Two fascinating blogs for geeks & language buffs Topics: Languages, Insights, Networked World, Communications GeekPress This blog has a slight resemblance to a SlashDot minus the comment threads. Lots of pointers to interesting items about tech, science fiction, and geek culture. Among couple of the recent pointers were Minesweeper: The Movie and the Language Trainers Blog on The top 10 hand gestures you'd better get right. (Note: Some of the hand gesture examples are considered rude, vulgar, or obscene in various parts of the world. The examples are a good reminder that body language can vary greatly around the world.) Language Log concentrates upon languages (not only English) and how they are used. It is more academic in tone than the GeekPress blog. Among the recent postings was one mentioning an article in The Guardian about the myth of "Mars-Venus" gender differences in language use. J.D. Abolins

30.9.07 06:12 Permalink / comment

Free Online Hebrew Lessons, including Lesson for Computer Terms Topics: Languages, Interesting Tech, Networked World, Hebrew, עברית, Education, Computing Jacob Richman is offering online Hebrew lessons at http://www.learn-hebrew.co.il/ The lessons are available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Dutch versions. Richman has also posted video slide show & audio lessons on Hebrew computer terms on TeacherTube and YouTube. J.D. Abolins

24.6.07 18:23 Permalink / 6 Comments / comment

Translations: "Getting it Right" Guide on the ATA Site Topics: Languages The American Translators Association (ATA) site is offering "Getting it Right" [PDF] guide. This guide is designed to help people and businesses better understand what they should consider when having documents translated. It offers some good insights into the challenges of translation and some common pitfalls. Among the the cautions is one about differences in typography among languages. Sometimes, it can seem trivial to skip the accent marks and other conventions in non-English typography. Yet, these can have significant impact. The booklet gives this example of what can happen leaving out a tilde in Spanish: "A bilingual banner in the US celebrated 100 anos of municipal history. Año is year; ano is anus." My observation: The typographic conventions warning also applies to numbers. One might think, "numbers are universal, independent of language". Oh, there are still significant differences in notations. Among them, are the decimal indicator and the thousands separator. In some countries, including the US & UK, a decimal point is used and the thousands separator is a comma. Other countries, use the reverse. Not matching the conventions properly can cause problems when dealing with numbers such as 1.234 and 1,234. (Hint: for critical figures, including at least one decimal place might help. E.g.; 1,234.00 or 1.234,00) Another good warning is "... do not use raw computer output for anything out-bound without the express agreement of your clients. It is simply not suitable: you run the risk of looking inarticulate. Even stupid." Translation software and machine translation Web sites, such as translate.google.com, can be useful for "in-bound" translation where you're trying to get an idea of what a foreign language text is saying. But even then, I've learned, one should be careful about jumping to conclusions based upon these translations. Putting my foot in my mouth around the world, J.D. Abolins

28.1.07 05:20 Permalink / comment

Reference: Stallman's List of "Confusing" Words Regarding Software & Such Topics: Languages, Interesting Tech Richard Stallman's list of "Some Confusing or Loaded Words and Phrases that are Worth Avoiding" is a good thought provoker. Agree or disagree with Stallman's views, this list can help the reader realise what some commonly-used software terms, such as vendor, consumer, intellectual property, and piracy, imply. In most case, Stallman suggests alternate words and phrases. J.D. Abolins

