You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2007.
The Europa languages portal provides information about the European Union’s policy on languages, including some background information on translation and interpretation at the European Union.
The Frequently Asked Questions page provides answers to questions such as how many languages the European Union works in, why the European Union uses so many official languages, who decides which are to be the official languages and whether every document generated by the EU is translated in all the official languages.
Foutenfestival: de uitslag
Alweer een maand geleden vroegen wij ons af welk Nederlandse woord het meest fout gespeld wordt op internet. In totaal kwamen er 98 suggesties binnen. Een deel daarvan valt af: de combinatie peiler/pijler is te lastig te googelen (beide woorden bestaan), net als e(-)mail, te( )veel, ten( )slotte, zo( )veel en is waar eens bedoeld is. Ook de suggesties enigste en frikandel vielen af: beide woorden staan in Van Dale (2005).
Grammaticale fouten wilden wij buiten beschouwing laten, maar er werden er toch enkele ingezonden. Werkwoordsvervoegingen zijn in het algemeen buiten beschouwing gelaten, omdat de problematische gevallen van de context afhangen. Ook het voltooid deelwoord gebeurd is om die reden niet meegenomen in de competitie. De woorden gedeleted, gezegt, gespeelt, geverft en genoemt dongen wel mee; de juiste spelling is hier niet afhankelijk van de context.
Problematisch zijn ook de ingezonden c/k-gevallen (locatie, lokaal, vakantie, actie, product, elektriciteit en insect) en de tussen-n-voorbeelden (ziele(n)poot, poeze(n)beest, harte(n)lust en miere(n)neuken), waarvan de spelling in 1995 (of eerder) veelal veranderd is. Zo was vacantie ooit wel goed. Bij de tussen-n speelt bovendien mee dat deze in de witte spelling wordt vrij gelaten. Ook typfout, kado en persé zijn volgens de witte spelling mogelijk. Dan zijn er nog bijoux, byoux en boutique, die vaak als (deel van een) eigennaam voorkomen. De Taalprof merkte terecht al op dat eigennamen zich aan de spellingregels onttrekken. We hebben van deze woorden overigens wel geteld hoe vaak ze in welke spelling voorkomen.
Tellen?
Alle ingezonden woorden zijn op dezelfde dag (20 juli 2007) op dezelfde computer via Google.nl (pagina’s in het Nederlands) opgezocht. Van de eerste duizend treffers is vervolgens gekeken naar het aantal dubbeltellingen; dit percentage is doorberekend naar het totale aantal vindplaatsen. De totalen van de goede en de foute spellingen zijn ten slotte opgeteld, en daarna is uitgerekend hoe vaak elk woord percentueel gezien fout gespeld wordt. Stampot/stamppot kwam bijvoorbeeld in totaal (na correctie) 207.595 keer voor, waarvan het 46.449 keer fout gespeld werd: 22,37%.
by Lisa Jones, South Wales Echo
RED-FACED teachers have been forced to take down part of their school website after realising a section in Welsh had been translated into gobbledegook.
The website for Llanishen High School, Cardiff, contains a message of welcome from headteacher, Rob Smyth – but its Welsh language version is complete gibberish.
A spokeswoman for the school, which teaches Welsh to A-level standard, said a member of staff had used a free online translation service to get the words, without consulting colleagues.
She added that the staff member was not a Welsh teacher.
One of the paragraphs on the site’s English introduction said: “Nevertheless we would always welcome any helpful comments about the content or presentation”.
That was excruciatingly translated as: “Nevertheless ni would beunydd chroesawa unrhyw helpful sylwadau am ’r bodlona ai chyflwyniad,”
In addition to containing the English words ‘nevertheless, would and helpful’, other words in the translation were in the wrong tense and some of the words were totally meaningless.
Aran Jones, chief executive of Welsh rights pressure group, Cymuned, said using a translation website may leave the user looking foolish. “There seems to have been a lot of these websites creeping up in the last year or so,” he said.
“We are glad to see people wanting to offer a Welsh version but it’s high time people understand that you simply can’t expect free websites to provide you with the proper translation. You are going to make yourselves look silly.”
Rob Smyth, headteacher of Llanishen High, which has been shortlisted for a language teaching award, said: “As we were made aware of the problem, the page was temporarily removed to allow for the necessary corrections to be made. The staff involved in producing the page all worked in good faith and obviously now regret using a translation engine.
“We apologise for the mistake and for any offence caused.
“As a school we have a strong commitment to teaching languages, including Welsh and indeed only this week, we became the first school in Wales to be shortlisted for the CILT European Award for Languages”
Source: icWales, 12 July 2007
By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – It was a ginormous year for the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster. Along with embracing the adjective that combines “gigantic” and “enormous,” the dictionary publishers also got into Bollywood, sudoku and speed dating.
But their interest in India’s motion-picture industry, number puzzles and trendy ways to meet people was all meant for a higher cause: updating the company’s collegiate dictionary, which goes on sale this fall with about 100 newly added words.
As always, the yearly list gives meaning to the latest lingo in pop culture, technology and current events.
There’s “crunk,” a style of Southern rap music; the abbreviated “DVR,” for digital video recorder; and “IED,” shorthand for the improvised explosive devices that have become common in the war in Iraq.
If it sounds as though Merriam-Webster is dropping its buttoned-down image with too much talk of “smackdowns” (contests in entertainment wrestling) and “telenovelas” (Latin-American soap operas), consider it also is adding “gray literature” (hard-to-get written material) and “microgreen” (a shoot of a standard salad plant.)
No matter how odd some of the words might seem, the dictionary editors say each has the promise of sticking around in the American vocabulary.
“There will be linguistic conservatives who will turn their nose up at a word like ‘ginormous,”’ said John Morse, Merriam-Webster’s president. “But it’s become a part of our language. It’s used by professional writers in mainstream publications. It clearly has staying power.”
The Simplified Spelling Society has been campaigning for a century to make the spelling of the English language easier and recently picketed a spelling bee in the US to make their point. Masha Bell, a member of the society and author of Understanding English Spelling, believes that reform of the spelling of the English language could help children learn to read and make life easier for some adults too.
A few examples from the Simplified Glossary:
Learn – lern
Slow – slo
Beautiful – butiful
Prof Vivian Cook, a linguist, expert in second language learning and author of Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, believes changing spellings would be unnecessary, expensive and could harm children’s ability to read.
On the BBC News website, the two, spelling reformer and spelling traditionalist, are pitched into a battle to persuade the other. They debate the merits of spelling systems, in the form of short e-mails.
