Alcohol and linguistic abilities
June 30, 2008
When I first arrived in England and I was struggling to understand and speak English, I noticed that my fluency increased noticeably after drinking some of the warm beer that my new friends seemed to like so much. I always assumed that it was because alcohol reduces inhibitions: you’re more relaxed, you don’t care so much about making mistakes and as a result, communication becomes easier.
Now I’m not so sure about my theory, however. Before my game on Wednesday with my new football team, I could scarcely understand my goalkeeper, born and bred in Leeds, who speaks with a very strong Northern accent, whereas afterwards, while celebrating our victory with a rehydrating beer, I spent a happy hour bantering with her without the need for an interpreter. I did a quick search on the Internet but couldn’t find any study on the relationship between alcohol and linguistic abilities. Anyone has any ideas?
Translation links
June 20, 2008
Two interesting links provided by Jean-Paul and Audrey – thanks a lot to both of you.
The first one is an essay about the translator/author relationship and translation in general. It’s beautifully written, but provided only in French, unfortunately. If some brave soul fancies a challenge, I’ll be delighted to post the English translation. A quote that I particularly like: Traduire, c’est exécuter une danse pieds et poings liés (to translate is to dance with your hands and feet bound).
The second is a letter from the Association of French literary translators to the French Minister for culture to express their dismay at the news that the Ministry of culture websites are to be machine translated, with no human intervention. Unbelievable.
Sarkozy seen by the English
June 16, 2008
Hello everyone! This has been a longer break than I expected, but I’m now nicely settled after three major moves (Brighton to Leeds – bad then good, Brighton office to Leeds office – very bad then ok, and PC to Mac – bad then very good). I’ll talk about my new office and translation setup in separate posts, but for now I just want to get this blog going again with a little treat for you: Headcases' take on the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Blizzard
April 7, 2008
Snowmen on Brighton beach, 6 April 2008
A modern word, probably more or less onomatopœic; suggestive words are blow, blast, blister, bluster. The French blesser, to wound, has also been conjectured, but there is nothing to indicate a French origin. As applied to a "snow spell", the word became general in the American newspapers during the severe winter of 1880-81; but according the the Milwaukee Republica 4 March 1881, it had been applied in the Northern Vindicator (Estherville, Iowa) between 1860 and 1870.
Oxford English Dictionary
The end of the line for the semicolon?
April 4, 2008
The semicolon is facing grave danger.
Let's save it! Unfortunately I have no time to explain why we should, as I'm fighting with boxes and work in equal measure. I'd still like to hear what you think.
Boycott
March 19, 2008
The word boycott is being used quite a lot at the moment following the events in Tibet and China. Its origin is very interesting:
Charles C. Boycott seems to have become a household word because of his strong sense of duty to his employer. An Englishman and former British soldier, Boycott was the estate agent of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. The earl was one of the absentee landowners who as a group held most of the land in Ireland. Boycott was chosen in the fall of 1880 to be the test case for a new policy advocated by Charles Parnell, an Irish politician who wanted land reform. Any landlord who would not charge lower rents or any tenant who took over the farm of an evicted tenant would be given the complete cold shoulder by Parnell's supporters. Boycott refused to charge lower rents and ejected his tenants. At this point members of Parnell's Irish Land League stepped in, and Boycott and his family found themselves isolated—without servants, farmhands, service in stores, or mail delivery. Boycott's name was quickly adopted as the term for this treatment, not just in English but in other languages such as French, Dutch, German, and Russian.
(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language)
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