 Your new post is loading...
"A member of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Audu Lauya, has urged ethnic groups to translate the national anthem into their mother tongues to promote patriotism and development in the country.
Lauya (PDP – Lau/Karim Lamido/Ardo Kola Federal Constituency) said this at the first edition of the Sungki Yandang Cultural Carnival in Mayo-Lope, the Lau Local Government Area of Taraba State
He said that translating the reintroduced national anthem into different dialects would promote understanding and foster unity.
Lauya advised other tribes to emulate the Yandang tribe, who sang the three stanzas of the national anthem in Yandang language.
National Sports Festival In Full Swing, Weightlifting And More Thrill The Crowd0:18 / 1:01
Keep Watching
Moment Vice President, Shettima and Governor Dapo Abiodun Arrived For Ogun 2024 Opening Ceremony0:00 / 0:00
He promised to support the youths to secure employment at the federal level, urging those who were qualified to apply in the ongoing Nigerian Army recruitment.
The lawmaker also eulogised the Yandang community as a peace-loving and dependable set of people.
Sen. Shuaibu Lau (PFP-Taraba North) pledged to facilitate the connection of the Abbare Mayo-Lope to the national grid.
Lau said the power would serve as a source of employment generation for the Yandang teeming youth population.
Related News
2024: Top 10 moments that shaped Nigeria’s political landscape
US elections, national anthem, Bobrisky top Nigeria's 2024 Google search trends
Stop condemning Nigeria, NOA urges citizens
The senator, while commending the Yandang people for their support during the 2023 general election, said that their vote ensured development, peace and stability.
He urged the Yandang people to continue to live in peace with one another.
Governor Agbu Kefas also promised to rehabilitate, reconcile and reintegrate the Yandang communities displaced by the farmers/herders conflict in 2018.
Represented by Timothy Kataps, the Secretary to the State Government, Kefas commended the Yandang community for organising the cultural festival.
He announced plans by his administration to enlist the carnival under the state’s cultural calendar.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the event attracted the people of Yandang from all walks of life as well as traditional leaders from Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba."
https://punchng.com/taraba-lawmaker-seeks-translation-of-national-anthem-into-local-languages/
"Recently, the Translators Association of China launched the Four Translation Projects initiative, encompassing expert networks, cultural outreach programs, research hubs and training initiatives in Dalian, Liaoning Province, to elevate translation’s role as a bridge for cross-cultural understanding.
According to a report unveiled at the opening ceremony of the TAC’s annual conference in Dalian, China’s translation workforce surpassed 6.8 million as of late 2024.
Du Zhanyuan, head of China International Communications Group and president of the TAC, underscored the industry’s need to embrace AI-led innovations. According to him, industry insiders need to jointly explore new growth points and promote the “proper use” of new technologies.
The conference is hosted by the TAC, the CICG Academy of Translation and Interpretation, and the Dalian University of Foreign Languages.
The host city, Dalian, was one of China’s first coastal open cities. Liaoning, the country’s northernmost coastal province, aspires to establish an opening-up cooperation hub in Northeast Asia.
“We need translation work that goes by the criteria of faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance to help the world gain a true understanding of China and gain access to the open door of our nation,” said Jin Guowei, head of the publicity department of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, in an address at the opening ceremony.
The two-day annual meeting features 27 specialized symposiums spanning AI-powered translation technologies and other fields, demonstrating the translation industry’s deepening convergence of cross-disciplinary expertise and cross-sectoral integration."
https://wap.lnd.com.cn/licc/system/2025/04/27/030511265.shtml
#metaglossia_mundus
Given the wide acceptance and understanding of the need for ASL, it's hard to believe that it was once banned in America. Yes, banned. Alexander Graham Bell, who was married to a deaf woman and had a deaf mother was one of the staunchest critics of the groundbreaking language.
"How sign language was once banned in America thanks to Alexander Graham Bell
The inventor thought sign language kept people from integrating into society.
Jacalyn Wetzel
05.19.25
Alexander Graham Bell once had sign language banned in America.
American Sign Language, known widely as ASL is something that people are used to seeing. Though everyone doesn't speak the language, we as a society understand the important role it plays in the lives of those who are or know someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. Classes are offered online, at local libraries, and even at universities because ASL is a full language on its own with its own set of rules. Given the wide acceptance and understanding of the need for ASL, it's hard to believe that it was once banned in America.
Yes, banned. In the early years of ASL, it was a developing tool for deaf people to communicate with each other and those around them. The language was developed using the natural human inclination to use hand gestures to communicate. It quickly caught on and became a cohesive language which resulted in it being taught to deaf children in schools. "There are more than 150 different sign languages used around the world that are distinct from each other and the spoken languages in the same places," Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D. says on an episode of PBS' Otherwords, of which is she is the host and writer.
A school for the deaf was established in 1816 after French educators and American advocates opened The American School for the Deaf. This school allowed deaf students from different parts of America to receive an education in a place where the kids could learn using signs and gestures instead of speech. The French educators brought French sign language which American students combined with the gestures they used at home to communicate with their family. It helped deaf Americans build community and solidify ASL as a standard language for deaf people in the United States.
Unfortunately, this level of representation and inclusive education for deaf students wasn't something supported by everyone. Alexander Graham Bell, who was married to a deaf woman and had a deaf mother, was one of the staunchest critics of the groundbreaking language. He believed that deaf people should try to "integrate into mainstream speaking culture." Kind of rude but, okay. He is a famous inventor, so maybe there was a secret invention he was working on that would help solve the obvious problem that had...already been solved? Wishful thinking.
In 1880, Bell and nearly 200 other educators convened in Milan and decided that ASL just wouldn't do. In their minds, only "oralism" would be an acceptable way for deaf people to learn to speak, oralism being a system the educators who attended the conference made up as opposed to "manualism" or sign language.
"They believed that sign language was a lesser imitation of spoken language and that deaf kids shouldn't be taught to sign in schools. Instead they created a system called Oralism, where deaf children were expected to hear by lip reading and speak by imitating the mouth shapes of hearing people," Brozovsky reveals.
The educators who created this system were all hearing except for one, which seems to have created the perfect climate for powerful people to make decisions about another group of people they did not belong to. Schools swiftly switched to Oralism instead of sign language and the results were devastating for deaf students. Sign language was not reintroduced to deaf students in schools until the 1960s. After nearly 100 years of sign language being banned in school, adults who missed the valuable education and community building were angry.
1n 1994, historian of Deaf Culture, Jack Gannon, told PBS, "Lots of those angry adults feel they've been cheated. They've been cheated out of a good education. They've been cheated out of good relationships with their own families. They feel they've been cheated out of so many things because they were restricted only to one method, Oralism. Now they're angry about that. And to be honest with you, I think they have a right to be angry."
According to Roberta Cordano, President of Gallaudet University, the deaf community didn't receive an apology for the removal of sign language from schools until 2013. She recalls to Otherwords that her mother was still alive to receive the apology for the harm caused.
"And it was only in 2013 that there was an apology issued to the deaf community for the Milan conference that declaration that spoke to banning sign language back in the 1880s. That apology to the deaf community that came in 2013 was one my mother was still alive to see, and my mother suffered because of that decree during that period of time. And my mother said, 'you know, I finally have lived to see this apology. That happened in her lifetime and it meant a lot to her" Cordano says.
But what educators didn't know in the 1880s is that learning language early in life is crucial for development no matter if it's spoken or signed. Another benefit according to the video is that kids who learn to sign from infancy, whether they're hearing or not, have increased brain development. Though sign language is widely more acceptable as a form of language now, Cordano points out that there are still gaps in teaching it to deaf and hard of hearing children. Cochlear implants and hearing aids aren't always enough to have a deaf child hear like their peers, so sometimes key pieces of language are missing which can impact learning.
Cordano wants people to understand that while there are devices that can help people hear, there doesn't have to be a choice between using one of those devices and learning ASL. She believes it's most beneficial for kids to be exposed to both so they can decide what suits them.
The university president closes by saying, "So what I recognize is that we have been so busy trying to fix deaf babies or deaf and hard of hearing babies by putting technologies on them or trying to fix them so that they'll be hearing and be able to access spoken language that we've completely missed out on what those deaf babies have to offer the entire world. A lifetime experience of hearing loss and I think we really got it wrong, the babies are our teachers in this process, they are teaching us how to live with a beauty of a visual language. How to live in a world full of visual images and visual communication. It's just a way of being that is so beneficial to everyone if you learn sign language and use sign language.""
https://www.upworthy.com/alexander-graham-bell-asl
#metaglossia_mundus
"Pourquoi ressentez-vous différemment vos émotions selon la langue que vous parlez ?... Dans un monde où plus de la moitié de la population utilise quotidiennement plusieurs langues, comprendre cette influence devient essentiel
La dimension émotionnelle des langues
La langue maternelle et la seconde langue ne sont pas traitées de la même façon par notre cerveau, particulièrement quand il s'agit d'émotions. Des études en neurolinguistique révèlent que notre langue première possède généralement une charge émotionnelle plus intense.
Les souvenirs d'enfance, par exemple, sont décrits avec plus de vivacité et de détails émotionnels lorsqu'ils sont évoqués dans la langue dans laquelle ils ont été vécus. Cette connexion profonde s'explique par le fait que nous avons initialement étiqueté et mémorisé ces expériences dans notre langue maternelle.
En revanche, la seconde langue offre souvent une distance émotionnelle bénéfique. Elle permet de :
exprimer des émotions difficiles avec moins d'anxiété ;
formuler des excuses avec plus de détachement ;
aborder des sujets complexes ou tabous plus facilement ;
communiquer dans des situations professionnelles avec plus d'objectivité.
Cette distanciation émotionnelle explique pourquoi certaines personnes préfèrent parfois utiliser leur seconde langue pour des discussions particulièrement chargées émotionnellement, comme lors de thérapies psychologiques ou de négociations importantes.
CHANGER DE LANGUE, C’EST AUSSI CHANGER UN PEU DE SOI...
Langue et identité : quand les mots façonnent le moi
Les recherches menées auprès de locuteurs bilingues mandarin-anglais aux États-Unis ont révélé un phénomène intéressant : ces personnes se sentaient plus à l'aise pour exprimer leurs émotions en anglais, leur seconde langue, car elle comportait moins de restrictions sociales. En revanche, l'intensité émotionnelle ressentie était plus forte en mandarin, leur langue maternelle...
Vers une communication interculturelle enrichie
Comprendre l'impact des langues sur nos émotions offre des perspectives précieuses pour améliorer la communication interculturelle. Dans notre monde globalisé, cette conscience peut aider à prévenir les malentendus et à enrichir les interactions entre personnes de différentes origines linguistiques.
Les professionnels travaillant dans des environnements multilingues bénéficient particulièrement de cette compréhension, qu'ils soient dans les domaines de la santé mentale, de l'éducation, des affaires internationales ou de la diplomatie.
Notre relation avec les langues que nous parlons façonne non seulement notre expression émotionnelle, mais aussi notre perception du monde et notre identité. Chaque langue que nous apprenons nous offre non seulement un nouvel outil de communication, mais aussi une nouvelle façon de ressentir et d'interpréter notre réalité."
https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/langage-parler-autre-langue-pourrait-reveler-nouveau-vous-meme-science-explique-122047/
#metaglossia_mundus
"La mise à jour de l’application Google Translate pour iPhone et iPad permet désormais aux utilisateurs de définir cette application comme leur application de traduction par défaut dans iOS. Cette fonctionnalité fait partie des améliorations apportées par la version iOS 18.4, qui a introduit la possibilité d’assigner des applications par défaut pour diverses catégories, y compris la traduction.
