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
Urban Word of the Day
Mental Masturbation
Intellectual activity that serves no practical purpose. We debated and created a perfect system of government, but it was all just mental masturbation, really.
[Link]
How is Everything Check
The 2 minute check a waiter/waitress does after they bring your meal to the table. Person1:"We need a new fork. This one fell on the floor."Person2:"I'll ask the waiter to get a new one on his how is everything check."
[Link]
Omniglot blog
The yellowing of the year
We were discussing Irish idioms involving colours today and one of the ones I really liked was buíú na bliana*, which literally means “the yellowing of the year” and refers to the time when spring is becoming summer and the light becomes yellower and warmer. Red or dearg is used in expressions such as: deargbhréag, a barefaced or blatant lie; … [Link]
Greasy kneepits and small pigs
One of the things we discussed in class today was Irish idioms involving parts of the body. Some interesting ones include: Bionn cluasa móra ar na muca beaga – “small pigs have large ears”, or children often hear things that adults would prefer they didn’t hear. Does anybody know an equivalent idiom in English? Cuir bealadh faoi na hioscaidi – … [Link]
Wordorigins.org
Even More on Language and Thought
I’m getting to like The Economist’s “Johnson” blog on language more and more. I was disappointed in their debut posts, but since then they’ve rapidly come up in my estimation. This time around they’ve aptly summarized the work of Stanford linguist Lena Boroditsky that was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal’s “Lost in Translation” article. What’s especially impressive for … [Link]
Video Friday: yu ming is ainm dom
This is a great little story about the expectations people have about language: (Hat tip: James Fallows) [Link]
You Don't Say
Defending Mr. Mencken
Unrestrained glee: Yesterday I got my hands on the Library of America’s handsome two-volume edition of H.L. Mencken’s complete Prejudices series. Barely able to contain myself until getting home from work, I sat down at home with a good light and a drink (Pilsener would have been the natural accompaniment, but bourbon sufficed), and was barely five pages into it … [Link]
Two words for writers of feature stories
When a writer takes up a subject charged with emotion — the death of a child, an older person’s lingering demise, or, at the other extreme, the marriage of a former president’s daughter — it is easy to let control slip. It is salutary to keep in mind two words that you never want anyone to apply to your work. … [Link]
Words at Work
Trial or Hearing?
Josh Marshall raises a good semantics question: Are the sessions two veteran members of Congress face legitimately called "trials" or are they hearings? I thought hearings, too. Here's CQ's description, and doesn't mention the word trial. But The New York Times likes it. "Trial" certainly seems to have some extra weight to it.
The Autism Job Market
Oh, this is interesting. In an article about jobs for people with autism/Asperger's, journalism and copy editing come up. I've always wondered about quirks and obsessions (I know that isn't limited to autism). We've all seen reporters and editors with strong likes and dislikes about how they work. When I was first starting out in the business and using a … [Link]
DCblog
On long time no see
A correspondent, having encountered the idiom long time no see, writes to ask what its origin is and if there are any more like it in English.Nobody knows exactly where it comes from. Earliest reference in the OED is 1900, the context indicating a simplified English being used in conversation with American Indians. It probably caught on through cowboy movies. … [Link]
On antinyms
I've been asked a couple of times what one calls a situation where a word is used to mean the opposite of what it normally means. I've usually interpreted the question to be about euphemisms, where the aim is to obscure or hide a reality. When people talk about 'passing away' instead of 'dying', or 'collateral damage' instead of 'war … [Link]
Talk Wordy to Me
Is Angelina Jolie carved from marble or Salt?
The Washington Post had a really interesting article about Salt, the new Angelina Jolie spy movie out today. The article talks about how Jolie is charting a career course that is traditionally only taken by male actors, splitting her time between serious dramas and action flicks, while avoiding genres like romantic comedies. But what really caught my eye was the … [Link]
Copy Editors Do It With Style | New mugs and T-shirts to support ACES
In April, I started selling mugs and T-shirts with the Talk Wordy to Me logo to raise money for the American Copy Editors Society Education Fund. I have made $55 from them so far. Now I am debuting a new design, one that should be of broader interest to copy editors: 
My friend Lindsay Hack, a page designer at The … [Link]
languagehat.com
EIGHT YEARS OF LANGUAGEHAT.
How time flies! As always, I thank my commenters, without whom I wouldn't bother blogging; this time around, I thought I'd link to a selection of posts, one from each year, that I remembered with fondness as I skimmed through the archives: 2002: WHAT HAPPENED TO 'THOU'? 2003: HMONG/MIAO. 2004: MORE BAD WRITING. 2005: DIVAN. 2006: THE MULTIFARIOUS AUBERGINE. 2007: … [Link]
YU MING IS AINM DOM.
Dave Wilton at Wordorigins.org presents this video with the words "This is a great little story about the expectations people have about language," and I won't add anything to that except that it choked me up a little. It will take less than ten minutes of your time, and it's worth it. [Link]
Language Log
Most and Many
To continue the mostathon: when I said that most "licenses a default generalization," I meant to suggest that it has a kind of generic quality — you can't account for its use by assigning it a purely quantitative or numerical meaning (i.e., "more than half"). One way to make the point is to borrow Mark's method and look at examples … [Link]
Most examples
My note this morning on "Most" stirred up some discussion: Geoff Nunberg: I think 'most' licenses a default generalization, relative to a bunch of pragmatic factors, … MattF: I think 'most' has a normative or qualitative sense in addition to a quantitative sense. John Cowan: For me too, "most" has a defeasible implicature of "much more than a majority". Those … [Link]
World Wide Words updates
Weird Words: Curtain lecture [New]
It has nothing to do with talks in theatres. A curtain lecture is an unpleasant marital confrontation. [Link]
Questions and Answers: Dilemma [New]
Why should so many people down the years have been taught that the word was spelled dilemna. [Link]
GrammarBlog
You’re getting married to a horse?
To avoid embarrassment and accidentally insulting the blushing bride to be, it is important to understand the difference between bridal and bridle. 
He should be careful, I hear she kicks like a mule. Also, writing the whole invitation in inconsistent Title Case makes it hard to read. I particularly hate the following “sentence”. And put, Aprils Name on it. Shall … [Link]
The Daily Mail is corrupting our children!
What would Diana say? 
Daily Mail: Apostrophe Fail, originally uploaded by Clive Andrews. Do they not know that the misuse of apostrophes may lead to cancer? While I’m bashing that horrid rag, I’d like to show you this video from the wonderful Dan and Dan. [Link]
the world in words
Turkish, Stalin, and just say non!
The newest star of Germany’s national soccer team is an ethnic Turk. And the popularity of Mesut Özil is one of the reasons why Turkish has become just a little more accepted in Germany today. There are other reasons: the emergence of a small middle class, as well as the rise of writers, filmakers and politicians (our report from Cyrus Farivar … [Link]
Language adoption and the future of spelling
This week’s pod has two contrasting stories on language adoption. In the first instance, the intention is to encourage bilingualism; in the second, it’s to promote nationalism. 
Belgium hasn’t had a revolution since 1830 (see pic), after which a new constitution established French as the national language. Today, Dutch and German are also recognized. But another, slower revolution may be taking … [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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