by Paul Arnold, Phys.org

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan

Many languages recycle words, giving them different meanings. For example, in English, “run” can mean to move quickly but also to manage something, like “run a company.” In Spanish, “lengua” is both the word for tongue and language, as in “la lengua española.” This type of word reuse is known as colexification.

But there is another type of recycling, and that is partial colexification, where languages reuse only parts of words. A good example is the word “grand,” which is shared in “grandfather” and “grandmother.” Until now, very little was known about the rules, patterns and how widespread this type of recycling is across different languages.

A new study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour explores how different languages systematically reuse these smaller word parts while balancing efficiency with the need to keep meanings distinct. Barend Beekhuizen at the Department of Language Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga in Canada has published a News & Views piece on the research in the same journal.

A linguistic tug-of-war

Before setting out on their study, the research team hypothesized that there is a constant tug-of-war between two opposing forces that shape how meanings are mapped to words. They are lexical compression (reusing words to keep things as simple as possible) and lexical differentiation (using different forms to help distinguish meanings). Language can reuse forms for related meanings, but excessive reuse can make meanings harder to distinguish.

The study authors examined a massive linguistic database called Lexibank, which contains word lists from many languages. They studied data from more than 1,900 languages spanning 192 different language families.

To see how these two forces operate in the real world, the researchers used two tools. First, to measure how closely related two ideas are in human memory, they used data from a word-association game in which thousands of people were given a word and asked to say the first thing that came to mind.

Second, they used AI computer models to analyze millions of sentences and measure how similar the contexts of different words are. This gave them a way to estimate how easily two meanings might be confused if they shared the same form.

Making life easier

The team discovered that reusing word parts is not random and occurs across many different language families. Full word reuse happens when one word is used for more than one closely related meaning that people can easily tell apart, such as “mouth” (used for a body part and the opening of a river).

Partial word reuse is a middle-ground compromise. It occurs when two ideas are highly related but frequently pop up in similar contexts. In these cases, language reuses parts of words with related meanings to make things easier but keeps the words slightly different to avoid mix-ups. As the researchers note in their paper, “partial colexification appears to arise as a middle-ground strategy when full colexification risks ambiguity in overlapping contexts.”

An example predicted by the researchers’ model is “fourteen” and “ten.” They are closely related numbers, but since they are used in similar situations, giving them the exact same names would create confusion. Instead, languages may favor forms that share some material while remaining distinct. The study authors say future studies could explore whether the same balance between efficiency and clarity helps shape other parts of language, such as grammar.

L'articolo How languages recycle parts of words to avoid confusion proviene da FERRARI Studio.

DÜSSELDORF.  Multilingualism has long become part of everyday life in German classrooms. As of today, many children grow up speaking several languages – the family language at home, German at school. While educators often perceive this as a challenge, research findings show that multilingualism can actually be an advantage.

Growing up multilingual offers children lots of benefits — just not within the German school system.

One thing is clear: multilingualism is no longer something exceptional. According to the report «Multilingualism in German schools» , commissioned by the Robert Bosch Foundation, an estimated 18% of children and adolescents in Germany speak at least one additional language besides German; among children with a migration background, the percentage even rises to around 48%.  

This should actually be cause of celebration, since scientific research in psycholinguistics suggests that people benefit from multilingual socialization. “Multilingualism is a huge potential,” summarizes Simone Plöger, Junior Professor of School Research and Inclusion at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, referring to the scientific findings.

Multilingualism Brings Great Opportunities

In her lecture at the conference “Multilingualism in Schools – Recognizing, Appreciating, and Advancing It”, Plöger explains that multilingual individuals often possess much deeper metalinguistic knowledge — in other words, they better understand how language works — than people who speak only one language. As a result, multilingual people can often learn additional languages more easily. She also says: “They have greater creative potential, which is linked to cognitive networking, and therefore also stronger problem-solving skills that exceed those of monolingual individuals, as well as greater overall cognitive flexibility. All of this has been demonstrated through studies in psycholinguistics.”

Nevertheless, multilingualism is still often regarded as a problem in schools. Professor Plöger attributes this phenomenon to persistent social prejudices. As an example, one enduring belief is that multilingualism overwhelms children. Plöger counters this by saying: “Today we know that this theory has been disproven. All people have the cognitive ability to learn several languages, and this does not constitute excessive demand.” Instead, there is considerable variation in language acquisition, even among children raised monolingually. “Some children grasp grammatical structures very early, others much later, and some hardly speak at first and then suddenly produce five-word sentences.” With sufficient language support, multilingual children can acquire a language just as quickly as monolingual children.

