Gabriel García Márquez overtakes Miguel de Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer - Euronews - Translation

Move over Cervantes – there’s a new knight in town.

The Instituto Cervantes, which promotes Spanish language and culture around the world, has announced that Gabriel García Márquez, the author of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold', has overtaken Miguel de Cervantes to become the most translated Spanish-language writer of the century so far.

Not that you should crack out the violins or attack any windmills in his honour, mind you – Cervantes remains the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades, with 'Don Quixote' still standing as one of the best-selling novels of all time, alongside 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas and J. R. R. Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy of books.

The news of García Márquez’s new literary dominance comes as the Instituto Cervantes puts together its new Mapa Mundial de la Traducción (World Translation Map), which will be unveiled at the IX Congreso de la Lengua – the ninth National Spanish Language Congress in Cádiz.

The institute’s new tool, created in collaboration with the Spanish government’s directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University’s Digital Humanities Laboratory, uses metadata to get a clear picture of which Spanish-language writers were being most widely translated into different languages and to trace the history of translations in Spanish between 1950 and 2022. By tracking trends in the translation, the World Translation Map highlights the authors who have made the biggest impact on global readership.

According to the data from 2000 to 2021, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende ('The House of the Spirits'), and Jorge Luis Borges ('The Aleph') are the top three most translated Spanish authors, with Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa ('The Time of the Hero') following closely behind.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón ('The Shadow of the Wind'), Arturo Pérez-Reverte ('The Club Dumas'), Luis Sepúlveda ('The Old Man Who Read Love Novels'), Roberto Bolaño ('The Savage Detectives'), and Javier Marías ('A Heart So White') complete the list of ten most translated authors.

Getting into the nitty-gritty, the new data shows that García Márquez dominates in Arabic and Portuguese, Allende, Vargas Llosa, and Ruiz Zafón are the most translated authors from Spanish to Swedish, while García Márquez, Pérez-Reverte, and Borges take the top spots for translations into Russian.

Cervantes is only the most translated Spanish author in Chinese, while Franco-Chilean writer and avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky ('El Topo') tops the French language list.

While Allende is the most translated Spanish author in Italian, English, and German, women are very under-represented on the map.

Its top 10 female authors are: Allende; María Isabel Sánchez Vegara ('Little People, Big Dreams'); Saint Teresa of Ávila ('The Interior Castle'); Laura Esquivel ('Like Water for Chocolate'); Alma Flor Ada ('Where the Flame Trees Bloom'); Anna Llimós Plomer ('Make it with Plants'); Almudena Grandes ('The Ages of Lulu'); Paloma Navarrete ('Other Frontiers, Other Realities'); Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz ('Pawns of a House'), and Zoé Valdés ('Café Nostalgia').

The World Translation Map will be unveiled on Wednesday at the National Spanish Language Congress. The event starts today and lasts until 30 March.

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What Makes A Word A Word? » Science ABC - Science ABC - Dictionary

Table of Contents (click to expand)

Linguists and researchers have made many attempts to define a “word”, without reaching a settled conclusion. Most definitions, however, agree that a word is capable of being spoken and written and it must carry some meaning. Any competent speaker of a language can manage to form new words by using some of these ground rules.

During the coronavirus crisis, many new words and phrases became part of our everyday vocabulary (‘social distancing’, ‘self-quarantine’ and ‘Covid-19’ itself). However, when a preschooler calls sanitizer ‘hanitizer’, we find it cute, but may not consider that a real word.

According to Global Language Monitor, in the English language, a new word is born every 98 minutes, about 14.7 per day, 5400 a year. Not all the new ones are added to the standard dictionaries, so does that mean they’re not real?

The question is…when does a word become a real word, and who makes that decision? Let’s find out!

Is It Made Up Of A Series Of Spoken Sounds?

First, quickly scribble down a few letters on a piece of paper. Can you pronounce the string of sounds on its own? If yes, then you have just met the first requirement.

