The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added 18 new words related to gender identity and the LGBTQ community in 2022, including the terms gender-affirming, brotherboy and pangender, according to a new report.
Over the course of the year, the OED was incrementally updated with over 2,050 words in March, June and September. It is expected to receive several hundred more words by year-end.
In March, the OED added anti-gay to their myriad of words, accompanied by a definition that reads "opposed or hostile to homosexual people (sometimes specifically gay men) or homosexuality." Anti-homosexual was also added as a subcategory of the word, The Daily Caller found.
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The OED also added words less well known to the public - such as pangender, a term used to define a person who either identifies as an unset number of separate identities, moving fluidly between them over time, or identifies as a singular all-encompassing identity.
Eunoia, which means "beautiful thinking" according to Guinness World Records, is the shortest word in the English language that has all five main vowels. (iStock) (iStock)
Another newly-included word, multisexual, often refers to a person that is attracted to several different individuals with varying gender identities or sexes.
The word gender also saw several notes added to the definition with new sub-definitions that include gender critical, and gender-affirming. Gender expression and gender presentation were also included under the same definition.
The word teahouse, colloquially used in U.S. slang, was also included. The word refers to a public restroom in which gay men engage or solicit sexual acts from other men.
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Several words were also added that are specific to countries across the world and are not commonly known in the English language. For example, the word Bakla is a term in the Philippines that describes a biological male who identifies as female. Muxe, a word from Mexico which has the same definition, was also added.
Australian words brotherboy and sistergirl were also added, the former of which refers to a person registered as female at birth that identities with masculine gender expression, and a born male that exhibits traits associated with being feminine in the latter’s case.
CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY CHANGES DEFINITION OF 'MAN' AND 'WOMAN': '1984 WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE A HOW-TO MANUAL'
Several notable dictionaries have made interesting editorial decisions throughout 2022 regarding their inclusion of new words.
Earlier this month, the OED announced that their official word of 2022 is "goblin mode," a term that refers to a "type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations."
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary selected "gaslighting" as their official word of the year.
On December 13, Dictionary.com deemed the word "woman" to be the word of the year for 2022, calling it a "prime example of the many gender terms undergoing shifts."
The site suggested that, "more than ever, we are all faced with questions about who gets to identify as a woman." The word-defining website also indicated unease at being the final arbiter: "The dictionary is not the last word on what defines a woman."
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Fox News’ Scott Whitlock and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
This year I bought a strange holiday gift for my kids: I gave them dictionaries. More specifically, I gave them dictionaries that were published before the word “woman” was redefined by some dictionary publishers.
This fall, Cambridge University Press redefined woman to include not only “an adult female human being,” but also “an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth (example, ‘Mary is a woman who was assigned male at birth.’).”
Wits quickly supplied additional definitions Cambridge should consider, such as, “duck: a shark who lives and identifies as a duck though they may have been said to have a different species at birth (example, ‘Blue is a duck who was assigned shark at birth.’).”
If we were in the water and someone yelled, “Duck, duck!” we’d turn around to look because ducks are no threat. If someone yelled, “Shark, shark!” we’d get out of the water as fast as possible because sharks are very much a threat. Redefining “duck” to include “shark” would be a corruption of language because it would not allow us to communicate what we actually mean, and also would obscure the potential threat sharks pose. At best the redefinition makes us incoherent; at worst, it results in our harm or death.
“Duck, duck, the pectoral-fin-having kind of duck!”
For women, the conceptual erasure of their material reality has come swiftly, even as their actual material reality so often remains the justification for their abuse. While certain legal fictions have been long accepted in society — for example, it’s unremarkable to call the guardians of an adopted child their mother and father even though they are not biologically related — newer legal fictions are not as innocuous.
Since 2010 in Great Britain, an individual can, under certain circumstances, receive a Gender Recognition Certificate that allows them to change the sex on their government documents. This is “a legal fiction” because the person’s material bodily sex has not changed; only the sex marker on their government documents has.
We know this is a legal fiction even under British law because the older sister of a male heir of a noble peerage (the UK’s system of ranks and titles) cannot use a Gender Recognition Certificate to claim that she is now the true heir because the certificate says she is male.
The material, biological reality of her sex has not disappeared in actuality. Likewise a male heir cannot lose his noble title if he obtains a certificate that states he is female; his favored male sex can never be taken from him. The government reasoned that “by stating that where a peerage is concerned a transsexual person is considered in his or her birth gender we avoid anomalies of succession.”
But those are anomalies that would disfavor men, causing them to lose out to women. Unfortunately, the government appears less interested in anomalies that are created by this legal fiction that disfavor women, causing them to lose out to men.
The same week that Cambridge changed its definition, a U.K. judge ruled that the 2018 Gender Representation on Public Boards Act, which mandates certain percentages of women on public boards, included as women not only females but also individuals with Gender Recognition Certificates stating they are female. Thus a public board could be comprised of all biologically male-bodied persons and still fulfill its obligations under the act.
We see the same double standard at work in other recent rulings. Janice Turner of the Times points out, “The U.S. rowing federation has opened its female category to anyone who ‘identifies as a woman.’ (This, remember, is a sport with a huge male-female physical disparity.) But hey, look at new mixed rowing rules. ‘Boat entries in this category must include 50% athletes assigned as female at birth’ — i.e. no extra dudes in your team because it would be unfair to other dudes. How do you define ‘man’? Someone who never loses out.”
