Metaglossia: The Translation World

Par le Motu Proprio Latina Lingua publié aujourd’hui, Benoît XVI a institué l’Académie pontificale de latinité, sous la responsabilité du Conseil pontifical pour la culture. L’Académie sera dirigée par un président assisté d’un secrétaire, nommés par le Pape et disposera d’un conseil académique. La fondation Latinitas, constituée par Paul VI avec le chirographe Romani Sermonis du 30 juin 1976, s’éteint donc.

La langue latine, écrit le Pape dans le Motu Proprio, "a toujours fait l’objet d’une haute considération par l’Eglise catholique et les Pontifes romains qui en ont assidument assuré la connaissance et la diffusion, ayant fait leur cette langue capable de transmettre universellement le message de l’Evangile, comme cela avait déjà été bien affirmé par la constitution apostolique Veterum Sapientia de Jean XXIII... En réalité, depuis la Pentecôte, l’Eglise a parlé et prié dans toutes les langues des hommes. Toutefois, les communautés chrétiennes des premiers siècles ont largement utilisé le grec et le latin, langues de communication universelle dans le monde dans lequel elles vivaient, grâce auxquelles la nouveauté de la Parole du Christ rencontrait l’héritage de la culture gréco-romaine. Après la disparition de l’empire romain d’occident, l’Eglise de Rome continua non seulement à utiliser la langue latine, mais elle s’en fit en quelque sorte le gardien et promoteur, aussi bien au niveau théologique et liturgique, que dans la formation et la transmission du savoir".

Five years ago, the Baton Rouge school system extended its most popular foreign language program into Westdale Middle School, and now the small program is beginning to get recognition.

Most recently, it earned one of the top School of the Year academic excellence awards from the Spanish Ministry of Education. Westdale Middle Principal Sherry Brock and Clare Peterson, coordinator of the school’s magnet program, collected the award at a September ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The award brings with it $5,000, a one-week course in Spanish language and literature for one Westdale Middle School teacher, a set of classroom materials and two licenses to online courses offered through a nonprofit connected with the Spanish government.

Immersing children in foreign languages, while still rare, has become more of an option in Louisiana for parents interested in having bilingual or multilingual children.

In Baton Rouge, elementary-age children have long had Baton Rouge Foreign Language Academic Immersion school, formerly South Boulevard Elementary School. BR FLAIM instructs children in all core subjects in Spanish or French. The school, however, tops out at fifth grade.

Enter Westdale Middle School’s Foreign Language Immersion Program. The program has about 100 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, split roughly evenly between those taking Spanish or French. Westdale’s program is open to BR FLAIM children as well as to children enrolled in other foreign language schools in town — such as the private Baton Rouge International School.

Like BR FLAIM, Westdale Middle School’s immersion students are taught core subjects by teachers speaking Spanish or French. Math is the only exception, but Principal Brock said she’s considering finding Spanish- or French-speaking teachers who can teach the multiple levels of math required in middle school.

When you start an interpreting course one of the first things you that may strike you is how the language you thought you knew just fades away. Interpreting is an extremely complex exercise and your language skills have to be extremely solid. Whether we grew up bilingually or learnt languages later, most of us who are (or were) accepted into an interpreting program probably has the equivalent to a C2 level (mother tongue or near-native level according to the Council of Europe). But let’s face it, when we embark on our first consecutive – it feels like we just learnt our first words in that language.

So, although you are a skilled linguist, you will have to work on enhancing your language skills, and probably also the elusive concept of ‘culture générale’. But how do you do it? Since we’re not C3PO we cannot just add another hard drive or software, we just have to do it the good old way. And you probably already know it, but here’s a repetition.

Languages are continually changing, not just words but also grammar. A recent study examines how such changes happen and what the changes can tell us about how speakers' grammars work.

The study, "The course of actualization", to be published in the September 2012 issue of the scholarly journal Language, is authored by Hendrik De Smet of the University of Leuven /Research Foundation Flanders.

...more about:
> course of actualization > Dutch landscape > Historical linguists > Language > LSA > scholarly journal Language > sneaky quality
A preprint version is available online at: http://lsadc.org/info/documents/2012/press-releases/de-smet.pdf

Historical linguists, who document and study language change, have long noticed that language changes have a sneaky quality, starting small and unobtrusive and then gradually conquering more ground, a process termed 'actualization'. De Smet's study investigates how actualization proceeds by tracking and comparing different language changes, using large collections of digitized historical texts. This way, it is shown that any actualization process consists of a series of smaller changes with each new change building on and following from the previous ones, each time making only a minimal adjustment. A crucial role in this is played by similarity.