From a linguistic point of view, words are made up of different sounds (or phonemes). For instance, “cat” has three phonemes: /c/, /a/, and /t/. So, together it’s a “pronounceable phonological unit.” Here, the letter-sound c does not make sense on its own, nor do the other individual sounds. ‘Cat’ is a unit that is capable of being pronounced (with meaning) all by itself. So, this word falls in line with Bloomfield’s well-known definition of a ‘minimal free form’.

Also Read: How Did Silent Letters Come Into The English Language?

What About The Words That We Have Trouble Pronouncing?

I can never muster up the courage to pronounce “Freundschaftsbeziehungen”. Yes, that’s a real word, it means “friendship relations” in German. Or “pamplemousse”, which is French for grapefruit. Quite a mouthful, aren’t they? But it doesn’t mean that they aren’t real.

Of course, acquiring a foreign language can be difficult. Studies show that we are born with the natural ability to learn and master all the sounds used in all human languages of the world. Linguist Noam Chomsky believed that learning a language (yes, even the ones that seem so difficult to pronounce) is an innate skill that one develops from birth.

A word is real when it has a meaning in the lexicon (vocabulary or dictionary) of a language. This brings us to its next characteristic.

Emojis can neither be broken down into smaller meaningful parts, nor can they be pronounced. So, sorry, emojis…. you just don’t make the cut.

Also Read: Are Some Languages Easier To Learn Than Others?

Does It Have Some Sort Of Meaning?

A word (cats) or its parts (‘cat’ and ‘-s’) should have its own meaning (cat is the animal and –s is the letter for making it plural). Have you invented a new word for a place, person, a way of doing something or a way of describing something? You might have coined a lexical or content word. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives belong to this category.

For a word to be considered real, make sure you can clearly describe its meaning to other people.

Also note that while writing, we keep ‘cat’ separated by spaces from other words (one of its orthographic features). This is why the OED mentions that a word is “typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed”.

However, no definition appears to be set in stone. For example, the written form of Chinese doesn’t have spaces between words. Also, some words cannot be considered “minimal free forms” (e.g., for, and, but, with, it, on, yet) since they make no sense, when used on their own. What independent meaning do they have (what is the meaning of ‘the’)?

The word ‘nerd’ was coined by Dr. Seuss to name a creature in his 1950 book “If I Ran the Zoo.” What seems nonsensical, funny, and weird today may have a serious denotation in the near future. Image: Dr Seuss BookBench sculpture, London (Photo Credit : -Ron Ellis/Shutterstock)

Does It Primarily Have Any Grammatical Importance?

Even if a word doesn’t seem to convey a lot of sense by itself, it can still be legitimate if it plays a grammatical role.

Some examples are auxiliary verbs (e.g., might, may, will, must), prepositions (e.g., in, at, on, of and to), articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (e.g., or, and, so, for, because, but, yet, as), and pronouns (e.g., he, she, you, we, her, him), which are grammatical or function words. They might not have a so-called “dictionary meaning”. But they can easily fit into larger units of phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Can Anyone Make Up Words? How?

Do you become hangry (angry when hungry) when you skip meals? I do.

‘Hangry’ is an example of a ‘portmanteau’—a fancy term for a word made by blending two or more words or their parts. “Brexit” is a portmanteau (Britain’s exit from the European Union), just as “breakfast” and “lunch” combine to yield “brunch.” The term portmanteau was first used by Lewis Carroll (best known for his ever-popular Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). This is, however, just one of the mechanisms you can use to create words.

Some other processes of word formation include derivation (e.g., kind + -ness → kindness), back formation (‘examine” was formed by taking out the ”-ation” from ”examination.”), conversion (email – noun → to email – verb), compounding (jelly + -fish → jellyfish), abbreviation (Junior → Jr.) and borrowing (French café → “coffee”).

