What happy coincidence – on the very same day I write an article about the Welsh language, a great announcement is made by the Welsh Assembly. Yesterday it was announced that a new piece of legislation which strengthens Welsh’s status as an official language has been unanimously passed, and will become law in 2011. This is the first law of its type to be passed since the Welsh Language Act in 1993.

The new law contains a clear statement that English and Welsh are both official languages in Wales, and gives Welsh speakers the right to receive certain services in Welsh. A Welsh language commissioner will replace the current Welsh Language Board and the introduction of a Welsh Language Tribunal will mean that it will be possible to appeal against decisions made with regard to these new rights. Not all companies will be required to provide services in Welsh; the key phrase in the legislation is that organisations covered by the law should have “reasonable and proportionate” arrangements in place for Welsh speakers.

The move is a crucial part of the power-sharing agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru, but has provoked some controversy, in particular concerning the clause describing Welsh as an official language. Some feel that the statement should be unqualified, particularly Welsh language campaigners, who feel that the gesture does not go far enough. However the government believes that the clause legally clarifies the position of Welsh in the country and that an unqualified statement would leave the position of ...

Swansea businesswoman inspiring generation of young females

A young business owner from Swansea has been named amongst the UK’s 100 most inspirational women, thanks to her dedication to professional translation services.

Veritas Language Solutions, is to be featured in a book celebrating the achievements of 100 ‘Modern Muses’.

The Modern Muse initiative, launched last week by Everywoman, is designed to inspire and engage the next generation of female business leaders by showcasing successful women of today in all walks of business life.

The Modern Muse project is setting out to reach one million young women and girls over the next 3 years, to inspire and motivate them to look at business careers and entrepreneurship as a way to achieve their dreams. This project will help this group to aspire to a career in business by communicating stories of real women whose experiences encompass ambition, passion, success and failure; showing that business is fulfilling and can also be fun and rewarding.

Modern Muse is launched with the publication of a book and a photographic exhibition which shines a spotlight on 100 inspirational women who are all vibrant, successful entrepreneurs and business women, personifying the ‘Modern Muse’. Their stories will encourage and inspire young women and girls to follow in their footsteps.

To find out more about Veritas’ achievements, visit our professional translation services page.

I think it’s normally a pretty safe assumption that most people speak the language of the country they grew up in. Well I’ve lived in Wales for most of my life and don’t speak Welsh, and my friends that do are definitely in the minority. In fact, the 2009 annual population survey shows that little over a quarter of people in Wales speak Welsh,* and the figure is even lower in southern areas. Why is this?

For those of us living in Wales, we were taught Welsh from a young age at school, and studied Welsh as a compulsory subject to GCSE level. But in my school, there was very little interest in Welsh and most of us scraped through with rudimentary language skills at best. Perhaps this regrettable attitude to learning Welsh is because its re-introduction as an official language was relatively recent, having only been given equal status to English in 1993. Before that, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 had made English the only official administrative language in Wales. Even when the Welsh Language Act was introduced in 1967, it only gave limited rights to use Welsh in court. When you consider that we weren’t allowed to use Welsh in the public domain for centuries, it isn’t surprising that hardly anyone speaks the language here. But shouldn’t we celebrate this new-found right? Surely we shouldn’t waste a liberty which has been refused for so long! I think I’m going to make the most of it by learning a ...

After Anna’s Polish tongue twisters, do you fancy trying some Italian ones?

Let’s start with an easy one:
Tre tigri contro tre tigri (Three tigers against three tigers). It sounds very easy, but try to say it quickly and you will soon get something which is more similar to ‘Tre trighi contro tre tirghi’!!! Also, this is quite difficult for people who cannot roll their Rs.

Ready for the next step? Here we go:
Trentatre trentine entrarono a Trento tutte e trentatre trottrellando (Thirty-three Trentine women entered Trento, all and thirty-three trotting). Again, here we have even more ‘t + r’ sounds! Give it a go and see how it comes out.

Intermediate level before the final challenge:
Porta aperta per chi porta. Chi non porta, parta pure, poco importa. (The door is open for those who bring something. Those who do not bring anything, let them leave. It is of little importance). This almost sounds like a proverb (but no cats in this one!).

And now, the ultimate step before being awarded a prize in Italian Tongue-twistology Warm up and try this:
Apelle, il figlio di Apollo, fece una palla di pelle di pollo, e tutti i pesci vennero a galla, per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo, fatta da Apelle, il figlio di Apollo. (Apelle, the ...

Translating into Spanish? Take a minute to think about what variation of Spanish you should use for your Spanish translation! I hope that this article helps you to make your choice!

The kind of target audience is an important factor that you must consider in every translation process, but it has a special relevance when translating into Spanish. I will tell you why:

Spanish is spoken in 20 different countries worldwide, making it the third most spoken language in the world, after Chinese and English. Nowadays people speak Spanish in Europe, Asia, North and South America. They speak the same language, but with certain variations regarding the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, which has led to the emergence of a wide range of Spanish language varieties. The most relevant ones are Latin American Spanish (spoken in Latin American nations and the United States of America), and Peninsular, European or Castilian Spanish, but there are also significant differences in the way that Spanish is spoken among regions within single countries.

These are the main differences found in grammar and pronunciation:

- While in Spain there are two forms of the second-person plural pronoun: ustedes (formal) and vosotros (familiar/informal), in Latin America (and some particular southern-Spain cities such as Cádiz) this pronoun has been replaced with ustedes.
- The use of the form vos as the second-person singular pronoun is common in various countries around Latin America, including Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Paraguay.
- Typical of Latin America is also the seseo. The ‘c’ and ...