Malaysia: Language and Political Unrest
Malaysia, the South Asian country straddling the Malay Peninsula and the South China Sea is home to over twenty-seven million people. Malaysia was, until recently, one of the more stable economic powers in the region, even given its tumultuous history. However, the country is finding itself at a critical political moment right now as it […]
The Great Hack
David Barnett posted a lovely etymology of the word “hack” in today’s UK Guardian Book Blog. In it he chronicles the rise and fall of the word, with all its connotations from a horse to a paltry writer to a loud and proud reporter. Derived from the “hackney,” a horse-drawn carriage, “hack” came to mean […]
Language in the Arab World: More Thoughts on Arab Literacy and Translation
As soon as I wrote the post, A Note on Arab Literacy and Translation, a number of issues arose in my mind, some in relation to the UN’s Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) and some in relation to my own analysis of the data. First, out of the twenty two counties analyzed in the AHDR, […]
Going Public: The Evolution of a Common Term
Like most of our readers, I look forward to the weekly “On Language” columns in the New York Times—if only for the reason that it’s one of the places I actually enjoy reading political news and commentary. So, last week when Jack Rosenthal explored the rising use of the word transparency as it is related […]
Short, Shorter, Shortest: A Note on the Origin of Shorthand
I’m fascinated by invented languages. When I was younger I remember my mother telling me the story of our family friends who met in college and fell head over heels in love. Their method of communication: Elvish, as in J.R.R. Tolkein’s invented elven tongue. The story goes that they would write love notes to each […]
A Note on Arabic Literacy and Translation
Greece annually translates five times more books from English than the entire Arab world, and currently, 65 million Arab adults are illiterate. These sobering statistics are thanks to the U.N.’s first Arab Human Development Report published back in 2002 which I found in Thomas Friedman’s recent Op-Ed in the New York Times. The reports were […]
Summer Scoop: The Etymology of Ice Cream Sundae
During summer, I can’t say no to a scoop or two of ice cream. So when Mark Dow’s latest Happy Days blog post, No Choice about the Terminology: On pleasure, perception and the language of ice cream came to my attention, I knew it was time to analyze the quintessential all-American summer treat: the ice […]
Encounters at the End of Language
The other evening as I was watching Werner Herzog’s latest film, Encounters at the End of the World, I was struck by an interview about half way through. In the scene, Herzog and his crew enter a greenhouse at around 1 am in Camp McMurdo, the largest settlement in Antarctica, and discover a typical citizen […]
Baseball, In Translation
Interpreter Kenji Nimura speaks four languages: Japanese, English, Spanish, and Baseball. Baseball is the all-American sport, right? When I think of the game I picture muggy summer nights, hot dogs, and lukewarm beer (served at a premium price, of course). What I don’t usually think about is translation—Japanese translation, to be specific. If you’re a […]
To Behave, or not to Behave
“Certain things should never be taken for granted, among them your spouse, your mother, the United States Constitution, and the precise meaning of words that are at the heart of your profession,” Natalie Angier writes at the beginning of her article “When ‘What Animals Do’ Doesn’t Seem to Cover It” in the July 20 edition […]