Metaglossia: The Translation World

Les enjeux de la traduction.Aujourd’hui, même la plus petite entreprise a besoin de communiquer avec des pays de langue et culture différentes. Ce type de communication est souvent délicat et risqué car de nombreux points peuvent être perdus lors d’une traduction en raison d’erreurs et d’interprétations différentes, alors même que tout a été correctement traduit.

Rendre accessible toute opportunité commerciale sur un marché étranger

Une mauvaise communication entraîne le plus souvent une perte de réputation, un risque juridique, un dommage industriel, une perte d’argent… Aussi une communication claire, précise et efficace – entre cultures, langues, métiers et secteurs d’activité – devient une priorité croissante. Les barrières linguistiques sont courantes lorsque les personnes qui interagissent ne connaissent pas bien la langue dans laquelle elles communiquent. Les agences de traduction professionnelles comme Alphatrad aident les entreprises à surmonter toute barrière linguistique.
Quand vous faites des affaires à l’international une traduction professionnelle vous évite tout malentendu et perte de temps dans le processus de négociation. Dans un monde de plus en plus connecté, la traduction rend plus accessibles les opportunités commerciales sur les marchés étrangers. Lorsque un collaborateur d’une filiale a du mal à comprendre la langue dans laquelle il effectue la plupart de ses tâches professionnelles, il peut ne pas comprendre les sujets à traiter, et rater le niveau d’urgence d’une tâche.
« Pour attirer des leads internationaux, traduire ses contenus dans la langue maternelle de son audience est incontournable. » Frédéric Ibanez, Président du groupe Optilingua International

Dans toute entreprise existe une demande croissante de traduction

Certes vous pouvez utiliser un traducteur électronique, il vous aidera pour les e-mails et la visite d’un site, mais il ne facilitera pas la communication en temps réel. Sa précision souvent douteuse se traduit souvent par la perte de significations de la langue d’origine. Au-delà du processus de conversion d’un texte d’une langue à une autre, il s’agit de respecter les codes du pays et de faire en sorte que rien ne se perde dans la traduction. Un professionnel de la traduction prend en compte tous les détails, contextes et subtilités d’une langue et évite toute erreur de précision.
D’une manière générale, en affaires tout document juridiquement contraignant exige la plus grande expertise dans sa traduction dans une autre langue, c’est le cas des contrats, des documents judiciaires, des transcriptions, des documents financiers… autant de sujets qui méritent l’intervention d’un grand professionnel.
Dans toute entreprise existe une demande croissante de traduction, qui s’explique par la mondialisation, l’augmentation de la demande de langues autres que l’anglais, et les nouvelles technologies. Les coûts de traduction sont de plus en plus maîtrisés grâce à l’intelligence artificielle (IA) sous forme de traduction automatique (MT).
Des plates-formes de traduction automatisée s’appuient sur des améliorations des algorithmes de traduction automatique neuronale (NMT) et l’accès à des données linguistiques. Mais ces prestataires ne répondent pas aux exigences de la création d’une interface utilisateur dans une nouvelle langue, la traduction d’un document fiscal ou la création d’un manuel d’utilisation pour un produit dans une nouvelle langue.

Attention, l’IA ne peut pas tout en traduction

Les machines ne tueront pas les services linguistiques pour des raisons évidentes. De plus en plus de langues et dialectes doivent être traités, des marchés verticaux plus spécialisés comme le droit, la santé ou l’environnement doivent être servis. Il y a un besoin croissant de types de documents plus spécialisés, comme ceux décrivant les décisions, les exigences et les systèmes.
La traduction des aspects fonctionnels d’un produit (par exemple les menus et la documentation) est une pratique spécialisée qui requiert une approche de traduction sophistiquée. Les entreprises ont à traduire des contenus dans des langues « de niche » pour conquérir des marchés de petite taille mais à croissance rapide.
Autant de défis techniques que les algorithmes d’IA ne peuvent satisfaire. La bonne traduction professionnelle vous met à l’abri de graves malentendus qui peuvent interférer avec le travail et affecter négativement les résultats.
Dans vos relations internationales, vous évitez ainsi toute lacune de communication, toute mauvaise interprétation qui entraînerait des implications stratégiques ou financières, voire à la fin d’une relation avec un client. Une traduction professionnelle fluidifie les relations de votre entreprise avec ses filiales, partenaires et fournisseurs. Vous pouvez plus facilement transférer des informations intra-organisationnelles aux diverses unités dispersées. Ainsi la traduction faite par des experts impacte directement la rentabilité de votre business.
Les enjeux de la traduction/Les enjeux de la traduction

"Travelling to the ends of the Earth is an extreme experience thanks to the environment… and the language. Bernadette Hince has crafted Cold Words: A Polar Dictionary to capture this unique vocabulary.

Cold Words took 35 years to write and defines about 3,000 words or phrases, many of them for the first time. The definitions are supported by 12,000 quotations taken from everything from explorers’ diaries to scientific papers to social media.

Lovers of the written word will enjoy skimming the pages, developing their polar vocabulary with new words, and reinforcing known words with curious examples.

The words themselves reflect the harsh, cold polar environment. In many instances they capture scientific phenomena, putting language to observations. There are about 300 words in the dictionary just for snow and ice.

Cold Words is currently only available for pre-order, with the dictionary due for release April 2025."

 

"The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 5th that it will translate and provide 235 types of document forms frequently used by foreigners into 10 languages.

The 10 languages are ◇English ◇Japanese ◇Chinese ◇Russian ◇Mongolian ◇Vietnamese ◇Uzbek ◇Tagalog (Philippines) ◇Thai ◇Khmer (Cambodia).

Until now, most domestic document forms have been provided only in Korean. Foreigners, who are not familiar with Korean, have had difficulties applying for civil services due to complex administrative terms. Representative forms that foreigners struggle to fill out include certificates of family relations, birth registration forms, and rental contract report forms for dwellings.

These translations will be distributed to local governments, central administrative agencies, public institutions, and multicultural centers that primarily handle foreign civil applications. However, the translations are for reference purposes for foreigners applying for civil services. When applying, they must fill out the existing forms in Korean...."

