Metaglossia: The Translation World

A non-profit called Open Knowledge Association has been using AI to translate Wikipedia articles, leading to “hallucinations” that included incorrect, fabricated, replaced, and unrelated sources, 404 Media reports. Wikipedia editors are now placing restrictions on OKA translators, including blocking them if too many of their contributions are found with errors.
[Link: AI Translations Are Adding ‘Hallucinations’ to Wikipedia Articles | https://www.404media.co/ai-translations-are-adding-hallucinations-to-wikipedia-articles/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter | 404 Media]

"The 2026 Finnish State Award for Foreign Translators has been presented to the distinguished Danish translator Siri Nordborg Møller (b. 1981), whose work has greatly broadened the international visibility of Finnish literature. The EUR 15,000 award has been granted annually since 1975 by the Ministry of Education and Culture based on a proposal from FILI – Finnish Literature Exchange.

 

Over the course of her remarkable career, Siri Nordborg Møller has translated more than 130 Finnish books. She began her work as a translator in 2006 while studying for a Master’s degree in Finnish at the University of Copenhagen. Since then, she has translated a wide range of acclaimed fiction, including seven books by Leena Krohn; works by Matias Riikonen, Johanna Sinisalo and Pajtim Statovci; crime novels by Satu Rämö Max Seeck and Arttu Tuominen; poetry by Sirkka Turkka; graphic novels by JP Ahonen and Tommi Musturi; nonfiction by Mia Kankimäki; and many internationally appealing children’s and young adult books, such as Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen’s Tatu and Patu series and works by Siiri Enoranta, Vilja‑Tuulia Huotarinen, Siri Kolu and Timo Parvela. She is currently working on Arttu Tuominen’s Delta crime series and Naraka, a fantasy novel by Elina Pitkäkangas.

 

According to Nordborg Møller, versatility has always been central to her work. She aims to accept every translation assignment offered to her so she can present Danish readers with as broad a range of Finnish literature as possible.

 

“Siri Nordborg Møller has an exceptionally wide ranging body of work, and she has been highly productive as a translator. Through her active contribution she has introduced the richness and diversity of Finnish literature to readers in Denmark and increased the international presence of Finnish writing. Translators play a vital role in bringing Finnish literature to new audiences abroad,” says Minister of Science and Culture Mari‑Leena Talvitie.

 

Finnish literature is currently being published in Danish in impressive numbers. “According to FILI’s statistics, Danish had the third‑highest number of Finnish titles published last year, after German and Estonian. Altogether, 28 Finnish books appeared in Danish, seven of them translated by Siri Nordborg Møller,” says FILI’s Director Tiia Strandén.

 

Siri Nordborg Møller notes that every book brings its own inspiration and challenge. From time to time, she encounters novels whose language resonates so strongly that the translation process becomes pure joy.

 

“Such works include Anu Kaaja’s Katie‑Kate, Katri Lipson’s The Ice Cream Man, Matias Riikonen’s Matara, Johanna Sinisalo’s Not Before Sundown, Siiri Enoranta’s Summer Storm, Vilja‑Tuulia Huotarinen’s Light Light Light and all of Leena Krohn’s works,” Nordborg Møller says.

 

She has also translated a substantial body of children’s and young adult literature. Picture books with minimal text may appear simple to translate, but they often contain names and wordplay that demand great ingenuity.

 

“The Tatu and Patu books are in a class of their own. Their humour and chaos have to be conveyed to Danish readers with energy and wit. The most challenging of all was Tatu and Patu: Monster‑Monster and Other Strange Stories, written entirely in rhyme. Translating it was enormous fun, but at times it felt almost impossible.”

 

Inquiries and requests for interview: Hannele Jyrkkä, Communications Manager, FILI – Finnish Literature Exchange hannele.jyrkka@finlit.fi, tel. +358 50 322 2387"

Ministry of Education and Culture

Publication date4.3.2026 10.06 Type:Press release

https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/-/1410845/siri-nordborg-m-ller-wins-finnish-state-award-for-foreign-translators

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"BRUSSELS — Dozens of wannabe EU translators who were forced last year to resit a grueling entry exam because of a technical blunder have now been incorrectly disqualified, they said.

 

Some of the nearly 10,000 would-be Eurocrats who did the online test last year and who had to repeat the exercise a few months later because of a “set-up defect” were told they were being disregarded because they hadn’t completed all the exams. They say this was an error and that they’ve done everything that was requested.

 

“I did sit all of them! So I do not understand! How can they be so careless? What do we do?” wrote one applicant on a Facebook group for candidates. Messages in this group and a separate private Whatsapp chat suggest dozens of people are affected. POLITICO has chosen not to name the people who wrote messages because the Facebook group is private.

 

The tests are run by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), an interinstitutional body that organizes recruitment for institutions including the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The exams are a gateway to a career in the EU civil service.

 

“I regret to inform you that your participation [in the process] has come to an end, since you failed to sit at least one of the tests scheduled for the competition,” according to letters sent to two candidates POLITICO spoke to, and screenshotted by several others on the Facebook group for linguist candidates.

 

There are scores of messages from candidates online who received that message and say they did take part in all of the required exams. Some of those candidates say they contacted TestWe, the platform that runs the online tests, which confirmed to them they had completed all of their tests.

 

“This is just SOOOO ridiculous,” wrote another person on Facebook, who said she had also been falsely identified as not completing all of the tests. 

 

Two candidates who were affected told POLITICO they are aware of dozens of people who received the email.

 

“I was already very annoyed when I had to resit the test,” said one candidate who sat the Spanish-language competition last year and asked to remain anonymous. “Now we see all these errors, all these inconsistencies. I have proof of all the exams I sat. I just don’t think it’s fair.”

 

The translator tests include exams on language knowledge and verbal and numerical reasoning. | Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images

“We had to wait 1 year for this crap,” one frustrated person with an anonymous username wrote on the Facebook group.

 

Another candidate who took part in the Greek language competition, and who asked not to be named because they are considering taking legal action, said: “I took it for granted that this was just a mix up with the emails they sent. But it’s been more than a week now and we don’t have any news.”

 

In a statement to POLITICO, a Commission spokesperson said that EPSO took all complaints seriously.

 

It is “currently carrying out thorough checks on each individual complaint, in close cooperation with its service provider, TestWe,” the spokesperson said. “At this stage, it would be premature to indicate how many candidates may be concerned. All cases are being examined individually, and candidates who have not yet submitted a request can still do so. EPSO is committed to reducing delays as much as possible while ensuring that each request is handled carefully.”

 

‘Now or never’

The translator tests include exams on language knowledge and verbal and numerical reasoning. Successfully passing those tests and getting onto the EPSO reserve list allows people to apply for specific open positions within the institutions. 

 

The competitions to get on the reserve list only take place once every several years.

 

“You feel that if you lose this chance, most probably, with all the transformations in the industry like AI, it’s now or never for many of the candidates,” said the Greek-language candidate.

 

To complicate things further, the reserve lists featuring the successful candidates for some languages — Dutch, Maltese and Danish — of the most recent competitions have already been published, leading candidates to worry that those people have an advantage for jobs.

 

“The ones who did not have this issue will actually engage in the recruitment process and might have more chances, and that could create an issue as well,” the Greek candidate added.

 

“How is it so difficult to arrange a test?” wrote another anonymous user on the Facebook group.

 

This article has been updated"

March 4, 2026 4:02 am CET

By Mari Eccles

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-translators-botched-their-entry-exam-again/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"Philly has a cozy community of translators who translate from many different languages, opening up texts from other countries and cultures for English speakers.

 

Philly literary translators are trying to increase awareness in the field. (Courtesy Paul Dry Books)

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When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Marianna Suleymanova’s skills as a translator were put to use translating an anti-war journal called “Roar Review.” 

 

“I thought, ‘well, I think I can help people here understand a little bit of what’s going on,” she said.

 

Now, she’s one part of a group of Philly-based translators who turn literature from other languages and cultures into English. 

 

Suleymanova’s skills stem from her time growing up in Tashkent, Uzbekistan when it was still a part of the Soviet Union, where she spoke Russian and English. She moved to the United States at 16 and eventually went to work.

 

“I translated at NASA, and I translated for other industries,” she said. 

 

Suleymanova practices literary translation in addition to her full-time career. Despite this, she says this is her true passion – allowing her to uplift the voices of Russian-language writers to English speakers. 

 

“I think it’s important to have this alliance across languages,” she said. “Russian speakers are not who I do this for. It’s for Americans and English speakers that I do this for, wherever they may be, whether it’s in Australia. People can read my pieces anywhere they’re on the internet.” 

 

And Suleymanova is not alone. Philly’s literary translating community is vast.

 

 

“It will continue to be important”

Literary translation is different from literal translation – authors who are literary translators tend to try and preserve the original voice and tone of the text across languages. 

 

Many popular American books are also translated – including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (translated from the original Swedish written by Stieg Larsson) and Pinocchio (translated from Carlo Collodi’s original Italian). 

 

And literary translation has been around for a long time, said Emily Hunsberger, a Philly translator who translates from Spanish. 

 

“Work has been translated in so many languages,” she said. “It’s kind of conduit for us to read each other’s stories and learn from each other and see what’s universal among us and what things challenge our understanding because it’s so different from the culture that we’re used to.”

 

Despite this, Hunsberger said there hasn’t been as much visibility and awareness around literary translation in the U.S. 

 

“I took a world literature course when I was in high school, many years ago, and all the books we read were translated works,” she said. “But never once did we learn the names of the translators. Never once did we talk about what translation is, or theories or challenges or dissecting what the act of translation is.” 

 

She said this is part of what inspired her to get into the field. Hunsberger owns a multilingual translation company. She helps to translate content from Spanish and Portuguese to English or from English to Spanish. 

 

She explained that this piqued her interest in literary translation. 

 

“I had always thought that I’d love to do literary translation,” she said. “In my younger years, I did a lot of creative writing, and I took a translation course when I was in undergrad, but I had left it on the back burner. I knew how to translate, but I didn’t really know about the publishing industry or how it worked.” 

 

She entered into the field after moving to Philly in 2020. She said she quickly recognized the value it brought to the city 

 

 

“Philadelphia has so many eclectic, unique spaces for art,” she said. “And I feel like I’ve talked to a lot of people in different disciplines of art who feel like Philadelphia is a place where you can practice your art, and so I feel like literary translation is just another one of those disciplines where this is a great place to be based, to be doing your art.” 

 

And beyond its artistic impact, literary translation is important to open others up to different worldviews, said Stephanie Schechner, a retired teacher from Widener University who translates from French. 

 

“Because Americans don’t study languages as much as other parts of the world, translation becomes an essential way for Americans to get access to voices that represent other points of view,” she said. “That helps open the world to people who cannot read things in the original text.” 

 

Schechner’s work focuses on a lesbian, working class French author, who goes by Mireille Best. 

 

Schechner said she felt like translating works from an author like this would be important, as it can show Americans who are feeling like their voices aren’t heard that there are models for their experiences around the world. 

 

“I think knowing that there were people ahead of us in the past who were fighting for their right to be individuals can give young people some hope,” she said. 

 

Philly’s literary translation community

Philly’s literary translation community is small, but dedicated. 

 

Hunsberger explained that Philly has an informal collective of translators called Transversal, which has helped connect Philly-area translators. 

 

“Transversal does not have any formal or nonprofit status,” she said. “We don’t have a board or anything, everything is just very organic and informal, and anyone who’s part of the collective can organize a gathering or anything they want to.”

 

Transversal was started by UPenn graduate students Liz Rose, Hilah Kohen and Kate Meng Brassel several years ago. 

 

The group now holds in-person meetups and co-working sessions, allowing for connection between members. 

 

Schechner said the group has employed creative strategies to facilitate connection between translators in different languages – including structured work sessions. 

 

“We do what’s called a Pomodoro,” she said. “You work for 25 minutes and we set a timer, then we take a five minute break in the middle, and say hello to each other. Then, we work for 25 more minutes, and then chat briefly at the end and then we leave. We’re just creating a space and an accountability where people could sit with each other and be in community.” 

