By Jon Kelly BBC News Magazine, Washington Congressman Mark Sanford has returned to frontline politics after ensuring “hiking the Appalachian Trail” became a euphemism for infidelity. What other scandals have enriched the lexicon? 1. “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared for six days in 2009, his aides told reporters he…

By Daniel Miller, LATimes Trekkies looking to translate the famous Klingon battle cry Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam! — or any other phrase from the fictional alien race’s language — will soon have a new tool at their disposal. Starting on Tuesday, Bing, Microsoft Corp.’s Internet search engine, will include Klingon in its web-based translation service. The move is…

When Lexicographers study the origin of words, they look for the earliest recorded usage, which tends to fall to literature.  Therefore, it is no great surprise that one of America’s greatest modern authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald could have been responsible for inventing one or two words that are still used today. But he didn’t invent…

“Ye old mother, hand I this black worm”. It’s a sentence that might startle your work colleagues, but if someone from 15,000 years ago was around the chances are they would understand you. The sentence is made from some of the 23 words researchers believe have remained unchanged through the millennia and are part of…

It is based on Dante’s Inferno, and the linguists who translated Dan Brown’s new blockbuster novel from English into other languages lived in distinctly underworld conditions, it has emerged. By Nick Squires, Rome For two months, 11 translators of different nationalities were tucked away in an underground “bunker” near Milan where they worked under the…

Welcome to our third installment of Funny Video Friday (who would have thought it would have lasted this long?) Today we have a pretty funny commercial for Berlitz language courses. As always, don’t forget to check out our previous videos.  

The Navajo Nation Museum and Lucasfilm are working together to dub Star Wars: A New Hope into the Navajo native language of Diné bizaad, a language spoken by around 210,000 people. Manuelito Wheeler, the director of the Navajo Nation Museum who approached Lucasfilm with the idea, sees the project as an entertaining and educational way…

If any of you are like me, I’ve always found the Japanese language and culture very alluring.  When talking about Japan, you can’t help but imagine the neon lights of Tokyo, square watermelons, ninjas, Godzilla and vending machines that supply anything you could want.  Or at least I do anyway. That being said, I never…

by Nir Hasson, Haaretz Hebrew Academy creates a new host of native versions of foreign words after getting feedback from language aficionados on Facebook. Throw the confetti and hold your kitbag question: The Hebrew Language Academy approved several new Hebrew words at its 330th meeting last week. The academy found Hebrew equivalents for several words,…

by Nataly Kelly Here are six reasons why: • The translation profession is shifting from craft to science. It took three thousand years for humans to learn the science of converting metals into tools and other objects in a consistent and predictable way with a high level of quality. Likewise, even though translation has existed…