Meanwhile, the new year has brought a crop of online excerpts and short stories translated from Arabic to English via the Arabic Literature blog. Works include a short excerpt of Kamel Riahi’s al-Ghurila (The Gorilla), poems from Hussein Habasch and Joyce Mansour and a short story inspired by the Egyptian revolution from Hamdy El-Gazzar. The Arab Spring and its repercussions are also a dominant theme at the Beirut Book Fair.

The European Society of Authors is continuing to promote their annual “Finnegan’s List” in which well-known polyglot writers are asked to recommend titles by other writers deserving of wider translation. London author Adam Thirlwell gets one of the nominations. A PDF of the full list is available for download: Finnegan’s List [pdf].

One European author to obtain wider translation is Spaniard Javier Marías with seven titles from his backlist being translated into English at least, having been signed up by Penguin Modern Classics. The titles, which are all to be published at the beginning of August 2012, are All Souls, A Heart So White, Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me, Dark Back of Time, When I was Mortal, The Man of Feeling and Written Lives.

It’s a brilliant introduction to the sort of conundrums that can crop up in translating even the most “common sense” concepts. The book itself, Is that a fish in your ear: Translation and the meaning of everything has been garnering some rave reviews.

While Shaun Whiteside in the Independent says

“I can quite imagine translators, particularly those who also do a spot of teaching, being consumed with envy at Bellos’s ability to entertain while getting difficult linguistic ideas across to the general reader… Is That a Fish in Your Ear? is essential reading for anyone with even a vague interest in language and translation – in short, it is a triumph.”

While Michael Hofmann in the Guardian says

“I could say anyone with an interest in translation should read Is That a Fish, but there wouldn’t be very much point; instead, anyone with no interest in translation, please read David Bellos’s brilliant book.”

(As an aside, the Guardian have also teamed up with Penguin Books to celebrate the book’s publication with a chance to win a £400 voucher towards a life changing volunteering trip overseas.)

These reviews were enough to get a copy of the book sitting on my desk. Its Prologue promises a wide ranging discussion including:

“What can we learn from translation? What does it teach us? What do we actually know about translation? What is it about translation that we still need to find out? … Is translating fundamentally different from writing and speaking, or is it just another aspect of the unsolved mystery of how we come to know what someone else means?”

Some big questions, but they seemed to be tackled in a fun as well as informative way. I am sure I will be sharing some interesting tidbits from the pages ahead. In the meantime, anyone wondering about the title should have a look here for some mostly harmless background!

Anyone who shares my fascination with language and uncovering the obscure will enjoy browsing the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. There are reckoned to be over 6,000 languages in the world with some half of those under threat of extinction this century.

The atlas’s excellent print edition was updated last year and there is an searchable online language map, which is great for random investigation.

For instance, there are 144 languages listed for China: from Adi, spoken by about 170,000 people in Siang, to Zaiwa with only a thousand speakers. There are 11 languages listed for the UK, including Cornish and Manx. The latter is listed as “critically endangered” with the atlas noting:

The last speaker of traditional Manx, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974. Since then, however, the language has been undergoing active revitalization in family, school and institutional contexts.

Personally I have found the atlas an absorbing way to wile away an hour or two. Of course, beyond pure fascination, there is a serious point about how we are all culturally poorer by allowing these languages to die:

With the disappearance of unwritten and undocumented languages, humanity would lose not only a cultural wealth but also important ancestral knowledge embedded, in particular, in indigenous languages.

So if you find yourself with an hour or two to spare this long weekend, I urge you to have a look round … and let us know of any gems you uncover!

“I’d be really careful about having any kind of a sensitive debate with someone either spoken or written using these translations.”

To be fair, this is not shock news. Google has always said this, or at least things along these lines. It is only others who have assumed that, as a Google product, Google Translate must be infallable. This assumption is a compliment to Google and their transformation of the way we use the internet. However the Google Translate help page says quite clearly:

“Even today’s most sophisticated software, however, doesn’t approach the fluency of a native speaker or possess the skill of a professional translator.”

That said, sometimes Google Translate is just plain wrong. I was recently looking at the Google Translation of a proposed car hire where it had translated Euros as US Dollars. Um, no, different currency … and a potential nasty shock at the hire desk!

In his recent comments (reported in today’s The Australian: “Search giant admits translations can be lacking”), Dr Cerf said there were problems with interpreting the meaning of the same phrase in British and American English, let alone phrases in different languages.

During his visit to The Australian‘s Sydney office last week, Dr Cerf added:

“If we were going from zero to 10, we would be about five, that’s better than almost everybody else.

“But I can tell you that I read newspapers from other countries by using Google Translate and at least I’m getting a pretty good gist of what’s being said and if I need to know more I’d go to a language speaker, an expert speaker.”

Needless to say, I’d second that.

These questions are interesting in their right, but are also far from academic considering the recent success of some novels translated into English. After all, Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy are predicted by some to become the three top-selling novels of all time in Britain, overtaking Dan Brown’s paperback, The Da Vinci Code, which sold 4.5 million.

A recent well-writen article on the “Arabic Literature (in English)” tackles these questions:

I don’t, as a rule, object to “foreign” words in English-language texts. Would Beckman call Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart an ethnic glossary? And yet it’s full of untranslated terms, and not just the Big Three: flora/fauna, food, and dress. Many of the italicized terms, in Things Fall Apart, force the reader to try to see Igbo culture on its own terms instead of “in translation”.