J.K. Rowling has popularized many words through the Harry Potter books. Muggle, animagus, Quidditch, Mandrake, Hippogriff are some of them, created by reworking Latin or other words. One of the most popular magic spells “Expecto Patronum” derived from the Latin words ‘expecto’ and ‘patronus’,  means ‘I await a protector.’ (Photo Credit : -Anton_Ivanov/Shutterstock)

So, How Does A Word Enter The Dictionary?

Lexicon, then, plays a key role in our usage of language. Lexicographers are dictionary authors and editors who write or edit dictionaries. They decide which words will be added to the dictionary or removed from them by referring to lots of magazines, newspapers and other published materials.

For a word to be considered for inclusion in the dictionary, certain rules are followed by lexicographers, as pointed out on Dictionary.com.

A new entry might be accepted if it is:

1. “…used by a lot of people.
2.  …used by those people in largely the same way.
3. …likely to stick around.
4. …useful for a general audience.”

Clearly, a child-invented word like ‘hanitizer’ would have to receive widespread acceptance and also last for at least several years to become “official”.

Also Read: Has The Internet Changed Languages Around The World?

What About The Words That Don’t Get Into The Dictionary?

Parents and children often make up nicknames to lovingly call each other (e.g., sweetums, bubby-doo, itty bitty). They may not have meaning for the general public, but they can mean a lot to the people using them.

Furthermore, prescriptive linguistics (the rules that show preferred usage of a language) come from institutions or people who may not have access to languages used by poor, marginalized and disadvantaged people, including indigenous communities.

Many endangered languages in the world have only a few speakers left. Busuu, a language of Cameroon, had just 3 speakers of the language in 2005, but now it is extinct. A dictionary may not include words from such less spoken and rare languages. You may also not find technical jargon, informal (slang) or dialect forms in a dictionary.

So obviously, just because a word does not get into the dictionary does not mean it is not a real word.

A Final ‘Word’

Defining a word is not a simple job, as linguists don’t agree on what constitutes a word. Still, the beautiful thing about a language is that it can always grow and thrive. This is how it will survive the winds of time. Institutions and experts recognize the needs of a language’s users, while setting the language standards for the future. Thus, the decisive powers remain with us, the people.

How well do you understand the article above!

Can you answer a few questions based on the article you just read?

Your answer:

Correct answer:

References (click to expand)

1. Aikhenvald, A. Y., Dixon, R. M. W., & White, N. M. (Eds.). (2020). Phonological Word and Grammatical Word. (A. Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon, & N. M. White, Eds.), []. Oxford University Press.
2. How Does A Word Get Into The Dictionary?. Dictionary.com
3. Passos, M. de L. R. da F., & Matos, M. A. (2007, October). The influence of Bloomfield’s linguistics on Skinner. The Behavior Analyst. Springer Science and Business Media LLC.
4. Minimal free form definition and meaning - Collins Dictionary. The Collins Engl
5. Ghasemi, B., & Hashemi, M. (2011). Foreign Language Learning During Childhood. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier BV.

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Márquez overtakes Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer - The Guardian - Translation

The solitary denizens of Macondo appear to have proved too much for a famously insane knight errant, according to research that shows Gabriel García Márquez has overtaken Miguel de Cervantes to become the most translated Spanish-language writer of the century so far.

However, the genius who gave the world Don Quixote – and with him the first modern novel and a byword for impractical idealism – can take comfort in the fact that he remains the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades.

The findings emerged after the Instituto Cervantes, which promotes Spanish language and culture around the world, began crunching data to put together its new World Translation Map.

In order to build up a picture of which Spanish-language writers were being most widely translated into 10 different languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish – the institute consulted the Online Computer Library Center’s WorldCat database, which contains 554,858,648 bibliographic records in 483 languages.

Using that data, it has put together a searchable map of works translated from Spanish between 1950 and the present day. The start date was chosen to take into account el boom, when Latin American writers including García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortázar broke through to worldwide acclaim in the 1960s and 1970s.