Disadvantages Caused by the Structure of the School System

Another persistent myth is the belief that children should speak as much German as possible in order to learn the language more quickly. Plöger explains: “However, this has been disproven for second-language acquisition. In fact, it is very useful to make use of the multilingual resources that already exist, because connecting languages actually helps students acquire the target language — in this case German — more effectively.”

Yet despite research showing that multilingualism is not an obstacle to linguistic or cognitive development, multilingual students perform worse on average within the German education system. “We can see this, for example, in PISA and other major educational studies such as IGLU, which consistently demonstrate it,” says Plöger. In her view, the cause of this contradiction lies less in multilingualism itself and more in the structures of the school system. Schools in Germany, she argues, are traditionally designed around the assumption “that children grow up monolingually — specifically monolingually in German.” Teaching materials, expectations, and examinations are all geared toward a monolingual student body.

Schools Should Use Multilingual Resources

However, this no longer reflects reality. Both Plöger and the Robert Bosch Foundation report therefore advocate valuing linguistic diversity in schools and integrating it into teaching. The junior professor refers to her own research involving immigrant students. These students already possessed academic linguistic skills in their native languages — foundations that teachers could use to support second-language acquisition by building connections between languages. “’How does a feature work in other languages, and then how does it work in German?’ These are the metalinguistic competencies that students acquire, beyond the linguistic rules.”

According to the Robert Bosch Foundation report, multilingual approaches in the classroom benefit the entire class. They can “promote the reading and writing skills of all students as well as their language awareness.” Learners are more motivated and participate more actively in lessons. In addition, multilingual teaching approaches support identity formation: “Students demonstrate greater self-efficacy — meaning increased self-confidence and empowerment — as well as greater initiative.”

Against this background, the authors of the Foundation’s report recommend supporting multilingual children in the classroom by allowing them to think and work in all the languages available to them. “By doing so, students could initially approach tasks in or with the help of their family languages and work in groups with children who share the same native language for reading and research. Afterwards, they can switch to German when presenting their solutions.”

Demands On Teachers

However, both the report and Plöger emphasize that the transition from simple recognition to the systematic use of linguistic resources is by no means a given for teachers. Many educators perceive linguistic diversity “as a challenge for which they do not feel prepared. And this can lead to overload” the Robert Bosch Foundation publication states. Plöger adds with regard to teachers: “Crucial is the ability to tolerate uncertainty. I must be able to tolerate people speaking in languages I do not understand, so I have to give up control and no longer have oversight of everything.”

At this point, the Foundation’s report attempts to ease concerns about this perceived loss of control. To do so, it refers to analyses of audio and video recordings from classrooms, according to which “students primarily use family languages to solve classroom tasks or coordinate with other students.”

A Task for School Development — and for Politics

The experts do not see the responsibility for recognizing multilinguism as an integral part of the educational equity — as Plöger describes it — as resting solely with teachers. Rather, they see it as a central task of school development. On this point, the Junior Professor and the report’s authors are in agreement.

The Robert Bosch Foundation publication goes one step further by focusing attention towards policymakers. Educators, it argues, need more support in order to address the reality of multilingualism effectively. The report therefore calls for greater emphasis on linguistic diversity within teacher education programs. “To this end, it would be important to bindingly integrate the approach to linguistic diversity into initial and continuous teacher training, as a responsibility shared by all actors within the school system.”

L'articolo “Multilingualism Is a Huge Potential” — Yet Schools Barely Use It proviene da FERRARI Studio.

KARACHI –

Have you noticed that when we speak English with our families and friends, it often sounds like a direct translation of Urdu, and yet everyone understands perfectly. It is quite different from when we speak English with a British or American person, where we subconsciously try to fine tune our accent and select our vocabulary more carefully. After all, they probably wouldn’t understand “time pass” or “chill scene”, would they!

Over decades, English in Pakistan has evolved into a distinct variety known as desi English by blending it with Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Balochi, and Gujrati, creating a unique hybrid of vocabulary, syntax, and cultural idioms. Urdu, already an amalgam of several languages, is very absorbent and accommodating with words from other languages. This is not only because of some 50 plus alphabets and phonic sounds in Urdu, but also because the people speaking it have a natural flair and flamboyance to pick up words and phrases from other languages.

This evolution includes high rates of code-switching, the adoption of regional cultural nuances, and the creation of new lexical terms influenced by local politics, cuisine, and military jargon, reflecting a shift toward a local “nativised” identity. Some English words are so commonly used in Urdu, these are almost Urdu words, for instance spicy, relax, smart.