 

"...640 travaux ont été soumis pour la 5e édition du Prix du Président de la République. «Ce chiffre n’inclut pas ceux qui ne remplissaient pas les conditions stipulées par le règlement intérieur», note-t-il. Enfin de compte, 140 travaux répartis en 4 grandes catégories (131 travaux dans le domaine de la linguistique, 174 concernant le patrimoine immatériel, le reste sur la littérature et les œuvres traduites et les recherches technologiques) ont été retenus. Assad souligne que ces contributions couvrent toutes les variantes linguistiques présentes dans le cadre d’un prix, qui «se veut inclusif et rassembleur».
...
Les statistiques révèlent une domination de la littérature et de la traduction (48,6%), suivie du patrimoine immatériel (23%), de la linguistique (20,5%) et des recherches technologiques (8%). Assad insiste sur le fait que les membres du jury sont choisis pour leur compétence et leur impartialité pour garantir une évaluation juste et équitable des travaux. Parlant du prix, Assad a affirmé que «le premier lauréat recevra un montant de 1 million de dinars, et un total de 7 millions de dinars sera distribué entre les autres lauréats». «Ce prix est une démarche nationale structurée et ambitieuse pour promouvoir la langue, la culture et l’innovation en Algérie», assène-t-il.

Pour l’année 2025, le HCA prévoit plusieurs initiatives d’envergure. Parmi elles, Assad a cité l’organisation d’activités de portes ouvertes, en continuité avec le programme de 2024. «Entre janvier et le 21 février, le HCA s’engage à finaliser un travail de terrain de 3 ans qui a abouti à l’élaboration d’une carte linguistique exhaustive de l’Algérie», révèle-t-il. «La carte sera accompagnée d’un rapport détaillé sur la réalité linguistique en Algérie, sous forme de publication académique qui mettra en lumière la diversité linguistique du pays qui, outre les langue arabe et amazighe dans toutes leurs variantes, évoque des langues en usage mais menacées d’extinction», précise-t-il..."

https://www.horizons.dz/?p=213984

"...In our increasingly globalised and inclusive world, the importance of comprehending the diversity of sign language cannot be overstated. It is a vital component in fostering genuine cultural and linguistic inclusion. Despite the misconception that sign language is universal, the truth is that different regions and communities have developed unique signs and gestures. This understanding is not just about linguistic diversity; it is the key to fostering true inclusivity in the workplace. As spoken languages vary significantly from region to region, so do sign languages..."

https://www.peoplematters.in/article/diversity/the-nuances-of-sign-language-across-cultures-43864
#metaglossia_mundus

This study investigated how exposure to Caucasian and Chinese faces influences native Mandarin-Chinese speakers’ learning of emotional meanings for English L2 words. Participants were presented with English pseudowords repeatedly paired with either Caucasian faces or Chinese faces showing emotions of disgust, sadness, or neutrality as a control baseline. Participants’ learning was evaluated through both within-modality (i.e., testing participants with new sets of faces) and cross-modality (i.e., testing participants with sentences expressing the learned emotions) generalization tests. When matching newly learned L2 words with new faces, participants from both groups were more accurate under the neutral condition compared to sad condition. The advantage of neutrality extended to sentences as participants matched newly learned L2 words with neutral sentences more accurately than with both disgusting and sad ones. Differences between the two groups were also found in the cross-modality generalization test in which the Caucasian-face Group outperformed the Chinese-face Group in terms of accuracy in sad trials. However, the Chinese-face Group was more accurate in neutral trials in the same test. We thus conclude that faces of diverse socio-cultural identities exert different impacts on the emotional meaning learning for L2 words.

"...“This bill establishes an institutional framework for the systematic development of outstanding translation talent,” the ministry said.

Under the revised legislation, LTI Korea will be able to train 70 to 80 translators annually and grant master’s degrees. The initiative is expected to significantly expand the global reach of Korean literature.

“Translators have played a crucial role in bringing the beauty of Korean literature to global audiences, contributing to its growing international interest,” Culture Minister Yu In-chon said in a press statement. “With this legal amendment, we will cultivate highly skilled translators, promote Korean literature more extensively, and further enhance its global reputation.”

Since 2008, LTI Korea has operated a Translation Academy, training approximately 89 translators annually — a total of 1,514 professionals to date. However, the program’s non-degree status has posed challenges for graduates, including insecure visa statuses and limited professional opportunities, according to LTI Korea..."

https://m.koreaherald.com/article/10380787
#metaglossia_mundus

Background The modified Fresno test was developed to assess knowledge and skills related to evidence-based practice among physical therapists and students, however no Chinese version is available. Therefore, the aim of this study was to cross-culturally adapt the English version of the modified Fresno test into Chinese and to evaluate its validity and reliability. Methods This was a cross-sectional validation study. During Phase 1 cross-cultural adaptation, forward translation, synthesis, back-translation, expert review, and prefinal test were carried out. Content validity was analyzed. During Phase 2 validation, two groups representing different levels of evidence-based practice competence completed the tests twice, two weeks apart. Known-group validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability were analyzed. Results Phase 1: According to the expert review, the Chinese version of the modified Fresno test demonstrated good content validity (item-level content validity index = 0.93 to 1.0; scale-level content validity index = 0.99). Phase 2: The expert group scored (115.3 ± 36.2) significantly higher than the novice group did (79.7 ± 25.8) for the entire test (p = 0.01), suggesting good known-group validity. However, the superior performance of the expert group over the novice group was not consistently found across all the questions on the test. In addition, the internal consistency was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.96) and the test-retest reliability (ICC2,1 = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.81 to 0.94) was good to excellent. Conclusions The Chinese version of the modified Fresno test is a valid and reliable tool for objectively assessing evidence-based practice knowledge and skills in Chinese-speaking physical therapists and students.

"...A Reddit post has sparked widespread discussion online after it highlighted a message reportedly shared with students in English-medium schools. The post titled “Colonial slave mentality is crazy in English medium schools," focused on a forwarded message where common Indian food items were humorously translated into English, leading to awkward and amusing results.

Among the translations were samosa, referred to as "Rissole," gulab jamun as "Rose Water Berry," gol gappa as "Waterball," poha as "Beaten/Flattened Rice," and jalebi as "Funnel Cake."

The post has since ignited a conversation on social media, with many users reflecting on the impact of colonialism on language and practices in English-medium schools..."

https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/reddit-users-slam-indian-school-for-translating-food-names-to-english-colonial-slave-mentality-101735717697610.html
#metaglossia_mundus 🤷🏿

"...Dr KS Manilal, the eminent botanist who revived the 17th-century Latin botanical masterpiece Hortus Malabaricus by translating it into English and Malayalam, passed away on Wednesday morning at a private hospital in Thrissur. He was 86.

A former head of the Botany Department at the University of Calicut, Dr Manilal devoted nearly 35 years of his life to researching, translating, and annotating Hortus Malabaricus, originally compiled by Dutch Governor Hendrik Adrian van Rheede.