Raquel Caleya, head of culture at the Instituto Cervantes, said the map would be enlarged in the future to take as many languages as possible.

“The idea was to distill all that data to make that information available and searchable for the public,” she said.

“We wanted to help researchers – and anyone else – to analyse and visualise large quantities of information in a more efficient way. It will allow us to know what people are reading, what they’ve read – and to pay tribute to the all the translators who are working to disseminate books translated from Spanish since 1950.”

Caleya said that as well as identifying trends, the map would also help the Instituto Cervantes to develop policies to make sure authors writing in Spanish are accessible to readers all over the world.

A glance at the 10 most translated authors across all 10 languages from 2000 to 2021 shows García Márquez at number one, followed by Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Cervantes, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Luis Sepúlveda, Roberto Bolaño and Javier Marías.

However, the results over the map’s entire timeframe look rather different. Cervantes pips García Márquez to the top spot, with the late Colombian Nobel prize winner finishing ahead of Allende, Borges, Vargas Llosa, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Fuentes, Pérez-Reverte and Ruiz Zafón.

The 2000-2021 map also reveals interesting differences between languages. The Chilean-French film-maker and writer Alejandro Jodorowsky is the most translated Spanish-language writer in French, while the two writers most translated into English are Allende and the Spanish children’s author Isabel Sánchez Vegara.

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, who used his gourmand detective Pepe Carvalho to chronicle a changing Spain, makes the top 10 only in Italy, where Andrea Camilleri named his own detective, Inspector Montalbano, in honour of the Spanish writer.

Caleya said that while Allende was doing very well in the rankings, women as whole were very under-represented on the map. Its top 10 female authors are: Allende; Sánchez Vegara; Saint Teresa of Ávila; Laura Esquivel; Alma Flor Ada; Anna Llimós Plomer; Almudena Grandes; Paloma Navarrete; Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Zoé Valdés.

“I do miss the women, which is why we’d like to look for and find more, although there are some in the rankings,” said Caleya.

She said it was also interesting to see how the big names of el boom had fared over the years.

“You can also see that some boom authors age better than others depending on how much they’re still being translated,” she said. “Julio Cortázar was very translated at one time and then that went down. Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel prize, but even before that, everything he wrote was being translated. The Nobel is still great global publicity.”

As well as trends – a 20% rise in translation of Spanish-language authors in 2003, which could be attributed to the interest generated that year by the death of Vázquez Montalbán and Pedro Almodóvar winning an Oscar for his screenplay for Talk to Her – other factors are in play.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude was a phenomenon in its own right, but when Bill Clinton said Gabriel García Márquez said was one of his favourite authors, that had an effect,” said Caleya. “It’s a bit like when Clinton said the best sunset in the world was in Granada – and Granada filled up with Americans.”

The World Translation Map, which has been created in collaboration with the Spanish government’s directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University’s Digital Humanities Laboratory, will be unveiled in Cádiz on Wednesday at the ninth National Spanish Language Congress.

However the map evolves in the future, Caleya is certain that one author and his best-known work will always remain fixed points.

“The Quixote is a universal classic, but if many of the works of our creators writing in Spanish in our century also become universal classics, then that’s very welcome,” she said. “But the Quixote is unbeatable and always will be – no matter how many Nobels there are.”

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Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors' - Taiwan News - Dictionary

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An American, long-term resident of Taiwan discovered late last year that a children's "Hello Kitty" English-to-Chinese dictionary has over 70 "egregious errors."

Despite efforts to alert the company of the mistakes, the book is still on sale.

The 46-year-old writer and podcaster Eryk Smith, who lives in Kaohsiung, told Taiwan News he was working last fall with an 84-year-old student who wanted to refresh his English. The student showed him a copy of an English-to-Chinese dictionary that he wanted help with.

