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The French language is one of the prides and joys of the French people. So, when the major French dictionaries add new words it creates quite a dictionnabuzz. Le Petit Larousse has added 150 words to its 2025 edition and some of its choices are surprising. FRANCE 24's Solange Mougin tells us more.
Samsung debuted Galaxy AI with its latest smartphones and a big focus of the whole suite is translation and, now, Samsung is adding support for Canadian French.
Galaxy AI consists of quite a few separate features, but some are directly related to translation. These include Live Translate, which can translate a phone call with someone speaking a foreign language, as well as Intrepeter, which can translate in-person conversations entirely on-device.
In a post this week, Samsung announced that Galaxy AI features are adding support for Canadian French.
The additional language support will be available through the following AI features:
Support for Canadian French is rolling out for Galaxy AI starting today on supported devices including Galaxy S24, S23, Fold 5, and Flip 5. This also comes just after Samsung added support for several other languages earlier this month.
This will be rolling out via a “language pack” available for download within the Settings app.
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A list of more than 150 words includes words that have made their mark in recent months on the feminist and anti-racist fronts, as well as words linked to the environment and the cultural zeitgeist.
Every year, dictionaries the world over unveil the new words they are including in their annually revised editions.
Keeping an eye on new entries reveal how society is changing and the way in which current events reflect our anxieties and interests, but also shape our language and communication.
France’s Le Petit Larousse 2025 - due for publication on 22 May - has already disclosed its new additions.
The list of more than 150 words includes words that have made their mark in recent months on several fronts, including feminist discussion, anti-racist vocabulary, as well as words linked to the environment.
Here are a few examples:
“It seems that in the face of all these concerns, our society is looking for solutions, with words such as ‘écogeste’ or the new meaning given to ‘verdir’ (to become more respectful of the environment) and the expressions ‘zero waste’ and ‘eternal pollutant’,” Carine Girac-Marinier, director of the dictionaries and encyclopaedias department, told French outlet Le Figaro.
The dictionary also reflects the zeitgeist with, for example, new gastronomic uses (‘Kombucha’, ‘Kimchi’) and technological uses (‘Bot’, ‘Cyberattack’, ‘Cyberterrorisme’ ‘Femtech’).
There are also a number of trends, including the arrival of the terms ‘Platisme’ (the belief that the Earth is flat) and ‘Trottinettiste’ (a person who rides a scooter – or ‘trottinette’ in French), as well as cultural practices and hobbies such as ‘Webtoon’ (an animated cartoon or series of comic strips published online) and ‘Skate Park’.
There is also the arrival of numerous celebrities such as Beyoncé, Cate Blanchett, Virginie Efira, Omar Sy, Christopher Nolan, French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer (one of the most successful recording artists of all time in France), LeBron James, and captain of the French rugby team Antoine Dupont.
Le Petit Larousse 2025 hits the shelves on 22 May.
Additional sources • Le Figaro
Noah Webster’s first edition of the American Dictionary of the English Language, published in April 1828, included 70,000 words, 12,000 of which appearing in a dictionary for the first time.Among his aims was “to furnish a standard of our vernacular tongue, which we shall not be ashamed to bequeath to three hundred millions of people, who are destined to occupy, and I hope, to adorn the vast territory within our jurisdiction.” What follows is the preface of Webster’s dictionary, written by him in New Haven, Connecticut in that year.
In the year 1783, just at the close of the revolution, I published an elementary book for facilitating the acquisition of our vernacular tongue, and for correcting a vicious pronunciation, which prevailed extensively among the common people of this country.
Soon after the publication of that work, I believe in the following year, that learned and respectable scholar, the Rev. Dr. Goodrich of Durham, one of the trustees of Yale College, suggested to me, the propriety and expediency of my compiling a dictionary, which should complete a system for the instruction of the citizens of this country in the language.
At that time, I could not indulge the thought, much less the hope, of undertaking such a work; as I was neither qualified by research, nor had I the means of support, during the execution of the work, had I been disposed to undertake it.
For many years therefore, though I considered such a work as very desirable, yet it appeared to me impracticable; as I was under the necessity of devoting my time to other occupations for obtaining subsistence.
About twenty-seven years ago, I began to think of attempting the compilation of a Dictionary. I was induced to this undertaking, not more by the suggestion of friends, than by my own experience of the want of such a work, while reading modern books of science.
