U-Lingua | Autumn 2020, Issue 2

Autumn 2020 | Issue 2

The Undergraduate Linguistics Association of

In The Field Constructed Languages: An Interview with David J. Peterson

Britain‘s Quarterly Magazine

A Hands-On Approach

The Real World In Conversation with: Translator and Interpretor Pauline Mercier

Linguistics as Education

Behind The Bookshelves Gie it laldy: On the History and Revitalisation of Scots

Contents

Contents 4

Editor‘s Letter A Welcome from ULAB‘s Chairs

7

Meet our Institutional Representatives

12

In the Field

14 Constructed Languages: An Interview with David J. Peterson 16 Language Identity and Perception: Podcast Review Subtitle

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Behind The Bookshelves 20 Gie it laldy: On the History and Revitalisation of Scots

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The Real World 24 Performance Interpretation and Accessibility: An Interview with Lisa Li 26 In Conversation with: Translator and Interpretor Pauline Mercier 28 Mastering the Art of Translation

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A Hands-On Approach 32 Linguistics as Education 34 Finnish Numbers Puzzle 35 Breton Puzzle

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Contributors Social Media 3

Welcome

Editor‘s Letter Though this is only the second issue of U-Lingua, the magazine has already seen phenomenal growth since our inception a few months ago. Immediately after the rather impromptu publication of the first, we set about looking to hire a dedicated team of Section Editors to care for their specific areas. A call for volunteer students of linguistics was put out, we received an unexpected amount of applications, and we were able to whittle down candidates to the four most exceptional. Opting to ensure no great talent was turned away, we introduced a fourth Section for U-Lingua: A Hands-On Approach, which is all about data and puzzles in linguistics.

In this issue, we‘ve compiled an incredible collection of fascinating material for which I must give thanks to all involved, from interviewees and authors to Section Editors and the Editorial Designer. I am particularly excited about Caitlin‘s interview with David J. Peterson and Richard Hudson‘s guest author appearance, although our piece on the history and revitalisation of Scots is also not to be missed! Thank you to everyone who‘s given up their time to read what we put out; while we have already accomplished so much as an Editorial Team, we‘re only just beginning.

T. R. Williamson Editor-in-Chief, U-Lingua Archivist, Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain University of Cambridge

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Welcome to the second issue of U-Lingua! As usual, we at ULAB have been very busy: we’ve started running online events, gotten involved in the revitalisation of the International Association of Linguistics Students (IALS), started the reviewing process for JoULAB (Journal of ULAB) and created a Discord for young linguists to chat, make friends and send memes (see the back cover for the joining link). We’ve also recruited Section Editors for U-Lingua, Reviewers and Copyeditors for JoULAB, and are currently recruiting more Institutional Representatives (more info on page 10) in an attempt to get every linguistics student in the country involved with ULAB. Perhaps our greatest achievement yet is the creation of Artie Q. Later, our new mascot. You can see him on page 37.

We spent several hours sending abstract feedback to everyone who submitted to present at the cancelled ULABX conference, and I’d like to say a massive thank you to all the amazing postgraduate students involved in the reviewing process, particularly those who continued reviewing even after the conference was cancelled, so that each author received feedback on their abstract. Our plans for the coming months include running more legen-dairy online events, publishing the first issue of JoULAB and welcoming more students into our brie-lliant community!

Cliodhna Hughes National Chair, Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain University of Edinburgh

The last few months have been so brilliant for ULAB. I’m really proud of the events we’ve hosted and the outreach we’ve done - this only raises the bar for ULAB2021, and I am determined to rise to that challenge. If you want to stay up to date with our online events, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter! Despite Aberdeen’s lockdown in August, the university staff are working hard to make the campus as safe as possible. If we’re unable to have an in-person conference, we‘ll host ULAB2021 online and ensure the same great conference experience. The bulk of the local preparations, such as organising the in-conference activities, will be starting soon as the conference draws ever closer. Our recent events have got me thinking about how ULAB’s new streak of innovation can carry over to the conference. I keep reminding myself that in order to make something great, you need to be brave and try out new possibilities that will take you into uncharted territory. If there’s anything you’re itching to see at ULAB2021, let us know!

Beatrix Livesey-Stephens Local Chair, Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain University of Aberdeen

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Meet Our Institutional Representatives

Meet Our Institutional Representatives Núria Bosch University of Cambridge

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Amira Ramdani

úria is a first-year linguistics student at the University of Cambridge, from Catalonia. She’s really interested in generative syntax and its relation to language acquisition and historical linguistics, though you will occasionally find her learning more about other topics such as computational linguistics, theories of

morphology and phonology or the Romance languages. Outside of her degree, she runs the CambTweet Linguistics account (@Cambtweetling) and takes part in access initiatives at her college. When not studying or drawing syntax trees, she enjoys learning languages, reading or travelling.

University of Oxford

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mira is a second-year undergraduate Linguistics and French student at the University of Oxford. She is originally from Germany and studied for an undergraduate degree in Applied Foreign Languages (Chinese and English) at Université Paris-Sorbonne before coming to Oxford. Her main interests include syntax, historical linguistics, contact

linguistics, and semantics.

For the rest of her degree at Oxford, she will be focussing on the historical linguistics (and medieval literature) of Romance and Germanic languages, as well as syntactic theory. When not trying to draw shapely syntax trees, she enjoys learning more about codicology and palaeography.

She also likes linocutting.

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Meet Our Institutional Representatives

Meet The Committee Beatrix Livesey-Stephens Cliodhna Hughes

University of Aberdeen

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eatrix (Bea) Livesey-Stephens is a third year undergraduate Language & Linguistics student at the University of Aberdeen, where she is the President of their Linguistics Society. As the Convenor of AUSA Disabled Students Forum, she is particularly interested in the areas of Lin-

Michael Goessler University of Edinburgh

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ichael is a second-year linguistics student at the University of Edinburgh and currently secretary of Edinburgh’s Linguistics Society.

Originally from Styria, Austria, he entered the world of linguistics as a conlanger, knowing from age 15 he wanted to make language science his degree.

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Besides the joys of morphology and language change, he is interested in any language that has been extinct for at least 1000 years or never had any non-fictional native speakers in the first place. Otherwise, most of his time is spent playing the trumpet and having writer’s blocks.

guistics surrounding disability, such as the linguistics of sign language and Braille. She would also like to work on the ethics of NLP and continue to host UKLO markathons. When not doing Linguistics, she‘s making new consent workshops for CASE, or knitting.

Anastasia Putilova University College, London

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nastasia (or Nastia, Russian names have weird short forms like that) is a third year BA Linguistics student at UCL. Originally from Moscow, she has also lived in Switzerland, France and Japan before moving to London. She particularly enjoys semantics and syntax, although anything even

remotely related to linguistics is of great interest to her. Nastia loves learning languages (that is, trying not to forget the ones she is supposed to know already), playing guitar, chilling in coffee shops (or pubs, depends on the day) and reading random articles about theories of meaning.