The dictionary, titled "Children's Illustrated Dictionary" (Hello Kitty 兒童英漢辭典) is printed by ACME Cultural Enterprise Co. (世一文化事業股份有限公司) and is the most recent edition, printed in June 2020.

Smith noticed mistakes in the dictionary, including typos, parts of speech, and example sentences. For instance, the entry for "rice" was spelled "rest."

The word "imagine" was listed as a verb but has the letter "n" for noun in English. The example sentence for "birthday" read "Happy birghday."

Under the "Revision Editor" notes in the front of the book, the word "Language" is misspelled as "Languagc." Smith observed that there are dated usages not appropriate for children, such as references to smoking.

Smith said that after reading through the dictionary twice, he found over 60 "egregious errors." In October last year, he contacted the publisher and notified them of the typos.

He said he was initially offered a refund for the NT$320 (US$10.50) cost of the dictionary that his student's secretary bought from Kinokuniya. Smith was not satisfied with this response.

Instead, he advised the company to recall the dictionaries because it's "not just embarrassing for you, but for Taiwan in general, and also for Taiwan's education system." He added that it "flies in the face of the government's Bilingual 2030 campaign."

Company representatives said they would get back to him in a week or so, but failed to do so. In January, he shared his findings with Johanne Murray, who is a lecturer in the Department of English at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and PhD candidate of business management at National Sun Yat-sen University.

Murray told Taiwan News that she was shocked at what she described as a "poor product that doesn't deserve to represent the Made-in-Taiwan brand." She compiled a 47-page PDF annotating many of the more blatant errors, discovering another 10 mistakes in the process, bringing the total number of typos in the dictionary to at least 70.

In January, Murray sent the PDF to two local educators and an official at the Ministry of Education (MOE). However, over two months later, she has yet to receive a response from any of these individuals.

Murray said of the error-ridden book: "It shows a lack of concern for consumers, their brand name, and their partner Sanrio."

She added that as a parent she would be really upset if she discovered her child was exposed to such content, and as a teacher, she would not want to give it out to her students.

Smith informed a government official who contacted the company about the matter. A company representative sent a response via the social media app LINE acknowledging that there had been errors in the dictionary.

Furthermore, it said the editor had been notified, and after discussions were held with their foreign consultant, the corrections would be included in the next edition.

The company claimed the typesetting had been outsourced to an outside company. It acknowledged that there were many mistakes after proofreading and if readers find errors they are welcome to report them to the publisher via email. It also pledged to reply and deal with the issues.

On Saturday (March 25), Taiwan News purchased a copy of the 2020 edition at the Hess Bookstore in Taipei City's Zhongshan District and all the reported errors were present. ACME Cultural Enterprise Co. has yet to respond to multiple requests for comment on why it has yet to recall the defective dictionaries.

"Birthday" misspelled. (Eryk Smith photo)

"Rice" misspelled. (Eryk Smith photo)

"Imagine" listed as both a noun and verb. (Eryk Smith photo)

"Language" misspelled. (Eryk Smith photo)

"Lap" misspelled. (Smith photo)

"Hand" misspelled. (Eryk Smith photo)

Cover of book purchased at Hess Bookstore. (Taiwan News photo)

Last printed page of book. (Eryk Smith photo)

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The New World Translation Released in Moore - JW News - Translation

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The New World Translation Released in Moore  JW News

Four minifigures we need from the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary - Brick Fanatics - Dictionary

A LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary with exclusive minifigure is coming later this year and there are plenty of potential minifigures to take that spot. 

As revealed earlier today, the first LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary is coming on September 5, 2023. It joins DC, Star Wars and NINJAGO, all of which feature exclusive minifigures, offering an idea of what to expect. 

Looking at the previous LEGO visual dictionaries, the minifigures have all been an alternate version of a recognisable character from Teen Wu to Luke Skywalker with his medal and Finn in a bacta suit.

