Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation launches Turjuman Programme for producing translators in the Arab World

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation has announced the launch of Turjuman Programme, which is listed under the theme of culture, one of the strategic segments of the foundation’s work.

The programme is aimed at contributing practically and effectively to upgrading the levels of translation in the Arab World by means of producing and training translators with the aim of improving their performance and production. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and the American University of Sharjah had been signed before the announced was made.

Under the MoU, the university will hold a certified translator course, a six-week training period for translators holding bachelor’s degrees and have a translation experience of no less than 2 years and no more than 4 years. The MoU was signed by Yasser Hareb, Vice President for Culture at Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, Dr Winfred Thompson, Chancellor of the American University of Sharjah, and a number of officials from both parties. The Turjuman Programme comes as part of the chain of strategic initiatives and programmes that have been launched by the foundation since its inception in October last year.

The programme is aimed at improving the level and quality of the translated books and sciences in the field of management and business and developing translations into Arabic through qualifying translators and training them in the use of the advanced translation technologies. It is also aimed at helping revivify translation in the Arab World and render it a contributor to the economic and academic development.

“The foundation is paying utmost attention to translation, this being one of the most important channels for conveying knowledge of the other cultures and a major contributor to and supporter of our endeavours for building the knowledge capabilities in the Arab World”, Hareb said. “This comes at a time the translation industry in the Arab World is experiencing a distinct slump that has urged us to launch such programmes that give a new momentum to this industry, which is viewed as a key pillar for building knowledge and boosting development”, he added. “Through the Turjuman Programme, we are looking forward to redressing the shortage of efficient translators capable of producing such translations that live up to the expectations in terms of both quality and quantity. Based on this, we have conducted a study of the translators’ professional requirements and come up with specialized practical programmes for upgrading the career of such translators who will play a key role in pushing the wheel of translation in the Arab World forward”, Hareb said.

The Certified Translator Programme will feature 20 students in each course and is open to all Arab nationalities. The trainees will get 120 training hours in the course, which extends to six weeks. They will be trained in translation of management and business articles and the use of modern translation technologies. Applications for joining the programme are expected to be received from May 2008, provided that study in the first course will start in June, giving the applicants the chance to graduate in July 2008.

As far as co-operation with the foundation is concerned, Dr Thompson said:

“We are pleased at the co-operation between the university’s Department of Arabic Studies with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for introducing a programme that will contribute practically and efficiently to upgrading the level of translation in the Arab World, boosting the capabilities of translators while offering them the necessary training for enhancing their qualifications and crystallizing their skills in this significant field. We hope that this co-operation will continue for years and will yield a generation of qualified translators in the Arab World”.

A detailed plan will be made for the specialized committees to receive, study and evaluate the participation applications. The committees will later announce the names of the candidates and arrange for their joining the programme. The committees will also track the academic attainment of the candidates during the study period and will announce the titles of the books that have been translated by the students during their study as soon as the students have graduated.

It is noteworthy that early this year the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation launched the “Tarjem” programme as part of the segment of culture in a bid to help streamline and support the movement of translation from and into Arabic and contribute to enhancing the knowledge-based capabilities of the Arab World in all fields. For this purpose, the foundation took upon itself to have 1,000 books translated within the coming three years in co-operation with a number of the most outstanding Arab translation and publishing houses. The first year of the Tarjem programme’s plan will ensure the translation of 365 books, a rate of one book per day, which is equivalent to the total bulk of books translated in the Arab World in one year. The programme will focus on translating the most important books worldwide in the different intellectual fields, particularly management books due to their vital importance in the current stage.

Source http://www.ameinfo.com

New worlds, new translators, new translations

Translation offers a multiplicity of complex worlds, all waiting to be interpreted, understood and absorbed.

Nearly 10 years ago, when the faculty and students of a university in Chicago attended an exhibition of Indian art expecting to see paintings of gods and goddesses, they were stunned to see the colour, variety, power and style of some of our famous l iving artists. To be sure, there were some gods and goddesses, but there was also a great deal else. Techniques learnt from the West in the late 19th century combined with native genius, local rhythms, and a deep absorption of traditions hitherto only dimly understood outside the country, to convey an explosion of Indian experience on canvas.“I feel I’m looking at a new world,” read a line in the visitors’ book.