Brandon Papineau Stanford University

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randon is originally from San Diego, California, though he has have lived in the United Kingdom from the ages of 16 to 21. During his undergraduate experience at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland he became particularly interested in how we theorise and characterise heritage speakers, as well as the interaction between social fac-

tors and lyrical production in popular contemporary music. It is these interests that he will be carrying forward as he begins studying towards a PhD at Stanford University in California. Outside of linguistics, he is interested in literature (particularly horror) and advocates for inclusive and intersectional education curricula.

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Meet Our Institutional Representatives

Meet The Committee Justin MalČiĆ Cliodhna Hughes University of Maryland

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ustin is a second-year linguistics PhD student at the University of Maryland, from Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands). He is especially interested in formalism and other

foundational issues in theoretical syntax and phonology.

When not studying or coding, Justin enjoys learning new languages, watching films, and travelling.

Ondřej BoČek Lancaster University

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ndřej is a second-year BA student of Psychology and Linguistics at Lancaster University. Born and raised in the Czech Republic, for his university studies, Ondřej decided to depart to the UK due to the more experimental nature of British psychology. In terms of academia, Ondřej is deeply in love with psycholinguistics and biolinguistics. He is especially intrigued by the neurophysio-

logical and genetic aspects of language production and comprehension. Outside of academia, Ondřej is a passionate hiker, a member of Extinction Rebellion and an executive member of Lancaster‘s Philosophy Society. Finally, wherever he goes, he takes a book and headphones: hardly can he imagine a life with no literature and music.

Was your university represented in that list above? If not, head over to our website (www.ulab.org.uk/committee/join-the-committee) or contact us through our social media (see page 37) to see how you can spread the word about ULAB at your university and become a part of the best student organisation out there!

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In The Field

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In The Field 14 Constructed Languages: An Interview with David Peterson

16 Language Identity and Perception

in Linguistics Podcast Review: Subtitle

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In The Field

Constructed Languages David Peterson is probably the best known ‘conlanger’ in the world today. He has made a career out of creating languages for films and TV shows (most notably Game of Thrones). In this interview he gives us some insights into his work, upcoming projects, and the future of constructed languages.

Could you tell our readers a bit about yourself and your work surrounding constructed languages?

I spent about 14 to 16 hours a day working on my proposal every day and I sent them, in addition to the material they were translating, a reference “I’ve been creating languages manual and a grammar that for 20 years since college. were over 300 pages. I won I have a BA in English from the competition and continued UCB and an MA in Linguistics working on GoT thereafter.” from UCSB. Since 2009 I’ve been creating languages for When working on a show television shows and films. My or movie, what are the first one was Game of Thrones usual steps that happen (GoT) and then I’ve worked on before you actually begin twenty or so other things. I creating the language? am currently working on The 100, The Witcher on Netflix, “Well I have a discussion with a project called Shadow and either the director or with the Bone, also on Netflix, the new show runner and usually a Dune film, and a sequel for the producer to figure out exactly Christmas Chronicles.” what it is that they want. Why do they need a language, who is How did you make the going to be using it, what mejump from academia to dias are they going to employ? taking on language cre- And so, I figure that out to get ation as a full-time job? an idea of what I want to do.

For a spoken language, at the “After my Master’s, I taught beginning, I build out a phocommunity college for a coup- nology and the phonotactics le of years and then […] I got without regard to grammar or the opportunity to apply for the anything. If they like my ideas, position to create the Dothraki I go back and create the full language for the GoT internal language. Ideally, I get three pilot. It was announced to lan- months to do so but usually it’s guage creators everywhere and a bit less than that, like one to I applied amongst many others. two months. The best work in

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terms of language creation as an art is going to be done with somebody that has their own schedule, it’s not going to be done on a deadline like this.”

How much free reign are you given? Are there often many restrictions you have to abide by?

“It depends. Most of the time, the restrictions are that they’ve already come up with names for either characters or places but often no, it pretty much free reign. So, for something like Motherland: Fort Salem, we had complete free reign and got to do whatever we wanted. [For other shows], they sometimes give me an idea of what they want it to sound like and suggest a phonological character and implicit phonological rules to follow.

The average person [watching these shows] isn’t a language person, they have in their head maybe six or seven language sounds. And if I can get what those sound like to them, […], I can make sounds that I know are going to sound like that to [them].”

Once you’ve created a language for a show, how often do you actively keep working on it?

“Forever. The only languages that I’m done with are languages that I’m no longer satisfied with because I don’t think they’re up to my standards. Those that I still enjoy I still work on them. One of the things that I love doing with my languages is going back and creating words.

That’s really the most fun for me so I’ll keep doing it forever.”

You mentioned your work on the new Dune adaptation.

Can you tell us a bit about this project?

“I started working on that project quite a while ago but also as recently as this week.

That was a wonderful project to work on, I got to do several different languages and language sketches and a writing system. And, as I worked on it, I got to do more and more translation which is always exciting so that was a really fun project.

I read the whole script and I think it was done just wonderfully, and

in terms of the visuals I have no doubt that, with Denis Villeneuve working on it, it will be outstanding. I can’t wait, I really think it’s going to be something special.”

In the book, traces of Arabic are used somewhat unrealistically (seeing as it is set so far into the future). Have you tried to rectify this when working on the language for the movie? Did you use other natural languages as bases?

“It’s something that is implausible in terms of the set up that is described in the books as well as the time depth, it’s not really possible. However, there is an element, at least for certain key words, that might help to preserve some of that terminology. This is a big speculative, but I think that it is sound enough reasoning for there to be some holdovers through the presence of the Orange Catholic Bible that came from Earth and has been preserved for centuries and centuries.

So that is where certain words have been able to be preserved

from. I still don’t buy that the language [Arabic] would still be there and, considering the fact that it is 10,000 years into the future, I don’t think there would be anything recognisable [left].

That said, the hope is that people who see the language that I’ve done will recognise that certain elements of it have been influenced by Semitic grammar, not to the extent that exact constructions from Arabic [would have survived] but more the general characteristics of Semitic. As for other natural languages, I didn’t use [any] as bases. No, it’s entirely a priori I would say.”

walk around wearing [a device] and someone could talk to me and [the device] would translate into my ear. It’ll be hacky, it won’t be perfect like a little babel fish or a universal translator, but it will be good enough. And so, there won’t be any kind of international pressure to speak English. I think that if somebody creates a new auxiliary language now, as long as they alter what they consider success, they can be successful. It could also help them modify exactly how they build the language. If they still have these pie-in-the-sky ideas that everybody in the world will be speaking it, they’ll probably do things a little differently than they would if they just decided, ‘you know what I have a target demographic and I want this language to appeal to that demographic’.”

