Metaglossia: The Translation World

QUESTION: Does language really shape the way we think? (An age-old concern... in such disciplines as language, culture, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, translation and intercultural communication, just to name those that readily come to mind)

MY ANSWER (in the simplest terms): Yes and No.

Yes. To the extent that we limit ourselves to the readily available conventional concepts or resources of the language. Indeed, mutual understanding is generally more effective when users of a language in situations of interpersonal or intercultural communication (including translation, of course) do get a maximum of these conventional concepts and resources right... Any slight shift from such conventional concepts and resources needs to be tactful, fully justifiable, and acceptable from the perspective of the target users and language-culture community.

No. If we do not view the readily available concepts of each language-culture as the only valuable and valid ones; which (i) would definitely be most limiting and (ii) would end up stifling innovation, creativity, and mutual enrichment when the need arises. One's thought and thought process are definitely not doomed by the language-culture one belongs to. It's ultimately a matter of/for (cultural) education; one that needs to be taken very seriously, in tune with the homo sapiens civilisation whereby fast mobility across communities has long been the norm.

A language-culture does not in any way "enslave the thoughts and thought processes" of its users. Rather, people belonging to a precise group would, as a matter of necessity, create and sustain their own language-culture system, with relevant rules and conventions that become binding to the community of users. Therefore, respecting those rules is generally a matter of necessity too (to ease mutual understanding), a matter of interest and loyalty. However, the same people would regularly cause their language-culture to change (though often very discreetly) and adapt, whenever they encounter novel situations and requirements. So much so, that each language-culture community member would equally have to be ready and prepared to reshape their mindset and think outside the box as required under the relevant circumstances. 

Translation and intercultural communication experts know precisely how this feels and works as they move forth and back from one language-culture to another, especially in identifiable instances of the process when creative rather than mnemonic thinking becomes imperative. 

https://www.scoop.it/topic/translation-world?q=Language%2C+Culture+and+thought 

#metaglossia

#ITD2021

#UnitedInTranslation

The Award is established in honour of the late Professor Martha Cheung (1953-2013), formerly Chair Professor of Translation at Hong Kong Baptist University. Professor Cheung was an internationally renowned scholar whose work on Chinese discourse on translation made a seminal contribution to the reconceptualization of translation from non-Western perspectives. For a brief biography and a list of her most important publications, see Professor Martha Pui Yiu Cheung’s Publications.

The Martha Cheung Award aims to recognize research excellence in the output of early career researchers, and to allow them, like Professor Cheung herself, to make their voices heard in the international arena and play a role in charting the future directions of research in the discipline. The restriction of the award to articles published in English is also intended to ensure consistency in the assessment process.

The Award

The award is conferred annually for the best paper published in English in the previous two-year period, and takes the form of a cash prize of 10,000 RMB. A certificate from the SISU Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies will also be presented.

Eligibility

• Applicants must have completed their PhD during the five-year period preceding the deadline for submission of applications, or be currently registered for a PhD.
• Given the emphasis on early career scholars, the award is restricted to single-authored articles: co-authored articles will not be considered.
• The scholarly article submitted must be already published. Work accepted for publication but in press will not be considered.
• The term ‘published’ also covers online publication
• The article must have been published in English, in a peer-reviewed journal of good standing. Book chapters and entries in reference works do not qualify.
• The article does not have to have appeared in a journal of translation or interpreting. Journals of media, linguistics, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, etc. all qualify, as long as the article engages with translation/interpreting in a sustained manner.
• Submissions will be assessed solely on their scholarly merit, as judged by a panel of established scholars; considerations such as formal journal ranking and impact factor will not form part of the judging criteria.
• The article may present research relating to any area of translation, interpreting or intercultural studies, and may draw on any theoretical models or methodologies.
• Applicants can only submit an article once. Resubmissions of articles already assessed in an earlier round will not be admitted. 

Submission

Applicants may apply directly themselves for the award, or their work may be nominated by other scholars. A full copy of the article should be submitted in e-copy, in pdf format, together with the completed application/nomination form, downloadable here. Completed, typed applications should be sent to the Award Committee at this address: ctn@hkbu.edu.hk. The Committee will not consider handwritten applications.

Timeframe

For the submission of articles published between 30 September 2019 and 30 September 2021:

Application closing date for the 2021 Award:           31 October 2021

Announcement of award winner:                                31 March 2022

The Martha Cheung Award is sponsored by Eagle Eye Translation Service Co. Ltd. Based in Shanghai, with branches in Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Wuhan and the UK, Eagle Eye Translation Service (http://www.ygym.org/) offers professional translation, interpreting and localization services and is committed to nurturing educational links.

It’s a Bible verse familiar to many Christians – and even to many non-Christians who have seen John 3:16 on billboards and T-shirts or scrawled across eye black under football players’ helmets.

But Terry Wildman hopes the new translation published Aug. 31 by InterVarsity Press, “First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament,” will help Christians and Indigenous peoples read it again in a fresh way.

“The Great Spirit loves this world of human beings so deeply he gave us his Son – the only Son who fully represents him. All who trust in him and his way will not come to a bad end, but will have the life of the world to come that never fades away, full of beauty and harmony,” reads the First Nations Version of the verse.

In the First Nations Version, “eternal life,” a concept unfamiliar in Native American cultures, becomes “the life of the world to come that never fades away, full of beauty and harmony.” The Greek word “cosmos,” usually translated in English as “the world,” had to be reconsidered, too: It doesn’t mean the planet Earth but how the world works and how creation lives and functions together, said Wildman, the lead translator and project manager of the First Nations Version.

They’re phrases that resonated with Wildman, changing the way he read the Bible even as he translated it for Native American readers.

“We believe it’s a gift not only to our Native people, (but) from our Native people to the dominant culture. We believe that there’s a fresh way that people can experience the story again from a Native perspective,” he said.

The idea for an Indigenous Bible translation first came to Wildman nearly 20 years ago in the storeroom of the church he pastored on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona.

Wildman, who is Ojibwe and Yaqui, was excited to find a Hopi translation of the New Testament in storage. He wanted to hear how that beloved Scripture sounded in Hopi, how it translated back into English.

But, he said, while many Hopi elders still speak their native language and children now are learning it in schools, he couldn’t find anyone able to read it. That is true for many Native American nations, he said, noting that at the same time Christian missionaries were translating the Bible into Native languages, they were also working with the boarding schools in the United States and Canada that punished students for speaking those languages.

It occurred to the pastor that “since 90-plus percent of our Native people are not speaking their tribal language or reading their tribal language, we felt there needed to be a translation in English worded for Native people,” he said.

Wildman, a licensed local pastor in the United Methodist Church, has been working on translating the Bible into words and concepts familiar to many Native Americans ever since.

He first began experimenting by rewording Scripture passages he was using in a prison ministry, giving them more of a “Native traditional sound,” he said – a sound he’d learned by being around Native elders and reading books written in a more traditional style of English by Native Americans like Oglala Lakota spiritual leader Black Elk.

He and his wife, Darlene, who have a music ministry called RainSong, also recorded readings of those passages over music in an album called “The Great Story from the Sacred Book.” It won a Native American Music Award in 2008 for best spoken-word album.

Wildman was encouraged by the reactions he received as he shared his rewordings across the country at tribal centers, Native American-led churches and powwows.

“They just loved listening to it because it didn’t have the church language. It didn’t have the colonial language. It had more of a Native feel to it – as much as possible that you can put in English,” he said.

