une richesse linguistique en ce qui concerne la langue de départ (source) pour pouvoir maîtriser son sujet d’une manière efficace.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Quelle partie ou période de l’ouvrage vous a semblé la plus complexe à traduire, et pourquoi ?
Missouri Abbes : Difficile à traduire ? Non, je ne crois pas que c’était le cas. Cependant, ce sont surtout ces périodes qui m’ont marqué, plutôt m’ont bouleversé de par leur richesse en enseignements. Tout au long de la pratique de la traduction, j’avais comme l’impression de vouloir vivre des événements en dépit de leur caractère dur et marquant. L’histoire de l’Algérie demeure un mythe où des hommes ont marqué les temps de par leurs positions et sacrifices.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Selon vous, en quoi la traduction peut-elle être considérée comme une « fenêtre sur les cultures », thème de ce salon ?
Missouri Abbes : C’est surtout permettre à l’Autre de découvrir une histoire par le biais de la langue, car on apprend une langue pour pouvoir accéder à la culture de l’Autre et pouvoir traduire pour permettre à l’Autre de découvrir les vérités.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Comment la traduction peut-elle contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de l’histoire entre différentes communautés linguistiques ?
Missouri Abbes : C’est surtout une question d’implication. En faisant ce travail de traduction, non seulement on s’implique davantage, mais surtout on implique les autres. Les idées, les concepts et les dates permettent au lecteur de se ressaisir, de se remettre en cause, car, il faut l’avouer, avant toute lecture, les gens se faisaient des idées et portaient des jugements hâtifs, mais une fois qu’on se lance dans la lecture, beaucoup de choses changent.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Pensez-vous que traduire un texte historique implique une forme de responsabilité particulière par rapport aux faits et à la mémoire collective ?
Missouri Abbes : Absolument, c’est d’abord un engagement personnel et une responsabilité particulière, car, à ce moment-là où la fidélité au texte source interviendra. Le traducteur n’a pas le droit d’apporter des changements ou d’émettre un avis. Son rôle se limite à transposer les idées d’une langue à une autre tout en maintenant le contenu à sa forme initiale.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Comment percevez-vous l’évolution de la traduction historique à l’ère du numérique et avec l’émergence de l’intelligence artificielle ?
Missouri Abbes : L’IA est une mode innovatrice qui a tendance à disparaître un jour. Tout le monde s’est mis à cette mode. En ce qui me concerne, je conçois la chose différemment. Je garde mes anciennes pratiques. Toutefois, j’avoue que pour certaines pratiques, l’IA a beaucoup aidé les gens. Quant à la traduction, le concept est totalement autre. Entre une traduction faite à l’ancienne et celle où on introduit l’IA, la différence est de taille. J’aimerais toujours rappeler que c’est l’homme qui a créé l’IA, alors depuis quand une application pourrait détrôner l’intelligence humaine ?
Le Matin d’Algérie : Quels conseils donnez-vous à de jeunes traducteurs qui souhaitent se spécialiser dans la traduction des textes historiques ?
Missouri Abbes : À vrai dire, la traduction est à la fois un art et une passion. Traduire des textes historiques nécessite doigté, exemplarité, fidélité et surtout abnégation. Il faut surtout aimer ce que l’on fait. Faites-en sorte de maintenir une cadence ascendante où l’on apprend au fur et à mesure.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Que retenez-vous de votre participation à ce salon culturel à Marseille ?
Missouri Abbes : Sur le plan humain, c’était une expérience assez riche où j’ai pu croiser de bonnes gens de la trempe de M. Sellam, M. Hood, Mme Kasdi et vous-même. Aussi, j’ai pu découvrir l’engouement qu’ont les gens pour les traversées historiques. Ce salon m’a permis aussi de m’exprimer sur ce que j’aime (la traduction) mais aussi sur ce que je ne partage avec les autres, avec respect et humilité.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Quels échanges ou interventions vous ont particulièrement marqué lors des conférences et des tables rondes ?
Missouri Abbes : C’est surtout la manière avec laquelle M. Sellam a fait défiler les événements. J’ai été grandement impressionné par cette personne à qui je voue respect et grande considération. D’autre part, l’intérêt que le public a eu pour les thèmes évoqués m’a aussi fait un grand plaisir.
Le Matin d’Algérie : En quoi ces rencontres internationales enrichissent-elles votre travail de traducteur et de chercheur ?
Missouri Abbes : C’est surtout les divergences qu’on pourrait avoir sur certains points. En tant que traducteur/chercheur, ces rencontres m’ont permis d’avoir une autre vision sur la manière avec laquelle il est si important de savoir manipuler les textes historiques, notamment ceux qui présentent des amalgames et autres disparités.
Le Matin d’Algérie : Quels sont, selon vous, les prochains défis que devront relever les traducteurs dans le contexte méditerranéen ou maghrébin ?
Missouri Abbes : Afin d’encourager la découverte de l’Autre et surtout de s’aligner sur le concept du vivre ensemble, les traducteurs sont appelés à échanger les expériences et à se découvrir mutuellement à travers leurs productions."
Entretien réalisé par Djamal Guettala"
https://lematindalgerie.com/traduire-lalgerie-entre-memoire-fidelite-et-engagement/
#metaglossia_mundus
Le projet de loi relatif à la profession des traducteurs assermentés s’inscrit dans le cadre du chantier de réforme de la justice (M. Baitas)
jeudi, 29 mai, 2025 à 20:01
Rabat – Le ministre délégué chargé des Relations avec le Parlement, porte-parole du gouvernement, Mustapha Baitas, a affirmé que le projet de loi relatif à la profession des traducteurs assermentés, adopté par le Conseil de gouvernement jeudi, s’inscrit dans la lignée des lois se rapportant au chantier de réforme de la justice.
En réponse aux questions des journalistes lors d’un point de presse à l’issue du Conseil de gouvernement, M. Baitas a relevé que SM le Roi Mohammed VI attache un intérêt particulier à ce chantier notamment dans son aspect relatif à l’amélioration et l’actualisation de l’arsenal juridique.
Le projet de loi relatif à la profession des traducteurs assermentés comprend nombre de nouveautés réparties en cinq axes, dont le premier porte sur la dénomination de la profession, appelée dorénavant profession des traducteurs assermentés au lieu de profession des traducteurs agréés près des juridictions, a-t-il expliqué.
Auparavant, l’accès à cette profession se limitait aux lauréats de l’École Supérieure Roi Fahd de Traduction de Tanger, qui n’assure pas de formation dans certaines langues, a-t-il poursuivi.
Partant de ce constat, le nouveau projet de loi prévoit d’ouvrir la voie du concours d’accès aux titulaires du Master, du Master spécialisé ou du diplôme d’études approfondies dans la traduction délivrés par des établissements universitaires marocains ou des diplômes équivalents.
Le projet de loi, a expliqué le ministre, prévoit la création d’institutions de formation, de sorte que le stagiaire passe une période déterminée de formation et une autre de stage dans un bureau de traduction.
Il sera également question de passer d’une association à un corps organisé légalement conformément aux procédures relatives aux bureaux régionaux et bureau national, ainsi qu’aux attributions de chaque bureau, afin de garantir la gestion de ce corps à l’instar du reste des corps qui assurent une fonction d’assistance judiciaire.
Le projet de loi relatif à la profession des traducteurs assermentés intervient eu égard à l’importance de la profession de traducteurs agréés près des juridictions dans le champ judiciaire.
Considérée comme une profession auxiliaire du pouvoir judiciaire, la traduction joue un rôle important pour assurer un procès équitable en garantissant les droits des parties qui ne maîtrisent pas la langue des procédures judiciaires, à travers la traduction de leurs propos et déclarations, ainsi que les documents et les papiers soumis aux tribunaux.
Dans la même veine, M. Baitas a souligné que le gouvernement porte un grand intérêt au chantier de réforme de la justice, précisant que dans le cadre de la mise en oeuvre du programme gouvernemental, l’exécutif s’est penché sur l’élaboration d’un ensemble de textes de lois et réglementaires depuis le début du mandat législatif actuel.
A cette occasion, le ministre a passé en revue les différentes législations adoptées par le gouvernement, notamment la loi relative à l’organisation judiciaire et la loi relative aux peines alternatives.
https://www.mapexpress.ma/actualite/activite-gouvernementale/projet-loi-relatif-profession-traducteurs-assermentes-sinscrit-cadre-du-chantier-reforme-justice-m-baitas/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Le Conseil de gouvernement a entériné, jeudi à Rabat, le projet de loi n°52.23 relatif à la profession de traducteur assermenté, consacrant une refonte attendue du cadre normatif applicable à cette activité juridico-linguistique essentielle au bon fonctionnement de la justice.
Présenté par le ministre de la justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, le texte vient actualiser une réglementation en vigueur depuis plus de vingt ans, jugée désormais inadaptée à la complexité croissante des procédures judiciaires et aux exigences d’un procès équitable dans un contexte plurilingue.
Intervenant à l’issue du Conseil, le ministre délégué chargé des relations avec le parlement, porte-parole de l’exécutif, Mustapha Baitas, a souligné que «la traduction assermentée constitue un maillon essentiel de la chaîne judiciaire, dans la mesure où elle garantit aux justiciables ne maîtrisant pas la langue procédurale le plein exercice de leurs droits». Il a précisé que les propos, déclarations, documents et pièces versés au dossier doivent être fidèlement traduits pour préserver les équilibres procéduraux et assurer l’équité des débats.
Le projet de loi apporte une série de révisions structurantes articulées autour de cinq volets principaux : la redéfinition du statut professionnel, la régulation des modalités d’accès à l’exercice, l’élévation des exigences de formation, l’instauration d’un régime disciplinaire clair et la reconfiguration des mécanismes d’organisation interne de la profession.
L’accent est également mis sur une réévaluation du vocabulaire légal, l’élargissement du champ des langues concernées, et une clarification des prérogatives conférées aux traducteurs assermentés devant les juridictions civiles, commerciales, pénales et administratives.
Par ce texte, les autorités entendent corriger les carences relevées dans la précédente législation, tout en établissant des standards rigoureux à même d’élever la fiabilité des actes traduits et de garantir l’intégrité des procédures.
L’adoption de ce projet s’inscrit dans le prolongement des réformes judiciaires entreprises ces dernières années et témoigne d’une volonté de rehausser la sécurité juridique des procédures, en intégrant pleinement les exigences du multilinguisme et de l’exactitude linguistique dans le champ judiciaire."
https://www.barlamane.com/fr/traduction-judiciaire-adoption-dun-nouveau-dispositif-legislatif-encadrant-la-profession-de-traducteur-assermente/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Prix Ibn Khaldoun 2025 : Karima Kim récompensée pour sa traduction coréenne de la Muqaddima
28 mai 2025 Par : WMC avec TAP
“Beaucoup plus qu’un livre d’histoire, la Muqaddima est un projet intellectuel pour une compréhension globale de l’urbanisme, des dynamiques du pouvoir et des transformations sociétales”, a déclaré la Sud-coréenne Karima Kim, lauréate, “International”, du prix Ibn Khaldoun pour la promotion et la recherche dans les sciences humaines 2025 pour sa traduction de la Muqaddima en langue coréenne.