This 12-volume work, a comprehensive documentation of Kerala’s medicinal plants, had faded into obscurity until Dr Manilal’s pioneering efforts brought it back to prominence.

His English translation was published in 2003, followed by the Malayalam version in 2008, making this significant work accessible to researchers and the public alike.

Born in Paravur, Ernakulam district, to A Subrahmanian and KK Devaki, Dr. Manilal graduated from Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, and completed his PhD at Sagar University, Madhya Pradesh, in 1964.

Throughout his illustrious career, Dr Manilal authored over 200 research papers and discovered 19 new plant species..."

https://www.thestatesman.com/india/renowned-botanist-and-translator-of-hortus-malabaricus-dr-ks-manilal-passes-away-1503382002.html
#metaglossia_mundus

"...Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government has launched an initiative to translate the constitution into all 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule. The project, led by the National Translation Mission with support from the Ministry of Law and Justice's Official Languages Wing, is expected to be completed by March 2025.

Currently, the Indian Constitution is available in 18 languages. The addition of Maithili and Sanskrit in 2024 marked a significant step toward promoting linguistic inclusivity..."

https://menafn.com/1109046282/Indias-Constitution-To-Be-Translated-Into-All-22-Languages-By-March-2025
#metaglossia_mundus

"...A study reveals that not all sitting activities affect brain health equally. If your sitting time includes some social and mentally engaging activities then it can help boost cognitive function, than merely watching a movie or a show.

...

Activities like reading, listening to music, crafting, praying, or chatting with friends were found to boost memory and cognitive function. In contrast, passive activities such as watching television or prolonged video gaming were linked to poorer cognitive outcomes..."

"For this study, we cataloged vowels (a, i, o, etc.) found in pain, disgust, and joy interjections across more than 130 languages worldwide. We then compared them to the vowels used in non-linguistic vocalizations (screams, groans, etc.) to determine if interjections and vocalizations share common sounds.

Our findings reveal that pain interjections indeed resemble non-linguistic vocalizations. However, this observation does not clearly apply to expressions of disgust or joy.
What is an interjection?
An interjection is a word that can stand alone (like "ouch!" or "wow!"). Interjections do not combine grammatically with other words in a sentence.

Since linguists mainly focus on grammatical structures, they haven't traditionally paid much attention to interjections. As a result, some very basic questions about interjections remain unanswered—despite their frequent presence in spoken language and their fundamental role in communication.
Pain, disgust, and joy
The primary goal of our research was to determine if certain vowels are more commonly used in interjections depending on the emotion or effect they express.

If so, we also wanted to investigate whether these patterns could be linked to the acoustic properties of non-linguistic vocalizations like cries or groans.

To answer these questions, we collected interjections for pain, disgust, and joy from dictionaries of 131 languages across Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe, totaling more than 500 interjections...

To compare interjections to other words in these languages, we relied on databases containing word lists from our language sample. This enabled us to apply statistical tests to compare the vowel distribution in interjections versus other words.

These tests show that, on average, the pain interjections in our sample contain more "a" sounds and more vowel sequences like "ay" (as in "aïe") and "aou" (as in "ouch"). This observation holds true across all world regions for which we collected data.

It's important to note that this doesn't mean all pain interjections necessarily contain "a," "ay," or "aou." However, a randomly selected pain interjection is more likely to include one of these sounds compared to a disgust or joy interjection, or any random word.

Of the three types of emotional expression we examined, this property only applies to pain. The vowels in disgust and joy interjections are not distinct from the vowels in other words.

This shows that the vowels in pain interjections aren't randomly chosen—prompting the question: where do they come from?
Pain interjections resemble pain vocalizations
To explore this question, we analyzed the sounds people make when expressing pain, disgust, or joy.

We asked speakers of English, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, and Turkish to produce sounds for these emotional experiences without using conventional words. Then, we analyzed the vowels used in these vocalizations.

We found that the type of vowels used is specific to each emotion: more "a" for pain, more "neutral" vowels (like the first vowel in "petit") for disgust, and more "i" for joy.

In other words, interjections and non-linguistic vocalizations for pain both have more "a." However, disgust and joy interjections do not use the same vowels as their corresponding vocalizations.
What can we conclude?
Our study shows that the sounds of interjections, although conventional and specific to each language, are not entirely arbitrary. Pain interjections contain more "a," "ay," and "aou," and the "a" aligns with vowels found in non-linguistic vocalizations.

This suggests that pain interjections may partly derive from the (non-linguistic) sounds we produce when experiencing pain. In contrast, this does not seem to be the case for disgust or joy interjections.

These findings could shed light on broader questions about the origins of language and linguistic forms. Words are often seen as arbitrary combinations of sounds: for instance, the word “house” in English versus “casa” in Spanish is generally considered purely conventional. However, certain aspects of language may be less arbitrary than others.

Pain—a critical dimension of human experience—elicits strong physiological and emotional reactions, possibly to the point of influencing the shape of certain words used to express it.

Many questions remain unanswered. In this study, we focused on vowels. This raises the question: what about consonants (p, t, s, etc.)? And what about other emotions beyond pain, disgust, and joy?

Future research on these topics could help us evaluate the embodied nature of human language and better understand how language originally emerged."

 

By Maïa Ponsonnet (Researcher, Linguistics, The University of Western Australia), Christophe D. M. Coupé (Assistant Professor in Linguistics, University of Hong Kong), and Kasia Pisanski (Permanent Researcher, Dynamique Du Langage, Centre national de la recherche scientifique - CNRS)
..

https://www.techno-science.net/en/news/ouch-owie-ow-why-do-cries-of-pain-sound-similar-in-all-languages-N26264.html
#metaglossia_mundus

"...AI appears to be most helpful when it encourages us to think differently, rather than when we depend on it to think on our behalf."
Naila Huseynova

https://caliber.az/en/post/new-study-highlights-ai-s-role-in-stimulating-thoug

Proceeding from an article, Bloomberg unveils that AI is rapidly transforming various fields of science, and social scientists are using it in innovative way

Philip Akoda is one of the faces of digital language preservation in Africa. Through his startup, The African Languages Project (AFLANG), he has championed several projects aimed at preserving African languages and cultures, including a fast-growing Yoruba Dictionary app making waves in the digital space. A graduate of Business Management from the University of Derby, Philip is also a recognised figure when it comes to subjects such as African history and languages. His passion for–and work in promoting–African languages and cultures got him invited to speak at the UK House of Parliament during the Black History Month Celebrations.

