IPhone Application Translates Babies’ Howls

November 16, 2009 //

Having trouble understanding your baby’s burbles, screeches and noisy, wheedling screams? There’s an app for that.

The Cry Translator listens to a whining child and analyzes the pitch, volume, tone and inflection of his nerve-jangling noise. Ten seconds later, it provides you with one of five “translations”: hungry, sleepy, stressed, annoyed or bored.

Latin in classroom comeback as 60 primary schools make ancient language compulsory

November 16, 2009 //

Latin is enjoying a revival in state primary and secondary schools, it emerged today.

More than 500 comprehensives across the UK now teach the ancient language – a sharp increase in less than a decade.

Meanwhile growing numbers of primaries are introducing Latin ahead of a 2011 deadline for foreign language studies to be compulsory.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226388/Latin-classroom-comeback-60-primary-schools-make-ancient-language-compulsory.html#ixzz0X2KChnN2

Does your baby cry in French or German?

November 16, 2009 //

The wail of a newborn may sound the same to the ears of sleep-deprived parents the world over, but according to scientists, that’s not the case: Babies cry in the language their parents speak from the first days of life.

An international team of researchers said a study of 60 newborns suggested babies start to learn language in the womb, long before they utter their first coos or babbles — and their wails can be distinguished according to the mother tongue.

¡Fue muy rápido! Twitter is now in Spanish

November 16, 2009 //

That was fast. About a month after Twitter launched a crowdsourced translations program to tap its burgeoning user base for help, the site’s now available in Spanish, according to co-founder Biz Stone.

The microblogging network has some prominent Twitter users including the Spanish government, basketball player Manu Ginobili and singer Juan Fonseca, but their followings pale in comparison to the larger English accounts, which have amassed a few million followers.

Mamma Mia – should Swedes speak English?

November 16, 2009 //

For once Eòrpa had arrived early – this time on musician Samson for President’s doorstep, clearly somewhat to his shock, to talk about his usage of the Swedish and English languages.

Like many successful Swedish artists before him, he has chosen to sing in English, over his native tongue.

It worked for ABBA, then why not for the soulful Samson?

Distracted Driving is the Webster’s New World(R) 2009 Word of the Year

November 16, 2009 //

Faster, lighter, more, NOW…the new generation of tools and toys in the Digital Age is a global obsession. And today, it may also be a crime.

Distracted driving – what many are guilty of when they use digital devices on the go – is rapidly entering law books around the world and earns the 2009

Word of the Year choice at Webster’s New World® College Dictionary. The competition had several worthy contenders, with cloud computing and wallet biopsy as runners-up. For other top candidates, visit the Word of the Year website at http://NewWorldWord.com.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS150848+02-Nov-2009+PRN20091102

North Carolina Cherokee Take Steps to Preserve Language

November 2, 2009 //

Six young children – four girls and two boys – sit on the floor looking up at their teacher seated in a chair. An older woman with streaks of gray in the long, straight hair pulled back from her face, she holds up flashcards with colors and words spelled out in distinctive lettering. Her students are learning Cherokee, the language of their ancestors, but a language many of their own parents didn’t speak as children.

Indigenous languages still being used

November 2, 2009 //

A survey of Indigenous people around Australia has found that the use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages has remained almost steady since 2002.

The information comes from surveys done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2008.

It found 11 per cent of Indigenous people over 15, and 8 per cent of Indigenous children spoke an Indigenous language as their main language at home.

On Language: Old Dictionaries

November 2, 2009 //

Perhaps people hold onto their “outdated lexicons” because their fading utility as a reference tool is compensated for by their value as entertainment. One bookcase in my home contains nothing but dictionaries, word books and usage manuals. If, in the event of a fire, I have time to rescue only one volume, it would be Lester Berrey and Melvin Van Den Bark’s American Thesaurus of Slang, first published in 1942. It is an astonishing, bottomless treasure trove of largely antiquated colloquialisms. Here’s a sampling of the hundreds of slang synonyms for “crazy”: blogo, off the hinges, dingdongy, foofoo, nutty as a peanut bar, voom-voom, quisby, no milk in the coconut, dada and goofnuts. The overwhelming majority of this tangy, raffish slang has vanished or has been supplanted by newer slang. Anybody writing a Depression-era novel or play or film — or anybody infatuated with colorful street language — could do worse than to seek out a used copy of The American Thesaurus of Slang.

Russian language: Found in translation

November 2, 2009 //

Here are some randomly selected English words and word combinations: cardio-vascular system; barley; turpentine; detergent; matinee; oil field; ginger; World Health Organisation; desalination. To anybody but an interpreter, these words would have nothing in common.

For simultaneous interpreters, there is one common thing: all words have precisely one equivalent in other languages. They have to be learnt, and given that most do not belong to the common word stock, learnt by rote.