There is a similar and even more complex world on offer; writings ranging from the Northeastern region of India all the way to Kerala at the other end of the subcontinent, all waiting to be interpreted, understood and absorbed, both by Indians who do not know the languages of the Northeast and Kerala, and by lovers of literature outside the country. While the language of art is different from the art of language, the growth of both is shaped by foreign influences. The large-scale introduction of the teaching of English in India was promoted by the British rulers who had an imperial and cultural plan, and by influential Indians who saw it not only as a social and professional opportunity but who welcomed it as part of the larger move to modernise India. Today, there are more people reading and writing English in India than there are in the U.K. Quite recently, David Crystal, the author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, remarked that future users of Global Standard English might well say, “I am thinking its going to rain,” rather than “I think its going to rain,” because GSE will have pronounced Indian characteristics.

What does this mean? Does it mean anything to anyone?

A new assertion It might, to translators and publishers of Indian literature in English translation; it probably will, to a market which is no longer shadowy and is gradually asserting itself. With English being the world’s most studied second-language, as it fiercely beats off its rivals and reigns unchallenged as the main international academic language, it seems entirely appropriate to launch writers from our national languages into this parallel language world which demands no visas and recognises no borders. Indeed, there is hardly an Indian publisher with a footprint in the English language space who has not committed at least some of his/ her resources to translating Indian literature. Some publishers are publishing bilingually, and others have set up exclusively — and heroically — to publish English translations of Indian writers. Every one of them probably feels that our stupendous multilingualism should not be frittered away.

Since glimpses are better than descriptions, and I’m always hoping to win new readers to the translations camp, I give below a few samples.

Published in translation 12 years ago, here is an excerpt from Abdul Bismillah’s Hindi novel, Jhini, Jhini, Bini Chadariya (the title itself, a line from Sant Kabir’s verse which images the soul as a length of cloth woven between Heaven and Earth, was rendered as The Song of The Loom). The narrative deals with the impoverished weavers of Benaras who make the beautiful brocades for all of India. When Iqbaal was ready to leave, Aleemun beckoned to him. He sat gazing at her wasted face. Still using gestures Aleemun asked him to open the packet. As Aleemun’s shriveled fingers stroked the sari there was a strange glow in her sightless eyes. This time Iqbaal had woven flowers with threads of gold against a red background. It seemed as if golden buds had bloomed in a valley of rubies. Aleemun wanted to transplant those buds into her eyes. It was as if she wanted to absorb into her very self, this fruit of her husband’s labour. “This year, for Eid, we’ll get you a sari exactly like this!” Aleemun turned to Iqbaal. A fleeting smile touched her ashen lips.

(translated by Rashmi Govind)

Or, published 10 years ago, here are a few lines from The Eye of God (N.P. Muhammad). Against the backdrop of Malayali Muslim village culture with its curious mix of Hindu rituals and beliefs, it tells the poignant story of a young boy sliding slowly into insanity. There is a court which forgives every kind of crime: the heart of a mother. I’ll not allow them to touch my Umma. Amazingly, I remembered what Kunhali Musaliyar had taught me to recite at night school.

“Do you know where Heaven is?” “It is somewhere in the sky,” I said and pointed upwards. “No you fool. Heaven is under Umma’s feet.”(translated by Gita Krishnankutty)

In the new millennium, the kind of English that our translators are experimenting with is vigorously making more elbow room for itself, as seen, for example, in Velcheru Narayana Rao’s translation of Satish Chander’s Telugu poem, “A Child is Born”:

Four sides to the village

Four legs to an animal

Four rows for crossing

Caste walks on four feet

Look at the risks Malini Seshadri takes with her forthcoming translation of Bama’s Tamil novel, Vanmam (Vendetta):

“You know, if I pick up the thing that sits on top of the phone and put it to my ear, I can hear my son’s voice…so clear it is. You think my son stops with that? No, he wants me also to talk. Whatever I talk into that thing, he can listen to over there! He replies immediately… tuk, tuk…just like that! And he asks me questions. I’m just feeling so strange even talking about it. How on earth did anyone invent such a magic thing like that phone!”