This “Pakistanisation” of English is driven by media, social media, and a young generation adopting it as a vibrant, living language rather than a rigid foreign language.

English in Pakistan is more than just a language—it is a lasting imprint of colonial rule that continues to shape who gets ahead. From classrooms to corridors of power, it quietly draws lines between privilege and exclusion. Though rooted in the British era, English remains the gatekeeper of opportunity, dominating official communication and access to education, influence, and upward mobility. In a country where fluency often signals intelligence and social standing, it reinforces a divide between those who possess it and those who do not, carrying forward colonial hierarchies into the present.

According to the Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review Volume 3 No 4 (2025), even though the Pakistani English language has undergone significant linguistic and socio-cultural growth, it remains underestimated as a unique form of English in Pakistani academic, educational and policy-making circles. Existing literature records structural, lexical and phonological changes due to globalisation and local identity; however, these aspects are often discussed as deviations, instead of suggesting that this represents a distinct linguistic form. Research on Pakistani English—especially detailed, systematic studies in both academic and everyday contexts—is still limited. Because of this, we don’t fully understand its dual nature: as a legacy of post-colonial history and as a language with growing global potential.

According to studies, Pakistani English language has systematic features that are affected by the Urdu and local languages, especially in pronunciation, stress patterns and lexical innovation. These repetitive characteristics also show that Pakistani English is forming its own standards but not just imitating the British or American ones. Digital communication has increased the speed of this process by creating linguistic innovation in younger speakers who often combine local phrases with English in the online environment.

English a straight marker of class, noting that people’s fluency in English is commonly seen as a sign of intelligence, sophistication or cosmopolitanism, while the Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review Volume 3 No 4 (2025) reveals that those with weaker English are seen as less capable, irrespective of their real knowledge.

Here are some phrases and words that we use in our own way in Pakistan:

We like to make a plural out of everything: beautifuls, summers, winters.

Fresh up for freshen up

Blender mistake instead of blunder

Jeans ki pant for jeans

Jeans ki jacket for denim jacket

Coke ki botal instead of Coke

Dressing instead of style

Style instead of swag

Mitting instead of meeting

More down instead of lower

Full and final instead of final

Chill scene instead of being relaxed

Scene kya hai for what’s the plan

Time pass for mediocre

Outclass for beyond excellent

Very English for super refined

Prepone – to bring forward

Pass out – to graduate

I am knowing – it is in my knowledge

No? – is it not?

Only – just

Biodata – we still use it for CV or resume

Do the needful – follow the instruction

Revert – respond

Call karlo – call me

Send karden send

Half-fry – sunny side up

Next to next week – week after next

Same to same – same

Out of station – out of town

On the backside – behind

God promise – a very true promise!

Do one thing – here’s an idea

First class – super good

Shopper – plastic bag for shopping

Refill karlo – refill

Top up karlo – top up

Recharge karlo – recharge

Kya problem hai? – what’s the problem?

Phone on karo – switch on your phone

Fabrication – fabric

Laugh at it, giggle or turn your nose up, but each phrase carries a world within it—context, culture, shorthand intimacy. They may not pass a grammar test in London or New York, but they pass something more important here: recognition, understandability.

So perhaps the question is no longer whether Pakistani English is “ct.”

The real question is: who gets to decide what correctness even means?

Because in the end, languages don’t stay pure—they stay alive and it is more important that they stay alive, rather than pure. I mean, who even speaks Sumerian, Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, and Biblical Hebrew anymore? These languages died in purity, unevolved and stagnant. But Pakistani English, in all its hybrid, inventive, and slightly rebellious glory, is very much alive, and kicking!

I was intrigued to find out that there is a non-profit organisation called The English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP), founded in 1961, which has a parent organisation, the ESU, founded in the UK in 1918, by Sir Evelyn Wrench. Over the years, the ESUP has been led by various prominent personalities including Kader Jaffer, Byram Avari (Late), Shahida Jameel, and Hussain Haroon.

Apart from organising national competitions, global connections, and a range of opportunities for students and educators alike, the ESUP has created platforms to bring people together from diverse backgrounds.

“The learning of a foreign language is not an easy, nor a natural phenomenon,” says Zohra Ashraf, a member of the National Executive Council of ESUP, discussing the evolution of ‘Urdlish’ or ‘Paki(E)nglish. “It usually occurs with initially a reluctant realisation of its need to fill in gaps in essential communication. It then moves on to simple ways out by engaging with commonly heard and used vocabulary and gradually to its grammatical adjustments into syntactical formation and finally developing its own peculiar hybrid linguistic structures, culture and characteristics.”

