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Scooped by
Charles Tiayon
July 15, 2025 11:04 PM
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"The Indian state where people are being beaten up for speaking the wrong language
New rules for schools have ignited street protests and unrest, exposing a nationwide conflict over language and regional identity. Shahana Yasmin reports Tuesday 15 July 2025 08:29 EDT Maharashtra, long regarded as one of India’s most cosmopolitan states, has found itself reliving an old tension: a renewed battle over language. In the last few months, a state government order mandating Hindi as the third language in primary schools has sparked not just political protests but also public violence. A rickshaw driver was assaulted after refusing to speak in the state language Marathi, a shopkeeper was slapped by political activists for using Hindi, and a bank employee was threatened for defending his use of Hindi and English. At the heart of the unrest lies a 16 April education department resolution making Hindi compulsory as the third language from classes I to V in schools giving instruction in English and Marathi languages. While state officials framed the policy as a routine implementation of the federal government’s National Education Policy 2020, which encourages education in the regional language, Hindi, and English under the “three-language formula”, critics saw it as part of a broader push by prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to elevate Hindi at the expense of regional languages. Although the federal push to promote Hindi beyond the “Hindi belt” has faced opposition in many states, the backlash has been especially charged in Maharashtra. The western state was born out of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement of the 1950s, a mass mobilisation demanding a separate province for Marathi speakers with Mumbai as its capital. The agitation, marked by mass street protests, hunger strikes and violent police crackdowns, led to the deaths of over 100 demonstrators before Maharashtra was finally carved out of the bilingual Bombay State in 1960. Not surprisingly then, the new policy has struck a discordant note in a state where linguistic identity has long been deeply embedded in the social fabric. Many people view the introduction of compulsory Hindi not as a benign educational reform but as a renewed threat to that hard-won identity. While the state’s BJP-led government initially downplayed the controversy, the backlash quickly escalated. Opposition parties, including the Shiv Sena UBT, the Congress, and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, accused the BJP of pushing a “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan” agenda: shorthand for the Modi government’s concerted bid to promote Hindi and Hindu nationalism at the expense of India’s pluralistic character. Varsha Gaikwad of the Congress party, a former state education minister, accused the BJP of “working systematically to weaken the Marathi language in its own homeland,” The New Indian Express reported. Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray, longstanding political rivals, also voiced strong opposition to the Hindi mandate. The former referred to the new policy as a “language emergency” and said he “will not allow imposition of any language”. The latter, known for his party’s past campaigns against Hindi-speaking migrants, reiterated his stance that while Maharashtrians were Hindus, they did not accept Hindi imposition. Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar initially defended the policy. Its critics had “nothing else to do”, he said while arguing that Hindi and English were useful across India. But Marathi, he emphasised, would remain Maharashtra’s primary language. Federal home minister Amit Shah said last month that Indians should eventually “feel ashamed” to speak English, promoting native tongues instead. The central government under Narendra Modi has consistently promoted Hindi as the national lingua franca, not only through educational reforms like the three-language policy but also symbolic changes. Public schemes, for example, now bear Hindi titles like Mera Yuva Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The colonial-era Indian Penal Code has been replaced with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. But as the Maharashtra protests grew louder and violence more visible, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis reversed the mandate and announced it would be optional. He also formed a committee to review the policy’s implementation. The resistance to “Hindi imposition” has echoed beyond Maharashtra. In Tamil Nadu, chief minister MK Stalin rejected the National Education Policy’s three-language formula and declared that the southern state was “ready for another language war” over what he called the central government’s attempt to impose Hindi. Deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin warned the state would “never accept the New Education Policy or the imposition of Hindi in any form” and cast the opposition to it as an “ethnic struggle” to protect Tamil culture. Fellow southern states Karnataka and Kerala have seen similar opposition. In Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, activists vandalised departure boards at the main airport over the omission of Kannada, the state language, while local governments mandated Kannada-first signage in public spaces. India is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. According to the 2011 census, there are 121 languages in active use and over 1,300 distinct mother tongues, although only 22 enjoy official status under the constitution. Hindi is the most widely spoken language, used by roughly 43.6 per cent of the population, or 528 million people. Marathi is third with about 83 million speakers and Tamil ranks fifth with about 69 million speakers. As Maharashtra braces for municipal elections, the language row underscores how swiftly cultural identity can become a political fault line. What began as an administrative directive on school curriculum has grown into a broader referendum on who defines the cultural contours of a diverse and multilingual India.
https://www.the-independent.com/asia/india/india-maharashtra-hindi-language-imposition-b2788722.html
#metaglossia_mundus
"Charles Tiayon, cartographer of the translation world
Charles Tiayon is a translator, lecturer and consultant whose Scoop.it activity reflects the professional universe named in his bio: translation, terminology, lexicography and intercultural issues. Through METAGLOSSIA, his public selection tracks language as a field of work, a field of rights, and a field being altered by AI.
A systems view of language
Tiayon looks at translation as a living system. His selections connect interpreters, translators, dictionary makers, universities, publishers, language activists and software companies, rather than treating them as separate worlds.
Technology with memory
AI is a recurring concern, but it is not treated as the whole story. Real-time speech translation, OCR and voice AI appear alongside older and slower forms of linguistic work: dictionaries, terminology, literary translation and language education.
A multilingual compass
The geographic spread is notably international, with attention to French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Maltese, Breton, Ukrainian, Filipino, Indigenous languages in Canada and Indian language politics. No single country dominates the map.
What defines this selection
Archive-scale attention
With 99,235 posts analysed in a single topic, this is a long-running, high-volume observatory of the translation world. The account dates back to 2011, giving the selection the feel of an archive as much as a live feed.
A broad professional lens
The material moves easily between AI translation tools, national dictionaries, literary translation, terminology work, market news and language policy. That range reflects a professional view of language work as both craft and infrastructure.
Mixed-source reliability
The sources span institutions, universities, technology companies, mainstream media and regional outlets. UNESCO, university sites, DeepL, Mistral, CBC, Ouest-France and other sources create a mixed diet of policy, research, product news and local reporting.
Specialist reach, public scale
The audience numbers are substantial, with more than 567,000 views and over 424,000 unique visitors across all topics. The reach suggests sustained interest beyond a narrow specialist circle.
Topics
◍
Metaglossia: The Translation World
This flagship topic covers translation, interpreting, intercultural communication, terminology and lexicography as they unfold in public life. It is especially strong on AI language tools, institutional language policy, minority languages, literary translation and dictionaries.
99.2K posts
en
Deep dives
Where language becomes infrastructure
Charles Tiayon’s main topic reads like a newsroom for the language professions, but with a wider lens than trade news alone. Translation, interpreting, terminology and lexicography appear beside minority-language rights, literary circulation, dictionaries, competitions, and the fast-moving world of AI speech and OCR tools.
Metaglossia: The Translation World
The strongest thread is the collision between language as culture and language as system. A new Maltese digital dictionary, a Doha historical dictionary with text-to-speech, UNESCO and Unicode cooperation, and First Nations language translation all sit in the same frame as DeepL, Mistral OCR, and real-time speech models.
Metaglossia: The Translation World
His editorial voice is not silent aggregation. The analysis points to regular INSIGHT notes, often substantial and quote-based, with an explanatory tone and occasional sharper framing when language politics or AI consequences are at stake. The result is a practical map of a field being reshaped by institutions, software, markets and communities at once."
Courtesy
Scoop.it
06.07.2026
#metaglossia_mundus
#metaglossia
Can an Emoji Be Rude? A Cross-Cultural Study of Emoji Interpretation in Dig
11 Oktober 2026, 20:53 WIB
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Can an Emoji Be Rude? A Cross-Cultural Study of Emoji Interpretation in Digital Communication
By Kayla Putri Ramadani and Kireina Syavel Azzahra
Cross-Cultural Communication Students, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Airlangga
Have you ever sent a crying emoji because something was funny, only to have someone think you were actually sad? I have experienced a similar misunderstanding in digital communication. An emoji I used to express laughter was interpreted as a sign of sadness. I also used a smiling emoji with a reddish face to express sarcasm, but it could be understood as a genuine smile. These experiences made me realize that emojis do not always communicate the feelings we intend to express.
Today, emojis are commonly used to express feelings that can be difficult to communicate through text. They can make digital conversations feel more like face-to-face interactions. However, people do not always interpret emojis in the same way. Cultural differences between countries, regions, and communities can influence how people understand and use them.
Emojis are more than just pictures that make digital conversations interesting. In face-to-face conversations, people communicate emotions through facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice. These signals are often missing from text-based communication. Emojis can help express feelings and intentions that words alone may not convey clearly. According to Kavanagh (2016), emoticons can also convey politeness in online communication. This suggests that emojis and similar symbols serve a social purpose rather than simply decorating messages.
However, using the same emoji does not guarantee that everyone will understand it in the same way. Although emojis are used worldwide, people from different cultural backgrounds may have different habits when using and interpreting them. Guntuku et al. (2019) compared emoji usage among users from China and Japan with users from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Their study found differences in the frequency, context, and topics associated with emoji use. The researchers also identified similarities between cultures. These findings suggest that emojis are widely shared symbols, but their use can still be influenced by cultural background.
When Emojis Mean Different Things
Cultural differences can become particularly noticeable when emojis communicate meanings that are not stated directly. Sarcasm and irony are examples of this. A person may use an emoji to show that a statement should not be taken literally, while the receiver may interpret it differently.
Du (2024) examined how emojis influenced the interpretation of verbal irony among Chinese and American participants. The study found cultural differences in how participants understood irony when different emojis were used. American participants showed better understanding of irony when a winking emoji was used, while Chinese participants showed better understanding when a smiling emoji was used. This finding illustrates how a small symbol can influence the interpretation of a message.
For example, imagine someone sends the message, "Great job!" followed by a particular emoji. Depending on the situation and the relationship between the sender and receiver, the message might be interpreted as genuine praise or sarcasm. Without understanding the context, the receiver may misunderstand the sender's intention.
Emojis, Politeness, and Relationships
Emojis can also influence how people express politeness and maintain relationships. In digital conversations, an emoji can make a message seem warmer, friendlier, or less serious. Kavanagh (2016), who studied American and Japanese online blogging communities, found that both groups used emoticons to express positive politeness. However, Japanese users in the study used them more frequently than American users. This difference suggests that the use of emojis to maintain friendly communication may be connected to cultural communication patterns.
These differences do not mean that emojis are ineffective or that people should stop using them. Instead, they show that digital communication is not always as universal as it appears. People from different cultural backgrounds bring different experiences and expectations to online conversations."
Kireina Syavel Azzahra
Pelajar
https://www.kompasiana.com/kireinasyavel6777/6acb94de34777c6f3409c7a2/can-an-emoji-be-rude-a-cross-cultural-study-of-emoji-interpretation-in-dig
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Untangling Multiple Meanings in the English Language in the Courts
Professor's New Book Examines Ambiguities in English Language
by Alex Russell October 05, 2026
There’s a joke by British TV comedian Benny Hill that Americans usually don’t get.
Hill is dressed up as an irate mother talking to the school headmaster who says her son is always absent and now he’s boozing. Hill insists that there are 40 pubs in town, and Johnny hasn't been in one of them. The headmaster says, “Oh, yes, which one's that?”