Is this Global Standard English or a sort of third language which is neither the Indian language from which it is being conveyed nor “ICS English”? The complexity of texts mirroring experiences uniquely Indian and filtering through classes and communities, can and must be translocated. This calls for great ingenuity. When, for instance, we read Bankim’s Anandamath in English, we know we are reading a 19th century novel. Should the translation match 19th century Bengali or sound like a year 2004 narrative?

Collaborative effort Every editor knows that translation is not the transfer of a detachable meaning from one language to another. S/he looks and listens expectantly for that distinct sound of something that leaps right off the page and rings gloriously, and gloomily recognises the thud of an unsuccessful passage falling to the floor. Manoeuvring it back into the bell-tower is a collaborative effort that takes time and dedication on the part of the parties involved. Because translation is a dialogue between two languages and takes place in the space between them, and because it is literally a new birth, it would be most unwise to rush it. We watch as our translators respectfully tug their texts out of the times in which they are set, and relocate them without disturbing their linguistic ethos and in a language both recognisable and aesthetically satisfying to us.

How many more days were there to amaavaasai? How many more days for the stars to blossom in the ink-black night? In the western heavens, the moon hung like a sliver of pumpkin. How long would it be until amaavaasai? The breeze fell upon me, laden with neem.(Na Muthuswamy, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom)

I am thinking that India, once captured by the British, captured English, and opened up a parallel universe for its writers and translators to travel in.

Source: http://www.hindu.com

Google Hindi translations “more funny than appropriate”

Tacky but cheeky, Google offers Hindi translation

Google’s got technology. And it has some guts. The world’s leading search engine on Monday unveiled an online platform that translates between Hindi and English. The bold effort is hi-tech but low on utility, as translations often tend to be more funny than appropriate.

The translation service (http://www.google.com/translate_t) throws up meanings or sentences that sound right for simple sentences like “I love you” or “How are you?” but fumbles away with literal dictionary words when one tries complex sentences, idiomatic usage or slang words — and it also errs on syntax.But the software operates on the principle of “More you use, the better it can get” because users can offer alternatives and press a button that could make the computer system “learn” and perfect usage over time. “There is a need to reach people who may be English-familiar, but Indic language proficient,” Rahul Roy Chowdhury, Product Manager, Google India, told HT. “We’ll work to make Google Translate in Hindi even better,” said Chowdhury. Google already offers a transliteration service to convert Roman (English) scripts to Devnagari (Hindi) and some other Indian languages and free space on its Blogger.com site for Hindi and regional language blogs.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com

China: Dictionary program redefines translation

BEIJING, May 5 — Chinese language learners often rack their minds searching for the right word. By the time they shuffle through a dictionary the moment has passed and conversation has moved on. Chinese student and Harvard graduate Michael Love was so frustrated by the experience he came up with his own solution, which has earned him a small fortune. His Pleco program based on Palm or PPC is a two-way dictionary program that includes both English-Chinese and Chinese-English explanations.

By typing in pinyin, Pleco will show a list of all the Chinese words that fit the pronunciation. After the selection is made, more details about the word are revealed. Compared to similar electronic translators the pinyin word search function is helpful. For English-Chinese searching, Pleco gives a few Chinese phrases and sentences to explain the English word. Pleco is also equipped with a handwriting recognizer to input Chinese characters and the software has been bought by more than 20,000 users.

“I carry my Pocket PC with me everywhere I go,” says Laura Renner, an MBA exchange student from University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, studying at Guanghua School of Management of Peking University. “When I’m speaking Chinese, I use Pleco to look up words I don’t know or remember how to say or ones that I haven’t heard before when listening or reading.” Love’s connection with China started when he was only 12. That year, his middle school principal father started a Chinese program.

