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Language Curiosities
When the Inuit talk about snow
January
7
,
2021
The Strange History of the Christmas Tree
December
23
,
2020
Christmas Vocabulary
December
16
,
2020
New uses for the @-sign
December
9
,
2020
Author, Anonymous
October
21
,
2020
Don Quixote and Google Translate
September
25
,
2020
Naming Traditions Around the World
September
23
,
2020
An Egregious False friend
September
18
,
2020
Translating Your Name into a Foreign Language
September
16
,
2020
Why did Peking change to Beijing?
September
14
,
2020
¡Hala Madrid! Say what?!
September
11
,
2020
Is 2020 Jumping the Shark?
September
4
,
2020
A Sinister History
August
19
,
2020
Chinese Country Names and Their Meaning
August
12
,
2020
Adverbs: mind or body?
August
10
,
2020
The Names of Nature: Urban Flora and Fauna
August
7
,
2020
What do the names of countries mean?
August
5
,
2020
Why some words are more memorable than others
July
31
,
2020
Religiolects: Beyond Yiddish
July
28
,
2020
The Strange Case of the Chivalric Romance
July
22
,
2020
The Homeric Question
July
20
,
2020
What does “Perfidious Albion” mean?
July
15
,
2020
The FC Barcelona Anthem
July
13
,
2020
Language development in kindergarten
July
8
,
2020
Language Development in Babies
July
7
,
2020
Better than I, or better than me?
July
2
,
2020
Where do new words come from?
June
30
,
2020
Language Isolates
June
26
,
2020
The Assembly Calculus
June
25
,
2020
Should we translate tapas?
June
23
,
2020
We are Family! Language Families
June
19
,
2020
The History of the word ‘Slavery’
June
17
,
2020
Uniquely interesting languages
June
16
,
2020
One-word Oxymorons
June
12
,
2020
Quirky languages of the world!
June
11
,
2020
Idiocracy, government by idiots
June
9
,
2020
Paraprosdokians, because we all love a twist
June
4
,
2020
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
June
2
,
2020
Your neural Language Pathway is 25 million years old
May
29
,
2020
The Etymology of the word ‘Vaccine’
May
28
,
2020
Who is the Bad Guy?
May
26
,
2020
Etymology of the word Scum
May
19
,
2020
Traditional or Simplified Chinese?
May
14
,
2020
Two Famous Etymologists
May
12
,
2020
The Deaf Community of Martha’s Vineyard
May
11
,
2020
Coronavirus pandemic: Can we learn from the Plague?
May
5
,
2020
A Brief History of Sign Language: Part Two
May
4
,
2020
Translating a Sacred Tree Bark?
May
1
,
2020
The Etymology of Privilege
April
29
,
2020
Grammatical Gender: a mystery to many!
April
28
,
2020
A Brief History of Sign Language
April
27
,
2020
Lost in Translation: When Translators Fail!
April
24
,
2020
Janus Words: Duality and contradiction
April
20
,
2020
Nicaraguan Sign Language: Linguistic Implications
April
17
,
2020
The wonderful world of Etymology
April
15
,
2020
Nicaraguan Sign Language: A linguistic phenomenon
April
13
,
2020
Sushruta Samhita: the first surgical manual
April
10
,
2020
Learn how to spot fake news
March
27
,
2020
Some interesting facts about Quarantine
March
20
,
2020
Why is Coronavirus called Coronavirus?
March
16
,
2020
How do languages develop?
March
13
,
2020
Gairaigo, Japanese Loanwords
March
11
,
2020
Bilingual Babies
March
6
,
2020
Loanwords – Give them back!
March
4
,
2020
Speaking Zoomer (Neural Machine Translation)
March
2
,
2020
Why do only human apes ask questions?
February
28
,
2020
Do you Dab or Vossi Bop?
February
14
,
2020
Translating idioms… even the tricky ones!