You work primarily on Fictional Languages, but another type of constructed language is International Auxiliary Languages (IALs) that aim to enable international Finally, do you have any communication. Do you other projects you’re think there is a place in working on? the world today for IALs? “They don’t have the purpose that they used to have. I don’t think there’s any realistic chance that there will ever be a single auxiliary language spoken by the entire world especially with the direction that we’re moving in. It’s not that English is going to take over but rather the opposite of that, I think that native languages are going to have a remarkable comeback when instantaneous translation software continues to improve. I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long until we’ll have a time when I could

“I’m doing a YouTube series with Jessie Sams called LangTime Studio. We’re creating a language completely live on this stream. We stream two hours a week on Thursday (2pm Pacific Time) and we just had our 23rd episode.”

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In The Field

Language Identity and Perception in Linguistics Podcast Review: Subtitle

Wing Yin Ho (fourth-year Linguistics student, University of Edinburgh) gives her review of a new mini-series called ‘We Speak’ produced by Subtitle, “a podcast about languages and the people who speak them” (https://www. subtitlepod.com/).

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ubtitle is an up-and-coming linguistics and language enthusiast podcast that touches on modern linguistic phenomena and facilitates new discussion surrounding them. It presents a refreshing mix of different linguistic fields so there is an episode for everyone. Whether you are a linguist or not, the podcast presents itself in a non-assuming way and is an invigorating listen for all.

What sets this podcast apart is that the episodes usually focus on a niche, case-by-case scenario and that lends itself to a broader topic that is answered by experts. The podcast also often invites everyday non-linguist guests to pull in a non-expert perspective. I find that compared to other podcasts it rarely feels like a lecture and is not just a few academics having an in-depth and often elusive discussion. The podcast has a variety of topics but mostly focuses on sociolinguistics, language endangerment, specific regional linguistic phenomena, and the future of speech technology.

neral American accent and the harmful notions surrounding it.

The mini-series touches on class and accents, speech biases and privileges. I enjoyed this immensely.

Coming from an international school in East Asia, any ethnic accent was looked down upon. My school went as far to ban the use of Cantonese (the native language) during school time. Studying in a global institution such as the University of Edinburgh allows me to unpack my implicit biases and consolidate my own ‘international accent’ and identity as a result. When mainstream media and news are English-centric, a lot of English second languages (or third or fourth) have to prove their intelligence through their proficiency in English[1].

Yi & Samuel[2] published a study in 2017 about accent discrimiThe recent mini-series We Speak especially consults and puts nation and stereotyping. They presented participants with images the limelight on everyday language speakers, touching on accent of Asian and Caucasian faces and the same native English spediscrimination and how it establishes our identity and insecuri- aker recording throughout the study. Results show that particities. The wider themes around the series are represented through pants often reported an accent that did not exist and had poorer people of different nationalities and experiences, but always tie listening comprehension when an Asian face was presented. back to accent discrimination and stereotyping that lends itself from class, race, immigration, and nationalism.

Singaporean English (also known as Singlish) is a widely used dialect that is a huge part of Singaporean culture, yet their goverWe Speak, starts off with the hosts Patrick Cox and Kavita Pillay nment campaigned for the ‘Speak Good English Movement’[3] that unpacking their own accents and the general perceptions around heavily discourages the use of Singlish[4]. There have also been them. Patrick and Kavita recognise their privilege in regard to numerous cases of language discrimination in Education, with their prestigious accents Received Pronunciation and General schools denouncing the use of certain dialects such as Welsh American accordingly. Kavita also unpacks the myth of the Ge- and Scottish Gaelic in Welsh and Scottish School respectively in

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favour of English[5]. The knowledge for certain varieties is also limited, as there have been cases where teachers have erroneously reported speech disorders with users of African American English.

phenomena. I personally found this podcast useful for brainstorming dissertation ideas as it has a mixed bag of topics that can be researched more extensively.

Despite being the most globalised the world has ever been, tensions are still high regarding globalisation. The struggle between the desire to assimilate and the desire to ‘stay true’ to your community has never been more tense. Language bias that is used daily is often left uninspected but is something that everyone unconsciously uses to judge others and themselves in this world.

If you are someone who is interested in a wide variety of linguistic topics and/or have listened to linguistic podcasts such as “The World in Words” and “Lexicon Valley” then this is a podcast for you. Subtitle can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic and most podcast channels.

References:

Away from this mini-series, Subtitle, which is sponsored by The Linguistic Society of America, is a refreshing podcast that touches on a wide range of linguistic topics in a non-intimidating and non-assuming way. Patrick Cox (Linguistics Journalism Award 2019 Winner) and Kavita Pillay (renowned journalist) speak on issues from language and identity, speech technology, artificial intelligence, endangered languages, to other interesting linguistic

[1] Alpuerto P., Bastasa P., Cornelio M., Racho M., Marticion J. (2016). A disputable perception of intelligence: how English proficiency measures students’ intellectual ability. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/40606985/a-disputable-perception-of-intelligence-how-english-proficiency-measures-the-students-intellectual-ability/ [2] Zheng, Y., Samuel, A.G. (2017). Does seeing an Asian face make speech sound more accented? Atten. Percept. Psychophys.

79, 1841–1859.

[3] ‘Speak Good English’ campaign lead by the Singaporean government. Retrieved from: https://www.languagecouncils.sg/goodenglish/ [4] Harbeck, J. (2016). The language the government tried to suppress. BBC Word’s Worth. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/ culture/article/20160919-the-language-the-government-tried-to-suppress/ [5] Davies, J. & Academi Gymreig. (2008). The Welsh Academy encyclopaedia of Wales. University of Wales Press: Cardiff.

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Behind The Bookshelves

Beh

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hind The Bookshelves

20 Gie it laldy: On the History and Revitalisation of Scots

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Behind The Bookshelves

Gie it laldy:

On the History and Revitalisation of Scots Lara Pieczka is a final-year Linguistics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. In this article, she discusses Scots from a historical perspective and presents efforts surrounding its revitalisation.

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ot to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, Scots is used across areas of Scotland and some parts of Northern Ireland. Notably, I have not written ‘the Scots language’ or ‘the Scots dialect’ because there is a great deal of controversy around its classification. Although some argue that it is at the far end of the continuum describing Scottish varieties of English, others claim that Scots is a language in its own right due to lack of intelligibility by native Standard English speakers[1].

Such controversy results in the perception of Scots as a vulgar form of Scottish English by many speakers, who themselves are not aware of the linguistic significance of their mother tongue. We might compare Scots to the situation of Norwegian and Danish, which are highly similar, but classified as distinct languages rather than dialects. However, as the saying goes, “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy”.