She explains that before fully understanding how a hybrid language is different from a pure, unadulterated, natural language, it is necessary to understand how languages are acquired.

“The normal, natural way of knowing a language intrinsically is being born into it, rather than learning it later in life,” shares Ashraf. “The ‘knowing’ begins in the womb with every day development of the embryo imbibing it from its symbiotic environs, and further enhanced post birth by the environment, culture and traditions enveloping him. The other way to learn a language is by immersing oneself in its environment.”

The human mind has been designed to also absorb a language via the body’s seven sensorial systems. Humans of varied levels of sensitivities, IQ, EQ, intelligence and sensorial skills achieve the new language as per their level of capabilities of absorption and assimilation.

“Those not motivated enough,” points out Ashraf, “need it to get by with its use in day-to-day functionalities of life, and settle for achieving a hybrid level of the language. English, being the only European language that has spread its wings well across the nations of the globe, has naturally become the anchoring medium for the development of hybrid language in the world today. It began with acquiring the status of a colonial language first, and progressed to global language of trade and knowledge sharing, to gradually gaining the status of language of universal, formal, political and agenda driven communication.”

Since the beginning of the new millennium, English has proclaimed itself to become a vehicle for peddling global friendship and world peace. “As it happened, everywhere that English went, it planted its seeds and the possibilities for sprouting of hybrid language, encouraging the incorporation of English vocabulary, linguistic characteristics and cultural symbolisms into the fabric of native national languages,” shares Ashraf. “The natural outcome has been the rise of the mingled languages, namely English with Mandarin Chinese known as ‘Mandlish’; with Malay language as ‘Minglish’; with Hindi language as ‘Hindlish’; with Swahili as ‘Swanglish’ and soon the world will become comfortable with ‘Urdlish’ or ‘Pakinglish.’

As elsewhere, in Pakistan too, there had been an initial aversion to English, which was pronounced the language of enslavers, hence to be abhorred and shunned. However, over half a century post the great wars, as development and modernisation surfaced and led to visible prosperity of the exclusive class of the “haves all.” Realising that, the “have nots” did not take long to join the band wagon of the “want to haves.”

Discussing the role of digital media in development of desi English, Ashraf explained that easy and cheap access to technology, the magic wand of today that brought information, and learning skills with a click of a button and created high speed currency with hashtag vocabulary, setting magic into motion. “It got propelled by some wizard who created the art of transliterating Urdu into Romanised form and hey presto ‘Urdlish’ was born,” she comments.

High currency English words were inducted into Urdu phrases to gain greater and easier access to the less known English language, eg. Woh tau habitually late atay haine/ barri he stormy barish thi/ baby ko stomach ache ho raha hai/ terrorist bhaag gaya/ etc.

The exercise has been moving on shifting gradually towards dominance of English with interpolation of Urdu words retained and adapted into the grammatical and syntactical structures of English or Urdu as per convenience.

Urdulish, is a typically Pakistani form of English with strong evidence of not only the induction of Urdu vocabulary into English but also the tonality and cadence of Urdu along with structural adaptations. Some examples being: I was sick, lekin, I went to the maiyyat/ we had lassi, samosas, laddoos and kachoriyaan.

Are we truly moving towards an accepted, established hybrid Urdu-English language? “Yes, definitely,” Ashraf confirmed. “It is the way of the world and is boldly considered a right to move forward in the simplest and easiest way without a care for proprieties or cultural niceties of the language. Everything is fair in love and war. And this is the struggle of the “have nots” to become the ‘have it now to keep forever!”

With a smile, she added, “A political view, though not a very healthy nor a fair one, is that as language is the strongest cohesive force keeping people bound together even across geographical boundaries, perhaps England has created a new world colony based on language ties.” A debate for another time.

L'articolo Not quite english, not quite urdu. We don’t just speak English in Pakistan—we bend it, remix it, and make it our own proviene da FERRARI Studio.

On 25 March 2026, ITI Chief Executive Sara Robertson joined a panel of academics and industry leaders for a webinar hosted by the University of Surrey’s Centre for Translation Studies, marking the 40th anniversary of its MA in Translation.

The webinar addressed an important question that we hear frequently from members, students, and the public: given the rapid development of AI tools, is translation still a worthwhile profession to enter?