February
7
,
2020
Who are the Language Martyrs?
February
5
,
2020
False Friends
January
31
,
2020
History of Newspapers in India
January
27
,
2020
The etymology of chocolate
January
20
,
2020
The differences between Indian and British English
January
17
,
2020
How to speak Guatemalan Spanish like a local!
January
15
,
2020
Was Shakespearian English better?!
January
10
,
2020
Is there such a thing as correct English?
January
8
,
2020
Christmas traditions around the world
December
30
,
2019
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year 2019
December
18
,
2019
Differences between Spanish and Catalan
October
28
,
2019
10 tools for professional translators
October
22
,
2019
Language and the law
October
13
,
2019
How to obtain quality translation into Catalan
September
18
,
2019
American or British English: does it matter?
September
18
,
2019
Why is translation into Japanese so hard?
September
3
,
2019
Do dogs understand humans?
August
13
,
2019
8 examples of funny translation mistakes
July
29
,
2019
Gender in language
July
27
,
2019
Will Cyrillic to Latin switch make translation easier?
July
23
,
2019
Translating Metaphors: the translator’s challenge
July
22
,
2019
What does “Turn down for what” mean anyway?
July
18
,
2019
Translating Donald Trump, a “bigly” difficult task
July
16
,
2019
Top five language learning questions answered
July
16
,
2019
5 Tricky words to translate from German to English
June
28
,
2019
Fictional languages of Game of Thrones
June
28
,
2019
3 translation errors which changed the course of history
June
21
,
2019
Map of Quotation marks in European languages
June
19
,
2019
Ebonics – the English spoken by the African American community
June
5
,
2019
How does Google Translate work?
May
16
,
2019
Google Translate and Wikipedia
May
13
,
2019
Is Spanish the most beautiful language?
May
10
,
2019
How many languages has FORTNITE been translated into?
May
9
,
2019
Somewhere in Iceland…
May
9
,
2019
Do large corporations translate their slogans?
May
6
,
2019
The language of animals
May
6
,
2019
Do I have to consider SEO for all languages in my website?
May
1
,
2019
More Than just a letter: How the Spanish Ñ came to be
May
1
,
2019
The Most translated Books in Human History
April
17
,
2019
The Story of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
April
17
,
2019
Bilingual Rocks! Fela Kuti
March
4
,
2019
Survival rates of endangered languages
February
28
,
2019
Does being bilingual make you more attractive?!
February
22
,
2019
Learning A New Language Keeps You Young
February
14
,
2019
Alphabet Trivia!
February
7
,
2019
How the internet has changed the way we write
February
6
,
2019
Times New Roman
January
29
,
2019
Keywords for Snowboarding!
January
25
,
2019
Takashi Sasaki
January
24
,
2019
Discovering idioms in Quechua
January
17
,
2019
Why language-learners should study idioms
January
14
,
2019
The Most Famous Newspapers
January
4
,
2019
French-English: False Friends
January
2
,
2019
Worst Translations of 2018
December
30
,
2018
Top Films to see at Christmas
December
26
,
2018
Topics you should avoid at Christmas Dinner!
December
24
,
2018
Who or what is Caga Tió?
December
23
,
2018
Santa Claus and Coca-Cola
December
22
,
2018
The real story of the Christmas Tree
December
21
,
2018
Christmas in New York
December
20
,
2018
On Jingle Bells!
December
19
,
2018
The Best Christmas Markets
December
13
,
2018
Ásatrú
December
11
,
2018
The Quirks of US English
December
4
,
2018
The Evolution of Black Friday
November
23
,
2018
British pubs – A National Institution!
November
8
,
2018
Why a pumpkin on Halloween?
November
2
,
2018
Where does Halloween come from?
November
2
,
2018
The relevance of the football match FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid FC in the world
October
28
,
2018
Are translators born or made?
October
21
,
2018
The worst movie translations
October
21
,
2018
¿Qué se celebra el 12 de octubre en España?