On the other hand, italicized foreign terms are often unnecessary, exoticizing, and perhaps even misleading. Ahdaf Souief, in a talk at last year’s Emirates Lit Festival, said she was very careful when using Arabic words, and that “there must be a reason for it”.

Excellent points, I think. You can read further carefully considered pros and cons of “foreign language” words in translation in the full article, “It’s a Shame When a Novel Aspires to be a Glossary”.

As regular readers will know, this day celebrating translation was established in 1991 by the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (International Federation of Translators). Our translation agency, WorldAccent, is proud to be a memeber of one of the federated bodies, the Institute of Translation & Interpreting. The date of 30 September was chosen as it is the feast day of St. Jerome (347-420 AD), patron saint of translators, interpreters and librarians. The day celebrates and promotes translation as an essential activity in contemporary society – but one which too often remains invisible and ignored.

This year’s theme partly celebrates the incredible diversity of language around the globe. As the Federation note in their press release for International Translation Day 2010:

“The estimated six to seven thousand languages spoken around the globe are the repository of our collective memory and intangible heritage. But the linguistic and cultural diversity they offer is under threat: 96% of these languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population and hundreds of them will soon be lost forever.”

With that “variety of voices”, the need for “translation quality” becomes clear:

“Translators, interpreters and terminologists, indispensable as mediators in interlingual and cultural contexts, have a special responsibility to help preserve multilingualism and promote smooth interaction among all the world’s languages. The burgeoning growth in information technologies, the widening reach of the Internet, the expansion of trade globally and ever-increasing scientific and cultural cooperation have undoubtedly enhanced the role of translators, interpreters and terminologists in the modern world and ushered in a ‘time of plenty’. This has in turn increased the burden of responsibility on language professionals: their work must meet exacting standards of accuracy and quality yet lose none of the nuances of the original language.”

Also of interest is an event taking place to mark this year’s International Translation Day in London. It is organised by English PEN, which promotes “literature as a means of greater understanding between cultures”. The event will focus on the future of literary translation, with speakers including Boyd Tonkin, Simon Winder, Michael Kelly, Kirsty Dunseath, Sarah Ardizzone and Mark Thwaite.

To celebrate this day we have produced a free e-card to download for yourself, or to send to friends and colleagues.

Download the International Translation Day 2010 greeting card as a PDF (288Kb).

Questions such as “what makes a language ‘living’?”, and “should we conserve the endangered ones?” are discussed in the piece, “The death of language?”

The 27 states of the European Union share some 225 indigenous languages with many more spoken by citizens whose family origin is from further afield. Some 23 are recognised as official languages, and the EU has provided a written and audio sample of each on their Languages in the EU webpage.

To celebrate European Day of Languages, the European Commission Representation in London has made available to schools some 200,000 copies of a language mini guide. The colourful guide is an excellent EDL resource, giving a small example of European languages (PDF download).

You can find more information on the European Union in London here, as well as more on European events and news.

Meanwhile, if you are a teacher, pupil or parent, why not have a look at the EU young translator contest. This Europe-wide competition, called Juvenes Translatores, is open to secondary schools with registration running until 20 October.

Whatever you are doing to celebrate this European Day of Languages, enjoy!

Followers of the Eton Institute will get a daily lesson, containing an English transliteration of an Arabic phrase. Starting with simple words such as “hello” and “goodbye”, the lessons purport to develop into more advanced real world scenarios including work, school, travel and so on.

The institute’s Managing Director added: “Learning the Arabic language doesn’t have to be a chore. By offering short and easy to remember lessons on Twitter we hope to make the learning process as simple as a ‘tweet’ which can be followed on a daily basis.”

Some may have their doubts about learning even the most rudimentary knowledge of a foreign language in such a simplified way. Combined with other resources on the internet to aid with pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, however, it may be an interesting way for a complete novice to dip their toe in the Arabic water.

The lessons start on 1 September. If you want to see how it works out, simply follow EtonInstitute on Twitter.

“I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ear and Other Intriguing Idioms from Around the World” takes its title from a Russian saying which is broadly similar in meaning to the English phrase “I’m not pulling your leg”. Often, we are so used to these absurdities in our own languages that they pass us by in everyday speech – although of course they often present a challenge to the foreign language translator!

The book is best viewed as a something to dip into, considering idioms from the Russian “To look like September” (to look miserable) through to the French “to fart in silk” (be very happy).

The chapters are arranged by subject matter (love, health, work, and so on) with a short introduction to each, and translations from a range of languages including French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. Several of the idioms are illustrated in cartoon form, adding to the entertainment value.

Sadly the book doesn’t really delve into the background of the idioms. An academic study would have been out of place, but you can’t help but wonder if a more thorough exploration of a phrase and its etymology would have added to the fun. Also, as foreign language typesetters and translators, we would have liked to see more emphasis on the original saying rather than just the literal translation.

That said, it’s all good fun. Even better, it’s inspired the Guardian newspaper to produce a fun quiz of foreign language idioms. Give it a go and, as they point out, you can find out if you’re “a walking donkey killer or simply carrying owls to Athens”