I would argue these legal fictions about sex are not just unfair and unsporting, but also in many cases harmful to women. First, how can you possibly organize for women’s rights when the category of women includes biological men? You are reduced to the inanity of our current discourse over “uterus-havers” and “menstruators,” when those neo-categories are wholly incapable of pointing to the human beings living in female bodies. In one fell swoop, you have made women incapable of articulating whose rights need protecting — even though everyone still knows whose rights are being lost. Didn’t we have an unambiguous word for those human beings? Well, we used to.
Worse, you prevent women from protecting themselves. Our foremothers bequeathed us a variety of ways of detecting, avoiding and mollifying threatening males. One of the major breakthroughs in women’s rights was the right to single-sex spaces, such as women’s restrooms. An extension of this right was the Geneva Convention’s upholding the right for women prisoners to be held in single-sex facilities.
Now, however, we have women accosted by men in women’s restrooms, and women who dare say anything are too often vilified for calling them biologically male. Even worse, we have had the most vulnerable women — women prisoners — trapped in cells with biological males, which has already resulted in physical abuse and allegations of rape.
When the ducks cannot say “That’s a shark,” or women can’t say male, you have stripped from them the ability to even identify those who may harm them. That we have so corrupted our language to the favor of men, by asserting that biological males can be “women” and must be called “women” if that is what men want, is deeply wrong.
I, for one, will not bend the knee to this blatant misogyny, so I’m buying those uncorrupted dictionaries while they still exist. Just as the Amish have kept alive their own dialect of English, so dissenters from this conceptual mischief must do the same, and pass uncorrupted language on to those who follow them. For women and for men who value and respect women, the stakes are just too high for complacency.
Valerie M. Hudson is a university distinguished professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and a Deseret News contributor. Her views are her own.
There are two different English names near Chung Ying Street (中英街, China England Street), a historical location on the Hong Kong—mainland China border. Car Park Street, a translation of the Chinese name (車坪街), can be seen on the old T-shaped sign while the newer sign reads Che Ping Street, the transliteration of the Cantonese. So what happened there?
From right to left: The traditional way of writing Chinese can be seen on the 1930s signage on the right. Photo: Diana Pang.
The street was the terminus of the Kowloon–Canton Railway’s short-lived Sha Tau Kok branch in the early 20th century. Sometime after the line ceased operation in 1928, the street was renamed.
While there appears to be no records about the name change, it begs the question: why are some street names converted semantically and others phonetically?
Not that kind of junk
Street names are bilingual in Hong Kong but the conversion between English and Chinese names is often confusing. Mistranslations and ill-sounding transliterations sometimes lead to hilarity.
The Geographical Place Names Board, founded to clean up inauspicious or eyebrow-raising place names, famously rebranded the place now called Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳) in the 1980s. When the British first surveyed the area, it was named Junk Bay after the junk boats spotted nearby.
With landfills and ship-breaking operations nearby, the name caused some problems during the new town’s development as it was taken to refer to “junk” or trash. A transliteration of its Chinese name was then given to the area, renaming it Tseung Kwan O.
Wan King Path, Sai Kung. Photo: Googlemaps.
Despite the committee’s efforts to eradicate unfortunate-sounding names, it is unclear how Wan King Path (灣景街, waan1 ging2 gaai1, ‘Bay View Path’) in Sai Kung managed to survive the purge in the 1990s.
One way or another
In many East Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan, street names are often romanised versions of their native languages. Unlike our neighbours, Hong Kong’s street names are sometimes not merely transliterations between English and Cantonese.
Che Ping Street on the 1965 Hong Kong & New Territories Survey Map. Photo: HK Historical Maps.
Some are translated (e.g. Hospital Road ↔ 醫院道) and others are a mix of transliteration and translation, often with numbers or cardinal directions (e.g. Yee Kuk West Street ↔ 醫局西街). There are also streets where their bilingual names are either mistranslated or seem to have no relation to each other (e.g. Stewart Terrace ↔ 十間, “Ten Units”).
Transliteration
Most street names in Hong Kong are transliterations between Cantonese and English. As a former British colony with fewer than five per cent of the people being primary English speakers, similar sounds are helpful for communication between races.
Ling Daoyang 凌道揚 (L), a renowned Chinese agronomist who co-founded The Chinese University of Hong Kong. And Tan Jat Min (R), former Indonesian-born Hakka honorary treasurer of the Housing Society.
In a few rare cases, street names are transliterated from Chinese languages other than Cantonese. Daoyang Road (道揚道 dou6 joeng4 dou6) and Jat Min Chuen Street (乙明村街 jyut3 ming4 cyun1 gaai1) took their names from notable Chinese figures with Mandarin and Hakka names.
Several streets have transliterations that do not even sound Cantonese or Mandarin. Take a walk around the Yau Tsim Mong area and you will find many streets named after different Chinese cities. Postal Romanisation is used in some streets (e.g. Peking Street), where the transliteration is neither Cantonese- nor Mandarin-sounding. These old Chinese place names were replaced by Mandarin pinyin in the 1950s.
Rednaxela Terrace. Photo: Wikicommons.