 

Sean Gasper Bye has worked in literary translation for many years, including time as the interim executive director at the American Literary Translator’s Association – the only national organization in the U.S. dedicated to supporting literary translators. 

 

He said he initially got into the Philly literary translation community after moving back to the area from New York City. 

 

“I had always thought that Philly had the makings of a great translation town, because it has such strong cultural infrastructure,” he said. “I feel like people in Philly are very worldly, are very interested in culture and are readers.” 

 

He said with the creation of Transversal and conversations with other translators, a solid community was formed. He said local collaborators, like bookshops, have also been receptive to events and partnerships. 

 

Suleymanova emphasized that the morale of Philly’s translation community helps to keep her motivated.

 

“To look across the table and see people that are as hell bent as you are about bringing these stories across borders and languages, it could feel like you have a team in this, even if somebody’s working from entirely a different language,” she said. 

 

Hunsberger said she is excited to see community partnerships and interest around the topic growing, and hopes to continue with the momentum. 

 

“We want to continue, this year, with doing more of that kind of community outreach and bringing in the people interested in translation, or who are already involved in literary translation in Philadelphia who we haven’t managed to meet up with yet, and doing more things with these other organizations that are doing important work in the community,” she said. 

 

‘It’s quite solitary’

There are obstacles literary translators have to face. 

 

“What we do is very niche,” Suleymanova said. “There’s not a lot of spotlight on it. It’s quite solitary. It takes years for this work to see the light of day.” 

 

Philly’s literary translators try to get together to combat these issues and offer each other support. There are even events different translators will often host. 

 

Hunsberger said there have been bigger events the community has put together as well – including a Literary Translation Workshop she hosted late last year.

 

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“We co-sponsored the practical literary translation workshop that I led at The Head & The Hand Books last November,” she said. “It was called the ‘Translingual Remix,’ and it was meant to be small, because if you’re going to have it was a two hour time block, and if you’re going to have translators working on a piece, reading, and sharing, you you can’t have too many people in the room,” she said. 

 

“So it was intended to be a small workshop, but it was really, really cool, because the languages that people were bringing of who signed up was Hungarian, Ukrainian, Bangla, Yiddish, Italian and Spanish.” 

 

Schencher said it can also be hard to find time for literary translation, as it often doesn’t pay enough to be a primary career.

 

“Many translators are otherwise employed to pay their bills, or they’re in school, and carving out translation time for almost all of us is tricky,” she said. 

 

There can also be a lack of recognition for translators and the effort it takes to rewrite books into English, said Mahmud Rahman, a translator who translates from Bengali. 

 

“We want translators to be more recognized, and some of us feel that the name of the translator should go on the cover of the book,” he said. “Some publishers do that. Many do not, and it’s a constant tug of war, because essentially, when you’re translating a book into a language, you’re essentially recreating it, and it’s more your work.”

 

Rahman emphasized Philly’s literary community oftentimes does not get recognition compared to other big cities like New York. 

 

Bye explained there is also a lot of thought that goes into literary translating – work he says cannot be replicated by a machine. 

 

“It’s easy to think that we’re just kind of walking dictionaries who sort or swap one word in for another, and that it can be done quite mechanically,” he said. “And that’s really not the case.

 

While artificial intelligence is a concern, Hunsberger said that the machines can’t replicate much of literary translation. 

 

“The point that machines can’t really get at this point in time when it comes to literature or translation itself, is that what you would get from one translator would be different than what you get from another translator,” she said. “Because there’s also an artistic component.” 

 

“Communication and connection”

Despite these challenges, Hunsberger said Philly’s literary translation community is special. 

 

“I think it’s almost like an infinite well of conversation and connection,” she said.

 

Bye said practicing literary translation also helps to challenge our traditional ways of thinking. 

 

“Something that is really special about translation, is that you have access to these works that came up in a different cultural context, a different historical context, a different literary context, and you can see them breaking our rules or not paying attention to our rules, because those aren’t the rules over there,” he said.

 

He said that Polish writing, for example, oftentimes focuses less on the genre of story and more on the writing quality – which he says may not be the same in America. 

 

If you are interested in literary translation or joining Philly’s Transversal group, you can send them an email at transversalphl@gmail.com."

by Violet Comber-Wilen

March 3, 2026

https://billypenn.com/2026/03/03/literary-translation-services-philadelphia-language-translation/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"This is one of those publishing stories where the author—and in this case the translator too—waited for years, certain that their work deserved a wider audience, and was forced to stand patiently by while other authors and their books found readers, until it was finally her chance to do the same.

 

When Kanako Nishi won the Naoki Prize in early 2015, she was just over ten years into her career; she had written over a dozen books including novels, short stories, essay collections, and children’s books. A couple of her books had even been made into feature-length films. Her work had already received the Oda Sakunosuke Prize and the Kawai Hayao Story Prize. But winning the prestigious Naoki Prize for her epic Saraba! solidified her place as a literary luminary. Readers were undeterred by the novel’s length—732 pages, divided into two hardcover volumes—and it went on to sell over 460,000 copies, one of the top five bestselling titles of that year.

 

This is when I met Kanako.

 

This is one of those publishing stories where the author—and in this case the translator too—waited for years, certain that their work deserved a wider audience.

 

I had been contacted by an editor who was looking for someone to write an opinion essay about the murder of two Japanese hostages by ISIS militants. I reached out to a mutual friend who had recommended Kanako’s books to me years earlier to ask if she wanted to respond. The resulting essay, “Merry Christmas,” was our first collaboration. I was astonished by the way that this short piece managed to pack in a macro and micro outlook on religion and geopolitical events, all through the prism of a childhood memory.

 

Kanako was born in 1977 in Tehran, where her father was posted for work, but the Iranian Revolution there prompted her family to return to Osaka before she was two years old. When she was in elementary school, they moved again, this time to Cairo, where the family lived for four years. Perhaps because of this peripatetic early childhood, or perhaps the result of an encounter with Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye at a pivotal moment later in her adolescence, Kanako’s reading habits were deeply influenced by international literature alongside her formal education in Japanese literary tradition.

 

She’s a fan of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and John Irving as well as Jun’ichiro Tanizaki and Kuniko Mukoda. Saraba! is an excellent example of the I-novel, an early twentieth-century literary form in which the author writes in a naturalistic, confessional style. Kanako dared to take on this genre that had been dominated by male writers such as Osamu Dazai and Yukio Mishima, but turned the convention on its head—still hewing to its semi-autobiographical style by giving her protagonist the same formative experiences that she had in Iran and Egypt, even the same birthday as hers, she flipped the gender, making the narrator male instead of mirroring herself as female.

 

In 2016, fellow Japanese literary translators Lucy North and Ginny Tapley Takemori and I formed the collective Strong Women, Soft Power to promote the work of Japanese women writers in translation. As part of a series initiated by a conclave of translators that year at the London Book Fair and published here on Literary Hub, we compiled a list (just ten!) of books by Japanese women writers we’d love to see in English—needless to say, Saraba! was included. It’s worth mentioning that books by eight of these ten authors have now been translated into English and published, with a ninth first-time-in-English title forthcoming.

 

The English-language publishing market began to catch up with the Japanese literary landscape, where women writers had already been the cultural zeitgeist for some time. In the first three years after the National Book Awards relaunched the category for Translated Literature, Yoko Tawada won in 2018 for The Emissary, translated by Margaret Mitsutani; Yoko Ogawa was shortlisted in 2019 for The Memory Police, translated by Stephen Snyder; and Yu Miri won in 2020 for Tokyo Ueno Station, translated by Morgan Giles. Add to that the phenomenal success of Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori—proving that novella-length books could succeed as standalone volumes—and editors were clamoring for more Japanese women writers in translation.

 

Perhaps it seemed like a risky moment to introduce a new voice with such a monumental and door-stopping tome like Saraba! But Kanako and I persisted. In 2020 I received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for the book. The attention from these grants often leads to a publishing contract but, unfortunately, not for us. I kept submitting the book to editors, all the while still translating her work, placing stories and essays in Freeman’s, Granta, Words Without Borders, and here on Literary Hub.

 

Article continues after advertisement

 

All the while, Kanako’s renown and reputation continued to grow. She was invited to international literary festivals—occasionally I got to go along too. We won a Pushcart Prize for the story, “My Ass,” published in Brick. But I still struggled to find a home for her books with an English-language publisher, even as more and more Japanese women writers like Hiroko Oyamada, Mieko Kawakami, and Emi Yagi were coming onto the scene in translation.

 

In 2023, Kanako published her first memoir くもをさがす (Kumo o sagasu; Looking For Spiders and Clouds), which is about moving with her family to Vancouver, BC, shortly before the pandemic and then in 2021 being diagnosed with breast cancer. Kumo o sagasu is a literary memoir, an illness diary, a lyrical exploration of cultural difference and similarity all in one volume. The book won the Yomiuri Literature Prize for Nonfiction, the Japan Booksellers’ Award, and has been the bestselling nonfiction book of the Reiwa era (2019 to present). This catapulted her to another level of success and visibility. However, given the aforementioned considerations when introducing an author in translation, it seemed like even more of a risk to attempt to do so with a work of nonfiction, however successful it may have been in Japan.

 

*

 

I often say that a book getting published in translation is like capturing lightning in a bottle. It can seem miraculous for any book to make it to publication but for an author’s work in another language, there are even more variables—the publisher and agent in the original country, often another agent working in the U.S. or U.K., the English-language editor, and of course, the translator, who may enter into the process at almost any point along this prospective line.

 

There is something of an art to curating a writer’s work in another language.

 

In our case, Kanako and I were lucky enough to meet Alexa Frank, a rising-star editor at HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollins that is dedicated to publishing international voices. Alexa is herself a Japanese translator—a huge advantage for us since Japanese is a market few editors can access personally, without having to rely solely on reader reports or book synopses provided by the agent or publisher. Alexa was of course familiar with Kanako’s work and knew how much potential there was to being able to introduce her books to English-language readers.

 

Sometimes a writer will be discovered soon after they debut in their original language, and their books can be translated and published around the world along a similar timeline and in the same order as in their country. Other times there is more of a lag, a few years or a few books into an author’s career. Kanako’s case is even more unusual—with a backlist of books spanning twenty years, where do you even start? At the beginning? Or work backward, from her most recent publication? Go with her bestselling title? Or the book that is most beloved by readers in Japan? There is something of an art to curating a writer’s work in another language. Then again, why shouldn’t readers have access to an author’s full oeuvre so that they can appreciate the breadth of a writer’s talents, and judge for themselves?

 

After much deliberation, Alexa proposed introducing Kanako Nishi in English by starting with her debut novel Sakura, a meticulously plotted comic and tragic family drama narrated by the middle child Kaoru, who is caught between a hero brother and a turbulent sister, all of them protected by their doting parents and everyone united by their love for the eponymous family dog, Sakura.

 

With this selection, readers can have an experience similar to readers in Japan in encountering this fresh new voice, inflected with Kanako’s distinctively Osakan warmth and wit (the adorable Shiba Inu mutt at the center of the story certainly may be part of the appeal too). This early novel showcases the writer as she broke onto the scene decades ago, while already hinting at some of the increasingly complex themes she would revisit as her talents developed and her confidence grew. We already know that there are plenty more daring and ambitious books that await translation—hopefully you’ll have the opportunity to appreciate how Kanako’s literary style evolves and to keep up with her prodigious body of work as well."

https://lithub.com/when-persistence-pays-off-on-translating-and-publishing-the-work-of-kanako-nishi/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"An expert in Guernésiais, Guernsey's native language, has shared concerns about the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to translate reliably.

 

Teacher Yan Marquis said there was limited data on the language, no standardised spelling and cultured nuance.

 

All these things could mean that AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot and Chat GPT often produced inaccurate translations, he said.

 

He added that, with fewer people speaking the language, there was also a risk incorrect AI translations would become a more common sight.

 

 

Marquis says: "AI is fantastic. You look at some of the results for a translation to English, it's very impressive.

 

"But the thing about Guernésiais is there are not the resources there to analyse the language and paint a picture of it.

 

"People are becoming more reliant on AI and, at the same time, there are less speakers. Both those things together mean that incorrect translations will not be noticed."