In this interview with Olufemi Ajasa, this intriguing enigma shares his journey into African language preservation, the recent Yoruba Dictionary app developed by his startup and the importance of technology in preserving African languages and cultures.

 

Can you tell us about Mr Philip Akoda?

Thank you so much. It’s an honour to be here. My name is Philip Akoda, I’m the founder and CEO of The African Languages Project, also known as AFLANG (short for African Languages). The AFLANG Project is an EdTech startup which builds mobile apps aimed at preserving and promoting African languages and culture. We’ve been operating since 2017 and have built several mobile apps for languages such as Ndebele spoken in Zimbabwe, Fante in Ghana and Oromo in Ethiopia. We’ve also built mobile dictionary apps for languages such as Yoruba and Efik, both Nigerian languages. Outside my startup, I’m also a multipublished author and lexicographer.

 

What is a lexicographer?

A lexicographer is a person who writes or compiles dictionaries.

 

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How did you come to be a lexicographer? Is there special training for that?

 

 

Well, lexicographers can be trained or untrained. There are people in history who wrote dictionaries but did not have prior experience in lexicography. For me, my entry into lexicography began in 2021 when I chose to undertake the task of building the first Efik dictionary app, which is available on the Google Playstore and the App Store. The app took 1 year and 2 months to build, but the outcome was a mobile dictionary app with over 14,000 words. It had definitions, synonyms, antonyms, audio pronunciations, and much more. Then, while the app was still in development, I began writing my first Efik pocket dictionary which I published a few months after the app was released.

 

Why did you choose to embark on the Efik Dictionary app?

 

 

Being of Efik descent via my mother’s lineage, and also having grown up in Calabar, I was obsessed with preserving and promoting the language, so in 2017, I launched the first Efik language learning app on Google Play Store; this was a pioneering effort because no similar apps existed at the time. This milestone then deepened my curiosity about my Efik heritage, leading me to conduct extensive research on Efik history, language, and culture–even uncovering things that a lot of people don’t know about. In fact, it became such that people would consult with me, instead of elders, to learn more about topics in these areas. The knowledge I gained inspired me to write several Wikipedia articles on several aspects of Efik culture and then to co-author my first Efik history book, Groundwork of Eniong Abatim History (1670–2020). I co-authored the book alongside my mother, Prof Winifred Eyoanwan Akoda (née Adam); her mother–that’s my grandmother–was of the Eniong Abatim community and before we embarked on the research and authorship of the book, there was no such work done to preserve her people’s history. Before this historical work, I authored Learn Efik 1–2, an animated language learning book series now widely used in schools across Calabar in Cross River State and housed in prestigious libraries worldwide, including the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford and the Harvard University Library.

 

Can you tell us more about the Yoruba dictionary app, what it is all about and what inspired its creation?

 

The Yoruba Dictionary app was a project I initiated through my AFLANG startup. Interestingly, I found out that my mother, who is an Efik princess, also has Yoruba roots through her paternal grandmother, who was a descendant of Afro-brazilian returnees. So that then got me obsessed with tracing that part of her lineage and exploring the Yoruba language and history. Interestingly, from this, I found out that my last name is actually a Yoruba name; I say interesting because I’m paternally from Benin City, Edo. And apparently, the name has several interpretations in Yoruba, depending on the Yoruba community. Akoda means creator; it is also an orisha. It can also mean Ancestor, which I sometimes find ironic since most people would say the work of a dictionary is an ancestor’s job… Anyway, so this time, working with a much larger team, we managed to build the most comprehensive mobile dictionary app in Africa. Actually, it is even more comprehensive than the Efik dictionary app; it contains over 22,000 words. Then in addition to definitions, audio pronunciations by indigenous speakers, synonyms, antonyms, and phonemic transcriptions, it also has hypernyms, hyponyms, keywords, and dialectal variations for 12 different yoruba dialects including Owo, Egba, Olukunmi, Awori, and so on. I think something that also sets the app apart, besides their novelty, is our inclusion of diacritics… that’s accent marks. I was insistent on this inclusion from the start because otherwise, we’re not being authentic to the language.

 

What unique features does the app offer to users learning or researching the Yoruba language?

 

 

When I describe the app to people, I think the very first thing that shocks them is that we actually took the time to go to the studio and record audio pronunciations by two Yoruba linguists, not just lazily using Google translate or some AI-generation tool; so that is the first unique feature I’ll mention–we also did this for the Efik dictionary app using two indigenous speakers. Also, even though our Yoruba linguists made sure to enunciate slowly, we still added a feature to slow down the audio so that no matter what, you can really hear all the syllables as they should be pronounced. Then besides the uniqueness of the dictionary’s content–which I explained before, there is a word of the day feature where users get notified of a new word every day. This is usually a really fascinating word that users are most likely unfamiliar with. There is also a badges’ rewards system to award users with Yoruba titles for performing certain actions on the app. There is an automated recommended words feature to suggest 5 new yoruba words from our database that users can learn about. It’s also sort of fun because there’s a Regenerate button below your recommendations so every time you tap it, you’ll receive a different set of words to explore. There are also other interesting features: favourites and downloads for storing your favourite words and downloading their audios to listen offline. And knowing people’s internet connectivity issues, we also provide offline mode so you can use the app freely, without internet.

 

Related News

 

Nigerian researcher promotes Yoruba language through research, teaching, community engagement

 

I'll risk my life to see Nigerian language come true - NICO CEO

 

Dafinone calls for Urhobo language preservation, urges parents to act

 

How does the app address the challenges of preserving and promoting indigenous languages like Yoruba?

 

 

I often tell people that dictionary apps are lifelong companions. Also, the difference between a print hardcopy dictionary or a PDF dictionary versus a dictionary app is that data in the dictionary app can be updated at any time. In fact, we’ve managed to build a whole content management system such that we can update or correct the dictionary’s content immediately and you’ll see it reflected on the app. Now, at present, there are over 57 million Yoruba speakers globally. Yoruba films are also on the rise, but from what I’ve seen, one constraint faced by modern-day Yoruba speakers is the ability to read or write Yoruba with ease. A lot of people I meet can speak Yoruba but cannot write or read Yoruba. So this app also solves the problem of reading and writing since, again going back to the accent marks I mentioned before, you can find words correctly spelt using the Yoruba orthography. And again, the app has audio pronunciations too by real indigenous speakers so that helps users to not just read a word, but know how it is pronounced.

 

Could you tell us about the team behind the app and their respective contributions?