Keeping these criteria in mind, here are four minifigures that we’d like to see take the spot in the first LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary.

4 – Classic Iron Man 

Iron Man’s classic yellow and red armour from the comics has only been depicted with a Mighty Micros minifigure before.  

While a Marvel Cinematic Universe suit appears to have been inspired by the design, a proper minifigure for the iconic armour could be a good pick for the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary. 

3 – Ravager Thor 

The draft cover of the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary features both Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics minifigures and this book may be a chance for some obscure costumes and characters from the films.  

Thor’s Ravager outfit from Thor: Love and Thunder is one such costume that was not featured in the two sets based on the film. 

2 – President Loki 

The Loki Disney+ series featured several variants of the titular character including President Loki in a formal suit and a badge advertising his campaign. 

While his headpiece may require a new piece or better left out, the variant would be a good pick for the exclusive minifigure as the series only received a pair of LEGO Collectible Minifigures despite its potential. 

1 – Werewolf by Night 

As the Finn in a bacta suit minifigure proved, newer characters are eligible for exclusive minifigures in the LEGO visual dictionaries. One of the more recent Marvel Studios projects that have had no representation in the LEGO portfolio is Werewolf by Night.  

This could be due to the tone of the special presentation, though the LEGO Group has released multiple werewolf minifigures before and the visual dictionary could be the best place to represent the project, or at least the character as seen in the comics. 

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.

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French language defenders sue Notre-Dame over English translations - The Connexion - Translation

French language defenders are suing Notre-Dame cathedral for only translating signs into English.

They filed a complaint against the landmark at a Paris court on Monday (March 20), which is International Francophonie Day, an annual celebration of the French language and Francophone culture.

Read also: Make sense of La Francophonie

The association behind the complaint, Défense de la langue française, argues that only translating signs into English promotes the international dominance of the language. 

It has already been successful at enacting change at another Paris landmark: it made the same complaint against the Eiffel Tower. Signs in Spanish, alongside the English and French ones, will now be introduced. 

Their campaign has the law on its side. A 1994 French regulation states all public buildings must translate signs into at least two languages. 

Many of the panels explaining reconstruction work at Notre-Dame, following the devastating 2019 fire, are written in English and French. 

Not the first time that the use of English language causes controversy

Historically, it is not solely the translation of signs into English that causes dispute in France, but equally the use of anglicism.

Read also: ‘Language police’ jump on anglicised use of French word ‘juste’

One example was in 2019 when the mayor of Marennes-Hiers-Brouage in the Charente-Maritime, Mickaël Vallet, leads a personal counter-attack of anglicisme and bans a promotional campaign from the telecom company Orange from his town until they rename their Orange Truck a Camion Orange.

He went as far as to say that anglicisms were an attack on French citizens.

Les anglicismes sont une agression contre les citoyens. @GroupeLaPoste @orange et autres grandes entreprises ne sont pas à la hauteur et font honte à leur histoire. Ici ma lettre expliquant mon refus d'autoriser un « Orange Truck » sur le domaine public de la commune. pic.twitter.com/JD5J2JJ34M

— Mickaël Vallet (@mickaelvallet) November 6, 2019

In the end, Orange agreed to rename their truck 'camion-fibre', something he was very proud of.

Bienvenue au « camion-fibre » de @orange à @MarennesHB
Le 20 janvier réunion d'information du @departement17 sur le très haut débit.
Comme quoi, il suffit de demander et de faire preuve de vigilance sur ce qui nous est commun : la langue. https://t.co/G8rEZYzisv

— Mickaël Vallet (@mickaelvallet) January 15, 2020

As well as the current dispute with Notre-Dame, the association Défense de la langue française is also targeting 20 other public bodies, including the national postal agency, La Poste, over the name of its banking service, “Ma French Bank”. 

You can find out more about the association (in French) on their website here.

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Comment: Why use anglicisms when we have perfectly good French words?

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