Author: 101translations

You probably know the phrase ‘hocus pocus’ for its association – often tongue in cheek – with magic and mystery. But did you know that the phrase has quite a long history?

As a term associated with conjuring and tricks, ‘hocus pocus’ dates to at least the early 1600s, when it first appears in writing, with reference to street performers.

However, one likely explanation to its origin dates earlier, to the Reformation in Europe, and the devastating religious wars that followed. Whereas the Protestants held their religious services in the actual languages of the various communities (e.g. English, German or Swedish), the Catholic Church still used Latin for Mass until after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

The term ‘Hoc est corpus meum,’ which means ‘this is my body,’ is used in Catholic Mass. Some historical linguists believe that ‘hocus pocus,’ referring to trickery and deception, derives from a mocking, deliberate mispronunciation of these Latin words.

These particular words would have resonated especially strongly during the Reformation when “transubstantiation” (the Catholic belief that the Communion bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Christ) was a matter of active theological debate, with the newly formed Protestant churches rejecting this doctrine.

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Gagauzia is an autonomous territorial region of Moldova, home to the Gagauz people, who speak a Turkic language. Turkic languages are a family of over 35 related languages spoken by approximately 200 million people across Eurasia, including regions from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and parts of East Asia. The most widely spoken Turkic language is Turkish, followed by Uzbek and Azerbaijani.

The history and political background of Gagauzia is complex, and beyond the scope of a blog post, but as language professionals, we’re very interested in their linguistic situation.

The official language of Moldova is Romanian, also referred to in some contexts as Moldovan. However, as an autonomous territorial region, the Gagauzians have the right to carry out their affairs in their own language. Anyone aspiring to be the governor of Gagauzia must be fluent in its language. That’s a good thing: linguistic diversity and the rights of speakers of minority languages are very important.

However, as in many other areas with similar situations vis a vis language, not being able to speak the majority language well also poses problems. It can limit access to good jobs, inhibit development, and even contribute to political and ethnic tensions. At the time of writing, a substantial number of children growing up in Gagauzia don’t speak Romanian, even when their parents do.

Balancing the rights of people to cherish, speak, and live through their native language has to be balanced with their need, and right, to also fluently speak the languages they need to engage with the wider world, and realise their full potential.

Fortunately, the human mind is more than capable of containing two or more languages; we have previously spoken of the many benefits of bilingualism. Hopefully, the peoples of Moldova and Gagauzia will find a way forward that respects the minority language while also facilitating access to the language of the majority, along with all the benefits it accrues.

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As we have discussed in various blog posts, all living things communicate in one way or another, and many animals use forms of communication that are relatively sophisticated, sometimes even among members of different species.

But only human beings have language. And while language is at the heart of everything we do as a species, there are still lots of big questions about how it evolved, and why. The one thing we do know is that language started long before anyone recorded it.

Some biological factors appear to be essential to the development of spoken language. The brain needs to have a certain capacity for abstract thought, which depends partly on its size. So, it’s reasonable to infer from the skull size of fossil remains that language may have been possible in hominids of a certain brain size. The position of the larynx also provides some clues because the larynx is essential to utter specific sounds (as opposed to, for instance, more generic growling or barking).

Language also relies on grammar, which is a general set of rules that everyone within the language group must use to understand one another. Some linguistic researchers believe that the capacity for language, and therefore grammar, is innate; that babies are born with this ability already programmed into their brains.

One thing, however, is certain: language is a defining feature of our species. It makes us who we are and has given us the gift of communication that is far more complex, and much richer, than that of even our closest relatives.

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William Tyndale, who was born in England in about 1494, is chiefly remembered for his theological and political contributions to the Protestant Reformation of the fifteenth century, but his contributions to the art of translation are no less important. In fact, translation was an essential element of the Reformation, as one of the major changes the Protestant churches sought was for liturgical and scriptural materials to be translated into, and used in, the local vernacular languages.

Among his chief works, Tyndale translated much of the Bible into English, drawing directly on texts in Hebrew and Greek; he was fluent in French, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, as well as his native English. His translations were the first to be reproduced using the printing press, then still quite a new invention, and would drive Reformation thinking across the English-speaking world.