To support his father, Love selected Chinese language course, which was competing with French and Spanish. He was one of first group of Chinese students in Rhode Island, USA. “It seemed more interesting than the others,” he says. He admits that he can “draw” Chinese characters very well, but can only speak Chinese “decently”. “You don’t get a lot of opportunities to practice living in the US.” Love says his creation was sort of accident.Before that, he was quite into a Palm program called KDIC, which can allow him to play with its basic Chinese-English dictionary and a handwriting recognizer program called WisdomPen Lite. But the limited vocabulary and explanations do not satisfy his needs.

Love came to China in 1999 and attended School Year Aboard program. While staying with the host family and studying at the No 2 High School attached to Beijing Normal University he had a lot of chances to speak Chinese. But he was really annoyed by the time he wasted looking up words in a regular dictionary. From 2000, Love spent more than a year developing his dictionary software. Love says the software will be updated to be able to correct grammar mistakes and be more accurate in choosing the most appropriate Chinese words.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com

Second version of English to Maltese dictionary

English Maltese Dictionary

A second version of the highly successful English to Maltese dictionary has been launched online and can now be found at http://www.englishmaltesedictionary.com This ‘intelligent’ version of the online dictionary now also features quick search options where even if the user searches for a misspelled word the online dictionary is intelligent enough to track the nearest occurrence of that word and display a Maltese translation for the search item.

When spoken to the author of the highly successful online English to Maltese dictionary stated that he is very excited at the amount of positive feedback he received, especially from international users. The author stated that he received so many emails from Maltese nationals who visited http://www.englishmaltesedictionary.com and who are now residing in countries like Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom that he is now thinking about making other Maltese language resources online for emigrants to keep in contact with their language. Many users of the online English to Maltese dictionary are suggesting articles about the use of the Maltese language and they are being uploaded on the website for everyone to share.

The Online English to Maltese Dictionary has been featured on international websites like wikipedia and word2word.com Further to this, other new features are going to be implemented soon like an addition of a forum for discussion. The amount of words in the dictionary has tripled in just six months since it’s inception. An enormous amount of feedback received by users daily is helping the dictionary grow.

Source: http://www.pr-usa.net

UK: Right to an interpreter dates back to 1725

Deaf people on trial were granted the right to an interpreter as early as 1725, according to Old Bailey records examined by UCL (University College London) scientists. The use of family and friends to interpret court proceedings later switched to deaf teachers and eventually written testimony, which may have disadvantaged the less educated ‘deaf and dumb’ at the very time that British Sign Language was emerging. The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Sign Language Studies, charts the history of signing and interpreting in court proceedings pulled from Old Bailey records online. UCL researchers examined 30 trials in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries where the defendant or a key witness was deaf or dumb.

Although officially the term ’sign language interpreter’ was coined in the late twentieth century, from the 1700s family, friends, missionaries, teachers, and later social workers undertook this role in court. The first record of a court interpreter appears in 1771 in the case of James Saytuss, otherwise known as ‘Dumb O Jemmy,’ who was tried and convicted of stealing, amongst other things, two silver candlesticks and a pair of women’s shoes. A person whose name is not given, but with whom James had formerly lived as a servant, was sworn interpreter and used signs to explain the proceedings to James.

In the early nineteenth century a shift occurred from the use of people with personal knowledge of the deaf person, to the use of teachers in deaf schools. The first school for deaf children in Britain was established in Edinburgh in 1760. It later moved to Hackney in London, where it became the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in 1792.

The creation of such schools gave deaf children their first opportunity to come together, enabling them to fully develop a sign language and create their own community. At the same time deaf people began to present their evidence in written form, presumably a reflection of the setting up of formal education. In parallel with this, court proceedings changed: with no requirement that defendants be able to understand the proceedings or evidence against them, interpreters were no longer sworn in, and they were not described as interpreters. Deaf defendants who were unable to submit written testimony may have been considered not to have full access to a language; those who had not been educated would have communicated through gestures or home signs; thus, their status may have declined paradoxically as opportunities for education increased.

