January, 2011 | Responsive Translation

Slavery and Dialect in the Union Today

January 22, 2011 -By: Translation Guy -In: Language, Localization - Comments Off

Everything Rick Aschmann knows about the pronunciation of English on this continent fits on a single webpage―a 26,000 word webpage packed full of text like Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap. Dense. Aschmann’s webpage includes links to 625 YouTube videos identifying particular local dialects, and an amazingly large map of English dialects spoken in North America, which requires pince-nez […]

Re-Translating the Classics

January 17, 2011 -By: Translation Guy -In: In the News / Awards, Translation - Comments Off

Edith Grossman is the most famous of contemporary translators in the English-speaking world. She gets more press than all other translators combined. Lynn Neary did a nice interview with her on All Things Considered. Grossman is perhaps best known for her translation of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Not only did Cervantes invent the modern novel, says Grossman, […]

Google Translate Beatbox

January 12, 2011 -By: Translation Guy -In: Machine Translation - Comments Off

The audio feature in Google Translate is just the cat’s meow. And that’s not the usual Translation Guy archaism. I mean that literally. One, it sounds like cats meowing. And two, as the owner of a service that also offers telephone interpreters, it is a Googlish dagger pointed straight at the heart of my business, […]