Etymology of Ten U.S. Cities
Read on to find out the fascinating and unexpected etymologies of ten of our country’s largest cities. Albuquerque: Named for its founder, Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva, Duke of Albuquerque, the original word is derived from the Latin albus, meaning “white”, and quercus, meaning “oak.” Atlanta: Having undergone numerous name-changes – from Terminus to Thrasherville […]
Language Barriers Impede Economic Progress
When the Eurozone was forged in 1999, it brought with it the promise of more mobility, cooperation, and comradery in Europe. The global economic downturn that followed shortly after generated a sense of urgency, especially among young people, to seek employment outside of their home countries. Spain – one of the countries hit hardest by […]
Is Machine Translation Ready to Replace Human Translators?
Continued improvements in machine translation technology have made a big splash in the news lately. The launch of Skype Translator in 2015, as well as the advent of wearable devices for sign language interpretation, are indicative of an exciting new age in global communication. Some people may think that machines are on the way to […]
Holistic Approach to Accent Reduction
The United States has long attracted many of the world’s brightest minds – from scientists and engineers to linguists and educators. While the country’s universities and businesses benefit from such a dazzling array of experts, foreign professionals and students often find themselves careening headlong into cultural and linguistic barriers that divide them from their American […]
Shemps, MacGuffins, and Alan Smithee: 10 Movie Terms You’ve Just Got to Read About
What happens when you combine lush greenery, a low cost of doing business, and a bevy of targeted tax incentives? You get a booming film industry that made a statewide economic impact of $6 billion in 2015, for one. It’s official: Georgia has become the 3rd-largest U.S. state for making movies. Last year alone we […]
8 Unique Careers for Translators and Interpreters
Are you interested in becoming a medical interpreter? Sign up Now and get started. Over the course of their training and work experience, language professionals amass an almost superhuman array of skills. Translators and interpreters, in particular, learn to apply their bilingual knowledge in a way that makes them invaluable to the healthcare, legal, and […]
6 Major Moments in Translation and Interpretation History
From the Tower of Babel to the Age of the Internet, translators and interpreters have had a seat at the table in every major event in history. And yet, by virtue of the very role they play in enabling other parties to communicate, these language professionals seldom occupy the same space in history as their […]
Can Untranslatable Words Make Us Happier?
The idea of untranslatability is captivating for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the chance to try on another culture’s way of experiencing the world. As the popular anecdote goes, how does an Eskimo or Inuit look at snow, when there are dozens of words to describe each slight variation of […]
7 Questions to a Linguist: William Labov and the False Idols of Language
In today’s 7 Questions to a Linguist, we hear from a towering figure in the field of linguistics, Dr. William Labov. Labov’s scholarly work over the past 50 years has garnered him the moniker “father of sociolinguistics”, and it is with a rigorous quantitative approach to the study of language change that he helped to […]
7 Questions to a Linguist: Bernard Comrie Explores World Languages to Answer the Unanswerable
In today’s 7 Questions to a Linguist, we look at the juncture of human history and language development with Dr. Bernard Comrie. Dr. Comrie served 17 years as the head of the Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and currently holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the […]