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Previous HE Translations logo

Appropriateness of flags to represent languages and the history of the HE Translations logo

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In the past, a flag-based logo was used on the HE Translations website and on HE Translations business cards. For old times’ sake, here is an image of the original business card:

HE Translations, original business card

HE Translations, original business card

An illuminating blog post by James Offer under the heading “Why flags do not represent languages” prompted the abandonment of the flags. In essence, the blog states:

Flags are unique to a country or nation: but languages are often spoken across national borders. By using a flag for a language, you may confuse or even offend users.

Continue reading full article…

HE Translations banner

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The impressive new HE Translations pull-up banner recently had its first outing at a railway industry event.

HE German Technical Translations roll-up banner; quality, service, satisfaction

HE Translations pull-up banner

Chez Herbert Cafe

Chez Herbert

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An old school friend, who is a Francophile and usually spends the summer in southern France, had a summer holiday in Reunion Island this year and sent this photo with the caption “Die Folgen des Brexit” (Brexit consequences).

Chez Herbert Cafe

Dining philosophers problem

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Linguistic research relating to the translation of the German term Nebenläufigkeit led to the conclusion that the English term is concurrency (not concurrence) and to further reading on the dining philosophers problem and Edsger Dijkstra, who is described as one of the very early pioneers of the research on principles of distributed computing.

An illustration of the dining philosophers problem

Apostrophe again

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A picture says more than a thousand word…

It's not rocket science poster

Raketenwissenschaft

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Ob sich das – offensichtlich vom englischen Begriff rocket science abgeleitete/’übersetzte’ – Wort Raketenwissenschaft (gelesen hier, Erläuterung hier) im deutschen Sprachgebrauch einbürgern wird? Hmm, wohl eher nicht… In den Duden ist es bisher jedenfalls noch nicht vorgedrungen.

It's not rocket science poster

Image source: Northborough Applefest Farmers Market, USA
Source: Savage Chickens

per cent or percent?

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%

Across the board, dictionaries suggest that percent, written as one word, is American English, whereas per cent, written as two words, is British English. The European Commission (Directorate-General for Translation) English Style Guide concurs, although it is not prescriptive and notes that per cent is normally [blog author’s emphasis] written as two words in British English. Wikipedia even goes as far as describing the frequency of use of the two-word form in British English as “sometimes”. In any case, the online free dictionary suggests that the use of the two-word form is diminishing. No evidence is given for this statement, but it would be in line with the (in many case entirely ‘sensible’) trend of compounding. Not to mention the fact that, from a German Prozent perspective, the one-word form simply ‘feels more natural’.

Mind the gap

Wort des Tages: Lohnkluft

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Mind the gap

Laut Google ist der Begriff Lohnkluft ebenso weit verbreitet wie die Lohnkluft-Praxis, und die besagte Kluft ist weiterhin erstaunlich tief bzw. groß oder hoch – siehe z.B. Deutsche Welle-Bericht von 2014 oder diverse Artikel in Die Presse.

Preisfrage: Wird die Lohnkluft-Praxis ‘aussterben’, bevor der Begriff in den Duden übernommen wird?

An epidemic of prepositional anarchy?

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In his linguistically thought-provoking Guardian article under the heading “Back to prep school“, Andy Bodle reckons that Harry Blamires, the author of The Penguin Guide to Plain English, is far from alone in thinking we are in “an epidemic of prepositional anarchy”.

His bottom-line advice is to “check the dictionary”, although interestingly (and perhaps contradictorily?), he also refers to Google Ngram Viewer as a tool for trying to determine which version can be regarded as ‘more correct’, in cases where several ‘legitimate’ options exist, e.g. bored with/of, obsessed with/by, identical with/to.

Further reading: comprehensive Wikipedia page on prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions and adpositions.