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Facebook Digest 14/3/11: a meal eaten sideways

The process of translating comprises in its essence the whole secret of human understanding of the world and of social communication. Hans Georg Gadamer

UNTRANSLATABLE WORDS #19: Kwarandzyey azMamweg (Korandje) – “dates that aren’t quite ripe yet, but that already ooze honey if you bruise them”

Useful articles about translation:

– One for translators into/out of Spanish: a rather academic article, in Spanish, on the ‘international Spanish’ used in the media of the United States.

– Two articles on different aspects of translating Hebrew:

Arabic and Hebrew: The Politics of Literary Translation

On translating Sephardic Hebrew

– The highly popular etymology of hahaha.

Interesting posts about world languages:

– The Mlabri people, who live in the hill country on the border between Thailand and Laos, have been called “the most interesting and least understood people in Southeast Asia”. Their language is in danger of extinction. Here is a charming video of some Mlabri children singing.

– An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,909 known living languages…

– This presentation of Gramophone Recordings from the Linguistic Survey of India consists of digitized recordings originally collected in South Asia during a period from 1913 until 1929.

– The original and various translations (French, German, English) of the classical Chinese poems Mahler used in ‘Das Lied von der Erde‘ (thank you Colin!)

“Unlike a work of literature, translation does not find itself in the center of the language forest but on the outside facing the wooded ridge; it calls into it without entering, aiming at that single spot where the echo is able to give, in its own language, the reverberation of the work in the alien one.” Walter Benjamin (‘The Task of the Translator,’ translated from the German by Harry Zohn)

Technical stuff

A guide to payment levels for freelance translators.

Dull but useful blog on Mac for Translators.

UNTRANSLATABLE WORDS #20 [a real gem!]: Yoko meshi (Japanese) – literally ‘a meal eaten sideways’, referring to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language.

Fun and interesting stuff that you will have a hard time justifying should your boss catch you looking at:

– Stephen Fry on the pointlessness of grammar and the sensuality of language.

Thou gorbellied onion-eyed hedge-pig! A Shakespearean insult generator.

‘Russian essentially is the last few words you utter before being eaten by a polar bear…’
‘Italian is essentially tropical Romanian…’
‘English is what you get from Normans trying to pick up Saxon girls…’

Essentialist explanations for linguistic difference…

The web’s toughest etymology game.

UNTRANSLATABLE WORDS #21 – Waldeinsamkeit (German): the feeling of being alone in the woods.

QuickSilver Translate’s Facebook page: dispelling Waldeinsamkeit since 2009!

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