The Pulse of Language, Translation,
Interpreting and Interculturation
Beyond words and languages: Building bridges across worlds
Issue No. 006 · 13 November 2026 · Weekend Edition
Editorial noteAI is learning to speak, to look and to listen: who gets heard?
This week AI translation learned to carry your voice and, on paper at least, to move your lips. DeepL launched Aure, which carries a speaker’s tone and pace into translated speech. A Microsoft patent application describes live video whose lips are redrawn to match translated words, and whose wording could be rewritten without telling viewers. Japan’s prisons are giving officers palm-sized translators for foreign inmates, and Apple TV is adding sign language interpretation to selected films.
Behind the novelty sit older questions. Who decides what viewers are told a speaker said? Which languages get a place in the plan? Morocco’s AI strategy names Darija, Google’s Language Explorer maps thousands of languages, and a prize-winning translator in Sharjah says AI cannot fully capture cultural nuance and human emotion. Meanwhile universities and funders are betting on people: Long Beach will open a master’s in translation and interpreting, and Cyprus keeps funding translation between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot literature.
For Metaglossia, interculturation means that technology may carry the voice, but communities and professionals still decide what is meant.
Prizes, poetry and book fairs show translators’ work gaining visibility and new readers.
After reading a novella by Danyao, Ku asked to translate it, and Danyao suggested the whole collection, which led to Giraffe Is the Name of the World. Ku sees translation as taking responsibility for conveying an experience a summary cannot, and solved a repeated reported-speech ending by keeping only the first “Or so it is told”.
Read the original: The Korea TimesIeva Lešinska’s translation of selected poems is the first Latvian collection of his poetry, published as Ireland marks 30 years since his Nobel Prize. A touring exhibition has reached Liepāja, the European Capital of Culture for 2027.
Read the original: Embassy of Ireland in LatviaThe International Booker winner says translators are now more visible and more often credited. She does not expect AI to translate as it should be done: it can render word for word, she says, but not cultural nuance and human emotion.
Read the original: Gulf TodayIn brief
AI translation moves into voice, video and prisons, and the claims keep multiplying.
Launched on 11 November in eight languages, it keeps analysing the incoming speech so that translated speech follows changes in emotion, emphasis and speed. DeepL says it keeps no stored voice profile and deletes voice data when a session ends.
Read the original: MLQ.aiThe application, published on 29 October, would replace spoken words and redraw the mouth to match. Its broadest claim would also remove filler words or rewrite offensive remarks, with no notice to viewers. Many patent applications never become products.
Read the original: Clubic (in French)About 200 palm-sized devices, supporting about 90 languages, reached 129 of 171 institutions, and more are planned. Officers say it helps them understand inmates’ feelings, while staff interpreters are capped at 28 across six institutions.
Read the original: The Japan News (Yomiuri)In brief
Dialects, signs and ancestral languages: who gets a place in the technology and in the story?
An assistant that understands Moroccan Darija, rather than only Modern Standard Arabic or French, is becoming part of the government’s approach to artificial intelligence.
Read the original: LNT (Morocco)The interactive platform is part of its 1,000 Languages Initiative and features in a Berlin museum exhibition running to February 2028. Google also cites Project Waxal in Africa, which collects open speech data in underserved languages.
Read the original: Google ResearchWith iOS 27.2, American and British Sign Language options appear on selected titles, starting with Being Heumann. The article notes that the work needs skilled human interpreters and was produced with Deaf creators.
Read the original: CNETIn brief
Degrees, grants and training are shaping a profession in transition.
The degree opens in 2027–28, with a major gift also funding scholarships. Applications are open until 1 April 2027.
Read the original: CSULBThe course is part of a programme offer meant to improve media organisations’ performance and consolidate professional standards.
Read the original: Qatar News Agency (in French)The scheme, set up in 2010 by the Deputy Ministry of Culture, supports literary translation as a bridge for dialogue. The current deadline is 31 October 2027.
Read the original: Funds for NGOsIn brief
Application deadlines and dates from 13 to 20 November 2026, drawn from UN job boards, the EU Knowledge Centre on Translation and Interpretation and the EST list of conferences, plus two African-language openings closing on 23 November. Always confirm on the official notice.
💼 Jobs
UN Volunteers, remote. Apply by 15 November.
Read the original: UNVUNICEF Peru and Latin America and the Caribbean. Apply by 16 November.
Read the original: UNICEFUN Volunteers, remote. Just outside the 7-day window: closes 23 November.
Read the original: UNVUN Volunteers, remote. Just outside the 7-day window: closes 23 November.
Read the original: UNV🗓️ Events and calls
17 November, 10:30 to 11:30, online (EU Knowledge Centre on Translation and Interpretation).
Read the original: KCTI19 November, Romania, on site and online.
Read the original: EST listThe challenge is not simply to make words travel, but to make understanding possible.
We invite translators, interpreters, researchers, educators, students, publishers, language-technology specialists and language-rights advocates to join the conversation.
Every language carries a world, and every genuine act of translation creates an opportunity for worlds to meet.
Explore the collection: Metaglossia: The Translation World on Scoop.it