Professor Bencie Woll, Director of the UCL Deafness, Cognition and Language Research (DCAL) Centre says: ‘With the release of Old Bailey records online, we have been able to explore the treatment of ‘deaf and dumb’ people by the legal system in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many of the issues raised are pertinent today, including finding interpreters for signing deaf people in the courts. In many cases, family and friends were used as well as employers (masters to deaf servants). Later, we see teachers from the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, founded in 1792, being brought in to communicate in the courts.

‘The central criminal court appears to have had quite an enlightened view, even though there is little evidence that these people ‘dumb by the visitation of god’ were using a fully fledged sign language. The court usually held no objections to signing, gesturing and motioning, provided that this could be interpreted to the satisfaction of the jury.This rationale still operates largely today, where people are brought in to interpret for deaf people without necessarily being qualified or registered with a professional body.’British Sign Language can trace its roots to the creation of formal deaf education, the irony being that as deaf children received greater education and as BSL became a full language, the status of ‘deaf and dumb’ people appears to have declined in the courts, just as their language and community were beginning to develop.’ The earliest British account of signing dates back to a wedding in 1575, where the groom used signs during the ceremony. Samuel Pepys’s account of the great fire of London in 1666 refers to a ‘dumb’ boy who describes the fire using ’strange signs.’ This ‘home signing,’ as it is known, was an ad hoc gesturing system developed by deaf children which would not have been passed down generations or across deaf communities.

Source: http://www.sciencecentric.com

Louisiana: Local courts or municipalities to pay for court interpreters?

A Fence Around the Bayou

Immigration issues aren’t jsut for the feds anymore, as evidenced by state lawmaker’s efforts to halt illegal aliens.

While Congress is constantly chipping away at the issue of illegal immigration, the topic has been a novelty for the Louisiana Legislature — until the current session. It’s now a difficult subject to ignore, lawmakers say, especially in post-Katrina times, when construction is on an upswing around the state and cheap labor is plentiful. But the policy concerns aren’t confined to labor issues. For example, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, wants local courts or municipalities to pick up the cost of providing court interpreters for non-English-speaking persons in criminal cases.

Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Brett Geymann of Lake Charles finds himself in the precarious situation of facing off against the Roman Catholic bishops of Louisiana. Geymann is pushing a set of bills that would criminalize the act of harboring illegal immigrants, even if the violator believes the aliens’ status is legal, and require law enforcement to determine citizenship or immigration status at the time of booking. Penalties reach up to a year in prison and $1,000 in fines. Similar laws already are on the books in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma. Danny Loar, a lobbyist for the Catholic bishops, quoted scripture and referred to Jesus’ treatment of minorities when the House Criminal Justice Committee heard the legislation. Since Catholic charities offer job development, family crisis intervention and legal assistance to aliens, he says a priest could theoretically end up behind bars for fulfilling his ecclesiastical mission. “The church has a long history of working with immigrants, legal and illegal. We don’t ask,” Loar says. “We’re here to help the poor.”

Coastal lawmakers also expressed concerns that shipbuilders, ports and contractors that inadvertently employ illegal aliens could find themselves in violation of the law if paperwork they completed properly is in the process of being renewed. Geymann acknowledges that as a gray area. He already has moved to exempt charitable and religious organizations from his bill. Assumption Parish Rep. Joe Harrison, a Republican freshman, is taking more of a futuristic approach. He wants the state to require electronically scanned biometric cards for illegal immigrants working in Louisiana. Some hail the cards as a technological marvel. They already are used in some other states, but they have triggered fiery congressional debates. Under Harrison’s bill, an employer could swipe an immigrant’s card and know instantly whether he or she is allowed to work. Louisiana law already provides several exceptions for unauthorized foreigners. They can take on gigs that few others want, such as jobs related to agriculture, forestry, horticultural, animal husbandry and livestock. Harrison’s bill would allow the cards to hold other information, such as fingerprints, country of origin, physical attributes and more.

