Almost everyone uses language, so inevitably almost everyone thinks they are an expert in it. I don’t consider myself an expert, though most of my work requires at least language competence and sometimes actual skill, and I’m certainly not a linguist, but I do look at the blogs featured on this feeds page (too often if the truth be told).
(If you are wondering where the translation-related feeds have all gone, I have put them on their own page.)
Most of the blogs represented here are in English, most of the time, but don’t be surprised to find other languages used. Go with the flow – I occasionally find myself pleasantly surprised at how much I can grasp in languages I have never seen before.
Language On the Net
languagehat.com
SYNONYMS.
Back in 2003, Songdog alerted me to a pair of synonyms, gennel and snicket (and the resulting post sparked off almost three years' worth of enjoyable discussion); now he draws my attention to an interesting column by lexicographer Erin McKean (discussed many times on LH, e.g. here and here) about synonyms:Distinguishing between close synonyms (is the ground marshy or boggy?) … [Link]
NORSK NOVELISTS IN THE WOODS.
Silje Bekeng is a young Norwegian writer/journalist/critic who gives (or once gave) her location as "Brooklyn/Oslo"; she has a funny essay at N1BR ("the book review supplement to n+1 magazine") called Into the Woods, about the peculiar obsessions of Norwegian literature going back to Hamsun. I'm sure she exaggerates for effect, but she provides a great series of "excerpts from … [Link]
Language Log
Annals of metonymy
There are some nice examples in Leah Rozen, "Hey, Ryan, Talk to the Dress", NYT 2/10/2010: RYAN, Ryan, Ryan. It’s Journalism 101: who, what, when, where and why, as in, “Who are you wearing?” […] Susan Kaufman, editor of People StyleWatch, said she lost it when Mr. Seacrest didn’t immediately quiz an elegant-looking Sandra Bullock — who would later win … [Link]
The rhetorical structure of a cable news story
More rhetorical analysis-by-synthesis here. [Link]
Urban Word of the Day
Nerd Bird
An airliner that flies between two high-tech cities. It is likely that the majority of the passengers will be nerds. I'm taking the Nerd Bird from Austin to San Jose.
[Link]
recrap
To sum up a discussion composed largely of useless bullshit. Person 1: "Tell me how the staff meeting went." Person 2: "Allow me to recrap…"
[Link]
Wordorigins.org
Relevant Universities
A superb blog posting by Anthony Grafton over at the New York Review of Books on the managerial crisis facing university research in the humanities. Around the world, not just in Britain where Grafton concentrates his focus, universities are under pressure to cut positions and research funds in the humanities because they are “not productive” and don’t attract grant money. … [Link]
Exact Synonyms: Do They Exist?
Erin McKean has a nice piece in the Boston Globe on spelling variations and people’s tendency to assign slightly different meanings to variants; an omelette, to use one of McKean’s examples, is considered by some to be tastier and a finer dining experience than a mere omelet. (It might be interesting to see a study of the spellings of omelet/te … [Link]
the world in words
Haitian Creole on the Beeb, and the fall and rise of Yiddish
Some of the images out of Haiti these past weeks have been heartstopping. They’ve clearly had an effect on decision-makers at the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC is well-known for its radio and TV services in languages other than English. The latest addition is a radio program in Haitian Creole that ran for just a few weeks in the aftermath of … [Link]
Packing flashcards, Pandas and Polyglotty Olympics
So it’s another edition top five language stories of the past month, with The World’s cartoon queen and podstar Carol Hills. 
5. The End of Bo. As repeat readers and listeners know, I’m on the fence when it comes to recording the death of languages. No, it’s not that. It’s really that I can’t come up with a storyline that isn’t … [Link]
GrammarBlog
Part of the “furniture”
If it’s quality but low price furniture you’re looking for, steer well clear of this establishment in Nottingham. Thanks to Samantha Moran for resisting the temptation to do ironic “air quotes” with her fingers and instead choosing to take these photos. 
And what on earth are those arrows meant to mean? Baffling. [Link]
Now you’re just being sarcastic
Ok, this guy is either a master of irony or a complete moron. 
In case you can’t make it out, the sign says, “Dry Cleaning at it is best”. Astonishing. Of course it’s the logical next step from the usual mistake of confusing the possesive its with the contraction it’s but still… Many thanks to Claire who spotted this “somewhere … [Link]
Talk Wordy to Me
Beyoncé + Lord of the Rings = Epic Win
And now, a nerdy interlude. I usually like the webcomic xkcd, but I LOVED the most recent one. I had to share it. 
[Link]
Why I turned off my ad blocker
I had been using the AdBlock Plus extension in Firefox for years to keep advertising off of the Web sites I visit. AdBlock was always one of the first things I grabbed when doing a new installation. I never thought much of it, thinking that since I never click on ads anyway, it wasn’t hurting the Web sites I visit … [Link]
World Wide Words updates
Weird Words: Galanthophile [New]
Lovers of snowdrops have in recent decades sometimes become known as galanthophiles. [Link]
Turns of Phrase: Neurocinematics [New]
Neurocinematics is a niche academic speciality that studies the way that watching films affects the mind. [Link]
Omniglot blog
Script charts
I decided to improve the script charts on the hiragana and katakana pages on Omniglot today – something I’ve been meaning to do to a long time. Here’s one of the new charts: 
As well as put improved charts of the kana online, I’ve also put links to Word and PDF versions of the charts for handy offline reference. Do … [Link]
Name the language
Here’s part of a song in a mystery language. Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken? [Link]
Words at Work
Why We Need Editers
One mistake, and a bunch of comments about "grammar," well worth the read. The defense of copy editors is nice.
Editing at the Speed of…Oh, No Editing.
It should come as a surprise to no one to learn that magazines often do less or even no copy editing on their web material. (And this isn't limited to magazines.) I don't know why companies do this. The consistency of this practice would seem to indicate that publications are more interested in preserving a well-edited print record instead of … [Link]
DCblog
On a forthcoming exhibition
A correspondent, having noticed February bloglessness, asks if I am still alive. Yes, but a combination of travelling and deadline has kept me out of the blogosphere for a while. The reason for the deadline is interesting, though, and readers of this blog might like an early alert to a forthcoming exciting event.The British Library is presenting its first English … [Link]
On linguistic dreams
A correspondent writes to tell me of a linguistic dream he just had. As follows:'I had a dream the other night with Significant Linguistic Content. It started out as the standard nightmare (mercifully infrequent these days) that I was teaching in a secondary school, as was the case long ago. But things improved and softened: the kiddies (11-year-olds, I’d say) … [Link]
You Don't Say
The sweetest sound
Last week the lighthearted lexicographer Grant Barrett published an essay in The New York Times on the claim, attributed to various writers over the years, that cellar door is the most euphonious phrase in the English language. (“Huh?” you say? Read the article.)On Facebook, one of my daughter’s former teachers wrote to ask whether I found the claim reasonable or … [Link]
No moaning over 'only'
An inquiry from a reader about the placement of only in the most recent installment of “Pulp Diction”: Lovin' the serial. How do you feel about the misplaced “only”? Shouldn't it come after “afford”? I know it's in a quote, but it's a copy editor, for goodness' sake. : )“See this?” He held up a battered Associated Press Stylebook. “At … [Link]
The Engine Room
Archive
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1 The End of Civilization As We Know It // Feb 1, 2009 at %I:%M %p
[...] it is declaredly prescriptivist, and the descriptivists might otherwise be over-represented on the Language Stuff [...]
2 Bare-bones HTML or CMS? // Mar 18, 2009 at %I:%M %p
[...] Language Stuff [...]
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