Many Native people asked what Bible he was reading from.

Young people have told him it sounds like one of their elders telling them a story. Elders have said it resonates with how they heard traditional stories from their parents and grandparents.

As others encouraged him to turn his rewordings into a full translation of the Bible, Wildman published a children’s book retelling the Christmas story, “Birth of the Chosen One,” and a harmonization of the four Gospels called “When the Great Spirit Walked among Us.”

Then, on April Fool’s Day 2015, he heard from the CEO of OneBook Canada, who suggested the Bible translation organization fund his work. The offer wasn’t a prank, he said, it was “confirmation from Creator that this was something he wanted.”

“Everybody hears English a little differently,” Wildman said.

“We have all of these translations for that purpose to reach another generation, to reach a particular people group. But we had never had one for our Native people that has actually been translated into English.”

Wildman began by forming a translation council to guide the process, gathering men and women, young and old, from different Native cultures and church backgrounds. They started with a list of nearly 200 keywords Wycliffe Bible Translators said must be translated properly to get a good translation of Scripture.

With that foundation, Wildman got to work, sending drafts to the council for feedback. He looked up the original Greek text of the New Testament. He checked to see how other English translations rendered tricky passages. He consulted Dave Ohlson, a former Wycliffe translator who helped found OneBook Canada, part of the Wycliffe Global Alliance.

The Indigenous translation uses names for God common in many Native cultures, including “Great Spirit” or “Creator.” Names of biblical figures echo their original meanings in Greek and Hebrew: Jesus becomes “Creator Sets Free” and Abraham, “Father of Many Nations.”

“We believe it’s very important that the Gospel be kind of decolonized and told in a Native way, but being accurate to the meaning of the original language and understanding that it’s a different culture,” Wildman said.

Over the years, he and his council have published editions of the Gospel of Luke and Ephesians and a book called “Walking the Good Road” that included the four Gospels alongside Acts and Ephesians.

A number of ministries already have started using those translations, including Foursquare Native Ministries, Lutheran Indian Ministries, Montana Indian Ministries, Cru Nations and Native InterVarsity, he said.

Native InterVarsity, where Wildman serves as director of spiritual growth and leadership, has distributed earlier editions of the First Nations Version at conferences and used the Indigenous translation in its Bible studies for Native college students for several years.

Megan Murdock Krischke, national director of Native InterVarsity, said students have been more engaged with the translation, hearing the Bible in a way they’re used to stories being told.

“Even though it’s still English, it feels like it’s made by us for us. This is a version of Scripture that is for Native people, and it’s indigenized. You’re not having to kind of sort through the ways other cultures talk about faith and spirituality,” said Krischke, who is Wyandotte and Cherokee.

“It’s one less barrier between Native people and being able to follow Jesus.”

Earlier this month, The Jesus Film Project also released a collection of short animated films called “Retelling the Good Story,” bringing to life the stories of Jesus, or Creator Sets Free, feeding the 5,000 and walking on water from the First Nations Version.

Wildman said the response from Native peoples and ministries to the First Nations Version has exceeded any expectations he had when he first began rewording Bible passages.

He hopes it can help break down barriers between Native and non-Native peoples, too. He pointed out the suspicion and misinformation many white Christians have passed down for generations, believing Native Americans worship the devil and their cultures are evil when they share a belief in a Creator, he said.

“We hope that this will help non-Native people be more interested in our Native people – maybe the history, understanding the need for further reconciliation and things like that,” Wildman said.

“We hope that this will be part of creating a conversation that will help that process.”

This story is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin


Rabbi Israel Drazin
BOCA RATON, Florida — Koren Publishers Jerusalem has just published an excellent single 2033 page volume of the entire Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, with the beautiful classic Koren Hebrew font and a new, modern, readable translation of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings by the recently deceased Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, and other scholars.

Examples of new translations are: “When God began creating heaven and earth, the earth was void and desolate” Genesis 1:1. And “Do not crave your neighbor’s house” Exodus 20:14.

Examples of translations and notes: “Then the man named his wife Hava, for she would become the mother of all life” Genesis 3:20. Note: “The name Hava resonates with Hai (life).” “The man knew his wife Hava” Genesis 4:1. Note: “A euphemism for sexual relations.”

The volume contains a wealth of information. Among much else, there is the traditional markings for chapters and verses, a listing of weekly Torah and haftarah readings for Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Yemenite customs, Torah readings for special days, special Shabbos and festival readings, list of haphtarot for each of the three customs, frequent concise notes at the bottom of some pages to clarify the text, transliterated names instead of modern English versions (such as Moshe rather than Moses, Hava instead of Eve) so that readers, Jews and non-Jews, are brought closer to the original Hebrew, many new charts, diagrams, illustrations, and maps in full color that help clarify the text, Torah and Haftarah blessings, cantillation notes, textual variants in some Tanakh volumes, diagrams of the first and second temples, charts of the dates of various events, chart of King David’s descendants, listings of the scholars and what they translated and footnotes they provided, all on strong durable paper, with an index of thumb tabs that make it easy to find and see what one wants to see, and more. The standard hardcover version is $44.95.

*
Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army chaplain corps and the author of more than 50 books.

Posted in: Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Rabbi Israel Drazin

Biography

L’officialisation des langues locales : un mécanisme inutile
Occitanie by Jacques Dillies on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/avpKmglh48s
L’avenir d’une langue locale dépend d’une multitude de critères démographiques, politiques et sociologiques, parmi lesquels l’officialisation ne joue pas un rôle déterminant tout en déclenchant de nouveaux problèmes et de nouveaux coûts.

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Par Yves Montenay.

Les langues locales viennent de faire l’objet d’un vif débat en France qui n’est que le rebondissement d’une discussion séculaire. Si notre Constitution a précisé que « la langue de la république est le français », en 2021 a été votée la loi Molac relative à la protection patrimoniale des langues régionales. Mais cette loi a été ensuite partiellement censurée par le Conseil constitutionnel qui a condamné l’enseignement en immersion pour des raisons d’unité nationale.

Il s’agit de la face française d’un débat mondial. L’objet de cet article est de rappeler les principales données pratiques de cette question.

Je vais procéder à l’américaine c’est-à-dire commencer par un exemple concret qui aidera la compréhension des réflexions générales que je ferai dans un deuxième temps. Cet exemple est celui d’une langue régionale française : l’occitan.

UNE LANGUE RÉGIONALE FRANÇAISE : L’OCCITAN
Données de base sur l’occitan

L’occitan est la principale langue régionale de France, du moins par la superficie concernée.

C’est une langue dérivée du latin, comme le français ou l’espagnol, ses voisins du Nord et du Sud. Elle est, ou était parlée, de Bordeaux aux Alpes (où elle mord un peu sur l’Italie), et du Massif central aux Pyrénées (où elle mord un peu sur l’Espagne). J’ai choisi la carte la plus simple, d’autres cartes subdivisant encore plus l’occitan en dialectes locaux :

Attention ! Il ne s’agit pas de territoires occitanophones, mais de territoires où on en trouve au mieux des petits groupes. Et qui dit locuteur ne dit pas forcément pratiquant car il faut trouver un interlocuteur. Or c’est de plus en plus rarement le cas en famille, et encore moins avec à une personne en activité, donc trop jeune pour la parler encore.

L’enquête INSEE de 2011 évoque 600 000 locuteurs (donc pas forcément pratiquants) sur au moins 20 millions d’habitants, selon l’endroit où l’on place à frontière de la langue, soit 3 % de la population locale.