 

More news stories for Guernsey

Listen to the latest news for Guernsey

 

There is a tool that the Guernsey Language Commission has that can be used for free.

 

Marquis says: "It isn't instant - and people often want an instant reply - but it is worth waiting.

 

"I am pleased that people often come to me with translations for tattoos and birthday cards.

 

"It's nice people want that personalised local touch, but I have seen some instances where the translation has been wrong due to AI. It's a shame it didn't get checked.

 

"I have not seen anything that I am happy with or I am impressed with in terms of translations as the resource just isn't there.

 

"It's very hard unless you know someone who speaks the language."

 

AI uses already existing information to provide answers and, where it does not have any, it can "hallucinate".

 

AI hallucinations are instances where AI models, particularly large language models (LLMs), generate false, misleading, or illogical information while presenting it confidently as fact.

 

These errors often stem from limitations in training data, pattern recognition errors, or lack of grounding in real-world knowledge, often blending fabricated details with accurate information."

Courtney Sargent

Guernsey

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8ly211pn3o

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"Call for framework contract for translation services - EU4Rivers

 05.03.2026 New opportunity

Text

Austrian Development Agency (ADA), Austria’s federal agency for development cooperation and humanitarian aid, has been delegated by the European Union (EU) to implement the “EU4RIVERS” project in Albania, from October 2023 to September 2028. The lead Beneficiary is the Albanian Water Resources Management Agency (AMBU). 

 

For the EU4 Rivers project, ADA intends to award a Service Contract for:

 

Contract Reference No: 6532-00/2023/SUB 02.2026  

 

Title “Framework service contract for text translation and interpretation services”/ EU4Rivers Project”  

 

Place Tirana, Albania    

 

For more information, please refer to Tender documents and Annexes. 

 

For complete information and application, please refer to:               

 

https://www.entwicklung.at/ada/calls

 

The deadline for submission of applications is 18 March Time 23:59.

 

Should you/your company be interested in this contract, please submit your offer to eu4rivers@ada.gv.at."

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/albania/call-framework-contract-translation-services-eu4rivers_en

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"The Neo-Latin theater play "Cenodoxus" (1602) by Jakob Bidermann is now only known to some researchers in Latin and German studies. But from 1930 to 1960, the story about the battle between heavenly and hellish powers for the soul of the Parisian scholar Cenodoxus was at the height of its popularity in German-speaking countries: actors in science and culture praised the play as a Latin "Hamlet" or "Faust."

The Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal was already working on a production for the Salzburg Festival in the 1920s, to be directed by Max Reinhardt. However, Hofmannsthal was unable to complete this project before his death in 1929.

"Depending on the report, Max Reinhardt, Richard Metzl or Joseph Gregor are said to have continued the project," says Dr. Julia Jennifer Beine, Latinist and head of the interdisciplinary Junior Research Group "Sustainability in Translation" at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU).

"As I quickly realized during my research, some of the newspaper articles from the late 1920s and early 1930s about the "Cenodoxus' production for the Salzburg Festival were very contradictory. I then began to work out the narrative surrounding the production and asked for further archives," says the JMU researcher.

Beine consulted more than 20 archives for her research into the genesis of the Salzburg "Cenodoxus" production during a research stay in Vienna.

The result: There were a total of three attempts at a "Cenodoxus" production for the Salzburg Festival, first mainly by Hofmannsthal (1920–1925), then by Metzl (1930–31) and finally by Gregor (1933), with Reinhardt always directing.

"In the surviving testimonies, some of those involved claim the rediscovery of "Cenodoxus' for themselves, but conceal the involvement of others, especially Gregor," says Beine. "If someone consciously wants to stage themselves as the great discoverer of "Cenodoxus' and heir to Hofmannsthal, they put themselves alone in the limelight and leave no room for others."

The first to fall out of the narratives is the translator of the second planned production, Ljuba Metzl.

Ljuba Metzl's translation of Cenodoxus
But how did Ljuba Metzl come to translate the play?

"She was the daughter of Richard Metzl, who—according to his own account—continued to work on the adaptation as Reinhardt's assistant after Hofmannsthal's death," explains Beine.

Ljuba Metzl could have received the commission through this family connection. A newspaper article calls her a "talented young philologist." Beine found enrollment sheets in the archives of the University of Vienna that prove that Ljuba Metzl studied there for three semesters from the winter semester of 1930–31.

However, around 1930 it was not so easy for Ljuba Metzl to obtain the model for her translation.

"At that time, the drama was difficult to access. The Latin text was only available in printed editions from the 17th century in certain libraries, as was a German translation by Bidermann's pupil Joachim Meichel from 1635," explains Beine. This translation was not published by the publisher Reclam until December 1930, making it generally accessible.

The Salzburg Study Library owned a copy of the Latin text. Richard Metzl, and therefore also Ljuba Metzl, received photographs of the text through their contact with Joseph Gregor.

"Back then, it was a huge effort to get access to a text," says the JMU researcher. Gregor also used the photographs later for his own adaptation of the drama, which he brought to the stage of Vienna's Burgtheater in 1933—in a version in which he had almost completely rewritten the original. It is unclear to what extent Gregor also used Ljuba Metzl's translation, as reported in a newspaper article.

A lost translation
Gregor also published the influential work "Weltgeschichte des Theaters" (1933). It also mentions "Cenodoxus."

"Gregor quotes a passage of the play in German without citing its origin, which does not come from his own adaptation and also not from Meichel's translation and which is very close to the original in terms of content," says the Würzburg Latinist. The suspicion is that it is a version by Ljuba Metzl.

But, "Her translation seems to have been lost—at least I couldn't find a manuscript in the archives. It is therefore impossible to determine who wrote the passage in 'Weltgeschichte des Theaters,'" says Beine.

The JMU researcher's discovery shows how important archives are for questioning common narratives of authorship: "Joseph Gregor was a big name in theater studies for decades. His narratives still influence research literature today. Ljuba Metzl and her story, on the other hand, are virtually unknown," says the Latinist.

Biography of Ljuba Metzl
Ljubow "Ljuba" Louise Ludmilla Metzl was born in Berlin on 18 June 1911. She attended the Reformrealgymnasium in Salzburg and then went on to study at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Vienna. After completing three semesters, Ljuba Metzl's name can no longer be found in the university's enrollment sheets from the summer semester of 1932.

"In a contemporary article, she is referred to as "Ljuba Metzl-Binder," which indicates that she had married in the early 1930s. It is not clear whether this was the reason for dropping out of university," explains Beine.

Richard Metzl was probably persecuted due to the anti-Semitic ideology of the National Socialists and fled Germany with his family in August 1938. He died of an unknown cause in Paris in October 1941. There is as yet no further information about the fate of his family and his daughter."
University of Würzburg
edited by Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Robert Egan

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ljuba-metzl-theater-history.html
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"Foreign-language documents are increasingly common in U.S. litigation. Contracts, emails, text messages, medical records, corporate filings, and financial documents frequently originate in languages other than English. In cross-border disputes and immigration matters, such materials are often central to a party’s claims or defenses.

But once these materials enter U.S. courtrooms, they must satisfy strict procedural requirements. When they do not, courts may exclude the evidence entirely – sometimes at critical stages of litigation.

For legal teams handling multilingual clients or international matters, understanding how courts treat foreign-language evidence is not optional. It is essential to litigation strategy.

English Is the Language of the Court

In federal courts and most state courts, English is the language of the official record. Judges and juries must be able to evaluate all materials presented in motions, hearings, and trial.

As a result, foreign-language documents must generally be accompanied by a complete and accurate English translation before they can be considered. Submitting the original document alone is insufficient, even if both parties understand the language involved.

The Federal Rules of Evidence reinforce the importance of reliable translation. Rule 604  requires that interpreters be qualified and give an oath or affirmation to provide a true translation. Although Rule 604 addresses live interpretation, courts apply similar principles of accuracy and reliability to written translations submitted as evidence.

Federal appellate courts have reinforced this requirement. In United States v. Rivera-Rosario, 300 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2002), the court addressed the use of translated recordings and emphasized the importance of reliable English translations for jury consideration. While disputes may arise over competing translations, the court made clear that English translations, not the original foreign-language material, are what juries ultimately rely upon.

Why Courts Exclude Foreign-Language Evidence

Foreign-language evidence is most often rejected due to procedural deficiencies rather than substantive disputes over the underlying facts. Common reasons include:

Lack of Certification

Courts frequently require a signed certification stating that a translation is complete and accurate. Without proper certification, opposing counsel may challenge admissibility, arguing that the translation lacks sufficient reliability.

Incomplete or Selective Translation

Submitting only excerpts of a foreign-language document can raise fairness concerns. If a translation omits context or qualifying language, courts may refuse to rely on it. Selective translation can also invite credibility challenges.

Missing Translator Affidavit

In certain proceedings -particularly immigration cases -a translator’s affidavit is required. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), for example, requires certified English translations for all foreign-language documents submitted in support of applications or petitions.

Authentication Problems

Translation does not cure authentication defects. Even a flawless English translation will not be admitted if the underlying document cannot be properly authenticated under evidentiary rules.

The Litigation Consequences Can Be Significant

Improper handling of foreign-language evidence can have real strategic consequences.

Key exhibits may be excluded at summary judgment or trial.
Courts may delay proceedings while compliant translations are obtained.
Briefing schedules may be disrupted.
Litigation costs may increase due to supplemental submissions or expert disputes.
Appeals may raise procedural objections related to translation reliability.
In some cases, courts permit late submission of certified translations. In others, they decline to consider non-compliant evidence altogether. The difference often depends on timing and the materiality of the document at issue.

Special Considerations in Immigration and Cross-Border Matters

Immigration proceedings are particularly strict regarding translation requirements. USCIS regulations require that any foreign-language document submitted must be accompanied by a full English translation and a certification from the translator confirming competence and accuracy.

Similarly, in international commercial disputes, translated contracts and communications may be central to breach-of-contract claims or defenses. Any ambiguity in translation can become the subject of cross-examination or competing expert testimony.

In these contexts, legal teams often rely on properly certified professional translation to ensure compliance with evidentiary standards and minimize procedural risk.

A Representative Scenario

The following fictional example reflects situations courts regularly encounter.

A U.S. distributor and a Latin American manufacturer become involved in a dispute over the termination of a Spanish-language supply agreement. During summary judgment briefing, the distributor submits internally translated excerpts of the contract prepared by bilingual staff. The translation is not certified, and only selected clauses are included.

The manufacturer challenges the accuracy of the translation and argues that qualifying provisions were omitted. The court declines to rely on the disputed excerpts and orders submission of a properly certified, complete translation before ruling on the motion.

The delay extends briefing deadlines and increases costs for both parties. More importantly, the court expresses concern about the reliability of the initially submitted materials.

This type of procedural complication is avoidable with early planning and adherence to evidentiary standards.

Practical Best Practices for Legal Teams

To reduce evidentiary challenges related to foreign-language materials, legal teams should adopt structured internal procedures.

Team discussing project; image by pressfoto, via Freepik.com.
Identify Foreign-Language Documents Early

Flag non-English documents during client intake and discovery. Waiting until dispositive motions or trial preparation increases risk.

Use Qualified Professionals for Court Submissions

Machine translation tools may assist with internal review, but they are not appropriate for filing evidence. Court submissions require accuracy, completeness, and proper certification that only a qualified legal translation services company can provide.

Obtain Proper Certification and Affidavits

Ensure that translations include signed certifications and, where necessary, sworn affidavits that meet applicable court or agency requirements.

Maintain Terminology Consistency

Consistent translation of defined terms across multiple documents reduces confusion and strengthens credibility.

Coordinate Strategically

In some cases, parties may stipulate to translations to avoid disputes. Early communication can prevent unnecessary evidentiary challenges.

The Bottom Line

Foreign-language evidence is increasingly common in U.S. courts, but compliance standards remain strict. Courts expect complete, accurate, and properly certified English translations before foreign-language materials can be admitted into the record.

