Lavengro

BBC English

The coroner (judge) investigating the death of Princess Diana has withdrawn from the case.

BBC royal correspondent June Kelly said Lady Butler-Sloss' decision was a “bombshell”.

“This really is a saga now and the fact that you are now going to be on your third coroner I don't think anyone could have foreseen this,” she said.

I well remember the time when no-one could have foreseen that a BBC correspondent would speak gibberish to the world at large.

¿Tú o Usted?

El asesino de Virginia Cho Seung-hui dejó una nota en la cual escribió, en inglés por supuesto:

You have caused me to do this.

¿Cómo se traduce esta frase a castellano? Sería bastante sencillo, ¿no?

Pues no, porque en El País leímos:

“Ustedes me obligaron a hacerlo”.

mientras La Vanguardia supone una actitud más familiar por parte del asesino:

“Me obligasteis a hacerlo”.

Pero hoy (19 de abril), se ha invertido la idea:

El País tiene:

Ahora tenéis sangre en vuestras manos que nunca podréis lavar

y La Vanguardia

Ahora tienen sangre en las manos que nunca podrán lavar

The future of English

There is considerable debate as to whether English will go the way of Latin, i.e. break up into mutually unintelligible forms, or remain as one unified language. (In the case of Spanish a considerable effort is being made to preserve the unity of the language.) The International Herald Tribune has an interesting article about this subject.

BBC English

The BBC says:

Serbia jails 'filmed executors'

Serbia's war crimes court has convicted four Serb paramilitaries who were apparently filmed as they shot dead six captured young Bosnian Muslims.

                                                                                    

Speaking as an executor myself, I rather hope that they mean 'executioners'.