In this pursuit, I found almost insuperable difficulties, from the want of a dictionary, for explaining many new words, which recent discoveries in the physical sciences had introduced into use. To remedy this defect in part, I published my Compendious Dictionary in 1806; and soon after made preparations for undertaking a larger work.
My original design did not extend to an investigation of the origin and progress of our language; much less of other languages. I limited my views to the correcting of certain errors in the best English Dictionaries, and to the supplying of words in which they are deficient.
But after writing through two letters of the alphabet, I determined to change my plan. I found myself embarrassed, at every step, for want of a knowledge of the origin of words, which Johnson, Bailey, Junius, Skinner and some other authors do not afford the means of obtaining.
Then laying aside my manuscripts, and all books treating of language, except lexicons and dictionaries, I endeavored, by a diligent comparison of words, having the same or cognate radical letters, in about twenty languages, to obtain a more correct knowledge of the primary sense of original words, of the affinities between the English and many other languages, and thus to enable myself to trace words to their source.
I had not pursued this course more than three or four years, before I discovered that I had to unlearn a great deal that I had spent years in learning, and that it was necessary for me to go back to the first rudiments of a branch of erudition, which I had before cultivated, as I had supposed, with success.
I spent ten years in this comparison of radical words, and in forming a synopsis of the principal words in twenty languages, arranged in classes, under their primary elements or letters. The result has been to open what are to me new views of language, and to unfold what appear to be the genuine principles on which these languages are constructed.
After completing this synopsis, I proceeded to correct what I had written of the Dictionary, and to complete the remaining part of the work. But before I had finished it, I determined on a voyage to Europe, with the view of obtaining some books and some assistance which I wanted; of learning the real state of the pronunciation of our language in England, as well as the general state of philology in that country; and of attempting to bring about some agreement or coincidence of opinions, in regard to unsettled points in pronunciation and grammatical construction. In some of these objects I failed; in others, my designs were answered.
It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English Language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language.
Now an identity of ideas depends materially upon a sameness of things or objects with which the people of the two countries are conversant. But in no two portions of the earth, remote from each other, can such identity be found. Even physical objects must be different. But the principal differences between the people of this country and of all others, arise from different forms of government, different laws, institutions and customs.
Thus the practice of hawking and hunting, the institution of heraldry, and the feudal system of England originated terms which formed, and some of which now form, a necessary part of the language of that country; but, in the United States, many of these terms are no part of our present language, — and they cannot be, for the things which they express do not exist in this country. They can be known to us only as obsolete or as foreign words.
On the other hand, the institutions in this country which are new and peculiar, give rise to new terms or to new applications of old terms, unknown to the people of England; which cannot be explained by them and which will not be inserted in their dictionaries, unless copied from ours. Thus the terms, land-office; land-warrant; locution of land; consociation of churches; regent of a university; intendant of a city; plantation, selectmen, senate, congress, court, assembly, escheat, &c. are either words not belonging to the language of England, or they are applied to things in this country which do not exist in that.
No person in this country will be satisfied with the English definitions of the words congress, senate and assembly, court, &c. for although these are words used in England, yet they are applied in this country to express ideas which they do not express in that country. With our present constitutions of government, escheat [the reversion of property to the state] can never have its feudal sense in the United States.
But this is not all. In many cases, the nature of our governments, and of our civil institutions, requires an appropriate language in the definition of words, even when the words express the same thing, as in England.
Thus the English Dictionaries inform us that a Justice is one deputed by the King to do right by way of judgment — he is a Lord by his office — Justices of the peace are appointed by the King’s commission —language which is inaccurate in respect to this officer in the United States.
So constitutionally is defined by Todd or Chalmers, legally, but in this country the distinction between constitution and law requires a different definition. In the United States, a plantation is a very different thing from what it is in England. The word marshal, in this country, has one important application unknown in England or in Europe.
A great number of words in our language require to be defined in a phraseology accommodated to the condition and institutions of the people in these states, and the people of England must look to an American Dictionary for a correct understanding of such terms.
The necessity therefore of a Dictionary suited to the people of the United States is obvious; and I should suppose that this fact being admitted, there could be no difference of opinion as to the time, when such a work ought to be substituted for English Dictionaries.
