Random Neural Misfirings

we need a new word

Increase mountain positive, Ken under village

translation and AI

on my radar

Pretty good article in the Times today on how katakana is used. It mentions that foreigners of Japanese descent, like Alberto Fujimori and Kazuo Ishiguro get the katakana treatment on their names; what it doesn’t mention is that Fujimori, who pronounces his name Spanish-style, gets his name transliterated into kana as フヒモリ (fuhimori).
But the article [...]

How language works

What’s the etiquette for dealing with kanji tattoo mistakes?

Translation a la Borg leads to deep-structure musings

Kenkyusha is readying a new version (link in Japanese) of its New Japanese-English Dictionary. Despite its many faults, it is considered the standard J-E dictionary, and is referred to by Japanese translators as the Green Goddess, or GG for short. It is interesting that the product announcement explicitly refers to this. On the Honyaku mailing [...]

Less jargon? Less work.