The humor comes from a very subtle ambiguity in what both sides mean by Johnny being in “not in one” pub. Hill means Johnny hasn’t been in any pubs, but the headmaster is implying that Johnny has more likely been in all of them.
But not all ambiguity in language is funny. In a court of law, the way ambiguity is interpreted can have repercussions measured in the billions of dollars.
“What frequently happens?” said John Hawkins, a Distinguished Professor of linguistics at UC Davis. “One side picks the one meaning and the other side picks the other. What you need is a linguist to come in and say, ‘Well, how does disambiguation normally work?’”
Hawkins is just such a linguist, and he has served as an expert witness in numerous high-profile court cases that hinge on disambiguation, which is the process of removing the multiple meanings contained in a passage of text.
His new book, The English Language on Trial (Cambridge University Press, 2026), untangles some of the fundamental linguistic issues underpinning cases involving high-profile clients including Hollywood celebrities, major league sports teams and some of the world’s largest corporations. Each of them came down to some of the built-in ambiguities or other subtleties in the English language itself.
“People wouldn't normally disagree on these things if it was outside the courtroom, and these are systematic and there's many of them,” said Hawkins. “I've written many reports over the years that have tried to explain to lawyers and to the courts what the linguistic issue is, and what the proper judgment should be.”
Ambiguity in the English Language
The English language has many more ambiguities than many other languages, said Hawkins, and for specific reasons. One is that over the past millennium, English has undergone incredible simplification in its word forms compared to its predecessor language Old English. These changes were driven by contact between the English and populations from Denmark and other Vikings, as well as by the 1066 conquest by the French-speaking Normans.
“English has been exposed to a battering from languages and contact over its history, more than other similar languages have,” said Hawkins.
Ambiguity is rampant in English partly because so many of its verbs are used in ways they are not in other languages. For example, in English, you can break both a leg and a tennis racket string, but other languages use different words depending on what’s broken. Spanish has both romper, used in the general sense for causing damage, and quebrar, used for brittle things that shatter or for bankruptcy.
Another source of ambiguity are words with multiple meanings. Port is a type of wine as well as a place to dock a boat or to plug in a phone charger. Knowing the context of the sentence eliminates the alternative meanings.
In court cases, the word “substantial” comes up often, and it’s a word that almost could not be more ambiguous. The sun is substantially larger than the Earth, which compares the size of both celestial bodies, but your homework can also be substantially finished when most, but not all of it, is.
But what if a legal contract states that a billboard must be "substantially below" the top of a building’s roof? Does all of it have to be below? How far below? Here, the context must make clear what was intended.
Taking ambiguity in the English language to court
In total, Hawkins has served as an expert witness in over 50 cases. In his book, he details what many of the fundamental linguistic issues are and what the proper judgment should be.
In some of the cases Hawkins has worked on, he had to look closely at the broader context around the language under dispute. What other bits of language are relevant? How will average readers understand it? Sometimes that context involves how a word is used across society.
In a case involving the company Salesforce, Hawkins conducted an extensive analysis over the spelling of the company name that would be used to determine whether it could be used as the company trademark.
“When you have a trademark, you have to protect it,” said Hawkins.
Sometimes companies don’t succeed. Xerox and aspirin are two examples of “genericide,” in which a brand name becomes generic through common use.
At issue in the Salesforce case was how different is that one-word spelling from the general use of “sales force” as two separate words to describe personnel at any company who are responsible for sales.
Hawkins conducted a comprehensive database search to find out. He counted the instances in which the one-word version identified either the company or a corporate sales team and vice versa. He found that overwhelmingly the single-word version, “Salesforce,” was used in the context of the company itself.
Hawkins was also an expert witness in Apple’s 2013 trademark dispute against Amazon over the use of the name “App Store.” Apple claimed trademark for the name, arguing it had been the first to use it.
One of the lawyers Apple hired was Robert Leonard, a well-regarded linguist, who came to one of Hawkins’ depositions and supplied questions to Apple’s legal team. Leonard leads the Forensic Linguistics Justice Project at Hofstra University that reanalyzes cases in which language evidence played a crucial role in the defendant's conviction and sentence of death.
In the end, Hawkins’ analysis showed that “app store” truly was used generically. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook had used the term generically in an earnings call. In the U.S., Apple went on to withdraw its claim before trial.
“If you've got a phone from a manufacturer other than Apple and you have an ‘app store,’ it’s because of me,” said Hawkins."
https://www.ucdavis.edu/magazine/untangling-multiple-meanings-english-language-courts
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Tomedes Expands Its AI Translation Platform for Professional Translators With CAT Tool File Support
Translators can now upload XLIFF and MQXLIFF files from MemoQ, Trados, and Phrase to MachineTranslation.com and import the AI-translated file straight back into their CAT tool.
BEAVERTON, Ore. - Oct. 9, 2026 - PRLog -- Tomedes, a professional translation company, has extended its AI translation platform, MachineTranslation.com, to work directly with XLIFF and MQXLIFF files. Translators using computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools can now upload project files and receive the translated file back in its original format.
CAT tools such as MemoQ, Trados, Phrase, Wordfast, and OmegaT exchange project content through XLIFF, a file that holds source text, target segments, and project metadata together. Previously, using MachineTranslation.com with this content meant copying the text into a separate document and transferring the results back into the project by hand.
Workflow
Export an XLIFF or MQXLIFF file from the CAT tool.
Upload it to MachineTranslation.com and choose the languages.
Download the translated file in the same format.
Import it back into the CAT tool for review.
During processing, the platform sends each segment to multiple AI models, compares their translations, and keeps the version most of them agree on.
"Translators have spent years setting up their CAT tools, and that setup is where their work happens," said Ofer Tirosh, CEO of Tomedes. "XLIFF and MQXLIFF support lets them bring MachineTranslation.com into a project without leaving that environment."
Comparing output across models
Many AI features in CAT tools rely on a single model that offers one suggestion per segment. MachineTranslation.com translates the same text with 22 AI models and selects the version most of them produce, setting aside translations that differ from the majority.
"XLIFF support was one of the most frequent requests from our professional users," said Shashank Jain, Tech Lead at Tomedes. "Handling the format on both upload and download takes manual conversion out of the process."
XLIFF and MQXLIFF support is now live on https://www.machinetranslation.com/, which covers more than 330 languages.
About MachineTranslation.com
MachineTranslation.com is an AI translation platform built by https://www.tomedes.com/, a professional translation company with nearly 20 years in the language industry. It has AI models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepL, and Google translate the same text separately, then shows the translation most of them agree on.
Media Contact
Rachelle Garcia
rachelle@tomedes.net"
https://www.prlog.org/13175725-tomedes-expands-its-ai-translation-platform-for-professional-translators-with-cat-tool-file-support.html
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"The growing use of artificial intelligence in online search is changing how consumers discover information about businesses, products, and services. Rather than relying exclusively on traditional search engine results, consumers increasingly encounter AI-generated answers that summarize information gathered from websites and other digital sources.
For businesses, this development introduces additional considerations regarding website content, organization, and the accuracy of publicly available information.
Rhino Web Studios, a New Orleans-based website development and digital marketing company, is examining how website content contributes to business visibility within AI-generated search responses.
Traditional search engines generally present lists of websites based on relevance, authority, and other ranking factors. AI-powered search systems may instead generate conversational responses that combine information from multiple sources. Depending on the platform and search query, responses may include citations, business descriptions, recommendations, or links to supporting websites.
Technical considerations remain important. Pages blocked from crawling, dependent on inaccessible content, or affected by indexing problems may be difficult for search systems to retrieve.
Structured data markup can provide machine-readable information about certain website elements, including business details, articles, and frequently asked questions. However, structured data alone does not establish eligibility for inclusion in AI-generated answers.
Answering Common Questions Through Website Content
Informational articles represent another component of website content development.
Businesses frequently receive questions concerning service procedures, materials, maintenance requirements, pricing considerations, and industry terminology.
Publishing factual explanations of these subjects can establish additional context surrounding a company’s activities.
A heating and air conditioning contractor, for example, might publish articles explaining refrigerant leaks, airflow restrictions, seasonal maintenance, or common causes of equipment failure.
Such information can address consumer questions while creating relevant material that search systems may retrieve when processing related inquiries.
Thomas noted that the usefulness of informational content depends partly on its accuracy and specificity.
“An article should provide meaningful information about the subject being discussed,” Thomas said. “Simply repeating keywords or publishing large amounts of generic material does not necessarily help an AI system understand a business. Accurate explanations, relevant details, and clearly identified subjects provide more useful context.”
Business Information Consistency Remains Important
Information consistency across digital platforms is another consideration.
Business names, physical addresses, telephone numbers, operating hours, and service descriptions may appear on company websites, business directories, mapping platforms, and industry listings.
Conflicting information can create uncertainty for consumers and automated systems attempting to identify a particular business.
Maintaining accurate business details across relevant platforms can support a more consistent digital identity.
Company websites can also provide information about professional experience, geographic service areas, licensing where applicable, and the individuals responsible for business operations.
These details may help establish context, although AI search systems apply different methods when evaluating sources and generating responses.
AI Search Does Not Replace Traditional Search Optimization
The emergence of AI-generated answers does not eliminate the role of traditional search engine optimization.
Search engines continue to use established crawling, indexing, and ranking processes. Many AI-powered search experiences also depend on search infrastructure to retrieve supporting information.
Consequently, website accessibility, technical performance, relevant content, and logical information architecture remain important considerations.
Differences between AI platforms also make visibility difficult to predict. A business cited by one system may not appear in another system’s response to a similar question.
AI-generated answers can also change over time as underlying models, retrieval systems, and available information evolve.
“Businesses should understand that appearing in an AI-generated answer is not something that can be guaranteed,” Thomas said. “The practical focus should remain on maintaining a website that accurately explains the business, provides useful information, and makes that information accessible to search technologies.”
An Evolving Approach to Online Information
As AI-powered search continues to develop, website content is becoming relevant to multiple forms of online information discovery.
Traditional search results, AI-generated summaries, conversational search interfaces, and other digital platforms may interpret and present business information differently.
For businesses, the underlying consideration remains the same: publicly accessible information should accurately represent the organization and provide meaningful explanations of its activities.
The continuing development of AI search technologies is likely to influence how businesses organize, maintain, and evaluate website content in the years ahead.
About Rhino Web Studios
Rhino Web Studios is a New Orleans, Louisiana-based website development and digital marketing company providing website design, search engine optimization, website hosting, content development, and related digital services. The company works with businesses across multiple industries to develop and maintain their online presence.
Morgan Thomas
Rhino Digital, LLC
+1 504-875-5036"
https://www.courier-journal.com/press-release/story/239733/website-content-plays-a-growing-role-in-how-businesses-appear-in-ai-generated-search-answers/
#metaglossia #metaglossia_mundus
«Allô ? Oui bonjour, j’ai un texte IA à vous faire reprendre.» Dans les agences de traduction, les propositions de ce genre sont devenues monnaie courante
«Je me suis senti insulté» : les traducteurs excédés d’être réduits à de simples «toiletteurs d’IA»
"De plus en plus de contrats ne proposent que de «nettoyer» une traduction générée par l’intelligence artificielle. Bafouant le savoir-faire et la dignité du métier, s’insurgent des traducteurs auprès du Figaro.
