Tag Archives: Italian

schibboleth Pronunciation: A Matter of Life and Death

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Ingrid Piller

Translation of Christoph Gutknecht, “Codewort Schibboleth”, originally published in Jüdische Allgemeine, July 07, 2011 Each time I visit France and have breakfast there, I am reminded of Goethe. In his 1792 essay “Campagne in Frankreich” he offered this spot-on description … Continue reading →

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do you speak swiiss_front Do you speak Swiss?

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Ingrid Piller

A most amazing book has just landed on my desk: Do you speak Swiss, edited by Walter Haas, is the final report on a Swiss National Research Project devoted to Linguistic Diversity and Language Competence in Switzerland. Initiated by the … Continue reading →

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condom-1 Condoms in translation

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Ingrid Piller

It’s been impossible to escape this week’s media coverage of the pope’s comments about condoms and male prostitutes. There has been a lot of debate about what he really said in the German original and about the quality of the … Continue reading →

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fb_growth rates Multilingualism 2.0

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Ingrid Piller

The social networking market research site Inside Facebook has some intriguing language stats. In July, the fastest-growing languages on Facebook were Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish and French. The Portuguese growth rate was a staggering 11.8%. Arabic grew by 9.2%, Spanish by … Continue reading →

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Multilingual prohibitions

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Ingrid Piller

Installment #3 in the mini-series on multilingual signage The lovers of English poetry among you will recall how the phrase “Betreten verboten” (“No trespassing”) encapsulates his alienation from Berlin and his longing for his English home for Rupert Brooke. Prohibition … Continue reading →

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