Studying Translation in the Age of AI – Why and How? brought together representatives from Amnesty International, Revolut, the International Maritime Organisation, the Association of Translation Companies, and the Chartered Institute of Linguists, alongside leading academics from Surrey, Dublin City University, Newcastle University, and Université Laval. The session was aimed at undergraduates, recent graduates, and professionals considering a future in the field.

Drawing on ITI’s strategic perspective, Sara argued that the widespread availability of AI translation tools has changed the market in a practical way – many people who would previously have commissioned a professional now believe they can produce a serviceable translation themselves. But this, she suggested, represents a false equivalence between generating a piece of text in the target language and a professionally delivered service that offers a tailored solution. ITI’s response to this challenge is to make a clearer case for what professional translation and interpreting actually involves, and why the human qualities that define it cannot be replicated by a machine. At the heart of that case is professionalism.

In setting out the case for advocating more strongly for professionalism Sara refered to her previous remarks about the seven hallmarks of professionalism that apply to translators and interpreters –

• holding specialist knowledge
• holding recognised credentials
• adhering to a code of professional conduct
• keeping skills up to date
• exercising independent judgement
• placing client and public interest first
• taking responsibility for their work

These, she argued, are what distinguish a professional from someone who simply has access to a translation tool – and they matter more, not less, in an AI-enabled environment.

Central to ITI’s work in this area is its focus on ethics and professional conduct. ITI’s revised Code of Professional Conduct, approved by members last year and informed by the Coffee House project run in partnership with Dr Joseph Lambert of Cardiff University, places professional judgement at its centre. Sara argued that professional judgement – the ability to weigh competing considerations, recognise when something is wrong, and take responsibility for decisions – is precisely what AI cannot replicate, and is one of the profession’s most important assets that we need to communicate more effectively to clients and stakeholders.

The webinar also forms part of a wider body of work by ITI, ATC, and CIOL on the strategic case for languages in UK higher education, which highlights a growing demand for graduates who understand how language AI works, know where it fails, and are equipped for a professional future combining linguistic, technological, and management expertise.

The student perspective on these themes is captured powerfully in a new article – Translation in the Age of AI: Why there is hope for emerging translators – recently published on the ITI website. Eleanor Manning, an ITI student member currently studying for an MA in Translation and AI at the University of Surrey, writes about the scepticism she regularly encounters from those around her – and why she remains optimistic.

“Aspiring translators shouldn’t stand back and lose hope. Instead, we should grasp the opportunities this new era presents with both hands”.

L'articolo Studying Translation in the Age of AI – Why and How? proviene da FERRARI Studio.

Original article by Alma Milisic and Mohammed Haddad, published on Al Jazeera, 18 December 2025.

Arabic is one of the world’s most widely spoken languages with at least 400 million speakers, including 200 million native speakers and 200 million to 250 million non-native speakers.

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) serves as the formal language for government, legal matters and education, and it is widely used in international and religious contexts. Additionally, more than 25 dialects are spoken primarily across the Middle East and North Africa.

Every year on December 18, the United Nations commemorates World Arabic Language Day, celebrating Arabic as “the pillar of the cultural diversity of humanity”. The date was chosen to mark the day in 1973 on which the UN General Assembly adopted Arabic as one of its six official languages.

In the following visual explainer, Al Jazeera lists some of the most common words in today’s English language that originated from Arabic or passed through Arabic before reaching English.

How Arabic words entered other languages

As the most spoken of the Semitic languages, a group of languages that originated across Southwest Asia and Africa, Arabic has influenced societies and other languages for centuries.

Linguists say the presence of Arabic words in other languages reflects long histories of contact through trade, scholarship and cultural exchange.

English, Spanish, French, Turkish and many other languages across the globe have borrowed hundreds to thousands of words from Arabic that are used in everyday language.

Muntasir Al Hamad, a linguist and professor of Arabic at Qatar University, says this type of borrowing is a “natural phenomenon” and languages have borrowed from one another for centuries.

“Arabic is no different in that sense. This is reflected in vocabulary, science, technology and civilisation,” he tells Al Jazeera.

An alphabet with many forms

Arabic uses an alphabet of 28 letters and is written from right to left. The script is cursive, and its letters change shape depending on their position in a word. Short vowels are typically omitted in everyday writing.

These features, together with Arabic’s extensive vocabulary, have contributed to the perception that the language is difficult for non-native speakers to learn.

However, Al Hamad says this perception is far from accurate for many people.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about Arabic is that it is among the most difficult languages in the world,” he said. “In reality, it is simply a language with systems that differ from English or from many European languages.”