 

 

There were several people on this project, including academics and techies. EdTech, the industry I work in, is a combination of Educational and Technology, so we needed the best minds in both the educational and technological fields. For the educational sector, we worked with various academics in UNILAG, UNILORIN and UI. Many of their names are on the About section of the app. For the technical aspect of the app, my co-founder, Mary-Brenda Akoda led the technical team. Mary-Brenda also happens to be my sister. She is a postgraduate AI researcher at Imperial College London. She is also a Software Engineer with experience at Microsoft and a Google DeepMind Scholar. She was responsible for the UI/UX design and full-stack development of the Yoruba Dictionary app. She was actually the one who introduced the novel features to the app like the badges and the automated recommended words feature. My mother, Prof. Winifred Akoda was also responsible for liaising with academics in universities along the South West to gather data for the dialects and also supervise the data collection process. She’s actually a professor of history and field research and has been doing that for over 30 years, so that was really an asset to our work.

 

What is it like working with your family?

 

 

I love my family. I feel fortunate to have a mother and sister with a strong educational and technical background.

 

How has the reception been since the app launched?

 

 

It has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, in just two weeks of marketing the app, we had over 12,000 downloads and not just from Nigeria; we got from Cuba as well. And we now have a 4.8 rating on Google Playstore and a 5 out of 5 rating on the App store. We kept getting very positive feedback and excitement from people on social media too; I think people also weren’t expecting such a fun and animated UI/UX design for a dictionary app so that surprised them and got them engaged. We also try to get suggestions from people too so that we make sure we keep improving our users’ experience.

 

Are there plans to expand the app’s functionality or include additional languages?

 

 

We originally intended on adding games to the app, but it was a lot of features to handle all at once. We will still add them in a few months. We’re also working on our next language project, a Hausa Dictionary app.

 

How about the Igbo language?

 

 

We intend to go into that later. Igbo is a bit tricky since we need to take a more dialectical approach for Igbo. Unlike Yoruba, Igbo people lean more towards their dialects. There is the standard Igbo but it is impractical since it is usually relegated to written literature and the educational sector. So for example, if we had two Ekiti people in the room, they are more likely to speak standard Yoruba unless they discover that they are from Ekiti. The case is different with Igbo. Designing the Igbo dictionary app will mean taking into consideration the various Igbo dialects. If users want to search for Mmiri in Igbo, other options will also have to reflect like Mmili and Mmini. Basically, lexicography is a complicated art that requires a lot of critical thinking.

 

What is your educational background, and how has it shaped your career in lexicography?

 

 

I undertook my secondary education in Calabar but also schooled at the Lagos City Computer College, Ikeja for two years. I then attended the University of Essex but then 2016’s recession affected many Nigerian international students, so I couldn’t continue there. But I later graduated from the University of Derby. It was actually while at Essex that I ventured into language preservation. I released my first language learning app–that was the Efik one–while I was a student at the university. Because of the app, I was invited to speak at the Black History Month celebration in the UK House of Parliament… But I cannot say my educational background played a role in my journey into lexicography. These things just happen. Life will take you on a path you will never expect. I thought I would graduate with a computer engineering degree but rather ended up finding my passion for language preservation, establishing AFLANG, and then graduating with a first class honours degree in Business Management from the University of Derby.

 

Apart from the Yoruba Dictionary app, what other notable projects have you worked on?

 

 

I’ve authored an Efik pocket dictionary called A 21st Century Efik Pocket Dictionary, which stands as one of my proudest accomplishments. The work actually represents a fresh approach to Efik lexicography. Unlike the Yoruba language, where tonal marks are applied to vowels, the Efik people prefer not to apply markings when writing letters and other documents. Because of this approach, I devised an innovative method to present Efik words in a manner that resonates with both native speakers and linguists.

 

Can you share any challenges or breakthroughs in your career as a lexicographer?

 

 

I would say that one of my biggest breakthroughs as a lexicographer is introducing the conversation of synonymy, hyponymy, hypernymy, and antonymy–topics that are not given so much limelight in the study of African Languages and Linguistics.

 

Are there any upcoming publications we should look forward to?

 

 

At present, I have 3 more publications I’m working on. One of them is focused on the Yoruba language and will greatly help Yoruba speakers across the world.

 

Are you a Yoruba speaker?

 

 

Interestingly, I am not but I’ve had to work really hard to understand the language. For the current book I’ve been working on, I used over 50books as sources including 16 Yoruba dictionaries and submitted it to 3 academics across the southwest to review and proofread.

 

In your opinion, what role does technology play in language preservation?

 

 

Technology is instrumental to the preservation of our languages. Any language that does not align with technology is greatly at risk, because oral tradition and print books can only go so far.

 

What advice would you give to young scholars or linguists looking to pursue a career in lexicography?

Be patient, be consistent, be curious and be ready to always come out of your comfort zone. To venture into lexicography, you need to be daring. You’re likely to face opposition from more experienced lexicographers, but be open to learning from them and also be courageous enough to find your own path.

 

Outside of lexicography, what are your interests or hobbies?

 

 

I enjoy writing Wikipedia articles. I’ve written a number of them on different aspects of Efik culture and on different personalities as well, both historical and living. I also enjoy swimming and travelling.

 

What can individuals, organizations, and governments do to support efforts like yours?

 

 

Individuals, organizations, and governments play pivotal roles in supporting efforts to preserve and promote indigenous languages. We are actively seeking funding, including donations and grants from both individuals and organizations, to grow and expand, and so that more people get to know about our apps and benefit from them. We are also open to contracting and/or consulting for both local and international organizations that want to increase their language preservation efforts for African languages or to make them digitally available; we already have a highly specialised team of African linguists, lexicographers, and academics, so such collaborations would certainly be within our comfort zone and done in the correct orthography of the language. We are also open to working with governments as well to institutionalise our efforts. The government can implement policies that make indigenous language education mandatory and they can allocate resources for linguistic research and development.

 

How can people get involved with AFLANG or contribute to the growth of the Yoruba Dictionary app?

 

 

Readers and users can get involved by downloading and engaging with our apps, and if they like it, please leave a rating and review so that more people get to find it and learn something new. We also have a Give Feedback option on the app; users should please use it to give us feedback or they can also reach out to us via admin@theaflangproject.org. It helps us understand what works well and what can be improved. Readers can also recommend the Yoruba Dictionary app to friends, family, and colleagues who are interested in learning Yoruba or in preserving indigenous languages. Also, if you have expertise in Yoruba language, culture, or linguistics, you can collaborate with us by contributing new words, phrases, or contextual examples to enrich the dictionary’s content. And of course, as mentioned before, we’re actively seeking funding so that would be another way to get involved, so that we can grow the app, add more features, and expand to many more languages; we hope to develop comprehensive dictionary apps for 10 African languages within the next 5 years. So your involvement, no matter how small, helps us build a stronger foundation for preserving African languages and promoting their global appreciation.

