Another language-related thought from a professional linguist: I remember the time when I actually said “arriven” when I should have said “arrived”, as “arriven” is not a real word. Yet “given” is. I’m just wondering how long it will be before someone says “I froak out” (or would you spell that “I froke out”?) rather than “I freaked out”. Would they even consider the spelling?
PS Please believe that I’ve had a busy day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson Dr. Johnson wrote the first English dictionary. Even for a professional, self-employed linguist like myself, such a feat is impressive.
I have a good idea for a dictionary definition of “crisis of conscience” – one which I find to be “not subjective” in nature:
“I was wondering if there were any languages for which there is a phrase for ‘I’m sorry’ which you only say if you’re a) meaning to atone for something you know that you shouldn’t have done or b) expressing sympathy, while it is universally accepted that you are not at fault. Then I realised that I couldn’t remember the last time that I said that I was sorry and meaning b rather than a – it was not very nice and it made me upset.”
But even that definition is dependent on personal experience.
If you’ve ever read a contract (I know I have – I’ve translated plenty of them!) you probably think of the repeated use of “he” and “him” (as a demonstrative pronoun when referring to its parties) as “sexist language”. Not the kind of sexist language that people associate with chauvinists and whatnot, but sexist all the same. Such is an example of the additional culture-related rules that translators are expected to observe.
So people who write contracts make a point of writing “he / she” and “his / her”. But what if the gender of a given contract party is absolute? Would it still not be OK to use only “he” or “she”?
The Powerpuff Girls have their share of fans in France, even if they have different names: Belle (“Beautiful”), Bulle (“Bubble”) and Rebelle (“Rebel”) instead of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup respectively. I am aware that the French call them “Les Super Nanas”, which I find a little odd as I’ve always known that “nana” means “girl / chick”, but I thought it was only really used for teenage girls and maybe women, and certainly no-one as young as the Powerpuff Girls. You know what I think? I know I’m not French but my own French name for them is “Les Chochouettes” – a mixture of “chochote”, meaning a sweet little girl who’s clearly at prepubescent age, and “chouette”, a slang word meaning “cool”, “brilliant”… you get the idea.