For legal teams, translation should be treated as part of litigation planning – not as an administrative afterthought. Early identification of foreign-language materials, use of qualified professionals, and adherence to certification requirements can prevent costly procedural setbacks and protect the integrity of the evidentiary record."
https://www.legalreader.com/when-courts-reject-foreign-language-evidence-what-legal-teams-need-to-know/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"The Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles, in collaboration with the American Literary Translators Association, also known as ALTA, has announced Grace Ting as recipient of the 2026 “Literature from Taiwan” Emerging Translator Mentorship Program.

 

Ting will receive nine months of professional mentorship from acclaimed translator Lin King to undertake the English translation of “Island Where the Red Spider Lilies Bloom (Higanbana ga Saku Shima),” the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel by Taiwan-born, Japan-based author Li Kotomi. Originally written in Japanese, the novel made history as the first work by a Taiwanese author to win the prestigious prize, and was later translated into Chinese by the author.

 

Ting, a Taiwanese American scholar specializing in gender studies, has extensive expertise in Japanese literature, queer theory and feminism. Fluent in English, Chinese and Japanese, she is currently pursuing advanced studies in literature, translation and creative writing. Her journey with Li Kotomi’s work began through academic and creative intersections. Set on a fictional island, the story features three distinct invented languages that reflect the story’s gender politics. Translating such a complex linguistic landscape requires immense imagination and creativity. Li’s Chinese translation will serve as a vital reference text for the English interpretation.

 

Mentor Lin King, a distinguished voice in the new generation of Mandarin-to-English literary translators, received the PEN America Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her translations include “The Boy from Clearwater” and “Taiwan Travelogue.” The latter won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in late 2024 and the ALTA First Translation Prize in 2025.

 

ALTA is dedicated to promoting literary translation. Since 2020, the Taiwan Academy has partnered with ALTA to mentor emerging translators such as Jenna Tang, a collaboration that previously facilitated the publication of the English edition of Fang Si-Chi’s “First Love Paradise.” Translators play a critical role in bringing Taiwanese literature to the global stage, as every translation is a creative reimagining across languages. The results of the mentorship will be presented at the ALTA annual conference this fall.

 

For information, visit la.us.taiwan.culture.tw and literarytranslators.org."

https://beverlypress.com/2026/03/taiwanese-american-scholar-selected-for-alta-emerging-translator-program/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"Sometimes, despite having over a million words, we can't truly express or understand the meaning of life. However, with just around 137 words, Toki Pona is known to be the world's simplest language that conveys the meaning of life well enough like other languages but with significantly fewer words and phrases, as per IFL Science.

 

Canadian linguist Sonja Lang invented Toki Pona in 2001. "It was my attempt to understand the meaning of life in 120 words. There are now thousands of speakers and 137 essential words," mentioned Lang on Toki Pona's official website. Lang's invention was recognized as a world language in 2022, with ISO 639-3 adopting the code "tok" for Toki Pona. According to the science-based media channel, Toki Pona drew inspiration from other languages from around the world, including Dutch, English, Finnish, Mandarin, and Cantonese, among others. Although many other conlangs already exist, Toki Pona stands out due to its most uncomplicated vocabulary.

 

This one-of-a-kind language caught the attention of the popular language and etymology enthusiast on YouTube, Rob Watts (@RobWords), who tells people, "where the words we use come from and why we say the things we say." At the beginning of the video, Watts questioned, "Can a language really function with just 120 words?" and proceeded to explain the minimalism of Toki Pona. He highlighted that the name Toki Pona itself means "good/simple language," and its dictionary has nearly 11000 sample translations. Watts pointed out that Toki Pona doesn't have articles like 'a,' 'an,' or 'the,' and also is free from grammatical tenses. The verbs don't have different forms like in English or many other languages.

 

Most importantly, one need not wonder what grammatical genders to use in Toki Pona. For instance, learning German or French gets complicated because people find it difficult to identify the difference between masculine, feminine or neutral words. In Toki Pona, there are just three pronouns - mi (I or we), sina (you or y'all) and ona (he, she, it and they) and it also applies to the possessive forms of all these pronouns. "So the biggest way in which Toki Pona saves on vocabulary is what’s remarkable about it. Toki Pona has very few words but each one of them can be translated into a multitude of things. They are broad concepts. It’s like how our word 'fruit' covers loads of different varieties of fruit and can be used to refer to any one of them," said Watts.

 

"All content words can serve as objects, verbs and modifiers - like adjectives - depending on where they are in a sentence. And you can just line up the modifiers to gradually refine the idea," Watts explained. In fact, Lang spoke about the nuances of using Toki Pona in her book, "The Language of Good," which, according to Watts, serves as the Bible for Toki Pona speakers.

 

While many praise Toki Pona's simplicity for distilling life's essence, research reveals potential cognitive trade-offs in minimalist vocabularies. A 2014 study examining the cognitive effects of small vocabulary sizes, akin to Toki Pona's minimalist lexicon, shows that preschoolers with smaller vocabularies process words less efficiently than peers with larger ones. Children aged 30-46 months with larger expressive vocabularies showed faster and more accurate identification of familiar words, better disambiguation of novel words to unfamiliar objects, and greater sensitivity to one-feature mispronunciations of known words.

 

Additionally, a study of Saudi high-school EFL learners (n = 108) found that students with an average vocabulary size of about 2,025 word families were able to understand up to 90% of written texts, showing a strong quantitative link between vocabulary size and text comprehension in real-world language learning. 

 

Calling it a "quirky" language, Watts delved much more into the other aspects of Toki Pona and in every way this language seemed to have simple, straightforward solutions using just a few words. So, for those who wish to learn a new language but are worried about its grammatical complexities, Toki Pona is a boon.

 

This article originally appeared 1 month ago.

https://scoop.upworthy.com/worlds-simplest-language-with-less-than-150-words-is-enough-to-understand-the-meaning-of-life-ex2

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"The Edwin C. Gentzler Translation Center (GTC) has recently been approved by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to offer the Interpreters in the Education Setting courses, expanding the commonwealth’s ability to support multilingual families and ensures that school districts utilize well-trained professionals who can provide clear, accurate and culturally responsive communication.

Designed by DESE specifically for interpreters working in K-12 settings, the two courses prepare participants to navigate the multilingual communication needs of public schools, from parent-teacher conferences to specialized meetings. The GTC now offers Tier 2 (Trained Interpreter) and Tier 3 (Advanced Trained Interpreter) DESE-designed courses, along with an abbreviated Tier 2 option for those individuals who have previously completed the GTC-designed and delivered “Interpreter and Translator in Education” (ITE) workshop series. The GTC has offered its ITE series to public school districts and individuals in Massachusetts and beyond since 2020, providing instruction to approximately 820 individuals, and will continue to update and offer these workshop series as they differ from the DESE-designed courses and can be customized.

DESE’s Tier 2 course provides a broad foundation in consecutive interpretation, with an emphasis on how schools function and the interpreter’s role within the education system. The GTC’s ITE builds on a basic interpreting skills foundation with more in-depth training on interpreting skills, practice, and professional decision-making in school settings. DESE’s Tier 3 course provides a broad consecutive interpretation, with some sight and simultaneous interpretation, and delves into how Special Education functions in schools. The GTC’s Interpreting for Special Education Workshop Series (ISE) builds on advanced consecutive interpreting skills, including simultaneous and sight translation, again with more in-depth training on interpreting skills, practice and professional decision-making in school settings.

Overall, the courses provide the tools and training needed for equitable access and to foster stronger family engagement, with the shared goal of student success. The GTC’s approval as a provider of these courses represents an important investment in inclusive communication, educational equity statewide, and deeper public engagement, and adds to the center’s portfolio of educational programming and services for public schools throughout the state.

The GTC welcomes participants with skills in any language to the DESE courses, reflecting the rich linguistic diversity of Massachusetts communities and the GTC network of professionals given the center’s over 40-year history. Prospective participants must take a language assessment before admission to the courses. The center assigns experienced interpretation professionals and educators to teach the DESE courses upon completion of the DESE provider training.

For more information about the DESE courses or the GTC’s own school interpreter and translator programming, please visit the GTC website or email translate@umass.edu."
https://www.umass.edu/news/article/gentzler-translation-center-approved-offer-dese-interpreter-courses
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"“Security Questions” wins Poetry in Translation Prize

Osdany Morales’s Security Questions, translated from the Spanish by Harry Bauld, is the inaugural winner of the Poetry in Translation Prize, co-awarded by Giramondo.

 

Shortlisted under the translated title of “The Past is a Lonesome Town”, the book was originally published in Spanish in 2015 as El Pasado es un Pueblo Solitario (Almenara Press).

 

The author and translator first met while working at the same school. “Bauld’s curiosity was piqued by the new hire, a Spanish-speaking novelist and poet, and he found his poems online,” according to organisers. Of the poems, Bauld said, “they spoke to me, I did a translation of one, and by way of introduction and welcome sent it to him. He paid me the compliment of saying how strange it was to ‘hear my own voice in English’.”

 

Bauld said, “The poems from Security Questions are, on the one hand, a lyric sequence shaped by coming of age in small-town Cuba during the late stages of Fidel Castro’s regime, and on the other a testament of exile and immigration, traces that remain in the wake of forsaking a problematic homeland for the uncertainties of the present.”

 

Morales said, “Before arriving in the US, I had written only fiction. If it weren’t for this book, it would have taken me much longer to reach the lands of memory. [ … ] At the time, I believed that fiction wasn’t confessional, that only poets had access to that kind of meaning. It was through writing poetry that I realised I carried many memories in literary form – that exile had established a past I could already recount without waiting for old age. Exile and poetry made me look not exactly backward, but inward.”

 

Judges selected the title from a shortlist of 8, among a total of 259 submissions.

 

The Poetry in Translation Prize is a “biennial award for an outstanding poetry collection translated into English”, said the organisers. The winners will receive an advance of US$5000 (A$7500) shared equally between the writer and the translator.

 

The winners are offered simultaneous publication by Giramondo in Australia and New Zealand, New Directions in North America and Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK and Ireland. Publication is scheduled for early 2027."

Monday, 2 March 2026 @booksandpublishing

 

https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2026/03/02/324907/security-questions-wins-poetry-in-translation-prize/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"The United States National Science Foundation, a government agency, has opened negotiations with the Israeli Embassy here to secure Israel’s assistance in the evaluation of Soviet scientific achievements, it was learned here today.

 

Many hundreds of Israeli scholars, learned in science and multi-lingual, would translate a tremendous amount of Soviet technical literature published between 1946 and 1954. Arrangements with Israel are expected to remedy a situation in which American technical libraries are deficient in translations of Russian scientific publications.

 

U.S. authorities believe that Israel possesses talent which could be quickly organized into a task force to do the massive translation job. Details of the U. S. offer and financial considerations are not yet available. But the American request has been forwarded to the Israel Government in Jerusalem for a decision. A reply is expected shortly.

 

The National Science Foundation has decided to ask Congress for additional funds to pay for the project in Israel. The approach was made to Israel basically because of the shortage in America of qualified technical experts who can translate scientific Russian papers. America has been deprived of the benefit of much technical information freely published in Russia because of this deficiency.

 

 

The National Science Foundation would work with the Israel Embassy. Technical papers would be sent to Israel through Israel Government channels and assigned to scholars there at the discretion of the Israel authorities. When translations are approved, printing of final manuscripts would be done in Israel.

 

Most of the translation and printing expenses would be covered by the U.S. Government. However, a portion of the cost could be recovered by sale of copies to universities and industrial research institutions.

 

The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published."

July 29, 1958

See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿

https://www.jta.org/archive/u-s-seeks-israel-aid-in-translating-soviet-technical-literature

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

Excerpts: 'Adinkra symbols carry deep philosophical and cultural meaning. How do you approach translating these symbols into a contemporary sculptural language while honoring their historical and spiritual roots?

I approach Adinkra symbols not as motifs to be reproduced, but as philosophical frameworks—ways of thinking rather than fixed images. Because these symbols are embedded with historical, spiritual, and ethical knowledge, my responsibility is not to illustrate them, but to engage with the values they hold: ideas of protection, balance, endurance, reciprocity, and communal care.

