14 January 2010
I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently on the subject of translation and, more specifically, Bible translation. So I thought I would talk about the things I’ve been reading about. I’ll also be giving some links to some good reading materials.
I expect to be writing rather often on this subject over a period of time, so I’ll start now with some introductory remarks. […]
15 December 2009
Today is the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the birth of L. L. Zamenhof.
Zamenhof is known as the ‘initiator’ of the constructed language Esperanto; after working on it extensively, he presented its basic grammar and vocabulary in 1887. He is known as the ‘initiator’ because although he laid the foundation for the language, he did not invent the language in its entirety. No language can be described completely; the language we now call ‘Esperanto’ developed over the past century of constant use, based on the principles that Zamenhof laid out. […]
16 June 2009
This is an interesting video I first saw yesterday of Seattle-born actress Amy Walker speaking in twenty-one different accents. Part of what her aim is is to replicate not only the consonant and vowel sounds of the people who live in the region, but also the tone and mannerisms. […]
26 May 2009
Friends of ours recently emailed about Textkit. This is a website devoted to learners of Latin and Greek that makes public-domain texts available, including textbooks, literal translations and answer keys. Among these are two books on Latin prose composition (including an answer key for one) and five on Greek composition (including three keys). There is [...]
23 May 2009
As I am interested in the variety of languages, dialects and accents, I was interested by the following web sites. One is Sounds Familiar? from the British Library; this site has recordings of various regional pronunciation and usage from throughout the British Isles. A similar site is Voices, a large series of interviews done by [...]
18 May 2009
Since I enjoy learning languages, I often need to learn quite a few words. I have used Linux (Ubuntu 8.10, to be specific) quite extensively, and it is through it that I came across the spaced-repetition program Mnemosyne (named after the Greek goddess of memory). This light-weight program functions almost like traditional flash cards, except [...]
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