He added that while the Arabic script may appear unfamiliar to some learners, it is “quite familiar” to speakers of other languages, such as Urdu and Farsi. Speakers of those languages, Al Hamad says, often find Arabic easier to read while Turkish speakers may find its vocabulary easier to memorise due to the thousands of Arabic words Turkish has absorbed.

From A for algebra to T for tariffs

One of the biggest contributions the Arabic language has made to the world is in the fields of mathematics and science.

Over time, some of these words entered other languages in shortened or adapted forms, becoming so familiar that their origins are often forgotten.

One example is algebra, a cornerstone of mathematics. The term comes from the Arabic word al-jabr, meaning “restoration” or “reunion”. It originally appeared in the title of a ninth-century work on solving equations by the Baghdad-based Persian scholar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, after whom the word “algorithm” is derived.

Other Arabic words underwent more dramatic transformations. Carat, the unit used to measure the weight of gemstones, traces its roots to the Arabic word qirat.

According to Al Hamad, these changes reveal how English and other languages adapt unfamiliar sounds. “Because English has relatively few words beginning with Q,” he explains, “Arabic words such as qirat were reshaped using more familiar sounds like C, G or K, producing forms such as carat.”

The same process can be seen in everyday vocabulary beyond science and mathematics. The word giraffe, for instance, comes from the Arabic zarafa, and went through a similar transformation as English and other European languages reshaped the original sounds to fit their own phonetic patterns, much as they did with words beginning with the Arabic letter Q.

On the other hand, words such as tariff, which is derived from the Arabic word ta’rif, meaning “to notify” or “to announce”, entered English through contact with other languages involved in trade.

Al Hamad says these words “most likely entered the English language via Romance languages” although not necessarily in the forms we recognise today. He adds that they also passed through Turkish, which “borrowed heavily from Arabic” and influenced the medieval world through trade and warfare. Later, during the British colonial era, English both borrowed from and contributed words directly to Arabic.

L'articolo From A for algebra to T for tariffs: Arabic words used in English speech proviene da FERRARI Studio.

TOKYO (AP) — I speak decent Spanish, picked up working several decades ago as a news and sports reporter in Spain, Mexico and Argentina.

Now I report from Tokyo. After seven years, I still can’t grasp Japanese. My weekly language classes have taught me humility more than anything else.

Ayaka Ono, my current Japanese teacher, estimates she’s tutored about 600 students over 15 years. They’ve been mostly between 20 and 50. I’m more than a decade beyond her eldest.

“I find older students take tiny, tiny steps and then they fall back,” Ono-san — “san” is an honorific in Japanese to show respect — tells me. “They can’t focus as long. I teach something one minute and they forget the next.”

It’s well established that children have an easier time learning second languages. In recent years, scientists have studied whether being bilingual may help ward off the memory lapses and reduced mental sharpness that come with an aging brain. Much of the research on the potential benefit involved people who spoke two or more languages for most of their lives, not older adult learners.

“The science shows that managing two languages in your brain — over a lifetime — makes your brain more efficient, more resilient and more protected against cognitive decline,” said Ellen Bialystok, a distinguished research professor emeritus at York University in Toronto who is credited with advancing the idea of a possible “bilingual advantage” in the late 1980s.

There’s good news for older adults like me: Attempting to acquire a new language is worthwhile, and not just because it makes reading a menu easier while traveling abroad. Bialystok, a cognitive neuroscientist, recommends studying a new language at any age, comparing the challenge to word puzzles and brain-training games that are promoted to slow the onset of dementia.

“Trying to learn a language late in life is a great idea but understand it won’t make you bilingual and is probably too late to provide the protective effects of cognitive aging that come from early bilingualism,” she told The Associated Press. “However, learning a new language is a stimulating and engaging activity that uses all of your brain, so it is like a whole-body exercise.”

The latest research

A large study published by the science journal Nature Aging in November suggests that speaking multiple languages protects against more rapid brain aging, and that the effect increases with the number of languages.

The findings, based on research involving 87,149 healthy people ages 51 to 90, “underscore the key role of multilingualism in fostering healthier aging trajectories,” the authors wrote.

Researchers acknowledged the study’s limitations, including a sample population drawn only from 27 European countries with “diverse linguistic and sociopolitical contexts.”

Bialystok was not involved in the project but has researched second-language acquisition in children and adults, including whether being bilingual delays the progression of Alzheimer’s disease or aids in multi-tasking and problem-solving. She said the new study “ties all the pieces together.”