October
13
,
2018
Benefits of reading
October
11
,
2018
Analysis of the song “You will never walk alone”
October
11
,
2018
What are the keys to the success of Netflix?
October
11
,
2018
Best autumn landscapes
October
9
,
2018
All you have to know about Oktoberfest
October
9
,
2018
Analysis of the hymn of Futbol Club Barcelona
October
9
,
2018
Where does the word “yoga” come from?
September
22
,
2018
4 Tips to writing a good Curriculum Vitae
September
22
,
2018
Is dubbing a film difficult?
September
13
,
2018
The truth behind the Dele Alli challenge
September
13
,
2018
How many holidays do kids have in different countries?
September
6
,
2018
Cities you should visit this summer to learn…English!
August
31
,
2018
Tips for planning a trip
August
30
,
2018
Analysing the lyrics of “In my feelings” by Drake
August
23
,
2018
5 Books about Drama to Read during This Summer
August
17
,
2018
The best cities you should visit this summer to learn…Spanish!
August
10
,
2018
The best trilogy books to read during this summer
August
9
,
2018
5 Books About Love To Read During This Summer
August
5
,
2018
What are the best tourist guide companies?
July
20
,
2018
The education system in Russia
July
20
,
2018
Top summer music festivals
July
12
,
2018
The best countries for an Erasmus program
July
9
,
2018
Top Facts of recent Football World Cups
July
5
,
2018
Top travel destinations to avoid the summer heat
June
29
,
2018
Which countries follow the football World Cup most?
June
28
,
2018
Is there any link between learning a language and avoiding Alzheimer’s?
June
21
,
2018
How many languages are spoken at the FIFA World Cup 2018?
June
21
,
2018
How to become a freelance translator – Part 4
June
13
,
2018
How to become a freelance translator – Part 3
June
8
,
2018
How to become a freelance translator- Part 2
June
8
,
2018
Tips To Translate a Restaurant Menu
May
29
,
2018
Anecdotes about the filming of Star Wars
May
29
,
2018
The most beautiful libraries in the world
May
23
,
2018
Top reasons for learning new expressions
May
22
,
2018
Is it possible to learn expressions by listening to music?
May
11
,
2018
What is the origin of Mother’s Day?
May
10
,
2018
Which idioms are most like English?
May
4
,
2018
How to write a romantic letter
May
3
,
2018
Top books to discover different cultures
April
24
,
2018
Tricks to learn new vocabulary
April
24
,
2018
Most used phrasal verbs
April
19
,
2018
Which words do babies learn first and why?
April
19
,
2018
The translation of brand names depends on the country
April
5
,
2018
Common traditions on Easter week
March
29
,
2018
Famous Biblical quotations
March
29
,
2018
The influence of Shakespeare on the English language
March
21
,
2018
Common expressions used to talk about cold weather
March
18
,
2018
Top phrases for party-goers
March
7
,
2018
Main differences between American and British English
March
7
,
2018
How important is it to be good at translating?
February
24
,
2018
How Portuguese language has been influenced by English
February
22
,
2018
Romantic expressions in English
February
16
,
2018
The History/Origin of Saint Valentine’s Day
February
14
,
2018
Carnival’s commonly used expressions
February
9
,
2018
Analysis Of The Differences Between Obama And Trump Speeches
February
1
,
2018
Best Strategies When Translating Idioms
January
26
,
2018
The Worst Translations of The Last Year (2017)
January
17
,
2018
Common Expressions at Christmas Time
January
11
,
2018
How to Be Romantic In English
December
28
,
2017
The best colloquial expressions in English
December
21
,
2017
The Most Important Sentences When Travelling
December
7
,
2017
Sexual expressions in English
November
2
,
2017
Somewhere in Iceland…
May
18
,
2017
EUROVISION 2017: MUSIC AND LANGUAGE
May
11
,
2017
Swag
April
13
,
2017
Coulrophobia
April
6
,
2017
COMMAS, PLEASE
March
30
,
2017
NEXIT
March
23
,
2017
Why are hurricanes and storms called by male and female names?