Les textes spécialisés évoquent l’absence d’enquêtes sociolinguistiques pouvant préciser ce nombre.

Du fait de l’âge des intéressés en 2011, la proportion est encore plus faible aujourd’hui même si , toujours en 2011, 61 000 élèves apprenaient plus ou moins d’occitan à l’école.

Mais quel occitan ?

S’agissant de la langue effectivement pratiquée, les variations sont considérables entre le gascon à l’ouest et les vallées italiennes à l’est. Et parmi ces variantes de l’occitan, il y a le provençal, qui, pour certains, est une langue à part entière.

La première idée qui vient à l’esprit est de vérifier s’il y a intercompréhension, c’est-à-dire si un villageois gascon peut échanger avec son homologue des Alpes italiennes. Malheureusement, il n’y a pas témoignages sur ce sujet, car l’occitan n’est effectivement parlé qu’entre seniors voisins.

Cela nous mène à l’occitan « officiel », celui qui est enseigné dans les écoles et qui a donné lieu à des manuels, et donc à une standardisation.

La question devient alors : les élèves formés à l’occitan dans ces écoles sont-ils compris par leurs grands-parents ? Oui bien sûr disent les partisans de l’apprentissage scolaire de cette langue.

Sans avoir fait d’études sur ce sujet (y en a-t-il d’ailleurs ?), quelques témoignages recueillis m’ont montré que ce n’était pas évident. Mais ce n’est pas un échantillon scientifique et j’en ignore la représentativité. En tout cas, pour le breton, pour lequel j’ai davantage de témoignages, les réactions sont très mitigées.

Bref, la scolarisation a davantage pour résultat de sauver la langue que de l’utiliser en famille, même dans celles qui, exceptionnellement, ont un senior qui l’utilise encore.

Faut-il « sauver » l’occitan et comment ?

Il y a d’abord l’aspect historique et scientifique : de même que nous avons sauvé le latin et le grec ancien, ou que les Indiens ont sauvé le sanscrit, il y a le respect pour toutes les formes culturelles, ce qui implique une attitude ouverte et des mesures d’archivage. J’ai notamment vu passer des informations sur un archivage sonore des langues de France ayant pour objectif d’en faire un atlas. Je pense que ce point recueille l’accord général.

Il y a ensuite l’accueil et la considération des locuteurs actuels. À mon avis, c’est du ressort des autorités locales, car la proportion de personnes concernées est très variable d’un endroit à l’autre et peut par exemple être notable dans tel village. C’est au maire de décider s’il veut par exemple tel affichage bilingue, appuyer telle école ou association etc.

Il y a également la question de l’enseignement bilingue ou par immersion.

C’est évidemment une manière efficace d’apprendre la langue, en ne perdant pas de vue que ce sera la langue standard et non la langue parlée. Mais le jeu en vaut-il la chandelle ?

Les uns disent qu’il vaudrait mieux utiliser les heures de cours d’occitan au bénéfice d’une meilleure maîtrise du français, des mathématiques etc.

D’autres soutiennent qu’un apprentissage bilingue est excellent pour le cerveau, ce qui est probable, mais également valable pour le latin, l’anglais ou l’espagnol.

De toute façon, à mon avis, cela relève plus du domaine de la liberté individuelle ou d’association que de celui d’une législation nationale, via une officialisation partielle ou totale.

En effet, l’officialisation pose des problèmes de coût et de complexitédont nous parlerons plus bas.

Cette demande d’officialisation est néanmoins soulevée assez vigoureusement en Corse et moins nettement pour le breton, l’occitan, l’alsacien, le basque…

Vous remarquerez que je n’ai pas soulevé l’objection jacobine : « la république étant une et indivisible, toute différenciation, linguistique en l’occurrence, est une menace pour l’unité nationale ».

Cette objection en effet ne me paraît pas valable dans le cas de l’occitan : quelques centaines de milliers de seniors n’ont ni l’envie ni les moyens de se lancer dans une action séparatiste.

Bref, il est bien tard pour sauver l’occitan, au-delà d’un simple archivage et de sa maîtrise par quelques militants ou érudits.

Nous passons maintenant à l’analyse mondiale de cette question, où l’on retrouve les mêmes questions pratiques que pour l’occitan en France.

DANS LE MONDE, DES LANGUES DE PLUS EN PLUS REVENDIQUÉES, MAIS EN RECUL
Cette question des langues dominées se pose dans le monde entier, où la plupart des langues sont en voie d’affaiblissement ou de disparition. Le nombre de langues dans le monde est mal connu, il varie de 3000 à 7000 suivant les documents (ce dernier chiffre comprend des langues n’ayant plus qu’un seul locuteur) dont 90 % seraient menacées. Cela malgré un mouvement général de sens inverse pour leur réhabilitation.

Ainsi la nouvelle présidente de l’assemblée constituante du Chili a pris la parole en mapuche, langue « indigène » antérieure à l’arrivée de langue espagnole, tandis que les langues principales de l’empire inca sont devenues officielles au Pérou.

Une langue peut d’ailleurs être dominante ici (le français par rapport à l’occitan) et dominée ailleurs, comme le français en Amérique du Nord hors Québec, et même dans une certaine mesure à Montréal.

Elle peut aussi disparaître tout en restant respectée, comme le latin naguère, ou le français en Amérique latine et dans certains milieux nord-américains. Le souci est alors culturel et non utilitaire : l’objectif premier n’est pas de faire du tourisme à Paris, où d’ailleurs le français n’est plus indispensable, mais de se cultiver.

Langues locales ou minoritaires ?

Le cas du français mène à distinguer les langues locales des langues localement minoritaires.

Si dans beaucoup d’endroits d’Amérique du Nord le français langue maternelle ou langue seconde est une langue minoritaire et menacée, il bénéficie néanmoins de l’énorme appui de son corpus : sa littérature, sa bibliothèque scientifique, universitaire, scolaire, ses médias…

En France, cela amène à distinguer par exemple le basque et le catalan de l’occitan. Les premiers ont certes moins de locuteurs, mais bénéficient du corpus du basque et du catalan qui sont des langues officielles en Espagne ayant des millions de locuteurs. À l’inverse, l’occitan, simple langue locale, ne peut s’appuyer que sur ses propres forces.

Le cas de l’alsacien, ou plutôt des alsaciens, est intermédiaire : s’il n’y avait pas eu les mauvais coups de l’histoire, il pourrait s’appuyer sur le corpus de l’allemand. J’avoue ignorer dans quelle mesure le breton est soutenu par un corpus irlandais, gallois ou écossais, langues celtiques voisines et soutenues par leurs administrations.

Vous remarquerez que j’évoque uniquement l’existence d’un corpus ou d’infrastructures d’appui, et non pas d’incitation au séparatisme, par exemple du Roussillon qui voudrait rejoindre la Catalogne ou du Pays basque qui voudrait rejoindre l’Espagne. Je pense en effet que ces questions, qui sont soulevées par certains, ne se posent pas en pratique.

L’officialisation : compliquée mais pas forcément efficace

Le premier réflexe pour qu’une langue soit « sauvée » est de réclamer son officialisation. Mais ce n’est à mon avis qu’un élément parmi d’autres, et l’essentiel est ailleurs. Je vous renvoie pour cela à mon article sur la langue corse .