“Over the lifespan, people who have managed and used two languages end up with brains that are in better shape and more resilient,” she said.

Judith Kroll, a cognitive psychologist who heads the Bilingualism, Mind and Brain Lab at the University of California, Irvine, used the expressions “mental athletics” and “mental somersaults” to describe how the brain juggles more than one language.

She said there have been several efforts to examine language learning in older adults and the ramifications.

“I would say there are probably not enough studies to date to be absolutely definitive about this,” she told The AP. “But the evidence we have is very promising, suggesting both that older adults are certainly able to learn new languages and benefit from that learning.”

More studies are needed on whether language lessons help people in midlife and beyond maintain some cognitive abilities.

Kroll compared the state of the field to the late 20th century, when the dominant thinking was that exposing infants and young children to two or more languages put them at a educational disadvantage.

“What we know now is the opposite,” she said.

Learning a language later in life

I visited Spain’s Mediterranean coast in the 1990s when I worked in Madrid. I was shocked by how many non-Spaniards there had lived in the country for years and could say only a few words in Spanish.

Now I get it. When I attempt Japanese, the reaction is often an incredulous, “And you’ve been here how long?”

I have workarounds to navigate my hostile linguistic environment. One is saying “itsumono.” It means “the same as always,” or “the usual.” It’s enough to order morning coffee at a neighborhood cafe or lunch at several regular stops.

As an aside, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to master, along with Arabic, Cantonese, Korean and Mandarin. Romance languages such as French, Italian or Spanish are easier.

My once-a-week class is grueling, and one hour is my limit. I use this analogy: my brain is a closet without enough empty hangers, and Japanese doesn’t go with anything in my wardrobe. The writing system is intimidating for an English speaker, the word order is flipped, and politeness is valued more than clarity.

During the 4 1/2 years I spent reporting from Rio de Janeiro, I got by with Portuñol — an improvised blend of Spanish and Portuguese — and the patience of Brazilians. There is no such halfway house for Japanese. You either speak it or you don’t.

I’ll never progress beyond preschool level in Japanese, but overloading my brain with lessons might work in the same way that my regular weight-training sessions help maintain physical strength.

Ono-san, my Japanese teacher, called language-learning apps “better than nothing.” Bialystok said technology can be a useful learning tool, “but progress of course requires using the language in real situations with other people.”

“If old folks try to learn a new language, you are not going to be very successful. You are not going to become bilingual,” Bialystok said. “But the experience of trying to learn the language is good for your brain. So what I say is this. What’s hard for your brain is good for your brain. And learning a language, especially in later life, is hard but good for your brain.”

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If you are fluent in any language other than English, you have probably noticed that some things are impossible to translate exactly.

A Japanese designer marvelling at an object’s shibui (a sort of simple yet timelessly elegant beauty) may feel stymied by English’s lack of a precisely equivalent term.

Danish hygge refers to such a unique flavour of coziness that entire books seem to have been needed to explain it.

Portuguese speakers may struggle to convey their saudade, a mixture of yearning, wistfulness and melancholy. Speakers of Welsh will have an even harder time translating their hiraeth, which can carry a further sense of longing after one’s specifically Celtic culture and traditions.

Imprisoned by language

The words of different languages can divide and package their speakers’ thoughts and experiences differently, and provide support for the theory of “linguistic relativity”.

Also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, this theory derives in part from the American linguist Edward Sapir’s 1929 claim that languages function to “index” their speakers’ “network of cultural patterns”: if Danish speakers experience hygge, then they should have a word to talk about it; if English speakers don’t, then we won’t.

Yet Sapir also went a step further, claiming language users “do not live in the objective world alone […] but are very much at the mercy” of their languages.

This stronger theory of “linguistic determinism” implies English speakers may be imprisoned by our language. In this, we actually cannot experience hygge – or at least, not in the same way that a Danish person might. The missing word implies a missing concept: an empty gap in our world of experience.

Competing theories

Few theories have proven as controversial. Sapir’s student Benjamin Lee Whorf famously claimed in 1940 that the Hopi language’s lack of verb tenses (past, present, future) indicated its speakers have a different “psychic experience” of time and the universe than Western physicists.

This was countered by a later study devoting nearly 400 pages to the language of time in Hopi, which included concepts such as “today”, “January” and – yes – discussions of actions happening in the present, past and future.

Even heard of “50 Inuit words for snow?” Whorf again.

Although the number he actually claimed was closer to seven, this was later said to be both too many and too few. (It depends on how you define a “word”.)