CONFIGURER GOOGLE TRANSLATE COMME APPLICATION PAR DÉFAUT
Pour choisir Google Translate comme application de traduction par défaut, ouvrez l’application Réglages, puis accédez à Applications > Applications par défaut > Traduction et sélectionnez Google Translate.
LES ENJEUX DE CETTE MISE À JOUR
Auparavant, les utilisateurs d’iOS étaient contraints d’utiliser l’application Translate intégrée d’Apple pour les demandes de traduction via Siri ou les fonctionnalités du système. Cette mise à jour permet donc de diriger les actions de traduction vers une application tierce telle que Google Translate, offrant ainsi plus de flexibilité aux utilisateurs.
Cette initiative d’Apple répond à une pression réglementaire croissante, notamment de la part de l’Union européenne, qui souhaite que les utilisateurs aient plus de choix en matière d’applications par défaut. Dans le cadre de la Digital Markets Act, Apple est liée à l’obligation d’ouvrir ses systèmes à des applications tierces.
UN CHANGEMENT MAJEUR POUR L’ÉCOSYSTÈME IOS
Ces nouvelles options d’application par défaut, à la fois pour la navigation, la lecture multimédia et maintenant la traduction, semblent faire partie de la stratégie d’Apple pour anticiper d’éventuels défis juridiques en mettant en œuvre des changements au niveau mondial plutôt que de les limiter à certaines régions. Cela marque un changement significatif dans la manière dont Apple interagit avec les développeurs d’applications tierces, qui ont longtemps réclamé plus d’accès aux fonctionnalités essentielles du système."
Par Vincent Castel - 20 mai 2025
https://www.iphonote.com/actu/373101/google-translate-devient-lapplication-de-traduction-par-defaut-sur-ios
#metaglossia_mundus
"Retranslating the Abbé de l’Epée for a 21st-century audience
Mardi 27 mai à 14 h 15
Uni Mail, salle MR160
Akbar Sikder is a hearing child of two deaf parents and grew up bilingual in English and British Sign Language (BSL). He studied French, translation and interpreting at the University of Manchester and now works as a French>English translator, BSL/English interpreter and as the executive director of an interpreter training center. He has published on the lack of ethnic diversity in the signed language interpreting profession and was a founding member of the Interpreters of Colour Network (IOCN), where he also served on the board. In 2022, he was awarded the IOCN Evolution Award in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the network and the signed language interpreting profession.” His retranslation of l’Abbé de l’Epée’s seminal La Véritable Manière d'instruire les sourds et muets, confirmée par une longue expérience (Paris : Nyon l'aîné, 1784), the first in 160 years, was published in 2024 by Gallaudet University Press."
19 May 2025
https://www.unige.ch/fti/es/a-la-une/conference-de-akbar-sikder/
#metaglossia_mundus
De l'auvergnat au bambara, Paris n’a jamais été une ville monolingue. Retour sur 2 000 ans d’histoire linguistique, ou comment la ville a forgé la langue française.
"Entre verlan, yiddish et bambara : les mille langues de Paris qui ont façonné le français
Published: May 19, 2025 4.46pm SAST
Gilles Siouffi, Sorbonne Université
https://theconversation.com/entre-verlan-yiddish-et-bambara-les-mille-langues-de-paris-qui-ont-faconne-le-francais-245695
Parce qu’elle concentre la plus large palette linguistique de France, Paris offre un laboratoire de normalisation et de manipulations de la langue. Dans Paris-Babel, Gille Siouffi retrace l’histoire linguistique de la capitale, métissée depuis le Moyen-âge. Collant aux usages réels, à rebours du récit national de monolinguisme, il montre qu’une langue ne se « parle » pas : elle s’invente en permanence. Extraits.
Quiconque se promène aujourd’hui dans Paris a de fortes chances d’y entendre, au bout de quelques minutes seulement, d’autres langues que le français. Peut-être même que la première langue qu’il ou elle entendra ne sera pas le français. Cuidado con el espacio entre el vagón y el andén, nous dit-on en espagnol si nous prenons le métro. Bientôt, c’est l’anglais dans les grands magasins. Cela est dû en partie à la forte dynamique touristique qui touche la capitale française. Celle-ci accueille environ 40 millions de visiteurs par an – le chiffre le plus important du monde, trente fois plus que ce qu’elle connaissait en 1950. Mais pas seulement. Bien des locuteurs du chinois, de l’italien, de l’arabe, du russe, du bambara que nous pouvons croiser dans Paris habitent bien la ville.
On dira que la chose est aujourd’hui commune, et se retrouve ailleurs en Europe, à Londres ou à Berlin par exemple. La plupart des grandes villes des Amériques – New York, Buenos Aires, Montréal – se sont construites historiquement sur l’apport constant d’une immigration diversifiée. […] La situation de Paris est un peu différente. Dans l’histoire de la France dont la ville a été très tôt capitale, elle a représenté un pôle central. Au Moyen Âge, elle était l’unique ville fortement peuplée. C’est en grande partie là que s’est construit le français, ou du moins la façon jugée la plus correcte de le parler. […]
Toutefois, siège de la standardisation du français, Paris a en réalité été tout au long de son histoire un creuset de langues, d’idiomes, de parlers divers, une véritable Babel. Ce phénomène existait déjà au Moyen Âge, mais n’a fait que se renforcer au fil des siècles.
En raison d’une histoire où la centralisation et le monolinguisme ont joué un grand rôle – « La langue de la République est le français », dit aujourd’hui notre constitution de 1958 –, la France a souvent minimisé ce caractère polyglotte et brassé. […]
Du lundi au vendredi + le dimanche, recevez gratuitement les analyses et décryptages de nos experts pour un autre regard sur l’actualité. Abonnez-vous dès aujourd’hui !
Existe-t-il un parisien ?
D’emblée, entre tribus celtes d’origine, Romains, Francs, Vikings… la ville ancienne s’est construite au gré de conquêtes et d’immigrations qui l’ont fortement métissée. Au Moyen Âge, elle parlait deux langues : le latin, longtemps considéré comme seul digne d’être porté à l’écrit, et une parole du quotidien faite d’une multitude d’usages circonstanciels. Peut-on appeler français cette parole ? La question se pose. Ce français s’invente-t-il à Paris ? Y a-t-il quelque chose comme un parisien ? Et jusqu’à quand ?
Au fil du temps, on verra comment l’identité de la ville s’est forgée dans une cartographie de villages (parler de Montmartre, de la place Maubert, de Saint-Ouen, de Sarcelles…), par l’apport des parlers régionaux (gascon, normand, picard…), ou le contact avec des langues comme l’italien (au XVIe siècle), l’anglais (à plusieurs moments de l’histoire), le russe (après 1814, puis après 1917), le polonais, l’allemand, le yiddish, l’espagnol, l’arabe, le chinois…
Aujourd’hui, si un tel chiffre peut avoir du sens, une bonne centaine de langues y sont parlées. Certaines sont très visibles, entendues, parfois apprises. D’autres sont cantonnées dans le secret des familles ou de petits groupes, ignorées de la foule des Parisiens. Il est même vraisemblable que, comme à New York, certaines des langues les plus rares du monde y trouvent certains de leurs derniers locuteurs.
Wesh wesh et Marie-Chantals
Au fil de cette histoire linguistique de Paris, c’est aussi une histoire de ses acteurs qu’on lira, célèbres ou anonymes. C’est à Paris que s’est inventée la notion de « peuple », et on a longtemps prêté au « peuple de Paris » toutes sortes d’usages parfois obscurs, du « jargon de l’argot » au javanais, avant que ses banlieues ne répandent le verlan et le wesh wesh.
Langues des chapitres médiévaux, des crieurs de rue du Moyen Âge, des escholiers rabelaisiens, des précieuses, des poissardesdes halles, des clubs révolutionnaires, des gandins, des snobs, des dandys, des titis, des gavroches, des loubards, des marie-chantals, des branchés, des stylax : ce sont mille français qui se sont entendus dans Paris.
« Paris-Babel, histoire linguistique d’une ville-monde », Gilles Siouffi. Actes Sud
Par ailleurs, capitale culturelle, « capitale des capitales » comme on a pu dire parfois au XIXe siècle, la ville a accueilli un nombre considérable d’étrangers non francophones qui l’ont enrichie, illustrée, fait rayonner, parfois dirigée. La France n’a-t-elle pas eu un roi béarnais, des reines italiennes ? Une prix Nobel polonaise, des académiciens russes, argentins, libanais ? Aux XIXe et XXe siècles, presque tous les grands artistes, écrivains, musiciens d’Europe et du monde sont venus à un moment ou à un autre à Paris. En Europe, la ville a été l’emblème du « cosmopolitisme », une préfiguration, peut-être, du post-modernisme global actuel.
De façon presque ininterrompue, les aléas de l’histoire, entre les guerres, les révolutions, la colonisation et la décolonisation, les émigrations économiques, lui ont apporté des populations nouvelles. Ce sont souvent celles-ci, oubliées, qui ont construit Paris, ses ponts, son métro, son périphérique ; elles qui l’ont nourri, lui ont apporté les ressources nécessaires, en ont alimenté les usines en main-d’œuvre, l’ont défendu. Combien de langues et de patois ont accompagné ces travaux invisibles… C’est ainsi que la ville s’est forgé son histoire unique. La célèbre « valse musette », emblème parisien, n’est-elle pas née faubourg Saint-Antoine d’un croisement d’influences italienne et auvergnate ? […]
Une langue s’invente en permanence
Que le français soit une langue ne fait aujourd’hui de doute pour personne. Mais lorsqu’on se penche sur l’histoire linguistique d’un lieu précis comme une ville, en revanche, les choses sont tout de suite plus complexes. Ce qui a été parlé à Paris dans son histoire a-t-il toujours été une langue ?
D’une part, le français n’y a pas été seul, d’autre part, ce français même y a connu bien des altérations, au point qu’on s’est régulièrement demandé s’il n’y avait pas un français de Paris, un parisien, un parigot. À la vérité, peu importe si l’on parle de langues, de parlers, de patois, de dialectes, de manières de parler… : bien souvent, ces catégories commodes ne résistent pas à la confrontation avec une réalité où les usagers « bricolent » en permanence, s’adaptent, négocient, revendiquent une identité ou s’efforcent simplement de communiquer. On ne parle pas une langue : on la manipule. À cet égard, parce que Paris a de tout temps vu se mêler populations anciennes et récentes, se fabriquer de nouveaux milieux sociaux, se tisser des échanges nationaux et internationaux, il a constitué un laboratoire passionnant de toutes sortes de manipulations, et concentre aujourd’hui la plus grande palette d’usages linguistiques de France.
Parce qu’elle est une grande ville, la capitale s’est ouverte à une multitude de langues, que ces langues aient été pratiquées par des personnalités isolées attirées par l’effervescence culturelle qui y régnait, ou par des communautés entières, émigrées pour des raisons politiques ou économiques. Aujourd’hui, l’éventail est immense, quasi hors de portée du recensement. Ce dernier aurait-il d’ailleurs un sens ? Il paraît plus pertinent d’essayer d’identifier les grandes dynamiques qui configurent en permanence les négociations linguistiques.