Voici quelques exemples de langues minoritaires officialisées :

les langues celtes (gauloises) : en république d’Irlande, le gaélique est une langue officielle en principe à égalité avec l’anglais. En pratique si elle est effectivement enseignée dans le primaire et dans le secondaire, elle est quasiment abandonnée, sauf dans quelques gaëltacht regroupant quelques villages, où elle est la langue unique d’enseignement et de signalisation (je connais celle du comté de Galway, arpentée par un général de Gaulle y méditant après sa démission).
Je connais mal la situation de l’extrême nord gaëlophone de l’Écosse, mais bien noté que le gallois officialisé au pays de Galles est encore largement parlé dans certaines des régions de ce « pays ».

les langues berbères : ce sont les langues parlées par les premiers occupants du Maghreb avant les invasions arabes et qui sont toujours largement présentes dans certaines régions dont la plus connue est la Kabylie.
Ces langues ont longtemps été ostracisées : « tout berbérophone est un séparatiste » a-t-on longtemps entendu en Algérie, tandis qu’au Maroc arabophones et berbérophones s’opposent toujours aujourd’hui sur le « Dahir berbère » de l’administration coloniale française. Pour les premiers il s’agissait de diviser pour régner (ce qui n’est pas faux), pour les seconds c’était un acte positif de défense de la culture berbère.

J’en profite pour signaler le sauvetage de la culture kabyle, et de certaines cultures berbères marocaines par les « pères blancs » qui, à défaut de convertir les musulmans locaux ont transcrit, archivé et dans une certaine mesure sauvé les langues et cultures berbères.

Ces langues sont maintenant officielles en Algérie et au Maroc, mais il me semble que ça n’a changé grand-chose, malgré la proclamation de leur présence dans l’enseignement et l’ouverture de quelques chaires universitaires.

Il ne suffit en effet pas d’une déclaration gouvernementale pour créer et former les instituteurs dans une nouvelle langue et les nommer au bon endroit…

De plus, cette officialisation a caché un coup de Jarnac avec l’introduction d’un troisième alphabet : le tifinagh aux côtés des alphabets arabe et latin. Voir la fin de mon article sur la Kabylie.

le français hors Québec au Canada : au Canada, le français et l’anglais sont officiels, en principe à égalité. Mais il faut voir de plus près ce que ça signifie : seules les administrations fédérales sont concernées, sans que le bilinguisme y soit toujours respecté.
Au niveau local, tout dépend du pouvoir provincial ou municipal. Même si, en principe, toute communauté francophone représentant 15 % de la population dispose de certains droits, en pratique ces vieilles communautés, qui existaient avant l’arrivée des anglophones, ont été noyées dans une immigration massive, européenne d’abord, et mondiale aujourd’hui.

Et les nouveaux responsables représentatifs, ukrainiens par exemple pour prendre une communauté particulièrement nombreuse, ne voient pas pourquoi on accorderait aux francophones des droits supérieurs aux leurs.

L’officialisation n’est pas un remède miracle, et de plus, c’est une mesure très lourde.

En effet, tout ce qui met en branle la mécanique étatique sur le plan national est inévitablement source de coût et de contraintes : établissement de la réglementation, puis son contrôle, traduction, affichage bilingue, embauche de personnel bilingue soit en double soit en discriminant les monolingues.

Le tout appliqué sur de grandes étendues : le sud de la France pour l’occitan, une grande partie de la Bretagne pour le breton, l’Alsace, le Pays basque. Et presque toute la France si on prend en compte les autres langues régionales, bien qu’elles soient maintenant très peu parlées. Et les exemples ci-dessus nous ont montré que ce n’était en général pas efficace.

Bref, dans le cas des langues locales françaises, mieux vaut réserver cette question aux quelques municipalités concernées qui prendront chacune des mesures adaptées à leurs cas particuliers. À ma connaissance ce sera surtout le cas dans certaines vallées du Pays basque.

Il va bien sûr autrement lorsqu’il s’agit de langue parlée par des dizaines de millions de personnes de toutes les générations. C’est le cas des langues berbères, mais la situation, nous l’avons vu, est inverse : la décision d’officialisation a été prise, mais n’est pas vraiment appliquée, en partie du fait de difficultés réelles, en partie pour des raisons politiques, les pouvoirs pensant que le problème se résoudra par l’arabisation si on continue à traîner.

Là aussi le problème serait efficacement résolu par une décentralisation, mais le gouvernement central va crier ou séparatisme !

UN PHÉNOMÈNE MONDIAL TRÈS NATUREL
Cet écrasement des langues minoritaires est un phénomène général. En effet on est passé de sociétés villageoises où la langue locale était effectivement parlée, qu’elle soit officielle ou pas, à des sociétés urbaines plurilingues où la langue majoritaire est omniprésente.

Et les mariages se font alors en partie avec des partenaires de la langue majoritaire ne connaissant pas la langue de l’autre. Alors, sauf militantisme de la part du conjoint « minoritaire », sa langue n’est pas transmise aux enfants, ou pour quelques expressions seulement.

C’est massivement le cas en France, tant pour les langues indigènes que pour les langues immigrées (chronologiquement, de l’italien aux langues africaines). À la limite, ceux qui veulent préserver à tout prix la transmission de leur langue devraient s’opposer aux mariages mixtes…

En conclusion, l’avenir d’une langue locale dépend d’une multitude de critères démographiques, politiques et sociologiques, parmi lesquels l’officialisation ne joue pas un rôle déterminant tout en déclenchant de nouveaux problèmes et de nouveaux coûts.

Good morning, early birds. The Australian government has told an interpreter for the ADF in Afghanistan that a humanitarian visa was issued to him in error, and Scott Morrison was reportedly granted a lockdown exemption to visit Sydney for the Father's Day weekend. It's the news you need to know, with Emma Elsworthy.

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Posted on 06 Sep 15:36

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, a ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the Taliban are not letting flights ready to evacuate American civilians and allies leave Afghanistan and are “holding them hostage for demands.”

The Taliban is preventing Americans and allies from leaving the country on six charter planes at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in northern Afghanistan and making demands of the U.S., McCaul told Fox News on Sunday.

“In fact, we have six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six airplanes, with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now,” McCaul said.

“The Taliban wants something in exchange. This is really … turning into a hostage situation where they are not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,” he added.

When "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace asked how many Americans have been evacuated out of Afghanistan since the withdrawal deadline on Aug. 31, McCaul said, "I understand, zero."

The flights have permission to land in Doha “if and when the Taliban agrees to takeoff,” according to an email from the State Department to members of Congress, CBS News reported, quoting sources as saying that the planes are not currently loaded and the passengers are being held nearby.

In response to McCaul’s claim that Americans are essentially being held as hostages, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill on Sunday that since the U.S. no longer has an embassy or staff in Afghanistan, it cannot confirm the veracity of those reports.

“Given these constraints, we also do not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including who may be organizing them, the number of U.S. citizens and other priority groups on-board, the accuracy of the rest of the manifest, and where they plan to land, among many other issues,” the spokesperson said.

"We understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan," the spokesperson added, noting that the Biden administration will “hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”

Ascend, a group committed to developing young women as leaders through athletics, was quoted by CBS News as saying that they've had two flights waiting for six days to take between 600 and 1,200 people — including 19 American citizens and two permanent residents.

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, eventually taking the capital Kabul last month and forcing the government to flee. In response to the unexpected speed at which the terrorist group retook the nation, tens of thousands of Americans, Afghan allies, and others desperately tried to leave the country.