Ultimately, Tyndale was executed as a heretic – first strangled and then burnt at the stake. However, this was on grounds of his opposition to the English King Henry 8th’s plans to annul his marriage and had nothing to do with the quality of Tyndale’s translations, which were excellent.

The King James Bible, which remains the standard text for British Anglicanism – and which has often been praised for the quality of the translation – was heavily based on Tyndale’s original work. Its impact on the English language, and on the twists and turns of history, is immeasurable.

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We humans communicate with words – and sometimes also with sign language – but things like body language, gestures, and even the pitch, tone and timbre of our voices matter a lot, too.

For example, men typically speak with lower voices than women, and men’s voices are in general readily distinguishable from women’s. In societies in which most power is – or historically has been – in the hands of men, that means that lower voices are often associated with authority.

Deeper voices are also often associated with men perceived as ‘more masculine’ than others and are often experienced by women as more attractive. Some research also suggests that men with deeper voices are, in fact, statistically more likely to have genetically healthier children, suggesting that a deep voice in a man is one indicator of health.

On the other hand, research also suggests that women perceive men with deeper voices as more likely to be unfaithful. So, you know, food for thought.

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Comic books and graphic novels are generally enjoyed as a solitary, silent experience, but the visual and written representation of sound is a big part of what makes them so expressive.

Linguists call the way in which comic book artists render sound ‘textual audio.’ This refers, among other things, to the heavy use of onomatopoeia (the use of made up words to reproduce non-language sounds), often in combination with the liberal use of punctuation indicating emphasis, to communicate what a particular action sounds like: for example, a kiss (SMACK!!), a punch that’s as devastating as a gunshot (KAPOW!!!), or an explosion (BOOOOOM!!!!).

And while comic book artists often draw on a rich library of textual audio that has been used before, and that everyone recognises, they can also invent new sounds to match their characters and storyline. Often, these sounds only make sense in the context of the image and the specific action it depicts.

Translating comic books is an exciting challenge. Some onomatopoeia works quite well in multiple languages, at least so long as they have the same writing system and similar phonetics, but sometimes it doesn’t work at all, and the translator must find a sonic equivalent in the target language, while avoiding unwanted connotations. And it’s more difficult again when translating from a language with a completely different writing system to the target language (think Japanese into German, for example).

Comic books, a literary format that is often underestimated in terms of its cultural reach, can call for the most refined, most delicate, most sophisticated translating skills of all.

GADZOOKS!!!???!!!!

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She sells seashells on the seashore.

Tongue twisters – in any language – are a lot of fun, and they also provide us with opportunities to work on our diction and fluency. Often, they rely on the speaker alternating rapidly between phonemes that are similar, but different. Frequently they also use a mixture of alliteration and rhyme.

Tongue twisters became extremely popular staples of English-language humour in the nineteenth century, and they exist in other languages too. In Spanish, a tongue twister is a trabalenguas (tongue jammer), for example; and the sign language version of a tongue twister is known as a “finger fumbler”.

Experiments conducted in-house at 101translations seem to suggest that tongue twisters are often easier to enunciate in one’s second language. Contact us for details!

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Vindolanda was a Roman fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, the northernmost boundary of the Roman Empire in Britan. It was occupied from about 85 CE to about 370 CE.

For lovers of language, Vindolanda is a treasure trove, because local conditions – including the anaerobic acid peaty soil that doesn’t allow for most bacterial activity – mean that many of the letters received by the Roman soldiers stationed there have survived, giving us insights into their lives, and how they communicated.

Written in Latin on thin pieces of wood about the size of a postcard, the Vindolanda tablets carry messages of all sorts: about supplies, about the soldiers’ daily lives, and about the things they missed from home.

One of the most endearing letters was written by Claudia Severa, the wife of a Roman commander, to her friend Sulpicia Lepidina, issuing an invitation to her birthday party:

‘On 11 September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present. Give my greetings to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son send him their greetings.’

The Vindolanda Tablets remind us that, while the materials and modes employed may change, the urge to communicate – and to share happy times with our friends –has remained remarkably constant throughout time.

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