Part of the West Germanic branch of Indo-European, Scots is spoken by approximately 1.5 million people and developed after a split from Northumbrian Middle English around the 13th century[2]. Scots has multiple distinct dialects and although its use sounds foreign to the Standard English speaker’s ear, it is rather similar. The main differences lie in phonology and the lexicon, although the grammar is distinct in its more extensive use of the definite article ‘the’ and widespread use of the Northern Subject rule: all inflected verbs end in -s in all persons and numbers except from when a single personal pronoun is adjacent to the verb[3]. Middle Irish and Gaelic have some lexical influence; however, like Standard English, Latin and French also contribute. Some famous phrases include: haud yer wheesht (shut up) and gie it laldy (to do something with fighting spirit).

Despite being used in the Scottish court and acting as the prestige variety in Scotland, when King James VI became King James I of England and power shifted to London in the 17th century, the King and courtiers attempted to assimilate with the English and suppressed their Scots. Following the Act of Union in 1707, Scots was discouraged in education and authority to ensure a sense of unity between the nations and to facilitate good relations. This led to the development of Scottish Standard English (SSE), although Scots remained the widely preferred variety until the 18th century and remains the vernacular of many rural communities and the urban working-class today[2].

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At the end of the 20th century, Scots was at an advanced stage of language death in much of Lowland Scotland[2]. Jones (1997) identifies 4 patterns of Scots speakers, each corresponding to different levels of Scots use and varying socioeconomic environments. In the first pattern, Scots is used by nearly all natives regardless of social class or educational attainment. In the second pattern, almost everyone uses Scots to ingroup members. However, there are a few SSE speakers in positions of power and people are frequent codeswitchers. Pattern III areas tend to be in small towns and villages, and initially appear like Pattern II areas.

Saliently though, there are a few native-born SSE monodialectals who are not part of any tight networks: children of middle-class parents or those who shun local Scots. Finally, Pattern IV environments represent where Scots is used as a working-class vernacular. The upper working-class and lower middle-class do not belong to tight networks and thus form the group who codeswitch the most. Much of the North East of Scotland is geographically isolated and so traditionally these communities are Pattern II (even the large urban centre of Aberdeen which prides itself on its strong Doric dialect)[4][2] and those nearer the highland line resemble Pattern III. Melchers (1985) goes further to suggest that Pattern I has been preserved in the Northern Isles due to their extreme isolation[5]. However, major Scottish urban centres in the Central Belt exemplify Pattern IV, where Scots is a minority variety.

Recently, revitalisation has become a more prominent possibility. The UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language, and it is recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Nevertheless, this was only in 2001 and it was not until 2011 that the Scottish census included a question about the use of Scots[6]. Unionist parties voted to exclude Scots from the census while pro-independence parties voted to include it and thus Scots has become a political player in Scotland, harbouring underlying sentiments towards independence. Even so, there is still a preference for SSE in positions of authority. Most notably, Nicola Sturgeon seems to prefer SSE in parliament, although she has overseen reforms to aid Scots usage. Therefore, it is evident that lack of Scots use is motivated from the top-down and is perhaps even a vehicle of political ideology. Indeed, a question about Scots on the census will not be domineering enough to incite any great change. I do not believe that Scots can be revitalised to its former dominance

without a unified top-down push from both education and authority.

A distinct shift in attitude over the last decade has resulted in some exciting measures, such as the course in Scots introduced by the Open University in Scotland from 2019. Likewise, an increasing number of books are being published in Scots, including translations of the Gruffalo and Harry Potter. In 2014, four coordinators for the Scots language in schools were appointed and potentially the most important step to date was taken in 2015: the Scottish government set its first Scots language policy, pledging to support preservation and encourage respect, recognition and use of Scots. Consequently, use in schools has increased, and Scots now forms an exciting part of the National curriculum[7]. However, we cannot compare the situation in Scotland with other regions that have campaigned for autonomy: in 1983, Catalonia passed the Act on Linguistic Normalization which included the aim to favour Catalan as the language of instruction[8]. In the Basque country, parents choose whether to educate their children in Basque, Spanish or both[9]. In my opinion, these regions of Spain can push for such reforms because of their united stand and active efforts to promote their regional language. In contrast, a large proportion of Scottish people are unaware of how to classify their speech and Scots is not favoured among the middle and upper classes. Creating a Scots revolution like that of Catalonia requires everyone taking ownership of Scots and making a personal contribution to its revitalisation.

So, can Scots be revitalised to its previous prestigious status in Scotland? Language change is inevitable, so perhaps instead Scots is a lost cause? A top-down approach is necessary to instil a willingness to embrace Scots. Despite steps forward, I believe that without dispelling the inferiority complex, people will not freely adopt and support ancestral usage. No matter the steps taken by governments and educational systems, without speakers adopting Scots in everyday life, nothing will change. Moreover, there are many distinct dialects and strong influence from Standard English is present, so revitalisation to the same level as Catalonia is unattainable given the current measures taken. Therefore, our main focus should be on preserving heritage and upkeep to safeguard Scots for the foreseeable future.

References:

[1] Aitken, A. J. (1979). Scottish speech: a historical view with special reference to the standard English of Scotland, in A. J. Aitken and T. McArthur (eds). Languages of Scotland. Edinburgh: Chambers.

[2] Jones, C. (1997). The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

[3] Aitken, A. J. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press.

[4] Dieth, E. (1932). A Grammar of the Buchan Dialect. Cambridge: Heffer.

[5] Melchers, G. (1985). Knappin, Proper English, Modified Scottish. Some language attitudes in the Shetland Isles. in M. Görlach (ed.), Focus on Scotland. Varieties of English Around the World, General series, 5, Amsterdam: Benjamins.

[6] Scots Language Centre. Timeline of the Scots Language Since 1700. Retrieved from: d3lmsxlb5aor5x.cloudfront.net/library/ document/Scots%20Timeline%20Post-1700.pdf.

[7] Education Scotland. Scots Language in Curriculum for Excellence. (2017). Retrieved from: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/ScotsLanguageinCfEAug17.pdf [8] Escobar Urmeneta, C. & Unamuno, V. (2008). Languages and language learning in Catalan Schools: From the bilingual to the multilingual challenge. In: Christine Hélot y Anne-Marie de Mejía (eds.). Forging Multilingual Spaces. Integrated Perspectives on Majority and Minority Bilingual Education. Multilingual Matters: 228-255. [Hbk ISBN: 97818476907690760. Pbk: 9781847690753].

[9] Vega-Bayo, A. & Mariel, P. (2015). School Choice in the Basque Country: Public, Government Dependent and Private Schools with Different Languages of Instruction. Retrieved from: http://www.et.bs.ehu.es/~etpmaxxp/publicaciones/VegaMariel_2015_03_ SchoolChoiceInBasqueCountry.pdf

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The Real World

The Rea

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al World 24 Performance Interpretation and Accessibility: An Interview with Lisa Li

26 In Conversation with: Translator and Interpretor Pauline Mercier

28 Mastering the Art of Translation

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The Real World

Performance Interpretation and Accessibility: An Interview with Lisa Li

Beatrix Livesey-Stephens is a third-year undergraduate MA Language and Linguistics student at the University of Aberdeen. In this interview, she takes a look into the perspectives of a BSL performance interpreter (Lisa Li) and championing access for the D/deaf community.

