Lost in translation

sir – Your report (June 13) on the phasing out of Latin phrases reminded me of an anecdote told to me by a United Nations interpreter.

He was working at a UN fishing conference, where discussions had got a bit fractious. To lighten the atmosphere, the Australian representative said: “I’m sure we can come up with a compromise and reach a squid pro quo.” As the Englishspeaking attendees chuckled, to the puzzlement of the others, the interpreters looked at each other in panic, until one said in Chinese: “Untranslatable joke – please laugh.” Barrie Bain

Wadhurst, East Sussex

sir – Do we really want forms, leaflets and consumer contracts peppered with Latin?

For many years I taught businesswriting skills to officials, and few of them knew the meaning of any Latin expressions beyond etc and vice versa, which are standard English anyway.

Most couldn’t explain the difference between even such simple terms as ie and eg. In documents meant to be understood by a mass audience, it’s quite rightly de rigueur to use English. Martin Cutts

Author, ‘Oxford Guide to Plain English’ High Peak, Derbyshire