In its email, the State Department advised members of Congress to warn people seeking to evacuate out of Mazar-i-Sharif that the U.S.: “does not have personnel on the ground in Mazar, we do not have air assets in the country, and we do not control the airspace. … It is a Taliban decision to ground flights in Mazar-i-Sharif. We are, however, providing guidance and assistance to the extent possible — and with an emphasis on safety — to private entities working out of Mazar.”

Politico reporter Daniel Lippman posted a photo from Maxar Technologies showing the grounded planes on Twitter. “Newly released satellite images show six commercial airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan that are not being allowed to depart by the Taliban.” 

In his interview with Fox News, McCaul said Biden has “blood on his hands.”

“I’ve said all along this president has blood on his hands, and this week, this last week, we had 13 servicemen and women come home, flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Base. This problem is going to get worse, not better, and we have left them behind. That's the basic creed of the military.”

On Aug. 26, a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killed 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers and one Navy Corpsman, along with as many as 170 civilians, most of whom were awaiting their evacuation.

McCaul also said those who have helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan are being persecuted.

“You have stories of interpreters being taken home to their families and watching their wives and families being beheaded, executed before they execute the interpreter,” he said. “This is not a new and improved Taliban. This is the same old Taliban. They are reverting back to with the same brutal practices.”

In an exclusive interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on Friday, Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said the Taliban was charging between $500 to $4,000 as a “tax” to get past each checkpoint to reach the Kabul airport, which is one reason why the French and British special forces carried out rescue missions to extricate their citizens who were stranded or had been turned away at checkpoints.

En un imaginario Mundial de Autores Argentinos Traducidos, Jorge Luis Borges ganaría por goleada. Según coinciden traductores literarios, editores y demás especialistas, el autor de Ficciones es, por lejos, el argentino favorito de los lectores en los cinco continentes. A diferencia de otros escritores nacionales, vivos o muertos, que se ponen “de moda” en el exterior a raíz de causas varias que podrían resumirse en la agenda temática global del momento, como el feminismo, la pasión internacional por Borges se mantiene firme, más allá del contexto histórico.

Como en el país no existe un registro único de traducciones literarias, el indicador más certero para establecer qué autores y cuáles títulos son requeridos en el extranjero es el Programa Sur, que depende de la Dirección de Asuntos Culturales de la Cancillería argentina y otorga subsidios a editoriales extranjeras para traducir obras de producción local. Desde su creación en 2009, apoyó a más de 1500 obras que fueron traducidas a 49 idiomas en 51 países. “Es un promedio de entre 140 y 150 títulos anuales”, calcula Diego Lorenzo, coordinador del programa nacional de apoyo a las traducciones.

“Al recorrer el listado completo se advierte que se ha ampliado mucho la demanda de autores. Antes había un elenco consolidado y nombres, como el de Roberto Alrt, que explotaron cuando se liberaron los derechos, en especial en mercado pequeños, como el del este europeo. Al principio estaban cabeza a cabeza Borges y Cortázar seguidos por Aira y Piglia y, después, obras relacionadas con otros productos culturales, como el cine, en los casos de Claudia Piñeiro, Eduardo Sacheri y Guillermo Martínez. En el medio, se ubican un montón de autores, algunos más afamados que otros, como Luisa Valenzuela que tiene cierta trayectoria en el exterior y otros jóvenes como Félix Bruzzone. Samanta Schweblin empezó a escalar, especialmente, desde que se fue a vivir a Europa. Es un caso parecido al de Ariana Harwicz”, agregó Lorenzo.

Aunque todavía no está cerrada la selección de 2021, entre los pedidos de subsidios ya aprobados figura una edición de seis mil ejemplares de El Eternauta, de Héctor Oesterheld, para lectores chinos. Entre las traducciones al inglés se destaca la tirada de cinco mil copias que hará New York Books Review de El silenciero, de Antonio Di Benedetto. Zama, novela del mismo autor adaptada al cine por Lucrecia Martel, estará disponible el año próximo para 600 lectores daneses. Y unos dos mil turcos podrán leer El entenado, de Juan José Saer. En inglés, también habrá dos ediciones de cinco mil ejemplares cada una de Milongas, de Edgardo Cozarinsky, y Animales, de Hebe Uhart, a cargo de Archipiélago Books.

Borges hasta en la China

Al buscar los libros de Borges en el listado general de traducciones entre 2009 y 2020 aparecen datos curiosos que apoyan la idea de que el gran poeta nacional es el goleador del seleccionado argentino. Entre las lenguas a las que fueron traducidas sus obras se destacan, además del inglés, el francés, el alemán y el portugués, idiomas como el búlgaro, el macedonio, el hindi, el filipino, el malayo, el armenio, el georgiano, el tailandés, el ucraniano, el montenegrino, el noruego, el sueco, el checo y el albanés. Poemas, cuentos y ensayos: toda la obra de Borges fue requerida en distintos momentos por editores de distintas partes del mundo, según el registro del Programa Sur.

En 2017 un informe de la agencia Télam señalaba que Borges era por entonces el autor de América Latina más traducido al mandarín, seguido por Julio Cortázar y Adolfo Bioy Casares. “La gravitación de lo oriental en su obra -desde una aproximación poética-, y la tensión filosófica general que atraviesa sus textos pueden explicar la predilección de los lectores de China por Borges; en general, los chinos eligen “El jardín de los senderos que se bifurcan”, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” y “El Aleph” como sus piezas favoritas debido a su ambigüedad, misterio intelectual y profundidad”, declaró entonces Juan Manuel Cortelletti, consejero cultural de la Embajada Argentina en China. El funcionario, que continúa en el mismo cargo, sumó una perlita al furor chino por Borges: “Como parte del fenómeno, el autor argentino se convirtió también en objeto de consumo de los fanáticos. Una importante librería de la capital china, entre otros souvenirs, vende a sus clientes remeras negras con una frase en caracteres chinos blancos que dice: ‘Siempre imaginé que el paraíso sería algún tipo de biblioteca’, Jorge Luis Borges”.

Cortázar post boom

Si bien, de acuerdo a Jorge Fondebrider, escritor, gestor cultural, traductor y fundador del Club de traductores literarios, el furor internacional por Julio Cortázar ya pasó, en la lista completa del Programa Sur aparecen varias editoriales extranjeras que obtuvieron desde 2009 los subsidios del programa de la Cancillería argentina (con un tope de 3200 dólares por título) para traducir sus cuentos y novelas. Rayuela, Las armas secretas y Todos los fuegos, el fuego, por ejemplo, se publicaron en armenio; Clases de literatura, Queremos tanto a Glenda y Un tal Lucas, en griego; Los autonautas de la cosmopista, en danés; 62 / Modelo para armar y Los premios, en serbio; y Bestiario, en búlgaro.

En 2014, cuando se cumplió el centenario del nacimiento del autor de Rayuela, hubo un homenaje en el stand argentino del Salón del Libro de París. Como suele suceder, las efemérides (y las muertes) disparan las ventas de ejemplares y es por eso que ese año Cortázar aparecía primero en el listado del Programa Sur. Según un informe de Télam, de marzo de 2014, Cortázar era por entonces el escritor argentino más requerido por las editoriales extranjeras. Entre los títulos seleccionados por el Programa Sur en la primera parte de 2021 figura Historias de Cronopios y de Famas, que será publicado en Ucrania con una tirada de mil ejemplares.