 

In translating Adinkra into a contemporary sculptural language, I focus on embodiment rather than representation. The symbols often dissolve into structure through the process of building, enclosing, piercing, balancing so that their meaning is felt through material relationships rather than immediately read as iconography. This allows the work to remain open, inviting viewers into reflection rather than instruction.

 

Honoring their roots also means acknowledging that Adinkra is a living system, not a static past. My own position within the diaspora complicates that relationship; distance and displacement reshape how these philosophies are accessed and understood. The sculptures carry that tension. They do not claim cultural purity or completion, but instead operate as sites of negotiation between inheritance and adaptation, tradition and experimentation.

 

My goal is to let Adinkra knowledge breathe within contemporary conditions. By working through clay, fiber, wood, and found objects, I create forms that hold spiritual resonance without collapsing into symbolism, forms that honor lineage while insisting that cultural wisdom can continue to evolve, speak, and transform.

 

With Fihankra opening at the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum and your career continuing to evolve, what feels like the “next level” for you as an artist, and what kinds of conversations or opportunities are you hoping this exhibition will open up?

At this moment, the next level for me is less about scale or visibility and more about deepening my responsibility to the materials I work with, the histories I carry, and the conversations the work enters. Fihankra is up through July 19 2026 and it marks a point of consolidation, where ideas I’ve been circling for years thus, migration, care, instability, and communal memory, come into clearer focus. The next step is allowing these ideas to expand outward through more ambitious installations, public-facing contexts, and cross-disciplinary dialogue.

 

I see opportunities for collaboration with scholars, historians, architects, and fellow artists, fostering conversations that extend the work beyond the studio and gallery. My upcoming summer 2026 residencies at Wassaic Project and Township 10 will provide the space and time to further explore these intersections, experiment with materials, and develop new bodies of work that continue to examine identity, memory, and community across borders.

Website: https://eugeneagyeiarts.com

https://boldjourney.com/eugene-ofori-agyei-builds-a-language-of-home-memory-and-protection/

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

"Can AI close the language gap in disaster warnings? A federal watchdog raises concerns.
The National Weather Service lacks clear goals and a funding strategy as it attempts to scale AI-powered multilingual alerts, a Government Accountability Office report warns.

The National Weather Service needs to update its plan to implement AI language translation “by following key practices such as setting performance goals and identifying the resources it needs and strategies to address challenges,” a new report from the Government Accountability Office found.
Federal, tribal, state and local authorities “may not have the funding, staff expertise, or other resources needed to create alerts in languages other than English,” the report states. “The need to provide alerts quickly during severe weather events compounds this challenge.”
NWS contracted with a commercial vendor to automatically generate translations for selected weather products in 2022, but that contract lapsed last year. NWS reduced the scope of a revised contract signed in April 2025, as the annual contract amount decreased from about $1 million to $600,000, leaving NWS with “limited ability” to update and improve the translation program, the report states.

Dive Insight:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in 2023 that NWS forecasters had been working with commercial vendor Lilt to train AI software for weather, water and climate terminology in Spanish and Simplified Chinese through an effort funded by the House Appropriations Committee.

“By providing weather forecasts and warnings in multiple languages, NWS will improve community and individual readiness and resilience as climate change drives more extreme weather events,” NWS Director Ken Graham said in a statement at the time.

Using AI is less costly than employing human translators and allows NWS to quickly provide information in languages other than English during severe weather events, according to the GAO report. “Officials from two NWS regional offices said AI was the only approach that would allow NWS to provide translations of its weather products effectively in real time,” the report states.

Translating weather products and training AI language models requires significant time and effort, and work force reduction initiatives at NWS have presented a major challenge, the report states.

In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S., revoking former President Bill Clinton’s August 2000 executive order directing federal agencies to ensure meaningful access to programs and activities for people with limited English proficiency.

NWS did not request funds for its AI language translation project in fiscal year 2026 because it was awaiting guidance on implementing Trump’s executive order, according to the report. Even so, NWS has developed a plan to expand translation of its weather products.

“NWS faces some challenges with its project using AI to automatically translate some weather products into languages other than English,” the report states. “This experimental project could help reduce risks to public health and safety during extreme weather events.”

The plan “would benefit from updates and additional details,” according to GAO. NWS should establish and communicate measurable performance goals and document resource needs such as funding, workforce and IT, as well as internal and external factors that could affect its ability to achieve its goals and strategies, GAO recommends."
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/ai-translation-disaster-warnings-NWS-GAO/813470/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"Colloque « Occitan, poésie et traduction : approches théoriques et pratique(s) »

 

Les 6 et 27 novembre 2026

 

Appel à communications

 

La question de la traduction poétique de l'occitan est déjà riche d'études critiques nombreuses et diverses. Elle continue inlassablement d’interroger puisqu’elle joue un rôle dans la survie même et la pérennisation d’une littérature minorée. Encore tout récemment Christian Lagarde et Philippe Gardy viennent de rassembler des articles autour du thème « Littérature occitane contemporaine et autotraduction. Une évidence… souvent occultée » à paraître prochainement dans la revue Plumas.

 

La traduction poétique peut parfois même tendre à devenir un pan autonome de l'activité contemporaine dans la production poétique en occitan (ainsi, la rubrique "Convidat" de la revue OC a pu servir à la découverte de poètes majeurs en France au-delà de l'occitan, mais grâce à lui (on pense à Gabriel Mwènè Okoundji d’abord publié dans OC, et dont la reconnaissance a notamment abouti à son entrée cette année dans la collection Poésie/Gallimard).

 

La spécificité de ce colloque tient à ce qu'il sera centré sur le croisement des théories et des pratiques de la traduction : jusqu'où le traducteur décide-t-il de s'imposer des contraintes formelles pour son texte-cible, quelles contraintes issues du texte-source retient-il et lesquelles écarte-t-il? 

 

L'appel à communication ne partira pas du principe que l'occitan est la langue source, elle pourra être envisagée comme la langue cible et dès lors les contraintes formelles de traduction se poseront différemment.

 

Le colloque mettra également l'accent sur les implications formelles de l'autre langue (qu'elle soit source ou cible) : traduire de l'occitan vers l'anglais n'implique pas les mêmes questionnements que le processus l'inverse ni que vers où à partir du finnois, du français, du créole haïtien, de l'ossète ou du turc.

 

Le traducteur choisit-il de mettre en application une approche théorique de la traduction, avec des modèles identifiés (par exemple H. Meschonic « Poétique du traduire », ou encore Greimas avec « Pour une théorie du discours poétique »), ou au contraire une approche résolument intuitive et empirique mais basée sur une connaissance intime du détail de la langue de l'auteur, de sa culture et d'une pratique continue de l’exercice de traduction (exemple d’André Markowicz)?

 

Cette liberté fait que le colloque ne se veut pas un colloque de traductologie, mais de réflexion dans un continuum théorie/praxis de la traduction où le communicant pourra placer librement son curseur.

 

Nous ne prendrons pas en compte les communications concernant les traductions d'auteur et nous nous concentrerons sur le travail du traducteur devant l'altérité poétique et identitaire.

 

—

 

Le colloque se tiendra à l'Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3 sur le site Saint-Charles.

 

Les projets de communications sont à envoyer avant le mardi 30 juin 2026 à l'adresse suivante : laurent.alibert@univ-montp3.fr

 

—

 

Conseil scientifique du colloque (en cours d'élaboration):

 

Xavier Bach (Université de Toulouse 2 – Jean Jaurès)

 

Sylvain Chabaud (Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3)

 

Frédéric Figeac (Poète, traducteur,directeur de la Revue OC)

 

Jean-Claude Forêt (Ecrivain, traducteur, éditeur – éditions Jorn)

 

Christian Lagarde (Université de Perpignan, UPVD)

 

Hervé Lieutard, (Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3)

 

Claire Torreilles (Laboratoire RéSO - UPVM)

 

Gilda Russo (Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3).

 

Responsable :

Laurent Alibert

Adresse :

Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3"

https://www.fabula.org/actualites/133037/occitan-poesie-et-traduction-approches-theoriques-et-pratique-s.html

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#metaglossia_mundus 

"On Translating Fatemeh Shams
Confronted by the eventuality of becoming, herself, a translated subject, Shams makes translation itself her subject.

Translation, from Latin for “carried across,” refers not just to the conceptual transfer between languages, but also to a physical transfer from place to place. In these poems, the Persian poet Fatemeh Shams, who has lived outside of her native Iran for almost two decades, wrestles with what it means to write in exile, always in anticipation of having her work translated—to write, in other words, out of physical displacement toward linguistic displacement. Confronted by the eventuality of becoming, herself, a translated subject, Shams makes translation itself her subject.

In “Fatemeh,” exile “translates” the poet by reinterpreting the meaning of her name. The poet revisits the scene of her own birth, as her mother and father consider what name to give their newborn daughter. The names that her mother prefers are associated with resistance and revolution in Iran. “Laleh,” or tulip, is especially resonant as a symbol of resistance used by Guerilla Movement poets of the seventies who were writing against political oppression. Her mother’s preferences are set aside, however, when her father pulls out his Koran and chooses the traditional, Islamic “Fatemeh.” Celebrated as the name of the daughter of the prophet Mohammad, “Fatemeh” has its origins in the Arabic "F-Ṭ-M" (ف-ط-م), meaning “to separate, wean, cut something from another thing.” Thus, a name given to commemorate ties to state-sanctioned culture and religion also comes to mark Shams’s separation from her native country, and from her parents, as the dislocation of exile brings the name closer to its original meaning: "She who is separated...like a name from other names.”

Armen Davoudian is the author of The Palace of Forty Pillars (Tin House, 2024), and the translator, from Persian, of Hopscotch by Fatemeh Shams (Ugly Duckling Pre)
By Armen Davoudian
Originally Published: March 02, 2026
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/1771677/on-translating-fatemeh-shams

#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"Canon Jonas Allooloo, former dean of St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit, Nunavut and a key member of the translation team that created the first Inuktitut Bible, died Feb. 23 in Ottawa at the age of 79.

Friends, family and colleagues in the diocese of the Arctic and beyond mourned the loss of Allooloo, remembering him as a much-loved priest, teacher and translator over more than 40 years of service in parish ministry and the life of the church.

“Jonas’ ministry was marked by love for God, his people, and the rich culture of the Arctic,” the diocese said in an obituary. “He faced challenges with humility, grace, and a hearty laugh and bright smile. His work in obedience to his calling from Almighty God will continue to strengthen generations of parishioners and clergy, and his contributions to Indigenous ministry and biblical translation leave a lasting legacy.”

David Parsons, retired diocesan bishop of the Arctic, described Allooloo as “our blessed and beloved brother … Jonas was a very bright light within the institution, but greater than that, Jonas was a faithful, consistent light and voice within the entire Christian family.”

Born in 1946 in the Inuit hamlet of Igloolik, Allooloo grew up in a camp near Pond Inlet on Baffin Island. His father was a Christian leader who led worship services out on the land. As a child, Allooloo attended residential school in Churchill, Manitoba.

As a young man, he studied at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where Allooloo experienced what he believed to be a call from God to return to the North and minister to his fellow Inuit. He was ordained in the mid-1970s and subsequently worked in parish ministry for decades, eventually serving as dean of St. Jude’s Cathedral from 2012 until his 2018 retirement.

Translation projects were a major focus of Allooloo’s life and ministry—particularly translating the Bible into his native language of Inuktitut, a massive endeavour that began in 1978 and took 34 years. Allooloo was part of a team of four translators that also included Bishop Benjamin Arreak, Bishop Andrew Atagotaak and the Rev. Joshua Arreak, working with translators from the Canadian Bible Society.

The team published the New Testament in 1991 and finally published a complete Bible in Inuktitut, including the Old Testament, in 2012. In a report to the 2013 Joint Assembly of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Allooloo said Inuit Christians reacted with joy to the Inuktitut Bible, with 2,000 leather-bound copies selling out on the first day. “It has been a privilege for me to do this for my people,” he said at the time.

Those who knew Allooloo recalled him as hard-working and driven in his translation projects. His nephew, the Rev. Caleb Sangoya, rector of St. Timothy’s Anglican Church in Pond Inlet until his retirement in 2021, says Allooloo would consult family and friends regarding translations, drawing on their knowledge of different Inuktitut dialects when a word was difficult to translate.

