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
Wordorigins.org » LA Times on Electronic Books
Here’s an article on the future of books in a digital age in the Los Angeles Times. Unlike they typical gloom and doom accounts of the “end of reading,” this one focuses on the advantages of a digital format over print. (Tip o’ the hat to Grant Barrett & Martha Barnette of A Way With Words) [Link]
You Don't Say » Don't shrink from the polysyllable
Carol Fisher Saller isn’t afraid of Big Words. Neither am I. Neither should you be.* Read what she has to say about them at The Subversive Copy Editor. What she is trying to tell you in that post is a variation on a familiar theme: In writing and editing, there is no substitute for judgment. Many short words pack a … [Link]
languagehat.com » HOW TO SPEAK BAD BRITISH.
John Wells, at his phonetic blog, has a post offering a professional analysis of just how an American voice teacher went wrong in a video clip in which she tries to teach the British "short o" vowel. I particularly like this paragraph:Her happY vowel (at the end of coffee) is much too open. It approaches ɛ or perhaps more precisely … [Link]
Language Log » Andrewlanche
Note to readers: Thanks to a link from Andrew Sullivan, our server is maxed out at around 2250 visitors/hour, and things are a little slow. If you come back in an hour or two, response times for browsing or commenting should be better, as we return to our more normal mid-day average of around 1,000 visitors/hour: 
(Status as of 3:05 … [Link]
You Don't Say » Word snobbery
In complaining about broadcasters — an easy sport, but an irresistible one — I deplored their tendency to pronounce the t in often. Jan Freeman took up the point in her excellent blog, Throw Grammar From the Train. Two points are indisputable, and I bow to Ms. Freeman: Offen was the dominant traditional pronunciation for centuries, but sounding the t … [Link]
Language Log » Political X-isms
Comedians and cartoonists continue to have fun with Sarah Palin's use of refudiate, and her Shakespeare-citing defense — here's Jeff Danziger's editorial cartoon for 7/20/1010: 
As I've written many times, I'm not a fan of pouncing on linguistic "mistakes", whether they're regionalisms, slips of the tongue, malapropisms, or individual idiosyncrasies. Nit-picking your acquaintances' speech is obnoxious. And this is worse, … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » How to (Not) Speak With a British Accent
This YouTube video is getting some buzz around language circles—and not the good kind. I don’t think this is how the English really pronounce coffee. John Wells has a more detailed dissection of the video on his blog. The lesson here is not to post YouTube videos on a subject unless you really know what you’re talking about. (Hat tip … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Illiteracy and standard language
Many primary school children are not becoming fully literate in English because their teachers are apparently letting them use “street talk” in the classroom, according to a report commissioned by the mayor of London and reported in The Guardian today. One third of children in London have reading difficulties at the age of 11, and the report claims that reasons … [Link]
Language Log » Sun Yat-sen Swam Here
If you know your modern East Asian history at all well, the name Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) will be familiar to you as that of the man chiefly responsible for the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty, the Manchu Qing, and the father of the Republic of China. Like most Chinese with any pretensions to cultural dignity, Sun Yat-sen has many … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » fake bakery
A tanning salon Guy 1: nice tan brah where yah been? Been hittin the beach?Guy 2: nah aint got time just been hittin the Fake Bakery
[Link]
Archive
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2 responses so far ↓
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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