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
the world in words » In search of the perfect email sign-off
Here’s a guest post from New York-based and friend of the Big Show, Alina Simone. Remember being a sad weirdo in high school and feeling so insecure, you just kind of cop other people’s style and hope no one will notice? Sculpting your hair into a black Aquanet spire to fit in with the Goths? Shredding the skin off your … [Link]
Language Log » Emojify the Web: "the next phase of linguistic evolution"
Today's announcement from the Google Chrome team (yes, note the date): The commentary from "Hannah Beecher, Ph.D., Linguistic Pragmatics" is a nice touch. But beyond the April Fool's lolz, I'd argue that experts in linguistic pragmatics would be well advised to take emoji seriously. I've had a couple of occasions recently to hold forth on the emerging pragmatics of emoji, … [Link]
Language Log » A zeugmatic crash blossom to torment Mets fans
As if New York Mets fans don't have to suffer enough, what with the five straight losing seasons and the embarrassing bullpen meltdown in yesterday's home opener, this headline (tweeted by Mark Fishkin) appeared in today's Wall Street Journal: One lucky fan, surely. #Mets pic.twitter.com/xymPstjVSE — Mark Fishkin (@MarkFishkin) April 1, 2014 The online version has the same crash blossom … [Link]
Omniglot blog » One language per day
Last week I decided to try a slightly different language learning strategy. Rather than trying to immerse myself and learning bits of various languages every day, I am focusing on one language each day. This mainly involves listening to online radio and doing online lessons, and also having conversations with people when I can. At the moment I’m continuing to … [Link]
languagehat.com » The Importance of Profanity.
Jesse Sheidlower has a superb op-ed piece in yesterday’s NY Times taking the US media in general, and the Times in particular, to task for its prudish avoidance of “bad words”: Our society’s comfort level with offensive language and content has drastically shifted over the past few decades, but the stance of our news media has barely changed at all. … [Link]
Language Log » WaPo nixes midget
Yesterday brought new information about the Sunday comic strip I discussed in "Refreshing the S-word", 3/30/2014. We learned from Michael Cavna ("PEARLS BEFORE ‘NEIN’: Stephan Pastis finds irony in Post nixing strip about word choice…because of word choice", Washington Post 3/31/2014) why the Washington Post decided not to run that strip: IN YESTERDAY’S “Pearls Before Swine,”, creator Stephan Pastis used … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » April Fools paranoia
When someone is so obsessed by April Fools, they don't trust anyone and don't believe in anything on that day. -Hey man, wanna go see a movie tomorrow? -Haha, I see what you did there, you almost had me! -Dude, stop with this April Fools paranoia, I'm serious!
[Link]
languagehat.com » Poor Folk I.
Last year I wrote about the experience of coming upon Pushkin via the back door of his own past rather than the usual front door opening onto the future; now I’m having the same experience with Dostoevsky. I’m pretty sure if I read his first work, Бедные люди [Poor Folk], after having read, say, the Brothers K, I’d be impatient … [Link]
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