There are many other considerations of a public nature, which serve to justify this attempt to furnish an American Work which shall be a guide to the youth of the United States. Most of these are too obvious to require illustration.
One consideration however which is dictated by my own feelings, but which I trust will meet with approbation in correspondent feelings in my fellow citizens, ought not to be passed in silence. It is this. “The chief glory of a nation,” says Dr. Johnson, “arises from its authors.” With this opinion deeply impressed on my mind, I have the same ambition which actuated that great man when he expressed a wish to give celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Milton and to Boyle.
I do not indeed expect to add celebrity to the names of Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jay, Madison, Marshall, Ramsay, Dwight, Smith, Trumbull, Hamilton, Belknap, Ames, Mason, Kent, Hare, Silliman, Cleaveland, Walsh, Irving, and many other Americans distinguished by their writings or by their science; but it is with pride and satisfaction, that I can place them, as authorities, on the same page with those of Boyle, Hooker, Milton, Dryden, Addison, Ray, Milner, Cowper, Davy, Thomson and Jameson.
A life devoted to reading and to an investigation of the origin and principles of our vernacular language, and especially a particular examination of the best English writers, with a view to a comparison of their style and phraseology, with those of the best American writers, and with our colloquial usage, enables me to affirm with confidence, that the genuine English idiom is as well preserved by the unmixed English of this country, as it is by the best English writers.
Examples to prove this fact will be found in the Introduction to this work. It is true, that many of our writers have neglected to cultivate taste, and the embellishments of style; but even these have written the language in its genuine idiom. In this respect, Franklin and Washington, whose language is their hereditary mother tongue, unsophisticated by modern grammar, present as pure models of genuine English, as Addison or Swift.
But I may go farther, and affirm, with truth, that our country has produced some of the best models of composition. The style of President Smith; of the authors of the Federalist; of Mr. Ames; of Dr. Mason; of Mr. Harper; of Chancellor Kent; (the prose) of Mr. Barlow; of the legal decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States; of the reports of legal decisions in some of the particular states; and many other writings; in purity, in elegance and in technical precision, is equaled only by that of the best British authors, and surpassed by that of no English compositions of a similar kind.
The United States commenced their existence under circumstances wholly novel and unexampled in the history of nations. They commenced with civilization, with learning, with science, with constitutions of free government, and with that best gift of God to man, the christian religion.
Their population is now equal to that of England; in arts and sciences, our citizens are very little behind the most enlightened people on earth; in some respects, they have no superiors; and our language, within two centuries, will be spoken by more people in this country, than any other language on earth, except the Chinese, in Asia, and even that may not be an exception.
It has been my aim in this work, now offered to my fellow citizens, to ascertain the true principles of the language, in its orthography and structure; to purify it from some palpable errors, and reduce the number of its anomalies, thus giving it more regularity and consistency in its forms, both of words and sentences; and in this manner, to furnish a standard of our vernacular tongue, which we shall not be ashamed to bequeath to three hundred millions of people, who are destined to occupy, and I hope, to adorn the vast territory within our jurisdiction.
If the language can be improved in regularity, so as to be more easily acquired by our own citizens, and by foreigners, and thus be rendered a more useful instrument for the propagation of science, arts, civilization and Christianity; if it can be rescued from the mischievous influence of sciolists and that dabbling spirit of innovation which is perpetually disturbing its settled usages and filling it with anomalies; if, in short, our vernacular language can be redeemed from corruptions, and our philology and literature from degradation; it would be a source of great satisfaction to me to be one among the instruments of promoting these valuable objects. If this object cannot be effected, and my wishes and hopes are to be frustrated, my labor will be lost, and this work must sink into oblivion.
This Dictionary, like all others of the kind, must be left, in some degree, imperfect; for what individual is competent to trace to their source, and define in all their various applications, popular, scientific and technical, sixty or seventy thousand words! It satisfies my mind that I have done all that my health, my talents and my pecuniary means would enable me to accomplish. I present it to my fellow citizens, not with frigid indifference, but with my ardent wishes for their improvement and their happiness; and for the continued increase of the wealth, the learning, the moral and religious elevation of character, and the glory of my country.
