The Linguist

League of the Lexicon 1 Académie Française members, tasked with regulating the French language, are nicknamed what? a) Les immortels ('the immortals') b) Les infaillibles ('the infallibles') c) Les infranchissables ('the impassables') 2 Which language was the first ever grammar written about? a) Ancient Egyptian b) Sanskrit c) Icelandic 3 Which European language has changed least over the past 4,000 years? a) Lithuanian b) Greek c) Hungarian 4 Which is not a theory within linguistics? a) Bow Wow Theory b) Pooh Pooh Theory c) Tum-te-Tum Theory @CIOL_Linguists WINTER 2023 The Linguist 21 FEATURES 1 2 3 4 The view in politics 1 The UK's immigration plans came under fire when an interpreter from which country was threatened with deportation to Rwanda? 2 Spain's Parliament will allow the use of what three languages in Parliament following a demand from Catalan separatist parties? 3 How did the UK government suggest asylum seekers with limited English answer a new 'fast-track' immigration questionnaire? 4 The constitution of which country was translated into Nheengatu – one of its Indigenous languages – for the first time? Emerging research 1 Humans share elements of a common language with which animals, according to researchers at St Andrews University? 2 True or false: a study found that societies of non-native speakers develop less complex languages, as hypothesised. 3 What major geographic issue with multilingualism research did a study identify? 4 A Marie Curie study showed a link between barriers for non-English speakers and poorer outcomes in which area of medicine? Pop culture 1 In what way was Dal y Mellt a 'first' for Netflix when the platform streamed it as Rough Cut (with English subtitles) in April? 2 What film, in which a migrant family uses three languages when talking together, won the Oscar for best picture? 3 What Eurovision song became the UK's first Finnish-language chart hit? 4 Which streaming platform (rolled out by a UK 'terrestrial' channel last year) launched a BSL channel with 10,000 hours of shows? What language… 1 Did the Italian government say "demeans and mortifies" the Italian language as they proposed legislation to counter the threat? 2 Is fourth most popular in schools in England? 3 Was International Booker prizewinner Time Shelter (translated by Angela Rodel) written in originally by Georgi Gospodinov? 4 Did Aberdeenshire solicitor Gordon Hay spend 17 years translating the Bible into? Tech developments 1 What language feature do the new smart glasses by Meta and Ray-Ban offer? 2 Which company launched free translation tool SeamlessM4T in 100 languages? 3 How did Spotify stream podcasts in languages the presenters don't speak? 4 Which car company's 'Translating Joy' ad campaign in China involved nonsensical AI translations of 宝⻢ ('precious horse')? Who's who? Can you identify the celebs in the pictures above? Give yourself an extra point per picture if you know why they feature in our language quiz. In numbers 1 How many official languages does South Africa have since it added Sign Language? a) 7 b) 12 c) 15 2 How many new signs have been created to 'rewild' BSL with environmental terms? a) 40 b) 120 c) 200 3 Language teacher recruitment in England and Wales missed its target by what amount? a) 31% b) 43% c) 66% 4 What proportion of the world's language diversity is at risk according to new findings? a) 30% b) 40% c) 50% ELENA TERNOVAJA CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED; BRUNO CHATELIN CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED; CC BY 3.0 DEED

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