Consider the development of so-called downtoners – grammatical elements that minimize the force of the word they accompany. Nineteenth-century English saw the emergence of a new downtoner, all but, meaning 'almost'. All but started out being used only with adjectives, as in her escape was all but miraculous. But later it also began to turn up with verbs, as in until his clothes all but dropped from him. In grammatical terms, that is a fairly big leap, but when looked at closely the leap is found to go in smaller steps. Before all but spread to verbs, it appeared with past participles, which very much resemble both adjectives and verbs, as in her breath was all but gone. So, changes can sneak into a language and spread from context to context by exploiting the similarities between contexts.

In today’s world, many of us simply accept modern language as a given. English is so widely spoken that it seems almost impossible to consider that it is actually a relatively new tongue. All languages have been on an incredible journey, shaped by human migration, politics, colonialism, and war, and English is no exception. With its roots in Germany and the Netherlands, English has evolved over many years, and still it continues to grow.
Originating from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders and various settler groups, English has been developed out of the West-Germanic language groups. With the kingdom of Britain being built from such a diversity of roots, Old English was initially a conglomeration of a number of dialects, until eventually Late West Saxon became the dominant voice.
During the Middle Ages the language was shaped into more of what we see today in modern English. In 1000 AD, the vocabulary and grammar of Old English was more akin to that of old Germanic languages like Old High German and Old Norse, but by 1400 AD, the language was largely recognisable to what we see today. This alteration in the language came as result of two further waves of invasion, bringing Scandinavian and Norman dialects into the language; the Scandinavian influence simplifying the language grammatically and the Normans developing Anglo-Norman where a large quantity of modern English vocabulary has its origins.

Pidgin language is nobody's native language; it may arise when two speakers of different languages with no common language try to hold a conversation, i.e., a pidgin is a language developed by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them. Lexicon usually comes from one language, structure often from the other. It has a very simple structure and doesn’t last for a long period of time. Its complexity varies according to the communicative demands placed on it. The more there are functional demands, the more powerful and complex the pidgin is. It is used as a second language and within a very limited domain (trade).

ESTELLA-LIZARRA. Un diccionario elaborado por el lingüista Aitor Arana recoge muchos de los términos en euskera que se utilizaban en el valle de Guesálaz y en Salinas de Oro en los siglos XVIII y XIX. Este proyecto publicado por Altaffaylla en su colección Montejurra ha contado con la colaboración de los dos ayuntamientos implicados y ha logrado recabar más de 1.300 palabras de aquel euskera. En el trabajo, denominado Gesalatz eta Jaitzeko euskara. Diccionario castellano-vasco de Guesálaz y Salinas de Oro, el autor recoge los términos en castellano y los acompaña con su equivalente en el euskera atestiguados con ejemplos.

Aitor Arana desgrana en su prólogo cómo ha sido este trabajo y de dónde ha recabado la mayor parte de las entradas. "Podemos calificar de lingüísticamente interesantes los testimonios escritos que han llegado a nuestros días. Principalmente dos y nos muestran de forma efectiva cómo era el habla común de sus habitantes. La primera de ellas es Apencendaco Dotrina Christiana uscaras, de Francisco Elizalde, impresa en Pamplona en 1735 y la segunda está compuesta por los sermones redactados y usados en misa por Francisco Martínez de Morentin y Francisco Antonio Martínez de Morentin", explica. Junto a estos textos, el autor ha trabajado también con otras fuentes menores sobre botánica, toponimia y onomástica, todas ellas enumeradas en su diccionario.

CAMEROUN : Pour l'introduction du programme ERELA (Écoles Rurales Électroniques en Langues Africaines) dans nos écoles maternelles et primaires de l'Afrique en miniature en vue de promouvoi...

En effet, comment prétendre faire de la prévention contre le SIDA, lutter contre le paludisme ou la tuberculose, si l’on n’est pas correctement compris par les populations que l’on cherche à toucher? Comment enseigner les techniques de production agricole, de gestion de l’eau ou de production d’énergie, si les formateurs s’expriment en anglais, en français, ou même dans une grande langue nationale que la plupart des villageois, souvent pas ou peu scolarisés, ne parlent pas? C’est ainsi que dans son article 2, la convention de l’UNESCO note que, la diversité culturelle est une grande richesse pour les individus et les sociétés. La protection, la promotion et le maintien de la diversité culturelle sont une condition essentielle pour un développement durable au bénéfice des générations présentes et futures. Davidson, linguiste britannique à SIL (au quartier Moursal) remarque que l’idée selon laquelle l’existence d’une seule langue apporterait la paix, quelle que soit la langue, est un mythe absolu et vrai.