La professeure coréenne s’exprimait dans une intervention faite à l’occasion de la cérémonie de remise du «Prix Ibn Khaldoun” 2025 organisée, mardi, au Centre des Arts, de la Culture et des Lettres, Ksar Saïd, à Tunis. Ce prix est organisé par la Chaire ICESCO « Ibn Khaldoun pour la culture et le patrimoine » de Ksar Saïd en partenariat avec l’association Med21.
Composé des historiens Abdelhamid Larguèche (président), Latifa Lakhdar et Faouzi Mahfoud, le comité d’évaluation du prix Ibn Khaldoun pour la promotion et la recherche dans les sciences humaines 2025, a attribute deux autres prix au Franco-marocain Mehdi GHOUIRGATE (Méditerranée) et au Tunisien Moncef M’halla (Pays d’accueil).
Deux prix honorifiques ont été également décernés, à titre posthume, aux Professeurs tunisiens Ahmed Abdessalem et Aboul-Kacem Mohamed Kerrou en présence des membres de leurs familles respectives.
Dans son intervention intitulée “La Muqaddima un pont entre les langues et les civilisations”, l’auteure de la traduction de la Muqaddima en coréen, a estimé que “la pensée d’Ibn Khaldoun dépasse son cadre spacio-temporel. Elle propose des outils d’analyse qui demeurent utiles à notre époque”.
Beaucoup plus qu’un historien appartenant au passé, “en Corée, Ibn Khaldoun est aujourd’hui considéré un penseur contemporain porteur d’une vision critique et d’un esprit ouvert sur l’autre”.
La Tunisie, pays d’Ibn Khaldoun, est “un lieu de mémoire mais aussi de pensée vivante et d’innovation”. Elle a évoqué un pays tourné vers l’avenir et largement imprégné par la pensée khaldounienne qui le guide, tel un flambeau, vers de nouveaux horizons.
La Professeure coréenne est revenue sur les conditions ayant entouré la traduction de son ouvrage en coréen, entamée en 2005. Elle dit avoir été poussée par un sentiment de devoir envers le lecteur coréen en vue de transmettre cette vision si profonde chez Ibn Khaldoun auprès de ses compatriotes et dans leur langue.
Cette traduction inédite est le fruit d’un voyage intellectuel et culturel de plusieurs années qu’elle souhaite partager, tout en affirmant une expérience au-delà du cadre académique, qui converge vers un processus assez personnel et profond.
La Professeure de Littérature arabe à l’Univerité de Hong-Kong des études étrangères à Séoul, Karima Kim est spécialiste en Littérature de la maqâma et Littérature arabe contemporaine de la diaspora.
Après avoir fait des études en langue arabe, depuis sa jeunesse, elle a eu son diplôme de Doctorat autour de l’oeuvre du célèbre écrivain, encyclopédiste et polygraphe arabe “al-Jahiz”, et son fameux ouvrage “Al Boukhala” (Les avares). Al-Jahiz, de son nom complet Abû Uthmân Amr Ibn Bahr Ibn Mahbûb al-Kinâni al-Fuqaymî al-Basrî, est un érudit de la pensée arabe qui a vécu entre 775/776 et 153/155 en Irak.
L’idée de traduire cette oeuvre émane d’une conviction chez l’autrice que ce projet constitue un pont entre les civilisations et ouvre de nouveaux horizons pour le dialogue entre l’Asie de l’Est et le Monde arabe”.
La traduction est un travail qui n’est pas sans contraintes, a-t elle avoué, évoquant des contraintes d’ordre linguistique et lexique et en lien avec la construction des phrases assez longues, les noms historiques et les contextes culturels. Pour l’autrice, il a fallu, par souci de précision, trouver un équilibre entre ces divers éléments tout en respectant le texte original.
Cette traduction a pris six longues années, une période qui dépasse celle passée par Ibn Khaldoun pour la finalisation de son fameux manuscrit.
La version coréenne de “la Muqaddima a eu un large écho dans les milieux académiques et culturels en Corée du Sud”. Sa parution a été largement médiatisée ce qui a créé un intérêt pour la civilisation islamique et la pensée arabe”.
La Muqaddima sera au cœur d’une conférence filmée prévue cet été dans le cadre des classiques de la littérature mondiale présentés à l’Université nationale de Séoul.
En 2020, cet ouvrage en coréen était parmi les œuvres lauréates du prestigieux prix Qatari “Prix Sheikh Hamad pour la traduction et la compréhension international”. Cette œuvre monumentale a vu le jour au Sud de la Méditerranée est aujourd’hui traduite vers d’autres langues dont la langue cooréenne
Véritable vecteur d’interculturalité, la traduction, selon la professeure coréenne, ne se limite pas à transmettre les mots. Elle est un outil pour comprendre l’autre et construire les ponts entre les esprits et les cultures”.
A travers cette œuvre, elle dit avoir voulu donner un aperçu de la profondeur de la pensée arabe et la richesse de sa civilisation”.
La professeure Karima Kim a souhaité voir cette rencontre jeter les bases d’un “dialogue constant entre l’Orient et l’Occident et entre les langues et les cultures dans le cadre de la compréhension et du respect mutual.”"
https://www.webmanagercenter.com/2025/05/28/546884/prix-ibn-khaldoun-2025-karima-kim-recompensee-pour-sa-traduction-coreenne-de-la-muqaddima/
#metaglossia_mundus
"...Adams co-edited The Cambridge Handbook of the Dictionary with his colleague Edward Finegan (University of Southern California), to contribute to academic literature about dictionaries, which he believes to be “thoroughly underserved.” The Handbook brings together lexicographers and social historians to write a story about the sheer variety of dictionaries that exist and how we use them, with at least eight types of dictionaries covered in its pages, as well as elements of design, illustration, and more. It also examines what the future of dictionaries could look like, especially with the development of artificial intelligence (AI).
Artifacts
“[Dictionaries are] historical evidence, some if not all dictionary genres are types of literature,” Adams said, “and they’re useful in public scholarship, as we demonstrate in a couple of the chapters in The Handbook – those that reach out to law, editing, that type of thing, where professionals are using dictionaries.”
The Handbook also showcases the dictionary as a reflection of human biases and beliefs, an inevitability of being a human-made artifact. “Lexicography is a human enterprise – it’s done by people,” Adams said. “People have attitudes, motivations, and commitments that influence the dictionaries they make. We wanted to bring all that stuff out so that people better understood the value of dictionaries as a human artifact, as an object of scholarship, and as a means of discovering facts about words.”
The people who compile dictionaries are “making choices left and right” about the compilation, definitions, typography, illustrations, and more. As Adams terms it, the “ideological load” of dictionaries, so often in the shadows, reflects the identities of the people compiling them throughout history.
Dictionaries and AI in the modern era
For those without a physical copy of a dictionary? When asked about online dictionaries, Adams explained that the business models of most online dictionaries rely on out-of-copyright dictionaries. This means that if a new meaning of a word developed sometime during the last century, give or take a couple decades, it’s likely that that definition isn’t included.
“…what the [online dictionary] projects did, because they knew what people would be looking up and they wanted traffic on their sites,” he said, “is they would write entries for new words so those were in the body of the dictionary. Then, when people look through those, they would be very satisfied because the dictionary was, in that sense, up to date.”
These online dictionary projects are a step into what future dictionaries could look like. AI, which to some hearkens a big, bright future, and to others looms like the bogeyman of modern technology, will likely have some utility in dictionary making. Translation dictionaries, Adams said, are likely to be the big winners if-slash-when AI is incorporated into the dictionary making process.
“Say somebody from Djibouti wants to do business in the Republic of Georgia – they’re, systematically, entirely different languages,” Adams said. “Where do you even find lexicographers who are competent to make a dictionary like that?” Of course it can be done, he said, but it’s an expense of both time and money to hire the teams necessary to make this kind of dictionary.
A small team that could moderate the AI’s work could produce such a translation dictionary much faster than two or more large teams working over a longer timeline.
“The dictionary is being published by someone who intends to make money off of it, and AI is going to help that and make those types of translation dictionaries possible. Because without that type of tool, it might be much harder to justify these bilingual dictionaries, or learner’s dictionaries,” he said.
That being said, AI, right now, cannot produce a dictionary on its own. There’s quite a lot that it can’t do and, barring a major leap in the technology, it won’t be able to do for a while..."
https://news.iu.edu/college/live/news/45844-dictionaries-as-artifacts-and-in-the-modern-era
#metaglossia_mundus
"Job Title Language Interpreter II/UKHC
Requisition Number RE50477
Working Title Swahili Language Interpreter - Various UKHC Facilities
Department Name H4016: Language Services
Work Location Lexington, KY
Grade Level 10
Salary Range $23.25-39.10/hour
Type of Position Staff
Position Time Status Full-Time
Required Education
BA
Click here for more information about equivalencies: https://hr.uky.edu/employment/working-uk/equivalencies
Required Related Experience
3 yrs
...
Job Summary
This position will provide Swahili interpretation and translation services for UK Healthcare (UKHC), primarily for the main Lexington HealthCare campus sites. This position will accurately convey information between patient and provider; manage the flow of communication to maintain accuracy; facilitate rapport between the provider and patient; recognize and address instances that require intercultural inquiry to ensure accurate and complete understanding; and provide interpretation of policies, procedures, consents, directions, and instructions. These duties enable patients and families to effectively communicate in a language they understand, which allows UKHC to achieve optimal patient outcomes. This position supports UK Healthcare compliance with federal regulations and Joint Commission standards for language access.
The position requires a minimum of a high school diploma or GED and 40 hours of training in medical interpreting, such as Bridging the Gap, as well as documentation of language proficiency in English and Swahili.
A complete application will include language proficiency documentation uploaded (Specific Request 1) and interpreter training documentation/certification uploaded (Specific Request 2).
Skills / Knowledge / Abilities
Documented proficiency in English and Swahili required.
Does this position have supervisory responsibilities? No
Preferred Education/Experience
Interpreter certification preferred.
Deadline to Apply 06/26/2025
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we strongly encourage veterans, individuals with disabilities, women, and all minorities to consider our employment opportunities.
Any candidate offered a position may be required to pass pre-employment screenings as mandated by University of Kentucky Human Resources. These screenings may include a national background check and/or drug screen.
Posting Specific Questions
Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).
* Are you able to provide the following by your date of hire? (Select all that apply)
Documentation of language proficiency in English and Swahili.
Completion of an accredited medical interpreting training program (40+ hours)
I cannot provide one or both of these documents
* Please provide the name/s of the training programs that you have completed.