 

 

A lecturer at the University of Lagos, Olunifesi Suraj, has advised African countries to look inward in seeking solutions to the challenges confronting the continent.

This was as Suraj said the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and the Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue University Network would help to address the challenges.

He stated this at the online inauguration of the African Chapter of the UNESCO MILID Universities Network.

Suraj noted that the African chapter of the UNESCO University Network would help to harness all the African developmental initiatives by localising the global solutions, using the media and information literacy strategy.

In his concept note titled ‘Africa We Want,’ the don noted that it was high time Africa took her destiny into her own hands.

He said, “It has become imperative that the African Chapter of the UNESCO MILID UNITWIN University Network be inaugurated to harness all the media and information literacy initiatives within the continent to help address the challenges peculiar to African development.

“The need to address regional and continental challenges while also collaborating with global partners to address common challenges justifies the establishment of the African chapter of the UNESCO MILID UNITWIN University Network as presently being conceived.”

Translanguaging across science and engineering education research

"...For the purposes of this Special Issue, we broadly define translanguaging as the deployment of a bi/multilingual speaker's full semiotic repertoire—which includes multimodal, multisensory, and multilingual elements—without regard for the socially and politically constructed boundaries of named languages, registers, and/or modalities. From this perspective, translanguaging asks researchers and educators to develop expansive perspectives on how minoritized individuals use language, for instance, to make meaning, interact socially, and achieve goals with others. It also asks us to move away from the idea that a bilingual/bidialectal person is made up of two monolinguals wrapped into one (García, 2011; García & Li, 2014). Instead, people have one complex semiotic system (i.e., their idiolect) that comprises multilingual, multimodal, and multisensory dimensions from which they draw upon and use different resources to communicate based on the context they are in (Li, 2018; Otheguy et al., 2015) and their audience (Bell, 2002). Moreover, a translanguaging perspective is inherently political as it questions and pushes back upon socially recognized categories, such as named languages or varieties of those that are privileged, which are intrinsically connected to power structures (e.g., Farsi, Spanish, English, high German), as more legitimate than others. Our conceptualization of translanguaging is not what some call “code-switching” because we, like García and Li (2014), reject the premise that there are codes to switch between. Instead, such moments are evidence of individuals fluidly laminating linguistic resources associated with different named languages to accomplish a specific goal (Suárez, 2020). In the context of science and engineering education, translanguaging can help us extend research and pedagogy that considers and values the heterogeneous nature of how learners share their ideas and engage with each other's thinking (e.g., Rosebery et al., 2010; Warren et al., 2020). Specifically, it offers a theoretical construct and an analytical tool to better study and explain how language-minoritized learners engage in meaning-making and/or design, interact with others, and problem-solve..."

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tea.22010?af=R

 

"The Race to Translate Animal Sounds Into Human Language
With big cash prizes at stake—and AI supercharging research—interspecies translation is closer than ever. But what, if anything, would animals want to tell us?..."

https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-translation-animal-sounds-human-language/

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27 2024 | 10:00

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Ljubljana, 27 December - Slovenian proverbs and sayings may be considered outdated, ancient even, for some, but language remains as alive as ever and new ones are created all the time. Indeed, a linguist who edits the Slovenian Dictionary of Proverbs and Related Paremiological Terms added 120 new headwords to the dictionary this year alone, some from unlikely sources.

 

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Matej Meterc, a researcher at the Fran Ramovš Institute for the Slovenian Language at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, has edited the dictionary since 2020. The latest update contains 637 units.

Old favourites such as the Slovenian equivalents for "where there is smoke, there is fire" and "there is no such thing as a stupid question" rub shoulders with "A si ti tudi noter padel," which comes from a 1948 Slovenian film and later became the title of a popular TV variety show, and the "lačen si ful drugačen," the Slovenian rendition of the Snickers ad slogan "You're not you when you're hungry".

Some old sayings get a new lease on life. "Počasi se daleč pride," broadly the equivalent of slow and steady wins the race, has gotten an ironic twist with the addition of "hitro pa še dlje," which implies that slow and steady is all fine and dandy, but fast is better.

Every era creates new proverbs

Meterc told the STA there is a stereotypical feeling among the people that proverbs are disappearing and only older generations know them. This is far from the truth.

"We tend to perceive the oldest, most traditional expressions connected to nature, agriculture and such as the most characteristic proverbs. Some proverbs indeed become so obsolete we stop using them, but we have to realise that younger generations create new ones that reflect modern experiences and influences," he says.

Such modern sayings often come from literary works, films, songs and even commercials, such as the famous Snickers bar ad. "The saying has become popular and took on a wider meaning. Even though it was created in a marketing context, it has all the characteristics we attribute to proverbs - a sensible message expressing how someone acts differently when they are hungry, and a distinct form."

Another, less recent addition to the dictionary is "od višine se zvrti," the title of a 1987 song by Martin Krpan which resurged in popularity when rock band Siddharta did a cover in 2000.

Old proverbs as expressions of life as it used to be

Older proverbs that are rarely used or have died out merit research as well, according to Meterc, because they provide insight into how people used to live. Winter proverbs in particular are interesting in that they reflect people's attitudes to a season that used to be strongly associated with survival.

"Zima bo barala, kaj smo poleti delali" (winter will tell what we did in summer) is no longer in use, but it is testimony to how storing produce in winter used to be much more important than it is now.

In general, winter proverbs used to be much more popular. However, anti-proverbs are now appearing, such as for example the nonsensical "if there's snow on St Sylvester's, New Year's is not far away," and its negative equivalent "if there's no snow on St Sylvester's, New Year's is not far away."

Adding proverbs to the dictionary is not a simple job, it is based on in-depth research. Meterc analyses language corpora and conducts surveys among speakers of Slovenian.

For him, the dictionary is more than a linguistic project, it reflects the wealth of Slovenian culture, history and modernity. It is a treasure trove suitable for exploration and practical use.

BY DAILY SABAH WITH DHA DEC 27, 2024 11:50 AM
"Türkiye's Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) announced that it will develop a sign language dictionary for people with hearing impairments in Burundi, an East African country, to help them receive education and integrate into social life. The project aims to improve access to information and enhance educational opportunities for people with disabilities in the region...

