A living language becomes extinct every two weeks.

The problem is often overlooked by speakers of the world’s major languages. When language extinction is considered, many otherwise thoughtful people shrug it off as a minor issue.

This might be explained by the recent development of a misguided notion (some kind of socio-Darwinian view of linguistics) that an extinct language did not survive because it could not adapt to the changing environment and was dominated by more “fit”� languages.

Language extinction might then be written off as the result of the ‘evolutionary’ process of globalization. But this idea relies on a limited and flawed concept of language itself.

As David Harrison pointed out in his recent lecture, the loss of language diversity is not an enhancing mutation. Each death of a language is more than just a loss in terms of cultural and historic heritage — it is an irreparable loss to the database of human knowledge.

According to the recent Ethnologue report, 516 languages are classified as nearly extinct, and all of them can disappear in fewer than twenty years.

Below is a snapshot of dying languages from around the world. Each language has fewer than a hundred active speakers and is facing extinction:

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As we in the U.S. prepare our turkeys and stuffings for Thanksgiving, it seems like an appropriate time to consider popular dishes from around the world.

The names of certain traditional dishes can sizzle on one’s tongue, often making them difficult to capture with translation. Even if the name of the dish is easy to translate, the mixture of curiosity and suspicion that often greets the first mention of an exotic dish usually ends with one question: “What’s in it?”

Here is a list of popular dishes from around the world whose names are as fun to say as the meals are to eat:

Khachapuri [Georgia]
In Georgia, every dinner ritual begins with khachapuri — a warm, thick and flaky bread, layered with different kinds of cheeses. There is an abundance of dairy in Georgia, and some attribute the longevity of the Georgians to their high volume of yogurt consumption. The horn-full of locally produced wine is offered with khachapuri. It is a tradition to serve wine in the horn instead of the glass—as a sign of respect to his host, a guest must drink his wine without setting it aside.

Jansson’s Frestelse [Sweden]
Jansson’s Tempatation is a traditional casserole made of potatoes, onion, pickled sprats and cream. Pickled sprats, known as “ansjovis,” have often been mistranslated into English as anchovies or herring. There is a controversy over the origin of the name: some believe it is named after Pelle Janzon, a Swedish opera singer of the 19th century, who was also a famous gourmand.

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A neologism (from Greek neo = “new” + logos = “word”) is a new word or expression.

Neologisms usually pertain to something topical, and they can be some of the most playful and fun words in any language.

Today, neologisms circulate faster than ever, catching-on with broader audiences through a few clicks of the mouse. Here is a list of 10 neologisms which I find funny, creative, and useful.

Sargasm
Deriving too much satisfaction from using sarcasm.

Phonundrum
Confusion a person experiences when hearing a phone ringing and wondering if it’s his or not.

Facebookicide/Facebooklift
Deliberately terminating one’s Facebook profile; Facebooklift refers to changing one’s profile picture or personal information.

Cashtration
The purchase of an unaffordable object such as a house or a car, which renders a person financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

Textrovert
A person who prefers to express his feelings via text messages because personal interaction makes him uncomfortable and self-conscious.

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On November 15th, the U.S. celebrates America Recycles Day. Growing public awareness of environmental issues has led to much progress in recent years: Green recycling containers align along the neighborhood curbs, more college campuses are equipped with recycling bins, and reusable grocery bags are in fashion. Al Gore should be proud…

But, not as proud as he would be of the progress other countries have made in their recycling efforts: The U.S., which reuses about 28% of its waste, still lags behind Europe and some Asian countries. Language professionals like translators and interpreters often work with international businesses, government agencies, and non-profits (and some of us, like the Ecotranslator, even specialize in environmental translation services). This gives us the opportunity to observe, and share a broader perspective on environmental issues. Here’s a look at some of the recycling practices from around the world.

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As the financial crisis gains momentum and uncertainty reigns over the markets, we tend to look at stock market behavior as a barometer of the economic environment. After yet another stock roller-coaster day, stockholders are more uncertain about tomorrow. The origin of the word stockholder has an interesting history which dates back many centuries.

The earliest system of recording bilateral exchange was a tally stick system. The technique of using a tally stick to keep track of financial transactions arose in medieval Europe in the 12th century, when King Henry I introduced tally sticks with notches of different sizes to mark denominations. The stick (usually from hazel) was split lengthwise, so that both parties had a complete record of the transaction. Later, to prevent any counterfeit, the two parts of the stick were made different in size: a lending party held the longer part of the stick, called a stock, and the receiving party held a foil, the shorter part.

So, the stockholder was the one who held a wooden stock. The king kept one part of the stick for his records, and the other part was released into the markets to circulate as money. The king also accepted tally sticks for tax payments, which insured their credibility as money. The system was very successful and lasted in England until the early 18th century. In some small European countries, it survived until the early 20th century.

If we were back in King Henry’s times, we might be throwing sticks in order to inject liquidity into the economy. In any case, sitting on our assets would be quite uncomfortable.

