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, but I do follow the blogs featured on this feeds page.
(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
vacation dick
A dick that's [too big] to [take on] a daily basis, but makes for good [vacation sex]. Bigger than a boyfriend dick. [Link]
4 corner kiss
Also can be known as a [compass] kiss North (forehead), East (right cheek), South (chin), west (left cheek) is when you kiss all four “corners” of the face. It is usually placed [on the Forehead], cheeks and chin. It doesn’t have to be limited to just those places, but just as long as there is a kiss on a separate … [Link]
languagehat.com
All French is Good French.
Chelsea Brasted has a good NatGeo piece (archived) on Cajun (and other) French: When Janice Prejean was growing up, if she wanted to speak with her grandparents, she had to do it in French. To crack the code of the private conversations and jokes that flew over the heads of children at family gatherings, she also needed to know the … [Link]
Forgetting Cantonese.
Jenny Liao has a moving New Yorker piece (archived) about losing a language: No one prepared me for the heartbreak of losing my first language. It doesn’t feel like the sudden, sharp pain of losing someone you love, but rather a dull ache that builds slowly until it becomes a part of you. My first language, Cantonese, is the only … [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates
New online: Not my pigeon
The unfashionable idiom 'not my pigeon' puzzles a reader. [Link]
New online: Subnivean
The unusual word 'subnivean' is all about snow. [Link]
Wordorigins.org
nones (religious, not “nuns”)
In recent years, there have been many news reports touting the fact that the fastest growing religious group in the United States is the nones. Who are the nones? And when did we start using the term? [Link]
bowl, Super Bowl
With every new year comes the onslaught of bowl games: the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Aloha Bowl, and of course the Super Bowl. Why do we call these football contests bowls? [Link]
Omniglot blog
Out of a clear blue left field
When something comes out of left field, it is comes from an unexpected place or direction, or is surprising or unexpected, and something that is left field is uncommon, unpopular or strange [source]. This phrase comes from baseball and refers to the left side of a baseball field, although why something coming from this part of the field is unexpected … [Link]
Language Quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? [Link]
Language Log
Icebachi
From Tomo's Twitter: So “-bachi” is now an English suffix for any food prepared live by Asians on a metal plate.Etymology: 火鉢 [hibachi] ‘charcoal brazier’ = 火 [hi] ‘fire’ + 鉢 [hachi] ‘crock’ pic.twitter.com/WDEtYoKKz2 — Tomo (@tomoakiyama) May 2, 2019 It's interesting that a word which started out meaning an earthenware fire pot ends up signifying a metal griddle for … [Link]
Mandarin with a German accent
Christian Lindner opened his speech in Chinese at the 70th Federal Party Congress of the FDP: None of the native speakers of Chinese to whom I showed this could understand any of it, not one word (so they said). I understood the middle part (from 在 to 要) upon first hearing. Here's what Lindner said: Shèhuì yǔ jīngjì zài bùduàn … [Link]
Talk Wordy to Me
Harvard Square
Buy a print [Link]
Over Boston Common
December 2018 [Link]
the world in words
A bilingual seal of approval for high school graduates
Peter Kuskie and Maria Regalado are students at Hillsboro High in Oregon and are on track to receive a new bilingual seal on their diplomas. (Photo: Monica Campbell) Read this post from Monica Campbell. Or listen to the podcast above. Let’s take a trip back to September 1995, when Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole was talking about education on the campaign … [Link]
A Soviet-era storytelling game trains you to bluff, lie and sometimes tell the truth
A tense moment during a game of “Mafia” in Kiev, Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of the English Mafia Club of Kiev) Read this post from Alina Simone. Or listen to the podcast above. The storytelling parlor game “Mafia” crosses borders, transcends culture and bridges the language divide in ways you’d never expect. There are no game boards or joysticks involved in Mafia … [Link]
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
You must log in to post a comment.