Fadas on forms: Does Ireland have a problem with its own language? Does the island have a problem with the Irish language or more specifically the spelling of words in Irish?

🇮🇪 'You wouldn't want a slice of caca instead of cáca': #Irish speaker are fed up over names, forms & flights without the fada (diacritic mark); two of Ireland's flagship companies, Bank of Ireland & Aer Lingus, do not even have IT systems that can process fadas!
www.bbc.com/news/article...

👔 Hidden patterns: the etymology of popular clothing designs
etymologynerd.com/uploads/1/5/...
by @etymologynerd.bsky.social

Forget euphemism, Trump is using unabashed viciousness in his language against Iran The Trump administration takes pleasure in deploying dysphemism to describe the killing of Iranians

🧨 Dysphemism is the opposite of euphemism, and the Trump administration revels in using it for its own actions. This viciousness might seem like a refreshing return to plain speaking. But you can, of course, speak plainly while lying
theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
by @stevenpoole.bsky.social

Defining Moments Some years become shorthand for an event, era or mood. Let’s look at the most symbolically potent years in the English-speaking world.

⏳ Many people recognise certain years (e.g. 1066, 1492, 1776, 1968, 1984, or 2001) without further explanation as representing key historical moments: it's a reminder that words can take many forms, and that history’s lessons are embedded in our #language
antidote.info/en/blog/repo...

Everyone Said Being Bilingual Would Pay Off. But It's Not for Latina Workers we were told bilingual skills would boost earnings, but for Latina workers, being bilingual often doesn’t lead to higher pay or workplace equity.

🇺🇸 "Speaking more than one language is a blessing that opens up new worlds ... [but it] remains a skill that society expects for free"
refinery29.com/en-us/biling...

📊 Country comparison tool by 'The Culture Factor': select one or several countries/regions to see their values for the 6 dimensions of power distance, individualism, motivation twds achievement & success, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation & indulgence theculturefactor.com/country-comp...

Will AI be the end of 'proper' translations? Kindle Translate could spell the end for human translations

🤖 "Will AI be the end of 'proper' #translations?" How AI cheapens the human experience
barbaraserra.substack.com/p/will-ai-be...
by @barbaraserra.bsky.social

📚 The 6 books on the International
@thebookerprizes.com
2026 Shortlist have been announced.
🙋‍♀️ The books are by a majority of women: 5 of the 6 authors and 4 of the 6 translators are female.
🏆 The announcement of the winning book will take place on 19 May
thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...

🦋 The etymology of butterfly names
etymologynerd.com/uploads/1/5/...
via @etymologynerd.bsky.social

🤔 Bitch: the word can morph from noun to verb to adjective, from dog to human, from female to male. What will it do next?
aeon.co/essays/what-...
by @karenstollznow.bsky.social
via @aeon.co

bless him

How an English condolences undid one of Canada's top CEOs The episode is the latest reminder of the complicated politics around language and identity in Canada.

🇨🇦 How English-only condolences undid one of Canada's top CEOs
www.bbc.com/news/article...

🤖 The #Czech studio behind "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2" (a game famous until now for its attention to historical detail and authenticity in medieval Bohemia) has fired their human #translator and replaced them with AI to save money
happygamer.com/amp/kingdom-...

Wikipedia just banned AI-written articles There are two key exceptions to the policy, which are actually quite reasonable—if they're enforced well.

🤖 English-#language Wikipedia has banned AI-written or generated articles; new policy allows AI for basic text editing and #translations, but requires mandatory review & verification; other Wikipedia language versions may establish own rules
pcworld.com/article/3099...
via @pcworld.com

🏞 Wikipedia has over 300 language editions and each one picks different images to illustrate the same topic.
The website 'In Every Language' collects the images that different #language versions of Wikipedia use to illustrate concepts
walzr.com/in-every-lan...