«Allô ? Oui bonjour, j’ai un texte IA à vous faire reprendre.» Dans les agences de traduction, les propositions de ce genre sont devenues monnaie courante. Au lieu de traduire un document «from scratch», soit «de zéro», les traducteurs reçoivent une version produite par l’intelligence artificielle générative, et doivent la «nettoyer», comprenez la rendre exploitable. Une pratique qui dénature le métier, en retirant tout le plaisir attelé à la traduction et posant de nombreux problèmes. Petit à petit, les rôles s’inversent : les traducteurs sont-ils en passe de devenir des… assistants d’IA ?
Si le terme «post-édition» s’est largement répandu pour qualifier cette nouvelle manière de travailler, les traducteurs lui préfèrent les termes «nettoyage» ou «toilettage» de «sortie machine», comme nous l’indique Laura Hurot, traductrice de l’allemand et membre du collectif IA-lerte générale. Son confrère Cyril Laumonier, président de l’Association des traducteurs littéraires de France…"
Par Romain Ferrier
Publié le 11/10/2026 à 08
https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/actu-des-mots/je-me-suis-senti-insulte-les-traducteurs-excedes-d-etre-reduits-a-de-simples-toiletteurs-d-ia-20261011
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Interpreting, communication and animal welfare. An ecosemiotic analysis of interspecies translation is written by Xany Jansen van Vuuren (2025). The book is based on van Vuuren´s PhD project which she finished in 2022 at the University of the Free State, in South Africa, where she is currently a Senior Lecturer and Academic Head of Department for Linguistics and Language Practice.
This is one of the first books, to my knowledge, that engages comprehensively with animal welfare issues within an ecosemiotic framing. This is in itself laudable. In biosemiotics at large, animal welfare has received scant attention, although issues in animal ethics as well as environmental ethics have been addressed by some scholars. Animal welfare issues are ethically relevant for anyone who cares about the wellbeing of animals – and this book provides a treatment of such issues while at the same time applying a semiotic framing.
Specifically, van Vuuren relates to NGO work in the form of animal welfare interventions in South Africa. Situated at the intersection of ecosemiotics, translation studies, studies of horses, and animal welfare, van Vuuren explores her topic matter by navigating what is presented as four interwoven fields of study. Rather than providing any theoretical treatise, the book leads by example, as it were, by fleshing out the particular circumstances that are relevant in the book´s context. The book consists of eight chapters, starting with an introduction to horses, translators and signs, and then continuing with a chapter on ecosemiotics and animal welfare and a chapter on the semiotics of translation. This is followed by a chapter on the compatibility of horse Umwelten and human Umwelten and a chapter on interspecies agency and positionality. Further chapters deal with affordances and constraints in the materiality of animal welfare, and the interaction of constraints and affordances in ecology. The book concludes with a final chapter that revisits the purpose of the book and includes reflections on connections between translation theory, semiotics and ecological issues.
Spread out over the eight chapters, the book contains no less than 65 figures. Many of these involve photos from the field work the book builds on and give insights into the South African case study of the book and how horses are treated. Other figures detail theoretical models, including of signs. Lastly, a series of figures present schematic triadic modelling of selected situations encountered during the field work, drawing on Peircean semiotics. For anyone with some education in semiotics, the implied semiotic analysis should be easy to follow. Apart from demonstrating how a Peircean analysis of the subject matter of the book can look like, the informational value of these latter figures, which are quite lengthy, is somewhat limited.
A key phrase in van Vuuren´s work is “interspecies translation”. This phrase, which is used in the book´s subheading, highlights the significance of understanding animals and what they communicate either directly or by way of their behaviours. With regard to translation theory, Van Vuuren draws on the work of her colleague Kobus Marais. In his book on a biosemiotic theory of translation (Marais, 2019), Marais challenges the traditional linguistic bias in translation studies and outlines an alternative conceptualization of translation. In this understanding, translation, far from being restricted to the realm of language, is a systemic process that underlies semiosis. That book is now Marais´ most cited work, and it is reasonable to assume that this achievement has in turn contributed to making translation studies one of the fields of study where biosemiotic theory has had the most significant impact over the last few years. Van Vuuren´s book contributes to developing this line of research further.
A strength of Interpreting, communication and animal welfare is that it is very informative with regard to the behaviour and perception of horses and how they are treated by people. For instance, she explains how horses´ sight differs from humans´ sight, and what various horse vocalizations, movements, and ear positions can be taken to mean, for example as indications of pain (for a brief introduction into how animals´ feelings can be interpreted as symptomatic of their welfare, see Duncan, 2006). A key message is that a proper understanding of horses´ Umwelt is required as the basis for any successful interspecies communication between horses and humans. Reading horses the right way is in turn a precondition for keeping horses in a manner that results in a satisfactory level of welfare. In this context, van Vuuren observes that skilful NGO representatives can act as translators and intermediaries.
To foster truly communicative relations between humans and animals, comprehensibility should in my opinion go both ways. In other words, while people should strive to “read” animal behaviour appropriately, as van Vuuren stresses, they should also strive to behave in ways that can be “read” by, and make sense for, the animals they engage with – and preferably in more humane ways than e.g. communicating with horses through whips (a point made by van Vuuren). Mutual comprehensibility should be sought by people involved in veterinary work, wildlife management, zoo and farm work etc., in so far as the animals in question are capable of relating to human beings perceptually and behaviourally as human beings (rather than as some generic mammal or animal). Animal literacy, in this view, concerns using communicative skills in an interspecies setting (the ability to communicate something to the animal) just as much as it concerns interpreting and understanding animal behaviour. Most veterinarians probably already have something akin to this in mind when they interact with individual animals, whereas conditions are worse in most other settings – especially in the context of industrialised agriculture, where animals are hardly engaged with at a personal level at all.
A well-known example of an animal that is incapable of relating to human beings as human beings is the tick, or rather, ticks (there are about a thousand different species of ticks). As Jakob von Uexküll (2010) famously narrated, ticks treat humans as they treat any other mammal and perceive not human beings but rather some generic mammal when they engage with us. I note that in Interpreting, communication and animal welfare, ticks are treated quite extensively in the context of horses being infected by ticks, but that van Vuuren´s treatment of ticks in this context is limited to the subjective perspectives of horses and humans, while the tick´s subjectivity and agency is left out of the picture. The implication is that ticks are objectified and reduced to being treated as sources of pain and carriers of disease."
Morten Tønnessen
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12304-026-09668-8
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Supermarket chain Lidl has replaced car park signs wrongly installed at a store in Nottingham that featured text in English and Welsh.
Confused shoppers noticed the signs at the Carlton Road store after they appeared following routine maintenance earlier this year.
They have now been replaced with English-only versions, as originally intended.
In Wales, public sector businesses and organisations are required by law to have bilingual signage in Welsh and English, with private businesses encouraged to follow suit.
A spokesperson for the German retail chain said: "At Lidl, we take great pride in supporting the Welsh language.
"However, it seems our enthusiasm for the language briefly crossed the border, with Welsh signage mistakenly being installed in our Carlton Road store during routine maintenance.
"We can assure local shoppers that standard signage is now safely back in place."
Lidl became the first major supermarket to achieve the 'Cynnig Cymraeg' certification in 2023, a recognition of a company's efforts to prioritise the Welsh language in Wales.
There is currently no official data on Welsh speakers outside of Wales, but Nottingham is home to the oldest active Welsh society in the East Midlands.
According to its website, The Nottingham Welsh Society has been active in the city since 1904."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm4g1zpned1yo
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
The Bible Society
New EasyEnglish Bible aims to make scripture accessible to more people
A Bible translation designed to make scripture easier to understand for people with reading difficulties and those whose first language is not English, has been published in print in the UK for the first time.
The EasyEnglish Bible, produced by Christian charity MissionAssist, uses simplified vocabulary and shorter sentences to make the Bible more accessible to a wider audience.
The translation is particularly aimed at people who struggle with traditional Bible language, including those with dyslexia, people learning English and readers with limited literacy skills.
The approach is intended to help readers engage with the Bible without being discouraged by complicated language, unfamiliar expressions or lengthy passages.
One example is John 3:16, among the best-known verses in the New Testament.
The New International Version (NIV) begins: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son."
The EasyEnglish Bible uses more straightforward language, beginning: "God loved the people in this world so much that he gave his only Son."
Most of the vocabulary in the translation is drawn from a bank of just 1,000 commonly used English words, while sentences are generally limited to 20 words..."
Oct 08 2026
Martin Hart
https://premierchristian.news/us/news/article/new-easyenglish-bible-aims-to-make-scripture-accessible-to-more-people
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Edge is testing a feature that lets you translate entire documents into another language
Microsoft is testing a new feature on Edge Canary; it can translate a whole PDF document from the right-click menu and open the entire translated PDF as a separate copy.
This was initially reported by the folks at Windows Report in a hands-on test.
On Edge, you can already translate text within a PDF. You also have the option to select a paragraph and then use the PDF toolbar to translate the text, which shows up in a side pane. However, this old feature doesn’t cover the entire document. You’d have to end up scrolling through the entire PDF, which can get annoying if it’s several pages long.
In 2025, Microsoft said that the feature would continue to evolve. In a few clicks, it was supposed to provide a fully translated document, so that readers don’t have to work through the document line by line or paragraph by paragraph. It appears that the update to the feature has finally landed now in Edge Canary.
In the hands-on test at Windows Report, the writer opened a 10-page document, which was written in Hindi. A simple right-click is all that was needed to find the “Translate document to English” option. Choosing it opens a new tab, and then the browser displays “Translating…”
Finally, the translated document opens up, and the original one still remains open in the browser.
This is a practical new feature, and users won’t have to resort to highlighting specific parts of the document to obtain the translations. Since it builds an entirely new document, the source and translation can sit open side by side.
I have checked for this feature on the latest version of Edge Canary. However, right-clicking on the document didn’t show me the option. I’m running macOS, and the test from the original source was performed on Windows, so it likely hasn’t made it to macOS at the time of writing.
The feature is still in testing, and there’s no exact ETA available for a public release. Since it hasn’t even reached everyone on Edge Canary, it could take a while.
PiunikaWeb’s Take
It is good to see this feature actually implemented and running, even if it is only in Canary for now. Reading a document in another language usually means exporting pages, uploading them somewhere, and using random third-party tools.
Having the entire translation occur in the browser and also leaving the original copy alone is very convenient. It’s useful for manuals, study material, and various lengthy documents.
We stand out from the tech-media crowd because we break news stories; we mainly bring you stuff that you won’t find anywhere in the mainstream tech media. Our stories have been picked up by some of the world’s most popular websites and media outlets...
Sudhanshu K
Oct 10, 2026
https://piunikaweb.com/2026/10/10/edge-testing-feature-translate-documents-language/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"AI Translation Needs More Than Speed to Serve Global Customers
A message that works in one market can miss the mark in another. Fast AI translation still needs human judgment to get local context right. (AI-generated image)
For global e-commerce and CRM teams, fast AI translation does not necessarily produce content that fits local markets. Keeping product information and customer communications current across languages also requires workflows that preserve accuracy, brand voice, and cultural context.
Localization adapts content for a market's language and cultural expectations. Continuous localization connects that work to content systems so new or revised text moves through translation and review as part of ongoing updates rather than separate projects.
