Category: languagePage 1 of 4

Identify the Commonality

What do these words have in common: awkward birth dirt gap ill mire muggy ransack rotten rugged scant scathe scowl wrong?

Capuchin and Cappuccino

The drink takes its name from the color of the monks’ robes.

Reading Valente at the Library of Congress

Just found out today (from someone who actually watched it) that this is online. I guess it’s been up for years.

Do you not be happy with me as the translator of the books of you?

“Shamed by you English? You can speak soon and write like a graduate college if me let you help for a day of 15 minutes.”

Fun with verbs

How does a hurricane move? It “barrels” and “churns,” to judge from the most popular verbs. “Lumbers” is the oddest verb choice, yet it is used rather often,…

Another new book: Selected Poems of Jose Angel Valente

Jill Schoolman of Archipelago Books asked recently if I would be interested in translating the major twentieth-century Spanish poet Jose Angel Valente.  As it happens I would, and…

World Book News: Dictionary of Americanisms

El Pais is talking about a new Dictionary of Americanisms (Diccionario de americanismos) published by the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua in Madrid under the direction of…

Can you read this?

This may be the earliest example of written English to survive in a British church. Recently discovered on a wall in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, it probably dates from…

Say what?

“Hilburn . . . had the access and longevity to get to know musicians better than few in the media do today.” — Associated Press Is “better than…

Mailbag: A book of idioms

Right Reading  received the following e-mail (slightly edited) from Jag Bhalla.

Better brains through foreign-language learning

A study by a research team appointed by the European Commission finds that multililngualism may benefit brains in a variety of ways: learning in general complex thinking and…

A universal story

As I have mentioned, I’ve just returned from a vacation in Italy, and some posts will be a little off-topic for the next few days. Somewhere along the…

Pop quiz: 10 word sources

Have you ever noticed that the longer you look at any word the stranger it begins to seem? The other day a squirrel ran in front of my…

Norwegian Hell Children

Do they sound tasty? Google Translate thinks so (if they’re marinated). Via Google Blogoscoped: .

Is none singular? Are none plural?

“Good sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want.” — Benjamin Franklin “I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.” —…

A role for the copy editor

Some authors rail against copy editors, and, sadly, the editors sometimes bring the enmity upon themselves. The latest author with a copy editor horror story is George Lakoff,…

Whos to say whats best?

I once edited some books by Guy Davenport, who said that he didnt want any of those hideous quotation mark thingees to appear anywhere in his books. As…

Copper Canyon to publish Chinese anthology

Copper Canyon has been selected by the NEA be the U.S. publisher for its International Literary Exchange with China. According to Publishers Weekly, “Copper Canyon will receive $117,000…

The Old Man’s Verses

I’m on the road and having trouble with my internet connection. So this will be brief. I’ve mentioned I’ve been helping to judge a translation award. Now that…

It’s urgent!

Via Craigslist: .

The Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction

Right Reading received this e-mail from Olivia Sears, president of the Center for the Art of Translation. I hope you are all enjoying The Best of Contemporary Mexican…

Why proofreading is hard

Aoccrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny ipormoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat…

Spelling test

According to BusinessWriting.com, these are the 25 most  commonly misspelled words in English. I don’t consider myself a very good speller, for an editor (I just look everything…

Out to lunch

Remember the restaurant known in English as Translate Server Error? Well, be thankful the directions for finding it were not in Welsh.