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isa Li is an English/British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter who works for North East Sensory Services (NESS) in Aberdeen. For the WayWORD festival, a student-led crossarts celebration of unconventional forms of expression, I conducted an interview with Lisa about her experiences as a performance interpreter. As a Linguistics student, a disabled person, and an advocate for accessibility, I felt very strongly about having a BSL-centric event at the festival, in which Lisa will both sign and speak and at which I pushed so hard to have BSL. BSL is constantly sidelined. Often, the interpreter is bunched into the corner when on TV or onstage, even though the D/deaf audience needs to see the interpreter Logo of WayWORD Festival well in order to understand, while hearing people don’t have to see the speaker (Where "Deaf" people are profoundly deaf and "deaf" people have some residual hearing/have not been deaf all their lives). A lot of of the time, BSL users are forgotten about entirely - no BSL access is provided for Coronavirus briefings at 10 Downing Street, which people are protesting by using the hashtag #WhereIsTheInterpretor.

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On asking Lisa how the theatre industry and theatre itself can be made more accessible to D/deaf people, she assures me that addressing the question directly to D/deaf communities is the way to go. It’s also important not to generalise the D/deaf community as a homogenous group: live-captioning or subtitling may work for some deaf people who have English literacy skills, but these accommodations may alienate D/deaf audiences who use BSL as their first language.

For anyone who has met a D/deaf person, they’ve only met that one D/deaf person. Each individual’s access requirements will differ, which is especially important to keep in mind when discussing disability and considering access needs. “It would be good to see more theatres hold focus groups with D/deaf audience members and work with the community,” Lisa says. “Integrated performances where BSL interpreters are included from the beginning of reading with actors has been the most successful in my experience.”

I was interested in knowing how Lisa handled especially emotive parts of theatre that rely not just on understanding the verbal content but require reading between the lines.

“BSL is a visual-gestural language,” she says, “and the in-

tensity of emotions can be shown via non-manual features. Nuances in a spoken delivery can be portrayed in facial expressions.”

Lisa reveals that, as an interpreter, she needs to be clear of the intention behind the writing so that she doesn’t give away a plot-twist. On some occasions, she may have to restructure a piece in her interpretation in order for it to be easier to follow in BSL. If actors spend a long time thinking about how their character moves, or responds to other characters, it helps for the interpreter to be given a clear understanding of how characters have

developed with each revision of the script. To bring in an interpreter last minute loses a lot of that connection, whereas involving interpreters from the start makes for a far smoother and successful process.

“I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every performance I have had the pleasure to be involved in to date,” Lisa concludes. “My focus has always been on how to make something written in the English language make sense in BSL so that it is accessible, and D/deaf audiences can go on the journey with us.”

The interview with Lisa Li will be uploaded to the University of Aberdeen YouTube channel, where those who missed the WayWORD Festival can watch it, find out about paralinguistic features in BSL, and more. Captions will also be provided.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of Lisa Li and Beatrix Livesey-Stephens and not those of North East Sensory Services (NESS).

The Real World

In Conversation with: Translator and Interpreter Pauline Mercier Pauline Mercier is a freelance translator and interpreter. Based in Brussels, she works for the European Parliament and European Commission, as well as the private market, as an auxiliary conference interpreter. Pauline spoke to Marion Willingham, a second-year undergraduate linguist from the University of Cambridge, about her route into interpreting, the details of her day-to-day work and the importance of multilingual events.

T

he polyglots among us may have wondered how to use their various languages, at various levels of proficiency, professionally. To work as an interpreter, this involves recognising one’s ‘A language’, ‘B language’ and ‘C language’; ‘A language’ refers to one’s mother tongue, whereas ‘B language’ refers to an active language, not necessarily native. An interpreter is comfortable translating between their A and B languages, in both directions. A ‘C language’, or passive language, is an additional language that an interpreter can translate from, but would never translate into. Pauline’s A language is French, her B language is English and her C language is Spanish.

into the demanding field, Pauline offers: “I will steal the advice given by one of my favourite teachers: be curious and start to learn about how the world works. Politics, geography, history, economics, law, science… you can’t be an expert in everything, but you have to sound like an expert when required to (with enough preparation, of course!)”.

Pauline’s own preparation involves requesting documents from the clients in advance of the event. Agenda, slides, speakers’ biographies, participants’ names, previous glossaries and a plan of the venue are all useful to an interpreter like Pauline, and in her words, “usually, the more, the better”. She uses these documents to create glossaries - lists ”Unlike many of my colleagues,” Pauline says, “I come from of vocabulary relevant to the particular event to which she a very monolingual family. In order to reach the proficiency can refer on the job. “If no documents are provided,” she needed to interpret from and/or into continues, “another option is to ask a foreign language, I think nothing a colleague who worked on a similar beats time spent abroad in a country event before if they have glossaries.” where that language is spoken.” She gained this experience as an exchanAfter careful preparation, Pauline enge student in Chile and a translation sures she arrives at the event venue intern for a construction company in with enough time to speak to the the United States. sound technician and event organiser and locate her booth. Booths are Equipped with the necessary linguisound-proofed boxes with specialised stic skills, Pauline began her interpresound equipment for interpreters to ting career by qualifying with an MA hear the speaker and provide a siin Conference Interpreting from ISTI multaneous translation into a micro(Institut Supérieur de Traducteurs et phone, broadcasting to audience Interprètes) in Brussels. When asked members’ headphones. In the booth to advise others potentially breaking with her is another interpreter, or

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‘boothmate’. As the event takes place, they usually work in ning required for a team of interpreters, booths and a sound 30-minute shifts: one boothmate interpreting and the other technician, multilingual political events are more “nuanced helping them with written notes, if necessary. and colourful” than their monolingual counterparts. She also explains that allowing people to communicate in their native On the subject of challenges, Pauline notes that an interpre- tongue levels the playing field somewhat as, in her experienter’s job is to overcome constant obstacles like fast speech, ce, “attendants may also feel more comfortable expressing unfamiliar accents or technical language. “One of our pet complex ideas in a language that they fully master”. Not only peeves is speakers reading their written speech aloud. It that, but many countries’ official policies fail to accommodamakes for a very fast and unnatural speech pattern, which te all the languages spoken by various resident communities; is much harder to interpret than when someone memorized Pauline mentions that in these situations a speaker’s choice their speech or is just speaking without notes.” One way of language can be an effective way to demand recognition she tackles such challenges is by familiarising herself with of an individual group and its views. “Choosing to speak a a speaker’s style in advance, when videos of them speaking minority language can be a political statement per se: for are available online. example, choosing to speak Euskara, Catalan or Galician over Castilian Spanish.”

