I wrote on 21 July about quote-marks — how to decide whether you should be using curly (smart) or straight quotes and, once you’ve decided, how to type them using keyboard shortcuts where necessary. Translators, however, need to decide not just which quote marks to use but whether or not to “translate” them. For example, …
Tag archives: Language
Portuguese pick-ups
We’re just back from holiday in Portugal, with a mid-year resolution to sign up for Portuguese lessons at Glasgow University’s Department of Adult and Continuing Education, which thankfully seems to have survived the threatened budget cuts. As my daughter put it, we felt like such tourists, not being able to speak the language. However, not speaking …
Smart quote-marks for smart writing
Keyboard shortcuts are a great timesaver when you’re spending hours typing away on your computer. I’ve just learned a couple of new ones, for inserting smart (curly) quotes in text where autoformat functions, such as Word’s, don’t work, and for doing the opposite: inserting straight quotes when you’re working in AutoFormat mode. I discovered these tips …
The king’s speech — and how to translate it
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve had a speech-flavoured working week. Translating a speech is a good opportunity for translators to provide added value for their clients. Not only should our translated text read fluently and naturally, it should also be easy for non-native-speaking clients to read aloud (and for their audience to …
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The king’s speech (not to mention the queen and the presidents’)
It’s been quite a month for historic speeches in the UK and Ireland, with the speeches by Queen Elizabeth, President McAleese and President Obama during the Queen’s State Visit to Ireland and President Obama’s to Ireland and the UK. And it’s been the year of The King’s Speech (the film, that is), featuring Lionel Logue …
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Top 100 Language Blogs 2011 – voting now open
Voting is now open for the Top 100 Language Blogs 2011 competition organised by LexioPhiles, for which we’ve been nominated in the “Language Professionals” category. Voting takes place from 17 to 29 May 2011. If you’d like to vote for Words to good effect, you can do so here. Thank you! By Marian Dougan
The linguistic expertise of British diplomacy
The British Foreign Minister, William Hague, has just made a statement to Parliament on Britain’s future diplomatic network (11 May 2011). It describes some of the spending cuts, rationalisation and refocusing of the UK’s diplomatic network that will be taking place throughout the current Parliament. Mr Hague adds that: This development of our network should be seen alongside …
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Calm down dear, it’s only language
Richard Alcock, the Guardian newspaper’s business production editor, has written a post in the Mind Your Language blog offering David Cameron advice on the use of catchphrases. The post is inspired by the Prime Minister’s recent use of “Calm down dear” when addressing Angela Eagle, a female Labour Party MP — and Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, no less. Her …
Who are you calling feisty?!?
Yikes! I was browsing through the Online Etymology Dictionary for -le frequentatives the other day, as you do, and eventually arrived at the etyolomogical definition of feisty (I was looking for “fizzle”, but one’s as bad as the other, frankly). feisty 1896, “aggressive, exuberant, touchy,” Amer.Eng., with -y (2) + feist “small dog,” earlier fice, …
An English bee in my Scottish-British-European bonnet
This morning’s “Call Kaye” phone-in programme on BBC Radio Scotland featured a discussion of whether Friday’s Royal Wedding had made Scottish listeners feel more proud to be British. Or not. Many of the callers enjoyed and felt their Britishness reinforced by the event. Some objected to the inclusion in the service of the hymn “Jerusalem” and …
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