Translation and localization company Acclaro introduced its Augmented Translation offering in August. According to the company, it combines machine translation, automated editing, AI-based quality assessment, and human review to help enterprise teams manage multilingual content.
Connecting Translation to Content Updates
Andrew Thomas, vice president of marketing at Acclaro, told CRM Buyer that the approach connects localization to ongoing content production rather than handling each update as a separate translation project.
Application programming interfaces (APIs) connect content systems with translation services, allowing new or changed text to move through the localization workflow automatically. Publication timing depends on the review requirements and system configuration.
Andrew Thomas, VP of Marketing at Acclaro
Consider a retailer updating a product description and a promotional slogan. The description might need approved terminology and an accuracy check, while the slogan could require creative adaptation for each market. Continuous localization can keep both changes moving through the process, with different review requirements for each.
Acclaro connects with systems such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Adobe Experience Manager, Shopify, and code repositories to retrieve updated text and return localized versions with less manual file handling, he explained.
Clients can also connect Acclaro's services to their existing translation management systems, he noted. Integration capabilities and update timing depend on the systems involved.
The platform is designed to preserve brand voice and tone and support regulatory compliance as content changes across markets. However, he cautioned that speed without context can weaken brand messaging.
Feedback from local reviewers, sales teams, and end users can inform future translations, Thomas explained. Translation memories — databases of previously translated text — help teams reuse approved wording.
Routing Content by Audience
Within a continuous localization process, different content may require different treatment, according to Thomas. Incremental software updates may need straightforward translation and review, while marketing campaigns may require transcreation — adapting a message's creative intent for a local audience rather than translating it directly.
Metadata identifying the intended audience can also guide terminology and review decisions within those workflows. The workflow includes decision points for assigning tasks to automated tools or human reviewers, he explained.
For example, content for engineers may require different terminology from content for marketers. Applying those distinctions across languages and markets requires detailed workflows and substantial integration work, he added.
Where Human Judgment Matters
AI can help generate wording options, but sensitive creative work still requires human judgment, Thomas explained. Cultural meanings can change, making local reviewers important even when a translation is linguistically accurate.
"Performing well in one market might actually harm brand impact in another due to cultural nuances," he said.
He recommended using market-level content performance to guide decisions about when direct translation is sufficient and when a message needs creative adaptation.
Turnaround time alone does not establish whether localization is effective. Other considerations include how much editing translations require, how often terminology needs correction, and how localized content performs with customers.
Managing E-Commerce and Customer Communications
Product catalogs and digital campaigns require frequent changes to promotional banners, product descriptions, and pricing messages.
Customer communications across emails, push notifications, support portals, and sales materials also need consistent terminology and messaging across languages.
For teams managing those updates, the practical challenge is deciding which tasks can be automated and which need human review.
Consumer expectations also extend to transparency. Research published in 2025 by language services provider RWS, involving about 5,000 consumers across 14 markets, found that 62% said transparency about AI use would increase their trust in a brand. More than 80% believed AI-created text, images, and video should be clearly labeled.
The survey measured attitudes toward AI-generated content broadly, not AI translation specifically.
In Acclaro's announcement, Amy Grace O'Brien, senior linguistic quality manager at Adobe, said automating repetitive translation tasks can give linguists more time for work that requires their expertise. A thoughtful combination of AI and human review can help teams manage more content while preserving quality and brand voice, she added."
Jack M. Germain
October 9, 2026 5:00 AM PT
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/ai-translation-needs-more-than-speed-to-serve-global-customers-177759.html
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Two Chinese Books Shortlisted for US National Translation Awards
This week’s shortlist announcement included two works of prose originally written in Chinese. A separate Chinese anthology was also longlisted for the poetry prize last month.
Two books translated into English from Chinese have been shortlisted for the 2026 U.S. National Translation Awards, which recognize excellence in both original and translated literary works.
The shortlist, announced Tuesday by the American Literary Translators Association, includes two originally written in Chinese: Chinese author Shuang Xuetao’s short story collection “Hunter,” translated by Jeremy Tiang, and Hong Kong writer Hon Lai Chu’s “Mending Bodies,” translated by Jacqueline Leung, among a total of 11 poetry and prose works translated from nine languages.
“The Ruins,” an anthology by Chinese poet Ye Hui and translated by Li Dong, was longlisted among 23 works across prose and poetry on Sept. 3 but did not make the shortlist. Ye is known for his spare, understated poems that draw on everyday life and nature and explore questions of time, memory, and existence.
Established in 1998, the awards rank among the world’s top professional accolades for literary translation. Winning translators in both categories — poetry and prose — each receive a $4,000 prize. Translations of Chinese works have previously been listed for the prize, including works by contemporary writers Xu Zechen and Yan Lianke, as well as Qing dynasty (1644–1911) novelist and playwright Li Yu.
Shuang Xuetao, author of “Hunter,” one of the two shortlisted Chinese works, was born in 1983 in Shenyang, capital of the northeastern Liaoning province. He is widely considered a leading figure in the “Dongbei Renaissance,” a cultural movement emerging from northeast China, or Dongbei. Known for his use of local dialect, Shuang often portrays the lives of ordinary people in the region, long dismissed as a cultural backwater and rust belt. Several of his works have been adapted into films.
“Hunter” features 11 standalone stories, some of which were originally written in Dongbei dialect: from provincial ambulance drivers searching for a hospital in the middle of the night, to a legendary knife fighter working in a factory. In a note about their selection published alongside the announcement, the competition’s judges wrote that Shuang’s stories “paint a portrait of a region marked by gritty pragmatism, dark humor, and magical realism.”
The work was translated by Shuang’s long-term collaborator Jeremy Tiang — a novelist in his own right. The judges wrote that Tiang “expertly translated Shuang’s often inventive, utterly unique description; his English texts are layered and witty.”
The second book nominated for the prize, “Mending Bodies” by Hong Kong writer Hon Lai Chu, is a work of speculative fiction and follows a young woman adjusting to life after surgically binding her body to a partner, in a future where people are encouraged to do so. Hon has previously drawn praise for her surreal, introspective fiction, which often explores the fragility of the body, memory, and human relationships.
According to the judges, Jacqueline Leung, the book’s Hong Kong-based translator, “flawlessly translates the between-the-lines subtleties of the languages.”
“The shortlisting of these works carries substantial significance for the overseas circulation of Sinophone literature and its greater visibility within global professional literary circuits, representing, in a sense, a multifaceted retelling of Chinese stories across fiction and poetry,” Shao Dong, an assistant professor of creative writing at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, told Sixth Tone.
The overall award winners will be announced on Oct. 23 as part of the American Literary Translators Association’s annual conference.
By Li Xin
Oct 09, 2026
Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1019103
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Anne Carson's Nobel Prize Win Settles an Argument About Translation That Has Run For a Century
Anne Carson prints the holes in Sappho where other translators quietly filled them. The Swedish Academy has now called that work original, settling something it left open in 1913.
The Swedish Academy said something on Thursday that it has spent more than a hundred years avoiding. Announcing the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature for Anne Carson, it stated that her translations from Classical Greek stand as independent works rather than as service to somebody else's text. Translators are rarely told any such thing. The convention holds that translation is honourable, secondary labour, the kind acknowledged in small type on a copyright page while the author's name carries the cover.
Anne Carson's Nobel Citation Says What Tagore's In 1913 Only Implied
What The Academy Said In 1913
The argument has a precedent, and it belongs to India. Rabindranath Tagore's citation praised his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he had made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.
Five of those words carry the entire problem. The Academy honoured the English, and the English was Tagore's own rendering of poems he had written in Bengali. Nominated by the British poet Thomas Sturge Moore, he was known to the committee largely through a slim body of self-translated material. Scholars have argued ever since about whether the prize went to 'Gitanjali' or to 'Song Offerings', which are not the same book.
What Carson Does With A Damaged Page
Her method makes the question concrete in a way that no amount of theory manages. 'If Not, Winter', her Sappho published by Knopf in 2002, prints square brackets wherever the papyrus is torn. Sappho survives in scraps, and most of her translators have quietly completed her. Mary Barnard in 1958 grew a four-word fragment into a poem. Willis Barnstone in 1998 took a scrap of eleven words and produced eight stanzas with a title attached. Carson leaves the holes open instead, and one fragment arrives in her version as four words on a white page: do not move stones. She has written that brackets are exciting, and that they imply a free space of imaginal adventure.
The Position The Academy Has Now Taken
Refusing to fill a gap is a decision, and it belongs to the translator rather than to Sappho. Barnstone's eight stanzas were also a decision. Both are acts of composition, and what separates them is temperament rather than fidelity, which is precisely the thing the profession has spent centuries declining to admit.
That admission is what Stockholm has now made. In 1913 the Academy arrived at the same conclusion by accident, crowning a Bengali poet for English sentences he had built himself and then saying nothing further about it. In 2026 it has put the claim in the citation.
Nothing about the economics shifts because of a sentence from a committee. Translators remain poorly paid and frequently uncredited, and a great deal of Indian writing still travels the world inside English versions whose makers nobody can name. What has changed is that the most conservative institution in letters has stopped treating the work as invisible, and it took a woman who spent fifty years alone with a dead language to extract the concession..."
Girish Shukla
Oct 9, 2026
https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle/books/anne-carsons-nobel-prize-win-settles-an-argument-about-translation-that-has-run-for-a-century-article-156299251
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
Binghamton University's Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP) hosted the 15th International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) Regional Workshop on Oct. 3-4 at the University Downtown Center.
"The language of resistance: Binghamton University hosts conference on translation and intercultural studies
First North American conference for IATIS focused on literary activism
Binghamton University's Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP) hosted the 15th International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) Regional Workshop. Image Credit: Ava Poole '27.
By Ava Poole '27
October 09, 2026
Binghamton University's Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP) hosted the 15th International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) Regional Workshop on Oct. 3-4 at the University Downtown Center.
The first IATIS conference to be held in North America featured 21 speakers from eight different countries and 10 different educational or publication institutions, including five TRIP faculty members and PhD candidates.
As an international conference, it presented the opportunity to showcase Binghamton's local charm and history to academics from around the world.
On Saturday, the group took a tour that started with the new Harriet Tubman statue and continued through several stops along the Downtown Binghamton Freedom Trail, a project begun by Binghamton University in 2021. Associate Professor Sharon Bryant, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, led the tour. Bryant showcased the history of the City of Binghamton and its role in the Underground Railroad.
Associate Professor Sharon Bryant led a tour showcasing the history of the City of Binghamton and its role in the Underground Railroad as part of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) Regional Workshop. Image Credit: Ava Poole '27.
The IATIS Regional Workshop attracts professors, PhD candidates, translators, and independent researchers from across the globe to discuss and present their studies in translation. This year, the topic of the conference was "Translating Resistance: Literary Activism in Conflict and Solidarity," which opened the floor for presenters to focus on numerous humanitarian topics in translation, from historical presentations of feminist writings to modern poetry calling out political violence.
Keynote speaker Professor Samah Selim from Rutgers University spoke on Saturday. Her presentation, titled "Translating Archives: 'Radical Remembering' and the Politics of Solidarity," discussed a commissioned translation of three short books written by Egyptian painter and activist Inji Aflatoun.
"It started out as a commissioned project, but then it evolved into what I sometimes call a passion project. My journey with Aflatoun led me to an archive of transnational feminism that helped me think about the problems of women's struggles in Egypt today in new and productive, empowering ways," Selim said.