To that great and benevolent Being, who, during the preparation of this work, has sustained a feeble constitution, amidst obstacles and toils, disappointments, infirmities and depression; who has twice borne me and my manuscripts in safety across the Atlantic, and given me strength and resolution to bring the work to a close, I would present the tribute of my most grateful acknowledgments. And if the talent which he entrusted to my care, has not been put to the most profitable use in his service, I hope it has not been ” kept laid up in a napkin,” and that any misapplication of it may be graciously forgiven.
Illustration: Noah Webster from the front plate of his 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language.
[Verse 1]
I get scared when the bell rings
These days, my heart is shocked first
I want to be alone, I don't want to be alone
I don't even know me
[Pre-Chorus]
Where on earth is my happiness?
No one can answеr
I want to talk while looking at my reflection on thе turned off phone screen
[Chorus]
He told me for his hard work on the way home today
It wasn't easy, but it wasn't bad
In a suffocating world
I laughed for a moment at one small thing
[Bridge]
My
My
My
My
My
My
Cozy blanket that wrapped in this little warmth
I'll fall asleep again while waiting for tomorrow
[Chorus]
A loud alarm that rings tomorrow morning
I hope you don't hate me even a little more than yesterday
In this suffocating world
It must be so nice because all of this is me
[Refrain]
Even if tomorrow is the first time we meet
Even if I hate you even more because of a single word that hurts so much
Let's not worry
Let's sing anywhere with our voices
Cheers to youth
TOKYO -- Transparent displays made by Toppan Holdings that can translate spoken queries into Japanese are proving a godsend to overseas visitors.
The devices, which can instantaneously translate sentences spoken in a number of foreign languages into Japanese, are being installed at train stations, hotels, and retail counters in Japan, helping visitors better navigate their surroundings.
The days are getting longer and spring is in the air. New England is awash with light and flowers. Even the rainy days feel manageable because at least the sun isn’t setting at 4 p.m. And, of course, there are the spring 2024 new releases in translation to look forward to! I have pored over the catalogs and galleys and highlighted some of the best spring 2024 new releases in translation, and because there is so much to choose from, I’ve added notes for others you should seek out as well! There’s something for everyone this season, with exciting debuts, thoughtful nonfiction, stunning poetry collections, and much more.
Readers will be particularly excited to see new titles from favorite authors like Bora Chung, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, and Iman Mersal and translators like Anton Hur, Roland Glasser, and Saskia Vogel. But I’ve included some authors new to English-language audiences as well. It seems like every year, the new titles in translation become more diverse and wide-ranging, especially when it comes to country of origin and language, and it’s a joy — and increasingly a wonderful challenge — to pick from them. As an added bonus, I’ve been looking forward to some new and upcoming novels written by two award-winning translators I deeply admire and recommend: The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft and Toward Eternity by Anton Hur.
Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s debut, Tram 83, was a revelation. An overwhelming force of a novel that, in Roland Glasser’s translation, sparked with rhythm and life. It went on to win the Etisalat Prize for Literature and the German International Literature Award and was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and the Prix du Monde. The duo’s long-awaited follow-up, The Villain’s Dance, is a similar riot of color and music. Set during the Mobutu regime in late-1990s Zaire, the novel spins between a cast of vivid characters as they try to survive in the midst of political turbulence. Beneath its urgent examinations of power and humanity, there is an electric hum, a tension, that kept me transfixed. (Deep Vellum, March 12)
And don’t miss The Understory by Saneh Sangsuk, translated by Mui Poopoksakul (Deep Vellum, March 19).
Iman Mersal is considered by many to be Egypt’s premier poet, and I’d argue she’s one of the world’s foremost poets. So it was an immense joy to see The Threshold published last fall. It thoughtfully compiled work from Mersal’s first four collections, stretching over three decades, allowing readers to witness and experience the breadth of her immense talent. But I’ve long heard of her book Traces of Enayat, winner of the prestigious Sheikh Zayed Book Award — making Mersal the first woman to win in the literature category — and had hoped it would find its way into English translation. In this remarkable work of creative nonfiction, Mersal retraces the mysterious life and loss of Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat, who took her life in 1963, at the age of 27, four years before the publication of her novel Love and Silence. It is a fascinating and multilayered project, intimate and complex, with captivating prose translated by Robin Moger, who I know from his jaw-droppingly beautiful translation of Slipping by Mohamed Kheir. (Transit Books, April 2)
And don’t miss The Novices of Lerna by Ángel Bonomini, translated by Jordan Landsman (Transit Books, May 7).