D’un côté il y a celles de la vie familiale, du travail, de la communication, de l’expression artistique, des études, du tourisme ; de l’autre, celles de l’exil, du passage, de la migration. Au milieu de tout cela, la construction d’identités… Et la nécessité, toujours, de se faire comprendre, de savoir faire avec les différences. Une ville comme Paris apparaîtra alors autant comme une manière de conservatoire du passé que comme un laboratoire de l’avenir. Aujourd’hui, il a été identifié que certaines des langues recensées comme étant le plus « en danger » au monde, autrement dit ayant le moins de locuteurs en mesure de les parler, ne se trouvaient presque plus… qu’à New York. Si la recherche n’a pas été encore faite à Paris, il est fort probable que ce soit aussi le cas. Une métropole ne gagne son titre qu’à la hauteur de sa diversité.
Mais il est à parier également que Paris – au sens large –, comme il a su inventer le « jargon de l’argot », le « javanais », le langage de la « téci » et la préciosité, jouera un rôle décisif dans l’invention de nouvelles formes de langage que nous ne pouvons même pas imaginer. Que fera le monde de demain de cette richesse ? Quelle sera notre Babel ?
Texte extrait de « Paris-Babel, histoire linguistique d’une ville-monde », Gilles Siouffi, Actes sud, 2025"
https://theconversation.com/entre-verlan-yiddish-et-bambara-les-mille-langues-de-paris-qui-ont-faconne-le-francais-245695
#metaglossia_mundus
Prithvi Iyer explores findings from a new Center for Democracy and Technology report that examines how weak content moderation harms Tamil speakers.
"Lost in Translation: How Content Moderation Fails Tamil Speakers Online
PRITHVI IYER / MAY 19, 2025
Technology platforms moderate content in many languages. In general, platforms under resource moderation outside of English and other major languages. Tech Policy Press has previously covered the difficulty of content moderation for low-resource languages, which disproportionately affects users in the Global Majority. For instance, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has documented this issue in the context of Maghrebi Arabic and Kiswahili online speech, finding that inaccurate moderation in these languages led to loss of trust in platforms and suppression of free speech in the region.
Building on this body of work, CDT’s Aliya Bhatia and Mona Eswah examine the case of Tamil, a language spoken by over 80 million people, constituting 1% of the global population. Despite its linguistic prevalence in South Asia and diaspora communities worldwide, Tamil is a “low-resource language,” which means there is insufficient high-quality data available to develop robust automated systems for content moderation.
The language’s deep politicization and history of erasure compound this technical limitation. In Sri Lanka, decades of ethnic tension and civil war severely restricted Tamil expression. Events like the burning of the Jaffna Library, which destroyed nearly 100,000 Tamil texts, meant that “Sri Lankan Tamil has fewer resources than other Tamil dialects.” In India, Tamil speakers have long resisted national language policies that favor Hindi and English, viewing them as threats to their linguistic and cultural identity. Given these challenges, this report examines the impact of Tamil’s status as a low-resource language and how that shapes Tamil speakers’ experience on online platforms, especially in the context of democratic backsliding in India and Sri Lanka, two countries where the language is most widely spoken.
The authors conducted an online survey with 147 frequent social media users from India and Sri Lanka, coupled with 17 qualitative interviews with trust and safety representatives, content moderators, and digital rights groups. Based on this mixed-methods approach, the report provides a few key findings:
Circumventing platform moderation
Tamil speakers surveyed for this study clarified that Tamil on social media is quite different from the traditional script, most notably by combining Tamil words with English or by “ transliterating the language using Latin characters” to make it easier to post online. Users also reported using strategies like “algospeak,” which refers to using codewords to avoid moderation. Similarly, some respondents blurred their posts to hide politically sensitive symbols to circumvent multimedia moderation.
Global vs local moderation
Interviews with trust and safety workers indicate that most Western companies employ a global content moderation strategy that is language agnostic, meaning that the policy is uniform irrespective of the language spoken in a particular market. One interviewee called this the “coverage model,” wherein the problem of resource constraints for content moderation in different languages was only addressed in times of crisis. In this “global” approach, content is often machine-translated into English, and “reviewers are not told what the original language was.” In other cases, moderators are told to translate the post into English if they do not speak the language. This is particularly concerning because machine translations can make significant errors, especially for low-resource languages like Tamil. This “global” approach is increasingly involving automated tools to help with moderation. Still, for languages like Tamil, the lack of training data, the cost of procuring these tools, and the systematic underinvestment in this field have stymied progress.
In contrast, some Indian companies reported a localized approach to content moderation where “platforms not only alter policies to better suit Tamil contexts, but also give moderators extra agency to communicate with users through blog posts, provide guidance, and share feedback with the company policy teams.” Interviewees also reported that the efficacy of localized content moderation is heavily determined by the extent ot which users with linguistic expertise proactively flag violations to the platform. The biggest challenge with this approach is cost. Hiring more moderators with linguistic expertise and/or training AI models to flag content violations despite the paucity of training data reliably is resource-intensive and expensive. Nonetheless, this approach is better equipped to deal with harmful content, which is crucial given that “sexist, homophobic, and caste-based harassment and slurs are rampant on Tamil-speaking online forums.”
Perceiving moderation as censorship
A majority of respondents believed that their online speech was silenced via overbroad moderation policies that stifled their political views. Some suspected cases of “shadowbanning”, particularly when they used politically contested symbols or words. One possible explanation for this, according to the report, is that online platforms often rely on government input when crafting moderation policies but do not disclose this to users. India’s IT Act and Sri Lanka’s Online Safety Act require platforms to take down harmful content, but the definition of “harmful” is vague and often politically motivated, leading platforms to make decisions that may inadvertently silence online speech.
So what’s next?
While this report examines the case study of Tamil and how platforms often cave under government pressure regarding the moderation of political content online, this issue is especially salient in the context of the ongoing border conflict between India and Pakistan. While both armies have been fighting each other militarily, an online disinformation war is also rampant. So, what can platforms do about this, and what role does research like this play in making content moderation policies more equitable? In an interview with Tech Policy Press, Aliya Bhatia, the report’s author, focused on empowering content policy teams within companies through their research. “Our report has been really helpful for researchers within major tech companies to make the case for language equity. Our theory of change is very much helping the internal multilingual champions or regional champions within tech companies,” she said.
The report’s findings also shed light on the resource constraints for companies when it comes to moderating low-resource languages in the Global Majority. But according to Aliya Bhatia, companies do not need to do all the work and must look towards local organizations that are creating datasets, lexicons, and other resources to fill the gap. “I think the opportunity here is to have processes within companies to actually just vet and implement these initiatives. So, you know, take away the burden or the argument that we don't have the resources to build it,” she told Tech Policy Press.
Technology companies must prioritize collaborations rather than promote a universalist approach to content moderation that may be insensitive to local realities. Lastly, the report cautions against the broad use of automated technology for content moderation, especially for languages like Tamil. As Bhatia noted, “Before scaling the use of these tools that are fundamentally going to rupture and pose barriers to people's free speech, exercise caution and consult with subject matter experts so that they can be rigorously and robustly tested.
#metaglossia_mundus
Ng has been nominated in the same category as The Three-Body Problem’s (2008) famed Chinese author Liu Cixin.
“I’ve got this honour less due to my own merit than due to the kindness of friends and the talent of translators.” (Ng Yi-Sheng)
"SINGAPORE – Singaporean writer has been shortlisted for a Japanese science-fiction award.
The 44-year-old two-time winner of the Singapore Literature Prize has been given a nod in the Best Translated Short Story category of Japan’s Seiun Awards, which honours the best in original and translated works of science fiction.
His shortlisted work is the 1,060-word short story The World’s Wife, translated by Kujirai Hisashi. The story, originally published in December 2023 in the science-fiction and fantasy magazine Clarkesworld, tells the tale of a woman whose husband’s dead body forms a new planet in space.
Ng will face stiff competition, going up against The Three-Body Problem’s (2008) famed Chinese author Liu Cixin for his short story Time Immigrant, and the American author of the Hugo Award-winning Wayfarers series (2014 to 2021) Becky Chambers, who was nominated for her solarpunk novella A Psalm For The Wild-Built.
The Seiun Awards – which means the Nebula Awards, not to be confused with the American science-fiction award of the same name – is often described as the Japanese equivalent of the Hugo Awards.
The annual Hugo Awards, which honours science-fiction or fantasy works, is given out at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. In a similar vein, the Seiun Awards is given out at the Japan Science Fiction Convention and picked by its participants via voting.
On May 18, Ng posted the news on Facebook and admitted he felt “intimidated” to be nominated alongside Liu.
He said: “I’ve been shortlisted for the 2025 Seiun Awards... First time I’ve ever been on the shortlist (not longlist) for any international affair, so I’m thrilled.”
“I’ve got this honour less due to my own merit than due to the kindness of friends and the talent of translators,” he added.
Aside from The World’s Wife, the poet and activist has written Lion City, a short story collection of speculative fiction which won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2020. His debut poetry collection Last Boy won the same prize in 2008.
Voting for the awards runs until June 30, and the winners will be announced in mid-July, with the awards ceremony held in conjunction with the Japan Science Fiction Convention on Aug 31."
By Jan Lee
UPDATED MAY 18, 2025, 05:52 PM
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/singaporean-writer-ng-yi-shengs-short-story-in-the-running-for-japanese-literary-prize
#metaglossia_mundus
"L’Association des prédicateurs musulmans à Madagascar (APMM), en collaboration avec la Fondation islamique Ansaar de l’Angleterre et l’Organisation internationale pour la science et la culture du Royaume de Suède, a organisé, samedi au Zara hôtel Ankasina, la cérémonie de distribution de la traduction des significations du Saint Coran en malgache. Ce livre épais de 362 pages est le fruit de plusieurs années de travaux acharnés afin de garder l’authenticité de la Sainte Ecriture. « C’est la première fois dans l’histoire de Madagascar qu’un tel projet est mis en place », indique-t-on. 5000 exemplaires sont à distribuer dans différents endroits, pour commencer, afin d’assurer l’accès des Malgaches au Coran.