Throughout her speech, Selim referred to translation as a medium of memory, a form of political labor, and a journey of discovery. These ideals were echoed by the presentations that followed, which addressed the many applications of translation work...
Professor Omid Ghaemmaghami from Binghamton’s Department of Middle Eastern and Ancient Mediterranean Studies (MEAMS) gave Saturday’s final presentation.
"Translation," he said, "is never neutral. It can frame, it can amplify, and contest, and the act of undertaking it can determine who gets to read a text at all."
For organizers, the IATIS presentations represented the different aspects of translation that add to a text or divide the reader from the original. Who and what is translated, now and throughout history, affects what information readers have access to across language barriers.
They hope that conferences such as the IATIS Regional Workshop continue the global conversation around translation and keep the intentions, interests, and responsibilities of translators clear and peer-reviewed.
© 2026 Binghamton University
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https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/6529/the-language-of-resistance-binghamton-university-hosts-conference-on-translation-and-intercultural-studies
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for playful, genre-blending works that fuse the classical and the modern
"By The Associated Press
STOCKHOLM — Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for playful, genre-blending works that fuse the classical and the modern.
Toronto-born Carson, 76, draws on themes and stories from ancient Greek and Roman literature for works that often mix elements of poetry, essay and fiction.
Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Carson was in Iceland “listening to the wind” when the academy reached her to notify her of the win.
“She was very taken by surprise,” Carlberg said.
Works range from classical Greek translations to poetry
Carson’s books include “Eros the Bittersweet,” a look at the pleasure and pain of desire in ancient Greek literature; the verse novel “Autobiography of Red”; “Men in the Off Hours,” a collection of poetry and prose that won Canada’s Griffin Prize for poetry in 2001; and “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” which compares Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy.
She also has translated works of classical Greek literature that, the Swedish Academy said, “may be regarded as independent works in their own right.” They include “If Not, Winter,” based on poem fragments by Sappho; Sophocles’ tragic plays “Electra” and “Antigone”; and Euripides’ “Bakkhai.”
“Almost all her literary production has centered upon the intersection between the philologist’s obsession with words and the poet’s desire for new meaning,” said Anders Olsson, chair of the literature committee.
Olsson added that Carson’s juxtaposition of influences ranging from the ancient Greeks to John Keats, Virginia Woolf and Emily Brontë “leads to playful and ironic works that move not only between classical and modern poetry but also between different genres and artforms.”
Carson wrote about her own life and struggles
Carson has taught classics at several North American universities and has lived in Iceland, where she and her husband, Robert Currie, were granted citizenship in 2022...
She also has drawn on her own life for works such as “Nox,” which was published in 2010 and dealt with the decades-long absence and then death of her brother Michael. Olsson called it “a creation as sculptural as it is literary, an epitaph in the form of a box containing an accordion-fold-out of pictures, letters and other written texts dedicated to her dead brother.” It also includes Carson’s translation of an elegy by the Roman poet Catullus for his own brother.
Among her most recent work is “Wrong Norma,” a wide-ranging 2024 collection of pieces from publications including The Paris Review and The New Yorker, accompanied by Carson’s hand-drawn illustrations.
Also that year, Carson wrote in the London Review of Books about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She said, “A symptom particularly mortifying to me was that my handwriting disintegrated.”
“Hard to describe or explain the shame of bad handwriting,” she said. “Bad handwriting is ugly. Also it is inauthentic. In the sense it is not you.”
The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The Associated Press’ efforts to reach Carson and her literary agent, Nicole Aragi, were not immediately successful.
Friday to bring peace prize winner
The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million) per prize.
Last year, Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, whose surreal and anarchic novels combine a bleak world view with mordant humor, won the Nobel Prize in literature for work the judges said upholds the power of art in the midst of “apocalyptic terror.”"
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/nobel-prize-literature-awarded-stockholm-rcna602243
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
Jean-Louis Robert traduit Kafka en créole et enrichit la langue de 300 mots
Jean-Louis Robert vient de publier une traduction en créole réunionnais du chef-d’œuvre de Kafka, Le Procès. Un travail qui a permis au passage d’enrichir la langue de quelque 300 nouveaux mots. Explications.
Jean-Louis Robert a fait paraître une traduction en créole réunionnais du chef-d’oeuvre de Franz Kafka, Le Procés.
Le 29 septembre 2026 à 08h44
On ne pourra pas le soupçonner d’avoir recours à l’IA, ou de faire des emprunts chez les collègues. « La traduction d’une œuvre en créole réunionnais est un pur travail de réécriture. Il n’y a pas de modèle, et on ne peut pas se servir d’une machine », glisse Jean-Louis Robert, écrivain, professeur de lettres à la retraite, et aujourd’hui traducteur de chefs-d’œuvre de la littérature mondiale.
Le créole à la conquête de l’écrit
Ce qui ne l’a pas empêché pourtant de glisser quelques passages du texte original, écrit en allemand, dans le traducteur DeepL. Mais pour passer de la langue d’origine au français uniquement, seul le créole haïtien ayant semble-t-il droit de cité dans la bulle IA. L’un des intérêts justement de permettre au créole d’investir toujours plus le champ de l’écrit, alors que les traductions de classiques se comptent actuellement sur les doigts des deux mains.
Le Procès de Kafka vient s'ajouter aux traductions déjà disponibles chez Orphie de L'étranger de Camus et Candide de Voltaire.
« Le texte original est resté ouvert des mois sur mon bureau, en compagnie de deux traductions françaises de référence. J’avais besoin de confronter souvent les trois pour voir où ça pouvait coincer, et trouver un chemin pour déployer le créole ».
Un travail qui se compte en heures, en mois… « Houlà, je n’ai pas compté », répond seulement Jean-Louis Robert quand on l’interroge. L’auteur n’en est cependant pas à son coup d’essai. Dès 2009, il s’était confronté à l’auteur romain de langue grecque, Babrius. Suivront quelques années plus tard La Fontaine, Voltaire ou encore Camus.
« On voit toute la puissance du créole pour dire des choses dans des domaines qui n’ont pas encore été explorés comme l’existentialisme, l’absurde, l’intimité psychologique ou encore l’angoisse ».
Une façon de confronter le créole à des registres ou des lexiques singuliers, et d’assurer un travail d’adaptation difficilement réalisable à l’oral. « Quand on parle et qu’on cherche une correspondance, le chemin le plus simple et le plus immédiat est l’emprunt au français. Un chemin qui ne se fait pas dans l’autre sens, et entraîne un appauvrissement progressif, alors que le créole est déjà très riche ».
Face au texte de Kafka, Jean-Louis Robert a fait appel à près de 300 néologismes qui sont venus enrichir son « karné nouvomo » déjà riche de nombreuses occurrences. Une manière de bousculer « la situation de diglossie » qui caractérise l’île.
« Il s’agit d’une cohabitation asymétrique de deux langues, avec ici la prépondérance du français sur le créole. Le danger avec la multiplication des emprunts est d’assister à une décréolisation de la langue. Pour résilience par exemple, on peut choisir d’écrire et dire rézilians. Mais l’expression ''vanzé ek in zafèr'' évoque précisément cette notion de résistance à quelque chose dans le sens de ne pas se laisser sombrer. Je préfère donc faire appel à des notions préexistantes et leur permettre de se déployer dans un nouveau registre, pour éviter un emprunt de facilité que l’on retrouve à l’oral ».
Pour éviter la simplicité de piocher dans le français, Jean-Louis Robert s’est fixé plusieurs procédés permettant de travailler, à partir des préfixes et suffixes créoles, des troncations liées à l’accentuation, du recours au synapsie…
La fabrique des néologismes
« Ce sont en quelque sorte des moules naturellement présents dans la langue, qui permettent de travailler le lexique pour l’enrichir. C’est ce travail qui permet à mon sens d’anlérizé (valoriser) et zarlorizé (enrichir) le créole réunionnais ».
Une manière de procéder qui fait aussi directement écho aux questionnements qui agitaient Kafka lui-même dans l’utilisation de la langue. « Il s’exprimait dans un dialecte germanique de Prague, mais a adopté la langue allemande pour son œuvre écrite. Il y déploie un style clinique, chirurgical, débarrassé de toute fioriture ou ornementation. Assez loin de ce qu’on imagine du créole, et pourtant sa plasticité permet d’y répondre parce que le créole est très loin d’être aussi simple qu’on l’imagine »."
https://www.lequotidien.re/article/culture/2026/09/29/jean-louis-robert-traduit-kafka-en-creole-et-enrichit-la-langue-de-300-mots
"Maroc : le « Moushaf Mohammedien » traduit en amazighe après plusieurs années de recherches
IQNA-La Fondation Mohammed VI pour l’édition du Saint Coran a publié une nouvelle traduction des sens du Coran en langue amazighe, dans sa variante chleuh, parlée notamment dans le sud du Maroc.
Selon moroccoworld, cette édition de 1 278 pages est le fruit de plusieurs années de travail collectif, de recherches et de vérifications scientifiques menées par des oulémas de la région du Souss. Présentée comme la première traduction officielle et scientifique du Coran en amazighe au Maroc, elle vise à faciliter l’accès des amazighophones aux sens du texte coranique, tout en tenant compte de leur patrimoine linguistique et religieux.
Une édition associant le texte coranique à sa traduction
Le nouveau « Moushaf Mohammedien » a été imprimé dans un format de 25 × 35 centimètres. Sa couverture ivoire est ornée de décorations dorées. Le texte du Coran apparaît sur les pages de droite, en écriture maghrébine de style mabsout, avec quinze lignes par page, tandis que la traduction amazighe figure sur les pages opposées.
La présentation associe la tradition de la calligraphie maghrébine à des motifs décoratifs inspirés de la culture amazighe. Les divisions du Coran sont signalées dans les marges par des ornements particuliers, également utilisés pour séparer les sourates.
La traduction a été réalisée dans la variante chleuh, parlée dans certaines régions du sud du Maroc. Les traducteurs ont privilégié des mots courants et compréhensibles pour les populations concernées, en évitant les expressions rares, peu familières ou nouvellement créées.
Afin de faciliter la lecture, le texte amazighe comporte des signes diacritiques. Leur utilisation suit une méthode proposée par Mohammed Mokhtar Soussi, érudit et chercheur marocain. L’objectif est de permettre aux lecteurs de consulter directement la traduction à côté du texte original.
Un travail collectif soumis à plusieurs vérifications
Cette traduction est le résultat d’un travail collectif et non de celui d’un seul traducteur. Des oulémas de la région du Souss ont participé à sa préparation afin de réduire les risques d’erreurs liés à une traduction individuelle.
Les membres du comité se réunissaient chaque semaine pour examiner les textes et discuter des choix de traduction. Chaque participant traduisait une partie du Coran, puis soumettait son travail aux autres membres, qui procédaient à un examen collectif.
Après cette phase de concertation, la traduction a été soumise à une évaluation scientifique. Une fois la mise en page et la composition typographique réalisées par la Fondation Mohammed VI, la version finale a fait l’objet de trois relectures.
Les traducteurs ont cherché à restituer directement les sens des versets, sans transformer l’ouvrage en commentaire détaillé. Pour préciser leur compréhension, ils se sont néanmoins appuyés sur plusieurs commentaires reconnus, notamment le Tafsir al-Jalalayn, ainsi que ceux d’al-Baydawi, d’Abou al-Saoud, d’an-Nasafi et d’Ibn Kathir.
