Voice of America broadcasts in simplified English, called Special English. You can also listen to programs stored on the website or download them. Only 1,500 words are used, and you can download a file containing all the words.

I tried listening to a news broadcast but couldn’t stand it because every word was carefully separated from the next. That’s what a lot of Germans do when they learn English – they carry it over from German instead of running the words together. There would be little hope for them after listening to this.

I got this from Maddog, and it’s just a pretext for another Maddog link, totally off topic for me: the use of a ceramic fly on the urinal at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, to improve aim (with photo). Apparently this goes back to a bee in 19th-century England (the Latin word for bee, apis, being a pun). This link in turn I got from Transmogriflaw, who presumably has as little cause as I have to be interested in Dutch urinals.

Amazon.com has indexed some of the text of 120,000 books and you can search it. FAQ here.

You have to register and give a credit card number (for security reasons, they say) in order to use the feature, at least if you haven’t got an account. They haven’t indexed all the pages of any book. The publisher’s permission has to have been given, so some whole books or parts of books won’t be available. Still, I can imagine this being useful for a lot of translators, although its purpose is to show people enough of the books for them to decide whether to buy them or not (a bit like the present feature that shows you some pages of a book).

From Languagehat, who got it from MetaFilter.

An article in the Guardian on October 22nd indicates that language tests are to be used to screen migrants who seek asylum in Britain. There has already been a pilot test. This was announced by Beverley Hughes, the immigration minister:

She said that a pilot scheme of tests had been successful in proving that one in five of those claiming to be fleeing from Somalia had in fact come from another country.

These tests have been used in Australia and are very much criticized by forensic linguists, partly because so many people have moved around and do not speak according to whatever rules the testers establish.

There’s a report by language experts on the Australian procedure here.

They say that many people are unaware of the limitations of their own understanding of language.

Language is very much more complex than is often realised, and many statements about language can only be made with appropriate hedging. Many points that an ordinary person considers to be ‘obvious facts’ turn out under linguistic analysis to be half truths or worse. Consider for example the idea that ‘a noun is a word for a person, place, or thing’, ‘the word ‘cat’ is made up of three sounds’, or ‘acoustic analysis can create a voiceprint which identifies a person in a way similar to a fingerprint does’.
Many people would consider these to be truisms but in fact each of them has very serious limitations in linguistic analysis.

Later:

Consequently, linguistic research shows that a person’s nationality, ethnicity and/or place of origin normally cannot be determined solely on the basis of a few words in his or her speech. However, according to the RRT cases we examined in which details of the Agency LingID are given, many determinations in these reports were made precisely on this basis. For example, on the basis of one applicant using some “typical” Pakistani words and Iranian words, it was determined that he lived some time in these countries (N20). Another applicant was deemed to come from Pakistan on the basis of his use of one Urdu word, one Iranian word, and two words (Afghanistan and dollar) spoken with an Urdu accent (N7), another because of one Urdu word and pronouncing some words with an Iranian accent and some with an Urdu accent (N2), and yet another because of one Urdu word, pronouncing several words with a Pakistani accent, and using two Pashtu words and two English words (N28).

(Information from the Forensic Linguistics mailing list: International Association of Forensic Linguistics.

I happened on an interview in the Guardian with a Chinese-English translator from Taiwan studying in Britain. Kenneth Liu, who did an MSc in Chinese/English translation at Newcastle, was interviewed by Miles Brignall.

The interview is in the education section of the paper. It is not very informative.

bq. However much I study it, and however many books I translate into it, I don’t think I will ever find English easy. I was brought up in Taiwan and Mandarin Chinese is my native language. In purely structural terms it’s difficult to think of another language further removed from English.

I can’t go along with that. Just you try Turkish, mate!

The Google glossary function, which has been available in beta for a few months now, is now officially available (via beSpacific).

It is better described as a definition tool (jurabilis).

It only works in English so far. You enter ‘define:’ in an ordinary Google search. Thus the following search:

define: barrister

produces the following results:

Definitions of barrister on the Web (only the Australian and BBC definitions are any good!):

bq. a British lawyer who speaks in the higher courts of law
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

bq. A lawyer who conducts public trials in an English superior court. See solicitor.
august1.com/pubs/dict/b.htm

bq. lawyer
www.webtrail.com/sopafug/gendictionary.html

bq. in England, one of two classes of legal practitioners; an English trial lawyer
www.lombardiperry.com/glossary.htm

bq. One admitted to plead at the bar; one who has been “called to the bar.” The bar is the rail which divides the counsel from the audience, or the place thus enclosed. Tantamount to the rood-screen of a church, which separates the chancel from the rest of the building. Both these are relics of the ancient notion that the laity are an inferior order to the privileged class.
www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/99.html

bq. A member of the bar who has exclusive rights in some Courts to plead cases.
www.fire.org.uk/legterms.htm

bq. A lawyer who specialises in court appearances and providing written opinions. Usually not able to act for clients directly and is engaged through a solicitor. In some courts they are required to wear wigs and gowns. •Disability
elo.legalaid.qld.gov.au/asp/glossary/glossary.asp

bq. Lawyer, in England.
www.city-net.com/~markd/dictionary/dictionary_b.htm

bq. One admitted to plead at the bar; one who has been “called to the bar.” The bar is the rail which divides the counsel from the audience, or the place thus enclosed. Tantamount to the rood-screen of a church, which separates the chancel from the rest of the building. Both these are relics of the ancient notion that the laity are an inferior order to the privileged class.
ppcl.chungnam.ac.kr/my/references/phrase/data/99.html

bq. Barristers are instructed by solicitors. They specialise in a particular field of law and can present a case in any court (compare a solicitor whose rights to speak in court are limited).
www2.thny.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/legalglossary/b.shtml

bq. a courtroom lawyer; a litigator
www.hpo.bc.ca/PublicationsForms/MMR/Glossary.html

I looked at the sources of the two good definitions. The BBC glossary is very brief, but the Australian one is interesting – there is not only a glossary with definitions, but a column to the right with links to what is called ‘Infoscreen’, short texts putting the terms in a wider context.

The beta glossary had or has its own link, but that produces inferior and fewer results for ‘barrister’.

If your old Town Hall is strung with light bulbs, it seems a good idea to turn them on sometimes (on this occasion, last week, it was just for the Kirchweih).