Le Saint Coran étant déjà traduit en deux centaines de langues, cette traduction en malgache est la continuité de la mission des théologiens musulmans sunnites malgaches de « transmettre le message à l’humanité tout entière. Comme la plupart d’entre nous ne maîtrisent pas la langue arabe, il est nécessaire d’avoir cette version en langue malgache », a expliqué Oustaz Jean Claude Rakotonandrasana, théologien musulman. Selon ses dires, un enregistrement sonore de cette traduction est déjà en vue afin de permettre aux analphabètes et aux personnes ayant des problèmes de vue d’y avoir accès."
https://newsmada.com/2025/05/19/religion-le-saint-coran-traduit-en-malgache/
#metaglossia_mundus
Thousands of rulings have been translated in 3 years to improve access to justice, says SC judge at Thane law college
"SC to Translate Judgments into Regional Languages Legal Affairs PTI 19 May 2025 12:38 PM Thousands of rulings have been translated in 3 years to improve access to justice, says SC judge at Thane law college Justice Abhay Oka says regional translations of Supreme Court rulings are bridging the gap between citizens and the legal system. The Supreme Court has embarked on a significant initiative to translate its judgments, originally delivered in English, into major regional languages with the aim of making justice more accessible to citizens, apex court judge Abhay Oka said.Delivering a speech as chief guest at the graduation ceremony of Vidya Prasarak Mandal's TMC Law College in Thane on Saturday, Justice Oka said thousands of judicial decisions have been translated into many languages of the country in the last three years. Also Read - SC Grants Relief to Madrasas in UP on HC Order Advertisement "For the last 30 years, work has been done in Marathi up to the district court in Maharashtra," a release from the TMC Law College quoted him as saying. Asserting that new technology had revolutionised legal studies, Justice Oka said, "With the tools available today, it has become very easy to study law, research, understand its meaning and understand many judgments in a short time. Students must utilize these tools effectively." Also Read - HC to DEO: Act on Complaint on School Speaking on the occasion, Vidya Prasarak Mandal president Dr Vijay Bedekar underscored the need for legal resources in Marathi. "It is very important for the common citizens to have all the books, information and judicial decisions related to law in Marathi language. For this, students should come forward and convert the law into Marathi language and make it available to the common citizens," Bedekar said.
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/legalnews/supreme-court-translating-judgments-into-regional-languages-justice-oka-1879856
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/legalnews/supreme-court-translating-judgments-into-regional-languages-justice-oka-1879856
#metaglossia_mundus
Apostilles authenticate the seals and signatures of officials on documents so that the document can be recognized in foreign countries that are members of the 1961 Hague Convention Treaty.
"Hawaiʻi makes it easier to certify documents for use overseas with forms in 12 languages
Starting May 15, 2025, the State of Hawaiʻi’s Apostille and Certification Application is now accessible in 12 languages in addition to English, expanding access for the nearly one in four Hawaiʻi residents who speak a language other than English at home.
The Office of the Lieutenant Governor oversees apostille and certification requests for documents used abroad, such as birth certificates, marriage licenses and notarized papers. Each year, the office processes around 9,000 applications.
Apostilles authenticate the seals and signatures of officials on documents so that the document can be recognized in foreign countries that are members of the 1961 Hague Convention Treaty. To see a list of countries using Apostilles, you can view the Hague Status Table. (Documents can also be authenticated for countries that are not members of the Hague treaty but will instead be provided a certificate rather than an apostille).
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD
Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who led the development of the translated materials, said the initiative reflects the state’s commitment to inclusive and accessible government services.
“Hawaiʻi is one of the most linguistically diverse states in the country, and government services must reflect that,” Luke said in a statement. “Expanding access to the apostille application in 12 languages ensures that more residents, regardless of the language they speak, can navigate this process with clarity and confidence.”
The translated application is available in the following languages:
Chinese – Simplified
Chuukese
Ilocano
Japanese
Korean
Marshallese
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
Spanish
Tagalog
Thai
Vietnamese
Visayan..."
May 19, 2025 · 3:00 AM GMT+1
https://mauinow.com/2025/05/18/hawai%CA%BBi-makes-it-easier-to-certify-documents-for-use-overseas-with-forms-in-12-languages/
#metaglossia_mundus
Du 5 au 8 juin 2025, le Centre Culturel Universitaire et l’UMR LISA (CNRS / Università di Corsica) lancent la première édition de l’Università Statinale di Teatru, une université d’été dédiée au théâtre en langue corse et langues minoritaires. Un événement gratuit et ouvert à tous...
#metaglossia_mundus
"From 15-16 May the Council of Europe partial agreement, the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), hosted the “Unlocking educational opportunities in sign languages in Europe” (DeafSign) workshop at its premises in Graz, Austria. The event brought together international experts, policy makers and professionals from 25 European countries, all committed to fostering access to education for vulnerable deaf learners - including deaf signers with refugee and immigrant backgrounds, deaf children and their families and heritage signers.
Participants reviewed key findings of a Europe-wide survey comprising over 160 responses from contributors in the education and deaf communities, with the aim of developing guidelines, recommendations, and practical resources for early childhood and adult education sectors.
Among the recommendations discussed at the workshop was the call for deaf-led organisations and deaf experts – especially those with diverse backgrounds – to be meaningfully involved from the outset in developing sign language learning opportunities and assessment tools. Participants also worked on drafting key resources – including a set of recommendations for policy makers to support quality sign language education.
The DeafSign project (2024–2027) is part of the ECML’s current programme, “Language education at the heart of democracy” which focuses on inclusion, quality education, and active democratic participation through language learning. It aligns with recent developments such as the publication of the International Sign Language version of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) Companion Volume – a milestone that strengthens the visibility and recognition of sign languages across Europe. DeafSign carries forward earlier initiatives in this field and reflects the ECML’s continued commitment to supporting sign language learning as part of its broader mission to promote quality language education across Europe."
19 MAY 2025
https://www.coe.int/fr/web/portal/-/workshop-in-graz-unlocks-educational-opportunities-for-sign-languages-in-europe
#metaglossia_mundus
"Ignoring the needs of deaf Americans
MAY 18, 2025 BY RICHARD ROBBINS
Deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans are not part of Donald Trump’s vision for the country.
That was clear early on, when the administration dispensed with deaf interpreters at White House press conferences. In the months since January, that pattern has continued.
The administration’s YouTube channel terminated the use of American Sign Language interpreters soon after taking office. And DOGE-inspired budget cuts have seriously eroded support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH).
The administration’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion has dealt a disproportionate blow to persons with hearing difficulties; indeed, to the disabled community in general, critics say.
Michael Rembis, who runs the Center for Disability Studies at the State University of New York-Buffalo, recently told CBS News that “the denial of disabled people’s humanity and their voice, as well as the actions against disabled people in terms of the removal or evisceration of core infrastructure, are directly related to the … language being used by the administration.
“It is all part of a larger fear and loathing of people who are unlike themselves.”
Donna Sue Johnson, a disabled 68-year-old social worker and military veteran, told CBS reporter Stephanie Armour, “They [administration officials] want to make you invisible.”
That’s a pretty harsh assessment, especially coming from the deaf and hard-of-hearing themselves, whose struggles for access to the American dream extend back, at the very least, to Thomas Gallaudet in the early 19th century.
Gallaudet, along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, founded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Conn., in 1817. It was the first permanent institution for deaf education in North America.
With a little help from President Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the Civil War, Gallaudet’s son, Edward, established the first college for the deaf. Later, the school was renamed Gallaudet College, after Thomas.
Today, Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., is the preeminent college for the deaf and hard-of-hearing in the United States, if not the world.
The story of Thomas Gallaudet is charmingly told by sophomore Sandra Carrillo, a deaf student at Bethel Park High School, for the online magazine Bridged, created and edited by teacher of the deaf Mindy Robbins (my daughter) for the Allegheny County Intermediate Unit.
In telling the Gallaudet story, Sandra uses American Sign Language (ASL). For those not conversant with ASL, her narrative is voiced by a language interpreter.
Except now the Trump administration is putting the brakes on the forward march of the DHH community. By design or accident, the administration is pushing deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans back into the shadows.
To date, the administration has slashed programs for DHH students pursuing graduate and postgraduate degrees in science and scientific research.
The Kansas City Star reported on May 2 the loss of a multi-million dollar federal grant for Activating Change, a national nonprofit that, among other things, provides deaf crime victims with ASL interpreters.
The Trump administration has also moved to eliminate the program at Columbia University which helps train the next generation of teachers of the deaf, a huge problem considering the shortage that already exists. Maybe most portentous of all, the administration, in a clueless attempt to save money, has proposed slashing access to hearing screenings for newborns.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com."
https://www.heraldstandard.com/uncategorized/2025/may/18/ignoring-the-needs-of-deaf-americans/
#metaglossia_mundus
Graciela Mochkofsky on how Donald Trump’s executive order to make English the country’s official language succeeds where decades of right-wing efforts have failed.
"Does the United States Need an Official Language?
Donald Trump’s executive order succeeds where decades of right-wing efforts have failed.
By Graciela Mochkofsky
May 19, 2025
Of all the reasons my husband and I decided to make New York our home twelve years ago, when we first arrived from Argentina, the city’s linguistic diversity was a major consideration. Spanish, our mother tongue, was ubiquitous, and dual-language education for our then two-year-old son was easily available in preschools; he is now learning his third language, in middle school. We soon built a community of friends in which almost everyone was bi- or multilingual, speaking, at home, many varieties of Spanish, from Peruvian to Colombian, from Mexican to Dominican, along with Russian, Hebrew, Mandarin, French, Turkish, Hindi, and Arabic—and English was our lingua franca. Hanging from a wall in our home office is a framed map of Queens, titled “mother tongues and queens: the world’s languages capital,” which a friend (whose mother tongue is Jamaican Patois) printed out for us from the book “Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas.” It identifies where various languages are spoken in the borough—the most linguistically diverse urban community in the world—including Coptic, Quechua, Tepehua, Tlapanec, Finnish, Pashto, Ibo, and many, many more. For someone like me, raised in another country of immigrants, with one grandmother proficient in Guaraní and the other in Yiddish, my new country felt immediately familiar and welcoming.
The Lede
Reporting and commentary on what you need to know today.
Today, hundreds of languages are spoken in the United States. The total number is hard to establish, but it’s somewhere between three hundred and fifty (the U.S. Census Bureau’s figure) and more than a thousand. The latter estimation is from Ross Perlin, the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, an organization that has documented the presence of seven hundred and fifty languages in the New York area alone. According to the 2019 American Community Survey, around sixty-eight million people speak a language other than English at home—a near-threefold increase since the nineteen-eighties. Such extraordinary diversity flourished in the context of one exceptional circumstance: the United States was one of only a handful of countries (including Mexico, Australia, and Eritrea) to not designate an official language.
This exceptionalism has now come to an end. On March 1st, President Donald Trump signed an executive order proclaiming that it was “long past time” that English was declared the official language of the United States. The stated rationale is that “a nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society, and the United States is strengthened by a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language.” According to a Pew Research survey from August, the measure has popular support: fifty-one per cent of Americans think that it is “extremely important” or “very important” for the country to make English its official language. For some people, instituting an official language may be a largely symbolic measure, but immigrants-rights groups fear that, particularly now, it could be used to eliminate bilingual access in education, health care, and government services—that it is, in fact, a step toward official discrimination against English learners, in violation of civil-rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on national origin. Significantly, this executive order revokes a previous one, issued by President Bill Clinton, which mandated that the federal government offer linguistic access to people with limited English proficiency. Its policy guidance noted that “the same sort of prejudice and xenophobia that may be at the root of discrimination against persons from other nations may be triggered when a person speaks a language other than English.”
Why would this country need an official language? Multilingualism has been a constant in American history. At the time of European colonization, around three hundred Indigenous languages are known to have been spoken north of the Rio Grande. In and around the island of Manhattan alone, in the seventeenth century, a reported eighteen languages were in use. At the time of the Revolution, there were so many German and Dutch speakers that, in Pennsylvania and New York, the Constitution had to be translated into those languages during the ratification process. For close to two centuries, the unofficial motto of the U.S. was a phrase in a language other than English: “E pluribus unum” (“Out of many, one”).
