English isn’t the hardest language in the world to learn but it’s definitely a crazy one with wacky rules. Things that apply for some words, never seem to be considered for similar ones. Change one letter here and it can sound completely different there but sound the same somewhere else. It’s all pretty ridiculous.
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No matter how you feel about 2013 it’s depressing to learn that the two most popular words of the year, according to the Global Language Monitor, are "404" and "fail". You can’t paint a clearer picture than that.
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Because language doesn’t really matter anymore to the Internet
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The longest word in English has 189,819 letters and would take you three and a half hours to pronounce correctly. Seriously. It’s the chemical name of Titin (or connectin), a giant protein “that functions as a molecular spring which is responsible for the passive elasticity of muscle.” You can listen to a guy pronounce the whole damn word. More »
Japan’s unique language makes calls to other countries a challenge: locals often don’t have much choice but to brush up on someone else’s language or hope there’s a Japanese speaker on the other end of the line. If all goes well with NTT DoCoMo’s planned Hanashite Hon’yaku automatic translation service, international calls will be as comfortable as phoning a store in Nagano. As long as a subscriber has at least an Android 2.2 phone or tablet on the carrier’s moperaU or sp-mode plans, the service will automatically convert spoken Japanese to another language, and reverse the process for the reply, whether it’s through an outbound phone call or an in-person conversation. The service will bridge cultures starting from November 1st, when it will translate from Japanese to Chinese, English or Korean. Indonesian, Thai and five European languages are coming later that month. If you’re not that patient, NTT DoCoMo will provide a holdover on October 11th through Utsushite Hon’yaku, a free Word Lens-like augmented reality translator for Android 2.3 that can convert text to or from Japanese with a glance through a phone camera.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
NTT DoCoMo preps automatic translation from Japanese through Android, leaves no one an island originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dictionaries exist in between a rock and a hard place: jump on new words too late and they look like a dinosaur, add in words too early and they’re made into a mockery. Words are hard, yes, but some words don’t exactly need defining like some of these just added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online. More »
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