Chartered Institute of Linguists
SPRING 2025 The Linguist 3
CONTENTS
News & editorial
CARDIFF FACES CUTS . . . . . 5
IN THE MEDIA . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Round-up of this quarter's news stories
INSIDE PARLIAMENT . . . . . . 7
The language competition for MPs and peers
Features
SYRIA'S LANGUAGE
OF WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
How translators can approach conflict terms,
from prison slang to euphemistic resistance
A LIFE WITH LANGUAGES . 11
How the church inspired one linguist to serve
her community, written in Swahili and English
18
The Linguist
Editorial Board
Chair K Trotman BA MA DipTrans MCIL
D Butler BA (Hons) (ex officio)
B Hart BA MA PGDip MCIL CL
A Lawson
K McLaughlin BA PhD FCIL CL FHEA
M Moore BA (ex officio)
L Rana BSBio MSC MD MCIL
BH Wang PhD FCIL
J Worne (ex officio)
A Zafar BA MA MCIL
The Linguist is the official
journal of the Chartered
Institute of Linguists
BEHIND BARS . . . . . . . . . . . 12
What it's like to work in secure hospitals,
high-security institutions and other UK prisons
SHIFTING THE LANDSCAPE . 14
Translating her grandfather's novel, a linguist
feels the weight of her people's history
A SUMMARY TRIAL? . . . . . 16
The ethics of asking interpreters to
summarise immigration appeal hearings
BREAKING INTO
THE BOOK CLUB . . . . . . . . 18
With the success of the Women in Translation
movement, we ask who is still being excluded
RETHINKING
LOCALISATION . . . . . . . . . . 20
Why basing localisation courses on industry
needs changes what is taught and how
THE MT IN THE ROOM . . . . 22
Why public services in the UK need to
start talking about machine translation
DECEPTIVE RESEARCH . . . . 24
Is academic knowledge distorted when (poor)
translations are referenced as source text?
THE FALL OF URDU? . . . . . 26
How India's language policies and attitudes
are affecting one of its most spoken languages
Reviews
BOOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Nevermore, Why Animals Talk and more
Opinion & comment
SPEAK LIKE A ROBOT . . . . . 30
Is AI changing the way we communicate?
THE AI TOOLBOX . . . . . . . . 33
The free tools that can boost your productivity
GROWING RESOURCES . . . 34
FRONT COVER © SHUTTERSTOCK
The Linguist is online at ciol.org.uk/thelinguist.
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Published four times a year and distributed free of charge to
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ISSN 0268-5965
The editor reserves the right to edit all material submitted. Views expressed in The Linguist are not necessarily the official views of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. All rights of
reproduction, translation and adaptation reserved for all countries. CIOL, The Linguist and officers accept no responsibility collectively or individually for the service of agencies or
persons advertised or announced in the pages of this journal. The good faith with which we publish offers no implied/implicit guarantee.
Editor M Moore linguist.editor@ciol.org.uk
Sales D Butler deborah.butler@ciol.org.uk
Thanet House, 231-232 Strand, London WC2E 1DA;
info@ciol.org.uk; www.ciol.org.uk
For a list of Council and committee members,
see www.ciol.org.uk/council
8
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