By the nineteen-eighties, fuelled by a migratory influx from Mexico and Central America, Spanish had emerged as the most widely spoken language after English. Perlin told me that “the arrival of Spanish as a seriously important second language” hit “on a very visceral level.” It provoked a reaction against bilingual-education programs in public schools in states such as California—which had prospered under the Bilingual Education Act, of 1968—and spurred the rise of the English-only movement, which lobbied to make English the exclusive language of the federal government. (Earlier iterations of the movement had surfaced in various periods of tension with immigrant groups, including the burning of German books during the First World War; at the time, German was the second most spoken language in the country documented by the Census Bureau.)
One of the pioneers of the English-only movement was Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, a naturalized American who was born in Canada, to Japanese parents, in 1906. Hayakawa, who did not speak Japanese, was a fierce advocate for immigrant assimilation. He praised the internment camps of the Second World War as “perhaps the best thing that could have happened” to Japanese Americans because, in his view, they helped integrate them into American society. A semanticist and the author of a popular book about language, Hayakawa joined San Francisco State College as a professor of English in the mid-nineteen-fifties. His outspoken criticism of a student strike won him the support of California’s then governor, Ronald Reagan, and, in 1968, Hayakawa was appointed the college’s acting president. In that role, he earned a reputation for cracking down on student activism, a permanent appointment as college president, and a national profile that helped launch a political career: he was elected to the U.S. Senate, in 1976.
Hayakawa derided bilingual ballots as “profoundly racist,” stating that “the most rapid way of getting out of the ghetto is to speak good English.” In 1981, he proposed a constitutional amendment to make English the nation’s official language. It failed to pass, but when, after a single term, Hayakawa retired from the Senate, he became the honorary chairman of the California English Campaign, which in 1986 successfully promoted a ballot initiative that made English the state’s official language. He died in 1992, leaving as his legacy an organization he had co-founded, U.S. English, which still promotes the English-only cause.
Fed by growing anti-immigrant sentiment, new iterations of the English-only movement spread across the country, supporting legislation that eventually made English the official language in more than thirty states. But efforts at the federal level fell short, including a congressional attempt, in 1995, to enact a law making English the exclusive language of the federal government and repealing the bilingual requirements of the Voting Rights Act. It passed in the House—the Republican Speaker, Newt Gingrich, famously condemned bilingualism as “a menace to American civilization”—but stalled in the Senate. Three years later, in California, voters approved Proposition 227, which effectively eliminated bilingual education for most public-school students. (It was largely repealed in 2016.) In 2011, Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, who was later removed from committee assignments for making racist remarks, launched another attempt to make English the official language of the federal government, sponsoring the English Language Unity Act. If passed, it would have effectively prohibited federal officials from using any language but English in government communications, restricted access to federal documents, such as tax forms and ballots, in other languages, and introduced a more stringent language requirement for naturalization. It found fierce opposition from, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union, which said, in a statement, that the act would violate the First Amendment, on the ground that linguistic access is a freedom-of-speech issue, and that it would breach the equal-protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment by excluding residents from accessing government services based on their national origin.
It comes as no surprise that this decades-long endeavor has finally succeeded under Trump. During his campaign last year, Trump said, “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language. These are languages—it’s the craziest thing—they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.” It’s “ironic,” Perlin said, that the President was raised in Queens, by a mother who was born in the Outer Hebrides and whose first language was Scottish Gaelic. And yet Trump has chosen to embrace not immigration and linguistic diversity but the xenophobia that they have engendered.
Reaction against the executive order came, first, from major organizations devoted to the study and teaching of languages. tesol, an association of professionals who teach English to non-native speakers, said that Trump’s order “stands in stark contrast to our nation’s rich and vibrant multilingual and multicultural past, present, and future.” The Center for Applied Linguistics argued that “the ability to speak multiple languages is both a personal and societal asset. Multilingual individuals strengthen our position in the global economy and contribute immeasurably to efforts toward peaceful diplomacy. Students who learn in two languages have stronger educational outcomes than those who learn only in English.” The Linguistic Society of America (L.S.A.) noted in a statement that multilingualism “improves cognition and health, strengthens communities and brings families together and strengthens our ability to participate as global citizens in a multilingual world. Mandating Official English will have exactly the opposite effect.”
Paul McPherron, a professor of linguistics at Hunter College and a co-author of the L.S.A.’s statement, pointed out that the executive order offers a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist: there is no evidence suggesting that English is under threat. A large majority of immigrants learn English, and more than ninety per cent of Americans speak it very well, according to the Census Bureau. Of the eight in ten adults who told the Pew Research Center, in August, that they often or sometimes encounter immigrants who speak little or no English, sixty per cent said it didn’t bother them.
The L.S.A. also noted that when Trump’s order is viewed in the context of others he has issued during his first months in office—including one from Inauguration Day, titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”—“it appears designed in service of broader anti-immigrant goals, including the erasure of the history and culture of millions of people in the United States who are not monolingual English speakers.” The National Association for Bilingual Education argued that, at a moment in which “educators are recognizing the extraordinary cognitive, academic, and social benefits of dual language instruction,” and in which these programs are increasingly popular, “it makes little sense to step back from a national commitment to multilingual education.”
The celebratory statements of the English-only movement seemed to justify such fears. U.S. English said in a statement anticipating the order that “the need for English as a common and unifying language is greater than ever.” ProEnglish, an organization based in Washington, D.C., that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labelled an “anti-immigrant hate group,” proclaimed, “Without public policies that reinforce the English tie that unites us, multilingual diversity could well become the undoing of our country.” (ProEnglish was co-founded by John Tanton, who had established U.S. English with Hayakawa.)
But the argument that multilingualism is pernicious has long been debunked, including in a 1991 report by the American Psychological Association, which concluded that the English-only movement “can have negative consequences for the delivery of psychological, educational, psychometric, and health services for many American citizens and residents who, through no fault of their own, are not proficient in English,” and held that “the English-only movement is socially divisive and poses a threat to the human welfare that psychologists espouse.”
“Once you allow the government to control your language, it’s a slippery slope,” Perlin told me, noting a few authoritarian leaders who had tried to force monolingualism on their people. Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay between 1954 and 1989, came to my mind. Even though Guaraní is widely spoken in the country, by Indigenous and non-indigenous communities alike, it was effectively forbidden in public spaces such as schools and government offices. But “these things have a way of backfiring,” as Perlin said. Guaraní became a language of resistance, thriving in the privacy of people’s homes. After the dictator fell, it was made Paraguay’s official language, along with Spanish. Both are taught in schools, and one can hear Guaraní spoken in government offices and on streets and in plazas all over the country with a powerful vibrancy."
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/does-the-united-states-need-an-official-language
At once a science and an art, the act of translation is a fiercely humanist endeavour
Why Should a Translation Be ‘Faithful’?
Jen CallejaOpinion28 April 2025artreview.com
Paul Klee, With the Rainbow, 1917. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
At once a science and an art, the act of translation is a fiercely humanist endeavour, as Damion Searls explores in The Philosophy of Translation
When each of us looks at a work of art or reads a book, we have the same-but-different experience of it. Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach, creator of the infamous eye-of-the-beholder inkblot test, laid out a similar theory in 1921. The experience of reading ‘is miraculously and mysteriously neither objective nor subjective,’ American writer and translator Damion Searls writes in his new book The Philosophy of Translation (Searls previously published a biography of Rorschach in 2017). ‘Neither purely taking something in nor purely revealing or expressing what’s inside oneself. It is a complex interplay of the self and the world, analogous to perception – we see what’s really there in the world, but we see it, and it’s there in our world.’
As a translator, if I read and translate a poem, and ten others translate the same poem, the outcome from each of us will be subtly or radically different. This understanding of translation as a form of interpretation frees it of one of the most persistent (and vague) demands translators face from reviewers, academics and sometimes authors themselves: that it must be ‘faithful’. ‘We never say that reading is unfaithful’, Searls writes, ‘because we realise that a reading is a response, not a copy’.
When someone is reading a work of translated literature, they will often say that they are reading, say, Han Kang, Olga Tokarczuk or Franz Kafka: the original author themselves. There is something illusionary going on whereby the translator (respectively, Deborah Smith, Antonia Lloyd-Jones and Jennifer Croft) is bypassed because some readers find it uncomfortable (or simply uninteresting) that another person read (and wrote) the book prior to their reading of it. The translator will read the book possibly upwards of half a dozen times while crafting in another language the layers of meaning found in every utterance, while simultaneously making sure the new text sings as a standalone work of literature. Each translator will do this work in their own way – to echo Searls, it is both objective and subjective, a science and an art. It might seem shocking or unpalatable to some, but as Searls puts it, ‘a translation is and isn’t the same as the original – it’s the translator’s path through it.’
I didn’t fully understand all this when I decided to become a translator over a decade ago. Inspired by the lecturer who taught a module on translation theory and practice during my postgraduate degree in German Studies, I decided I wanted to become a translator of literature, so I signed up for a one-week intensive course. I brought along my ‘translation’ of a poem by Paul Celan. I say ‘translation’ in diminishing quotes because what I had produced wasn’t a translation at all. I had picked it out of an anthology and, after a cursory read, sat down with an online dictionary and worked my way through the poem, taking the lines at face value and translating them without knowing what it was that connected them or what was behind them. ‘To translate a poem’, I was told by one of the tutors, ‘you need to read it deeply.’ Another told me that ‘translating a story is writing a story’.
Damion Searls relates a similar reckoning in The Philosophy of Translation, a wide-ranging, difficult-to-categorise book that combines essays with first-hand examples from his translations of the work of figures as formally diverse as contemporary Norwegian novelist Jon Fosse (who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023), philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and poet Rainer Maria Rilke. We read in the book’s opening pages of his early burgeoning interest in translation, when feedback from family friend Edie (who – surprise! – turns out to be world-renowned Cervantes and García Márquez translator Edith Grossman, author of her own 2010 book Why Translation Matters) helps him realise that he can improve his German all he wants, but it is his skills in reading texts deeply and writing creatively in English that need cultivating if he is to become a translator. Right from this beginning, Searls invites us to think of translating literature as fundamentally an exercise in reading and writing.
In English writer and translator Kate Briggs’s 2017 treatise on literary translation This Little Art, she frames it in the imperative to just ‘do translations!’. Neither Searls nor Briggs is oversimplifying the art of translation; it is this translation of translation which allows readers and future translators to understand that translation starts with reading a story, and then attempting to write it again. The demystification of the art of translation as a mode of empowerment runs through many of the recent wave of writing by literary translators on translation: Mark Polizzotti’s Sympathy For The Traitor (2018); Catching Fire by Daniel Hahn (2022), Translation as Transhumance by Mireille Gansel (2014), translated by Ros Schwartz. In these books translation becomes pleasingly polyvocal rather than monolithic, transformed into something playful and puzzling, and translation as a practice is radically seen as primarily a humanistic endeavour.
In his introduction, Searls offers readers a choose-your-own-adventure pathway through his book, which is divided into two halves, offering them the chance to jump ahead a hundred pages and read it back-to-front. The first half is heavy on the philosophy of translation (hence the title), while the latter is filled with concrete examples from Searls’s work as a translator. I found myself at times perplexed by the space allotted to the potted history of translation and the exploration of phenomenology at the outset (yes, in spite of that title). While ticking off the usual suspects of translation studies like Friedrich Schleiermacher and Lawrence Venuti, and unpicking the etymology of the word translation, I felt like much of this book was at least partly envisaged as a single destination for linguistics and translation students. On his ‘palimpsestic history’ of translation, Searls frustratingly acknowledges the contradictions it raises in our thinking while stopping short of elaborating further, admitting that it ‘doesn’t especially help us resolve them’. I’ve read much of this before, and I simultaneously imagine it being a barrier – or an impulse to skip to the end – for many readers uninitiated in these schools of thought. Reading is subjective like that, as Searls knows only too well.