Harrison says Louisiana needs biometric cards because they could serve as a roadblock to new and re-emerging diseases that have been linked to the flow of illegal immigrants. “We’ve already experienced a resurgence of tuberculosis from South America, and it has been a tremendous drain on our resources and medical community,” he says. “This proposed system would likewise serve as a screening for these diseases.” Opponents have voiced constitutional concerns and questioned whether the feds — not the state — should be taking up this issue. More than anything else, money tops the list of worries. Last month, before the House Labor Committee temporarily shelved his bill for the second time, Harrison urged lawmakers to consider his proposal as part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s ongoing push to revamp the Department of Labor.

Agency bureaucrats, however, gave the notion a chilly reception. Deputy Labor Secretary Tia Edwards says the biometric card system could cost the department, which would be charged with promulgating rules and overseeing the process, as much as $129,000 annually. “We do have some concerns,” she says. An economic forecast prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Office put up a similar number, estimating 2,500 cards would need to be produced at a cost of $125,000. That figure, though, doesn’t take into account the additional manpower and positions the department would need, meaning two additional staffers, overtime pay, and money for lawyers and equipment. In short, Harrison’s bill has a tough journey ahead, but it’s still playing a huge role in the current immigration law drama.

Despite hefty constitutional concerns, Louisiana isn’t the only state taking a swing at sovereignty issues right now. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), more than 1,100 immigration-related bills were introduced in 44 state legislatures during the first quarter of this year. NCSL reports that the top three issues were law enforcement, employment and driver’s licenses or other forms of identification. Not surprisingly, it may all be happening because of polling numbers and the public’s demand for action. “The number of immigration-related measures demonstrates states’ willingness to respond to the public’s concerns in a time when Congress won’t,” the NCSL report says.

Louisiana’s policy flirtations are nowhere near over. After all, lawmakers don’t have to go home until June 23. Consider the following developments:

— Geymann has another bill that would prohibit state agencies from contracting with businesses that employ illegal immigrants.

— Rep. Patrick Williams, D-Shreveport, wants to establish new procedures for investigating the employment of illegal immigrants and sanction employers who break the law.

— GOP Rep. Tim Burns of Mandeville has legislation that would ban illegal immigrants from renting property.

— The Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana is the target of Rep. Joel Robideaux of Lafayette, who has no party affiliation. He wants to allow teachers with a J1 visa, given to those in an internship/exchange program, to be part of the system.

— Two nonbinding resolutions would request that Congress increase penalties for employers who hire unauthorized aliens and direct the state Legislature’s labor committees to investigate the economic impacts of illegal immigration on Louisiana.

All of these measures await their first hearings and promise to foster more heated debates. While the issue prompts questions about everything from labor to religion to constitutional rights, it also stirs nationalistic emotions on both sides. That’s why Harrison and others say they’re stepping up to fill a void left by Congress. To them, it’s about protecting the homeland, even though others say it’s an issue of opportunity. “All I’m doing is trying to protect the sovereignty of this state,” Harrison says. “Things are getting way out of hand, and it’s time that we stand up and do something about it.”

Source: http://www.bestofneworleans.com

The Linguists: Searching for Endangered Languages Around the World

Linguistics, the study of languages, is generally not interesting for people who are not linguists. Filming the daily work of a linguist – reading and listening – is an idea better suited for a sleep aid than a 70 minute documentary film. But The Linguists, which follows the work of Dr. K. David Harrison and Dr. Gregory Anderson, should not be written off as esoteric. The film’s stars are more like Indiana Jones-style adventurers traveling to remote locations in search of undocumented and dying languages than stodgy academics.

What makes The Linguists so entertaining are the stars’ contagious love of linguistics; between them they speak over 25 languages and have devoted their professional lives to traveling around the world – on screen they venture to Siberia, India, and Bolivia – documenting obscure languages on the verge of extinction. Their work is exciting because Harrison and Anderson are up against the clock: currently there over 7,000 languages spoken around the world, but one is disappearing every two weeks. all and easy-going, Harrison is a professor of Linguistics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and the author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge (which is currently only available in English). Anderson calls him a “sponge” for foreign languages and an expert at sounds – he also has a penchant for wearing fleece, which completes his wholesome look nicely. The film has made him a celebrity of sorts; he’s appeared on the Colbert Report where he taught Stephen Colbert to say, “I’m going to stab you in the gut with a knife” in Sora.