Of course, as a freelancer, there are days when Pauline isn’t working on an assignment but, she assures us, “it’s hard Finally (if we needed further convincing) Pauline explains to get bored!”. On these days, Pauline works on a variety the joy of interpreting: “I love the state of flow that it can of tasks: preparing for upcoming assignments, answering provide. Given its simultaneous nature, it forces you to focus clients’ requests, continuing professional development ac- intensely on what you are doing right there and then. There tivities, accounting and administrative work. Pauline is also is no time for second thoughts or backtracking. It can be learning Portuguese in the hopes of adding another C langu- exhilarating if the level of difficulty is suited to your skills. I age to her repertoire. also loved to be able to travel to exotic places for work, but that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, we do not Pauline believes that, despite the extra budgeting and plan- know what the future holds.”

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The Real World

Mastering the Art of Translation We interviewed three senior lecturers at the Universities of Nottingham, Birmingham and Oxford to discuss the vast number of opportunities for the postgraduate study of translation, gain insight into the nuances between types of MA courses, and build a complete picture of the typical applicant for MA Translation Studies

give you a very clear window onto cultural difference: the text is re-made, not only by the individual translator but by that person in the specific medium of their language and the particularities of their time and place.

Why do an MA in Trans- with translation as something What do you believe to secondary that then occurs be the most appealing What sets your course lation? between these separate cul- and/or rewarding aspect apart from those which Dr Mével (University of Not- tures. Rather, translation has of studying translation? students can undertake at other UK institutions? tingham): An MA puts you always been at the heart of ahead of the competition on the job market. A good MA programme should provide a theoretical grounding into Translation and Translation Studies, and will allow students to have a much deeper understanding of translation/interpreting as a discipline. It should also be an opportunity to gain knowledge of certain tools (Translation Management software, terminology databases, translation memories), and practice different types of translation (technical, literary, audiovisual), as well as to accumulate some experience of working on specific projects.

literary creativity: anything you can point to and call a culture is always internally divided as well as being intricately interconnected with other cultures.

Second, in our own critical practice: writing about a literary text is a kind of translation, not only because - if it is in a different language - you often translate when you quote from the text you are studying, but also because, in writing about it, you are re-making it in a different discourse. Seeing the role of translation in both literature and criticism is a good starting point for thinking about a lot of issues.

Professor Reynolds (University of Oxford): At Oxford, our Masters in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation focuses on literature, and it recognises that translation is a key part of literary study, in at least two ways. First, in the literature itself: it is not that literary writing happens in separate national cultures,

Dr Brown (University of Birmingham): If you enjoyed doing translation during your undergraduate course, an MA is an excellent way to develop your skills and prepare you for a career in the translation industry. An MA will also prepare you for a PhD, so you can keep your options open.

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Dr Mével: Studying translation/interpreting at MA level allows students to hone their skills in a safe and nurturing environment. Students get a chance to work with texts they love, play with languages, and think about the ramifications and consequences of translating/interpreting in particular ways/for particular audiences.

Professor Reynolds: I think there are two key things. One is that a translation is an extremely close, sustained reading of a text. So, when you look at a translation, you see what someone else has made of a literary text; and when you look at lots of translations you get an intimate sense of what the text has meant to many people. A literary work is not just the source text but also the shared imagining to which that text gives rise in readers across their many languages: when you study translations you see this process in action.

The other is that translations

Dr Mével: Our MA at the University of Nottingham provides a solid grounding into translation theory, but also provides training with the technological tools professional translators use on a daily basis. Students also work with professional audiovisual software to create subtitles, and will also learn the basics of audiodescription, and, of course, interpreting, provided they have the right language pairs. They get to practice different kinds of translation (technical, literary, audiovisual, creative) in up to three different language pairs.

Students will also get the opportunity to meet professional translators and interpreters as our course has close links with the local branch of the ITI (of which many past graduates are now members!). Finally, over the summer, students can work on an extended translation project, using the resources, tools and techniques they acquired throughout the course

in order to produce a longer piece of work (potentially for a real client) that can go on their CV.

advanced language modules in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Spanish - so you can even add a brand-new lanDr Brown: Birmingham is a guage to your portfolio! well-established centre for Translation Studies and we What is the profile of the have been running campus typical applicant for your and distance-learning MAs in course?

Translation Studies for many years. The MA at Birmingham Dr Mével: Students who have includes a wide range of core just graduated with a language and optional modules, so that degree, or who had a language you can learn about and prac- as part of their degree. In fact, tise various key aspects of students can take up to three professional translation and different foreign languages for follow your own interests. For this (Arabic, French, German, example, for 2020-21 we are Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian/ introducing a new optional mo- Croatian, Russian). Professidule on ”Multimodal Translati- onal translators who seek a on“ which looks in more depth higher qualification are also at activities such as audio de- interested in our course, and scription, captioning and fan we also have a good proportion subtitling. Other options inclu- of ‘mature’ students – people de beginners‘, intermediate or who have had a professional

career already and are looking What advice do you have for new opportunities. for a student seeking to Professor Reynolds: Applicants will have done a BA involving literature and will be able to work in at least two languages and literatures. Beyond that, our students are very varied: they come from many different places and academic backgrounds; sometimes they have taken time away from university to work, write or translate before returning for the MSt. Dr Brown: Our student community is vibrant and international - students come to us from various UK universities, but many others come to study with us from abroad. Many students have studied Modern Languages as undergraduates, but we consider applicants with other backgrounds and experience.

apply for a Master’s in Translation?

Dr Mével: Go for it! Make sure you find the course that is right for you, but that also provides some diversity, and gives you access to relevant professional skills. Rake in as much practical experience as you can, hone your skills and make sure whatever course you choose helps you hit the ground running when you leave.

Professor Reynolds: The part of the application where you say why you want to take the course is important, so think hard about that.

Dr Brown: Find out as much about the course as you can.

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A Hands-On Approach

A Ha

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ands-On Approach

32 Linguistics as Education 34 Finnish and Breton Puzzles

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A Hands-On Approach

Linguistics as Education Richard ("Dick") Hudson met linguistics in a Modern Languages degree in Cambridge and did a PhD in SOAS. He then moved to UCL where he spent the next 40 years teaching and researching linguistics, and developing the theory called Word Grammar. He lives in North London and at https://dickhudson.com/ , and one of his main obsessions is building bridges between linguistics and education (including chairing the UK Linguistics Olympiad).

I

f you’re studying linguistics at uni, congratulations on your excellent choice of subject! But then, I’m a linguist, so I would say that, wouldn’t I? So let me explain and justify my ongoing enthusiasm for my subject – ‘ongoing’ in the very real sense that it’s been with me since I first heard of linguistics in 1959, just over sixty years ago.