Linguistic differences between English and Chinese pronunciations and writing systems are evident in some transliterations. A common misreading of the silent “h” is found in Chinese transliterations of Bonham, Chatham, Wyndham, etc., where “ham” is rendered as 「咸」(haam4). In one particular case, differences in English and Chinese writing systems resulted in a unique name. A Chinese clerk accidentally transposed “Alexander Terrace,” its intended name, as Rednaxela Terrace because Chinese was written from right to left at the time. The name stuck and became a feature of Mid-Levels.
Translation
The Hong Kong government and property developers have been responsible for naming and translating street names since 1842. To no one’s surprise, translations are not always accurate. Some are partly translated, like Princess Margaret Road (公主道), where Margaret was omitted in the Chinese name. Others are downright incorrect, such as Pine Street (杉樹街) and Fir Street (松樹街), in which their Chinese translations were erroneously swapped.
Adding to the confusion are mistranslations of polysemes (words with multiple meanings). Constructed in the early 1840s, Queen’s Road was named after Queen Victoria and remains a key thoroughfare to this day. However, instead of referring to the sovereign ruler (女皇), the Chinese name was mistranslated as queen consort (皇后), the wife of a King.
Pound Lane, Po Hing Fong in Sheung Wan. Photo: Wikicommons.
Other examples of mistranslated polysemes include:
Pound Lane (磅巷) — named after an animal shelter nearby, was mistaken for a unit of measurement
Power Street (大強街) — named after a power station, but mistaken for strength
Spring Garden Lane (春園街) — named after a garden with a spring fountain, but mistaken for “spring” (the season).
Nuances in the Chinese language can be spotted in some street names. “Dock” in Chinese is「船塢」 (syun4 ou3), yet the Chinese name for Dock Street (船澳街), named after the Kowloon Docks is a meaningless homophone (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings) of「船塢」(syun4 ou3).
The translation of Ice House Street into ‘Snow Factory Street’ in Chinese may seem baffling to some, but this is due to a particular nuance in Cantonese. Ice (冰) and snow (雪) were interchangeable in Cantonese. For example, refrigerator in Cantonese means ‘snow cabinet’ (雪櫃) whereas it is ‘ice box’ (冰箱) in Mandarin. Named after the building that stored ice shipped from North America in the 1840s, ice was never manufactured on Ice House Street.
Ones that bear no relations
Wishful thinking
To convey good wishes for the neighbourhoods, the government and property developers often christen streets with auspicious names in Chinese that have no linguistic relation to their English counterparts.
The Governor’s Walk, translated into “Together Happy Walk”「同樂徑, was taken from the Chinese saying「官民同樂」which means joy “shared between rulers and people.”
Governor’s Walk. PhotoL Ben Dalton via Flickr CC2.0.
Mong Kok is another prime example. The former coastal region was named after the overgrown silvergrass found in the area 「芒角」(mong4 gok3, ‘corner of silvergrass’).
When the government reclaimed the bay and developed the area in the early 1900s, the Chinese name was renamed to its current appellation [旺角」(wong6 gok3) which means “Prosperity Point.” The English name was never updated. With its extremely high population density of 130,000 per square kilometre, perhaps the name did deliver.
Colonial imposition
Like other then-colonies, many places and streets in Hong Kong were named after colonial officials. Rather than being just transliterations from English, their Chinese names often tell a different story.
Upside Down: South-up Canton Coastal Map showing Hong Kong dated 1595 (Ming Dynasty). The name ‘Hong Kong’, highlighted in pink, can be seen in the present-day Aberdeen/Ap Lei Chau area.
Known for its fishing village, not many people know that Aberdeen is the “original Hong Kong.” Named after George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, who played a pivotal role in the Opium Wars leading to the cession of Hong Kong, Aberdeen’s Chinese name 「香港仔」(hoeng1 gong2 zai2, ‘Little Hong Kong’), gave Hong Kong its name. When the British landed near Aberdeen in the early 19th century, they mistook the name of the village “Hong Kong” for that of the entire territory – and the rest was history.
Some colonial street names were decolonised even before the Handover. Jervois Street was named after British General William Jervois, who was in charge of rebuilding Sheung Wan after the devastating fire of 1851. Originally transliterated to「乍畏街」(zaa3 wai3 gaai1), 「乍畏」was considered inauspicious as it means “dread” in Chinese. The Chinese name was renamed to「蘇杭街」(sou1 hong4 gaai1, “Suzhou Hangzhou Street”) in 1978 as most of the shops along it sold textiles from Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Some colonial place names with different Chinese and English interpretations remain a mystery to this date. Whoever Penny’s Bay (竹篙灣, “Bamboo Pole Bay”) was named for would not be pleased to know that it would become a dreaded Covid quarantine facility.
Colourful highways
Some highway names have unusual origins. Rather than being named after someone called Twisk, Route Twisk (荃錦公路) came from the initials of the two places it links: Tsuen Wan (TW) and Shek Kong (SK). The origin of the ‘i’ in the middle has been contested — some claimed that it refers to “intersection” while others claimed that it was a misprint of “Route TW/SK.” In Chinese, the highway means Tsuen Wan – Kam Tin Route (Kam Tin is an area next to Shek Kong).
Hiram’s Highway (西貢公路), connecting Sai Kung to Clear Water Bay, was named after Major John Wynne-Potts who expanded the road built by the Japanese military during World War II. So, where did Hiram come from? At that time, an American tinned sausage brand called Hiram K. Potts was supplied to the British army in large quantities as military rations. The sausages were hated by everyone, but Major Wynne-Potts gladly accepted them from his colleagues in exchange for other food. Due to the brand of cans bearing his surname Potts, he became nicknamed Hiram over time. The anecdote is lost in its Chinese name as it only refers to Sai Kung Highway with no mention of said sausage.