“He was an honest person, humble,” Sangoya says. “The people fully trusted him when he translated, as well as [with] spiritual growth …He had a special gift … He [knew] quite a bit about Inuit languages.”

Bishop Jared Osborn, suffragan bishop for the diocese of the Arctic, worked with Allooloo at St. Jude’s Cathedral while serving as a deacon and assistant priest. The cathedral offered worship services in both English and Inuktitut, with Allooloo preaching in the appropriate language at each.

“Sometimes we’d have bilingual services that were a joint service, and he would preach in both languages,” Osborn says. “He’d just say some things in Inuktitut and then he’d interpret them on his own into English, and go back and forth that way.”

Even after completing the Inuktitut Bible in 2012, Allooloo continued to work on updates, correcting errors and refining the translation in response to feedback.

Allooloo worked on a children’s Bible in Inuktitut featuring simplified versions of Bible stories for kids, which Anglican congregations have distributed in the North, Osborn says. He also translated internal materials for the diocese.

“The thing that Jonas really loved the most was the translation work,” Osborn says. “It’s something that he did for decades. He just always loved to keep working on that. When projects were finished, he was looking for new projects. ‘What else needs to be translated? What else can we do to get the word of God into the hands of Inuit people?’

“Even when he came to Iqaluit as the dean, he had a lot of responsibilities, but he still managed to keep working on those projects as much as he could. Into retirement, he also kept working on that translation work pretty much right up to the end.”

Two years after Allooloo retired as dean, he and his wife Meena found themselves homeless, unable to find affordable housing. An outpouring of support followed reporting in the Anglican Journal about his plight and the larger housing crisis in the North, with parishes raising money that allowed the couple to move into a small one-bedroom apartment in Iqaluit.

That network of care was one result of the close relationships Allooloo developed with colleagues and residents in the communities where his ministry brought him.

“He was always very gentle … He definitely served as a mentor to me and to my wife, Rebecca, as we were new in the Arctic and just trying to figure things out about the culture and the lifestyle and the church up here,” Osborn said.

Allooloo, he said, would be remembered as “a man of God, as a faithful pastor, as somebody that dedicated so much of his life to the work of ministry and to translation … People in [many] communities remember Jonas and ask about how he was doing. He was well-known and well-loved all across our diocese.”"
Matthew Puddister
Published March 2, 2026
https://anglicanjournal.com/jonas-allooloo-key-translator-of-first-inuktitut-bible-dead-at-79/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"You don't have to completely stop working in the lead-up to retirement. In fact, it's a good idea to have a flexible, part-time job to help boost your monthly cash flow and keep your mind and body engaged. It's also a great way to lower your financial stress as you get ready to retire, as you'll still have income coming in, reducing the need to draw down your other accounts.

 

Here are part-time jobs that pay $2,500 a month or more on average that are perfect for semi-retirement.

 

Excerpts

Editor's note: Salary information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

 

4. Interpreter/translator

Median hourly pay: $28.58

 

Being fluent in multiple languages opens the door to interpreter and translator work, combining real-time spoken translation with written projects. Freelance and contract work is very common, offering schedule flexibility. Work includes accurately conveying meaning across languages, maintaining confidentiality, and understanding cultural nuances.

 

A bachelor's degree is typical, though native fluency in at least two languages is the most important qualification. Certification can also improve job prospects.

 

5. Graphic designer

Median hourly pay: $29.47

 

As a graphic designer, you'll create visual concepts for marketing materials, websites, logos, and publications using computer software or by hand. Many designers work freelance or on contract, offering excellent flexibility for part-time schedules. Daily tasks include meeting with clients, developing design concepts, presenting mockups, and refining final products.

 

While many employers prefer a bachelor's degree, a strong portfolio demonstrating skills is often the determining factor, especially for freelance or part-time work...

 

8. Technical writer

Median hourly pay: $44.07

 

Technical writers turn complex information into clear manuals, guides, articles, and other documentation. Many freelance or contract roles offer strong flexibility for part-time work.

 

The job typically includes research, collaborating with subject matter experts, writing and editing content, and occasionally creating visuals. Employers look for technical expertise, strong writing skills, and a solid portfolio.

 

9. Web developer

Median hourly pay: $45.85

 

As a web developer, you'll design and build websites, handling both visual appearance and technical functionality in addition to maintenance. Freelance and contract opportunities are abundant, making this ideal for flexible part-time work. Responsibilities include writing code, testing site functionality, troubleshooting issues, protecting the site from cyberattacks, and updating content.

 

While many employers prefer a bachelor's degree in computer science, many developers enter the field through boot camps, associate degrees, or self-study with a strong portfolio...

 

https://www.aol.com/articles/10-part-time-jobs-pay-171400825.html

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

Indigenous Languages and Pedagogy in Post-Secondary Contexts, a FREE one-day conference hosted by CNAIS on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. This gathering will focus on how to best deliver Indigenous language instruction for post-secondary learners, with primary attention to college and university contexts and secondary consideration of adult learning more broadly.

 

"You are warmly invited to attend Indigenous Languages and Pedagogy in Post-Secondary Contexts, a FREE one-day conference hosted by CNAIS on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. Attached are event flyers and session descriptions. 

 

This gathering will focus on how to best deliver Indigenous language instruction for post-secondary learners, with primary attention to college and university contexts and secondary consideration of adult learning more broadly. The conference will include:

 

Exploration of existing curricular programs and teaching materials

 

Discussion of multi-campus teaching models

 

Strategies for hybrid and shared-course modalities

 

Approaches to expanding access so students at multiple institutions can enroll in Indigenous language courses offered by a single host institution

 

When: Wednesday, March 4, 9:30am–4:00pm

 

Where: University Memorial Center UMC Room 247, 1669 Euclid Ave, Boulder, CO 80309

 

Format: In-person, with a hybrid option available via Zoom

 

Zoom link: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/99190488322

 

Cost: Free (no registration required)

 

We hope you will join us for a day centered on strengthening Indigenous language teaching and learning in post-secondary spaces.

 

Please feel free to share this invitation with students, staff, faculty, and networks who may be interested.

 

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

 

 

Session Descriptions: 

 

9:30 am Opening Remarks

 

9:45 am - Keynote Presentation

 

Melvatha R. Chee, University of New Mexico: Administrative Considerations for Diné Language Curriculum Development at the University of New Mexico

 

 

 

 

Developing a curriculum for Diné language instruction at the University of New Mexico *UNM) is challenging and a much larger task than originally anticipated. This talk will discuss the challenges we deal with and how we have decided to address them. For the first time, we can advance Diné language instruction at UNM where our course design addresses Diné language instruction for post-secondary education. To achieve our goal of high-quality, post-secondary language instruction with an emphasis on oral expression and comprehension of cultural knowledge, a team unified in all aspects of this work is necessary.

 

 

 

 

Lorraine Begay Manavi, University of New Mexico: Reclaiming Our Language, One Verb at a Time: Navajo Curriculum Development at UNM

 

 

 

 

Abstract: Traditional approaches to teaching Diné Bizaad have often emphasized memorization of isolated vocabulary, particularly nouns. At the University of New Mexico, a team of Diné scholars has reimagined Navajo language instruction through a verb-centered curriculum that reflects the structure and worldview of the language itself. This curriculum scaffolds learning from beginning to advanced levels by centering verbs and their modes, emphasizing functional high- and low-frequency constructions in context to support meaningful communication and long-term speaker development.

 

 

 

 

1:00 pm Afternoon Session #1

 

 

 

 

Ambrocio Gutierrez Lorenzo, Raichle Farrelly, University of Colorado: and Angélica Morales-Santiago, Mixtec, Oaxaca, Mexico: New perspectives for teaching Indigenous languages in Mexico: the case of Mixtec and Zapotec

 

 

 

 

This panel will discuss the teaching of Mixtec and Zapotec (Otomanguean languages) with heritage and non-heritage speakers. We will focus on the experience on informal class sessions and a global seminar experience to highlight the need of a curriculum that incorporates grammar, culture, and contextual activities. We also argue that material design and development to support educators and learners in and outside the classroom are key to this curriculum so these tasks must be addressed at every curriculum design stage to appropriately complement the learning process.

 

 

 

 

2:30 pm Afternoon Session #2

 

 

 

 

Teaching Quechua and Guaraní in Higher Education, Communities and Across Borders

 

 

 

 

Panelist:

 

 

 

 

Marcia Mandepora Chundary, Guaraní, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno in Bolivia

 

 

 

 

Mary Loayza Puga, Quechua, Comunidad Rimanakuy and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

 

 

 

 

Doris Loayza, Quechua, University of Colorado

 

 

 

 

This panel explores how Quechua and Guaraní are taught across different regions and educational settings: from public universities in Bolivia, to private and community-based programs in Peru, and university and diaspora communities in the United States. Drawing on their teaching experiences, the presenters discuss how different learners bring distinct needs and motivations, and how they've adapted their teaching methodologies and materials in response. National policies can also shape these differences—for example, Indigenous languages fulfill university language requirements in Bolivia, whereas in Peru, they do not. Across these contexts, however, instructors face shared challenges, including limited materials and uneven institutional support. The panelists will discuss how they have navigated some of these challenges.

 

 

 

 

Categories:

 

Events

 

Tags:

 

Events

 

Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies (CNAIS)

 

1330 Grandview Ave.

 

491 UCB

 

Boulder, CO 80309

 

 

 

 

Email: cnais@colorado.edu

 

Phone: 303-735-4595

 

 

 

 

The Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at CU Boulder acknowledges that the University sits upon land within the territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. Further, we acknowledge that 48 contemporary tribal nations are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado."

 

Published:2/28/2026 2/28/2026

 

https://www.colorado.edu/cnais/2026/02/28/indigenous-languages-and-pedagogy-post-secondary-contexts

 

#Metaglossia 

 

#metaglossia_mundus 

 

#métaglossie 

"Pour ceux qui ont regardé le célèbre film ''Black Panther'', une scène avait marqué certains esprits. Dans cette production cinématographique, on voit que le Wakanda, cette puissance imaginaire utilise une forme d'écriture jusque-là inconnue du grand public.

 

Depuis, beaucoup ont cherché à en savoir davantage sur le nsibidi, ce système graphique africain qui apparaît dans le film du réalisateur américain.

 

Originaire du Nigeria, le nsibidi fait partie des écritures anciennes du continent, dont l'existence remonte à bien avant les premiers contacts avec les Européens.

 

Dans cet article, nous vous proposons de redécouvrir cinq anciennes écritures africaines, des alphabets et systèmes symboliques endogènes. Nous explorerons leur rôle social et spirituel, ainsi que la manière dont ces formes d'écriture inspirent aujourd'hui artistes, linguistes et créateurs du continent.

 

Une plongée dans un patrimoine graphique qui bouscule les idées reçues sur l'histoire de l'écriture, et sur une Afrique trop souvent décrite comme un continent exclusivement tourné vers l'oralité.

 

Pendant longtemps, on a appris à l'école que la civilisation orale africaine constituait le seul système ancestral de transmission des savoirs, de l'histoire et des valeurs morales. Selon cette idée reçue, les peuples africains n'auraient découvert l'écriture qu'à partir de leur contact avec les Européens et l'alphabet latin.

 

En réalité, de l'Éthiopie à l'est jusqu'au Liberia à l'ouest, des recherches menées depuis plusieurs décennies ont mis au jour des systèmes d'écriture endogènes, développés par des peuples autochtones sans influence extérieure.

 

Si le cas des hiéroglyphes de l'Égypte ancienne ne fait plus débat, cet article s'intéresse à d'autres formes d'écriture — graphiques, symboliques ou phonétiques — telles que le tifinagh des Touaregs, le nsibidi du Nigeria et du Cameroun, le Vai du Liberia et de la Sierra Leone, ou encore les Adinkra du Ghana.

 

Ces différents systèmes constituent des preuves matérielles d'une longue tradition de communication écrite chez plusieurs peuples du continent.