Lost in translation: How Russia’s new elite hit squad was compromised by an idiotic lapse in tradecraft Center 795, which emerged after the start of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine and comprises elite units from the GRU and FSB, was established as a top-secret…

🇷🇺 An idiotic lapse in tradecraft: one of the officers Russia’s new elite hit squad, Center 795, has been arrested in Colombia, caught because he handled an agent using Google #Translate and the FBI had access to the #translation logs
theins.ru/en/inv/290235
via @theins.press

📣 [REBRANDING] Smart Translate devient … "Smart Transat"
🌴Je troque les #traductions pour des siestes certifiées et des délais “au rythme des vagues”…

🎣 Poisson d’avril !
👉 Je reste quand même concentrée sur ce que je fais de mieux : #traduire avec précision (sans transat)

Around the web – March 2026 Here’s your round-up for March 2026 with the most interesting articles, news, and blog posts about language and translation over the past month. Corinne McKay looked at two habits that succes…

⚡ Trends, tension, and turning points: what news stories and articles shaped the world of language and translation in March 2026?
wp.me/p2brSS-1lc

What's the best way to learn a new language? Krupa Padhy uncovers how we really learn foreign languages – in a dual challenge involving both Portuguese and Mandarin.

🤔 What's the best way to learn a new #language? @krupapadhy.bsky.social uncovers how we really learn foreign #languages – in a dual challenge involving both #Portuguese and #Mandarin
bbc.com/future/artic...

🧀 Friday was World Cheese Day! Here are the etymologies behind the names of some of the world's most popular cheeses
etymologynerd.com/uploads/1/5/...
by @etymologynerd.bsky.social

“After fifty years of Occitan activism, I do not give up my ideas. I am like Don Quixote’s windmills” Fredo Valla has dedicated his life to defending the Occitan language and spreading its history. This year, 2024, he received the Robèrt Lafont Award from the Generalitat de Catalunya, a prize given to...

Filmmaker Fredo Valla has dedicated 50 years of his life to defending the #Occitan #language and spreading its history
nationalia.info/interview/11...
via @nationalia.cat

An Introduction To Quechua, The Ancient Language Of The Inca Empire That Is Still Spoken Today The Quechua language is one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages. It has nine variants, with more than 10 million speakers across Latin America.

🌎 An introduction to #Quechua, the ancient #language of the #Inca Empire that is still spoken today: a macrolanguage with more than 10 million speakers in 7 Latin American countries: Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil & Peru
babbel.com/en/magazine/...

Regional names for alleyways…

Super-salty pizza sends six kids to the hospital in Japan; linguistics blamed Pizza, famously, is hard to screw up, so much so that “_____ is like pizza. Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good,” became shorthand for things in which acceptable quality is very easy to find. Here’s the thing about something that’s hard to screw up, though: When someone does…

🍕 A Japanese #language misunderstanding during a home economics class is being blamed for this pizza incident which sent six kids to hospital
japantoday.com/category/nat...
via @japantoday.com

OK: How Two Letters Made 'America's Greatest Word' Everyone says it dozens of times a day, from its Boston birthplace to the far reaches of the Earth. It's the word "OK" — the subject of the book "OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word."

Today is "OK Day"
www.npr.org/2010/11/20/1...
via @npr.org
(H/T @becauselanguage.com)

Wikipedia has an 'AI' translation problem A non-profit offering thousands of translations for Wikipedia has been found to be introducing errors and fake citations at a rapid pace.

🤖 Wikipedia has an AI #translation problem: the Open Knowledge Association, a non-profit offering thousands of #translations for #Wikipedia, has been found to be introducing errors and fake citations at a rapid pace
pcworld.com/article/3079...
via @pcworld.com

‘Bold’. ‘Elegant’. ‘Introverted’? How words describing wine get lost in translation Wine is a multi-billion-dollar business. But new research shows how expert ‘winespeak’ can exclude many wine drinkers worldwide.

🍷 The wine industry assumes that everyone uses the same metaphors, but without deliberate attention to how they travel, or fail to travel, across cultures, the gap between expert “winespeak” and consumer understanding will only widen
theconversation.com/bold-elegant...
via @aunz.theconversation.com

The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream? With the rise of influencer Clavicular and ‘looksmaxxers’, sexist language from niche memes has infiltrated official government accounts and NYT headlines

🧐 The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has sexist language from niche memes infiltrated official government accounts and NYT headlines?
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
via @theguardian.com

🤬 The periodic table of swearing
[contains foul language that some people might find offensive]
ptos.moderntoss.com

Beware the Ides of March. (But Why?) - JSTOR Daily Everybody remembers that the Ides of March was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. But what does it mean, and why that day?

🤔 Why beware of the Ides of March? Everybody remembers that the Ides of March was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. But what does it mean, and why that day?
daily.jstor.org/beware-the-i...
via @jstordaily.bsky.social