Chef’s kisses
In spite of the numerous bizarre street name conversions, there are a few that deserve a special mention. A few streets such as Link Road (連道, lin4 dou6) and Welfare Road (惠福道, wai6 fuk1 dou6) managed to achieve the near-impossible by matching their English and Chinese names both phonetically and semantically.
In Aldrich Street’s translation story, English and Cantonese are creatively intertwined. Situated in Aldrich Bay, the area is named after Colonel Edward Aldrich, who was responsible for formulating the British defence plan and was known for his remarkable effectiveness in rectifying military discipline. When the bay was named after him in 1845, “Aldrich” was converted to 「愛秩序」(ngoi3 dit6 zeoi6) in Chinese, which means “loving discipline” and its Cantonese transliteration.
Eclectic linguistic journey
Linguistic relationships between Hong Kong’s bilingual street names are weird and wonderful. There are times when mistranslations or ill-sounding transliterations lead to hilarious sightings, and there are streets with bilingual names that are completely unrelated. Their Chinese names, however, often tell a different story. Some managed to preserve their indigenous names, while others were shaped by the socio-cultural context of their colonial nomenclature.
Explore the map below by hovering on different streets to see how their bilingual street names are related.
Support HKFP | Code of Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report
There are two different English names near Chung Ying Street (中英街, China England Street), a historical location on the Hong Kong—mainland China border. Car Park Street, a translation of the Chinese name (車坪街), can be seen on the old T-shaped sign while the newer sign reads Che Ping Street, the transliteration of the Cantonese. So what happened there?
From right to left: The traditional way of writing Chinese can be seen on the 1930s signage on the right. Photo: Diana Pang.
The street was the terminus of the Kowloon–Canton Railway’s short-lived Sha Tau Kok branch in the early 20th century. Sometime after the line ceased operation in 1928, the street was renamed.
While there appears to be no records about the name change, it begs the question: why are some street names converted semantically and others phonetically?
Not that kind of junk
Street names are bilingual in Hong Kong but the conversion between English and Chinese names is often confusing. Mistranslations and ill-sounding transliterations sometimes lead to hilarity.
The Geographical Place Names Board, founded to clean up inauspicious or eyebrow-raising place names, famously rebranded the place now called Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳) in the 1980s. When the British first surveyed the area, it was named Junk Bay after the junk boats spotted nearby.
With landfills and ship-breaking operations nearby, the name caused some problems during the new town’s development as it was taken to refer to “junk” or trash. A transliteration of its Chinese name was then given to the area, renaming it Tseung Kwan O.
Wan King Path, Sai Kung. Photo: Googlemaps.
Despite the committee’s efforts to eradicate unfortunate-sounding names, it is unclear how Wan King Path (灣景街, waan1 ging2 gaai1, ‘Bay View Path’) in Sai Kung managed to survive the purge in the 1990s.
One way or another
In many East Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan, street names are often romanised versions of their native languages. Unlike our neighbours, Hong Kong’s street names are sometimes not merely transliterations between English and Cantonese.
Che Ping Street on the 1965 Hong Kong & New Territories Survey Map. Photo: HK Historical Maps.
Some are translated (e.g. Hospital Road ↔ 醫院道) and others are a mix of transliteration and translation, often with numbers or cardinal directions (e.g. Yee Kuk West Street ↔ 醫局西街). There are also streets where their bilingual names are either mistranslated or seem to have no relation to each other (e.g. Stewart Terrace ↔ 十間, “Ten Units”).
Transliteration
Most street names in Hong Kong are transliterations between Cantonese and English. As a former British colony with fewer than five per cent of the people being primary English speakers, similar sounds are helpful for communication between races.
Ling Daoyang 凌道揚 (L), a renowned Chinese agronomist who co-founded The Chinese University of Hong Kong. And Tan Jat Min (R), former Indonesian-born Hakka honorary treasurer of the Housing Society.
In a few rare cases, street names are transliterated from Chinese languages other than Cantonese. Daoyang Road (道揚道 dou6 joeng4 dou6) and Jat Min Chuen Street (乙明村街 jyut3 ming4 cyun1 gaai1) took their names from notable Chinese figures with Mandarin and Hakka names.
Several streets have transliterations that do not even sound Cantonese or Mandarin. Take a walk around the Yau Tsim Mong area and you will find many streets named after different Chinese cities. Postal Romanisation is used in some streets (e.g. Peking Street), where the transliteration is neither Cantonese- nor Mandarin-sounding. These old Chinese place names were replaced by Mandarin pinyin in the 1950s.
Rednaxela Terrace. Photo: Wikicommons.
Linguistic differences between English and Chinese pronunciations and writing systems are evident in some transliterations. A common misreading of the silent “h” is found in Chinese transliterations of Bonham, Chatham, Wyndham, etc., where “ham” is rendered as 「咸」(haam4). In one particular case, differences in English and Chinese writing systems resulted in a unique name. A Chinese clerk accidentally transposed “Alexander Terrace,” its intended name, as Rednaxela Terrace because Chinese was written from right to left at the time. The name stuck and became a feature of Mid-Levels.
