The Linguist

Chartered Institute of Linguists SPRING 2026 The Linguist 31 SECTION HEADER REVIEWS With plenty of interesting reflections, Mark Kermode and Ellen Jones offer a thought- provoking account of translation behind modern films (and series) in this episode of their popular Screenshot podcast. Film audio trivia, scattered among their interviews and comments, make a strong and enjoyable case for the value of translation in the entertainment industry. From the clandestine dubbing of Chuck Norris films into Romanian to the success of Parasite (the South Korean film awarded the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020), the show covers an impressive range of topics that will inevitably make listeners realise how much of their entertainment relies on the work of talented language professionals. Linguists with an interest in film may find themselves wanting to share the episode with their 'non-linguist' friends, thanks to a well-illustrated account of how language becomes the conduit for cultures for entire generations. When a film from a foreign country is made accessible to a new audience it breaks prejudices and stereotypes. In some instances, this may even be an act of rebellion against those who want to control the population, as Kermode's interview with Romanian translator and film critic Irina Margareta Nistor shows, covering her career with languages and overdubbing pirate videos of banned films under the Ceaușescu regime. Elsewhere, the French critic Manuela Lazić explains that even though dubbing may be a less popular option among anglophones, in countries such as France voice actors have turned into well-known celebrities. She is right: "Not everyone wants to learn English, not everyone wants to speak in English." This does not mean that international audiences have limited their access to films and TV series from English-speaking countries. Previous generations of anglophones probably overlooked dubbing, subtitles and translation, but new generations are more interested than ever in international and indy films, making bridges between languages an essential part of modern entertainment. Darcy Paquet, who has produced English subtitles of South Korean films including Parasite, tells Jones how the director Bong Joon Ho was extremely involved in ensuring that the subtitling could convey the humour and mood of his original script. In spite of subtitles' limitations, Paquet's craft was, in many ways, responsible for the film's global success. The expansion of the film industry is unstoppable and so is its need for linguists to support that growth around the world. New generations are used to subtitles and artificial voices, often produced by AI, but this Screenshot episode demonstrates that the bond between linguists and the entertainment industry remains strong. It is an enjoyable eye- opener to the importance of our work as linguists and its limitless applications. Adriana Uribe MCIL Screenshot: Translation BBC Sounds/Radio 4 1st broadcast 17/10/25; 42 minutes cÉwvtáàá Sideways: Inventing a Language BBC Sounds/Radio 4 1st broadcast 8/8/25; 29 minutes This podcast, which aims to tell "stories of seeing the world differently", has a broad audience, but that doesn't stop host Michael Syed going into some depth on the subject of conlangs and private languages. As a monolingual Brit, he approaches the topic with genuine curiosity, as he meets twins Matthew and Michael Youlden, aka the Superpolyglot Bros. They speak to each other in a secret language (Umeri) they created as tots, and with each new language they learn, it grows and morphs, as languages tend to do. We learn the term 'idioglossia' (a language that is only used by the children who invented it) from Dr Nancy Segal at California State University's Twin Studies Center. Although this is common among twins (where it has the specific name 'cryptophasia'), use of the private tongue usually ends by school age. An illuminating interview with professional language creator Jessie Peterson follows. When she created Ts'íts'àsh for the fire beings of Disney's Elemental with her husband David, they focused on the sounds fire makes ('shh', 'sss', 'hrrr'). They used a perfective marker for the past (e.g. 'I speak finish' for 'I spoke') which came from the verb 'to douse', while fricatives form entire words, without the use of a vowel. With further ruminations on the popularity of High Valyrian (Game of Thrones); a candid exploration of Professor Varun Khanna's transformative journey with Sanskrit (which, though interesting, seems out of place in a show on invented languages); and thoughtful analysis of what these languages reveal about the human need to share, this episode packs a lot of intriguing content into half an hour. Miranda Moore Finally, a joy of knowing a foreign language is to be immersed in its territorial speech community and using it to ask for directions, buy a rail ticket, or spark up a conversation… Outside of the conference hall, classroom or summer camp, can Esperanto replicate that? Graham Elliott MCIL

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