With only a week left before the U.S. presidential election, and some poll margins beginning to narrow in, it has become increasingly important for the candidates to speak directly to a group of voters who may tip the final outcome: the nation’s more than 38 million foreign born, multilingual voters. Both candidates have made attempts to translate their messages as multilingual voter registrations reached record numbers this year. Recent polls indicate that multilingual voters share the same concerns as the general voting population, who say that the most important issues facing the country are the economy, national security, health care, and immigration.

The Spanish-speaking population is the largest growing minority group, constituting about 15 percent of the total U.S. population. Hispanic voice in past elections has been somewhat muted: many are ineligible to vote, either because they don’t have citizenship status, or because they don’t meet the age requirement. Yet they do comprise 9 percent of the eligible electorate nationwide. In fact, some political commentators argue that in this election Hispanics will emerge as a potential “swing vote” because they are strategically located in four out of six states that were very close contests in the 2004 elections (New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado).

The results of a recent Pacific Market Research / University of Washington poll of Hispanic voters in 21 states provided good reason for democrats to be optimistic in the final stretch. Obama was the favorite among 60 percent of likely voters surveyed, while McCain was favored by 23 percent.

While Spanish speakers get a lot of the attention, they are not alone as a linguistically diverse demographic. The most common languages spoken in U.S. homes besides Spanish include—in order—Chinese, French (including Patois, Cajun), Tagalog, Vietnamese, German, Korean, Russian, Italian, and Arabic. Reaching out to these voters is not an easy task for either candidate, even as it may be a key to success on November 4th.

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Words can be treacherous. They can have an effect that goes beyond their original meaning or intent. The terminology used during the current global financial crisis is particularly important because of the role some terms can play in reshaping and molding public opinion.

Here are several headlines that appeared in major world publications over the last month: 1929 and All That: Echoes of the Depression, Financial Meltdown Creates Panic, Is the Sun Setting on U.S. Economic Supremacy? …and perhaps the most disturbing: Financial Crisis to Increase Mental Illness.

Media outlets often bombard us with words like turmoil, disaster, recession, crisis, wreck, chaos, panic, and depression. This can shake the economic lethargy off even the most disinterested person. One study even compiles a chart of the word depression mentioned in the media, depicting a record increase in 2008. The effect is certainly depressing.

In fact, the field of economics, often refered to as “the dismal science”, has adopted a peculiar language which often is characterized as dogmatic, alienating, and even ominous.

One phrase from investors’ jargon provides an especially unsettling image: dead cat bounce. The term refers to a stock experiencing a rapid decline: like a dead cat thrown off a building, it will purportedly bounce, rising in price before a complete collapse. It is unclear whether other cultures have adopted a similar animal-unfriendly version for a badly-performing stock. Germans are the only other nation, to my knowledge, which found the cat analogy useful — Hüpfer der toten Katzen! say frustrated German investors.

In the U.S., the controversial government strategy to ameliorate the crackdown of national financial system also raises a question about underlying terminology: is the proposed action a bailout or is it a rescue? The difference is not trivial. A financial rescue sounds less catastrophic than a bailout. The word bailout has a more negative connotation, eliciting an image of a failed parent bailing out a teenager in trouble.

Another example is the word Crisis, used profusely and indiscriminately. Some analysts and commentators argue that downturn should be used instead. Since many economists agree that lack of consumer confidence is the driving engine behind the economic deterioration, evoking a sense of helplessness and hopelessness from the public conjures even less confidence, and Crisis becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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When watching foreign films, I often wonder whether the translation is, in fact, accurate. Unless a viewer is a native speaker, he is at the mercy of an unknown translator. Inaccurate translation can lead to confusion, or even unintended laughter. In some cases, the trouble starts with a title. For example, in Portugal, Sofia Coppola’s acclaimed film Lost in Translation became Meetings and Failure in Meetings. In China, the French thriller Leon turned into Hit Man Is Not as Cold as He Thought. And then there’s the great American classic Home Alone which the French translated to Mom, I Missed the Plane.

Translation does not have to be literal to be correct, but it does have to attempt to convey the original idea as closely as possible. This of course introduces a good deal of subjectivity: For instance, how well does the title Wings of Desire, from the German Der Himmel Uber Berlin, literally meaning “the sky over Berlin,” capture the main idea of the film?

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Not surprisingly, non-profit organizations with a global outreach are among the largest employers of translators and interpreters. However, the impact of non-profits on the translation and interpretation service industry, which relies on the existence and protection of linguistic heterogeneity, is ambiguous. There is, in fact, an interesting dichotomy: on the one hand, non-profit institutions promote preservation of multilingual diversity; on the other hand, they impede this process.

In order to understand how non-profit institutions impact the demand for translation and interpretation services we need to take a closer look at two different kinds of non-profits.

Although statistics vary, over 30,000 international non-profit organizations are registered annually around the world–25,000 of which are characterized as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and about 5,000 are intergovernmental entities (IGOs). Generally sharing humanitarian goals, NGOs and IGOs have crucial distinctions in their positions on translation and language policies. The origin of this distinction is partially ideological. The function of most IGOs, especially the ones under UN jurisdiction, is to monitor the power imbalances among various nation-states, including disputes arising from linguistic differences.

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