March
16
,
2017
Zealandia
March
3
,
2017
CARNIVAL, CARNIVAL
February
23
,
2017
VALENTINE’S DAY
February
14
,
2017
THE GOYA AWARDS
February
9
,
2017
Trump Talk
February
2
,
2017
Cold spell
January
26
,
2017
A relaxing cup of café con leche
January
19
,
2017
Sales
January
12
,
2017
Magic Kings
January
5
,
2017
New Year’s Resolution
December
29
,
2016
Winter solstice: the longest night of the year
December
15
,
2016
Word of the year
December
8
,
2016
The names of the oldest teams in Spain
December
1
,
2016
Black Friday
November
24
,
2016
National Translation Prize
November
17
,
2016
Decimal separators and thousands separators – commas or dots?
October
7
,
2016
Good movie title translations
September
29
,
2016
Tuesday the 13th or Friday the 13th, bad luck days
September
22
,
2016
El chino y sus variantes
July
21
,
2016
Hotel brochure by Google Translate
April
20
,
2016
Cómo traducir grados
February
18
,
2016
Chino: ¿por qué Beijing?
February
11
,
2016
The history of dollar
December
29
,
2015
Indian English
September
7
,
2015
Spanish Translation Twists – Part 2
August
24
,
2015
Spanish Translation Twists -Part 1
August
20
,
2015
ISO 639 2-letter language codes
August
10
,
2015
False friends in business translation
July
22
,
2015
What is the difference between the UK and US ton?
June
12
,
2015
Best of ‘untranslatable’ words part 2
June
8
,
2015
Best of ‘untranslatable’ words part 1
June
1
,
2015
Traditional or Simplified Chinese?
May
11
,
2015
Preference, mistake or caprice?
May
1
,
2015
What is a guiri?
April
15
,
2015
Humours, saudade, sawda, melancholy
April
10
,
2015
The etymology of route
March
10
,
2015
The etymology of the dollar
February
25
,
2015
Separated by a common language
January
25
,
2015
Our favourite language blogs!
January
3
,
2015
False friends – industries or sectors?
December
29
,
2014
False friends – standard
October
25
,
2014
How much is a billion?
October
9
,
2014
Translation Blog: Pride, Prejudice and Proust
October
2
,
2014
Tone, languages and music part 1
September
8
,
2014
False friends – what about acronyms?
September
3
,
2014
Numbers: What about American units?
August
25
,
2014
Chinese – one language or many?
August
7
,
2014
Numbers: Is the inch a metric unit?
August
4
,
2014
False friends – actually
July
12
,
2014
False friends – eventually
July
11
,
2014
Spelling: -ize or -ise?
July
1
,
2014
Eskimos, snow, blah, blah, blah
January
23
,
2014
Cinderella
January
14
,
2014
How much is a billion?
January
7
,
2014
Basque words in English
December
31
,
2013
Cortazar and Yourcenar
December
29
,
2013
Joyce and Neruda on linguistic colonisation
December
22
,
2013
Un lifting’ isn’t English!
December
9
,
2013
Best of: Portuguese words in English!
December
1
,
2013
Robinsoe Crusoe in words of zero syllables
November
20
,
2013
A Midsummer Night’s Bad Dream
November
15
,
2013
Music and tone languages
October
30
,
2013
Schoenberg’s Serial Music
October
24
,
2013
Words for today
October
20
,
2013
Hummingbirds and butterflies
October
15
,
2013
Borges and Thurber on the (in)fidelity of translations
October
11
,
2013
Twentieth Century Hungarian Literature!
