Language is Everything

The Queen's speech as a Wordle

In terms of language, how did this week's Queen's speech (written by David Cameron and Nick Clegg) compare to 1997 (written by Tony Blair)?

The Guardian has compared Wordles for the two speeches. Wordles are 'word clouds', where prominence is given to the words that appear most frequently in a source text. "As a way of comparing how language is used, they still lead the pack," the Guardian notes.

Click here to see the results.

Critical Link programme now online

The conference programme for Critical Link 6 is now available online (click here).

Critical Link focuses on public service interpreting in the social, legal and healthcare sectors. The organisation's sixth international conference takes place at Aston University in Birmingham from 26th to 30th July — it will be the first major event devoted to public service interpreting to take place in the UK.

 

Language is Everything will be making a presentation on Thursday 29th July in partnership with Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. Our paper looks at the role public service professionals can play in interpreter training and education.

Language was everything in ancient Britain

Researchers have shown that mysterious symbols carved in ancient Pictish stones are not just pictures but a forgotten written language.

The Picts were an Iron Age society who lived in northern Britain from AD 300-800. Although there are only about 250 Pictish stones still in existence, the researchers used mathematics to identify distinctive patterns that show the symbols are almost certainly writing.

According to the Royal Society: "This new method opens up the possibility that other ancient inscriptions could be similarly analysed, paving the way to vastly improved interpretation of many ancient languages that were previously thought undecipherable."

Click here to read more.