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
You Don't Say » Oh dear, and in The New Yorker, too
From last week’s New Yorker article on Rod Blagojevich: “Jack them up!” Blagojevich tells one aide while discussing two well-to-do Chicago attorneys whom he feels haven’t donated enough money. My advice to you, if you have trouble deciding when to use who and when to use whom, just use who for both subject and object. It will simplify your life, … [Link]
Language Log » Antedating "refudiate"
If you haven't quite yet gotten your fill after last week's refudiate-fest, I return to the Palinism in my latest Word Routes column on the Visual Thesaurus. An excerpt of interest to all you antedaters: Some have observed that Palin isn't the first to invent the word refudiate. Patrick Galvin of Politico notes a couple of recent uses, such as … [Link]
languagehat.com » CHANDLER ON TRANSLATION.
I linked to an interview with the excellent translator Robert Chandler here; now I'd like to present a short essay he wrote on translating Pushkin's The Captains Daughter. It begins like this:Five years ago, a Russian friend, hearing I was intending to translate The Queen of Spades, said, That will be very difficult, harder even than translating Andrey Platonov. Youll … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Johnson on Copy Editing
I don’t know what’s in the water these days, but it seems like every single language blog is madly posting about copy editing. I had decided to stop linking to them in order to avoid topic fatigue, but then the Economist’s “Johnson” blog comes along with this post, which is chiefly notable for its very healthy attitude toward citing dictionaries … [Link]
Omniglot blog » 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]
Language Log » Pin or pen?
Jim T, commenting this morning on a post from back in June: I currently work in Chicago but I'm from South Texas. My boss seems to get a real kick out of my pronunciation of the word "pen". We have to go to him for supplies and he always make me repeat myself whenever I ask for one and laughs … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Clutch Oven
To fart in a car full of people, crank the heat for maximum effectiveness. Mike was driving us to Jake's party and he farted, trapping us in his clutch oven
[Link]
Archive
09 Sep 2010 08 Sep 2010 07 Sep 2010 06 Sep 2010 05 Sep 2010 04 Sep 2010 03 Sep 2010 02 Sep 2010 01 Sep 2010 31 Aug 2010 30 Aug 2010 29 Aug 2010 28 Aug 2010 27 Aug 2010 26 Aug 2010 25 Aug 2010 24 Aug 2010 23 Aug 2010 22 Aug 2010 21 Aug 2010 20 Aug 2010 19 Aug 2010 18 Aug 2010 17 Aug 2010 16 Aug 2010 15 Aug 2010 14 Aug 2010 13 Aug 2010 12 Aug 2010 11 Aug 2010 10 Aug 2010 09 Aug 2010
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 [...]
Leave a Comment