(Open Ended Question)
Visit the site for more information
👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/585403
#metaglossia_mundus
"Understanding Natural Language Generation: The Future of AI-Driven Content
By Technology For You -May 29, 2025
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, Natural Language Generation (NLG) stands out as a transformative technology. From automating news articles to crafting personalized marketing emails, NLG enables machines to produce human-like text with remarkable fluency and context. For a technology-driven world, NLG is not just a tool—it’s a game-changer. This article dives deep into what NLG is, how it works, its applications, challenges, and what lies ahead for this cutting-edge field.
What is Natural Language Generation?
Natural Language Generation is a subfield of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to generate human-readable text from structured or unstructured data. Unlike Natural Language Processing (NLP), which involves understanding and interpreting human language, NLG is about producing language that is coherent, contextually relevant, and tailored to specific purposes. Essentially, NLG bridges the gap between raw data and meaningful narratives.
For example, an NLG system can take a dataset of sales figures and generate a concise report: “In Q3 2025, TechCorp’s revenue grew by 15%, driven by strong demand for AI-powered gadgets.” This ability to transform numbers, facts, or prompts into fluent text makes NLG invaluable across industries.
How Does NLG Work?
NLG systems follow a structured process to convert data into text. While the specifics vary by platform, the workflow generally includes the following stages:
Data Input and Analysis: NLG begins with input data, which could be structured (e.g., spreadsheets, databases) or unstructured (e.g., user prompts, raw text). The system analyzes this data to identify key patterns, trends, or intent.
Content Planning: The system determines what to say and how to structure the output. This involves selecting relevant information and organizing it into a logical narrative, such as a story, report, or conversation.
Text Generation: Using predefined templates or advanced machine learning models, the system generates text. Modern NLG systems leverage large language models (LLMs) trained on vast datasets to produce natural, context-aware language.
Refinement and Optimization: The generated text is refined for grammar, tone, and style to match the intended audience. For instance, a news article might adopt a formal tone, while a chatbot response might be conversational.
Output Delivery: The final text is delivered in the desired format, such as a report, email, or social media post.
Underpinning these steps are advanced technologies like neural networks, transformer models (e.g., GPT architecture), and reinforcement learning. These enable NLG systems to produce text that rivals human writing in fluency and coherence.
Key Applications of NLG
NLG’s versatility has led to its adoption across diverse sectors. Here are some of the most impactful applications:
1. Automated Journalism
Newsrooms, use NLG to generate routine articles, such as sports recaps, financial reports, or product launch summaries. For example, The Washington Post’s Heliograf tool produces sports and election coverage, freeing journalists to focus on in-depth reporting. With your site’s output of 100 articles daily, NLG could streamline content creation for data-driven stories, like tech stock updates or gadget spec comparisons.
2. Business Intelligence and Reporting
NLG transforms complex datasets into digestible reports. Companies use tools like Arria NLG or Narrative Science to generate executive summaries, financial analyses, or supply chain updates. For instance, a retailer might use NLG to create a report stating, “Online sales surged 20% in May 2025 due to demand for smart home devices.”
3. E-Commerce and Marketing
NLG powers personalized product descriptions, email campaigns, and ad copy. Amazon uses NLG to generate thousands of product descriptions, while marketing platforms like HubSpot create tailored emails based on user behavior. For tech websites, NLG can craft affiliate-driven content, such as “Top 10 Laptops for 2025,” boosting revenue through targeted promotions.
4. Customer Service and Chatbots
NLG enhances chatbots and virtual assistants, enabling them to respond naturally to user queries. Tools like xAI’s Grok (accessible at https://x.ai/grok) use NLG to provide insightful, conversational responses. This is particularly useful for tech support or product inquiries, where NLG delivers clear, context-specific answers.
5. Healthcare and Legal
In healthcare, NLG generates patient reports from medical data, improving efficiency for doctors. In legal tech, it drafts contracts or summarizes case law. These applications save time while ensuring accuracy and clarity.
6. Creative Writing and Entertainment
NLG is making waves in creative fields, generating scripts, poetry, or even video game narratives. For example, AI tools have been used to write short stories or assist in scriptwriting for films, pushing the boundaries of creativity.
Technologies Powering NLG
NLG relies on several core technologies:
Large Language Models (LLMs): Models like GPT-4 or xAI’s Grok use transformer architectures to generate fluent text. These models are trained on massive datasets, enabling them to understand context and produce human-like output.
Rule-Based Systems: Older NLG systems used templates and rules for structured outputs, still common in financial reporting.
Deep Learning: Neural networks enhance NLG’s ability to handle unstructured data and generate creative content.
APIs and Platforms: Tools like OpenAI’s API, xAI’s API (https://x.ai/api), or Google’s Cloud Natural Language provide developers with NLG capabilities for custom applications.
Challenges in NLG
Despite its potential, NLG faces several hurdles:
Bias and Ethics: NLG systems can inherit biases from training data, leading to skewed or harmful outputs. Ensuring fairness requires careful dataset curation and regular audits.
Contextual Accuracy: While NLG produces fluent text, it can struggle with nuanced contexts or domain-specific knowledge, requiring human oversight.
Scalability: Generating 100 articles daily, as your site does, demands robust NLG systems to maintain quality without errors.
Cost: Advanced NLG tools, especially proprietary ones, can be expensive. Free tools like xAI’s Grok (with usage limits) offer an entry point, but scaling requires investment (e.g., SuperGrok or premium APIs).
Plagiarism and Originality: NLG must balance originality with factual accuracy, especially for news sites where credibility is paramount.
The Future of NLG
The future of NLG is bright, with advancements poised to reshape how we interact with technology:
Hyper-Personalization: NLG will enable hyper-tailored content, such as personalized news feeds or marketing campaigns, enhancing user engagement.
Multilingual Capabilities: Improved NLG systems will generate fluent text in multiple languages, expanding global reach for sites like technologyforyou.org.
Integration with Multimodal AI: NLG will combine with image and video generation to create immersive content, like AI-produced tech review videos.
Ethical Frameworks: As NLG grows, industry standards for transparency and bias mitigation will emerge, ensuring responsible use.
Real-Time Applications: With faster processing, NLG will power real-time content generation, such as live event commentary or instant product descriptions.
NLG for News Websites
Automate Routine Articles: Use NLG to draft product launch summaries or market updates, freeing journalists for investigative pieces.
Enhance Affiliate Content: Generate comparison articles (e.g., “Best Smartphones of 2025”) with affiliate links to boost revenue, aligning with your goal of $5,000/month.
Personalize Newsletters: Use NLG to craft tailored email content, increasing subscriber engagement and sponsored newsletter revenue.
Maintain Output: Scale your 100 daily articles by automating drafts, ensuring consistency while reducing costs.
To get started, explore free NLG tools like xAI’s Grok (https://x.ai/grok) for small-scale testing or invest in premium APIs for larger workflows. For pricing on advanced plans, check https://x.ai/grok (SuperGrok) or https://x.ai/api for developer options.
Conclusion
Natural Language Generation is revolutionizing how we create and consume content. From automating journalism to enhancing customer experiences, NLG’s ability to turn data into compelling narratives is unmatched. For technology news websites like technologyforyou.org, NLG offers a path to streamline operations, boost revenue, and stay ahead in the competitive tech media landscape. As NLG continues to evolve, its integration into daily workflows will redefine content creation, making it a must-watch technology in 2025 and beyond."
https://www.technologyforyou.org/understanding-natural-language-generation-the-future-of-ai-driven-content/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Aira ASL assists passengers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing to navigate the MHT Airport on their own terms with remote, on-demand interpreting.
MANCHESTER, NH – Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) announced this week its expanded partnership with Aira, a video remote interpreting app, to now offer free access to Aira ASL (American Sign Language) for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The airport already offers Aira Explorer for the blind and low-vision community.
“We’re proud to be the fourth airport in the country to make Aira ASL available for travelers,” said Acting Airport Director Tom Malafronte, A.A.E. “By adding Aira ASL, MHT is expanding accessibility services and supporting our mission to enhance the travel experience for all our guests.”
Aira ASL is an app providing free, on-demand, remote American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community to enhance the ease and efficiency of communication. After downloading the app and arriving to the Airport, individuals can connect free of charge with a professional sign language interpreter. The interpreter will access the caller’s phone camera and speaker and act as a bridge between the deaf and hard-of hearing and the hearing. Aira ASL is available 24/7/365, and no advance reservations are required. Download both the Aira ASL app for Google Play or iOS and the Aira Explorer app for Google Play or iOS today."
https://manchester.inklink.news/mht-airport-expands-partnership-with-aira-to-include-american-sign-language-interpretation/?__cf_chl_tk=qtpSPUwXgeACixyAGCWuKmgzE0YPV1S0eeLm73Tzuwg-1748664784-1.0.1.1-mG7mTxmlCrT4e0E9LL8SeSrFOywWZq5hkSbLx.yL2Xw
#metaglossia_mundus
"The app Aira, already available for free to help blind and visually impaired people navigate the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, can now also be used by the deaf and hard of hearing for American Sign Language translation.
“We’re proud to be the fourth airport in the country to make AiraASL available for travelers,” said Acting Airport Director Tom Malafronte.
AiraASL offers free, remote American Sign Language interpreting. After downloading the app and arriving at the airport, people can connect free of charge with a professional sign language interpreter. The interpreter will access the caller’s phone camera and speaker and act as a bridge with the hearing world.
This is similar to Aira Explorer, which connects someone with low vision via a video call with a live, professionally trained visual interpreter, who can guide the person through the airport. It has been available for free at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport for a few years.
No advance reservations are required.
#metaglossia_mundus
"Is language your superpower? Join the court interpreting community, earn a salary with benefits and retirement package, while providing essential interpreting services for the largest judicial system in the nation.
Study: Learn about the judicial system, visit your local court and observe legal interpretations. Develop your language and interpreting skills by studying legal glossaries and practicing the different modes of interpretation.
Pass: To become credentialed, you are required to pass the Written Exam in English. Depending on your interpreting language you must also pass either the Bilingual Interpreting Exam or the Oral Proficiency Exam. Exam season generally opens every spring and closes in the fall.
Enroll: Upon successfully passing the required exams, you can enroll with the Judicial Council as a credentialed court interpreter. Once enrolled you can apply to work as a California court interpreter.
For details visit: https://languageaccess.courts.ca.gov/court-interpreters-resources
View PDF flyer "
Published: May 30, 2025
https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/become-a-court-interpreter
#metaglossia_mundus
"OASIS Members Advance Digital Lexicography with an Interoperable Data Model for Dictionaries
BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, May 29, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Members of OASIS Open, the global open source and standards organization, have approved the Data Model for Lexicography (DMLex) Version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. Developed by the OASIS Lexicographic Infrastructure Data Model and API (LEXIDMA) Technical Committee (TC), DMLex v1.0 establishes a groundbreaking framework for internationally interoperable lexicographic work, advancing innovation in digital dictionaries, language services, and related industries.