Linguistics is all about analysing patterns in language, and (sometimes) their connections to other things such as the speaker and the social context; and one of the things that you’re certainly aware of is that there are a lot of different patterns, spread across a number of ‘levels’ from phonetics to semantics. You can see these patterns in any example, so let’s look at example (1), which we might call an ‘orthographic analysis’ – an analysis in terms of the conventional writing system.

(1) I saw it.

When you learned to write in primary school, you were learning one kind of analysis; and that’s why the history of linguistics is so closely tied to the history of writing. To write is to analyse into words and lexical units: in this case, into three words, one of which is part of the lexeme SEE (where the capital letters show that it’s an abstract lexeme, rather than one of the lexeme’s concrete forms such as saw). To see the point of this analysis, contrast it with the purely phonetic analysis in (2).

(2) [aɪsɔɹɪt] Notice the lack of word breaks, and the extra [ɹ] to separate the vowels of saw and it. Then you have some kind of phonological analysis, looking (in this case) rather like the phonetic one, and a morphological one looking something like (3).

(3) {aɪ} {sɔ} {ɪt} Then of course you have some kind of syntax, which will look very different according to your favourite theory of syntax. For me it would look something like Figure 1, but you’ve probably learned to think in terms of syntactic trees.

The syntactic analysis maps onto a semantic one which identifies the two participants (the speaker and ‘it’) and the mental event that involves them both, as well as the past time of this event; and then, as we all know, there’s an analysis which you might call ‘pragmatic’ and which

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Figure 1

links these elements to particular individuals and events in the world.

So what? So linguistics teaches you to do complex analysis – to recognise that some parts of the world, or indeed of your own mind, are multi-layered but structured. You learn to focus on one layer (or ‘level’) at a time, and to avoid mixing it up with other levels. As a phonetician you don’t care about the syntax, and as a syntactician you ignore the phonetics (e.g. that extra [ɹ]) and the pragmatics.

This is just like a STEM science, where you learned to separate the domains of physics, chemistry and biology: physics for atoms, chemistry for molecules and biology for cells, with biology supported by chemistry which is supported by physics. And, of course, there are further levels in the hierarchy, not least psychology sitting on top of biology.

Returning to the orthographic representation in “I saw it.”, we can see that this analysis is a compromise between phonology and syntax. It’s phonological because its building blocks are letters from an alphabet; but it’s also syntactic because the spaces mark the boundaries of the words and the full stop marks the end of a sentence. So it was in primary school that you started to think about language and to analyse it, but in a rather messy system that confused the levels.

Now, thanks to your linguistics, you can do much better.

You’ve learned to analyse your own language. You may have had some surprises on the way (e.g. noticing that intrusive [ɹ] for the first time), but you’ve almost certainly achieved more of a depth and breadth of understanding of how English works than most of your fellow citizens have.

So you know a great deal about analysis, and you’re probably good at it. That’s a really important life skill, whether you’re in management, in finance or in marketing, and whether your organisation makes widgets, handles money or educates people. Every organisation has a complex in-

ternal structure and deals with a complex world, so it desperately needs people who can analyse these complexities – people like you.

mixed up with the consonants of the root), as in Arabic and Hebrew. But they’re part of the same language.

But linguistics is actually even better as a preparation for grown-up life.

There are other subjects that develop analytical skills, not least mathematics and the other STEM subjects. What makes linguistics special is that the subject matter lies in the human mind. Language is, after all, ultimately located in the mind, so when you explore language you’re taking a trip inside the mind of the speaker, and if it’s your language, into your own mind.

Or Waorani, an indigenous language of Ecuador, which has a counting system in which the number 4 is mẽña go mẽña, and 8 is mẽña mẽña mẽña mẽña. You can easily guess what mẽña and go mean, but just imagine living with a mind in which all numbers are made up out of just 1, 2 and 5 or multiples of 5.

By studying linguistics you learn how complex the human mind is – how much lurks beneath the surface of awareness, how this is organised into the levels of phonology, morphology and so on, and how every bit of language is able to link freely to other bits of the mind. Different theories like to model this complexity in different ways, but I suspect we all agree that, in some sense, language is a mental network, with rich connections both within language and outside language.

Linguistics, therefore, qualifies as a branch of psychology, but within psychology it’s very special because no other branch of psychology presents data which is so clear and so detailed. Where else in psychology do you get down to the fine detail that we could discuss in examples like (4) and (5), both of which are marked by the asterisk as ungrammatical?

(4) *I amn’t ready.

(5) *Who do you wanna do it?

And where else can you generate such clear data yourself? Most English speakers are certain that both of these examples are ungrammatical, but those who disagree are equally certain. O.K., I know there are problems with some grammaticality judgements, but by and large they’re clear and uncontentious.

So what you learn in linguistics is how your mind works – at least when confronted with language data. You also learn that some parts of language are full of uncertainty, disagreement and exceptions; for example, what’s the past tense of the verb REND or WRING? That’s your mind – a weird blend of crystal clarity and messy vagueness. It’s like seeing your face in a mirror for the first time – an essential preparation for the complexities of life.

And better still, linguistics is a cure for insularity. You don’t just learn how your own language works – which I’ve assumed so far to be English – but it allows you to explore other languages. What you find is almost limitless variety, constrained only by the need to communicate.

For instance, take Beja (spoken, but not written, in the Sudan; it was also the language I studied for my PhD). Here are two forms for two verbs, TAM ‘eat’ and DBL ‘collect’:

tamiini he eats danbiil he/she collects tamya he ate idbil he collected

Odd, eh? TAM uses just suffixes like {iini} and {ya}, while DBL uses interdigitation (extra vowels and consonants

This brings me to the UK Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO), because the Waorani data come from one of the problems in a past UKLO competition. Maybe you took part in the competition when you were at school?

If you don’t already know about UKLO, it’s a competition for school children, like the Mathematics Challenge but with language data. (The Waorani problem happened to bring together language and maths, but most problems don’t involve numbers.) It’s run by a group of enthusiastic academics (mostly from linguistics departments) with financial support from some academic organisations. In the UK, about 4,000 school children currently take part every year, ranging from Year 13 down to Year 4 (whom we’re particularly proud of); but there are far more in other countries, and an international competition where our competitors tend to punch well above their weight.

UKLO offers the same educational benefits as a degree in linguistics, albeit without the teaching. It’s all about analysis rather than prior knowledge (though prior knowledge of linguistic analysis undoubtedly helps). What would-be competitors develop, sometimes in Linguistics Clubs, is the ability to analyse linguistic data. As you might expect, the data often involve two or more levels interacting with each other in complicated ways, so you, as a competitor, have a chance to flex your mental muscles in sorting out the complexities.