What I wanted was more Searls, and more of the humour and emotion that sometimes slips into his prose, but mostly remains hidden just underneath the surface. Searls offers up some examples from his own translation work as unpacked conundrums, but I wanted more of these throughout. The proliferation of firsthand writing on literary translation would do well to focus more on these idiosyncrasies and specifics, rather than reiterating what has been said before on the histories and theories of translation in the abstract. By taking this direction, readers and writers may be able to better relate to translators by showing them what we’re actually up to, and how it boils down to that same act of reading and writing. Whenever we read, Searls reflects, whether in our own or a foreign language, we must grow slowly accustomed to the way a writer writes; we have to learn their language and not just their language. For readers to continue to grow their appetite for and understanding of what literary translation really is, reflections on it should, I believe, focus on experience and practice rather than theory, or rather, on the vulnerability and excitement of translation. They should continue to bring into focus the various approaches and attempts upon opening a book; the false starts; pen and paper close at hand; a quickening of a pulse.
Jen Calleja is a writer and literary translator based in Hastings. Her memoir Fair: The Life-Art of Translation is forthcoming from Prototype
"Language Translators Trained to Combat False Information in Liberia
Apr 28, 2025
Campaigners Against Misinformation and Disinformation in Liberia (CAMDL), in collaboration with the Liberia Translation and Literacy Organization (LIBTRALO), has hosted a Media and Digital Literacy Training for Liberian Language Translators, ensuring that no one is left behind in combating false information.
False information endangers Liberia’s peace, rule of law, democracy, development, and governance.
Over twenty(20) Liberian Language Translators have been trained to verify online information using digital tools —ScamDoc and Google Reverse Image Search—empowering them to safeguard Liberia’s information landscape against false and misleading content.
These translators will share their knowledge and skills with citizens who read, write, speak, and understand only Liberian languages.
At the training, the Liberian Language Translators also translated a short public message on how to verify information into nine(9) Liberian languages, including Kpelle, Bassa, Gola, Dan, Gbandi, Mano, Vai, Lorma, and Krahn.
Taweh Johnson, Executive Director of CAMDL, stressed that the initiative is a big step toward promoting media and digital literacy as well as critical thinking skills in Liberia's underserved linguistic communities, ensuring that all citizens know how to verify information, regardless of the Liberian vernacular they understand.
Kolliyan Kolubah, President of the Language Association in Liberia, expressed gratitude on behalf of the Liberian Language Translators to Campaigners Against Misinformation and Disinformation and the Liberia Translation and Literacy Organization (LIBTRALO) for the training.
Kolliyan Kolubah further said Liberian Language Translators now know the difference between misinformation and disinformation and how to use digital tools and online resources to verify information.
The training was held on Friday, April 25, 2025, at the Office of the Liberia Translation and Literacy Organization (LIBTRALO) in Kpelle Town, Bernard Farm, Paynesville, Liberia."
https://www.liberianobserver.com/news/language-translators-trained-to-combat-false-information-in-liberia/article_317a68d9-1ee4-46e4-8d69-f9966d61c5ff.html
#metaglossia_mundus
Husband-and-wife lung slices? Why translating Chinese food names into English is ‘an impossible task’
By Maggie Hiufu Wong, CNN Apr 28, 2025 Updated Apr 29, 2025
Hong Kong (CNN) — Is xiaolongbao a bao or a dumpling? What exactly are “husband-and-wife lung slices” made of?
With international travel to China on the rise, thanks much in part to its friendlier tourist visa policies, foreigners will inevitably encounter some amusing restaurant menu translations as they experience the country’s culinary delights.
But those who attempt to come up with English names for these dishes aren’t to be blamed for the often unusual and occasionally alarming results. Nor are the translation apps. According to Isaac Yue, an associate professor of translation at the University of Hong Kong and a scholar of Chinese gastronomy literature, translating Chinese food names into English is simply “an impossible task.”
“You can translate shizitou (a popular dish from around eastern China and Shanghai) figuratively as ‘Chinese meatball’ or literally as ‘braised lion’s head’ but neither fully captures the dish’s essence or cultural context,” he offers as an example.
Yue isn’t exaggerating. Even though he writes about Chinese gastronomy in English, the scholar doesn’t let this work crossover into his translation teachings.
“I contemplated focusing my research on translating Chinese food but at the end of the day, all I could say about that is, well, it’s all so untranslatable,” he concludes.
‘An extraordinarily complex culinary culture’
To answer why translating the names of these foods is so tricky, one needs to look at China’s long culinary history, which has layered many dishes with stories and imagery.
Fuchsia Dunlop, a British food writer who has specialized in Chinese cuisine for over two decades, says much of the problem stems from the fact certain words don’t even exist in English.
“China has an extraordinarily complex culinary culture with a highly specific vocabulary, and in many cases, we do not have equivalent foods, cooking methods, concepts and food shapes in English,” she says.
Dunlop suggests borrowing terms in Chinese — similar to how we use French words like “chef” and “omelet.”
The multi-tonal nature of Chinese languages like Mandarin and Cantonese may make it less intuitive for some, but it’s not impossible with education.
And while recent years have seen improvements in online translation tools, Dunlop still encounters amusing mistranslations in her travels around China.
Among her favorite examples is stir-fried cabbage, which she saw translated as “handbag food.” This is because the word for Chinese cabbage, baocai, is made up of two Chinese characters. Bao means “bag,” and cai means “dish/food/vegetables.”
Dunlop also points to a translation she came across for a cookie called tieban shao. The cookie is baked (shao) on an iron plate (tieban) but the translation in English was “iron flooring cremation.”
Here, we take a look at some other puzzling dish names you might come across during your next visit to a Chinese restaurant and clear up some popular misunderstandings about certain foods.
All the dumplings
In English, the word “dumpling” is a catchall phrase, referring to everything from jiaozi, wontons and baozi to siu mai and xiaolongbao, which puzzles some Chinese speakers.
“This is an incredibly confusing subject because the English word ‘dumpling’ originally referred to balls of dough that were cooked in a stew — but now it is used for a vast range of Chinese snacks with stuffings that are nothing like an English dumpling, and all have their own names in Chinese,” says Dunlop.
Here are some distinct “dumplings”:
Jiaozi: Or just jiao. Crescent-shaped encased dumplings with fillings, typically steamed, pan-fried or boiled.
Wonton: Smaller dumplings with long, thin wrapper “tails.” The deep-fried version usually contains measly amounts of meat — no, your local Chinese restaurant isn’t being stingy — and a side of a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Although wontons are neither Cantonese (wan tan) nor Mandarin (yun tun), it’s an acceptable translation.
Baozi: Steamed pastry made with leavened dough with folds on top (these can also be flipped upside down and pan-fried, referred to as shengjian bao).
Siu mai: Should be pronounced as siu mai instead of shumai (shoo-mai), if you want to get it right in Cantonese. These steamed morsels have a thin wrapper that remains open on top. (Dim sim, a popular street food in Australia, was inspired by siu mai and named after a dialect word for dim sum used in China’s southern Taishan region.)
Tang yuan/Yuan xiao: These rice balls, which may or may not have fillings, are often sweet, but they are more accurately called rice balls than sweet rice dumplings.
Conclusion: While it isn’t wrong to just call them all dumplings, most Chinese refer only to jiaozi as such.
Xiaolongbao
The name of these beloved soup-filled dumplings blurs categories. Xiaolongbao means “little basket bao,” referring to the bamboo steamer they are cooked in.
With its unleavened, thinner wrapper, xiaolongbao resembles a jiaozi but is technically a baozi. Confused yet? Invented in the Song Dynasty, it was created in a form closer to a bao and had a thicker, leavened skin that was stuffed with a gelatin broth that liquefied when steamed.
Sometimes they are called tangbao (soup bao) in Chinese.
Conclusion: It’s a bao and a jiao hybrid.
Turnip cake vs radish cake
Lo baak gou, often called turnip cake, contains no turnip. It’s a savory patty of shredded white radish, dried shrimp and mushrooms.
Guo-qing Song, an associate professor in horticulture at Michigan State University, notes that the plant used in it is a raphanus raphanistrum subp. sativus — the scientific name of a white radish.
“Radish is one of the major vegetables (along with Chinese cabbage) in the northern part of the Yangtze River in winter,” says Song.
The mistranslation likely stems from visual similarities and regional dialects.
Conclusion: It should actually be called radish cake. You can also refer to it by its Cantonese name (lo baak gou), which is a dim sum dish from the region.
Husband-and-wife lung slices
This spicy Sichuan appetizer has a confusing misnomer: it contains neither romance nor lung. Husband-and-wife long slices — fuqi fei pian — is an assortment of thinly sliced beef offal in chili oil.
Legends suggest that the dish was originally sold by a loving couple on the streets of Chengdu.
One could easily translate it to be “sliced beef offal in a spicy sauce,” but this would lack flair and take away from the experience. Dunlop recommends restaurants stick with less literal names in cases like this.
“I think it’s fun to keep the poetry wherever possible, but sometimes you then need an extra line on the menu to explain what the dish actually is,” she says.
When consulting for Barshu, a Sichuan restaurant in London, Dunlop decided to use literal translations on the menu, allowing room for cultural context and extra information.
“You can see translation as part of a more general project to promote cultural understanding of Chinese food: as these dishes become more familiar to foreigners, their traditional names will also become familiar, just like ‘shepherd’s pie’ and ‘carbonara,’” she says.
Conclusion: In Chinese, it’s called fuqi fei pian. In this case, it’s fun to keep the original meaning in the translated name — husband-and-wife lung slices — but a description would be a nice menu addition.
Fish-fragrant eggplant
Another misleading Sichuan dish, yuxiang qiezi, or “fish-fragrant eggplant,” contains no fish.
The name was inspired by its seasonings — pickled chilies, ginger, garlic, scallion, sugar and vinegar — which were often used in traditional fish-based dishes in the region.
“Sometimes people just translate it as ‘spicy Sichuan eggplant’, which is helpful, but loses the local cultural flavor. I always translate it as ‘fish-fragrant eggplant’ anyway because it sounds lovely, and I hope English speakers will get to know this dish,” says Dunlop.
As the dish traveled to other regions around China, some started adding dried salted fish to the dish to boost its fish fragrance.
Conclusion: Though not accurate, let’s stick with fish-fragrant eggplant. It’s a delicious dish with a fun backstory.
Pineapple buns
Called bo lo baau in Cantonese, these popular bao don’t actually contain any pineapple.
A traditional baked good from Hong Kong, the pineapple bun features a sweet milk bread base. Its exterior crust is made of lard or butter, sugar, flour, milk powder, baking soda, baking powder and egg, resulting in a crackled surface when baked.
The name comes from the bun’s checkered pattern, which resembles a pineapple peel.
It’s typically enjoyed plain or with a thick slab of butter in the middle (bo lo yau/pineapple butter).