 

Augustin Ndione, Directeur de recherches assimilé en linguistique au Centre de linguistique de Dakar (CLAD) à l'Université Cheikh Anta Diop — et chercheur associé au Laboratoire ligérien de linguistique (UMR 7270, CNRS, Université de Tours) — tient à rétablir les faits :

 

« C'est une idée reçue, totalement fausse, de croire que les Africains ont découvert l'écriture avec l'arrivée des Européens. »

 

Selon le linguiste, les premiers écrits produits en Afrique sur des langues africaines et par des Africains n'étaient pas rédigés en caractères latins, mais dans d'autres systèmes graphiques.

 

Dans plusieurs régions du continent, les recherches ont révélé une diversité de systèmes d'écriture, adaptés aux cultures et aux environnements des peuples qui les ont créés.

 

Qu'elles soient idéographiques (représentant des idées), syllabiques (représentant des syllabes) ou alphabétiques, ces formes d'écriture témoignent de l'existence, dans de nombreuses sociétés africaines, d'une longue et riche tradition de communication écrite, bien antérieure à la colonisation européenne.

 

Rôle social, culturel et spirituel de ces écritures africaines

Les différentes écritures anciennes africaines présentaient une grande diversité dans leurs usages, estime le linguiste sénégalais.

 

« Quand on regarde le contenu de ces textes-là, on se rend compte qu'il existait, par exemple, une transmission historique, avec des généalogies et des éloges funèbres », explique Augustin Ndione.

 

« On y retrouvait également des poèmes, des polémiques, des contestations, des biographies, des éloges funèbres, des généalogies ou encore des textes à vocation talismanique », poursuit-il.

 

Selon lui, ces textes ont joué pendant longtemps un rôle social important, car ils ont permis des formes d'échanges culturels au sein des sociétés concernées. Le chercheur en linguistique précise qu'il existait également des manuels médicaux, des journaux familiaux et des documents de transactions commerciales.

 

Au Nigeria, par exemple, le nsibidi est utilisé dans la décoration murale et sur certains objets de la vie quotidienne tels que les calebasses, les épées ou les ustensiles métalliques. Il existerait même une version sacrée de cette écriture, employée par la société secrète appelée Ngbe ou Egbo, présente dans la région de Cross River où ce système graphique a été identifié.

 

Les motifs Adinkra, un système d'écriture symbolique originaire du Ghana, sont souvent utilisés sur les textiles. On les retrouve désormais de plus en plus dans l'architecture moderne : bâtiments publics, monuments, façades décorées. Il n'est pas rare, dans ce pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest, de voir des édifices contemporains arborer ces symboles ancestraux.

 

Quant au tifinagh berbère, ses caractères servent à décorer les bijoux des femmes et les armes des hommes, ainsi qu'à écrire de courts textes ou des poèmes d'amour. Dans la culture touareg, le tifinagh fonctionne également comme un code dans différentes situations : jeux d'enfants, messages entre amoureux, pratiques pédagogiques, etc.

 

Sources inspirantes pour les acteurs culturels et les chercheurs

Que ce soient des vêtements, des objets d'arts, des décorations murales, ces formes d'écriture reviennent en force auprès des créateurs africains.

 

L'utilisation de ces écritures dans les créations artistiques que ce soit à travers les objets d'art, les productions cinématographique, le textile tout cela constitue un retour vers l'authenticité selon Augustin NDIONE.

 

''Aujourd'hui, c'est une forme de dynamique de ressources, de retour vers les sources, vers l'authenticité, vers quelque chose qui semble être propre à une communauté'' dit-il.

 

''C'est quelque chose qui semble être une logique de réappropriation de son histoire'', estime-t-il.

 

''C'est une réappropriation de l'histoire dans le sens où on montre quelque part quelque chose qui est une richesse aujourd'hui perdue et qu'il faut la retrouver, que les Africains ont su écrire il y a deux, trois siècles en utilisant les caractères qui leurs sont propres''.

 

Le fait que ces designers, architectes, artisans utilisent ces symboles contribue à promouvoir non seulement l'identité culturelle et une fierté africaine mais cela participe à la construction d'une identité nationale a t-il poursuivi.

 

Voici cinq systèmes d'écritures anciens africains parmi tant d'autres qui ont existé bien avant le contact avec les européens.

 

Nsibidi du Nigeria

Il a retrouvé un regain de popularité après son apparition dans le film Black Panther. Le Nsibidi est une écriture ancienne originaire du Nigeria. Il daterait des IVᵉ‑Vᵉ siècles, donc bien avant les premiers contacts avec les Européens. Il s'agit d'un système pictographique et idéographique, né dans la région du Cross River, où les plus anciennes traces ont été découvertes sur un site archéologique situé au centre de Calabar.

 

Les symboles Nsibidi représentent des concepts tels que l'amour, la guerre, le jugement, la fertilité, etc. Cette capacité à condenser des idées complexes en signes graphiques en fait un langage visuel d'une grande profondeur.

 

Historiquement, les symboles Nsibidi étaient principalement utilisés par les sociétés secrètes Ekpe, des confréries qui régulaient la vie sociale, politique et spirituelle des communautés Efik, Ibibio, Igbo et Ekoi.

 

La transmission du Nsibidi obéissait à un parcours initiatique rigoureux.

 

Les néophytes débutaient par les signes publics — ceux visibles sur les tissus, les poteries ou les murs. Puis, au fur et à mesure de leur ascension dans la hiérarchie, ils accédaient aux symboles ésotériques, réservés aux rituels, aux jugements secrets et aux délibérations des sociétés initiatiques.

 

L'existence de ce système d'écriture est mentionnée par des missionnaires britanniques au début du XXᵉ siècle. En 1904, Thomas Doveton Maxwell, commissaire de district à Calabar, en publie la première description. Le révérend J. K. MacGregor rapporte ensuite 24 signes traduits en 1909, suivi en 1911 par Elphinstone Dayrell (lui aussi commissaire de district), puis en 1912 par le botaniste et anthropologue Percy Amaury Talbot.

 

Vai du Liberia

C'est au Liberia, dans ce petit pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest — ou plus précisément dans une zone géographique et culturelle située entre le Liberia et la Sierra Leone — que le syllabaire Vai a vu le jour entre 1833 et 1836.

 

L'écriture Vai, l'une des plus anciennes et des plus pérennes du continent, s'est diffusée au Liberia et en Sierra Leone. Elle aurait été créée par Momolu Duwalu Bukele.

 

Le système Vai est un syllabaire, c'est‑à‑dire un ensemble de signes représentant les syllabes et morphèmes de la langue Vai, une langue mandée parlée par plusieurs centaines de milliers de personnes en Afrique de l'Ouest.

 

Dans sa forme standard actuelle, l'écriture Vai compte environ 212 caractères et s'écrit de gauche à droite.

 

Tifinagh berbère

Le tifinagh est un système d'écriture associé aux communautés berbères. Né en Afrique du Nord, cet ancien alphabet est utilisé jusqu'à nos jours.

 

Connu depuis l'Antiquité, son aire géographique s'est considérablement réduite au fil du temps. L'ancien tifinagh — parfois appelé libyque — s'étendait autrefois d'un territoire allant de la Méditerranée jusqu'au sud du Niger, et des îles Canaries jusqu'à l'oasis de Siwa, en Égypte.

 

Ce système d'écriture a été principalement préservé par les Touaregs, qui, pendant des siècles, en ont assuré la transmission et l'usage.

 

Après une longue histoire, cette écriture a fait l'objet d'une modernisation, notamment au Maroc, où une version adaptée a été adoptée pour un usage contemporain. Certains signes traditionnels — notamment les caractères composés de points — ont été remplacés ou simplifiés, donnant naissance à l'alphabet néo‑tifinagh.

 

Le Lybico-Berbère

Née il y a près de 2 000 ans en Afrique du Nord, et probablement développée par les Berbères, cette écriture plonge ses racines dans les traditions graphiques égyptiennes et phéniciennes.

 

Le libyco-berbère est un système d'écriture utilisé pour transcrire les langues indigènes de l'Afrique nord‑occidentale — des îles Canaries à la Libye actuelle — durant l'Antiquité. Il s'agit d'un alphabet consonantique (ou abjad), à l'exception d'un signe permettant de marquer certaines voyelles en fin de mot.

 

L'écriture libyco‑berbère est tombée en désuétude avant l'arrivée des Arabes dans la région. Cependant, une variante saharienne a survécu et a donné naissance à diverses formes de tifinagh, utilisées par les Berbères et, plus particulièrement, par certains groupes touaregs.

 

Adinkra-Ghana

C'est au Ghana, au sein des peuples Akan — présents principalement dans ce pays et en Côte d'Ivoire — que sont nés les symboles Adinkra. Les caractères de ce système graphique comptent parmi les trésors culturels les plus durables de l'Afrique de l'Ouest.

 

Les symboles Adinkra constituent un langage visuel porteur de philosophie, de spiritualité et de valeurs sociales.

 

Autrefois utilisés principalement sur les vêtements portés lors des funérailles, ils se retrouvent aujourd'hui dans l'architecture, la décoration, la mode et l'économie créative au Ghana et dans toute l'Afrique de l'Ouest.

 

De nombreux créateurs — designers, artistes et artisans — utilisent désormais ces symboles sur des vêtements, des bijoux, mais aussi sur des objets de poterie et d'artisanat."

Abdou Aziz Diédhiou

BBC News Afrique

27 février 2026 https://share.google/51552aLWUFPmemCOw

#Metaglossia 

#metaglossia_mundus 

#métaglossie 

An international team proposes replacing Hockett’s feature checklist with a model of language as a dynamic, multimodal, and socially evolving system.

"The End of Language As We Know It? Scientists Challenge 60 Years of Linguistic Research

A new interdisciplinary study argues that one of linguistics’ most influential frameworks needs a major update. Drawing on research in sign languages, animal communication, cultural evolution, and artificial intelligence, the authors challenge the idea of language as a static set of uniquely human design features.

An international team proposes replacing Hockett’s feature checklist with a model of language as a dynamic, multimodal, and socially evolving system.

For more than sixty years, Charles Hockett’s ‘design features’ have been widely used as a framework for defining what distinguishes human language from other forms of communication. These features were long treated as a checklist of properties that set language apart.

However, a new study published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences argues that this traditional view is no longer sufficient. The researchers contend that language cannot be captured by a fixed inventory of traits, but is better understood as a flexible system shaped by social interaction, situational context, and human creativity.

Paradigm shift for language science
In a new reassessment of Hockett’s classic “design features” of language—ideas such as arbitrariness, duality of patterning, and displacement—an international team of linguists and cognitive scientists argues that current research requires a fundamental rethink of what language is and how it evolved.

Their central claim is clear: language is not merely a spoken code. Instead, it is a dynamic, multimodal, socially grounded system shaped through interaction, culture, and shared meaning.

Over the last several decades, scientific discoveries have dramatically expanded our understanding of communication. Language is no longer viewed as something confined to speech. Sign languages used by deaf communities are fully developed linguistic systems, and tactile systems such as Protactile—used by DeafBlind signers in the northwest USA—demonstrate that language can also be conveyed through touch.

Research has also reshaped views of animal communication. Dolphins use distinctive signature whistles, birds produce songs with syntax-like organization, and apes communicate intentionally through context-sensitive gestures. At the same time, the emergence of generative AI has raised new questions about whether language is limited to biological minds at all.

“This isn’t about discarding Hockett,” says Dr. Michael Pleyer, lead author and researcher at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. “It’s about updating him. His framework was revolutionary in 1960 – but science has moved on. Today, we see that features once thought uniquely human—like productivity (the ability to create an infinite number of sentences), displacement (the ability to talk about things not in the here and now), and even recursive structure (the ability to embed sentences within sentences)—are also found to some extent in animal communication. The real story isn’t about what separates us from other species. It’s about how language, in all its complexity, connects us.”

The interdisciplinary team Pleyer, Perlman, Lupyan, de Reus, and Raviv (2025) proposes a new direction for language science. Rather than treating language as a checklist of defining traits, they describe it as a living, adaptive system shaped by multimodality, social interaction, and cultural evolution.