The level of difficulty is up to the competitors. If they want an easy ride, or if they’re very young, they choose the Breakthrough level. That’s where they might have met Waorani as presented above. At the other end of the scale is the Advanced level, where the competitors pit their wits against some very clever problem-setters who are out to give them a real head-ache. For instance, in the Waorani problem they didn’t actually say that mẽña go mẽña = 4; what they actually gave was the equation in (6), together with three other equations all in Waorani.

(6) mẽña mẽña mẽña mẽña + mẽña go mẽña = ãẽmãẽmpoke go aroke x 2 Tricky, but soluble.

If you want to know more about UKLO, you’ll find a great deal of information, including a lot of past problems, at https://www. uklo.org/. If you think you’d like to help with the UKLO project, there are a number of things you could do. You could volunteer as a marker (https://www.uklo.org/for-markers) or join uklologo. gif in a ‘markathon’ in your department (or even run one). Or you could tell your old school about UKLO and urge them to take part.

Or (best of all) you could train as a school teacher and take language analysis into your school.

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A Hands-On Approach

Finnish Numbers Here are the first nine prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 And this is how they are said in the old-style number system of Finnish, in alphabetical order:

Puz Breton Puzzle

kaksi, kolme, kolmekolmatta, kolmetoista, seitsemän, seitsemäntoista, viisi, yhdeksäntoista, yksitoista.

Given also that: (kaksi + kuusi) = (viisi + kolme) = (yhdeksän - yksi)

1. Match the Finnish numbers to their values.

N.B. A prime 2. What are the values of the following Finnish numbers? All are composite numbers. number

a. kuusi is a number divisible by only

b. viisitoista itself and 1 (a c. seitsemänkahdeksatta number with exactly d. neljäseitsemättä two factors). A composite number is a number with factors other than itself 3. What is the Finnish for the following numbers? All are prime numbers. and 1. Finnish ”ä“ is pronoun a. 29 ced with the tongue positioned at the front of the mouth, similar to

b. 37 ”cat“, whereas ”a“ is pronounced with

c. 71 the tongue at the back, as in ”palm“. ”y“

d. 83 is pronounced as in French ”tu“.

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zzles

Breton is a language spoken by around 200,000 people in Brittany, in the northwest of France. It is a Celtic language, meaning it is closely related to Welsh and Cornish, and more distantly to Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, but it has been influenced by French in many ways, including vocabulary.

1. Below are 16 sentences in English and their Breton translations, which are not correctly matched up. Match the Breton sentences (a-p) with their corresponding English translations (1-16).

2. Test your understanding by translating the following Breton sentences into English: a.

Neuial a raen ganin mamm. b.

Emañ o vale ken buan ha un arzh. c.

Gwelout a raes da vignon bemdaz. d.

Emaout o tebriñ ur frouezhenn hag ur berenn. e.

Emaint o komz kalz logod gant ar baotred bremañ.

3. For a real challenge, translate the following English sentences into Breton: a.

There is a strawberry and some fruit. b.

They are reading a little book with you. c.

You used to swim in many seas with me. d.

An animal is feeding the bears and the fishes. e.

I am teaching this evil boy while talking with those computers.

1) He is swimming in the sea with her and some fish.

2) The boys used to read their books quickly.

3) You used to see your beautiful friend on a tree.

4) I am now walking as quietly as a mouse.

5) You used to take a small fruit with me every day.

6) There are men and beautiful animals in Douarnez.

7) The evil mice used to eat a lot of cheese in Dinan.

8) I used to teach the computer while eating some strawberries.

9) Some boys are eating their cheese while feeding a bear.

10) There is a big red fire in our dry trees.

11) You are seeing the fires while taking your pear.

12) His mother used to feed this boy too quickly.

13) That small man used to eat with you every day.

14) Our friend is eating these pears too quietly.

15) My mother constantly used to walk with him to Douarnez.

16) She constantly used to talk with her quiet friend while reading a book.

a) Lenn a raent ar baotred o levrioù buan. b) Boueta a rae e vamm ar paotr-mañ re vuan. c) Kemer a raes ur frouezhenn vihan ganin bemdaz. d) Emañ o tebriñ hon mignon ar per-mañ re zidrouez. e) Emaout o welout an tanioù en ur gemer da berenn. f) Debriñ a rae ar gwaz-se bihan ganit bemdaz. g) Emañ o neuial en ar mor ganti hag gant ur pesked. h) Komz a rae ganti mignon didrouez en ur lenn ul levr dibaouez. i) Bale a rae ma mamm gantañ da Zouarnez dibaouez. j) Ur wazed hag ul loened gaer a zo en Douarnez. k) Deskiñ a raen an urzhiataer en ur zebriñ ur sivi. l) Emaon o vale ken didrouez ha ul logodenn bremañ. m) Debriñ a raent al logod fallakr kalz formaj en Dinan. n) Gwelout a raes da vignon kaer war ur wezenn. o) Emaint o tebriñ ur baotred o formaj en ur voueta un arzh. p) Un tan bras ruz a zo en hon gwez sec’h.

Pronunciation notes: • ou = [u]. As in “fool” • eu = [ø] or [œ]. As in French ”jeu” and ”sœur” respectively • gn = [ɲ]. Similar to “ny” in “canyon”

• c’h = [x ~ h]. As “ch”, as in German “Buch”, or as English “h”, depending on dialect • zh = [z ~ h]. As English “z” or “h”, depending on dialect • ñ indicates that the preceding vowel is nasalised.

Solutions to both puzzles will be posted on our social media channels within a month.

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Credits

Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief T. R. Williamson Section Editor for News Caitlin Wilson Section Editor for Academia Hayley Hilson Section Editor for Industry Blue Bates Cambridge Section Editor for Puzzles Liam McKnight Editorial Designer Anne Eschenbruecher

Authors Constructed Languages Caitlin Wilson Podcast Review: Subtitle Wing Yin Ho Gie it laldy Lara Pieczka Interview with Lisa Li Beatrix Livesey-Stephens Interview with Pauline Mercier Marion Willingham Mastering the Art of Translation Blue Bates Cambridge Linguistics as Education Richard Hudson Finnish Numbers Puzzle Liam McKnight Breton Puzzle Robert Bennett

Photo Credits Photos of the University of Cambridge T. R. Williamson Photos of Girton College T. R. Williamson Photo of Aberdeen Campus Kristina Callan Marcinkowska Section Cover "In The Field" Debby Hudson on Unsplash Photo of David J. Peterson David J. Peterson Story Photo "Podcast Review: Subtitle" Jonathan Farber on Unsplash Section Cover "Behind The Bookshelves" Peter Cordes on Unsplash Story Photo "Gie it laldy" Artur Kraft on Unsplash Section Cover "The Real World" Sebastiano Piazzi on Unsplash Photo of Lisa Li Lisa Li Photo of Pauline Mercier Pauline Mercier Story Photo "Pauline Mercier" European Parliament Story Photo "Mastering the Art of Translation" Romain Vignes on Unsplash

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