The Linguist

@CIOL_Linguists What the papers say… Macron: We Will Never Surrender to Gender-Inclusive Writing, 30/10/23 [The debate] has divided the country between Right-leaning language purists and feminists and the Left. Under the proposal tabled by a Republican senator, gender- inclusive writing would be banned in documents including job contracts, job adverts, internal company regulations and all legal documents. Documents written in gender-neutral language would be considered null and void… Left-wing critics have called the law "retrograde" and described it as another attempt by social conservatives to marginalise women. Sarah Sunny: How India's first deaf lawyer made history in Supreme Court, 8/10/23 On 6 October, the court also appointed its own interpreter for Ms Sunny, the first in the court's history, so that "she could understand what was going on" during the proceedings… Observers say that Ms Sunny's presence in the top court would help make the Indian legal system more inclusive and accommodative to the needs of the deaf community… The court also asked the Association of Sign Language Interpreters India (ASLI) to draw up protocols for the interpreters. The latest from the languages world NEWS & EDITORIAL WINTER 2023 The Linguist 5 The Voices Found in Translation, 23/8/23 A new book by the French novelist Maylis de Kerangal is always an event of note, especially when it's translated by her regular collaborator, Jessica Moore… [de Kerangal] takes a keen approving interest in her literary translations, describing them as like "hearing a familiar tune on a different instrument". "I have a strong conviction: I consider the translator as a writer, an author," she said. UK attitudes shift Is it possible to detect a shift in the UK's attitudes towards language learning? This autumn, a British Academy poll, coinciding with the launch of the Languages Gateway portal, returned a surprising result: a majority of UK adults believe languages should be compulsory until at least the age of 16. The sentiment was echoed in opinion pieces in the British press. Reacting to a fall in the numbers taking A-level German, The Times published an analysis citing "fears students are becoming little Englanders". It followed this up with an op-ed warning that the study of languages risks becoming "the preserve of the elite", a situation that "will impoverish us all in the long run", and a piece by Professor Anton Muscatelli, Vice Chancellor of Glasgow University, saying "languages open a window to the world". The Spectator published a similar piece on the crisis in language teaching, worrying that "our monolingualism is getting worse". This may be part of a wider narrative about post-Brexit challenges and concerns that Britain is becoming more isolated. In August, The New European ran an article arguing that "Brexit is killing off the school trip. It's costing millions and hurting children." It is significant that this story was published several months after the new rules came into force (leading to 18-hour waits in Dover and other problems), as it implies issues such as the end of visa-free travel are here to stay. But the decline in language learning far predates Brexit, and affects all nations of the UK. The British Council's 'Language Trends' report showed that Northern Irish pupils are required to learn languages less than any other country in Europe. This was followed by a report from Northern Ireland's Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI), which found that pupils are put off studying languages to GCSE because they see them as a difficult subject. Interestingly, this has long been a bone of contention in England, where French and German GCSE grade boundaries were lowered to put them on a par with Spanish. In Scotland, The Herald ran an opinion piece on declining language entries there – nearly halving since devolution – noting the dissonance with the Scottish government's long-stated ambition that Scotland should be an 'outward-looking nation'. The piece makes a good analysis of the factors working against language learning – not least the expense, as languages "need smaller classes and more learning assistants" than other subjects. The British Academy's YouGov poll respondents may have hit the nail on the head: languages seem to suffer when they are not compulsory to GCSE, and no UK nation insists on a modern language examination at secondary level. © SHUTTERSTOCK

• Cover