Piglia: diarios en croata y vietnamita

Junto con Borges y Cortázar, Ricardo Piglia integra el podio de los autores argentinos más traducidos desde que existe el Programa Sur. Once de sus títulos, entre novelas, cuentos reunidos, ensayos literarios y los diarios que firmó como Emilio Renzi, se publicaron en más de veinte idiomas que van desde el inglés, el francés, el italiano y el alemán hasta el macedonio, griego, hebreo, rumano, turco, húngaro, croata, ruso, chino y vietnamita.

Entre sus libros más requeridos por editoriales extranjeras figuran Blanco nocturno (con versiones en nueve idiomas, según el registro oficial); Plata quemada (que se vende en Bulgaria, Croacia, Rusia, Francia, China y Vietnam); El camino de Ida (con cinco ediciones distintas) y Respiración artificial (en cuatro lenguas, incluido el macedonio).

En el primer semestre de este año, una editorial europea se anotó en el programa local para traducir Nombre falso al italiano e imprimir 2500 ejemplares.

El caso Aira

El de César Aira es un caso especial no solo por su amplia producción literaria sino por la atención que le prestan al autor de Coronel Pringles en el exterior desde hace años. “Candidato” permanente al premio Nobel de Literatura (nadie sabe bien cómo empezó, pero todos los años Aira aparece en las apuestas para el prestigioso premio).

De bajo perfil y alejado de la vidriera cultural local, Aira es leído por lectores de China, Francia, Inglaterra, Holanda, Alemania, Hungría, Bulgaria, Croacia, Serbia, Lituania y Grecia, entre otros países. Este año se sumó una editorial sueca, que hará tiradas de 1200 ejemplares de los títulos Las conversaciones y Margarita, un recuerdo. Por su parte, editores turcos publicarán dos mil ejemplares de El cerebro musical.

Arlt, al igbo, una lengua nigeriana

En marzo de 2020, a través del Programa Sur, se presentaron en el 2º Festival Hispano de Kolkata, Calcuta, República de la India, las traducciones al bengalí de El juguete rabioso, de Roberto Arlt, y de Don Segundo Sombra, de Ricardo Güiraldes.

El “año Arlt” para las traducciones fue 2013: al cumplirse setenta años de su muerte, se liberaron los derechos de sus obras. Entonces, editoriales de Bulgaria, Italia e Inglaterra se presentaron para traducir a sus respectivos idiomas títulos como Los siete locos, El jorobadito y otros cuentos y Los lanzallamas.

Este año, las Aguafuertes cariocas, libro que reúne el trabajo del escritor como corresponsal en Río de Janeiro, figura entre los aprobados para recibir subsidio para su traducción al italiano en una tirada de dos mil ejemplares. Pero la perlita de 2021 llegó de Nigeria: una editorial de ese país africano editará 300 copias de El juguete rabioso en igbo, una lengua hablaba por unas 18 millones de personas de la etnia del mismo nombre.

Quino, con Mafalda en búlgaro y guaraní

“Mbaeinchapa, che ha´e Mafalda ha ko´aga añe´ema guaraníme” (“¿Cómo están? Soy Mafalda y ahora hablo en guaraní”): así se presentó en 2017 la traducción al guaraní de la célebre tira creada por Quino. Desde que se publicó por primera vez, en 1964, Mafalda fue traducida a 27 idiomas: entre ellos, armenio, búlgaro, chino, griego, hebreo y polaco. En el registro del Programa Sur figura un pedido de subsidio para la versión de la historieta al búlgaro. Y en la página oficial del autor se cuenta la trastienda de la adaptación de las peripecias de Mafalda y sus amigos al braille, un proyecto de un fanático de tira, que logró publicar en 2016 Descubriendo a Mafalda para lectores ciegos con el apoyo de la Editora Nacional Braille y Libro Parlante, del Ministerio de Desarrollo Social de la Nación.

Mujeres al frente

“El Programa Sur, que representa una parte importante de las traducciones argentinas, especialmente de literatura, sirve de indicador de los pedidos en cada época. En ese sentido, después de los primeros años, en los que ciertos autores consagrados de la literatura argentina eran los más solicitados, en alguna medida, el mercado se empezó a saturar y los editores extranjeros empezaron a demandar a otros autores, vivos, jóvenes, en especial, mujeres. Empezamos a ver un cambio en el paisaje de los autores y autoras traducidas”, explicó Alejandro Dujovne, investigador Conicet e integrante del Comité de Selección del Programa Sur. Completan el equipo seleccionador María Rosa Lojo, Damián Vives (por parte de la Biblioteca Nacional), Jorge Bernetti (representante de la Fundación El Libro) y Martín Granovsky, director de Asuntos Culturales de la Cancillería.

Entre las autoras más traducidas que figuran en el listado oficial está Claudia Piñeiro, cuya novela Una suerte pequeña se puede leer en azerí, el idioma de Azebaiyan. Sin dudas, Las viudas de los jueves es el título de Piñeiro más requerido: tiene ediciones en albanés, alemán, árabe, polaco, hebreo, serbio e inglés. Otras de sus ficciones, como Las maldiciones y Tuya, fueron traducidas al polaco, búlgaro, lituano y árabe. En la selección de 2021 figura un subsidio de una editorial polaca para Catedrales, su novela más reciente.

Consultado por LA NACION por su experiencia como traductor literario y gran conocedor del mercado europeo del libro, en especial de Francia, Fondebrider ubicó a Samanta Schweblin y a Ariana Harwicz en el podio de las autoras nacionales más leídas en Europa en la actualidad. Al buscar en el registro oficial desde 2009 aparece que Matate amor, de Harwicz, fue traducida al inglés, turco y georgiano y que las ficciones de Schweblin, en formato cuento o novela, tienen versiones en albanés, croata, serbio, georgiano, italiano, inglés, alemán, francés, húngaro, checo, macedonio y chino.

En 2022 llegarán a las librerías de Grecia y Suecia ficciones de tres de las autoras jóvenes más mentadas de los últimos tiempos: Matate amor, en griego, Nuestra parte de noche, de Mariana Enríquez, en sueco, y Cometierra, de Dolores Reyes, que saldrá en sueco y también tendrá una edición en portugués para Brasil.

A former interpreter for the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan who fears for his life and has been waiting eight years for approval to come to Australia has been told a temporary humanitarian visa was issued to him "in error", leaving him and his young family in limbo.

A letter accompanying the visa, dated August 25 — 10 days after the fall of Kabul – invited the man, Hassan*, to leave hiding to go to the city's airport for an evacuation flight to Australia – if he judged it safe to do so.

That day, Hassan brought his wife, three little boys and eight-month-old baby girl to queue up with thousands of other terrified Afghans in the chaos outside the airport overnight.


Crowds of people at the Abbey Gate at Kabul's airport on August 25, the day before the blast.(Getty Images: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
The following day, Hassan said he and his family were just 10 metres away from the suicide bomb blast that killed almost 200 people at the airport's Abbey Gate.

After the blast, Hassan abandoned his plan to catch a flight. He and his family then drove across the border into Pakistan.

They had expected to be able to fly on to Australia, but then the email came through from the Department of Home Affairs on Friday to say that a mistake had been made.

They are now homeless and stranded in Pakistan with no visas.

The Department of Home Affairs gave Four Corners a statement saying it declined to comment on individual decisions.


Hassan's family fled their home in Kandahar in hopes of being evacuated from Kabul. They're now waiting in Pakistan.(Four Corners)
'They will be killed'
The botched visa decision comes after an eight-year battle by Hassan, with the assistance of former Australian Army captain Jason Scanes, after he was invited to apply for an Australian humanitarian visa under a scheme designed to protect former interpreters for the ADF in Afghanistan.