Translation
The Hong Kong government and property developers have been responsible for naming and translating street names since 1842. To no one’s surprise, translations are not always accurate. Some are partly translated, like Princess Margaret Road (公主道), where Margaret was omitted in the Chinese name. Others are downright incorrect, such as Pine Street (杉樹街) and Fir Street (松樹街), in which their Chinese translations were erroneously swapped.
Adding to the confusion are mistranslations of polysemes (words with multiple meanings). Constructed in the early 1840s, Queen’s Road was named after Queen Victoria and remains a key thoroughfare to this day. However, instead of referring to the sovereign ruler (女皇), the Chinese name was mistranslated as queen consort (皇后), the wife of a King.
Pound Lane, Po Hing Fong in Sheung Wan. Photo: Wikicommons.
Other examples of mistranslated polysemes include:
Pound Lane (磅巷) — named after an animal shelter nearby, was mistaken for a unit of measurement
Power Street (大強街) — named after a power station, but mistaken for strength
Spring Garden Lane (春園街) — named after a garden with a spring fountain, but mistaken for “spring” (the season).
Nuances in the Chinese language can be spotted in some street names. “Dock” in Chinese is「船塢」 (syun4 ou3), yet the Chinese name for Dock Street (船澳街), named after the Kowloon Docks is a meaningless homophone (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings) of「船塢」(syun4 ou3).
The translation of Ice House Street into ‘Snow Factory Street’ in Chinese may seem baffling to some, but this is due to a particular nuance in Cantonese. Ice (冰) and snow (雪) were interchangeable in Cantonese. For example, refrigerator in Cantonese means ‘snow cabinet’ (雪櫃) whereas it is ‘ice box’ (冰箱) in Mandarin. Named after the building that stored ice shipped from North America in the 1840s, ice was never manufactured on Ice House Street.
Ones that bear no relations
Wishful thinking
To convey good wishes for the neighbourhoods, the government and property developers often christen streets with auspicious names in Chinese that have no linguistic relation to their English counterparts.
The Governor’s Walk, translated into “Together Happy Walk”「同樂徑, was taken from the Chinese saying「官民同樂」which means joy “shared between rulers and people.”
Governor’s Walk. PhotoL Ben Dalton via Flickr CC2.0.
Mong Kok is another prime example. The former coastal region was named after the overgrown silvergrass found in the area 「芒角」(mong4 gok3, ‘corner of silvergrass’).
When the government reclaimed the bay and developed the area in the early 1900s, the Chinese name was renamed to its current appellation [旺角」(wong6 gok3) which means “Prosperity Point.” The English name was never updated. With its extremely high population density of 130,000 per square kilometre, perhaps the name did deliver.
Colonial imposition
Like other then-colonies, many places and streets in Hong Kong were named after colonial officials. Rather than being just transliterations from English, their Chinese names often tell a different story.
Upside Down: South-up Canton Coastal Map showing Hong Kong dated 1595 (Ming Dynasty). The name ‘Hong Kong’, highlighted in pink, can be seen in the present-day Aberdeen/Ap Lei Chau area.
Known for its fishing village, not many people know that Aberdeen is the “original Hong Kong.” Named after George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, who played a pivotal role in the Opium Wars leading to the cession of Hong Kong, Aberdeen’s Chinese name 「香港仔」(hoeng1 gong2 zai2, ‘Little Hong Kong’), gave Hong Kong its name. When the British landed near Aberdeen in the early 19th century, they mistook the name of the village “Hong Kong” for that of the entire territory – and the rest was history.
Some colonial street names were decolonised even before the Handover. Jervois Street was named after British General William Jervois, who was in charge of rebuilding Sheung Wan after the devastating fire of 1851. Originally transliterated to「乍畏街」(zaa3 wai3 gaai1), 「乍畏」was considered inauspicious as it means “dread” in Chinese. The Chinese name was renamed to「蘇杭街」(sou1 hong4 gaai1, “Suzhou Hangzhou Street”) in 1978 as most of the shops along it sold textiles from Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Some colonial place names with different Chinese and English interpretations remain a mystery to this date. Whoever Penny’s Bay (竹篙灣, “Bamboo Pole Bay”) was named for would not be pleased to know that it would become a dreaded Covid quarantine facility.
Colourful highways
Some highway names have unusual origins. Rather than being named after someone called Twisk, Route Twisk (荃錦公路) came from the initials of the two places it links: Tsuen Wan (TW) and Shek Kong (SK). The origin of the ‘i’ in the middle has been contested — some claimed that it refers to “intersection” while others claimed that it was a misprint of “Route TW/SK.” In Chinese, the highway means Tsuen Wan – Kam Tin Route (Kam Tin is an area next to Shek Kong).
Hiram’s Highway (西貢公路), connecting Sai Kung to Clear Water Bay, was named after Major John Wynne-Potts who expanded the road built by the Japanese military during World War II. So, where did Hiram come from? At that time, an American tinned sausage brand called Hiram K. Potts was supplied to the British army in large quantities as military rations. The sausages were hated by everyone, but Major Wynne-Potts gladly accepted them from his colleagues in exchange for other food. Due to the brand of cans bearing his surname Potts, he became nicknamed Hiram over time. The anecdote is lost in its Chinese name as it only refers to Sai Kung Highway with no mention of said sausage.