Both linguists are interested in more than just documenting endangered languages – they go into great depth about the sociological, political, and economic reasons why languages are disappearing.The extinction of languages is in part the result of colonization and the oppression of native cultures. In India, the linguists search for speakers of Sora, a tribal language spoken by approximately 300,000 people in India’s Orissa state. The language is endangered in part because children from Orissa are sent to boarding schools where English and Hindi are the instructional languages. Languages die when children decide, or are forced, to stop using their ancestral language, and older speakers die without sharing their knowledge with younger generations.Anderson is the bearded, dark-haired “verb guy” who shares Harrison’s love of fleece and camping-inspired clothing. When he isn’t globe-trotting, he works as the Director of the Oregon-based Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. Having had a life-long love for language, he says, “Around the age of eight or nine I discovered I had a somewhat irrational interest in the world’s languages.” So his current career choice is no surprise.Economics is also a factor; many people stop using their native language when they learn another that offers greater employment and educational opportunities. In Siberia, the dominance of Russian has killed most of the smaller indigenous languages. Harrison and Anderson travel to Siberia to study Chulym – a language that has not been documented for over 30 years. After taking a census in the rural community of around 420 people (all of whom speak Russian), they find seven Chulyms who are fluent speakers. But many of the native speakers are elderly and, ironically, deaf. Since the youngest fluent speaker they meet is in his 50s, the language will probably be extinct in 25 years.

Harrison and Anderson’s adventures border on slapstick. There are misunderstandings perpetuated by people not speaking the same language, dangerous encounters solved by bribery, and some disagreements that are inevitable when any sleep-deprived Westerner travels to a place without “proper” bathrooms. When they travel to Bolivia to find people who speak Kallawaya – a language native to medicinal healers in the Andes – Anderson becomes sick and cannot hide his crabbiness.

Some of the healers they interview offer to help, and the result is a classic fish-out-of-water routine involving a ritual with dead rodents. Kallawaya is an incredibly interesting language, spoken by less than a 100 people who do not learn the language during infancy; rather, healers only learn Kallawaya as they learn the medicine and rituals associated with the language.Though Harrison and Anderson are comical as they travel around the world searching for native speakers of these dying languages, some of the film’s focus is probably too idiosyncratic for the average viewer – they were very excited by Sora’s numbering system. But their mission to document languages before they are gone, and, in turn, to help people reconnect with their ancestral history is inspiring.Harrison and Anderson’s work instills a sense of pride in members of oppressed and underrepresented cultures. After decades of feeling ashamed and embarrassed by their culture, the Chulyms have a look of pure delight when they see themselves speaking their native language on film.

The film also makes the history and unique cultural practices of endangered indigenous languages accessible to people who have never even heard of Sora, Chulym, and Kallawaya. The story of endangered languages is really the story of oppression. In Siberia, the Soviets forbid and even punished children from speaking their native languages in school. In the United States, Native American children were sent to boarding schools to learn English. This policy of instilling a sense of cultural inferiority encourages people to abandon their native tongues and even feel embarrassed about their native cultures; Harrison and Anderson’s Siberian taxi driver initially won’t even admit that he knows Chulym, much less that he is fluent. Every 14 days a language disappears, and with that language more than just words are lost. Our only hope is that Harrison and Anderson can swoop in, like the linguistic adventurers they are, and document these languages before time runs out.

Source: http://thewip.net

Manifiesto contra el acuerdo ortográfico de la lengua portuguesa

ás de 4.000 firmas contra el acuerdo ortográfico de la lengua portuguesa

Más de 4.000 personas han firmado un manifiesto contra el acuerdo ortográfico de la lengua portuguesa, informaron hoy los promotores de la iniciativa, un grupo de personalidades lusas de la cultura, la política y la economía.