"We have started working on the sign language dictionary," said Faruk Erkılıç, the IHH coordinator for eastern and southern Africa. He emphasized that since 2017, the IHH has been carrying out various humanitarian aid projects, especially education for people with hearing impairments in the capital Bujumbura.

He added: "Since our establishment, the IHH has been striving to bring hope to people in oppressed regions. We not only work in humanitarian aid but also focus on social life in the regions we operate. At the request of the hearing-impaired people in Burundi, we started working on a sign language dictionary in Bujumbura."

Erkılıç further noted that after learning that many essential religious terms were missing in Burundian sign language, the committee began working on a dictionary with 850 words. He stated that after the completion of the project, the dictionary will be useful not only in Burundi but also for hearing-impaired people and educators in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and this initiative will set an example for other African countries.

Başkonak, who is coordinating the dictionary project, said that 14 years ago in Türkiye, they had worked on a similar project, creating the Turkish Sign Language Religious Terms Dictionary.

"We faced the same challenges in Africa. After completing our preparations, we went to Burundi and continued our work. We decided to create a dictionary with 850 words. Additionally, we are providing education on how to read the Quran in sign language at the Ikra Education Center. Currently, we continue our work remotely, with our committee meeting twice a week to create the corresponding signs for the terms," he said.

Başkonak further highlighted the importance of the project, stating: "In a country facing economic difficulties, it is invaluable that the IHH is undertaking such a project in special education for hearing-impaired people. Some might ask, 'Is there no universal language in the world for such projects?' There are some attempts, but they are not widespread. Moreover, there is no universal religious unity in terms of language, as concepts in Christianity, Judaism and Islam cannot be used interchangeably. Therefore, each culture and religion must have its own set of terminology."

https://www.dailysabah.com/turkiye/turkiyes-ihh-launches-project-to-support-deaf-in-burundi-with-signs/news

 

"The winners offer a window into the spirit of the times.

Ever since the American Dialect Society selected a Word of the Year at its conference in 1990, over half a dozen English dictionaries have anointed an annual word or phrase that’s meant to encapsulate the zeitgeist of the prior year.

 

In 2003, the publisher of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary began bestowing a crown. On Dec. 9, 2024, it selected “polarization” as its word of the year, which joins a list of 2024 winners from other dictionaries that includes “brat,” “manifest,” “demure,” “brain rot” and “enshittification.”

 

The terms that are honored are selected in a variety of ways. For example, this year the editors of the Oxford dictionaries allowed the public to cast votes for their favorite from a short list of candidates. Brain rot emerged victorious.

 

Other publishers rely on the acumen of their editors, augmented by measures of popularity such as the number of online searches for a particular term.

 

 

 

Given the steep decline in the sale of printed reference works, these yearly announcements raise the visibility of the publisher’s wares. But their choices also offer a window into the spirit of the times.

 

As a cognitive scientist who studies language and communication, I saw, in this year’s batch of winners, the myriad ways digital life is influencing English language and culture.

 

Hits and misses

 

This isn’t the only year in which nearly all the winners fell under a single thematic umbrella. In 2020, epidemic-related terminology – Covid, lockdown, pandemic and quarantine – surged to the fore.

 

Usually, however, there’s more of a mix, with some selections more prescient and useful than others. In 2005, for example, the New Oxford American Dictionary chose “podcast” – right before the programming format exploded in popularity.

 

More commonly, the celebrated neologisms don’t age well.

 

In 2008, the New Oxford American Dictionary selected hypermiling, or driving to maximize fuel efficiency. Permacrisis – an ongoing emergency – got the nod from the Collins Dictionary editors in 2022.

 

Neither term gets much use in 2024.

 

Manifesting brain rot

 

I can already anticipate one of this year’s selections – “brat” – falling by the wayside.

 

Just before the 2024 U.S. election, Collins Dictionary chose brat as its word of the year. The publisher defined it as “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.”

 

Not coincidentally, it was also the name of a chart-topping album released by Charli XCX in June 2024. In late July, the singer tweeted, “kamala IS brat,” signaling her support for the Democratic presidential candidate.

 

Of course, with Harris’ loss, brat has lost some of its luster.

 

Other 2024 words of the year also have social media to thank for their popularity.

 

In late November, Cambridge Dictionary settled on manifest as its word of the year, defining it as “to use methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want.”

 

The term took off when singer Dua Lipa used it in an interview. But she seems to have picked up on the concept from self-help communities on TikTok.

 

Another word that clearly benefited from social media was “demure,” chosen in late November by Dictionary.com. Although the word dates to the 15th century, it went viral in a TikTok video posted by Jools Lebron in early August. In it, she described appropriate workplace behavior as “very demure, very mindful.”

 

The Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English settled on “enshittification” as its word in early December. Coined by Canadian-British writer Cory Doctorow in 2022, it refers to the gradual decline in functionality or usability of a specific platform or service — something that Google, TikTok, X and dating app users can attest to.

 

The Oxford dictionary pick for 2024 — “brain rot” — encapsulates the mind-numbing effects of excessive social media use.

 

The dictionary maker defined its word of the year as a “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”

 

Brain rot, however, isn’t a new concept. In the concluding section of “Walden,” Henry David Thoreau complained that “brain rot” prevailed “widely and fatally.”

 

With a plethora of platforms engineered to capture and hold your attention, it’s easy to get sucked into hours of screen time. kentoh/iStock via Getty Images

Digital knives out

 

Merriam-Webster landed on “polarization” for its Word of the Year. The dictionary maker defined the term as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes.”

 

In the U.S., political polarization has a number of causes, ranging from gerrymandering to in-group biases.

 

But social media undoubtedly plays a big role. A 2021 review by the Brookings Institution pointed to “the relationship between tech platforms and the kind of extreme polarization that can lead to the erosion of democratic values and partisan violence.” And journalist Max Fisher has reported on the ways in which the algorithms deployed by these social media platforms “steer users toward outrage” – an observation that experimental studies of the phenomenon have supported.

 

Despite the polarization of political and social life, the dictionaries, at the very least, have arrived at a consensus: The tech giants are shaping our lives and our language, for better or for worse."

Reading books in translation can be a tricky venture. Does the work reflect the author’s original vision or the perspective of the translator? What’s a reader to do? Well, there’s a new book out that explores the delicate nuance of translation. WSHU’s Book critic Joan Baum has this review.

 

"Searls... specializes in translating prose and poetry from German, Norwegian, French, and Dutch, as well as being interested in Asian, African, and Native American languages and dialects...
He acknowledges his own shortcomings at times and has no hesitation in writing to authors for advice. He particularly dislikes the word “faithful” used by translators who think they’ve nailed it. No one nails it, he argues: times move with political, cultural, and therefore semantic change, reading standards shift.