Chef’s kisses
In spite of the numerous bizarre street name conversions, there are a few that deserve a special mention. A few streets such as Link Road (連道, lin4 dou6) and Welfare Road (惠福道, wai6 fuk1 dou6) managed to achieve the near-impossible by matching their English and Chinese names both phonetically and semantically.
In Aldrich Street’s translation story, English and Cantonese are creatively intertwined. Situated in Aldrich Bay, the area is named after Colonel Edward Aldrich, who was responsible for formulating the British defence plan and was known for his remarkable effectiveness in rectifying military discipline. When the bay was named after him in 1845, “Aldrich” was converted to 「愛秩序」(ngoi3 dit6 zeoi6) in Chinese, which means “loving discipline” and its Cantonese transliteration.
Eclectic linguistic journey
Linguistic relationships between Hong Kong’s bilingual street names are weird and wonderful. There are times when mistranslations or ill-sounding transliterations lead to hilarious sightings, and there are streets with bilingual names that are completely unrelated. Their Chinese names, however, often tell a different story. Some managed to preserve their indigenous names, while others were shaped by the socio-cultural context of their colonial nomenclature.
Explore the map below by hovering on different streets to see how their bilingual street names are related.
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As the cold winter began to grip Canada this year, my partner and I decided to escape the snowy weather and flee to her homeland in Mexico for a few weeks. I have been learning Spanish through Memrise for the past few months, which has taught me the basics of greeting others and ordering another beer, but I am far from fluent. Thankfully, my fluency in French is helping me pick things up quicker due to the languages’ similarities, but I usually rely on my partner, who is a native speaker, to help translate the rest. For this trip, though, I wanted to give her a break and be more self-reliant. So I downloaded the Google Translate app as my main companion and aid in navigating the local language for this journey.
See also: 10 best Spanish to English dictionaries and phrasebooks for Android
Translate’s proposed features seemed promising. “Oh, it will be easy to translate entire conversations, and I bet people will be receptive to it,” I thought. Boy, was I wrong. After using Google Translate while traveling, I can attest to some crucial limitations. May this serve as a warning to any tourists thinking they can get by solely using the app without at least some knowledge of the local language.
Have you ever used Google Translate when traveling in a foreign country?
60 votes
Offline use is severely limited
Adam Birney / Android Authority
Let’s start with the biggest Google Translate limitation while traveling. The app’s description states that “you can download languages onto your device,” which supposedly “lets you translate them without an internet connection.” Great, so if I download Spanish before flying off, I should be able to use all of the translation features offline, right? Wrong. Of all the features that Google translate offers, only one worked for me offline: basic text translation. The conversation, camera, and audio modes all required an active connection.
Of all the features that Google translate offers, only basic text translation worked for me offline.
Google Translate is supposed to support offline camera lens translations, but I never once got it to work during my trip. Despite downloading both English and Spanish beforehand and granting all the relevant permissions, I always encountered an error message when disconnected from the internet. To be clear, offline camera translation seems to work for most users — my Android Authority colleagues confirmed that on their devices — but judging by many reviews on the Google Play store, I’m not the only one who keeps getting the error message.
The introduction of Google Lens to replace Google Translate’s previous photo mode might be responsible for this bug, as that update only rolled out a month ago. Many users have also noted that you can no longer select text to translate word by word; Lens will just automatically translate an entire page. In its current buggy state, it was a letdown that this offline selling point never worked for me. Instead, turning my data on and off in each instance (at exorbitant roaming rates) became a nuisance, given that Wi-Fi was scarce.
Turning my data on and off in each instance became a nuisance, given that Wi-Fi was scarce.
With only typed text translation working offline, the whole prospect of downloading a language became rather redundant. The basic text translation is handy in a pinch if you forget one or two words. But I had already saved most of the short phrases I knew I’d use, such as greetings or asking where the bathroom is, to my favorites beforehand. I did so because I anticipated referencing them offline.
More importantly, the other features are the ones I would imagine rural travelers relying on more. For example, I depended on Google Lens to translate signage, know what to order on a menu at a restaurant, or read plaques within local museums. Conversation mode would’ve been great when communicating with locals too; instead, typing text and handing the phone back and forth was nowhere near as efficient or intuitive as the microphone.
No plus-ones at Google Translate
When you are online, the conversation feature works pretty well for one-on-one interactions. It has a friendly greeting message you can show to whomever you wish to speak with. The microphone didn’t always catch every word in my interactions, and I found the slower each of us spoke, the more accurate it was. But as soon as I threw a third person into that mix, everything fell apart.
In larger group settings, using this conversation mode really slowed down social interactions’ pace. If you’ve ever been in the trenches of a Mexican family gathering, you’ll know how fast they can rapidly poke fun at one another. But because the conversation mode is only designed for two people, it doesn’t give you an opening to engage with a party. Combined with the microphone’s delicacy, multiple people speaking simultaneously all but ensure translations get jumbled.
Because the conversation mode only works between two people, it doesn't let you engage with a larger group.
When Google Translate comes short during a conversation, it can feel like an imposition to ask others to repeat themselves or slow down while they are having fun. As such, I always found myself a few minutes behind the conversation, always catching up. I did try just using the central microphone instead of the conversation mode, thinking I could just parse the transcript to the relevant speaker myself. But that came out even more disorganized. Plus, if you’re not using the feature with someone else, it can look like you’re just on your phone and not paying attention.
