John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

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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

languagehat.com » Cellar Door.

Thursday 20 March 23:49:07 UTC 2014

I’m pretty sure I intended to post on this Grant Barrett “On Language” column about “the claim that cellar door is beautiful to the ear” (which has always intrigued me) when it came out a few years ago, but it seems to have slipped through the cracks in my brain. At any rate, it’s been brought to my attention again … [Link]

Language Log » Taking a selfie

Thursday 20 March 16:56:56 UTC 2014

In front of the window of a candy store in Peebles, a small town about an hour's drive south of Edinburgh, an elderly American woman approached a gentleman she didn't know and, holding out a cell phone, asked: "Would you please take a selfie of my friend and I in front of this window?" She was not aware that she … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Hwæt You Say? (Redux)

Thursday 20 March 11:57:01 UTC 2014

Back in November, George Walkden published a paper on the Old English word hwæt and how it is used in in Old English poetry, most famously in the opening lines of Beowulf: Hwæt! We Gar-Dena in geardagum, þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. My previous post summarizing Walkden’s article is here. But in a nutshell, Walkden says that … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » cyberbaiting

Thursday 20 March 7:30:00 UTC 2014

Cyberbaiting occurs when students, either individually or as a group, make a plan to act so outrageously that the classroom teacher loses self control and begins yelling or acting in another unprofessional manner. The teacher is surreptitiously recorded, and the video of the momentary loss of control is posted to social networking sites. Mrs. Hoskins, classroom teacher, was the vicitim … [Link]

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