Throughout history, the @ sign has been used for many purposes, but its use was never so universal before its application in information technology. If in English it is known as the “at sign,” how is it referred to in other languages? The at sign was a unit of measurement widely used among traders in […]
While it is believed that there are widespread differences between Spanish, which is derived from Latin and is a Romance language, and English, which is known for its Germanic roots, the reality is not so clear cut. Indeed, English did not escape the influence of Latin, which also set the basis for French and Italian […]
Intense debates have taken place to decide whether the Spanish language should be regulated by the Royal Spanish Academy, which, as you may know, is based in Spain and does not include many regionalisms or current uses in existence in its (very) numerous varieties. Historically, many thinkers, philosophers, writers, and translators have considered the Royal […]
Learning a foreign language can be a very difficult and stressful task, but can also provide us with many benefits. If someone has very little knowledge of some of the elements of foreign languages, this will not be of much help in order to prepare their mind to begin acquiring some basic knowledge of a […]
In recent days, the Real Academia Española (RAE) disclosed the incorporation of new terms into the new edition to be published in October, which will mark the grand culmination of the Academia’s third centennial. Without a doubt, technological and cultural advances have led Spanish speakers to increasingly incorporate and adapt different terms to be able […]
From the Rosetta Stone onwards, the history of techniques applied to translation elapsed smoothly until Modernity, the time in which a series of changes, as diverse as they were profound, took place in people’s lives. For example, the idea of the modern machine implied a radical change with respect to its medieval counterpart. While the […]
Three hundred years ago in Madrid, at the house of Don Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, the Marquis of Villena, a group of eight determined men met in order to attempt the feat of creating a dictionary of the Spanish language, founding an academy “to be composed of honorable individuals capable of examining and discerning the […]
Translators, editors, lexicologists, philologists, poets and other language professionals will no doubt find a novel source of joy in this new online resource: an interactive (and very practical) version of our beloved (but often impractical) Diccionario de la Real Academia (Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy). The brain behind Goodrae (that is how he baptized […]
As mentioned in previous articles, the task of the editor is correcting the translation on the basis of grammatical rules, among other indicators of quality and professionalism. An important source, and in fact the ultimate source for defining words and declaring correct grammar, for writing in Spanish are the dictionaries of the Royal Spanish Academy. […]
When we were studying in the university, the professors constantly reminded us that one must have dictionaries on his/her desk in order to translate since the research work required of translators is very important in order to validate our work. Nevertheless, today our bosses and clients don’t see a single dictionary on our desk most […]