La nécessité de protéger nos langues et dialectes
Bien que le français et l’arabe (tchadien) soient les langues officielles du Tchad, il y a plus de 120 langues parlées partout dans le pays. Il y a 30 ans, plusieurs langues étaient utilisées à travers le pays pour le commerce dans les marchés de chaque région. Dans la région du Moyen Chari par exemple, la langue Sara se parle au marché. Plus au nord le long du fleuve Chari, on parle le bagirmi. Mais la plus populaire reste la langue arabe, langue des nomades commerçant s qui voyagent partout dans le pays. Dans les marchés de la région du Ouaddaï , on parle presque uniquement l’arabe (tchadien),comme au Guéra et à N’Djaména. Mais aujourd’hui, même l’arabe tchadien parlé sur ces marchés commence à perdre sa valeur au détriment du français. Car beaucoup ne savent pas parler le pur arabe tchadien ou soient ne connaissent pas compter en arabe tchadien. Mais là où le bat blesse, dans certaines régions, on constate encore plus la dégradation sinon la disparition des dialectes.

CAMEROUN : Les étapes suivantes sont nécessaires pour la création d’un comité de langue :1.Il faut une personne qui a la motivation de créer le comité de langue e...

Masithethe: Speech and language development and difficulties in isiXhosa...

Michelle Pascoe, Mantoa Smouse

Michelle Pascoe is a speech and language therapist and senior lecturer in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town (UCT). Mantoa Smouse is a lecturer in the School of Languages and Literatures, UCT.
Corresponding author: M Pascoe (michelle.pascoe@uct.ac.za)
IsiXhosa is the second most spoken language in South Africa and one of its official languages. Spoken mainly in the Eastern and Western Cape regions it is fitting that much of the research focusing on children’s isiXhosa speech and language acquisition has been carried out at the University of Cape Town. We describe what is known about children’s acquisition of isiXhosa, and highlight studies which inform our knowledge of the typical development of the language in relation to the acquisition of consonants including clicks and the isiXhosa noun class system. Little is known about the specific nature of speech and language difficulties in isiXhosa, and the development of isiXhosa resources for speech and language assessment and therapy is in its infancy. Suggestions are made for advancing knowledge and practice which is needed to provide a relevant and quality service to isiXhosa speakers.

S Afr Med J 2012;102(6):469-471.

Being able to communicate is a human right and essential to most facets of life. The inability to understand and formulate language and/or produce intelligible speech is devastating for children for whom academic success and development of literacy are linked to intact speech and language skills. Children experiencing difficulties with communication are prone to the psychosocial effects of low self-esteem and vulnerability to bullying. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) has been used to detail the activity limitations and/or participation restrictions that extend across the lifespan for children who have early childhood communication difficulties that are either not addressed or addressed only in the school years. These include reading and writing,

Cet articles synthétique sur les les langues africaines est les politiques linguistiques est suivi de l’article : Le cas de Mayotte . L’auteur, Gérard Galtier, est professeur au Département Afrique de l’Inalco, Paris. Référence au bas de l’article.
La question des langues en Afrique peut être abordée de multiples manières. Il existe d’abord les langues officielles (exemples, le français au Mali, l’anglais et le swahili en Tanzanie) ; ce sont généralement des langues européennes parfois associées à des langues africaines. Il existe aussi les diverses langues maternelles (exemple, le sérère au Sénégal). Il existe enfin des langues africaines de grande extension adoptées comme moyen d’intercommunication par des communautés différentes. On les appelle souvent « langues véhiculaires » (exemple, le wolof au Sénégal, qui est parlé dans tout le pays, y compris en Casamance).

CAMEROUN : Après le passage très remarquable d' ERELA (Écoles Rurales Électroniques en Langues Africaines) lors de l'Assemblée Générale qui s'était tenue...

The project has gone ahead thanks to £370,000 from charities and philanthropists after Mr Gove was forced to deny earlier this year that funding was a problem.

...