Ultimately, my partner was much more reliable in keeping me up to speed. Unlike Google Translate, she didn’t have to translate every single word literally and could just give me the gist of what was being said so I could follow along.
Growing pains for Google Translate
The universal translator (UT) is a fictional device from Star Trek, used to used to decipher and interpret alien languages into the native language of the user.
You would expect translating between languages to be easy once you have downloaded the right dictionaries. Just scan or type the word, find the matching one in the other language, and then output a translation one by one. Unfortunately, it isn’t quite so simple. Some things work great when you’re connected, but if you venture outside of civilization, nearly all the language features are left by the wayside.
Google released a big update to the Translate app in November that changed a lot of the UI and replaced the camera translation with Google Lens. Users had hoped this would bring improvements, but personally, all I got were bugs. Hopefully, these are just growing pains that Google can learn from and fix.
Google likes to boast about having over 100 languages at your fingertips, but we are far from Star Trek levels of real-time translation.
In the app’s current state, my experience while traveling abroad was pretty underwhelming. Google likes to boast about having access to over 100 languages at your fingertips. Still, that promise fell short when I realized all the more helpful things depended on Wi-Fi or data, which can be scarce and expensive in a foreign country.
Even when connected, translating things like airport announcements with the microphone was impossible. Granted, that could be more due to the quality of the speakers, but my ears, and brain, were ultimately more reliable than my phone. We are far from Star Trek levels of real-time translation.
Learning the basics of a language can go a long way. Don't rely on Google to speak the language for you.
Instead, I learned it pays to know the basics of the language for yourself. Learning social introductions, numbers, and the names of destinations doesn’t take much effort and can go a long way. Don’t rely on Google to speak the language for you. If you are lucky enough to have a travel companion that can fill in the missing gaps, that’s a far better service than Google Translate could ever hope to be.
Even with advances in AI learning, humans are still better at understanding context and communicating the main point efficiently. In comparison, Google tries to translate each word individually and produces errors if it doesn’t catch everything. But who knows? Maybe one day, we will have automated real-time multi-lingual translations between multiple people like Google promised during I/O earlier this year (see the video below). By the looks of it, however, that day is still far off.
Language is constantly evolving and dictionaries are always trying to capture the latest additions to how we communicate. Queer language moves quickly and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) managed to include several new LGBTQ+ entries (including “LGBTQ” itself) this year. You may be surprised at the slang that made it into such a fancy institution and how they chose to define words that mean so many different things to so many different people.
Anti-gay and Anti-homosexual
The Oxford English Dictionary added a bunch ofanti-prefixed words this year, and unfortunately, these two were on the list.
Bakla
This word is borrowed from Tagalog and the OED notes it as a “sometimes derogatory, potentially offensive” word in Philippine English. The dictionary defines a bakla as “a person registered as male at birth who identifies with or presents a feminine gender expression, typically through behaviours, occupations, modes of dress, etc., that are culturally associated with femininity.”
There is a note after the definition that reads, “Bakla encompasses a wide range of gendered characteristics and practices that do not correspond to heteronormative ideas of masculinity. It can often, but not always, denote homosexuality, although the term is increasingly being used as a synonym for Western terms relating to sexual orientation, such as gay and homosexual.”
Brotherboy and Sistergirl
These two new entries bring in terms for Australian Aboriginal identities. A brotherboy is “a person registered as female at birth who identifies with or presents a masculine gender expression, typically through behaviours, occupations, modes of dress, etc., that are culturally associated with masculinity” and a sistergirl was assigned male at birth and presents in ways associated with femininity. The dictionary notes that some brotherboys identify as transgender men, some sistergirls identify as transgender women, and some people of both identities identify as non-binary.
Enby
This colloquial word for a non-binary person was added this year, and the OED’s first citation of its appearance is from 2013.
Gender-affirming
One of four new sub-entries for the noungender, the OED definesgender-affirmingas an adjective “that validates or confirms a person’s gender.” It also says something gender-affirming “enables a person, especially a transgender person, to live according to their gender identity.”
Gender critical
Another newgendersub-entry added in 2022 isgender criticalwhich has two definitions:
critical of traditional beliefs about gender, especially based on the perspective of gender feminism
critical of the concept of gender identity, or the belief that gender identity outweighs or is more significant than biological sex. In sense (b), typically distinguishing between gender (as something culturally or biologically defined) and gender identity (considered an innate individual sense).
This entry even cited a 2021 tweet that reads, “This motion aims to make it safe for people with gender critical beliefs to discuss how to exclude trans people from public spaces.”
Gender expression and Gender presentation
Gender expressionandgender presentationwere both finally added to the OED in 2022, but each entry was given the exact same definition: “The outward expression of gender (as defined culturally or biologically) or of gender identity (as an individual’s personal sense), typically through behaviours, mannerisms, modes of dress, etc., that are culturally associated with masculinity or femininity.”
LGBTQ
The commonly-used acronym for the community (defining Q as “queer (or questioning)”) was added in September 2022.
Multisexual
This new word entry is defined as “characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to, or sexual activity with, people of different sexes or gender identities; (now) spec. having any of various sexual orientations of this type, such as bisexual, pansexual, or polysexual.” The OED cites @nyphren as saying on Twitter, “I don’t identify as bi but i’m grayasexual and when i do feel sexual attraction it’s to more than one gender so i usually say i’m multisexual” as an example.