More recently, the anthropological linguist Dan Everett claimed the Amazonian Pirahã language lacks “recursion”, or the capacity to put one sentence inside another (“{I trust {you’ll come {to realise that {my theory is better.}}}}”).

If true, this would suggest that Pirahã differs in the exact property that Noam Chomsky has argued to be the principal defining property of any human language.

Once again, Everett’s claims have been argued both to go too far and not far enough. The cycle would appear to be endless, such that two excellent recent books on the topic have adopted almost diametrically opposite perspectives – even down to the opposite wording of their titles!

Language as a comfortable house

There is truth in both perspectives.

At least some aspects of human languages must be identical or nearly so, since they are all used by members of the same human species, with the same sorts of bodies, brains and patterns of communication.

Yet recent increases in understanding of the world’s Indigenous languages have taught us two important additional lessons. First, there is far more diversity among the world’s languages than previously believed. Second, differences are often related to the patterns of culture and environment in which languages are traditionally spoken.

For example, in many Himalayan languages, an expression like “that house” comes in three flavours: “that-house-upward”, “that-house-downward” and “that-house-on-the-same-level” – a reflection of the mountainous area these speakers live in.

When their speakers migrate to lower-elevation regions, the system may shift from “upward/downward” to “upriver/downriver”. If there is no large enough river present then the distinction may disappear.

In Indigenous Asian languages of peninsular Malaysia, there are large vocabularies referring to finely-distinguished natural odours. This is an index of the richly diverse foraging environment of their speakers.

Studies of small, tightly-knit communities like the Milang of northeastern India have revealed how languages can require speakers to mark their information source: whether a statement is the general knowledge of one’s social group, or is arrived at through a different type of source – such as hearsay, or deduction from evidence.

Speakers of languages with such “evidentiality” systems can learn to speak languages – like English – without them. Yet native language habits turn out to be hard to break. One recent study showed speakers of some languages with evidentiality add words like “reportedly” or “seemingly” into their statements more often than native English speakers.

Human languages may not be a prison their speakers cannot escape from. They may be more like comfortable houses one finds it difficult to leave. Although a word from another language can always be borrowed, its unique cultural meanings may always remain just a little bit out of reach.

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Human translators possess a skill that machines have not yet been able to replicate: a mind capable of interpreting implicit meaning and grasping linguistic nuances, such as irony and puns.

Relying on a professional translator also means relying on a subject-matter expert. In specialised translations such as technical manuals or medical reports, choosing the correct terminology is crucial. A single incorrect word can lead to serious consequences. Moreover, many legal documents require certified translations that can only be signed by an authorized translator – we cannot ask a machine to “take responsibility” for them.

Many clients seek translators with expertise in specific fields, not just general linguistic knowledge. Creativity often plays a crucial role! In advertising, machine translation carries significant risks: even a small error can undermine the effectiveness of a message, making it unintentionally humorous or ineffective. For example, the English expression “Power to you” is often automatically translated as “Potere a te ” or “Forza a te ”, which are less impactful than a more engaging solution such as “Tutto il potere nelle tue mani ”.

The cultural and stylistic mediation of a text is another area in which translators can fully demonstrate their skills, since finding creative solutions is particularly challenging for algorithms, which often struggle with ambiguity and are not designed to interpret language beyond its literal meaning.

Digital tools and software are designed to support and enhance translators’ work (and that of anyone else), not to replace them. Competent translators also stand out for their level of technological proficiency.
Continuous professional development and familiarity with new technologies lead to better performance and greater competitiveness in the market, while also increasing efficiency. Today’s companies demand high-quality content delivered quickly. In this context, machine translation provides a useful first draft, but it is ultimately the human translator who reviews the text, decides what to keep, what to correct, and how to refine it.

Technology is a natural part of modern evolution, and when used correctly it does not replace humans but enhances their capabilities. In translation, AI can speed up processes, but only a professional translator can ensure quality, consistency and cultural appropriateness. For companies, it is therefore essential to consciously manage these tools – maintaining control over them rather than surrendering to them. Otherwise, the risk is clear: in the hands of inexperienced employees, technological tools can compromise content quality, producing texts that appear acceptable only to non-specialists.

Investing in human resources who are capable of constantly updating themselves makes it possible to adapt to an ever-changing market. From this perspective, the synergy between human expertise and technology becomes the real strength: a translator who knows how to integrate digital tools with linguistic sensitivity can offer increasingly refined and customised solutions tailored to companies’ needs.

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