‘Every school pupil should have the opportunity to learn about this book and the impact it has had on our history, language, literature and democracy.’
The third official translation of the Bible into English, also known as the Authorised Version, was commissioned by the Protestant King James I in 1604 and published in 1611.
It became the Church of England’s official version and was spread worldwide by the British Empire. It also brought phrases such as ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘land of Nod’ to the English language.
The Right Reverend John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford and chairman of the Church of England Board of Education, said: ‘This is a fitting way of marking the seminal contribution this version of the Bible has made to our culture.
‘It symbolically places the King James Bible at the heart of the educational process which it inspired.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2144983/King-James-Bible-school-England.html#ixzz1v2yV3ATv

Un projet encyclopédique est en cours, qui marquera le champ de la traduction : l’Histoire des traductions en langue française, du 15e siècle à nos jours. Entretien avec Yves Chevrel, coéditeur du livre avec Jean-Yves Masson.

Mots-clés : traduction histoire français anthologie chevrel masson

(Propos recueillis par Camille Bloomfield)

Jusque là, pour aborder la traduction d’un point de vue historique, les auteurs s’étaient surtout centrées sur une période (celle des « belles infidèles » et de l’âge classique, par exemple, ou celle des romantiques allemands), ou sur la question plus générale de la traduction en français à travers les siècles. Le projet porté par Yves Chevrel et Jean-Yves Masson, dont le premier tome est à paraître chez Verdier à l’automne 2012, est en cela particulièrement ambitieux puisqu’il englobe, voire dépasse toutes ces approches, et retrace, à raison de quatre volumes successifs, une « Histoire des traductions en langue française ».

Lire la suite: http://ifverso.fr/fr/content/cinq-siecles-de-traductions-une-histoire-renversante-de-la-langue-francaise-0

Open QuestionShow me another »
Can I improve my language skills through translating?

That leaves the English language in the front-burner of the search for a national language and many Africans of tremendous influence and prominence continue to make covetous and adulatory gestures towards English and other foreign languages.

Africa is battling cancer with more than a million new cases every year, writes Kate Kelland

IN EMMANUEL Adu’s language, Twi people call the skin cancer that is invading his cheek and nose “sasabro”. It means a disease that eats away at you. The 73-year-old former cocoa farmer has come to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, miles from his home, to be treated with one of the two radiotherapy machines in Ghana.

....

Most of Africa’s 2,000 languages have no word for cancer. The common perception in both developing and developed countries is that it’s a disease of the wealthy world, where high-fat, processed-food diets, alcohol, smoking and sedentary lifestyles fuel tumour growth. Yet, Adu’s is one of an estimated one million new cancer cases sub-Saharan Africa will see this year - a number predicted to double to two million a year in the next decade.

How can a continent hope to diagnose and treat, let alone fight to prevent a disease that has no name? It’s a question David Kerr has been struggling with for several years. A cancer specialist based at Britain’s Oxford University and former president of the European Society of Medical Oncology, Kerr set up the charity AfrOx in 2007 to help African countries seek to prevent and control cancer.

AFRO-BRAZILIAN CULTURE
Afro-Brazilian elements are fundamental to the history of Brazilian culture. Brazil has the largest population of African origin outside of Africa, and because of this, the culture of Africa has had a huge influence on Brazil, principally in the Northeast region. Today, Afro-Brazilian culture manifests in Brazilian music, religion, martial arts, language and cuisine. (By the way, in Portuguese, Afro-Brazilian culture is called ”A Cultura Afro-Brasileira.“)

Around 400 Emirati volunteers will take part in editing a new global glossary that will standardise Arabic definitions of online e-terms, authors of the dictionary said.
"The glossary will break a big barrier because many users resort to combining English terminology with the Arabic text, so we want to change that and introduce the first Arabic technology and social media glossary," said Sami Mubarak, co-founder of Taghreedat, who emphasised that the Arabic language constitutes only two per cent of online content.

The standard form of written English spanned the period from 1300 to 1800, while French was the language of administration. Then came the Hundred Years War in 1337, and the stable United Kingdom of Edward I. Chaucer, who acknowledged English's lack of sophistication, became known by many as the father of English.
Henry IV was the first King to have English as his mother tongue. In 1415, the victory of Henry V at Agincourt promoted the language, as he wrote his letters home in English. As the language became better known, spelling came to the fore.
A big boost for the language came when William Caxton set up his famous printing press at Westminster in 1476. All books were printed in English, and so the tongue became popular.

Read more: http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Norma-Bartol-Wars-of-the-English-language-3512489.php#ixzz1tRaA2uAU