Muxe
This Zapotec identity, pronounced “moo-shay,” entered into the OED this year: “In Zapotec communities of southern Mexico: a person registered as male at birth who identifies with or presents a feminine gender expression, typically through behaviours, occupations, modes of dress, etc., that are culturally associated with femininity.”
Pangender
Whilepansexualhas been in the OED since 2018,pangenderwas added in June 2022: “Designating a non-binary person whose gender identity encompasses multiple genders, which may be experienced simultaneously or in a fluid, fluctuating manner; of or relating to a gender identity of this type.”
Teahouse (new meaning)
A new additional “U.S. slang” use ofteahousemeaning “a public toilet used by men to engage in or solicit sexual activity with other men” was added in September 2022.
TERF
The OED’s entry forTERFhas a note that gives some context on the word’s history: “Originally used within the radical feminist movement. Although the [one who coined the term in 2008] (a trans-inclusive feminist) has stated that the term was intended as a neutral description, TERF is now typically regarded as derogatory.”
The dictionary defines the controversial term as “a feminist whose advocacy of women’s rights excludes (or is thought to exclude) the rights of transgender women. Also more generally: a person whose views on gender identity are (or are considered) hostile to transgender people, or who opposes social and political policies designed to be inclusive of transgender people.”
Top and Bottom (new meanings)
Topandbottomhave over a dozen meanings apiece in their respective entries but queer people can claim their own now. The 12a intransitive verb sense ofbottomin the OED is now “to take the role of the more submissive partner in bondage, domination, or sadomasochism” and 12b is “originally and chiefly among gay men: to be the partner who is penetrated in (esp. anal) sex.”
Fortop, multiple new definitions were also added, including “to take a dominant role over (one’s partner) in bondage, domination, or sadomasochism” and “to be the partner who penetrates the other in sex between men (often with the implication of being the more dominant or active partner).” The OED even added: “Frequently into top from the bottom: (of the notionally more submissive or passive partner) to direct, or attempt to exert control over, a more dominant or active partner.”
Topping from the bottomis now in the Oxford English Dictionary? Anything is possible in 2023.
DUBAI, DUBAï, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, December 26, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In a world of more than 7000 spoken languages, translation plays a necessary role in communication and understanding other cultures without learning their languages.
Torjoman, the leading translation agency and the largest in the Middle East, announces that their experts' interpretation and translation services have now reached more than 120 different languages.
The agency stated that they are committed to step in, guiding clients and the markets they serve in the business cycle in any industry to achieve their goal of running their business with the highest quality and eloquence without any obstructions. It offers a large variation in services such as translation into more than 120 different languages
● localization to resonate with people across the globe
● proofreading for high-quality documents
● content writing for businesses in all parts of the world
● Desktop publishing
● Interpretation services
● Multimedia translation in subtitling, voice-overs dubbing, and lip sync
● Transcription
Torjoman translation agency Dubai representative said: "Today, we're celebrating our success being trusted by 4000+ clients for over 2 decades. We've expanded our services to deliver the best quality in any language-focused project, covering the needs of Middle East clients. We also have 5 main offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Cairo, and California, with more than 2000 certified translators."
The global dissemination of new ideas, expertise, and information requires translation to establish successful cross-cultural communication.
Torjoman's representative continued: "When it comes to conducting business abroad, geography is no longer a barrier. The linguistic barrier would be the only temporary solution. The high-quality translation is necessary for multinational corporations to communicate successfully and expand their operations. Translation won't be even less important anytime soon with such high demand."
The most widely spoken language in the world may not always be English. Other languages are starting to become more significant as the world population expands. Developing nations are starting to establish themselves in the global economy, and their people are getting access to the Internet and other resources. English might not be the dominant language in the global economy in the future. Because of this, translation is essential to our survival in a global economy that can support all languages.
One of the main advantages of translation is reaching a bigger audience, introducing their brand, mission, and objectives to a global audience, and helping businesses attract clients from all over the world. Accessing markets no one could believe are reachable. That means people will be able to expand their options through translation, which will be helpful in the future.
Investing in professional translation takes others above and beyond allowing people to obtain reliable translations of essential documents and comprehensive, rich contexts for better communication. This makes everything pertaining to legal matters become clear and appealing to the international market.
Nowadays technology and artificial intelligence has developed over the years and machine translation is a process of translating text from one language into another using a computer program. Though it is less accurate and slower than human translation, it is sometimes effective and economical when dealing with vast amounts of text, but accuracy and eloquence will not be guaranteed, unless in the hands of experts.
But because machine translation frequently lacks the nuance that human translators bring.
Google Translate is a good example of machine translation. Basic translations can be done with it, but there is always a need to double-check any translation against human translation before people can use them professionally or to even just post them on social media. The reason for this is that this type of translation cannot understand the context, the target audience, or the appropriate tone of voice. It lacks the technical expertise a human expert has. However, it must be said that machine and AI translation are perfect tools in the hands of experts only who can detect the slightest errors.
Torjoman lives up to its history as a trusted, pioneering translation agency, offering quality translation services as per the ISO 17100 standards and certification, with the latest QA tools in the world. The company provides effective language service and smoothly delivers the message to the intended audience, accurately and well-written by experts.
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Torjoman
+971 4 391 1813
projects@torjoman.com
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