Almost everyone in Spain speaks Spanish, also known as Castillian, as either their first or second language. But, Spanish isn’t the only language spoken in Spain. Catalan (or Valencian) is spoken by 19% of the population, Galician by 5%, and Basque by 2% of the population. Although they are not spoken by a large percentage […]
The language of love is universal … or so we’ve been told. The truth is that just like any topic, translating romantic sayings from one language to another is not as easy as translating individual words. Romance and love, and the ideas around romance and love are very culturally specific, and therefore so is the […]
The constant research conducted by a translation firm such as ours cannot be reduced to finding innovative software and organizational methods, albeit important tasks. The Alpha Omega Translations blog is a testament to the world languages, etymologies, and writing systems that we explore, trace and attempt to decipher. While the stories of these jewels of […]
KNAW Conference on Diversity and Universals in Language, Culture, and Cognition Recently the Language Diversity: Genesis, Historical Development, and Cognition Program, initiated by Pieter Muysken (Nijmegen), Maarten Mous (Leiden), and John Nerbonne (Groningen) has been funded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The main aim of this program is to link […]
On 24-26 October, the KNAW Conference Diversity and Universals in Language, Culture, and Cognition will take place at Leiden University. This event will bring together leading experts from linguistics, anthropology, cognitive science and neighboring fields to pursue answers to questions concerning diversity and universals in human behavior. Within the various disciplines of humanities different thoughts exist about […]
Do you know or remember the movie “Pulp Fiction” by director Quentin Tarantino? During a memorable scene, John Travolta’s character, Vincent Vega, talks about MacDonald’s Quarter Pounder and Big Mac in France. While that scene is a sample of director Tarantino’s quirky humor, the concept that Vega talks about is real: Where a product or […]
As the birthplace of humanity and the birthplace of human language, it is no wonder that Africa is the most linguistically diverse continent in the world, home to some two thousand extant languages, most identified with distinct ethnic groups. Of these, the continuum of languages or dialects collectively known as Mandingo has a unique history […]
