Update

If posting gets a bit thin here, even though I usually like to offer quantity rather than quality, it’s down to an unprovoked and almost simultaneous attack on me yesterday by two pieces of software and two pieces of hardware. I won’t name them, as they may be OK.

The worst was when an antivirus programme deleted my whole email inbox. If anyone is waiting for an email, I now have an excuse not to reply. In particular, I received an email from a translator a few days ago which I was about to reply to, and I have no memory of her name – so please send again. I didn’t realize that inboxes could be deleted so easily. Fortunately, most of my email is automatically channelled into other files, but I still had more than I should have.

Meanwhile, Roger Shuy at Language Log talks about reasonable doubt, with references to early U.S. usage.

There’s an excellent website for the Cambridge Handbook of Phonology, where the whole tome can be searched and there are links and a forum. (Via Phonoloblog)

Boing Boing links to a doctored videoclip at Youtube (‘The Reagans on Drugs’) of Ronald Reagan and Nancy advocating drug use – good clean fun.

9 thoughts on “Update

  1. >>an unprovoked and almost simultaneous attack on me yesterday by two pieces of software and two pieces of hardware.

  2. Have only looked briefly but I think I prefer the old version – seemed to give you far more pertinent information. Maybe I am wrong?

    Paul

  3. I must admit, I’ve never used it – looked at it about three times over the years. I must remind myself, because I’m sure there’s some good stuff in there for legal translations. But I can’t compare it with the old version.

  4. I rather suspect that the quality of terminology in IATE is and will be no better than in Eurodicautom, i.e. very random, with an average of no more than mediocre. It certainly has dangerously bad De-En translations of financial terms (despite the high reliability ratings awarded), just like Eurodicautom had. And a lot of the sources it gives are very old. So why did they bother spending so much EU taxpayers’ money?

  5. I remember hearing the EU couldn’t copyright it because it had been collected in such a piecemeal way. But looking at the range of suggestions, it should be quite useful, provided it’s used judiciously. Which of course it won’t be. I would ignore the reliability ratings (do they refer to specific contexts which aren’t given?) I just looked up Einrede, and I conclude there is not enough reliable stuff in there to take time to use it, but when really stuck, it might be helpful as a form of lateral thinking!

  6. Very amusing… The only problem with Austrian prison – or Heven as it is known locally – is that there are short odds on inmates, anywhere in the country, ending up sharing digs with nutcases who should have gone to Steinhof, Austria’s biggest loonie bin that is bursting at the seams (‘dieser Irrenanstalt platzt aus allen N

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