El número de firmas reúne los requisitos legales mínimos para que el documento sea entregado en el Parlamento, para su discusión, y también al presidente de la República, informó el poeta y escritor Vasco Graca Moura. El manifiesto ‘pretende contribuir a formar un poderoso movimiento de reflexión, apoyado por la opinión pública, acerca de los defectos del acuerdo ortográfico y la necesidad de bloquear su aprobación en el Parlamento’, agrega el documento.

Los firmantes se quejan de que el acuerdo ortográfico fue aprobado ‘de forma atropellada, sin consultar antes a escritores, científicos, historiadores y organizaciones relacionadas con la cultura y la investigación científica’. También reclaman que el ministerio de Educación ‘asuma una posición clara’ sobre el asunto.
El documento original fue firmado por cerca de 20 artistas, escritores, políticos y científicos, que lo colocaron en internet para reunir firmas.

El pasado 7 de abril, el ministro luso de Cultura, José Antonio Pinto Ribeiro, dijo en el Parlamento que se establecerá un plazo amplio para la entrada en vigor del acuerdo ortográfico de la lengua portuguesa, que la unificará con Brasil y otros países, para evitar ‘rupturas’. Pinto Ribeiro dijo entonces que el cumplimiento de este acuerdo, que ha levantado polémica en Portugal, se hará ‘con tiempo y orden’ y que los profesores deberán ser formados y el contenido se adaptará a los manuales escolares. El Parlamento luso organizó ese día un debate sobre el acuerdo ortográfico, aprobado en 1991 por Portugal, Brasil y otros países lusófonos, y el ministro dijo que este proyecto avanza ‘en conjunto’, a pesar de que sólo tres países (Brasil, Cabo Verde y Santo Tomé) han ratificado el documento hasta la fecha. El Parlamento luso debe decidir próximamente si ratifica la decisión del Gobierno de aprobar el segundo protocolo de 1991, que modifica el acuerdo ortográfico de la lengua portuguesa y prevé un plazo de transición de seis años para su aplicación plena.

Fuente: http://actualidad.terra.es

Nueva recomendación de la Fundéu: instalarse

Fundéu: no debe ‘instalarse’ el verbo instalar si se habla de algo abstracto

La Fundación del Español Urgente (Fundéu BBVA) considera innecesario el uso del verbo ‘instalar’ referido a algo que no es material sino abstracto, como son los sentimientos, conceptos e ideas.

Este verbo aparece frecuentemente en los medios de comunicación, sobre todo en los audiovisuales, y aunque puede usarse en sentido metafórico se recomienda no abusar de él y utilizar otros como ‘haber’, ‘estar’, ‘causar’, ‘mostrarse’, ‘encontrarse’, según el contexto. El verbo instalar debe usarse cuando se coloca en el lugar debido a alguien o algo, cuando se establece la residencia en un sitio o cuando se ponen en un lugar los servicios que se han de utilizar pero no en frases como estas: ‘La actuación de los bomberos ha dado lugar a que la indignación se haya instalado entre los habitantes de Ecija’; ‘Después de tantos robos, se instala el temor entre los vecinos de esa barriada’.

En estos casos debió decirse sencillamente ‘La actuación de los bomberos ha causado indignación entre los habitantes de Ecija’ o ‘Los habitantes de Ecija están indignados ante la actuación de los bomberos’; ‘Después de tantos robos, existe temor entre los vecinos de esa barriada’ o ‘Después de tantos robos los vecinos de Ecija tienen miedo’. La Fundéu-BBVA (www.fundeu.es), cuyo principal objetivo es el buen uso del español en los medios de comunicación, cuenta con el asesoramiento de la Real Academia Española, entre otros entidades, del Instituto Cervantes, la Fundación San Millán, las universidades Complutense, Alcalá, Castilla-La Mancha, Autónoma de Madrid, El Corte Inglés, Red Eléctrica, Gómez-Acebo & Pombo, Iberia, CEDRO, CELER Soluciones, Accenture, y Hermes Traducciones.

Fuente: http://actualidad.terra.es