Conclusion: Pineapple bun is an ok translation, though pineapple lovers might be disappointed when they bite into one.
Buddha jumping over the wall
Fotiaoqiang is a sumptuous soup from Fujian province that’s known for its lavish ingredients, including abalone and sea cucumber.
The dish is said to have an aroma so alluring and it tempted a vegetarian monk to leap over a temple wall just to find out what the smell was.
Conclusion: Both fotiaoqiang and “Buddha jumping over the wall” work well for an English menu and add a fun bit of historic flavor.
Lion’s head
In a collection of anecdotic essays by Xu Ke written during the Qing Dynasty, he said of one dish, “The lion’s head, named by reason of its resemblance — a pork meatball it is.”
Shizitou, in Mandarin, originated from the northeastern part of China and became particularly popular in Huaiyang, a province near modern-day Shanghai.
These balls are made up of minced pork, sometimes mixed with diced water chestnuts, mushrooms and soaked mantou (bao without fillings) to enhance the texture. They’re often deep-fried then braised in a broth or a claypot.
Conclusion: It might be more accurate to name this one based on its cooking method, such as braised lion’s head, and provide some added details on the ingredients.
What about American Chinese dishes?
Chinese-speaking fans of American Chinese food may have noticed that restaurant menus in the US often present different English spellings and pronunciations of dishes that are now widely known by their Chinese names.
It’s crucial to understand that Chinese cuisine is made up of a myriad of regional foods from places that have their own local dialects and cultures.
Many early Chinese dishes exported to foreign lands through migration were localized and romanized according to regional dialects, much like a game of broken telephone, depending on which group of Chinese immigrants first introduced the dish.
This explains the pronunciations of some famous American Chinese dishes like chop suey (which would be pronounced as zasui in Mandarin or zap sui in Cantonese) and chow mein (chao mian in Mandarin or caau meen in Cantonese). These two beloved dishes were most likely romanized from Taishanese, a dialect in the Canton area, where many early American Chinese immigrants came from.
For people who question whether we should standardize the names of these dishes, Yue serves up Peking duck as an example.
“There was this movement to rename the Chinese capital city from Peking to Beijing many years ago,” he says. “That worked, but Peking duck is still Peking duck. As a food item, it’s already been recognized as Peking duck — let’s not mess with that.”
With more Chinese traveling abroad, translation errors can go both ways. For instance, one Mandarin-speaking CNN staffer recalls seeing an amusing mistranslation for “turkey breast” in an airport lounge — in Chinese, the dish was labeled tuerqi rufang (Turkish boobs).
Yue emphasizes that the purpose of a translated menu is simply to appeal to potential diners and make a dish comprehensible.
“Translation does matter to culture, but we shouldn’t have a limited mindset about what culture is. Mistranslation can be just as culturally enriching — if not more so — than a proper translation.”
The-CNN-Wire"
#metaglossia_mundus
Héctor Díaz, beneficiario de Beca 18 y fundador de la plataforma Konlap, perfeccionará su proyecto digital Gaia en Estados Unidos con apoyo de la Magnificent Fellowship.
" JUEVES 08
Universitario peruano crea traductor de lenguas originarias y gana prestigiosa beca internacional
Héctor Díaz, beneficiario de Beca 18 y fundador de la plataforma Konlap, perfeccionará su proyecto digital Gaia en Estados Unidos con apoyo de la Magnificent Fellowship.
Héctor Díaz Gómez, joven de 21 años natural de Luya Viejo, Amazonas, fue seleccionado para recibir la prestigiosa Magnificent Fellowship, una beca internacional impulsada por el fondo Hummingbird Ventures. Gracias a este reconocimiento, desarrollará su nuevo proyecto digital Gaia, una plataforma basada en los principios de la Web3 que busca integrar datos y traducir lenguas poco representadas en internet, incluidas nueve lenguas originarias del Perú.
Díaz, estudiante de Economía en la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú gracias al programa Beca 18 del Pronabec, ya había captado atención internacional con Konlap, una herramienta de traducción multilingüe que ha logrado abarcar 107 idiomas, entre ellos el quechua, aimara, shipibo-konibo, wampis y ashaninka. Konlap emplea inteligencia artificial para brindar resultados en distintos formatos —noticias, imágenes, videos, enlaces— adaptados a cada idioma.
El creador de Konlap inició este proyecto en 2021 y recibió apoyo inicial de la Emergent Ventures del Centro Mercatus, en la Universidad George Mason (EE. UU.). En la actualidad, se encuentra en Estados Unidos para impulsar Gaia, un ecosistema digital que busca democratizar el acceso a datos y construir una economía basada en servicios lingüísticos e información en múltiples idiomas.
“Gaia permitirá que proveedores de servicios de datos se conecten en una red global donde se valore la diversidad lingüística y se creen oportunidades equitativas tanto para consumidores como para empresas”, explicó Díaz. La mentoría que recibe como parte de la beca se extenderá por dos años y le brindará acceso a redes de emprendedores, capital semilla y asesoría de inversores internacionales.
Además de sus logros tecnológicos, Héctor Díaz estudia actualmente italiano, francés y árabe. También ha sido nombrado embajador del Pronabec, organismo al que atribuye gran parte de su crecimiento personal y académico. “Todo lo que he logrado hasta ahora se lo debo a Pronabec”, señaló. “Me enorgullece ser parte de los más de 86 000 jóvenes que han transformado su vida gracias a Beca 18”.
https://panamericana.pe/locales/442272-universitario-peruano-crea-traductor-lenguas-originarias-gana-prestigiosa-beca-internacional
#metaglossia_mundus
"Professor of History Behnaz Mirzai’s new book is shedding light on the history of slavery in the Middle East.
For decades, the story of Mahboob Qirvanian sat untold, leaving its historical significance unrecognized — until now.
Born in Tunisia in 1894, Qirvanian was enslaved as a child and brought to the Middle East in the time of the Ottoman Empire. He documented his experiences, writing in Farsi and Arabic, but his words remained unread and untranslated as time went on.
That is, until Brock University Professor of History Behnaz Mirzai came upon his text.
Qirvanian’s narrative — the only known account by a former African slave in Iran — was the missing piece in Mirzai’s career-long research into slavery and the African diaspora.
She translated and transcribed his writings and is now sharing his history with the world in her new book, The Life of an Enslaved African in the Ottoman Empire and Iran: The Autobiography of Mahboob Qirvanian, published May 2 by University of Toronto Press.
A trailblazing researcher in the study of slavery in Iran, Mirzai has authored several books and produced and directed two documentary films on the subject. Her latest project reflects her deep insights into Middle Eastern history.
The text weaves Qirvanian’s memoir with contextual writing and imagery, including maps and photos, and overviews of historical geopolitical structures.
Mirzai’s connection to Qirvanian began when she came from Iran to Canada in 1997 as a researcher with the Nigerian Hinterland Project under the UNESCO project Routes of Enslaved People.
She was approached by Qirvanian’s grandson who brought forward his grandfather’s papers.
The documents were handwritten in Farsi, and of the group, only Mirzai could translate it.
When she first scanned the documents and started reading, the historian did not know how important the text would end up being.
“I started putting the pieces together, first transcribing the work in Persian and then in English. I researched the areas and people referenced and realized how significant this text might be; it was authentic, lived experience lining up with historical facts,” she said.
Through his memoir, Qirvanian explained the enslavement process in Africa and how he came to Iran, including the timing of when he was taken to the Middle East.
“It was a time of great transition in the geopolitical condition of the Middle East before the First World War,” she said. “After the war, the map of the Middle East changed, but up until that time, it was Arabia (modern day Saudi Arabia) under the Ottoman Empire.”
Qirvanian stayed under the Ottomans and was bought and sold many times, his name changed under each transaction.
When he was bought for the last time, Qirvanian was brought to Iraq by leaders of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution who invited him to live alongside them in their seminary.
“They put him in school, where he learned mathematics as well as several languages, including Persian, Arabic and French,” Mirzai said. “Even though he was serving them, Qirvanian was not treated like a traditional slave — they called him ‘our child.’”
It was not a typical slave-master relationship, she said, but one of patronage and respect.
The first-hand account of slave interactions with high-ranking Middle Eastern individuals sheds light on how the concept of race at that time in that part of the world differs from other places.
Afua Cooper, Inaugural Distinguished Professor of Black Canadian and African Diasporas Histories, and Feminist Epistemologies, University of Toronto Scarborough, said reading Mahoob Qirvanian’s autobiography, at times, brings tears to the eye and breaks the heart.
“We are used to slave narratives from the Americas and Western Europe, but here for the first time is a narrative of an enslaved African coming from the world of the Persian Gulf. With this intervention, Behnaz Mirzai has made an immense contribution to global scholarship and to the field of slave narrative,” Cooper said.
For Mirzai, sharing this once-hidden history is the outcome of her life’s work.
“I was inspired by the political and socio-economic changes, by my multi-ethnic background and by my past to understand the experiences of others, which let me bear witness through my research to peace, equality and justice for all humankind.”"
By Gillian Minaker
MAY 07, 2025
https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2025/05/newly-translated-text-unearths-history-of-slavery-in-the-middle-east/
#metaglossia_mundus
"LA OBRA DEL ÁREA DE LINGÜÍSTICA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE JAÉN (UJA) RECOPILA HASTA LA FECHA 490 TÉRMINOS SOBRE EL SECTOR DE LA OLIVICULTURA
La profesora de Lingüística General de la Universidad de Jaén, Mercedes Roldán Vendrell, ha hecho una demostración práctica de búsqueda de términos del aceite de oliva en la segunda edición segunda edición ampliada y actualizada del Diccionario de términos del aceite de oliva (DTAO), en formato electrónico, de la que es autora.
La edición digital del DTAO (web Olivaterm) se ha llevado a cabo para facilitar el acceso rápido y universal a la información y la transferencia eficaz del conocimiento en cuatro lenguas (español, inglés, francés y chino). Las principales novedades de esta 2ª edición del diccionario, con respecto a la 1ª edición impresa, son su formato electrónico y la incorporación de la lengua francesa como nueva lengua de consulta. Esta plataforma digital supone un verdadero avance en la transmisión dinámica del conocimiento especializado en olivicultura y elaiotecnia, y permite la visualización de la información en un entorno atractivo y de fácil utilización”, afirma la profesora Mercedes Roldán.
Hay que recordar que en 2013 se publicó el Diccionario de términos del aceite de oliva (español-inglés-chino) (Roldán Vendrell, Madrid: Arco Libros: 2013), primer diccionario multilingüe especializado en esta materia, que constituye en la actualidad una obra de referencia para resolver dudas y responder a los interrogantes que se plantean en el uso de esta terminología en sus tres lenguas de consulta y que ha recibido el reconocimiento unánime de numerosos especialistas del ámbito de la terminología. “Para avanzar la transferencia de conocimiento especializado en olivicultura y elaiotecnia, hemos trabajado en una solución tecnológica multicanal que hace posible una mayor y más eficaz transferencia al sector empresarial: el diseño y desarrollo de un sitio web adaptativo (responsive web design), es decir, que permite el acceso a la información en cualquier contexto de uso, tanto desde un ordenador, como desde dispositivos de mano”, ha explicado la investigadora de la UJA.
