Language Stuff

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

Talk Wordy to Me

Words of Others | The ABCs of Alien

Posted 3 hours ago

One of my more recent follows on twitter is author Damien Walters Grintalis. I enjoy her tweets, but she outdid herself on Friday, with the Alien ABCs (from the movie Alien): Used under CC license from teachernz's Flickr photostream. A is for Alien, who lives out in space, B is for Burke, who is a disgrace. C is for Crew, they … [Link]

The violence of hate

Posted 3 days ago

I read an article in Rolling Stone, One Town’s War on Gay Teens, during my downtime at work last night, and I was truly ready to vomit on my desk by the time I was halfway through it. The heart of it is that a Minnesota school district had a policy that led to teachers being so afraid of talking … [Link]

You Don't Say

Moving on

Posted 5 days ago

Today You Don’t Say relocates to a new Web address and new software. You will be able to find it at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/la~ where … [Link]

A spell of rough weather

Posted 6 days ago

There was a mild dustup today on the Internet over, of all things, spelling.The rhubarb started when Anne Trubek flung down the gauntlet with a suggestion in Wi … [Link]

languagehat.com

A BOOK FROM THE SKY.

Posted 4 hours ago

Victor Mair has a typically informative and enjoyable post over at the Log that has a lot to say about (in the words of its title) "The unpredictability of Chinese character formation and pronunciation"; what I want to highlight here is the following passage about an astonishing and (to my mind) brilliant work of art/épatage:The ultimate sendup of Chinese character … [Link]

MONDAY BEGINS ON SATURDAY.

Posted 20 hours ago

I'm reading Понед~ начин~ в суббо~ (Monday Begins on Saturday , Wikipedia), by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, and I'm enjoying it as much as I did their earlier novels (see here and here). So far it's funny rather than deep/tragic like the others (I've just started the second of the three sections), but what continues to amaze me is the literariness … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day

sportsball

Posted 11 hours ago

A generic term for any form of sport involving a ball, and especially those with "ball" in their name. Often derogatory. Hey, I was hoping to hang out with Jared today, but he would rather watch his silly sportsball on TV. [Link]

Super Bowel

Posted 33 hours ago

A raucous bowel movement experienced the day after the Super Bowl due to consumption of large amounts of chili, hot wings, and beer. Dave, I had a Super Bowel this morning… no more buffalo wing hot sauce for me. [Link]

Wordorigins.org

1908 Words

Posted 32 hours ago

The Oxford English Dictionary has 490 words with first citations from 1908. In that year, airliners and planes plied the skies, but didn’t yet reach the stratosphere; you might underdress by wearing a Peter Pan; dicks could investigate crime scenes; Pernod and spumante might be used to drown one’s troubles; and bristlecones redefined what was meant by old-growth forest. [Link]

So You Know A Linguist…

Posted 41 hours ago

So you know a linguist View more presentations from Jodie Martin [Tip of the hat to Mr. Verb] [Link]

the world in words

Inventing a Word for a Facebook Relationship

Posted 6 days ago

Whichever language any of us speak, we have rarely shied away from coming up with new words. Now of course, unnamed new things surround us every day—especially new things on the internet. We forget that only in the recent past, we have had to come up with words like email, podcast, blog, crowdsourcing, tweet, the cloud and countless more. Most … [Link]

Fear of Foreign Languages, Hospital English, and Garifuna Music

Posted 13 days ago

Some US Presidential candidates seem embarrassed by their ability to speak a foreign language. Both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich speak at least some French. Romney picked his up while on Mormon mission in France. Gingrich acquired his as a teenager while his father his US serviceman father was stationed there. Yet Gingrich made fun of Romney in a TV … [Link]

Omniglot blog

Language quiz

Posted 39 hours ago

Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? [Link]

Baragouiner

Posted 3 days ago

Bara ha gwin / Pain et vin / Bread and Wine The French words baragouin and baragouiner came up in conversation yesterday and I thought I’d write about them today as they have an interesting etymology. According to Reverso baragouin means ‘gibberish, gabble or double Dutch’ and baragouiner ‘means ‘to gibber, jabber, gabble’. The Larousse Dictionary defines baragouin as language that is incomprehensible due to poor pronunciation, vocabulary or syntax, or … [Link]

World Wide Words updates

New online: Fandangle

Posted 2 days ago

A fandangle may be useless, nonsensical or foolish. It derives from the name of a dance. [Link]

New online: Haywire

Posted 2 days ago

Why does haywire mean a thing or person acting erratically? [Link]

Language Log

Gyromodels of everything

Posted 30 hours ago

"Radical theory explains the origin, evolution, and nature of life, challenges conventional wisdom: Case Western Reserve theorist develops incomparable model that unifies physics, chemistry, and biology", Case Western Reserve press release 1/26/2012: The earth is alive, asserts a revolutionary scientific theory of life emerging from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The trans-disciplinary theory demonstrates that purportedly inanimate, non-living … [Link]

Soundex and Metaphone

Posted 37 hours ago

One of the earliest and best photographers in China was called John Zumbrun, but I have also seen his surname spelled various different ways, including Zumbrum. Some of his pictures may be seen here (this site is run by Thomas H. Hahn, digital archivist of old photographs). As soon as I saw his surname, I suspected that it might be … [Link]

John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons