Isabella Massardo Copy & Translation

Twitter to Promote and Preserve Underrepresented Languages

admin — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:44:26 +0000

The use of the microblogging platform Twitter has become a way for speakers of underrepresented and minority languages all around the world to connect with others from the same language group regardless of geographic distances. Young people have often been at the forefront in the use of these digital tools, which can only help the process to preserve these languages.

Read here the article.

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iTranslate4.eu: l’eliminazione delle barriere linguistiche segna una nuova tappa fondamentale

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:38:24 +0000

iTranslate4.eu, l’innovativo portale di traduzione automatica è stato realizzato in seguito ad un progetto biennale finanziato dall’Unione Europea. L’Istituto di Ricerca di Linguistica dell’Accademia Ungherese delle Scienze (HAS, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) ha coordinato lo sviluppo della piattaforma, che fornisce traduzioni di alta qualità anche nelle combinazioni linguistiche più inusuali e offre fino a cinque alternative per quelle più comuni.

Leggi il resto dell’articolo qui.

Binnenkort Russisch in Europese instellingen?

admin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:07:57 +0000

De voormalige Italiaanse premier Silvio Berlusconi droomde ooit van een toetreding van Rusland tot de Europese Unie. Dat blijft tot nader order politieke fictie, maar tot morgen bestaat er alvast een theoretische kans dat er in de Europese instellingen binnenkort Russisch wordt gesproken.

Lees het artikel hier.

Arrivano i “dizionari parlanti”

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:24:18 +0000

Parole pronunciate dagli ultimi membri di comunità remote, trascritte e documentate con file audio per preservare idiomi quasi ignoti, che rischiano di scomparire, col loro bagaglio di cultura e tradizioni. Otto nuove raccolte presentate dal progetto Enduring Voices del National Geographic.

Leggi qui l’articolo di Repubblica.

Woord van het jaar

admin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:33:24 +0000

Weigerambtenaar is verkozen tot het woord van het jaar 2011. Weigerambtenaar? Jawel, een ambtenaar die weigert homostellen te trouwen. De tweede plaats was voor Arabische lente, gevolgd door plaszak.

Lees het artikel hier.

How does linguistic diversity function in Europe?

admin — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:37:40 +0000

Language and communication are part of our everyday and working lives. We use language – among many other purposes – to exchange information, to establish and maintain relationships, to structure and coordinate social action and to shape and communicate our individual and social identity. For many people in Europe, mastering the challenges of their everyday and working lives does not only involve the use of one language, but two or more. Europe is characterised by its cultural and linguistic diversity, which has a long history. Its early manifestations were visible in archaeological and epigraphic evidence dating back to the formation of the civilisations of antiquity. The public perception of this long-standing existence of cultural and linguistic diversity is, perhaps, obscured by the tradition of telling history in terms of states and national languages – giving the impression that nations, as well as the languages associated with them, developed largely independently of each other.

Read the article here.

Arabo lingua più in crescita su Twitter

admin — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:22:30 +0000

L’arabo è la lingua che ha fatto più progressi su Twitter, con oltre due milioni di messaggi al giorno nell’ottobre del 2011 contro i 99mila “tweet” quotidiani dello stesso periodo dell’anno precedente: è quanto risulta da uno studio di Semiocast, istituto specializzato nei social network.

Il resto dell’articolo è qui.

Oops: A History. When did we come up with a word for making mistakes?

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:10:09 +0000

During the Republican debate Wednesday night, Rick Perry began to explain that there are three government agencies he hopes to eliminate. Unable to name the third agency, the candidate simply said, “Oops.” When did people start saying oops?

Around the 1930s. The first known appearance of oops in print comes from a 1922Washington Post caption, apparently for a cartoon, but it’s unclear whether the exclamation carries the same meaning it does today: “Efery dog has his day, says der poet—und der same iss for goats!… Oops!” As an expression of apology or surprise at a blunder, oops begins to appear more often in the 1930s. In Dorothy Parker’s short story collection Here Lies, there are not one but two oopses. In the collection’s “Lady With a Lamp,” a character interjects, “oops—I’m sorry I joggled the bed,” while in “The Little Hours,” another character exclaims, “oops … I’ve got to watch myself.” Whoops, in the sense of oops, began appearing around the same time and can be found repeatedly in issues of Popular Science and Boys’ Life, where it was printed as early as 1929. By 1937, “Whoops!” was exclaimed in a letter by nobody less than Ezra Pound. It’s unclear whether Britney Spears’s 2000 single “Oops! … I Did It Again” has increased the popularity of the expression in recent years.

Read the rest of the article here.

Lexicographers cram ’squeezed middle’ into word of the year slot

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:04:13 +0000

After a year defined by economic turmoil, austerity and cutbacks, the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary have chosen the phrase “squeezed middle” as word of the year.

OED lexicographers on both sides of the Atlantic picked the phrase – popularised by Ed Miliband – as their first global word of the year.

The phrase beat a group of other largely politically resonant terms such as Arab Spring, occupy, phone hacking, and hacktivism – the action or practice of gaining unauthorised access to computer files or networks in order to further social or political ends.

Read the rest here.

Syrians employ a unique vocabulary to discuss the unrest.

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:00:32 +0000

The Syrian protests have not only shaped a new way of thinking. They have also created a newvocabulary. At first it seemed that this language was only used by activists who wanted to codify their speech in order to dodge scrutiny and censorship, but the new terms are now commonplace. Everyone from reporters to politicians has changed and expanded the way he speaks and this is shaping public debate around the uprising.

New definitions
Many words that existed outside public discourse before protests began in March are now ubiquitous in the news. Terms such as moondesseen, shabbiha, Aara’eer and bouk are a few examples. Moondesseen and shabbiha are the two most common words, now used in international news broadcasts, written in government press releases as well as spoken on the streets.

Shabbiha is a slang word for thugs or gangsters. The term first appeared during the 1990s when Mercedes Benz launched its S-class model of cars. Syrians called this type of car shabah (ghost), and therefore its riders were called shabbiha. This group of people, wealthy and well-connected, dominated social life in Syria and operated largely in the shadows of society. They also had impunity in the country. Analysts say that with the blessing of the leadership, the shabbiha carried out illegal activities such as smuggling.

Although Syrians whispered stories about them, the shabbiha were rarely mentioned in the media until the dissent broke out. Then, the group helped crack down on protests and it became a word to describe unofficial security forces.

“The first wave of [people who come to stop] the protests is the shabbiha who try to penetrate the demonstrators’ lines to weaken their defence and unity,” said Ruba, 27, a communications specialist who watches protests occurring in Kafar Sousseh near al-Rifaii mosque. “Then the official forces continue by detaining or dispersing the demonstrators.”

Read the rest of the article here.

“The shabbiha are always in casual clothes or tracksuit trousers,” she said. “One minute they are participating in the march and suddenly they start chasing it.”