The Philosophy of Translation is heady reading, but in introductory remarks, Searls notes that he’s structured the book in two parts: philosophical theories and comparative examples of word choice, phrasing, sound, force, word order, and movement. He invites readers to jump to these practical sections first if they want. Translation, he says, is reading a text – understanding an author, his times, his milieu, not copying word for word. Tone is significant. If an author say is being sarcastic in German, having a character say “good morning” though it’s really afternoon, go for that phrasing that admits the sarcasm, the original author’s intention.

When Searls takes on the central question of how much a translation should convey a sense of the foreign language or whether it should be “domesticated” in the translation, he does so with reason, seeing both sides, though he, himself, leans a bit to foreignness. In fact, he points out, English-speaking readers are bilingual because our own vocabulary has both Latinate and Anglo-Saxon roots.

Though Searls explores the relationships between “source texts” and their “target audience,” he bridles at such terms and feels they lead to the fallacy that somewhere there is one “faithful” rendition. There are no right or wrong translations, he says, but there are those that are better or worse than others. He shows why and even admits that some translations make him “angry” –those that distort a forceful original style with “miserable, impenetrable prose” – as has been the case with Freud over the years by translators trying to make him sound scientific, or the critic Walter Benjamin, whose elegance and energy have been flattened into wordiness and academic jargon. The many examples here are telling. Searls wonders if such translators just didn’t care, an indictment he extends, not just to them but, to their editors, publishers, and reviewers.

A good translation, he asserts, is “faithful to the author’s way of seeing the world not to literal verbal accuracy.” It expresses the “bond between language and community, and so the use of language is always a social and political act.” Searls is speaking to us, American readers, at a time our nation is changing demographically and linguistically. His book may be challenging, but it is timely and important."
by Joan Baum

https://www.wshu.org/podcast/baum-on-books/2024-12-26/book-review-the-philosophy-of-translation

"...Savez-vous d’où vient l’«œ» comme dans le mot «vœu» ?
Par Aliénor Vinçotte
Publié le 27 décembre à 07h00
...Croyez-le ou non, mais écrire «coeur» à la place de «cœur» est une faute d’orthographe. On peut regretter l’absence des caractères «œ» ou «æ» de nos claviers d’ordinateur où ils auraient toute leur place. Vous remarquerez, en revanche, que lorsque vous écrivez un message sur votre téléphone portable, les correcteurs automatiques respectent immédiatement l’orthographe du mot avec le «oe» collé. Faites le test...

D’où vient le «œ» ?
Remontons le temps jusqu’à l’époque où le latin régnait en maître. La langue de Cicéron disposait de 5 diphtongues, c’est-à-dire une voyelle longue qui change de timbre au cours de son émission. Parmi elles «AI» devenue «AE» et qu’on note aujourd’hui «æ» et «OI» qui a évolué comme «AI» et se note désormais «œ». On pouvait retrouver cette dernière diphtongue dans le mot latin «foedus», écrit de manière séparé et qu’on prononce «é». Mais dès le IIe siècle, cette diphtongue latine «oe» s’est «monophtonguée» en /e/, comme l’attestent des mots comme «économie», «fétide» ou «peine» qui viennent du latin «œconomia», «fœtidus» et «pœna» (qu’on prononçait alors «pway-na»)...

Pourquoi l’orthographe de certains mots a-t-elle changé ?
Qu’en est-il des mots comme «œuf» qui vient du latin «ovum», «bœuf» de «bos», «chœur» de «chorus», «nœud» de «nodus», «œil» d’«oculaire», «sœur» de «soror» et «vœu» de «votum» ? Nul n’aurait imaginé qu’un jour ces mots contiendraient un jour une ligature. On les retrouve en effet écrits autrefois sous la forme de «euf», «beuf», «neud», «seur» et «veu». Qu’est-ce qui explique ce changement dans leur orthographe ? On apprend, grâce à Féraud, dans son Dictionnaire critique de la langue française (1787-1788) que «l’o ne se prononce pas : il n’est mis là que pour l’étymologie». Autrement dit, on a ajouté l’«o» pour refléter l’origine latine du mot ! Il est à noter que la graphie «oeil» existait déjà, mais les voyelles n’étaient que juxtaposées.

Il faut dire qu’à la fin du XVIe siècle, à une époque où on prône le retour au latin, les grammairiens ont voulu faire un peu de zèle en créant une orthographe «étymologisante» pour mieux retracer l’origine des mots. Pour l’anecdote, des linguistes avaient proposé que l’on écrive «édème», et non «œdème» pour que la prononciation et l’orthographe concordent. Une proposition qui n’a visiblement pas été suivie d’effets. Mais, bien sûr, cette remarque ne vaut bien sûr pas pour les mots issus de mots latins qui commençaient par un o-, comme dans « œuf » (ovum), « œil » (oculus), ou « œuvre » (opus). Cela a l’air simple comme ça mais il faut avouer que parfois l’orthographe française est un vrai sac de nœuds."

https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/actu-des-mots/savez-vous-d-ou-vient-l-oe-comme-dans-le-mot-voeu-20241227

New Illinois law requires interpreters at state agency administrative hearings
by: Danny Connolly

Posted: Dec 23, 2024 / 11:19 AM CST

Updated: Dec 23, 2024 / 11:19 AM CST

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — People needing English language interpreters will now be required to get help at Illinois agency hearings, thanks to a new law.

An initiative spearheaded by State Senator Karina Villa to secure competent and accurate language assistance during state agency administrative hearings was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker Friday.

The law requires state agencies to provide interpreters for self-represented and low-income individuals with limited English proficiency during all stages of a substantive administrative hearing.

 

New Illinois laws going into effect Jan. 1, 2025

“State administrative hearings are utilized by everyone – from parking tickets to regulation disputes,” said State Senator Karina Villa (D-West Chicago). “This law ensures that everyone can access the resources our state government offers without facing a language barrier.”

Substantive administrative hearings determine a ruling under the authority of state agencies, which can be very consequential. Villa said it’s important for individuals who need language assistance to be properly informed and understand the government procedures they are undergoing.

“Language access in government procedures is necessary to ensure our communities benefit equitably from state services,” said Villa. “Thousands of people across Illinois prefer to communicate in a language other than English. This will help these individuals receive critical support and information.”

 

The full language of the law can be found on the Illinois General Assembly’s website. It goes into effect July 1, 2025.