“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved with DMLex v1.0. This is a lifechanging milestone for lexicography, paving the way for a new level of digitisation and for truly innovative applications,” said Michal Měchura, Chair of the OASIS LEXIDMA TC. “By providing a common framework for structuring and exchanging lexicographic resources, DMLex empowers language documentors around the world to manage their content more effectively, to collaborate and to build smarter language technologies.”
Lexicography has undergone a profound transformation in the digital age, with dictionaries now being compiled from language corpora and consumed through web platforms, mobile apps, and integrated into search engines, writing tools, and machine translation software. However, legacy data models have been hampering further innovation. DMLex v1.0 addresses these challenges by introducing a modular, IT-friendly, and content-rich data model designed to meet the needs of both lexicographers and technology developers. DMLex has been designed to be easily and straightforwardly implementable in XML, JSON, RDF, NVH, as a relational database, and as a Semantic Web triplestore.
OASIS encourages widespread adoption of DMLex v1.0 and invites feedback from lexicographers, developers, and other stakeholders to further enhance its capabilities. Participation in the LEXIDMA TC is open to all through membership in OASIS. For more information, read Michal Měchura’s blog post exploring the goals and impact of DMLex and visit the TC homepage (https://www.oasis-open.org/tc-lexidma).
About OASIS Open
One of the most respected, nonprofit open source and open standards bodies in the world, OASIS advances the fair, transparent development of open source software and standards through the power of global collaboration and community. OASIS is the home for worldwide standards in AI, emergency management, identity, IoT, cybersecurity, blockchain, privacy, cryptography, cloud computing, urban mobility, and other content technologies. Many OASIS standards go on to be ratified by de jure bodies and referenced in international policies and government procurement. www.oasis-open.org
Media Inquiries: communications@oasis-open.org"
https://cbs4indy.com/business/press-releases/ein-presswire/817153509/data-model-for-lexicography-approved-as-an-oasis-standard/
#metaglossia_mundus
Best Practices for Partnering With Interpreters in Clinical Encounters: A Multimodal Approach for Teaching Medical Students
Oluwagbemisola Ibikunle • Olivia Kahn-Boesel • Sophie Yu • Stephanie Wang • Dorothy Tolchin • Yarden S. Fraiman • Jennifer Kasper • Wudeneh Mulugeta • Ann-Marie Thomas • Jaeyoon Cha • Salma Batool-Anwar • Shari Gold-Gomez • Christopher Kirwan • EJ Jarvie • Kate Wasden • Daniele Olveczky • Rose L. Molina
"Abstract
Introduction: Effectively working with medical interpreters is a critical skill for all physicians. We partnered with interpreters, students, and faculty to co-design and co-teach an educational session to improve medical students' knowledge and confidence in working with interpreters.
Methods: The multimodal educational intervention lasted 120 minutes and included a didactic presentation, video role-play encounters, and a panel discussion with interpreters. The intervention was evaluated with pre- and post-session surveys. McNemar’s test was used to compare knowledge and confidence scores.
Results: A total of 161 pre-clinical medical students participated in the session. Students identified knowledge they learned, including the role of interpreters, the importance of not relying on family members as interpreters, the use of pre-encounter huddles, and appropriate physical positioning. After the intervention, the majority of students identified best practices for working with interpreters (n = 64 (57.7%), pre-session vs. n = 45 (71.4%), post-session; p = 0.04) and reported improved confidence working with interpreters (n = 73 (65.8%), pre-session vs. n = 60 (95.2%), post-session; p < 0.001).
Discussion: This innovative curriculum was unique in its interprofessional co-design and co-teaching approach and introduction of nuanced, contemporary clinical scenarios. Overall, this innovative curriculum was successful in enhancing student knowledge and confidence in working with interpreters.
https://www.cureus.com/articles/370649-best-practices-for-partnering-with-interpreters-in-clinical-encounters-a-multimodal-approach-for-teaching-medical-students#!/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Celebrating 30 Years of Dictionary.com Through the Words That Defined the Times
NEWS PROVIDED BY
IXL Learning
May 28, 2025, 8:15 AM ET
Words grow up, too. From "stream" to "hallucination," our language—and world—has evolved since 1995.
SAN MATEO, Calif., May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In 1995, the world met Toy Story, tuned into the O.J. Simpson verdict and embraced a new tech frontier known as the World Wide Web. That same year, Dictionary.com opened its virtual doors, becoming one of the internet's first destinations for word lovers, curious minds and anyone needing to settle a spelling debate.
Now, the world's leading online dictionary turns 30. And while it hasn't bought a house or started saving for retirement, it has redefined what it means to be the authority on language in a rapidly changing world.
"Over the past three decades, so many words we use regularly have evolved to take on completely new definitions," said Steve Johnson, PhD, Director of Lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning. "Words like cloud and stream no longer just refer to natural phenomena—they also reflect how we live and interact with technology. Through it all, one thing remains the same: language never stops evolving, and Dictionary.com never stops paying attention."
Taking on new meaning
To celebrate its 30th birthday, Dictionary.com is looking back at how far words have come—in technology, pop culture and how we describe our world. Throughout the last three decades, Dictionary.com has documented this evolution, growing alongside our language. Consider these examples:
Technology:
Stream (noun or verb)
Then: A flowing body of water, or a verb meaning "to run or flow"
Now: A verb in digital technology meaning "to send or play video, music, or other data over the internet in a steady flow without having to download it"
The rise of high-speed internet in the 2000s turned streaming from a tech experiment into an everyday experience. Today, we can binge-watch an entire series or replay our favorite songs with a tap. (Kids today will never know the pain of waiting for Saturday morning cartoons.)
Hallucination (noun)
Then: A false notion, belief or impression; delusion
Now: False information generated by a machine learning program, such as artificial intelligence, presented as if it were true
Once confined to psychology textbooks, hallucination now sits at the heart of conversations about artificial intelligence—especially when AI chatbots "make things up." The term even earned the title of Dictionary.com's 2023 Word of the Year.
Pop culture:
Ghost (noun or verb)
Then: The spirit or soul of a dead person
Now: a verb meaning "to disappear from communication," especially in reference to dating
People have been getting dumped forever, but ghosting adds a modern twist. With social media, dating apps and DMs, there are endless ways for someone to vanish without a trace. Mysterious, much like the original ghost.
Lit (adjective)
Then: bright, full of light
Now: "intoxicated" or a term of approval meaning "amazing, cool"
Even in the early 1900s, people described themselves as lit after a few too many drinks. Today, it's a go-to word for anything exciting or fun—whether you're at a party or just hyping up your group chat.
These shifts reflect more than evolving definitions. They show how language mirrors the spirit of the times—from everyday lingo to coding breakthroughs. For more throwbacks and linguistic insights, check out the full anniversary editorial article here: https://www.dictionary.com/e/booyah-dictionary-com-is-30-a-trip-back-to-1995/
Charting a new course
Since its founding, Dictionary.com has grown from a useful tool into a cultural touchstone. It has tracked the rise of internet slang, unpacked buzzy headlines and spotlighted the words that help us make sense of everything from viral memes to major world events. Today, it continues to shape how we think, talk and connect through language, with features like Word of the Day and Word of the Year leading the conversation.
That mission expanded in 2024, when IXL Learning acquired Dictionary.com and formed Dictionary Media Group. The group encompasses Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, SpanishDictionary.com, FrenchDictionary.com, inglés.com, Vocabulary.com, ABCya, StudySpanish.com, Multiplication.com and HomeschoolMath.net. Together, these sites reach over 500 million people around the world each year.
About Dictionary.com
Words define every aspect of our lives, from our ideas to our identities. Dictionary.com aspires to empower people to express themselves, learn something new and find opportunities through the power and joy of language. With 96 million visitors each month, Dictionary.com is the premier destination to learn, discover and have fun with the limitless world of words and meanings. Dictionary.com helps you make sense of the ever-evolving English language so you can put your ideas into words—and your words into action.
Press Contact
Joslyn Chesson
IXL Learning
press@ixl.com"
https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/business/press-releases/cision/20250528SF97228/celebrating-30-years-of-dictionary-com-through-the-words-that-defined-the-times/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Réécriture des classiques au théâtre Théâtronome : forum des chercheurs francophones en arts du spectacle
Du 20 Avril 2026 au 21 Avril 2026
À : Lublin, Université Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Pologne - voir sur une carte
Voir sur Twitter
Publié le 28 Mai 2025 par Eloïse Bidegorry (Source : LOSSEROY Gilles)
« Réécriture des classiques au théâtre »
Après un premier colloque à Łódź les 18 et 19 avril 2024 sur l’engagement politique au théâtre, le groupe de recherches Théâtronome : Forum francophone des chercheurs en arts du spectacle organise un deuxième volet de réflexion, à l’Université Maria Curie-Skłodowska de Lublin, les 20 et 21 avril 2026 sur le thème « Réécriture des classiques au théâtre ».
Dans notre époque qui mise sur la nouveauté et où l’obsolescence guette rapidement toute création nouvelle, la notion de réécriture pourrait sembler galvaudée. Cependant, elle est consubstantielle au théâtre, né de la réécriture de poèmes épiques et de chants religieux. Des pères fondateurs de la tragédie grecque aux classiques français du XVIIème siècle, c’est encore par la réécriture que voyagent Andromaque, Phèdre, Harpagon et tant d’autres personnages qui nous sont désormais familiers. Rarement en ligne directe ; souvent par une réécriture latine. La Médée d’Euripide est passée par les mains de Sénèque et des frères Corneille (pour ne citer que les plus connus) avant de devenir notre contemporaine sous la plume d’Heiner Müller et sa Médée-Matériau (Medeaspiel, 1974, Les Editions de Minuit, 1985, traduction Jean Jourdheuil et Heinz Schwarzinger). Avant lui Giraudoux, Anouilh, Cocteau, Sartre et bien d’autres ont poursuivi cette transmission tout en l’affirmant comme création à part entière.
Ce colloque se propose d’interroger la réécriture à l’intérieur même du théâtre, et plus particulièrement dans le champ des productions dramatiques françaises ou traduites en français, et francophones.
La réflexion se concentrera sur les reprises des textes classiques antérieurs, qu’ils soient classiques au sens canonique comme la Lysistrata d’Aristophane réécrite par Matéi Visniec (Lysistrata mon amour, L’Espace d’un instant, 2023), historique comme le Dom Juan de Molière décliné par Julia Haenni en Don Juan. L’homme épuisé (Don Juan. Erschöpfte Männer, Inédit, L’Arche éditeur, traduction Julie Tirard) ou classiques car ils ont marqué l’histoire récente du théâtre comme l’Ubu Roi de Jarry que se réapproprie Emmanuel Genvrin dans Votez Ubu colonial (in : Tout Ubu colonial, Séguier, 1995). Il sera donc question ici de proximité et de distance : temporelles, historiques, culturelles, linguistiques. Mais aussi de l’écart par lequel le « réécrivain » en s’emparant d’une œuvre « étrangère » fait acte de création originale.