Balsam Karam is of Kurdish ancestry and has lived in Sweden since she was a child. She is an author and librarian, and The Singularity is her second novel, published in Sweden in 2021, but her English-language debut. The novel is set in an unnamed coastal city and follows the lives of two refugee women as they make their way in an unwelcoming world. Karam writes intimately of the women’s lives in prose that is compelling and complex, bracingly honest and heartrending. It is a novel of displacement and migration, of motherhood and grief and the intensity of the writing speaks to longing and possibility. (Feminist Press, January 24)
I’ve loved the Calico series from Two Lines Press since its inception. The series presents vanguard works of translated literature in vibrant, strikingly designed editions. Each year, they publish two new titles in the Calico series, and each is as good, if not better than the last. Ranging from speculative Chinese fiction to Arabic poetry, Swahili fiction, and more, each book in the series is built around a theme and captures a thrilling and unique moment in international literature. Latin American horror is, in my mind, one of the most exciting literary movements happening today, and Through the Night Like a Snake brings together ten chilling stories in what feels like an ongoing series of nightmares. You can’t drag yourself away — nor do you want to. (Two Lines, March 12)
And don’t miss Woodworm by Layla Martínez, translated by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott (Two Lines, May 12), and Off-White by Astrid Roemer, translated by Lucy Scott and David McKay.
Bora Chung’s first book published in English, Cursed Bunny, was a genre-defying collection that pulled from horror, science fiction, and fantasy with a powerful feminist and anti-capitalist lens. This new collection is more firmly planted in the realm of science fiction, but like its beloved and award-winning predecessor, it contains multitudes. The stories are populated with robots, sentient vehicles, AI elevators, spaceships, and more, but are linked by Chung’s poignant meditations on loneliness, dystopia, surveillance, and the perils of technology. Acclaimed translator Anton Hur thoughtfully captures all of the collection’s dark humor and power with the immense artistry he’s become known for. (Algonquin, January 30)
In this stunning new collection, Chinese diaspora poet-translator Yilin Wang has selected and translated poems by five Chinese poets, including Qiu Jin, Fei Ming, Dai Wangshu, Zhang Qiaohui, and Xiao Xi. While there’s an immense range in the poems themselves, themes of identity and longing/belonging emerge. Autumn moons and spring flowers abound, but also the power of language and poetry. I was deeply moved by Wang’s essays for each poet. “Poetry is one of my rare lifelines,” she writes in the epigraph of the book, and there is so much that is deeply personal in these essays. She includes thoughtful biographical information about the poets and discusses the fascinating art and craft of translation, but I was most struck by the way she reflects on how the poets speak to each other and speak to her. (Invisible Publishing, April 2)
“We were to be driven from the forest fells and lakes . . . now each step homeward in autumn was a departure from our lives.” Ǣdnan is Sámi-Swedish author Linnea Axelsson’s haunting and powerful award-winning debut. It follows two Sámi families over the generations, grappling with the loss of their culture and identity — forced off their migration paths, placed in nomad schools, and countless other losses. Told in verse, the story feels mythic and fittingly epic. Reindeer stalk across the landscape and the ever-changing sea is always present in Axelsson’s subtle and spare language, captured in all of its piercing beauty by translator Saskia Vogel. (Knopf, January 9)
Drawn & Quarterly has the most fantastic offerings of literature in translation, so I was thrilled to hear about this new title by Julie Delporte, whose previous book, This Woman’s Work, translated by Helge Dascher and Aleshia Jensen, I adored. In Portrait of A Body, she reflects on sexuality, identity, and healing. She blends autobiography, queer theory, and art criticism as artfully as she blends the colors in her illustrations. The colored pencil drawings are vulnerable and beautiful, both complimenting and contrasting with the strength of Delporte’s story to stunning effect. (Drawn and Quarterly, January 16)
As always, you can find a full list of new releases in the magical New Release Index, carefully curated by your favorite Book Riot editors, organized by genre and release date.
And for some incredible new releases in translation from last year, check out this list of the Best New Releases In Translation Out Fall 2023.