15.1.07 21:41 Permalink / comment

LSSU's 2007 "Banished Words" List (and a List Recommending New Dutch Words) Lake Superior State University in Michigan, USA released it's latest edition of the annual List of Words and Phrases Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. Among the words and expressions recommended for banishment are: "Gitmo" for US's Guantamano Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Personally, I have no objections to the nickname itself. It's been in common use by US military personnel. There may be an issue with how some civilians use military slang to sound "cool". But that's a topic for future musing. Combined celebrity names, such as Brangelina and Bennifer "Awesome" for all kinds of less than awe-inspiring things. "We're pregnant" as stated by some heterosexual couples. When the man pushes out a baby, the statement would be accurate. Otherwise, it's more correct to say, "We're both expecting." "Undocumented alien" for illegal aliens. To me, this phrase is a euphemism to downplay the legal issues, as though the documentation was somehow held up in the postal mail. "Truthiness" "Search" because most people "Google" for information on the Internet. But I don't believe that MSN, Yahoo, Ask.com and may others would agree. Also, would SAR -- Search and Rescue -- units become "GAR" units? ) and, my favourite, "Boasts" as used in some real estate advertisements. E.g.; "master bedroom boasts his-and-her fireplaces". As the person who suggested it for the list noted, it's "never 'bathroom apologizes for cracked linoleum,' or 'kitchen laments pathetic placement of electrical outlets.'" I've always suspected those master bedrooms having a superiority complex. You can comment on the 2007 list, suggest words and expressions for the 2008 list and browse the archives for earlier banished words lists. From Michigan seeking to banish words, over to the Netherlands where the media seeks to add words... The BBC reports on a list in the Netherlands calling for new words to be added to the Dutch language. The Dutch media is boycotting "Het Groene Boekje" (the "Little Green Book", the official Dutch spelling guide) and has been compiling their own "Witte Boekje" ("White Booklet". The actual name for the White Booklet is "Spellingwijzer Onze Taal" - "Spelling Guide of Our Language" The English language Wikipedia page for the "White Booklet" explains the boycott. One of the issues seems to be the inclusion of new words coined by media to describe news phenomena. Among them are: "blowverbodborden" for notices prohibiting the use of "soft drugs", such as marijuana, in certain zones. "handweigeraar" for somebody who snubs another person by refusing to shake hands. J.D. Abolins

2.1.07 02:09 Permalink / comment

Can a People Demand Permission for Translating Software to Their Language? Reuters (via CNN) reports that the Mapuche Indians in Chile are trying to sue Microsoft for violating their cultural and collective heritage by translating its Windows software into one of their native languages, Mapuzugun, without their permission. Mapuzugun is spoken by around 400,000 indigenous Chileans. It is an interesting case and set of arguments. Although the legal actions are hitting Microsoft, the case has some implications for open source software such as GNU/Linux, KDE, etc. For many techies, translating software to a language is doing the language a favour by making the Internet and other computer resources more accessible in the language and giving resources such as publishing tools to keep the language alive. I use several translated tools on my GNU/Linux systems so I can work with Arabic and Hebrew texts as well as English. To me it's wonderful having such resources. At first, I thought that the Indians objected to any translation using their language without their permission. Maybe it was concern that the translation would make the language accessible to outsiders and open the Mapuche to intrusions or erode their identity. But it appears that the Indians are not offended by the translation itself but by the  process Microsoft used to make the translation. According to the Reuters report, Aucan Huilcaman, one of the Mapuche leaders behind the legal action, said "We feel like Microsoft and the Chilean Education Ministry have overlooked us by deciding to set up a committee (to study the issue) without our consent, our participation and without the slightest consultation." If this is the case, Microsoft may have stumbled in its manners by not consulting with the intended beneficiaries of the translation project first. (Putting in another way, they failed to do market research and customer needs survey.) This would have come off as patronising the Mapuche Indians. I feel a bit better that we are not going to have royalty demands made by various people's for foreign language students. <g> Still, I wonder if someday such an issue might be raised when a software project tries to localise its software or, worse, some country use a permission requirement for using the country's main language as a means of censoring input from foreign Web sites. <half-joking on the last one> J.D. Abolins

24.11.06 05:38 Permalink / comment

Sucide (without collateral casualties/destruction) as The BBC news story Guantanamo suicides 'acts of war' tells of a rather interesting use of terms. -------- Rear Adm Harris [Guantanamo detention camp commander] said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair. "They are smart. They are creative, they are committed," he said. "They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." -------- An extraordinary rendition of terminology: Suicide without others killed or injured, without property damage deemed as an act of warfare. In a way, it reminds of the satirical story where a person after a brawl claims the other person "assaulted me by repeatedly banging his face against my fist." It appears that the military commander trying to present the suicides in terms of defiant activism rather than last resort desperation acts in response to horrible conditions. But the choice of words comes off as "Orwellian Newspeak". As a friend mentioned to me, all kinds of non-violent resistance or protests could be labelled by this approach as "acts of asymmetric warfare" and, thus, peaceful dissidents depicted as belligerants. Watch out for non-practising pacifists! J.D. Abolins

13.6.06 04:45 Permalink / comment

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