A typically Iberian controversy is animating the opinion pages of the Spanish broadsheets last year. The Spanish parliament voted to allow any one of the five official languages of Spain to be used in the Senate (the upper chamber), and has employed interpreters to...
Although Rumpelstiltskin is a fairy tale that originated in Germany, the same story pattern is globally extremely widespread: there is a similar creature in Icelandic folklore known as Gilitrutt; a Tom Tit Tot in England; a Whuppity Stoorie in Scotland; a Joaidane (he...
Every wondered why it is that you 'boot' a computer? Especially considering that the only other meaning of 'boot' as a verb is 'give something a good kick'? The answer lies in a very nice bit of contemporary etymology: the great Catch 22 of the early days of computing...
Georges Perec was a French man of letters, the author of a famous novel that doesn't use the letter 'e'. He was a lover of puzzles and patterns, and often chose to create strange structures for the novels he wrote: for example, the movement of the horse on the chess...
Some time back I wrote in my blog of a book in which there were no long words at all. And yet it did not feel at all strange to read it. In fact I asked a few Brits who are friends of mine if they felt it was in some way odd, and they all said it was just fine and...
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Spanish is the fourth most widely spoken language − after Mandarin, English, and Hindustani − and is arguably the most translated language in the world. This Romance language, originally spoken in northern Spain, gradually became the principal language of government...
Today, I wanted to share an article from the archive of London Review of Books about the roots and (mis)usage of the word freedom. It's a bit silly, in parts, but it makes some good points. Enjoy! "The first recorded use of the word ‘freedom’ in English comes in the...
Have you ever noticed how most adverbs in Romance languages end it -ment or -mente whereas in Germanic languages you see endings like -ly, lig and lich? Ever wondered why? In fact all the Romance languages regularly form adverbs from adjectives by combining the...
Many companies rely on their independent distributors to handle translation. Usually, the thinking goes something like this: “We’ll let our distributor in country X translate our product data-sheet there; they are fluent, and letting them do it will save us time and...