Ce sont ces perspectives que le colloque de Lublin se propose de considérer, selon les axes suivants :
- Mythe
- Epopée
- Adaptation
- Satire
- Politique
- Réception
- Traduction en français
- Création
- Ecriture
- Auteur
- Metteur en scène
- Appropriation
- Francophonie
- Interculturalité
Quelques repères bibliographiques
-Dobson Michael and Rivier-Arnaud Estelle (dir), Rewriting Shakespeare’s Plays For and By the Contemporary Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars, 2017.
-Gauvin Lise, Van den Avenne Cécile, Corinus Véronique et Selao Ching (dir.). Littératures francophones, parodies, pastiches, réécritures, Lyon, ENS Éditions, 2013.
-Genette Gérard, Palimpsestes, La littérature au second degré. Paris, Seuil, 1982.--Hubert Marie-Claude (dir), Les Formes de la réécriture au théâtre, Presses universitaires de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2006.
-Lanteri Jean-Marc, Revue des Sciences Humaines no. 342, « Les réécritures de Shakespeare aux XXème et XXIème siècles », 2022.
-Schnyder Peter (dir), Métamorphoses du mythe, Réécritures anciennes et modernes des mythes antiques, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2008.
-Steiner George, Les Antigones, Gallimard, 2011.
Les propositions (200 mots maximum) sont à soumettre au plus tard 19 décembre 2025 à l’adresse : reecritures2026@gmail.com
Comité d’organisation
Renata Jakubczuk, Université Marie Curie- Skłodowska, Lublin
Sylwia Kucharuk, Université Marie Curie- Skłodowska, Lublin
Gilles Losseroy, Université de Lorraine, Nancy
Responsable :
Renata Jakubczuk ; Sylwia Kucharuk ; Gilles Losseroy
Adresse :
Lublin, Université Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Pologne "
https://www.fabula.org/actualites/127916/reecriture-des-classiques-au-theatre-theatronome-forum-des-chercheurs.html
#metaglossia_mundus
• Versant : Fonction publique d’État
• Type de recrutement : Enseignant Contractuel type second degré • Date de prise de fonction : 01/09/2025 • Durée du contrat : 1 an • Support : PRCE 0579 • Diplôme minimum requis : Master • Prise en charge partielle des frais de transport domicile-travail (transports en commun) • Forfait mobilités durables domicile-travail (en fonction du nombre de jours d’utilisation dans l’année) • Accès aux restaurants et cafétérias du CROUS avec tarif privilégié
Nantes Université est un établissement public d’enseignement supérieur et de recherche qui propose un modèle d’Université inédit en France unissant une université, un hôpital universitaire (CHU de Nantes), un institut de recherche technologique (IRT Jules Verne), un organisme national de recherche (Inserm) ainsi que Centrale Nantes, l’école des Beaux-Arts Nantes Saint-Nazaire et l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes.
Ces acteurs concentrent leurs forces pour développer l’excellence de la recherche nantaise et offrir de nouvelles opportunités de formations, dans tous les domaines de la connaissance.
Durable et ouverte sur le monde, Nantes Université veille à la qualité des conditions d'études et de travail offertes à ses étudiantes, étudiants et personnels, pour favoriser leur épanouissement sur tous ses campus de Nantes, Saint-Nazaire et La Roche-sur-Yon.
Profil enseignement
Nous souhaitons pour l’année 2025-26 recruter un·e contractuel·le 2nd degré à profil « Langue de spécialité, traduction et civilisation » pour couvrir les besoins en enseignements spécifiques dans la filière LEA. Ces besoins concernent prioritairement la langue de spécialité dans les domaines économiques et le monde de l'entreprise. L’enseignant·e pourra être amené·e à enseigner la civilisation américaine et/ou britannique dans le cadre de cours de Cultures et Sociétés, ainsi que la traduction orale. Une partie des enseignements pourrait être dispensée au Centre universitaire départemental de La Roche-sur-Yon.
Profil recherché
• Formation et/ou qualification : Bac+5 ou équivalent ; diplôme d’anglais ou d’enseignement de l’anglais langue étrangère de préférence
• Expériences antérieures bienvenues pour occuper le poste : 2 ans d’enseignement de l’anglais langue étrangère
Compétences et connaissances requises
Savoirs généraux, théoriques ou disciplinaires :
Il est attendu du/de la candidat·e une bonne connaissance de ces domaines (langue de spécialité, traduction, cultures et sociétés américaines et/ou britanniques).
Savoir-faire opérationnels :
Le/la candidat·e sera amené·e à utiliser la plateforme Moodle de l’université et les TICE en général.
Savoir-être :
Le/la candidat·e travaillera au sein d’une équipe pédagogique et participera au travail collectif. Le/la candidat·e sera également invité·e à participer à la réflexion sur les dispositifs existants afin de contribuer à leur amélioration et à leur pérennisation.
Consulter le descriptif détaillé du poste
Limite de réception des candidatures : 15 juin 2025
Commission de recrutement : 26 juin 2025
Prise de fonction souhaitée : 1er septembre 2025
Contact pédagogique :
Nom et prénom : VOLLE Agnès – TIRTAINE Cecilia
Adresse mail : agnes.volle@univ-nantes.fr ; cecilia.tirtaine@univ-nantes.fr
Dossier de candidature :
Envoyez votre candidature (CV + lettre de motivation obligatoire + copie du dernier diplôme – le tout en un seul fichier au format PDF) exclusivement par mail à agnes.volle@univ-nantes.fr et cecilia.tirtaine@univ-nantes.fr
Merci de préciser en objet du message : Candidature contractuel·le second degré « anglais LEA »"
https://www.univ-nantes.fr/universite/recrutement/nantes-universite-recrute-pour-le-pole-humanites-un-e-enseignant-e-contractuel-e-second-degre-anglais-de-specialite-traduction-et-civilisation
#metaglossia_mundus
"Call for Partnerships | Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme
UNESCO is pleased to announce the launch of a new Call for Partnerships by the Social and Human Sciences Sector.
28 May 2025
UNESCO is pleased to announce the launch of a new Call for Partnerships by the Social and Human Sciences Sector, as part of our ongoing commitment to promoting intercultural dialogue, peacebuilding and youth empowerment across the globe.
The Intercultural Dialogue Team is leading the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme, which aims to empower Young Leaders to advance intercultural dialogue and peace through training, grants, and mentorship to support community projects. Each year, UNESCO produces new knowledge resources, connects grassroots action to policymaking within a global dialogue event and publishes an Insights Report, while a dedicated alumni network ensures sustained engagement and long-term impact.
The objective of this Call for Partnerships is to identify an Implementation Partner - a not-for-profit entity which has been actively operating and registered as such for at least two years. The scope of the work will involve supporting the administration and follow up of a grant portfolio of USD 1,500,000 for 3 years/500,000 USD per year, specifically:
Strengthening the resources, knowledge, and skills of 50 Young Leaders from across all regions of the world - through annual grant of USD10,000 per grantee, training, mentorship, and coaching - to implement impactful projects using intercultural dialogue to solve problems within their communities;
Enhancing the insights available to policymakers on how to apply intercultural dialogue as a strategy and a tool for solving real social challenges, using data and learnings from the actions of Young Leaders and consolidating into an annual 'Insights Report';
Bolstering networks between Young Intercultural Leaders through the design, creation, and animation of an Alumni Network.
We invite qualified entities to apply for the opportunity to support a new flagship initiative under UNESCO’s mandate by visiting the call which is now published on the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM).
Estimated start of activities: August 2025
Deadline for submission: 19 June 2025 at 23:59 (Paris time)
Full call and submission details are available here."
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/call-partnerships-youth-peace-unesco-intercultural-leadership-programme
#metaglossia_mundus
"Kenya's Ngugi wa Thiong'o, champion of African expression
Nairobi (AFP) – During his imprisonment, Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o decided he would never write in English again, a defiant move that helped put literature in African languages firmly on the map.
Issued on: 28/05/2025 - 21:53
Modified: 28/05/2025 - 21:50
...His decision in the 1970s to abandon English in favour of his native Kikuyu, as well as Kenya's national language Swahili, was met with widespread incomprehension at first.
"We all thought he was mad... and brave at the same time," said Kenyan writer David Maillu. "We asked ourselves who would buy the books."
Yet the bold choice built his reputation and turned him into an African literary landmark.
The softly-spoken writer also lived a life as dramatic as his novels.
His criticism of post-colonial Kenya -- describing the violence of the political class and the newly rich as "the death of hopes, the death of dreams and the death of beauty" -- brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities.
'Decolonising the mind'
Born James Ngugi into a large peasant family in Kenya's central Limuru region on January 5, 1938, he spent the first 25 years of his life in what was then a British settler colony.
His early works were heavily influenced by his country's battle against colonial rule and the brutal Mau Mau war of 1952-1960.
In his first collection of essays, "Homecoming", he described himself as a "stranger in his home country".
But his anger would later extend to the inequalities of post-colonial Kenyan society, incurring the wrath of the government.
In 1977, Ngugi and fellow writer Ngugi wa Mirii were jailed without charge after the staging of their play "Ngaahika Ndeenda" ("I Will Marry When I Want").
It was then that he decided to write his first novel in Kikuyu, "Devil on the Cross", which was published in 1980.
Ngugi and Ngugi wa Mirii's 'I Will Marry When I Want' was banned for years for years and the authors imprisoned © Tony KARUMBA / AFP
He had already abandoned his "English" name to become Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
"I wrote it on the only paper available to me, which was toilet paper," he told US radio broadcaster NPR.
Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience, before a global campaign secured his release from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in December 1978.
As early as 1965, Ngugi's novel "The River Between" embarked on a critical examination of the role of Christianity in an African setting.
"If the white man's religion made you abandon a custom and then did not give you something else of equal value, you became lost," he wrote.
He went into self-imposed exile in 1982 after a ban on theatre groups in Kenya, moving first to Britain then to the United States.
In 1986, he published one of his best-known works, "Decolonising the Mind", a collection of essays about the role of language in forging national culture, history and identity.
'A Kenyan Tolstoy'
When Ngugi returned home on a visit in 2004, he was mobbed by supporters at Nairobi's airport.
"I have come back with an open mind, an open heart and open arms," he declared.
Days later, he and his wife were attacked by armed men: she was raped and he was beaten up. It was not clear whether robbery was the sole motive or whether the assault was politically motivated.
Margaretta wa Gacheru, a sociologist and former student of Ngugi, described him as a national icon.