"The Taliban have no forgiveness for what these interpreters did, facilitating combat missions against the Taliban and against Al Qaeda," Mr Scanes told Four Corners.

"They will take out their retribution on those individuals – there is no going to the Taliban and saying, 'the Coalition are gone, I now support the Taliban'.

"There's no ifs, no buts, they will be killed. As will their family members. And anybody that is associated with them."


Mr Scanes (right) worked with Hassan (centre) on high-level strategic operations against the Taliban.(Supplied: Jason Scanes)
In 2018, then-Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton refused Hassan a visa on character grounds – a US intelligence assessment had found there was a reasonable suspicion he had an association with the Taliban.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Damien Hick had written to the department disputing this connection, saying that as a Pashtun, it was "very likely" due to "family and tribal relations" that there would be "connections in some form (second, third order, etc) to the Taliban (as they are mostly Pashtun)".

"This does not mean though he has a direct connection or has sympathy for them," Lieutenant Colonel Hick wrote.

The Full Court of the Federal Court in May 2020 quashed the minister's decision, but despite this, four days after the fall of Kabul, new minister Karen Andrews again rejected a humanitarian visa for Hassan on the same grounds.

Hassan told Four Corners it was "impossible" that he had links to the Taliban.

"Me and my family don't have any relationship to the insurgents because I was interpreter – I was working inside ADF with Captain Scanes. It is impossible."


Hassan, pictured here with Jason Scanes, had glowing references from Australian and UK army officers.(Supplied: Jason Scanes)
"[For] eight years I am hiding me and my family – I hide from insurgents or Taliban.

"How will I [have] a relationship with the Taliban? This doesn't make sense."

Mr Scanes, who specialised in counter-intelligence communications in the army, said while the grounds for refusal were based on a US intelligence assessment, the decision had not given details of what the alleged association was – he believed that it had come up precisely because of the work that Hassan was doing on behalf of the ADF.

"We had access to really bad people – we were going out and rolling really bad people… the association could come up with any one of those things," Mr Scanes said.

"And clearly what has happened is the process has failed Hassan – he hasn't failed.

"The process has failed him; the government has failed him and I won't fail him.


Mr Scanes says Hassan is in danger because of the service he gave Australia.(Four Corners)
"I will keep pushing, I'll keep fighting for him."

Mr Scanes had repeatedly written requesting meetings with ministers Dutton and Andrews to explain what he and some of his colleagues saw as flaws in the US intelligence assessment methodology, but they didn't answer his correspondence.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke replied in June, offering to speak with him, but Mr Scanes said the minister never got back to him after repeated attempts to get in touch.

When a temporary humanitarian visa was issued to Hassan less than a week after Ms Andrews' August 19 refusal to grant Hassan a humanitarian visa, Hassan and Mr Scanes assumed it was because there had been a realisation that the previous decision was wrong.

Death threats
Hassan's ordeal prompted Mr Scanes to set up a charity assisting former interpreters, Forsaken Fighters, and to stand for the Labor Party in the 2019 election in an attempt to draw attention to the issue.

"I worked every single day in Afghanistan for 10 months with this individual," Mr Scanes said of Hassan.


Jason Scanes says the visa process has failed Hassan.(Four Corners)
"He was cleared to live on our base, he was cleared to walk around on our base, eat in our mess and live amongst us, unescorted.

"That was the level of clearance. He was with me conducting very high-level strategic operations against the Taliban."

Hassan said his life had been repeatedly threatened by the Taliban because of his work with the ADF.

Four years ago, he says, they broke his leg in three places.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
WATCH
Duration: 38 seconds38s

Hassan says the Taliban brutally attacked him, breaking his leg.
In June, a letter from the Taliban's military commander in Kandahar ordering his death was taped to the front door of his home.

"We are honest in our words and we will get you, be it day or night, and you will be punished, and we will reach our goal. Await your death very soon," a translation of the letter, written in Pashto, reads.


The letter Hassan found taped to his door in June.(Supplied)
"He's now in danger because of the service that he gave, not only to myself, but to the Australian government, to the Australian Defence Force, and to other Australian officers, on the ground, over a number of years, in Afghanistan," Mr Scanes said.

"As a result of that service, he is now hunted down, and will be in fear of his life, and his young family as well."

Hassan was considered part of 'Team Australia'
Hassan had glowing references from Australian and UK army officers.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Damien Hick wrote that Hassan was "an integral part of the team and we genuinely considered him part of 'Team Australia'… Many interpreters and their families were murdered during our time. I have been impressed how these young people have been able to stand up and have such courage to do what they did".

"[Hassan] is a prime example of such courage and his easy-going nature and willingness to get on with things will bring credit to any organisation that he works with in the future," he wrote.

"He is a self-motivated, modern thinking, intelligent, energetic and peaceful man that wants what we have – the freedom to live in peace and to move on and get the best out of life.

"For what he did for us, this is the very least he deserves."

Daren Nelson, a Flight Lieutenant from the British Royal Air Force, said Hassan was "a friendly and selfless" individual and "an excellent interpreter who embodies the values of courage, hard work and professionalism".

Lieutenant Colonel Levi Sutton, the linguist manager from the US Army who supervised Hassan, co-wrote a letter with Jason Scanes saying Hassan was a "highly principled person who strives to put the welfare and future of his family first" and had "placed his life and that of his family at risk in order to facilitate coalition and Australian success within Afghanistan".


Hassan has pleaded with the government to let his family come to Australia.(Four Corners)
Waiting and hoping
For now, the lawyers who have been representing Hassan are considering another legal challenge to the Minister's latest decision.

He's waiting and hoping, with his family in Pakistan.

"I have one request from Australian government: Please, please, take me and my young family to Australia," Hassan told Four Corners.

"My situation is really, really bad.

"Australia is a good country, Australian government are good government, so I don't know why my visa took [such a] long time – eight years.

"Please, please take my family to Australia."

Mr Scanes said he had been traumatised by his legal fight on behalf of Hassan and other interpreters. He said he financed the court case to the Full Court of the Federal Court largely out of his own pocket because he felt so strongly about standing by a man who risked his life for Australia.

"He's a mate – and that is something that is ingrained in us as soldiers and, indeed, it's deeply woven into the fabric of our society, as being Australian — we look after our mates," Mr Scanes said.

"We veterans do. We'll stand by our mates, and we will look after them."

*Hassan's name has been changed to protect his identity.

QUESTION: So, does language really shape the way we think? (An age-old concern... in such disciplines as language, culture, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, translation and intercultural communication, just to name those that readily come to mind)

MY ANSWER (in the simplest terms): Yes and No.

Yes. To the extent that we limit ourselves to the readily available conventional concepts or resources of the language. Indeed, mutual understanding is generally more effective when users of a language in situations of interpersonal or intercultural communication (including translation, of course) do get a maximum of these conventional concepts and resources right... Any slight shift from such conventional concepts and resources needs to be tactful, fully justifiable, and acceptable from the perspective of the target users and language-culture community.

No. If we do not view the readily available concepts of each language-culture as the only valuable and valid ones; which (i) would definitely be most limiting and (ii) would end up stifling innovation, creativity, and mutual enrichment when the need arises. One's thought and thought process are definitely not doomed by the language-culture one belongs to. It's ultimately a matter of/for (cultural) education; one that needs to be taken very seriously, in tune with the homo sapiens civilisation whereby fast mobility across communities has long been the norm.

