I would comment in Language Log’s comments feature if it had one, but it doesn’t, so here goes:

Geoffrey K. Pullum writes:

There’s a punctuation rule that American publishers follow rather strictly though British publishers do not: when an expression contained in quotation marks falls at the end of

a sentence, a following comma or period (though not a colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark) should be moved leftward to fall inside the quoted string. [The entry goes on to discuss automating this on the computer.]

But this is arsy-versy. In fact it’s the British rule, not the American one. Ritter’s Oxford Guide to Style confirms: British practice is according to the sense when placing punctuation relative to quotation marks (German practice is similar), whereas the US practice is that commas and full points (full stops, periods) are always set inside the closing quotation mark.

The Chicago Style Manual confirms this, although it recommends that there should be exceptions to the American rule. The Americans do treat exclamation and question marks in the way the British treat full stops.

LATER NOTE: My mistake – in fact Geoffrey Pullum describes the American rule correctly, as language hat points out in his comment. However, I am not convinced that there is one rule for both BE and AmE, which American publishers follow strictly and British publishers don’t. There are two rules!

Ein Artikel in Stern online berichtet von der Jahrestagung der deutschen Literaturübersetzer, macht aber den Eindruck, alle anderen Übersetzer wären auch so schlecht bezahlt. “Unsichtbarer Beruf” – wenn die Literaturübersetzer unsichtbar sind, wie verhält es sich mit den nicht-literatischen Übersetzer?

Stern online has an article about literary translators – the Verband deutschsprachiger Übersetzer (VdÜ) has just had its annual conference. Its website is useful for information on contracts with publishers and other matters.

I hope readers don’t assume these statements apply to all translators:

Unsichtbarer Beruf kämpft um Anerkennung
Invisible profession fights for recognition

Ein Übersetzer muss derzeit von rund 1.000 Euro im Monat leben.
At present, a translator has to live on about 1,000 euros a month.

[Is that after paying health insurance and something towards a pension? It can’’t be. But of course, they have the possibility of support if they use the Künstlerkrankenkasse.]

“Viele arbeiten deshalb noch nebenher oder bis zu 70 Stunden die Woche. Manche leben einfach auf einem sehr studentischen Niveau weiter”, sagt [eine] Münchner Übersetzerin.

[It’’s OK to live a minimalist life, but perhaps not if it means working 70 hours a week.]

Seit 1988 können junge Menschen in Düsseldorf das professionelle Übersetzen in den Sprachen Englisch, Französisch, Italienisch und Spanisch lernen, rund 200 Studenten seien derzeit eingeschrieben. Der Düsseldorfer Studiengang ist laut Mona Wodsak der einzige Vollstudiengang in Deutschland.

Since 1988, young people in Düsseldorf have been able to study professional translation in English, French, Italian and Spanish; about 200 students are registered. The Düsseldorf course of studies, according to Mona Wodsak, is the only full-time university course in Germany.

[The only course for literary translators. There are courses for non-literary translators at university level in various languages at the universities of Mainz (at Germersheim), Heidelberg and Saarbrücken.]

Ob Übersetzer in Zukunft mehr Anerkennung bekommen, scheint jedoch zumindest fraglich: Der Studiengang Übersetzen an der FH München wurde zum Sommersemester 2004 geschlossen – die Fachhochschule hat dafür kein Geld mehr.

Whether translators will earn more recognition in future is at least doubtful. The translation course at the Fachhochschule (~ polytechnic) in Munich was closed down in the 2004 summer semester – the Fachhochschule has no money left for it.

[But this was a particular course that was still going through teething problems.]

Has this journalist not heard of the Fachhochschule in Cologne? The last paragraph plunges into non-literary translation, and then we want to hear about technology translation courses at Hildesheim and Flensburg. To say nothing of the Fachakademien in Bavaria, five in number, which were supposed to ‘feed’ the Munich Fachhochschule.

On top of all this, the article claims that translators’ names are often obscured by authors’ names – certainly true. But it is illustrated by a photograph of someone half-hidden by the Duden for spelling and style – a photograph presumably taken for a different article.

Meanwhile, things look better in India. An article in the Deccan Herald in Bangalore, ‘Foreign tongue translates into oodles of cash’, recommends learning French and German as a good way to make money.

If languages such as Java and C++ are too complex for you, don’t despair. Just learn French or German. For, translators and foreign language degree and diploma-holders are getting about as heavy pay packets as software engineers today.

With several business process outsourcing (BPO) companies garnering clients from countries such as France, Germany and Japan, demand for both translators and trainers of these languages has grown in recent months. Companies like Oracle even hire translators of Hebrew.

(Thanks to Noel for the last)

LATER NOTE: I see that the Stern article appeared earlier in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (reported by Richard Schneider at the Übersetzerportal).