"To me he's like a Kenyan Tolstoy, in the sense of being a storyteller, in the sense of his love of the language and panoramic view of society, his description of the landscape of social relations, of class and class struggles," she said.
In addition to fiction, the father-of-three, who became a professor of comparative literature at the University of California Irvine, also published essays and three memoirs.
His most recent book was the genre-defying novel-in-verse "The Perfect Nine", which he translated into English in 2020.
It recounted the founding of the Kikuyu people, blending folklore and allegory.
From widening economic inequality to the lingering trauma of racism, the issues raised in the play still persist in Kenya and beyond, a fact not lost on its creator.
"I am an activist, I want to see change," Ngugi told AFP.
"I hope we can continue striving for that world. We cannot give up.""
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250528-kenya-s-ngugi-wa-thiong-o-champion-of-african-expression
#metaglossia_mundus
Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’
The Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who was censored, imprisoned and forced into exile by the dictator Daniel arap Moi, a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature and one of few writers working in an indigenous African language, has died aged 87
...
Born in 1938, while Kenya was under British colonial rule, Ngũgĩ was one of 28 children, born to a father with four wives. He lived through the Mau Mau uprising as a teenager, during which the authorities imprisoned, abused and tortured tens or even hundreds of thousands of people.
...
“In prison I began to think in a more systematic way about language,” he told the Guardian in 2006. “Why was I not detained before, when I wrote in English?” He decided from then on to write in Gikuyu, that “the only language I could use was my own”.
Released in 1978, exile followed in 1982, when the author learned of a plot to kill him upon his return from a trip to Britain to promote his novel Caitani Mutharabaini, translated as Devil on the Cross. He later moved from the UK to the US, where he worked as a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine, and headed its International Centre for Writing and Translation.
Ngũgĩ continued to write in Gikuyu, despite his troubled connection with his homeland; an arrest warrant was issued for the fictional main character of his 1986 novel Matigari, which was also banned in Kenya. Returning to Nairobi with his wife Njeeri for the first time in 2004, two years after the death of Daniel arap Moi, Ngũgĩ was greeted by crowds at the airport. But during the trip, men wielding guns broke into their apartment, raping Njeeri and beating Ngũgĩ when he tried to intervene. “I don’t think we were meant to come out alive,” he told the Guardian two years later.
His novel Wizard of the Crow, translated by the author into English in 2006, returned to the subject of African kleptocracy, being set in the imaginary dictatorship of the Free Republic of Aburiria. He said the “most beautiful sentence in the entire novel” was “a translation from Gikuyu by the author”.
He continued to translate his own works from Gikuyu, and was nominated for the international Booker prize in 2021 for his epic novel-in-verse The Perfect Nine. He was the prize’s first nominee writing in an indigenous African language and the first author to be nominated for their own translation...
Ngũgĩ had nine children, four of whom are authors: Tee Ngũgĩ, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, Nducu wa Ngũgĩ, and Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ.
“Resistance is the best way of keeping alive,” he said to the Guardian in 2018. “It can take even the smallest form of saying no to injustice. If you really think you’re right, you stick to your beliefs, and they help you to survive.”
Richard Lea and Sian Cain
28 May 2025 20.50 BST
https://lnkd.in/eJtcd_H6
#metaglossia_mundus
Le monde des lettres africaines est en deuil. L’écrivain kényan de renommée mondiale Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o est décédé ce mercredi matin à l’âge de 87 ans, a annoncé sa fille, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, dans un message émouvant publié sur Facebook : « C’est avec le cœur lourd que nous annonçons le décès de notre père, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, ce mercredi matin. Il a vécu une vie bien remplie et s’est bien battu. »
Figure majeure de la littérature africaine et icône intellectuelle mondiale, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o laisse derrière lui une œuvre puissante et engagée, qui a profondément influencé des générations de penseurs, écrivains et militants à travers le monde. Auteur prolifique, plusieurs fois cité parmi les prétendants au prix Nobel de littérature, il s’est imposé comme un fervent défenseur de la décolonisation culturelle et linguistique du continent africain.
Un écrivain enraciné dans son peuple
Né en 1937 dans une famille de paysans à Limuru, près de Nairobi, Ngũgĩ a été profondément marqué par la colonisation britannique et l’insurrection Mau Mau (1952-1960), événements fondateurs qui nourriront son engagement politique et littéraire. Ses premiers romans, écrits en anglais, dénoncent avec vigueur les injustices de la société postcoloniale kényane.
Mais c’est en 1977, à la suite de l’emprisonnement provoqué par l’une de ses pièces de théâtre critiques envers les élites, que Ngũgĩ opère un tournant décisif : il choisit d’abandonner l’anglais pour écrire exclusivement en kikuyu, sa langue maternelle. Ce geste audacieux devient un acte politique et culturel majeur. « Je crois tellement en l’égalité des langues. Je suis complètement horrifié par la hiérarchie des langues », confiait-il encore en 2024 dans un entretien à l’AFP depuis son exil californien.
Un legs inestimable pour l’Afrique et le monde
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o a consacré sa vie à la décolonisation de l’esprit, concept qu’il a théorisé et défendu avec rigueur dans ses essais. Pour lui, la reconquête des langues africaines était indissociable de la reconquête de la dignité et de l’identité. « Il a revitalisé les langues africaines, longtemps dénigrées comme étant incapables d’exprimer la modernité », affirmait le professeur Evan Mwangi de l’université Northwestern.
Comparé à Shakespeare, Dante ou Tolstoï pour avoir su magnifier sa langue maternelle dans la littérature, Ngũgĩ laisse une empreinte durable sur les lettres mondiales.
Un hommage unanime
Les hommages affluent depuis l’annonce de son décès. L’ancien président du Sénégal Macky Sall a salué, sur les réseaux sociaux, « une figure emblématique de la littérature africaine et ardent défenseur de la dignité de nos peuples », ajoutant : « L’Afrique perd une conscience éclairée, le monde une voix majeure. »
Le député Guy Marius Sagna a lui aussi exprimé sa reconnaissance : « Merci beaucoup Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o de nous avoir aidés à “Décoloniser l’esprit”. »
Un héritage vivant
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o s’en va, mais son œuvre, traduite dans de nombreuses langues et étudiée à travers le monde, continuera d’inspirer les combats pour la justice, la souveraineté culturelle et la reconnaissance des voix africaines dans leur diversité.
"Le célèbre écrivain kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o est mort
Nairobi (AFP) – Le célèbre écrivain kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o, plusieurs fois cité comme un possible prix Nobel de littérature, est mort mercredi à l'âge de 87 ans, a annoncé sa fille sur Facebook.
Publié le : 28/05/2025 - 23:01
Modifié le : 28/05/2025 - 22:59
"C'est avec le coeur lourd que nous annonçons le décès de notre père, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, ce mercredi matin", a écrit Wanjiku Wa Ngugi. "Il a eu une vie bien remplie et s'est bien battu."
Considéré comme l'un des écrivains les plus influents d'Afrique de l'Est, il est l'auteur d'une oeuvre reflétant la terre et le peuple dont il était issu, sans suivre les traces de la tradition occidentale.
"Il a revitalisé les langues africaines"
Emprisonné par les autorités kényanes en 1977-78, notamment pour avoir écrit des pièces de théâtre qui s'attaquent aux élites de son pays, il décide d'abandonner l'anglais pour écrire dans sa langue natale, le kikuyu, un choix radical mais capital dans une oeuvre marquée par la lutte contre les inégalités.
L'écrivain kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o lors d'une séance de dédicaces pour célébrer le jubilé d'or de son premier livre "Weep Not Child", le 13 juin 2015 à Nairobi © TONY KARUMBA / AFP/Archives
C'est d'ailleurs dans sa cellule de la prison de haute sécurité de Kamiti que Ngugi wa Thiong'o a fait son premier roman en kikuyu "Caitaani Mutharaba-ini" ("Le Diable sur la Croix").
"Je l'ai écrit sur le seul papier dont je disposais, du papier toilette", a-t-il un jour raconté.
"Je crois tellement en l'égalité des langues. Je suis complètement horrifié par la hiérarchie des langues", affirmait-il en 2024 dans un entretien avec l'AFP, de Californie, où il vivait en exil.
Cette décision avait à l'époque suscité l'incompréhension. "Nous pensions tous qu'il était fou (...) et courageux à la fois", raconte l'écrivain kényan David Maillu : "On se demandait qui achèterait les livres".
"Il a revitalisé les langues africaines, longtemps dénigrées comme étant incapables d'exprimer la modernité de manière intelligible", estimait Evan Mwangi, professeur de littérature à l'université américaine de Northwestern.
"Il fait ce que d'autres écrivains majeurs de l'histoire ont fait : écrire dans la langue de leur peuple plutôt que dans celle de l'élite", poursuivait-il, citant les exemples de Shakespeare, Dante et Tolstoï.
"De la mortalité à l'immortalité"
"Ayant déjà gagné sa place dans l'histoire du Kenya, il passe de la mortalité à l'immortalité", a écrit mercredi la branche kényane de l'ONG Amnesty International sur X.
"Ngugi wa Thiongo, un géant littéraire et un érudit de renom, un fils du sol et un grand patriote dont les empreintes sont indélébiles", a de son côté réagi Martha Karua, une dirigeante de l'opposition au Kenya, sur le même réseau social.
Né dans une famille de paysans de la région de Limuru, non loin de Nairobi, Ngugi wa Thiong'o a été marqué dès sa jeunesse par la colonisation britannique et l'insurrection locale Mau Mau entre 1952 et 1960, cruciale dans la marche vers l'indépendance finalement obtenue en 1963, qui influenceront ses premières oeuvres.
Il s'est volontairement exilé en 1982 après l'interdiction des troupes de théâtre au Kenya, s'installant d'abord au Royaume-Uni, puis en 1989 aux États-Unis, où il a enseigné la littérature comparée à l'université californienne d'Irvine.
En 1986, celui qui a abandonné son prénom occidental, James, a publié l'un de ses ouvrages les plus connus, "Décoloniser l'esprit", un recueil d'essais sur le rôle de la langue dans la construction de la culture, de l'histoire et de l'identité nationales.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o est retourné au Kenya en juillet 2004, après que Daniel arap Moi eut quitté le pouvoir.
Quelques jours plus tard, le couple a été violemment attaqué dans son appartement : sa femme a été violée, lui a été passé à tabac. Il n'a pas été établi si cette agression était de caractère criminel ou politique."
https://www.france24.com/fr/info-en-continu/20250528-le-c%C3%A9l%C3%A8bre-%C3%A9crivain-kenyan-ngugi-wa-thiong-o-est-mort
#metaglossia_mundus
"Translation: The Hidden Meanings Behind Emojis That Are Dividing the GenerationsPublished on May 28, 2025By Doug Montero
A smile emoji is not always a symbol of happiness — at least not for Gen Zers, who are more likely to use it to express sarcasm or disdain.