A language-culture does not in any way "enslave the thoughts and thought processes" of its users. Rather, people belonging to a precise group would, as a matter of necessity, create and sustain their own language-culture system, with relevant rules and conventions that become binding to the community of users. Therefore, respecting those rules is generally a matter of necessity too (to ease mutual understanding), and a matter of interest and loyalty. However, the same people would regularly cause their language-culture to change (though often very discreetly) and adapt, whenever they encounter novel situations and requirements. So much so, that each language-culture community member would equally have to be ready and prepared to reshape their mindset and think outside the box as required under the relevant circumstances. 

Translation and intercultural communication experts know precisely how this feels and works as they move forth and back from one language-culture to another, especially in identifiable instances of the process when creative rather than mnemonic thinking becomes imperative. 

https://www.scoop.it/topic/translation-world?q=Language%2C+Culture+and+thought 

#metaglossia

#ITD2021

#UnitedInTranslation

Europa tiene una necesidad cada vez mayor de traducción y traductores. Este concurso viene a promover el estudio de idiomas entre los jóvenes.

One of COVID-19’s many consequences has been the life-changing increase of stress and work overload on clinical professionals. Dr Simon Wallace, CCIO of Nuance’s healthcare division explains how speech recognition technology can ease the pressure.

HITN: COVID-19 has further exposed employee stress and burnout as major challenges for healthcare. Tell us how we can stop digital transformation technologies from simply adding to them.

Wallace: By making sure that they are adopted for the right reasons – meeting clinician’s needs without adding more stress or time pressures to already hectic workflows. For example, Covid-19 being a new disease meant that clinicians had to document their findings in detail and quickly without the process slowing them down – often while wearing PPE. I think speech recognition technology has been helpful in this respect, not just because of speed but also because it allows the clinician time to provide more quality clinical detail in the content of a note.

In a recent HIMSS/Nuance survey, 82% of doctors and 73% of nurses felt that clinical documentation contributed significantly to healthcare professional overload. It has been estimated that clinicians spend around 11 hours a week creating clinical documentation, and up to two thirds of that can be narrative.

HITN: How do you think speech recognition technology can be adapted into clinical tasks and workflow to help lower workload and stress levels?

Wallace: One solution is cloud-based AI-powered speech recognition: instead of either typing in the EPR or EHR or dictating a letter for transcription, clinicians can use their voice and see the text appear in real time on the screen. Using your voice is a more natural and efficient way to capture the complete patient story. It can also speed up navigation in the EPR system, helping to avoid multiple clicks and scrolling. The entire care team can benefit – not just in acute hospitals but across primary and community care and mental health services.

HITN: Can you give some examples where speech recognition has helped to reduce the pressure on clinicians?

Wallace: In hospitals where clinicians have created their outpatient letters using speech recognition, reduction in turnaround times from several weeks down to two or three days have been achieved across a wide range of clinical specialties. In some cases where no lab results are involved, patients can now leave the clinic with their completed outpatient letter.

In the Emergency Department setting, an independent study found that speech recognition was 40% faster than typing notes and has now become the preferred method for capturing ED records. The average time saving in documenting care is around 3.5 mins per patient – in this particular hospital, that is equivalent to 389 days a year, or two full-time ED doctors!

HITN: How do you see the future panning out for clinicians in the documentation space when it comes to automation and AI technologies?

Wallace: I think we are looking at what we call the Clinic Room of the Future, built around conversational intelligence. No more typing for the clinician, no more clicks, no more back turned to the patient hunched over a computer.

The desktop computer is replaced by a smart device with microphones and movement sensors. Voice biometrics allow the clinician to sign in to the EPR verbally and securely (My Voice is my Password), with a virtual assistant responding to voice commands. The technology recognises non-verbal cues – for example, when a patient points to her left knee but only actually states it is her knee. The conversation between the patient and the clinician is fully diarised, while in the background, Natural Language Processing (using Nuance’s Clinical Language Understanding engine) is working to create a structured clinical note that summarises the consultation, and codes the clinical terms eg. with SNOMED CT.

No more typing for the clinician, no more clicks, no more back turned to the patient hunched over a computer, resulting in a more professional and interactive clinician/patient consultation. 

Healthcare IT News spoke to Dr Simon Wallace, CCIO of Nuance’s healthcare division, as part of the 'Summer Conversations' series.

LAST UPDATED 06.09.2021 | 12:38 PM IST
Debut novelists and fiction in translation dominate the the longlist of the 2021 JCB Prize for Literature, which was announced on Monday. Selected by a panel of five judges—author and translator Sara Rai (Chair); designer and art historian Annapurna Garimella; author and translator Shahnaz Habib; journalist and editor Prem Panicker; and writer and podcaster Amit Varma—six of the ten entries feature debutants, while three are translations from Malayalam.

The stronghold of Malayalam isn't surprising, given that two of the three winners of the prize so far have been writers in the language—Benyamin, who won it for Jasmine Days in 2018 and S. Hareesh, who was last year's winner for his novel, Moustache.

The longlist was chosen from a wide range of submissions by writers from 16 states writing in multiple languages published between 1 August 2020 and 31 July 2021. Awarded each year to a work of fiction by an Indian writer, it gives ₹25 lakhs to the winner. If the winning work is a translation, the translator gets an additional ₹10 lakh. Each of the five shortlisted authors receive ₹1 lakh; if a shortlisted work is a translation, the translator gets ₹50,000. The jury will declare the shortlist of five titles on 4 October. The winner be announced on 13 November.

The 2021 longlist is:

● A Death in Sonagachhi by Rijula Das (Pan Macmillan, 2021)

● What We Know About Her by Krupa Ge (Westland, 2021): Read our review here.

● Anti-Clock by V.J. James, translated from Malayalam by Ministhy S. (Penguin Random House India, 2021)

● Name Place Animal Thing by Daribha Lyndem (Zubaan, 2021)

● The Plage Upon Us by Shabir Ahmed Mir (Hachette India, 2020): Read our review here.

● Delhi: A Soliloquy by M. Mukundan, translated from Malayalam by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K. (Westland, 2020)

● Gods and Ends by Lindsay Pereira (Penguin Random House India, 2021): Read our review here.

● The Man Who Learnt to Fly but Could Not Land by Thachom Poyil Rajeevan, translated from Malayalam by P.J. Mathew (Hachette India, 2020)

● The Dharma Forest by Keerthik Sasidharan (Penguin Random House India, 2020): Read and excerpt from the book here.

● Asoca by Irwin Allan Sealy (Penguin Random House India, 2021): Read our review here.

The books by Rijula Das, Krupa Ge, Daribha Lyndem, Shabir Ahmed Mir, Lindsay Pereira and Keerthik Sasidharan are all debut novels.

Commenting on the longlist for 2021, Rai, Chair of the jury, said, “We looked for the focused gaze and the unique voice, one in tune with the setting and situation in the book that despite rough edges was particular and at the same time universal."

“Our continued dedication to look for great literature beyond the narrow confines of genre means that the longlist will have something for every reader,” added Mita Kapur, director of the prize.

“With covid-related restrictions in place across the country, the JCB Prize for Literature is partnering with Amazon Books India for the fourth year in a row to ensure that the longlisted books reach people in every corner of the country,” the press release added. “In addition, the Prize is back this year with new on-ground collaborations with stand-alone book stores and Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters with the aim to provide wider access to the longlisted novels across India and create a one-on-one interaction between readers and books.”