October
3
,
2013
Translating flow
September
29
,
2013
Express Etymology
September
12
,
2013
Shibboleths and parsley
September
2
,
2013
Etymological curiosity for (Spanish) adults only
August
22
,
2013
Misleading food names
August
1
,
2013
The political dimension of translation
July
26
,
2013
A poem in five languages
July
15
,
2013
Miriady Gwiazd
June
29
,
2013
Naples and Neapolitan
June
25
,
2013
Chomskian generative linguistics
June
24
,
2013
On the elegance of sleepers
June
22
,
2013
Mercury
June
19
,
2013
Counsel, counsellor and council (and Handel)
June
10
,
2013
New(ish) translation of Gyorgy Faludy
June
1
,
2013
El controvertido tema de los dialectos
May
29
,
2013
Myriad varieties of Arabic
February
13
,
2013
You dah go fe seek you homelan
February
12
,
2013
More lipograms!
February
9
,
2013
Egregious, Jack Sparrow and my French teacher
February
4
,
2013
Rumplestiltskin
January
22
,
2013
Why do you boot a computer?
January
13
,
2013
Perec: a challenge, a spur
January
9
,
2013
Lengthy formulations expunged
January
1
,
2013
Spanish twists and turns
December
15
,
2012
The origins of freedom
December
10
,
2012
Translation ‘brokers’: a bad idea…
December
1
,
2012
Industries or sectors?
November
30
,
2012
Numbers: get them right!
November
23
,
2012
Robinsoe Crusoe in words of one syllable
November
17
,
2012
Eliot Weinberger on a new translation of the Psalms
November
12
,
2012
The -ize have it
November
4
,
2012
Translating ‘standard’
November
1
,
2012
Translating acronyms
November
1
,
2012
Chinese: simplified or traditional?
October
18
,
2012
More unexpected etymologies…
October
15
,
2012
The French Revolutionary Calendar
September
17
,
2012
Timely – adverb or adjective?
September
2
,
2012
Raymond Chandler and the split infinitive
August
4
,
2012
The curious etymology of gloss
June
9
,
2012
The day before yesterday
May
15
,
2012
Root, route and rout
April
28
,
2012
The Spanish word for left
April
21
,
2012
Translationese and how to avoid it
March
14
,
2012
Three versions of Sappho’s Poem of Jealousy
February
15
,
2012
Palindromes!
February
6
,
2012
The etymology of slave (and robot)
January
30
,
2012
Myriad myriads
January
25
,
2012
Vindaloo, Palaver, Marmalade: Lusitanianisms in English
December
7
,
2011
The post-colonial politics of translation
October
27
,
2011
Etymology for adults
October
18
,
2011
The Troubadours 2: a poem in 5 languages
October
11
,
2011
What is a dialect?
October
5
,
2011
The Troubadours 1: entrebescant los mots…
September
30
,
2011
Counsellor!
September
27
,
2011
The Ruined Maid
September
21
,
2011
Soneto de Repente
September
19
,
2011
The etymology of Quicksilver
September
14
,
2011
Different ways to be elegant whilst sleeping
August
23
,
2011
Curious Constraints 3: fowl or foul or Vow or Voyal
August
23
,
2011
Lifting, footing, looping
August
19
,
2011
Neopolitan 2: past, present and future
August
12
,
2011
Neapolitan 1: Stu core analfabeta
August
10
,
2011
Three new coinages
July
22
,
2011
What noise does a rooster make?
July
15
,
2011
Memories of Hadrian
July
6
,
2011
Ted Hughes on translating poetry
June
28
,
2011
Sweet bread
June
23
,
2011
Translating Hernández
June
22
,
2011
Marías and Hofstadter on the philosophy of translation
June
17
,
2011
Facebook Digest 20/5/11: wordy rappinghood
May
25
,
2011
Rendering Homer
May
11
,
2011
Well supplied with porridge
May
6
,
2011
Poetry is what is lost in translation
April
29
,
2011
Curious Constraints 4: Perec and after
April
28
,
2011
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