I was reading in the LISA newsletter about a form of translation memory software that is not tied to the sentence but instead to large paragraphs and that creates a big index of all elements of a text.

The article is by Timothy Hunt of TermSeek Inc. and actually comes from the archives but I haven’t seen it before.
The software called translation support software and two kinds being worked on are TransSearch and Translator’s Intuition:

bq. For example, Elliott Macklovitch and Graham Russell in What’s been Forgotten in Translation Memory pointed out that statistical based TM systems would say that sentence (1) below is closest to sentence (2) even though sentence (3) is closer in meaning.

bq. The wild child is destroying his new toy.
The wild chief is destroying his new tool.
The wild children are destroying their new toy.

Further web searching led to a useful page on software for translators by il8nguy, whose site I’ve seen before but also not done justice to. il8n is short for ‘international localization’.

There is also a list of language and translation blogs (under the subdirectory ‘humor’).

In today’s Nürnberger Nachrichten, in the Stadt Nürnberg section (also to be found in the Fürther Nachrichten, of course), there is an interview (in German) with Francisco Ludovice-Moreira, the President of the Bavarian section of the Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer/BDÜ, the professional association for translators and interpreters in Germany (there are others, such as ADÜ-Nord and ATICOM, and VdÜ (the last one is for literary translators). Like many German newspaper interviews, it is printed like the script of a play, with the names of the speakers and their texts. I have no idea whether such an interview is unaltered.

The main topic is interpreting for the police and courts. The police are said to be happy, often, to use a student for 15 euros per hour, and they have no interest as to whether a translator is sworn or not. There is also reference to the fact that translator and interpreter certification is a matter of Land law and should be standardized throughout Germany, and some discussion of the variation of payment for translations from court to court. The current statute, the ZSEG or ZuSEG, is soon to be replaced by the JVEG, and that may lay down a fixed line price and hourly rate.

There was a little discussion on CompuServe (FLEFO) as to why it is worth saving dying languages (a subject I rarely think about). Tony Roder, of the Translator’s Home Companion, mentioned reading a favourable review of a book on the subject. The book is Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, by Mark Abley, a Canadian journalist said to be a good story-teller, who travelled around the world investigating obscure and less obscure languages. Lawyers might find it difficult to speak Boro, a language in Northern India with scarcely any nouns. I see languagehat has already mentioned it, but I was in Verona at the time (he mentions an Amazonian language that was last spoken by a parrot, which was surely in a Larson cartoon).

The Arcata Eye site is apparently well-known on the Internet, so I am late finding it. It describes itself as ‘America’s most popular small-town newspaper’ and has a section called Police Log. I suppose this is fictitious, but it’s a very good read. Here’s an example:

bq. Monday, July 28 12:29 a.m. 12:08 p.m. Baby birds were reported stuck to the the wall of a trailer park recreation hall. A woman said management wouldn’t let her children rescue the birds. An officer arrived, collected the birdies and turned them over to wildlife rescue personnel.
12:11 p.m. A woman reported an ex-roommate ordering magazine subscriptions in her name. …

bq. 10:06 p.m. Got a pair of rottweilers? Be sure and lock them in a camper shell on 10th Street so they can explode at people who walk past.

bq. Tuesday, July 29 2:45 a.m. A vehicle sat defunct in the westbound lane of 17th Street. The driver told an officer it was out of gas and was waiting for someone to bring him some. It’s fair to surmise that planning may not be the guy’s strong suit, since he hadn’t registered the gasless vehicle since 1999. It was towed; he was cited.

I found this when following up a reference by languagehat, who is an editor, to the weblog of another editor, Theresa Nielsen Hayden, Making Light, because in the comments to her entry By my ear and hand
there was a wonderful sentence illustrating the need for the serial comma or Oxford comma, which I can’t resist quoting:

bq. Planet Ustinov – Monday, C4, 8pm
By train, plane and sedan chair, Peter Ustinov retraces a journey made by Mark Twain a century ago. The highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector.

And Theresa has a link to the Arcata police log.

The German language service of the Swiss Federal Chancellery publishes details of books, articles, conferences, judgments etc. on language and law in Switzerland and elsewhere. The details are in German, and you have to register (no charge). Every few months they send an email indicating there has been an update. They are responsible for translation too. DORES gives details, for example, of

bq. Dingwall, Silvia: English in Switzerland – is it legal? In: Murray, Heather (Hg.): anglais, Englisch, inglese, Englais, … English! (= Bulletin VALS/ASLA 77). Neuchâtel: Institut de linguistique 2003, 165 S..
and of

bq. Cotterill, Janet (Hrsg.) : Language in the Legal Process. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2002, 296 S..
(Aus der Linguist-List 13.3371, Dez. 2002)Linguists and lawyers from a range of countries and legal systems explore the language of the law and its participants, beginning with the role of the forensic linguist in legal proceedings, either as expert witness or in legal language reform. Subsequent chapters analyze different aspects of language and interaction in the chain of events from a police emergency call through the police interview context and into the courtroom, as well as appeal court and alternative routes to justice.

and of

bq. Jowett, Ben: Workbook for Lawyers using English as a Foreign Language. Zürich: Schulthess 2003, 74 S..

Here is another description of the latter, at Schulthess.

The Wired Interpreter’s Page is the site of a professional conference interpreter turned IT consultant, subtitled ‘A website for conference interpreters and other language professionals’. It links to Vincent’s Glossblog, ‘Blogging the Web’s flotsam and jetsam on language’, which alas hasn’t been updated for a year, but there are good links. (Thanks to Alison Penfold).