Credit: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Beyond the List: A New Vision of Language
The researchers highlight three major developments that are reshaping linguistic theory and moving it beyond a static feature list.

1. Multimodality and semiotic diversity

Language is not restricted to spoken words. Signed languages function on equal footing with spoken languages, and gestures and facial expressions are integral to everyday communication rather than secondary additions. Furthermore, language is not purely arbitrary.

Iconicity—where form resembles meaning—plays an essential role. Examples include imitative gestures, sound-symbolic words such as ‘buzz’ and ‘crash’, a stretched pronunciation like ‘slooooow’, and even emoji in digital text. This flexibility allows humans to transform almost any behavior into a communicative signal.

2. Language as social and functional
Communication is not simply the transfer of coded information. It involves people building shared meaning within specific contexts. A phrase such as ‘Isn’t that Tom’s bike?’ might signal ‘Let’s meet here’ or ‘Let’s avoid this place,’ depending on shared history and relationships.

Language also conveys identity, sometimes unintentionally, through features such as accent or dialect. It can foster solidarity or create distance. At the same time, language influences cognition; for instance, acquiring a new color term can sharpen a person’s ability to distinguish shades.

3. Language as an adaptive, evolving system

Key properties of language, including productivity and compositional structure, do not simply exist in isolation. They emerge through repeated social interaction and cultural transmission across different timescales, from moment-to-moment exchanges to changes unfolding across generations.

Languages adapt to their social environments, and variations in community structure contribute to the remarkable diversity seen across the world’s languages.

Societal relevance
These insights arrive at a time of major change. Sign languages are increasingly recognized as fully complex languages equal to spoken ones. Animal communication research continues to reveal structured signaling systems involving context, intention, and innovation across birds, dolphins, primates, and even insects. Meanwhile, generative AI systems challenge assumptions about who or what can produce language.

Co-author Dr. Marcus Perlman from the University of Birmingham explains, “The last few decades have been an exciting time for linguistics, especially for those of us interested in the origins of human language. Language scientists today know about lots of stuff that was mostly obscure to scientists back then – for example, huge advances in our understanding of sign languages and now tactile signing systems, and recently, the advent of large language models like ChatGPT. It makes sense that linguistic theory would require a major update.”

The study also carries clear implications for society and education. In particular, it:

Questions traditional textbook accounts that reduce language to spoken words.
Recognizes sign languages and non-speech forms of communication as fully legitimate linguistic systems, supporting greater inclusion and equity.
Provides teachers and educators with an updated framework for discussing language evolution, communication, and cognition in the classroom.
“Language is not a static thing,” adds senior author Dr. Limor Raviv from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. “It’s a dynamic, embodied, and deeply social act, which is flexible in form, function, and evolution. When we accept that, we see not just what makes us human—but how we are in fact connected to the wider story of animal communication.”

About the study
The research draws together decades of work from linguistics, cognitive science, animal behavior, and neuroscience. It builds on prior analyses, including a 2022 study showing that Hockett’s design features continue to dominate introductory textbooks, even though growing empirical evidence suggests they no longer provide a complete account of language."
By Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsFebruary 26, 2026
https://scitechdaily.com/the-end-of-language-as-we-know-it-scientists-challenge-60-years-of-linguistic-research/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"Marshall University will present a discussion with Megan McDowell, “At the Limits of Language: Creativity in Translational Problems,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Drinko Library Atrium, which is located on the library’s third floor. It is free and open to all.
McDowell has translated works of many important Latin American writers working today, including Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enriquez, and Alejandro Zambra.

Her translations have won the National Book Award for Translated Literature, the English PEN award, the Premio Valle-Inclán, and two O. Henry Prizes, and have been nominated for the International Booker Prize (four times) and the Kirkus Prize. Her short story translations have been featured in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Granta, among others. In 2020 she won an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

She is from Richmond, Kentucky, and lives in Santiago, Chile.

“Megan is one of the most highly regarded translators of Latin American literature working today,” said Daniel O’Malley, associate professor of English and co-director of the Herd Humanities program. “She’s responsible for making so many acclaimed, innovative, exciting contemporary voices available in English. For me personally, seeing her name on a book works like an endorsement or a seal of approval — if Megan finds this writer compelling, then absolutely they are worth your time.

“It can feel daunting sometimes to navigate the world of literature beyond your own native language, so having Megan talk about that experience is sure to be insightful.”

All are welcome to her presentation, which is sponsored by Herd Humanities, The John Deaver Drinko Academy, Marshall Libraries, and The Honors College at Marshall University.

“For our students, this is a wonderful opportunity to hear from someone who is not only an internationally acclaimed translator but also a native of Appalachia,” O’Malley said. “She has the experience to help students — or anyone — see ways to build a life around their passions for language and literature.”"

https://www.marshall.edu/news/2026/02/marshall-to-host-literary-translator-megan-mcdowell/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie

"The planned transition to full Latvian-language education in all Latvian schools is being hindered by a shortage of suitably qualified specialist teachers, reports Latvian Radio.
Both the state and local governments have allocated additional funding for the transition to Latvian-only instruction, for example, for individual work with students whose Latvian needs to be improved. Data shows that schools have not been able to spend the allocated money because there is a lack of specialists to hire.

From the autumn of 2023, classes 1, 4, and 7 switched to teaching only in Latvian, which is the only official state language in Latvia. A year later, classes 2, 5, and 8 followed, and a year later, classes 3, 6, and 9 followed. Obviously, subjects such as modern languages can still be taught in the relevant languages, but in other subjects the switch to Latvian-only was a large undertaking for so-called 'minority' schools which previously taught core curriculum subjects in other languages – most commonly Russian.

Since the transition to a unified system began, the state has allocated an additional three to four million euros to schools every year. In the last school year, the state transferred more than 3.3 million euros to local governments so that they could pay teachers and support specialists additionally for their work in classes where students have different levels of knowledge of the state language. However, around a quarter of that amount – almost 800 thousand euros – remain unused.

Rolands Ozols, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science, said: "[Schools] were able to attract speech therapists, they were able to attract teaching assistants to work, they were able to attract and use funding for extended day groups. What we see in practice is that the percentage of funding attracted is on average between 60% and 70%. We have to take into account that there are very large vacancies for support staff even now."

Ozols admitted that the money is not being spent because there is a lack of suitable specialists.

School principals confirm Ozols' statement. Principal of Riga Secondary School No. 40, Jelena Vediščeva, said:

"In the first year, we only managed to spend 30% of it. It really was because the first year was the hardest to attract support staff. And this year, we have spent practically all of the allocated funding."

So this school has gradually managed to find the necessary specialists. However, the situation overall has not improved.

Nataļja Rogaļeva, principal of Riga Secondary School No. 34, said:

"There is money to pay them, but we don't see these people. These people are not there, there are no Latvian language teachers, and that is a bigger problem. Now, I think this is problem number one: human resources."

She pointed out that money alone cannot solve human resource problems in schools.

How to solve the staff shortage? Ozols replied that the problem is systemic, and competition in the labour market is to blame. Both he and Rogaļeva argue: the prestige of teachers must be raised, then there will no longer be such a shortage of educators.

Most schools have been able to pay for the work of teaching assistants, as this role is taken on by teachers who have part-time jobs or who have left a full-time teaching position. However, there is a particular shortage of speech therapists and special educators.

Olga Grigorjeva, a first-grade teacher at Riga's Daugavgrīva Primary School, believes that there should also be more teaching assistants, because it is difficult for one person to help two or three children with different problems at the same time.

Currently, there is one teaching assistant in Grigorjeva's class, but there should be at least two.

Riga City Council has allocated approximately four million euros from this year's budget to schools and pre-schools in the capital to support their transition to teaching only in Latvian. Anita Pēterkopa, Head of the Riga City Council's General Education Schools Department, spoke about the use and distribution of this funding:

"The funding, of course, was also distributed among educational institutions based on the number of students. So the formula was: the more children there are, the total number of children in the school, the more money. Then the school itself thought about what they could use this money for, but the use of this money was, of course, coordinated at the department level."

The Riga Municipality has also allocated funding to train new teaching assistants.

Latvian language courses are in demand among teachers
Another form of state and local government support for schools and teachers is a course in which teachers learn the methodology of working in Latvian in classrooms where children have different native languages. Many such courses have been organized by the Latvian Language Agency. Both the agency and the ministry indicate that thousands of teachers have attended the courses and they are still being held.

Last year alone, 2,506 school employees received certificates for completing various courses for work in a linguistically heterogeneous environment. Ērika Pičukāne of the Education Department of the Latvian Language Agency said that teachers are very interested in the courses. For example, as the role of teacher assistants is increasing, courses on cooperation between teachers and their assistants are expected soon. 57 interested parties applied for them in one day and registration is closed. It has become clear that more such courses will have to be held.

Agency representatives also regularly visit schools to provide consultations on problems specific to each educational institution and how to work with new teaching materials.

"A new book, for example, "First Step," which is intended for children who don't speak Latvian. There are still [those] in schools. Maybe they have extra lessons. [We tell teachers] how to work with this tool or how to use this teaching tool if [the teacher] has different children in the classroom," said Pičukāne.

Ozols provided an insight into some of the course content: "We have also had webinars for pre-school teachers, where specialists have explained how language acquisition occurs, what steps it takes, and what are the stages of difficulty that need to be overcome in language acquisition."

School director Rogaļeva commented on the courses: "It is quite a big ask for teachers to learn in various methodological courses how to teach in a linguistically heterogeneous environment. Of course, the only way to learn how to work better is to practice different methods, try something new, and constantly look for new approaches. However, in such a big, global change, we are still rather groping a little for how to act better."

Various teaching materials available for schools
The ministry and the Latvian Language Agency deny that there is a shortage of teaching materials for the transition to teaching in Latvian, though the institutions admit that teachers sometimes lack information about everything available.

Olga Grigorjeva, the teacher at Riga Daugavgrīva Primary School, said: "I think I would like printed support material specifically for children, because they perceive visually very well, and then there would be more that could be shown to children visually."

Pičukāne from the agency pointed out that former minority schools can also use teaching materials that are intended, for example, for re-emigrants [Latvians returning home after spending years abroad], because these children also need to improve their Latvian language skills.

At the request of teachers, dictionaries of terms in different subjects have been created, as well as teaching materials for teachers to improve their Latvian language.

Schools are also starting to implement the European Union-co-financed project "School in the Community", which also includes various activities that can be used to improve students' Latvian language skills. For example, there are almost nine million euros that can be used for both subject consultations and other types of consultative support. Almost 3.5 million euros are intended to promote reading literacy for students in grades one to three. The ministry has also concluded that students in grades seven to nine should be offered non-formal education in Latvian, especially in order to encourage them to speak Latvian outside of the school environment. Funding from this project is also provided for this.

However, it should be noted that the primary goal of this project is to provide support to children and young people at risk of social exclusion and early school leaving. Moreover, the funding mentioned is not for one year, but for several, as the project lasts until 2029.

Case study: Riga Secondary School No. 34
Riga Secondary School No. 34 shared data on how additional funding for the implementation of the "Unified School" from the Riga City Council is being spent.

A total of 85,000 euros have been allocated for the 2025/2026 academic year. It will be spent on:

reading lessons for students in grades 1 to 4 – 32 lessons per month in small groups so that children can read Latvian, understand the text and answer questions; 
increased funding for a speech therapist.
two five-day camps for elementary school students during the March break, where each day they will learn a specific topic in Latvian. A psychologist will also work at the camps to encourage speaking Latvian;
Future first-graders will have a three-week camp in August, where they will learn Latvian language concepts necessary for school. 30 children will participate in each camp;
individual consultations for students in grades 5 to 8 whose Latvian language level is very low;
developing methodological materials that can be used by all teachers working in a linguistically heterogeneous environment;
purchases of children's and teenage magazines in Latvian;
hiring four more teaching assistants.
In total, support will be provided to around 500 students. The school has more than 1,200 students in total."
Authors: Ilze Kuzmina (Latvijas Radio Ziņu dienesta korespondente)
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/education/27.02.2026-lack-of-suitable-specialists-hampers-transition-to-latvian-language-education.a636656/
#Metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus
#métaglossie