The historical Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch online extended its entries to Q on September 9th (via Handakte WebLAWg and netbib weblog).

It isn’t often necessary, but it can be very useful indeed. Here’s the entry on Krida (nowadays only Austrian), to give a taste:

Krida, f. =>Übersicht

aus mlat. u. altital. crida, ital. grida “öffentl. Ausruf” entlehnt; die Bedeutungsverengung auf das Begriffsfeld “Konkurs” geht wohl auf den Ausdruck crida pignorum zurück
vgl. Aufgebot (I), Ausgebot (I 1), Ausruf (II), Ausrufung (II), Gant (I)

I Konkurs(verfahren), Konkurseröffnung

* wellicher glaubiger … sein schuld in dem ersten proceß oder crida nit fürbringt
1552 Walther,Trakt.(Ri.) 53
* wann auf ein vorgehunde crida ein guet zu bezallung der schulden durch die glaubiger … verkhauft wierdet, so sein die glaubiger … die schermbung … zu thuen schuldig
1599 NÖLREntw. II 4 § 12
* biß zu erledigung der crida alle executiones einstellen
1644 Weingarten,Fasc. I 123
* [die] crida … wird … vorgenommen, wann entweder bey leb-zeiten die schuldner nicht vermoegend, seine glaubige zu befriedigen, und hierumen die cridam anmeldet oder wann nach absterben das vermoegen nicht zulaenglich, die schuldner hieraus zu befriedigen
1752 Greneck 260
* 1752 Greneck 303f. [vgl. Reg. 5]
* waere von fremden eigenthum etwas unter denen guetern des cridatarii in natura noch anzutreffen, koente solches nicht in die crida verfallen, sondern mueßte noch vor der classification [d. Gläubiger] abgezohen und denen eigenthumern vorbehalten werden
1752 Greneck 305
* so lang keine crida verhenget worden, ist jedem glaubiger erlaubt, sieh um seine bezahlung zu bewerben, wann solches nur ohne heimlicher verstaendnuß mit dem gegentheil beschiehet
1752 Greneck 363
* 1752 Greneck 375

II (öffentlich ausgehängte) Konkurserklärung

* von anschlahung der crida …
1552 Walther,Trakt.(Ri.) 43
* 1552 Walther,Trakt.(Ri.) 54
* edikt oder crida
1688 Beckmann,Idea 471

III Versteigerung

* crida, offentlicher ausruff oder verganthung
1733 Der in allen Vorfällen vorsichtige Banquier., . (Frankfurt und Leipzig 1733) I 483
* die crida; gant, gerichtlicher ausruf an meißt biethende
1815 Höfer,ÖWB. I 138
* krida, versteigerung des vermoegens
1815 Höfer,ÖWB. II 174

Thanks to languagehat for a wonderful link (he got it from aldiboronti at Wordorigins – afraid that always makes me think of Aldi) – a multilingual list of chess vocabulary (chess pieces, Schachfiguren) with an introduction discussing the various terms.

2018 update – that link is now dead- see comment by George L. – here is a new link, thanks to him:

New link for multilingual chess piece vocabulary.

bq. The rooks differ in many ways in different languages. The rook is a tower in many European languages (eg. Spanish and Portuguese torre, Finnish torni, French tour, Dutch toren), sometimes a large farm (Frisian stins), a ship (Russian lad’ja, transcribed also as ladya) or a wagon (Chinese ju, Estonian vanker).

bq. Until the new queen’s move was introduced in the 15th century the rook was the most powerful piece. Except for the castling the powers of the rook have been unchanged throughout the known history of chess.

But why is a rook a rook? The OED says it goes back to a Persian word whose meaning is doubtful.

Bishop is German Läufer (runner), but I didn’t know it was Turkish fil (elephant). Apparently that came from Persian pil, elephant or chess piece, which became fil in Arabic.

Further to the last-but-one entry, here is a page on Ulster Scots, with a test, audio clips, poetry and other goodies.

Seiten zur “neuen lex mercatoria” an der Uni Köln.

The Juristisches Internetprojekt Saarbrücken’s link of the week this week was LawEye.

They link to Central, the Center for Transnational Law at the University of Cologne. The subject is what they call the new lex mercatoria or law merchant. One of a number of linked sites is LawEye, in English, intended as a page to start research into international commercial law.

There are a number of useful links there. Via ‘Legal Miscellanea’ I found

bq. advokatur.ch Juristische Linkseite Koch & Felix, Reinach, CH. Site features include Swiss Law Search, a useful research tool (German).

That looks excellent. Swiss law is one of those black holes when it comes to translating it into English. Here is the Swiss Law Search page.