In fact, there’s a huge emoji generation gap between baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, who are between 13 and 28 years old.
For millennial Sara Anderson, a 31-year-old cheerleading coach, the smiley face emoji adds “lightness” to her messages, she told The Wall Street Journal.
But Gen Z intern Hafeezat Bishi said she was shocked when her older colleagues used the smile emoji in emails. “I had to remember they are older, because I use it sarcastically,” Bishi told The Journal. She explained that she uses it more to “side-eye” a comment, rather than to express joy.
While people over 30 take them at face value — a smile is a smile — emojis have much different meanings for younger “digital natives,” who grew up using technology.
Take the thumbs-up emoji. Millennials, Gen Xers and boomers use it to signal agreement, but for younger people, it’s seen as snarky or disparaging.
Ingram Publishing / Newscom / The Mega Agency
Another disconnect comes with the sparkle emoji. Older users use it to express excitement or celebration, but for Gen Z, it denotes sarcasm or mockery.
For them, the fire emoji doesn’t refer to a literal fire or heat but to communicate that something — or someone — is hot, as in desirable.
Younger people also take advantage of emojis’ double meanings to conceal potentially “sinister” messages, warns Amit Kalley, founder of the organization For Working Parents.
To hide references to drugs, they may use a tree, leaf or branch emoji to represent marijuana, a snowflake for cocaine and a money bill for MDMA.
So, the next time you add an emoji on a message to a Gen Zer, think twice — it might not have the meaning you intend."
https://www.nationalenquirer.com/lost-in-digital-translation-the-hidden-meanings-behind-emojis-that-are-dividing-the-generations/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Beyond words: A deep dive into nonverbal communication
May 27, 2025, by Bob Curley
In Japanese culture, a geisha is a traditional entertainer, highly respected for her skill in dance and singing. In the West, however, “geisha girls” are often wrongly viewed as women of the night — a massively insulting stereotype and cultural faux pas.
It’s the kind of erroneous assumption students in Bryant’s “Intercultural Communication” course are learning not to make.
In a classroom exercise organized by Emi Kanemoto, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of the Intercultural Communication Program in the department of Communication and Language Studies, students are shown a series of images depicting human interactions. They are then challenged to describe, interpret, and evaluate the nonverbal personal and cultural communication cues they see.
When an image of a bowing woman impeccably clad in a silk kimono comes up, student evaluators use descriptors like “formal,” “polite,” and “friendly” — descriptors that reflect what’s actually in the image — without falling back on cultural assumptions or stereotypes.
The nonverbal communications exercise is one facet of Kanemoto’s GEN201 class, a general education course that all Bryant students are required to take. The requirement is unique to Bryant, says Kanemoto, whose teaching journey in the United States began when she emigrated from Japan about a decade ago. Yet, while it may be rare, the class is important.
“In the work setting, you have to work with people from other cultures, even within the U.S.,” Kanemoto notes. “Navigating these spaces is important not only in the workplace, but in your personal life, as well.”
Course goals include teaching members of the dominant culture to avoid committing microaggressions and improving their respect for marginalized communities. But the class also helps international students and other members of minority communities thrive in a sometimes unfamiliar and confusing cultural environment.
“In class we do a lot of self-reflection,” says Kanemoto. “We learn about other cultures, but also about ourselves.”
Unpacking stereotypes and oversimplifications are part of the learning process, as is unlearning attitudes about culture, race, gender, sexuality, national origin, and more, she says.
“Students gain language to call out someone or explain issues, such as how to respond to microaggressions,” Kanemoto says. “We learn about idioms and metaphors and how to navigate them. It helps students to live in a diverse space. We use knowledge to empower one another, as well as ourselves, to create an inclusive society.”
Lily Kimball ’27, a Biology major and Human Resource Management minor, sees the course as especially valuable for students who may have been relatively sheltered prior to college.
“For some students who come to Bryant, it’s their first interaction with people from different cultures,” she says. “It’s important not to see one culture as being better than another, while at the same time respecting your own.”
Kanemoto, who was inspired to pursue intercultural education through personal conversations with members of marginalized communities, says the general education requirement for students reflects a deep commitment to diversity at Bryant.
“Bryant has a culture change happening on campus,” she says. “I want to be part of the change.”
Language isn’t the only way people communicate; equally (and often even more) important are nonverbal cues such as hand gestures and eye contact, which can differ widely from culture to culture.
Examples of nonverbal communication, Kanemoto says, include:
Proxemics: the physical space and distance people use in communication. When people refer to their “personal space,” they are defining proxemics. U.S. visitors to the Mideast may find that conversations with locals can get a little too close for comfort, for example.
Chronemics: how we refer to and perceive time. This includes behaviors like punctuality and willingness to wait. Experiencing “island time” on vacation, for instance, is a classic example of chronemics.
Kinesics: body movements such as nodding or hand movements that are sometimes (but not always) accompanied by speech. Eye contact — or lack thereof — is also part of kinesics. Sustained eye contact is generally viewed as attentiveness in Western cultures but avoided in some Asian cultures as a sign of respect in certain social interactions.
Haptics: the use of touch in communication. Some U.S.-centric examples of haptics include functional-professional touch (a doctor touching a patient); social-polite touch (a handshake or a pat on the back); friendship-warmth touch (hugging or a kiss on the cheek); love-intimacy touch (kisses between lovers); and sexual-arousal touch. Touch rules and customs vary widely among cultures: Islamic communities, for example, generally frown upon touch between genders, but view behaviors like men holding hands in friendship as acceptable.
Paralanguage: verbal and nonverbal aspects of speech that influence meaning, including tone, intensity, pauses, and silence. An extended pause to emphasize the meaning of a word or statement is one example. Culturally, speaking loudly is a type of paralanguage that can be viewed as authoritative in Western countries; in some parts of Asia, it’s considered rude or, in Japan, a sign of loss of control in some contexts."
https://news.bryant.edu/beyond-words-deep-dive-nonverbal-communication
#metaglossia_mundus
"AI learns languages in a similar way to humans
News article 28 May 2025 07:00
In a study, researchers tested having AI agents play a communication game with each other to mimic how humans develop language. They had an AI agent communicate a colour via a symbol, and the receiving AI agent would try to recover what colour the symbol corresponded to. Both agents received a common reward if the colour was successfully recovered. The researchers also let the AI models learn from each other over generations. The overall result was a system for naming colours that were similar to human colour language, even though the AI agents had never come into contact with such. Illustration: Chalmers University of Technology | Emil Carlsson | Mia Halleröd Palmgren
An AI system that learns language autonomously develops a language structured in the same way as human language. And just as we humans learn from previous generations, AI models get better when they take advantage of the knowledge of older relatives. This is shown by a study from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, which explores the mechanisms behind human language and provides important knowledge for the development of the AI of the future.
Portrait of Emil Carlsson, Photo: Chalmers University of Technology | Almerängs fotografi
AI-based language models like ChatGPT are getting better and better at mimicking human language and are increasingly being used as a tool for producing text. But the same types of models can also teach us to better understand how human languages have evolved.
In the study, the researchers explored an AI system for evolving languages by using two different methods in a previously untested combination. On the one hand, reinforcement learning was used – where the right actions are rewarded and thus reinforced – and on the other hand, the researchers let the AI models learn from each other over generations.
"We discovered that the AI models reached something that is structured in the same way as human language, and that language learning worked in a similar way to human language. Thus, the study provides important insights about how AI models work, but also a greater understanding of how human languages evolve," says Emil Carlsson, who at the time of the study was a doctoral student at Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg.
All languages strive to be efficient
According to an influential theory in cognitive science*, all human language is shaped by the need to be able to communicate effectively. At the same time, a balance is needed: as a tool, the language must be informative but also simple enough for us to learn. And the more information that needs to be communicated, the more nuanced the language needs to be. A classic example is that languages in colder climates often have more words for snow and ice than languages in warmer climates.
To test the theory and investigate how language becomes efficient, the researchers created AI agents - different AI models - that played a communication game with each other.
The AI agents were shown a colour and a list of symbols that initially have no meaning. As the agents interact, these symbols come to be associated with certain colours and used to communicate the colour to the other agent.
"The reason we used colours is that there is so much data on how the colour spectrum is named in different languages, including data from isolated languages that have never been exposed to other languages. The categorisation of colours varies between languages, both in terms of the number of words and which part of the colour spectrum the words describe," says Emil Carlsson.
Rewards and generational exchange yielded results for language development
The experiments involved one AI agent communicating a colour via one of the symbols in the list, and the receiving AI agent would guess which colour the symbol corresponded to. Both agents received a common reward when they made progress in their communication. The closer they got to a common designation of the exact colour shade that the receiving agent got, the more points were awarded.
In the next step, new "generations" of AI agents were created, while the old AI agents were phased out. The new AI agents got to see the dialogue and the language that the previous generation had managed to develop. After that, the new AI agents got to play the same communication game with each other.
"The idea was to let the AI agents first learn a language from previous generations and then further develop it by communicating with each other. Just like two small children who learn by listening to mum and dad talk and then continue to broaden and develop their own languages," says Emil Carlsson.
Provides knowledge about how language develops
The result was a system for naming colours that were similar to human colour languages, despite the fact that the AI agents had never come into contact with them.
"The interesting thing was that it was precisely the combination of the problem-solving in the game, together with the fact that the AI agents learned from previous generations, that led to effective language that resembles human language. When the AI agents only communicated with each other to solve the game, the languages became too complex. We also tried to let the AI agents only learn from previous generations, without having to deal with the problem-solving aspect of the game, and then the languages became far too simple," he says.
According to Emil Carlsson, the results indicate that our ability to communicate and learn from each other is crucial for how languages develop over time.
"When we only learn something from another person, without perhaps understanding the benefits of it, our tendency to develop the knowledge decreases. But when we actually have to use what we have learned to solve problems and move forward, that's when structured and effective languages can be created," he says.
He hopes that the results will contribute new insights and ideas in language research, as well as research in AI and computer science.
"This is knowledge that can help us better understand the mechanisms behind human languages, but also understand how large AI-based language models work. This can pave the way for being able to guide the development of AI in fruitful directions", says Emil Carlsson.
More about the research
The study Cultural evolution via iterated learning and communication explains efficient color naming systems has been published in the Journal of Language Evolution. The authors are Emil Carlsson and Devdatt Dubhashi at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Terry Regier, UC Berkeley, USA.
The study is part of the thesis Reinforcement Learning: Efficient Communication and Sample Efficient Learning, which Emil Carlsson has presented at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg.
More about the cognitive science studies in the study
The cognitive science theory that the study is based on, "efficient communication", measures the efficiency of language in a strictly mathematical way. According to the theory, All languages strive to be efficient. This means that, on the one hand, we want an informative language, on the other hand, a simple language, as this creates less effort and is easier to learn. According to efficiency theory, language strikes the perfect balance between these two parameters, and it can be different for different languages and cultures, depending on the needs involved.