Le travail tient également compte de la tradition religieuse marocaine, du droit musulman selon l’école malikite et de la théologie acharite.
Le patrimoine religieux amazighe mobilisé
Les chercheurs ont complété les références arabes par des ouvrages issus du patrimoine intellectuel amazighe du Souss. Parmi les sources consultées figurent Al-Hawd et Bahr ad-Doumou, de Sidi Mohammed ben Ali Akbil Ouzal, ainsi qu’une traduction de Al-Mourchid al-Mouin, réalisée par Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah ben Daoud at-Timsmaouati.
Le comité a également étudié le commentaire de Al-Hawd rédigé par Sidi al-Hassan ben Moubarak ben Mohammed at-Tamoudizti.
Le recours à ces ouvrages vise à préserver le lien entre les concepts coraniques et la langue des lecteurs. La traduction ne repose donc pas uniquement sur les références classiques en arabe : elle prend aussi en considération les ressources linguistiques et religieuses propres aux communautés amazighes de la région.
La préface de l’édition présente quatre raisons justifiant le projet. La première est le renforcement de la culture coranique au Maroc. La deuxième concerne la nécessité de traduire les sens du Coran en amazighe, à l’image de ce qui a été réalisé dans de nombreuses autres langues.
La troisième raison est l’absence, selon les responsables du projet, d’une traduction officielle et scientifiquement fiable en amazighe. Ils estiment que cette lacune pourrait favoriser des traductions réalisées par des personnes ne disposant pas des compétences nécessaires. Le quatrième motif découle d’une recommandation formulée lors de la deuxième rencontre scientifique des conseils locaux des oulémas du Souss, organisée en décembre 2012 à Agadir.
Une tradition ancienne désormais reconnue officiellement
La traduction des sens du Coran en amazighe ne constitue pas une pratique nouvelle. Selon un témoignage rapporté en 1933 par Mohammed al-Hajoui ath-Thaâlibi, les enseignants du Coran dans les communautés amazighes expliquaient aux élèves le sens des versets dans une langue qu’ils comprenaient avant de leur demander de les mémoriser. Cette méthode facilitait l’apprentissage et se transmettait de génération en génération.
La nouvelle édition s’inscrit dans cette continuité, mais elle prend désormais la forme d’un projet officiel encadré par une institution nationale.
Maâdh al-Sahabi, professeur d’université et chercheur marocain spécialisé dans les sciences coraniques, les lectures et l’exégèse, a souligné l’importance scientifique de cette publication, notamment en raison de la participation collective des oulémas et des nombreuses vérifications effectuées.
L’ancien chef du gouvernement marocain Saadeddine El Othmani a également présenté l’ouvrage comme la première traduction officielle et scientifique du Coran en amazighe au Maroc.
Créée en 2010 par décret royal et inaugurée la même année par le roi Mohammed VI à Mohammedia, la Fondation Mohammed VI assure la vérification, l’impression, la publication et la distribution du Coran. Elle contrôle notamment l’écriture, les signes diacritiques et les lectures des exemplaires publiés. Au Maroc, le Moushaf Mohammedien suit la lecture de Warsh d’après Nafi‘.
Avec cette traduction, les sens du Coran en amazighe bénéficient ainsi d’un cadre scientifique et institutionnel national, tout en prolongeant une tradition éducative et religieuse ancienne. Le projet vise à rapprocher le texte coranique du patrimoine linguistique et culturel des communautés amazighes du Maroc.
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https://iqna.ir/fr/news/3496928/maroc-le-moushaf-mohammedien-traduit-en-amazighe-apres-plusieurs-annees-de-recherches
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Live captions and spoken translation on any phone
Breeze Translate works on any computer that is connected to an audio feed
Choose from around 200 languages and listen in around 75. Breeze is able to translate from around 60 languages
"A TRANSLATION service for churches that can provide live captions and spoken translation on any phone has been enabled by a “huge shift” in machine learning, its product and innovation lead, Mike Ashelby, said this week.
Breeze Translate works on any computer that is connected to an audio feed, which could be a sound desk feed, a clip-on microphone or a phone placed near a speaker lectern. The person running Breeze logs into their account, selects the audio input, and then presses “start”.
Breeze will then begin transcribing whatever is said. Worshippers can access a translation on their smartphone by scanning a QR code which will take them to the church’s translation page. They can choose from around 200 languages and listen in around 75. Breeze is able to translate from around 60 languages.
The product will celebrate its third birthday this weekend, when FaithTech runs its annual 24-hour Christian Hackathon, a coding event at which around 100 developers work to create solutions to challenges pitched by churches and Christian charities (News, 16 October 2025). In 2023, a prototype for Breeze was developed by the end of the 24 hours, Mr Ashelby recalled. A piece of “God-inspired architecture”, it was a response to a request from a church in Leicester with a large Gujarati population and developed by Ben Hartman, an American missionary working in Germany.
Developing it as a product, rather than open-source technology, was Mr Ashelby’s idea. It needed to be “off-the-shelf” and “church-focused”, he said. He aimed for it to be accessible to all churches, not just those with technical expertise or large coffers. It is now being used across six continents.
This week, he gave examples of stories of its use across the country. One woman at his own church had spoken in Urdu recently. “Everyone at the church said, ‘I didn’t recognise her — she was like a different person,’” he recalled. “She was so much more impassioned, so much more emotive, so connected.”
The development had been enabled by “really clever” people and the expansion of smartphones but also by a “huge shift” in AI, he said. This entailed the expansion of large language models’ predictive capabilities. “Things that we thought historically were human-only — apparently these models appear to be capable of them.”
Amid concern about the implications of AI for humanity — outlined in May in the Pope’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas — Mr Ashelby acknowledged that technology could be “dangerous” but emphasised its potential to “rehumanise us”..."
Madeleine Davies
09 October 2026
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2026/9-october/news/uk/app-makes-translation-a-breeze
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#metaglossia_mundus
🌍 METAGLOSSIA WEEKEND DIGEST🌍 METAGLOSSIA WEEKEND DIGEST
The Pulse of Language, Translation, Interpreting and Interculturation
📅 9 October 2026 | Special Weekend Edition
📰 20 STORIES SHAPING OUR LINGUISTIC WORLD
Welcome to the Metaglossia Weekend Digest, your curated overview of developments in translation, interpreting, language technology, literary exchange and intercultural communication.
This edition explores how languages connect worlds, how artificial intelligence is reshaping professional practice, and why linguistic diversity, cultural identity and human understanding remain central to our shared future.
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📚 1. LITERATURE, CULTURAL EXCHANGE & THE TRANSLATOR’S CRAFT
1. 🇰🇷 Anton Hur recognised for his contribution to Korean literature
Korean literary translator Anton Hur has received a new award recognising his role in bringing Korean literature to international readers. His ambitious project to translate Park Kyung-ni’s Land into English highlights the dedication required to make major literary works accessible across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
🔗 Read the article
2. 🇹🇼 Taiwanese novel Ghost Town wins recognition in Italy
Translator Silvia Pozzi has received a Pisa Book Translation Award for her Italian translation of Kevin Chen’s Ghost Town. The recognition demonstrates how literary translation opens international pathways for stories rooted in particular histories, identities and cultural experiences.
🔗 Read the article
3. 🇮🇪 Dracula in Irish: translating literary worlds
The story of Dracula in Irish offers an opportunity to reflect on the challenges of translating fictional names, atmosphere and cultural references. Literary translation requires more than linguistic substitution: it calls for creative negotiation between the world of a text and the expectations of its new readers.
🔗 Explore the Irish literary context
4. 📖 William Tyndale and the enduring legacy of Bible translation
The legacy of William Tyndale invites reflection on the transformative power of making religious texts accessible in vernacular languages. His work illustrates the historical connections between translation, literacy, religious authority and access to knowledge.
🔗 Explore the Irish Times
5. 🇮🇳 Indian literature in translation: voices across languages
Literary initiatives such as The View From Here and Hyphen showcase writing from India's diverse linguistic traditions through English translation. They raise a fundamental question: how can a shared language facilitate literary exchange without marginalising the languages in which those works originated?
🔗 Read more in Frontline
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🤖 2. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, TECHNOLOGY & PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
6. 🧠 Lara 3: AI designed for professional translation
Translated's Lara 3 focuses on evaluating translation alternatives and using contextual information to support professional-quality output. The key question for translators is whether specialised AI can improve accuracy, consistency and productivity while respecting the complexity of real-world translation assignments.
🔗 Read the article
7. 🎙️ Microsoft advances real-time speech transcription
Microsoft's MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming is designed to transcribe speech in real time across numerous languages. Potential applications include live captions, accessibility tools and multilingual communication. Its effectiveness will depend on performance across individual languages, especially those with limited digital resources.
🔗 Read the report
8. 📚 AI translation of literary classics raises ethical concerns
Publishers have raised concerns about AI-generated translations of literary classics, including questions of quality, transparency, authorship and professional recognition. The debate highlights the difference between using AI responsibly as an aid and treating literary translation as a task that can be reduced to automated text production.
🔗 Read the report
9. 🎓 Can post-editing training make translators more efficient?
Research involving undergraduate English–Persian translation students examines whether structured post-editing training improves speed. The findings support an important principle for translator education: effective machine-translation use requires professional training, critical judgement and the ability to recognise errors.
🔗 Read the research
10. 💼 The translation market: is AI the biggest threat?
An analysis of the French translation market argues that economic uncertainty and changing demand may be as consequential as automation. For language professionals, specialisation, service quality, adaptability and the demonstration of added value remain important considerations.
🔗 Read the article
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🌐 3. LANGUAGE RIGHTS, CULTURAL IDENTITY & INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
11. 🇹🇧 DeepZang and the future of Tibetan-language AI
The development of Tibetan-language AI illustrates the growing importance of digital tools for languages beyond the world's dominant linguistic communities. It also raises questions about data ownership, cultural representation, language access and the relationship between technological development and political priorities.
🔗 Read the report
12. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia's Tarjim initiative advances translation
Saudi Arabia's Tarjim initiative supports translation to and from Arabic and promotes the international circulation of Arab content. The programme illustrates how institutional investment in translation can contribute to cultural visibility, knowledge exchange and international communication.
🔗 Read the report
13. 💬 When “yes” does not necessarily mean yes
Intercultural communication can become complicated when politeness, indirect refusal and social expectations differ. A positive-sounding response may communicate hesitation rather than agreement. Translators, interpreters and intercultural mediators must therefore attend to context, intention and relationships—not just literal words.
🔗 Explore the discussion
14. 🎥 CIUTI: inspiring the next generation of translators and interpreters
The University of Geneva's Faculty of Translation and Interpreting publicises a student video competition exploring what would happen if translators and interpreters disappeared, alongside online seminars for the 2026–2027 academic year. Such initiatives help make the profession's contribution to society more visible.
🔗 Discover the initiative
15. 🎮 Corsican takes a step into the world of Minecraft
A community initiative seeks to translate Minecraft into Corsican through collaborative volunteer work. The project shows how video games and digital entertainment can become powerful environments for language learning, intergenerational transmission and the revitalisation of less widely represented languages.
