January 2010

Always on the lookout for interesting developments in language, I was instantly drawn to the BBC h2g2 post on Cockney Rhyming Slang. Now we’ve never had call to translate or interpret the Cockney language, and looking at some of the examples, that’s a good job. Here are a few choice terms which caught my eye. [...]

Following the disastrous earthquake in Haiti on January 12th the need for useful information on how to avoid the spread of disease is now more vital than ever, especially when it’s written in Haitian Creole so that the many displaced people can access and use the information easily. Hesperian, a non-profit publisher of books and [...]

Writing minutes might seem like a fairly simple task, but only the professionals can be trusted to produce a fluent and reliable document. Most organisations – banks, big business, European Works Councils – prefer minutes in the third person. Sometimes the meetings will be recorded, and the audio uploaded to the minute taking company via [...]

Personally I call it the ‘At symbol’; apparently its official name in English is ‘Commercial at’. The oldest use of the symbol is thought to be during the era of the Italian merchants. But what do non English speakers call that little symbol we rely so much on these days? Here’s a quick rundown courtesy [...]