Image courtesy of wordwealthy.com

Earlier this week I enjoyed reading a post called ‘The Most Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases’ over at Adam Sherk’s blog (discovered courtesy of @Betti_Moser). Reading the post, it really struck me that high ‘bleurgh’ factor buzzwords like synergy, and dynamic tend to rear their ugly heads in languages other than English, too.

When I translate French press releases into English, for example, I can usually see straight away that the ‘bleurgh’ factor could be reduced by about 70%. The tone of French press releases is often a lot more gushing and flowery than you’d normally see in English, so that’s one challenge. But the individual words themselves present a second, delicious challenge.

Synergie and dynamique are of course words with French origin, but do they really mean anything in either language, or are they just linguistic padding? I suspect that in both languages they are used in marketing texts to give the reader a warm fuzzy feeling about the product or service being sold. In fact, here’s an aside thought: how true would it be to say that use of these words in English marketing texts is to some extent a result of unimaginative translationease creeping into English? We’re all guilty of letting these words slip in, they’re part of our collective marketing vocabulary, and to a large extent we expect to see them. But we could probably all use them a little more sparingly (and I include myself in ‘we’!) and focus instead on packing in the information-bearing words.

I’m all in favour of warm fuzzy feelings as a marketing technique, but let’s not forget that in the highly competitive, fast-paced world we live in, consumers and customers are looking for the FACTS, presented in a digestible, appealing way. My personal view is that as a wordsmith (whether you’re translator, copywriter or writer), your mission if you choose to accept it is to use words to craft something that is a pleasure to read while conveying information in an unambiguous way.

Playing with words in this way is an art, and it takes time to perfect it. For help with copywriting, and writing in general, I highly recommend ‘Write to Sell: The Ultimate Guide To Great Copywriting’ by Andy Maslen.

So which foreign language marketing buzzwords irk you the most? For me, it has to be synergie. Bleurgh!

Word in context: “Bernardo Atxaga’s ’s abecedary of war starts with a malevolent flower and ends with the ultimate solution”

Definitions:

• Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913):

Abecedary

(n.)
A primer; the first principle or rudiment of anything.

(a.)
Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary.

• Hutchinson’s Dictionary of Difficult Words:

Abecedary (n.) book arranged in alphabetical order; elementary text-book. abecedarian, n. member of 16th-century German Anabaptist sect who refused to learn to read. a. alphabetically arranged.

• online casinoBabylon free online dictionary (user-generated content):

Abecedary
(n.) study book that starts at the beginning of a subject, the abc’s of a subject

• Wikipedia:

Abecedarium
An abecedarium (or abecedary) is an inscription consisting of the letters of the alphabet, almost always listed in order. Typically, abecedaria (or abecedaries) are practice exercises.

• Collins English Dictionary, 6th edition (2003)

Abecedarian

(n.) 1. A person who is learning the alphabet or the rudiments of a subject.

(a.) 2. alphabetically arranged.

History: from Late Latin abecedarius, from the letters a, b, c, d.

This week, true to form, this is exactly what blogs, podcasts and newspapers have all been doing. I thought it would be nice to share with you my ten 10 list of what I’ve been reading and listening to, and learning from, in my own little office this week:

1. 2008 in photographs (these are seriously impressive)
2. An interview with Chris Durban at Speaking of Translation on how to realise your earning potential as a translator
3. On the same site, interviews with several people about how the current economic situation is affecting translators’ workloads (it’s not all bad, far from it)
4. How to say Merry Christmas around the world on Lexiophiles
5. The 5 stages of Twitter acceptance
6. Concepts of social identity in translators and speakers of multiple languages
7. Words of the Year 2008
8. One linguist’s ’syntactic pain’ over Strictly Come Dancing (for what it’s worth, the name of that program makes me want to emit a big ‘ugh’ too)
9. Health and fitness advice for Grumpy Home Workers
10. Looking back at whether I’ve played my cards right in my first year of freelancing with 9 Tips for Brand New Freelancers

I’ve found plenty of food for thought here; reasons to be pleased with my progress and things to improve on (especially, ahem, fitness) in the next 12 months, my place in my own industry of choice,  and not to mention the wider global situation in general. All that remains now is to wish the blogosphere a merry, restful and reflective festive period.

Stephen Fry’s ‘Fry’s English Delight’ is currently airing on BBC Radio 4 every Monday morning at 10am. The programme’s website can be found here, where you can listen to the latest edition at any time.  I’ve just listened to the first edition, which discusses the use of metaphor in the English language. Absolute word-nerd heaven…

True enough, there are many examples of poor grammar and spelling around, enough for many eagle-eyed writers to write entire books about them. I enjoy spotting these mistakes and chuckling about them as much as the next person; I am a massive fan of Lynne Truss and have read and re-read her books like old friends, and I applaud anyone who heightens awareness of language and grammar amongst the general public. As Truss demonstrates in the title of her book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a wrongly placed comma can completely mislead a reader. This is amusing for native speakers, but a major comprehension problem for a non-native reader of English, and it is of course something translators must always be careful to avoid.

However, there is a difference between the language we use in official publications and translations, and the language we use to communicate via instant, informal methods such as text messages, social networking sites and emails. Think about it: in speaking on the phone to friends and relatives, only the proudest people would claim to be able to hold conversations free from mistakes in word order, use of the possessive, tense etc., every single time they pick up the phone.  We must all accept that we are human, that instant communication methods require us to think on our feet; our brains simply don’t have time to focus on the message of what we’re saying and the grammar within it. We have moved far beyond the era of telegrams and communicating solely by posted letter and we have adapted accordingly, as humans are so adept at doing.

Whilst in spoken language we have recourse to intonation, volume and tone, to ensure the clarity of our message in place of grammar, you might argue that is what we’re attempting to do in emails and text messages as well. We use emoticons, capital letters, italics, amongst other tools, to try to express what it is we’re saying when we don’t have a lot of time in which to do it. I happen to think that this is not a bad thing; we are unable to claw back much time these days, we’re all terribly busy, that’s a given, so we are adapting to that with time-saving methods.

My favourite linguist, David Crystal, recently wrote a fascinating article for The Guardian on text speak, in which he argues that it actually represents a highly creative use of an evolving language. Moreover, he makes the important point that writers such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Walter Scott, DH Lawrence all used ‘deviant’ spelling in their novels, so it’s not something entirely new. A bit of trivia for you: ‘cos’ was first entered into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1828, and ‘wot’ in 1829.

Doom-mongers will be horrified to learn that there is now even a ‘text laureate’, but perhaps surprised that last year’s winner was in fact in her late 60s.