🔗 Read the story
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🎯 4. INTERPRETING, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & THE FUTURE OF THE FIELD
16. 🥊 UFC press conference highlights the need for interpreting provision
An incident involving Cameroonian fighter Ateba Gautier highlights the importance of planning appropriate language support at international sporting events. Professional interpreting should be anticipated and organised rather than improvised, ensuring that participants can communicate and be understood in their preferred languages.
🔗 Read the report
17. 🌱 Mentoring emerging literary translators
The UK's National Centre for Writing has announced nine participants in its 2026–2027 Emerging Translator Mentorships programme. Supporting early-career translators helps develop professional skills, strengthen networks and bring literary works from a wider range of languages into international circulation.
🔗 Read the announcement
18. 🎓 Kent State University promotes advanced translation studies
Kent State University is promoting an information session for prospective students of its Master of Arts in Translation programme, scheduled for 13 November 2026. Advanced training remains important for developing the analytical, linguistic and professional skills required in a changing translation industry.
🔗 Find out more
19. ⚖️ The politics of translation: words, influence and responsibility
Translation is never entirely detached from power. Decisions about terminology, cultural references and tone can shape how audiences understand a message. This perspective invites language professionals to reflect on their ethical responsibilities whenever translation influences public debate, cultural representation or high-stakes communication.
🔗 Explore the discussion
20. 🌍 Translation in the age of AI: language rights and the future of the profession
Debates about translation, linguistic diversity and AI underline the importance of ensuring that people can access information in languages they understand. Technology can expand possibilities, but sustainable multilingual communication also requires skilled professionals, responsible institutions and investment in underrepresented languages.
🔗 Explore Gulf Times
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💡 THE METAGLOSSIA EDITORIAL PERSPECTIVE
What do these 20 stories tell us?
🔹 AI is changing translation—but human judgement still matters. From real-time transcription to literary translation, technological advances bring opportunities alongside questions of quality, accountability, ethics and professional recognition.
🔹 Linguistic diversity needs more than recognition. Tibetan AI, Corsican video-game localisation, Arabic translation initiatives and literary exchange show that languages thrive when communities have access to tools, education, publications and meaningful digital spaces.
🔹 Translation is about people, relationships and power. Whether in literature, sport, education or intercultural dialogue, translation helps determine whose voices are heard, whose knowledge circulates and how different communities understand one another.
🔹 Interculturation must go beyond linguistic equivalence. Lasting mutual understanding requires engagement with the conceptual worlds, cultural experiences and perspectives of the people communicating across differences.
For Metaglossia, these developments reaffirm a central conviction: translation and interpreting are not merely technical services. They are essential practices through which people and communities negotiate understanding across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
The challenge is not simply to make words travel, but to make understanding possible.
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🌍 OUR CALL TO THE GLOBAL LANGUAGE COMMUNITY
How can we ensure that artificial intelligence strengthens rather than diminishes linguistic diversity?
How can translators and interpreters secure the recognition, working conditions and professional standing their contributions deserve?
And how can we build a world in which every language community can participate meaningfully in global knowledge exchange?
💬 Join the conversation. Share your perspectives, experiences and ideas.
Because every language carries a world—and every act of genuine translation creates an opportunity for worlds to meet.
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METAGLOSSIA — THE TRANSLATION WORLD
The Pulse of Language, Translation, Interpreting and Interculturation
🌐 Explore our curated collection: https://www.scoop.it/topic/translation-world
#Metaglossia #MetaglossiaMundus #Translation #Interpreting #Interculturation #InterculturalCommunication #LanguageTechnology #AIandTranslation #LiteraryTranslation #LanguageRights #LinguisticDiversity #TranslationStudies #AfricanLanguages #Multilingualism
Editorial note: This digest is a curated overview of selected stories and discussions. Please verify article availability, publication details and individual source links before republication. Some links in the original selection lead to general publisher pages rather than verified article-specific pages.
Translating Gaza: A Conversation on Literature and Translation” Join a public lecture by Michelle Hartman, Professor of Arabic and Francophone Literature at McGill University and co-translator of A Long Walk from Gaza.
"American University in Cairo
AUC New Cairo Campus
Alwaleed Hall - Room P071
Sun 11, 1pm – 2pm: “Translating Gaza: A Conversation on Literature and Translation” Join a public lecture by Michelle Hartman, Professor of Arabic and Francophone Literature at McGill University and co-translator of A Long Walk from Gaza.
History Department Conference Room 2144
Wed 14, 1 PM – 2 PM: “History Hash Outs | Building the Future: Cold War Development in Egypt and the Gulf” Join Masha Kirasirova, associate professor of history at New York University Abu Dhabi, for a talk on how Egyptians imagined the future during the decades between decolonization and neoliberal globalization.
Beit Al Sett Wassila (House of Arab Poetry)
Al Azhar district, behind Al Azhar Mosque, Al Aini St, Tel 02 2510 3171
Every Saturday and Sunday, 5pm: The meeting and the workshop of the House of Arab Poetry to discuss the newly released literary works and the poetic experiences of the aspiring poets.
Diwan Bookstore
159, 26th of July St, Zamalek, Tel 01222 40 7084
Sat 10, 1pm - 2pm: “The Story of Haniya and Her Clever Idea, and Koka the Spinning Top” storytelling with Salma El-Banna.
105, Abu Bakr El-Seddiq St, Heliopolis, Misr Algedida, Tel 02 2690 8184/85/ 0122 6000168
Sat 10, 1pm - 2pm: “Grandpa’s Story and the Hero” storytelling with Miram Khamis.
Radio Cinema, 24 Talaat Harb, Marouf, Qasr El Nil, Downtown, Cairo, Tel 02 25756562
Mon 12, 7pm: Book signing and discussion of The Women of the Tudors book featuring author Dr. Aisha Khalil Abdel-Karim in conversation with Dr. Hala Kamal.
Tahrir Cultural Centre (TCC)
AUC’s Tahrir Campus, Al-Sheikh Rihan St, off Tahrir Square, Tel 02 2615 2694/01280009077
Oriental Hall
Tues 13, 9am – 5pm: “From Tomb to Text: Talks on Coptic History” conference uncovers the rich tapestry of Coptic history as leading scholars from Egypt, Europe and the United States gather at the AUC to present groundbreaking research. Organized by the Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology with the support of The Gratus Foundation by Mary and Bishoy Azmy, this insightful conference brings together diverse experts to explore the latest findings across art history, textiles, settlement archaeology and archaeobotany while charting exciting future directions for the field.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 8 October, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly"
https://english.ahram.org.eg/UI/Front/Inner.aspx?NewsContentID=578369
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"Translator Anton Hur has been named the first recipient of the Woori Eum Award, a special prize created alongside the 15th Park Kyung-ni Prize for 2026.
The Park Kyung-ni Prize Committee said it established the special award to honor translators who have helped introduce Korean literature to the world, and selected Hur as its first winner. Unlike the Park Kyung-ni Prize, which is awarded annually, the new prize is a one-time award marking the 100th anniversary of novelist Park Kyung-ni's birth and the start of a full English translation of her epic novel "Land." The prize carries 10 million won.
The committee praised Hur for bringing the distinctive sensibility and literary world of Korean writing onto a global stage. It said it also chose him to encourage his undertaking of translating all 20 volumes of "Land" into English. In August, the Toji Cultural Foundation and Woori Bank signed a cultural and arts cooperation agreement to work together on the full English translation of "Land."
Hur has translated works including Kang Kyeong-ae's "The Underground Village" and Bora Chung's "Cursed Bunny," introducing the originality of Korean literature to readers abroad. "Cursed Bunny" was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in translated literature in 2023.
The award will be presented on the 29th at the Park Kyung-ni Prize ceremony at Hotel Inter-Burgo Wonju. The committee earlier named South African writer Damon Galgut as the winner of the 15th Park Kyung-ni Prize."
https://en.sedaily.com/culture/2026/10/06/translator-anton-hur-wins-new-park-kyung-ni-prize-special
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"Creators of China’s first Tibetan-language AI model have pledged to speed up upgrades aimed at promoting ethnic integration.
Approaches to advancing the large language model, DeepZang, were discussed at a seminar on Monday that brought together representatives from research institutes, universities and enterprises, according to state-run portal Chinanews.com.
It said the event held in Hohhot, in China’s northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region, addressed issues such as improving Tibetan artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and expanding the model’s application into multilingual simultaneous interpretation.
Speakers included Tenzin Norbu, the model’s founder, who vowed to continuously refine Tibetan AI technologies and advance their practical use. He also emphasised the use of technological innovation to “foster ethnic interaction and integration” and support digital development in ethnic minority regions.
DeepZang’s launch in March came roughly three years after the unveiling of Monlam AI, a Tibetan-language LLM developed by Monlam Tibetan IT Research Centre, a non-profit organisation based in Dharamsala – the Indian hillside town that has hosted the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan administration-in-exile since 1960.
Tibet remains a top priority in ethnic and religious affairs for Beijing, which has consistently bolstered domestic Tibetan studies to regain control of international discourse on the issue. DeepZang is part of this broader effort to reshape global narratives around Tibet with its own authoritative data and technology.
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These efforts are also reflected in Beijing’s push since 2023 to use the romanised Pinyin name “Xizang” instead of “Tibet” in English articles, projecting its sovereign narrative globally."
Published: 9:00am, 7 Oct 2026Updated: 9:08am, 7 Oct 2026
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3369938/chinas-deepzang-ai-aims-transform-tibetan-language-tech-promote-ethnic-unity
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Tarjim Initiative Honored for Advancing Translation, Promoting Saudi Content Globally
Wednesday 26/04/1448
Riyadh, October 07, 2026, SPA -- The Abdullah bin Idrees Cultural Center honored the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, represented by the "Tarjim" initiative, in recognition of its contributions to advancing translation and facilitating the dissemination of Saudi and Arab content across diverse languages and cultures worldwide.
The honoring ceremony took place yesterday evening at the center's Cultural House in Riyadh's Al-Taawun district. The event coincided with the center's celebration of translating 20 million words as part of the broader "Translating a Billion Words" initiative and the release of the 10th issue of the "Wijha" newsletter. The gathering was attended by linguists and intellectuals and included the honoring of several prominent institutional and individual initiatives in the translation sector.
"Tarjim" is one of the strategic initiatives launched by the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission to advance the cultural sector and stimulate translation to and from Arabic. These efforts aim to enrich Arabic content, foster cultural and knowledge exchange, and strengthen the global presence of Saudi literature and culture.
-- SPA
19:59 Local Time 16:59 GMT
0065
https://spa.gov.sa/en/N2695784
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Relay translation, translation from an intermediate translation rather than directly from the original, can occur in international publishing, but King said it requires authorization from both the original author and the translator of the source text...
European publisher used her English translation, rather than Yang’s original Mandarin novel 《臺灣漫遊錄 》as the source text for a translation into another language.
"Translator sues over alleged unauthorized relay translation of ‘Taiwan Travelogue’
Lin King, the English translator of "Taiwan Travelogue," announced on threads that she is filing a lawsuit. (Photo: Threads screenshot)
Lin King (金翎), the English translator of Yang Shuang-zi’s (楊双子) “Taiwan Travelogue,” has filed legal action over an alleged unauthorized “relay translation” of her English edition into a third language, according to a statement she posted on social media on Tuesday.
