Wilson Gray was Re: linguist (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

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I was sitting here surprised that Wilson hadn't joined this thread, and then I realized he hasn't posted for 3 weeks.  Hope he's okay . . .

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 10:33 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: linguist
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Re: linguist
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> Precisely. Military linguists are, among other things, interpreters. There is
> no need to offer a separate sub definition 'interpreter' any more than there
> is a need to offer a separate subentry 'transcriber' or 'language teacher'
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Jan 4, 2011, at 9:40 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
>
> > The job description of the US Army MOS 98G is:
> >
> > "The Cryptologic linguist performs and supervises detection, acquisition,
> location, identification, and exploitation of foreign communications a all
> echelons using signals equipment. Translates, transcribes, gists or produces
> summaries of foreign language transmissions in English/target languages."
> >
> > Source: http://www.us-army-info.com/pages/mos/intelligence/98g.html
> >
> > But that's not the only use for "linguists" in the military. Those military
> linguists who assist in arms control inspections routinely conduct consecutive
> and even simultaneous translation; it's a fundamental part of their job. They
> also assist in other diplomatic situations where Russian language
> interpretation is required.
> >
> > See: http://reedline.com/Portal/DTRA_Linguists.htm
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> ronbutters at AOL.COM
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 9:12 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: linguist
> >
> > I always assumed that the military use of "linguist" referred to people who
> know more than one language. They usually function as translators, not merely
> interpreters. In fact, many rarely if ever serve as interpreters at all.
> >
> > Perhaps the OED listing should remove the "interpreter" entirely. As V
> describes the entry, it seems to be little different from defining "dog" as 'a
> fice'.
> >
> > Sent from my iPad
> >
> > On Jan 4, 2011, at 7:41 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> >> I was puzzled to discover that OED lists "linguist n. � 3. An
> >> interpreter. Obs.". There is an apparent exception made for China, where
> >> the term may be "perhaps not yet obsolete". The last citation is from 1882.
> >>
> >> Yet, the term is alive an well in the US military--where it came up
> >> repeatedly over the past decade in connection with the Iraq War and,
> >> particularly, because of DADT that forced the removal of a number of
> >> "army linguists". Language Log has had some coverage of this, but, as
> >> far as I can recall, never mentioned the OED entry.
> >>
> >> The bottom line is that there is nothing obsolete about it. It might
> >> have been restricted to jargon and regionalism (e.g., China), but it is
> >> still being used regularly.
> >>
> >> VS-)
> >>
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