La nueva edición digital del diccionario lo hace accesible a un amplio perfil de usuarios: empresarios y profesionales del sector oleícola, particularmente comerciales, que necesitan ) información terminológica en las lenguas meta del trabajo para sus transacciones comerciales; instituciones y organizaciones nacionales e internacionales relacionadas con el sector; mediadores lingüísticos (traductores e intérpretes, periodistas y redactores de prensa especializada/no especializada, comunicadores y divulgadores); profesionales del marketing agroalimentario; científicos e investigadores de cualquier área científico técnica relacionada con este ámbito; la comunidad científica de lingüistas especializados en Terminología y lenguajes de especialidad; consumidores de los productos elaborados por las industrias del sector.
El Diccionario multilingüe del aceite de oliva (web Olivaterm) actualiza la información compilada en el DTAO, con garantías de rigor en la gestión terminológica, incorporando nuevos términos acuñados en el ámbito en los últimos años (hasta un total de 490 términos hasta la fecha), además de sumar el francés a las lenguas de consulta. La herramienta está disponible en la dirección https://olivaterm.ujaen.es, así como a través de la web del Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Olivar y Aceite de Oliva (INUO) de la Universidad de Jaén (https://inuouja.com/).
“Con esta 2ª edición electrónica del diccionario, confiamos contribuir al avance en materia de estándares de comunicación multilingüe, a la proyección internacional de la actividad desempeñada por las empresas del sector y a la divulgación del patrimonio inmaterial de este lenguaje de especialidad y de su legado cultural”, ha afirmado Mercedes Vendrel."
https://almadepueblos.es/2a-edicion-del-diccionario-del-aceite-de-oliva/
#metaglossia_mundus
"The Feminine Translation Bible receives award from Religion Communicators Council
The Holy Bible Feminine Translation, the only word-for-word translation that translates the Holy Spirit to the feminine gender, received the Award of Merit from the Religion Communicators Council.
The Holy Bible Feminine Translation Expanded Edition 2 was published July 2024 in paperback and digital pdf by Mark 7 Publishing.
The Holy Bible Feminine Translation Version (FTV-Bible) is a word-for-word translation containing bias free Scriptures that uses the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV) for its starting textual base. The ASV is the product of the work of over 50 Evangelical Christian scholars that has been called “The Rock of Biblical Honesty.” The goal of this Bible is to carry forward this legacy of biblical Honesty with recognition of the dual feminine attributes of God as well as His dual masculine attributes.
The FTV-Bible is a result of interpreting and translating the Bible through the Discipline of the Cross of YHWH, written 6,876 times, pronounced Yahweh. The Study section shows the cross is a consistent destination of seven Sprits of God that deciphers Bible text called Jesus’ Witness Cipher.
Bridging Beliefs in the HOLY BIBLE Feminine Translation Version
A Bridge to Gender Balance
The Divine Feminine is a spiritual and philosophical concept representing the feminine counterpart to traditionally patriarchal and masculine frameworks in religion, culture, and energy systems. The Divine Feminine in this Feminine Translation Bible can be seen as the dual feminine attributes of God. The Most-High Holy Spirit of Light, heavenly Mother of the Son of God, and Sons of Light, plus the earthly mother of all living humans, serve as a bridge to counterbalance gender in this Bible.
An Earth to Heaven Bridge
This Bible was translated through the Discipline of the Cross, where on the foot it is written: Behold—I am —YHWH —the God of all flesh. (Jer 32:27) All living humans are translated to be children of our Father God through His divine feminine daughter Eve, the mother of all living humans (Gen 3:20) whom we are all natural descendants on the foot of an Earth to Heaven Bridge— the Tree of Life Cross.(Cipher 3) She bruised the head of the serpent when she birthed her God appointed seed, Seth, who began the righteous line of all the “elect” Patriarchs in Luke’s ascending genealogy of Jesus Christ.(Cipher 31) The Elect are those predestined to be saved. (Cipher 36)
Numbered Bridges (Study section)
There are 15 crosses numbered 77 77 77 77 in the Old Testament, that together is a bridge of understanding for Israel to the 77 77 77 77 Genealogy Cross of their Messiah, who begins the New Testament. These bridges are previously hidden signs that the Jews demanded, while the Greeks looked for wisdom (1Cor 1:22) The number 77 is the signature number of Jesus Christ. (Cipher 48)
A 6,000 Year Bridge (Study section)
Jesus Witness Cipher is a timeless phenomenon for deciphering Bible text that teaches one how to SEE and visually perceive Scripture through the Cross. This previously hidden, recurring, phenomenon is timeless, because it has consistently structured Scripture that bridges a period of 6,000 years using 40 different human authors. Validated with the Discipline of Biblical Numbers, this timeless Cipher bears witness of a single divine author of the Bible 77 times. It illustrates how the Cross is the consistent destination of Seven Spirits of God, that answer seven questions in divine order, that seamlessly bridges the Old Testament to the New Testament.
Since 1949, the Wilbur Awards have been presented annually to recognize excellence in the communication of religious issues, values, and themes in public secular media.Through the awards, the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) recognizes the work of individuals, production companies and agencies as they communicate about religious issues, values and themes with professionalism, fairness, respect and honesty.
Past winners include Morgan Freeman, Oprah Winfrey, Jane Pauley, Mister Rogers, CBS Sunday Morning, ABC’s 20/20, Meet the Press, Vanity Fair, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the New York Times.
The Award of Merit is the level of recognition provided by the Religion Communicators Council, for work deemed meritorious and worthy of acknowledgment
Mark 7 Publishing
RNS Press Release Distribution Service
May 8, 2025
https://religionnews.com/2025/05/08/feminine-translation-bible-receives-award-from-religion-communicators-council/
#metaglossia_mundus
As Wordly marks six years of growth, reaching over 3,000 customers and 4 million users in more than 60 countries, CMW sits down with CEO and founder Lakshman Rathnam to explore how his real-time AI translation platform has expanded beyond conference halls. It has become a global tool for everyday communication, civic engagement, and community connection. From conference rooms to communities Originally developed to streamline translation in international conferences, Wordly has grown into a platform that enables real-time, AI-powered translation across both virtual and in-person meetings. Users can scan a QR code with their phone and instantly access text or audio translations in their preferred language whether they’re in a boardroom, a city council meeting, or a house of worship. “We’re used widely in corporate and association meetings, but we’re increasingly being used in government offices, city halls, and community events,” says Rathnam. “Our aim is to be the default solution in these settings.” With support for 60 languages and more being added Wordly can provide simultaneous translations to large, diverse audiences. The platform also records transcripts, supports post-event summaries, and works across platforms like Zoom, while still being optimised for live, in-person settings, something Rathnam says sets it apart from tech giants like Microsoft and Zoom. A vision sparked by a communication breakdown Rathnam’s idea for Wordly began during a tech conference in Japan, where he struggled to communicate with attendees. It was a turning point for someone who had already spent decades in tech, including roles at Apple (working on the first iPod), Amazon, and HP. “I’d worked on hearing aids too, because I wanted to give something back,” he says. “But it was in Japan, unable to connect with people, that I realised the urgent need for real-time translation. That was the seed for Wordly.” Reaching the people who need it most The tool is making a visible impact in communities with large non-English speaking populations, particularly in California, where civic engagement can be hindered by language barriers. “In places like Las Vegas, where over 40% of the population is Spanish speaking, our platform has allowed people to attend town hall meetings and speak directly to the elected officials,” says Rathnam. “That’s the real impact, enabling people to express themselves freely.” As demand for translation grows globally, legal mandates are also pushing adoption. “In Canada, Bill 96 now requires French and English accessibility in meetings. In the EU, language accessibility is becoming standard for all public meetings,” he explains. “These regulations are positioning tools like ours as essential infrastructure.” Growing a global business While conferences remain Wordly’s strongest market thanks to their short duration, diverse international audiences, and the ability to quickly gather feedback, the company has steadily expanded into broader business and community use. Operating on both B2B and B2C models, Wordly is now being adopted by organisations seeking cost-effective, scalable alternatives to traditional human translation services, which can be expensive and difficult to coordinate, especially at scale. “A city clerks’ conference in California told us how valuable the tool was during a translator shortage,” Rathnam says. “That’s exactly the kind of problem we’re here to solve bridging gaps in real-time, without logistical barriers.” More than just a tool Rathnam credits his team for building the technology, noting, “I had the vision, but they brought it to life.” For him, the most rewarding aspect isn’t the business growth, it’s seeing the human impact. “Seeing someone use Wordly to speak up in their community, share a concern, or ask for help, that’s what matters most,” he says. “Our mission is to make this tool accessible and prominent across the world.” Looking ahead When asked about the future, Rathnam is both realistic and ambitious. “Given how fast AI is moving, it’s hard to predict where we’ll be in five years. But our goal is to become the default solution for all types of meetings – civic, business, or entertainment,” he says. “We’re already seeing this in movies and TV with subtitles. Why not real-time meetings too?” Despite uncertainties around global politics and economics, including U.S. tech policy and the international investment climate, Rathnam remains optimistic. “There’s a lot of movement, and language accessibility is increasingly recognised as a right. That only strengthens our mission.”
https://www.c-mw.net/the-future-speaks-every-language-worldly-ai-translation-aims-to-lead-it/
#metaglossia_mundus
Google is testing a major update to its search engine interface, which could steer more users towards an AI-powered search experience.
"Google’s New AI Search Feature Is Here! Here’s How It Will Change Your ‘Search’ Experience
After typing a query, selecting “AI Mode” opens a chat interface like the one used by ChatGPT and Gemini. It is common for Google to perform tests on its products that its general users never get to experience.
Astitva Raj
Updated: May 18, 2025 17:50 IST
---
Google is testing a major update to its search engine interface, which could steer more users towards an AI-powered search experience. This week, some users on the Google.com site observed that the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button beneath the search bar had been swapped out for a new one labeled “AI Mode.” Selecting the “AI Mode” option after entering a text query takes the user to an AI chatbot interface resembling ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Barron’s managed to explore the new design of Google’s home page this week. Google representatives have commented that the company ‘frequently tries out various ways for people to use our helpful features.’ There are many similar experiments too and this one is only available to Labs users. A ‘AI Mode’ button has recently appeared for some users accessing Google.com.
---Advertisement---
After typing a query, selecting “AI Mode” opens a chat interface like the one used by ChatGPT and Gemini. It is common for Google to perform tests on its products that its general users never get to experience. However, it looks like the company is paying proper attention to this test. In a recent interview, Sundar Pichai announced that Google could soon introduce AI Mode as a main feature for users. On the All-In podcast on Friday, Pichai explained that they are testing a new set-up called AI Mode for search.
---Advertisement---
In ‘AI Mode,’ you get to use AI for all your searching and follow up with further questions. Recently, Wall Street has been debating what Google’s search will look like in an AI-dominated future. Shares in the Alphabet Group dropped 6.9% in the previous week after Eddy Cue, an executive for Apple, stated in court that · searches through Apple’s Safari browser were down for the first time ever in April because of AI chatbots. The statement encouraged greater concern among investors that Google’s dominance in search could soon change. Shares have gone up by 9% this week as interest in tech has increased and investors get ready for Google I/O next week."
https://news24online.com/tech/googles-new-ai-search-feature-is-here-heres-how-it-will-change-your-search-experience/565283/
#metaglossia_mundus
|
Scoop.it!