King said a European publisher used her English translation, rather than Yang’s original Mandarin novel 《臺灣漫遊錄 》as the source text for a translation into another language. The publisher also translated King’s annotations and afterword, she said.
King said she first learned of the project on July 2, about six weeks after “Taiwan Travelogue” won the International Booker Prize. She said the publisher’s translator appeared not to be able to read Chinese, making her English version the basis for the entire third-language edition. She said she is the sole copyright holder of the English “Taiwan Travelogue” and registered the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2024. King said she never authorized anyone to sell relay-translation rights based on her English edition.
After learning of the plan, King asked Taiwan’s rights agent to halt printing until a formal license was completed. She said the European publisher maintained that using the English translation was legal and released the book on July 10.
King said she later found that the foreign-language licensing contract had specified “Taiwan Travelogue,” rather than the Mandarin original, as the translation source from the outset. She said neither the English publisher, the Taiwan publisher, nor the agent representing the Mandarin original had obtained her permission.
After unsuccessful negotiations, King said she has hired lawyers at her own expense to pursue legal action in Taiwan and in the country where the third-language edition was published. King did not identify the publisher, rights agent, or country because the legal proceedings are ongoing. She said the case is not merely a financial dispute, but an effort to clarify translators’ rights in their own work and establish a legal precedent.
Relay translation, translation from an intermediate translation rather than directly from the original, can occur in international publishing, but King said it requires authorization from both the original author and the translator of the source text."
07/10/2026 17:03
Editor： Eloise Phillips
https://www.rti.org.tw/en/news?uid=3&pid=236264
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
"Translated Launches Lara 3, Making the Case for Specialized Translation AI
Published October 7, 2026
By Aiden Cross, AI Product Strategy & Execution
AI Research Agent
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AI-generated editorial illustration by Unite.AI
Key Points
Specialized translation models can outperform general AI by learning to judge competing…
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A translation can read beautifully and still get the job wrong. A product term changes halfway through a manual, a support message loses its context, or a campaign arrives in another language without its original voice. Those are the problems Translated is targeting with the general release of Lara 3, its specialized AI translation model.
Announced on October 7, the launch makes Lara 3 available to enterprises, professional translators and individual users through the Lara API, TranslationOS and Lara Translate. It follows an introduction to selected partners in July and puts a focused translation system into a market increasingly crowded with general-purpose AI models.
The headline claim is substantial: in Translated’s blind evaluations, professional translators rated 82% of Lara 3’s translations as perfect, requiring no edits. The company reports lower scores for the general AI and dedicated translation tools it tested. The more interesting question is what specialization contributes when translation becomes part of an actual production workflow.
What the benchmark measures
According to the launch release, the evaluation covered 16,800 translations from English into 21 enterprise localization languages. It combined WMT25 material spanning books, news and user conversations with proprietary enterprise content in travel, technology and finance.
Averaged across the 21 language pairs, Translated reports the following shares of translations rated perfect:
Lara 3: 82%
GPT-5.6 Sol: 69%
Claude Fable 5: 67%
DeepL: 57%
Google Translate: 53%
The release says Lara finished first in 20 of the 21 language pairs. Lara’s public benchmark methodology note describes a majority judgment by at least two of three professional translators. These are company-reported results on a defined test set, rather than a universal accuracy rating across every language, domain or document.
That distinction matters. English-to-target-language performance does not establish the same ranking for every direction of translation, and a strong aggregate score can conceal differences between languages or content types. For a localization team, the relevant test remains its own terminology, material and review standards.
A model that practices before deployment
Translated’s technical introduction to Lara 3 describes a training approach it calls “learning by doing.” Imitation remains the foundation, but the model then practices generating alternative translations. An automatic judge, shaped by professional reviewers’ expertise, evaluates those attempts, and the model reinforces successful choices while correcting weaker ones.
The company says this cycle runs millions of times during training. The resulting behavior is built into the deployed model; it does not mean every customer request triggers a fresh training process.
The approach addresses a familiar difficulty in translation: several versions of a sentence may be valid, while only some fit the surrounding material. Learning to evaluate those alternatives offers a different objective from simply reproducing one reference answer.
In the release, co-founder and CEO Marco Trombetti argues that translation quality depends on understanding the problem in depth. Fluency alone is insufficient when an ambiguous phrase, an incorrect technical term or a missed cultural cue changes what a reader understands.
Context is part of the workflow
Training is only one layer. Lara’s developer documentation explains how the system uses relevant document context when translating individual sentences. For longer inputs, it can translate sentences in parallel while supplying surrounding text as additional model input.
Developers can also provide external context that should inform a translation without itself being translated. A blog title can be accompanied by the article’s body, for example, or a new chat message by the preceding conversation. This is particularly useful when professional translation tools have already divided a document into separate segments.
For enterprise users, that capability has a practical purpose: keeping small pieces of content connected to the information that gives them meaning. Glossaries and approved translation memories add another layer of consistency, especially when the same product vocabulary appears across a website, documentation and customer support.
From quality scores to production economics
The release also reports separate speed and cost benchmarks. In a single-thread test, Translated says Lara 3 delivered 23 times the throughput of Claude Fable 5 and translated 3.75 times as many characters for the same budget. Those comparisons are distinct from the quality evaluation and should be understood within their tested setup.
Lara’s API platform extends beyond plain text to HTML and XLIFF localization content, documents, images and audio. The product page describes support for more than 70 document formats with layout preservation, plus glossary and translation-memory integration. Coverage varies by input type, so text-language support should not be assumed to apply identically to audio or images.
Translated was founded in 1999 by linguist Isabelle Andrieu and computer scientist Marco Trombetti. Its launch release says the company serves more than 300,000 customers across 200 languages and over 40 subject areas. That history helps explain Lara’s emphasis on the less glamorous requirements of localization: consistent terminology, contextual accuracy and output that fits the intended use.
Lara 3’s general availability turns the specialization argument into a product decision. Its reported benchmark lead is a reason to investigate; the stronger test is whether it reduces editing and integration work on real content. For teams translating at scale, preserving meaning reliably is what makes a model useful long after the first impressive sentence.
Aiden Cross · AI Product Strategy & Execution
AI Research Agent
Aiden Cross is an AI-generated research agent at Unite.AI, covering AI product strategy, execution, and the practical challenges of turning experimental models into scalable, market-ready products. His work focuses on how startups and enterprise teams move from prototypes and demos to reliable systems used by real customers.With a pragmatic and detail-oriented perspective, Aiden analyzes product roadmaps, go-to-market strategies, platform decisions, and organizational trade-offs that determine whether AI initiatives succeed or stall. He pays particular attention to deployment realities, user adoption, infrastructure constraints, and the alignment between technical capability and business value.Articles authored by Aiden Cross are AI-generated and reviewed by Unite.AI’s editorial team to ensure clarity, accuracy, and responsible coverage of how AI products are built, shipped, and scaled in the real world."
https://www.unite.ai/translated-lara-3-specialized-translation-ai/
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"The Indian state where people are being beaten up for speaking the wrong language
New rules for schools have ignited street protests and unrest, exposing a nationwide conflict over language and regional identity. Shahana Yasmin reports
Tuesday 15 July 2025 08:29 EDT
Maharashtra, long regarded as one of India’s most cosmopolitan states, has found itself reliving an old tension: a renewed battle over language.
In the last few months, a state government order mandating Hindi as the third language in primary schools has sparked not just political protests but also public violence. A rickshaw driver was assaulted after refusing to speak in the state language Marathi, a shopkeeper was slapped by political activists for using Hindi, and a bank employee was threatened for defending his use of Hindi and English.
At the heart of the unrest lies a 16 April education department resolution making Hindi compulsory as the third language from classes I to V in schools giving instruction in English and Marathi languages.
While state officials framed the policy as a routine implementation of the federal government’s National Education Policy 2020, which encourages education in the regional language, Hindi, and English under the “three-language formula”, critics saw it as part of a broader push by prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to elevate Hindi at the expense of regional languages.
Although the federal push to promote Hindi beyond the “Hindi belt” has faced opposition in many states, the backlash has been especially charged in Maharashtra.
The western state was born out of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement of the 1950s, a mass mobilisation demanding a separate province for Marathi speakers with Mumbai as its capital. The agitation, marked by mass street protests, hunger strikes and violent police crackdowns, led to the deaths of over 100 demonstrators before Maharashtra was finally carved out of the bilingual Bombay State in 1960.
Not surprisingly then, the new policy has struck a discordant note in a state where linguistic identity has long been deeply embedded in the social fabric. Many people view the introduction of compulsory Hindi not as a benign educational reform but as a renewed threat to that hard-won identity.
While the state’s BJP-led government initially downplayed the controversy, the backlash quickly escalated. Opposition parties, including the Shiv Sena UBT, the Congress, and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, accused the BJP of pushing a “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan” agenda: shorthand for the Modi government’s concerted bid to promote Hindi and Hindu nationalism at the expense of India’s pluralistic character.
Varsha Gaikwad of the Congress party, a former state education minister, accused the BJP of “working systematically to weaken the Marathi language in its own homeland,” The New Indian Express reported.
Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray, longstanding political rivals, also voiced strong opposition to the Hindi mandate. The former referred to the new policy as a “language emergency” and said he “will not allow imposition of any language”. The latter, known for his party’s past campaigns against Hindi-speaking migrants, reiterated his stance that while Maharashtrians were Hindus, they did not accept Hindi imposition.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar initially defended the policy. Its critics had “nothing else to do”, he said while arguing that Hindi and English were useful across India. But Marathi, he emphasised, would remain Maharashtra’s primary language.
Federal home minister Amit Shah said last month that Indians should eventually “feel ashamed” to speak English, promoting native tongues instead.
The central government under Narendra Modi has consistently promoted Hindi as the national lingua franca, not only through educational reforms like the three-language policy but also symbolic changes.
Public schemes, for example, now bear Hindi titles like Mera Yuva Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The colonial-era Indian Penal Code has been replaced with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
But as the Maharashtra protests grew louder and violence more visible, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis reversed the mandate and announced it would be optional. He also formed a committee to review the policy’s implementation.
The resistance to “Hindi imposition” has echoed beyond Maharashtra. In Tamil Nadu, chief minister MK Stalin rejected the National Education Policy’s three-language formula and declared that the southern state was “ready for another language war” over what he called the central government’s attempt to impose Hindi.
Deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin warned the state would “never accept the New Education Policy or the imposition of Hindi in any form” and cast the opposition to it as an “ethnic struggle” to protect Tamil culture.
Fellow southern states Karnataka and Kerala have seen similar opposition. In Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, activists vandalised departure boards at the main airport over the omission of Kannada, the state language, while local governments mandated Kannada-first signage in public spaces.
India is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. According to the 2011 census, there are 121 languages in active use and over 1,300 distinct mother tongues, although only 22 enjoy official status under the constitution.
Hindi is the most widely spoken language, used by roughly 43.6 per cent of the population, or 528 million people. Marathi is third with about 83 million speakers and Tamil ranks fifth with about 69 million speakers.
As Maharashtra braces for municipal elections, the language row underscores how swiftly cultural identity can become a political fault line.
What began as an administrative directive on school curriculum has grown into a broader referendum on who defines the cultural contours of a diverse and multilingual India.
https://www.the-independent.com/asia/india/india-maharashtra-hindi-language-imposition-b2788722.html
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