For more information, please contact:
Emil Carlsson, PhD at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg,Sweden, emil.carlsson@sleepcycle.com, 072 177 22 44
Devdatt Dubhashi, Professor at the Division of Data Science and AI at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden dubhashi@chalmers.se, 031 772 10 46"
https://www.chalmers.se/en/current/news/cse-ai-learns-languages-in-a-similar-way-to-humans/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Daniel Mendelsohn Book Event -
Jun 19, 2025 | Translator of The Odyssey
Erik Rostad, Neighbor
JUN
19
Event Details
Thu, Jun 19, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Landmark Booksellers | Franklin, Tennessee, 114 E Main St, Franklin, TN, 37064
Join Landmark Booksellers on Thursday, June 19th, at 6 PM for an unforgettable evening with acclaimed author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn as he presents his new translation of The Odyssey. Mendelsohn will share insights into his groundbreaking translation, participate in a Q&A session, and engage in a discussion about the enduring relevance of The Odyssey. He will then conclude the evening with a book signing, making this an ideal gathering for lovers of literature and classical storytelling. This event is a perfect complement to Landmark’s “Great Wall of the Great Books,” a curated display celebrating humanity’s most influential literary works, including Homer’s timeless epic."
https://patch.com/tennessee/franklin/calendar/event/20250619/14a67187-3f61-452d-9873-7577c5ab929e/daniel-mendelsohn-book-event-translator-of-the-odyssey
#metaglossia_mundus
Linguistic, cultural and political differences make interpretation difficult, but analysts also point to factors like the target audience.
" ‘Never right’: why there’s a war of words over Beijing’s English translations
Linguistic, cultural and political differences make interpretation difficult, but analysts also point to factors like the target audience
Jane Caiin BeijingandMeredith Chenin Hong Kong
Published: 6:00am, 28 May 2025Updated: 9:29am, 28 May 2025
America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio has made clear that he does not trust Beijing’s English translations of Chinese officials’ words – he says they are “never right”.
The China hawk has instead urged his colleagues to go back to the original Chinese version of statements put out by Beijing to get a more accurate understanding of what is going on.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, appears to be the most powerful diplomat under President Donald Trump. He is the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the national security adviser and secretary of state positions at the same time, making him the point man on China over the next four years.
Rubio has been blunt about his distrust of China. During his secretary of state confirmation hearing in January, he highlighted the importance of referring to the original Chinese to understand the words of President Xi Jinping.
“Don’t read the English translation that they put out because the English translation is never right,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been blunt about his distrust of China. Photo: AFP
The subject of translation came up again later that month, when Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone. Wang reportedly told Rubio to “hao zi wei zhi” – an idiom Beijing translated as “act accordingly” in its English readout of the call. It was more stern in foreign media reports on the meeting – Reuters translated it as “conduct yourself well”, while Bloomberg’s translation was “conduct yourself properly”.
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Adding to the confusion, Rubio denied Wang had even given him any warning. “The translator that was on the call did not say anything to me that I felt was over the top. But then they put out these games – they like to play these games,” Rubio said in an interview on The Megyn Kelly Show, according to a transcript released by the US Department of State.
“They put out these translations where it says one thing in English and then it’s translated in a different – they use a different term in Mandarin – so like ‘He was warned not to overstep himself’. They never said that.”
Accurate translation is a difficult task given the linguistic, cultural and political differences between the United States and China. Analysts also point to other factors, such as the target audience for the messaging.
But one thing is clear – understanding what the other side is saying is more important than ever amid a 90-day pause in the US-China tariff war and with key areas on the table for negotiation, from electric vehicles to semiconductors and rare minerals.
Xiaoyu Pu, an associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, said the linguistic, conceptual and political differences between the countries could lead to gaps in perception and interpretation.
He said some Chinese political phrases were “highly idiomatic, historically rooted or symbolic”, and that made them challenging to translate directly.
Why Wang Yi’s message to Marco Rubio may have been lost in translation
‘There are limits’: the problems with China’s bid to patch things up with Europe
In further high-level exchange, China and US say channels remain open
Pu noted that there was also a difference in political communication styles. He said Chinese official discourse could be vague and ambiguous, whereas Western diplomatic language tended to be more direct and precise.
He said there was also some flexibility with translation that could be used strategically for different audiences.
“As one Chinese concept can be translated into different English terms, sometimes Chinese officials intentionally emphasise the Chinese meaning for a domestic audience while translating the idea into English for an international audience,” Pu said.
He pointed to the idiom used by Wang as an example, saying it was intended for a nationalistic domestic audience, while the official English translation was more moderate.
According to Pu, Chinese concepts could sometimes also be interpreted by foreign translators in the West in ways that fit their country’s political climate, rather than genuinely adhering to the original Chinese meaning.
Interpretations of an idiom used by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have varied. Photo: AFP
Pang Zhongying, a visiting senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said Rubio seemed to have “inherited” a distrust of Beijing’s translations from other China hawks like Robert Lighthizer.
Lighthizer, the US trade representative and architect of the trade war with China in Trump’s first term, wrote in his 2023 book No Trade Is Free that: “There is often a major difference between what China says in Chinese to its people and the way it officially translates those words into English for Western audiences.
“Routinely, the harsh, combative language is watered down. It thus is important to look to an unofficial and candid translation to determine what is being conveyed,” he said, citing an interpretation of Xi’s report to the 2022 Communist Party congress provided by Kevin Rudd, the former Australian prime minister and a China expert who speaks fluent Mandarin.
Pang said political distrust was at the heart of “misconception or disinformation” given that both sides had a large team of professional translators to draw on.
He said one way to reduce the problem was by increasing face-to-face communications so that misunderstandings could be cleared up. That was especially important given the range of issues expected to be negotiated by Beijing and Washington following the trade war truce agreed in Geneva earlier this month, he added.
Sabine Mokry, a researcher at the University of Hamburg’s Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, said the criticism of Beijing’s English translations reflected a deep-seated mistrust that had become one of the defining features of US-China relations.
She said the remarks were “a bit overblown”. “It speaks to a common perception – or misperception – that we don’t know anything about their [Chinese authorities’] intentions and they hide everything,” she said.
Mokry analysed the official English translations of foreign policy documents released by Beijing from 2013 to 2019. According to her study findings, published in 2022, almost half of the documents contained differences between the English and Chinese versions, and most of those differences potentially altered the intended meaning.
But she said the two versions were not entirely different, and the key messages remained largely consistent because the official translations were “carefully crafted” to align with Beijing’s political objectives and diplomatic priorities.
Mokry found that the Chinese version usually signalled stronger and more assertive intentions while the English version came across as softer, since they targeted different audiences.
“The question is more about how the US government and also governments around the world can build up enough capacity to deal with the original Chinese texts instead of just relying on the official English translations,” she said.
Mokry said machine-learning tools could help to identify translation differences but it remained crucial to have experts available who could work with the original Chinese statements, point their colleagues to the nuances and add the interpretive context that went beyond linguistic skills.
To do that, she said it was important to understand the institution issuing the document and its role in the political system.
How are Chinese citizens feeling the effects of the US-China tariff war?
How are Chinese citizens feeling the effects of the US-China tariff war?
According to Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based think tank, the historical and cultural differences that shape the values of Chinese and Western societies – and the way concepts are expressed and decoded – are the main reason for misperceptions when it comes to translation.
Wang said Chinese civilisation was rooted in agrarian traditions such as cultivating one’s plot and favouring modesty, while Western cultures, influenced by nomadic and expansionist histories, tended to emphasise individualism, mobility and global outreach.
He noted that some of the terms used in Chinese political messaging could be hard for international audiences to grasp. But he said instead of just communicating those unfamiliar phrases Beijing could create new terms and concepts that might gain international acceptance if there was clear context and the ideas were framed in more globally relatable ways.
Wang gave the example of Beijing’s renamed trade and infrastructure strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative.
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When it was launched in 2013 it was known as One Belt, One Road. But that caused confusion because it was not a road but sea routes linking China’s southern coast to East Africa, the Mediterranean and Latin America, while the “belt” refers to a series of overland corridors connecting China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
It quietly became the Belt and Road Initiative in 2015 – a name that is now recognised globally – with the Chinese name left unchanged.
Wang said further efforts from both China and the US were needed to boost exchanges in education and tourism, ease visa restrictions, and allow more access for foreign media to promote mutual understanding.
He said far more Chinese had studied in America than Americans in China since the reform and opening-up began in the 1970s. According to Wang, that imbalance, with a limited number of Americans learning Chinese, had a serious impact on how well they could understand each other.
“Chinese people are much more familiar with the United States than Americans are with China,” he said"
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3311936/never-right-why-theres-war-words-over-beijings-english-translations
#metaglossia_mundus
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"New Research Suggests Human Language Evolved More Than 135,000 Years Ago
By Emma Taggart on May 26, 2025
There are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, allowing humans to chat, tell stories, and share information. Being able to communicate our ideas is an integral part of being human, and a new study suggests we’ve been using language a lot longer than we initially thought—at least 135,000 years ago.
Despite each language having its own unique sound and structure, new research suggests that all 7,000+ languages spoken today may trace back to a single linguistic family tree. A team of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the American Museum of Natural History, the Department of Linguistics at University of São Paulo, and other international collaborators explored the genetics of ancient humans and uncovered that the capacity for language was likely embedded in our DNA long before our ancestors began migrating across the globe.
Miyagawa and his team looked at 15 different scientific studies, all using different methods, and noticed they all pointed to the same conclusion: humans started splitting into different groups about 135,000 years ago. This was based on studying things like our full DNA, Y chromosomes (passed down from fathers), and mitochondrial DNA (passed down from mothers). The researchers say that if language had developed after that split, then some human groups today might not have language, or they might communicate in a totally different way. But that’s not the case—all humans have language, leading the researchers to believe that language must have existed before humans spread out.
“Every population branching across the globe has a human language, and all languages are related,” explains Shigeru Miyagawa, a professor emeritus of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT. “I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.”
Some scientists believe that humans might have had the ability to use language a few million years ago, just by looking at how other primates (like apes) communicate. But according to Miyagawa, it’s not just about making sounds—it’s about having the mental power to combine words and grammar into a system that lets us express complex ideas. He says human language is special because it has two key parts: words, which are the names we give to things like “tree” or “run,” and syntax, which refers to the grammar or rules that help us put words together in a meaningful way.
Miyagawa suggests that humans had the mental capacity for language before they began using it to communicate. At first, it may have been a private thinking tool, but by around 135,000 years ago, it evolved into social communication. Evidence of this shift appears in archaeology around 100,000 years ago, with behaviors like carving symbols in caves and tombs.
“Language was the trigger for modern human behavior,” says Miyagawa. “Somehow it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 100,000 years ago.”
https://mymodernmet.com/human-language-history/?
#metaglossia_mundus