Blog

12
Jan

What the world will speak in 2115

In 1880 a Bavarian priest created a language that he hoped the whole world could use. He mixed words from French, German and English and gave his creation the name Volapük, which didn’t do it any favors. Worse, Volapük was hard to use, sprinkled with odd sounds and case endings like Latin.

It made a splash for a few years but was soon pushed aside by another invented language, Esperanto, which had a lyrical name and was much easier to master. A game learner could pick up its rules of usage in an afternoon.

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10
Jan

Poll for Freelance Translators

Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey about the use of accounting tools:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8ZC6Q5S

09
Jan

The mysterious origins of 21 tech terms

We use 21st century tech terms like hashtag, stream, and mouse with casual indifference, but how did these words get to be so commonplace in our everyday vernacular? We know the origins of Superman (kryptonite), Spider Man (radioactive spider), and Batman (rich boy’s revenge) but not “podcast,” “spam,” or even “hacker.” So I looked at 21 common tech terms that have been downloaded into our collective hardware and decoded them.

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09
Jan

7 books to read in less than a day

1) The Zoo: An Allegorical Adventure, Stephen Black
Recommended for lovers of satirical dystopias.

2) The Giver, Lois Lowry
Recommended for movie goers.

3) Ficciones, Jorge Louis Borges
Recommended for those looking for a literary challenge.

4) We the Animals, Justin Torres
Recommended for lovers of coming-of-age tales.

5) A History οf Love, Nicole Krauss
Recommended for romantics.

6) Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov
Recommended for aficionados of foreign literature.

 7) The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Recommended for the young-at-heart.

Source: Grammarly

07
Jan

but vs. yet

As conjunctions, but and yet are interchangeable. One is often substituted for the other to avoid repetition. Using one or the other in both spots would also create the same meaning, but it might sound repetitive.

Both words also work as adverbs, and in their adverbial senses they are not interchangeable. Yet usually means up to this time, while the adverbial but usually means only. For example, but and yet are not interchangeable.

Source: Grammarist

 

05
Jan

The 2014 typographical translation awards

What was the best translation of 2014?  That’s the question to answer with readers’ help.  Below you’ll find the 20 nominees. The only rules are that it must be a work of fiction and it must have been published in the English language for the first time in 2014… continued

 

05
Jan

done vs. finished

When you push back from the Thanksgiving table and say, “I’m done,” a cranky relative may attempt to correct you by replying, “A turkey is done; you’re finished.”

Although done has been used to mean “finished” for centuries, admonitions against it started surfacing in the early 1900s. The first style guide that advised against using done to mean “finished” didn’t give a reason for the declaration, and the current Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage speculates that the advice was based on bias against the usage’s “Irish, Scots and U.S.” origin… continued

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Dec
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16
Dec

The proofreader’s job

By Sebastien Devogele

A proofreader should only correct ‘real’ errors. Any other changes are unnecessary and counterproductive. The proofreader’s preferences don’t matter since he is not writing his own text. In my humble opinion, proofreaders who see things differently haven’t grasped the purpose of their job… continued