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 » Dothraki and Valyrian.
I haven’t watched any of the HBO series Game of Thrones (though jamessal tells me it’s a must-see), but I found this Boston Globe piece by Britt Peterson, about the guy who invents its languages, quite interesting: In the past, the people writing [languages for Hollywood] have been mostly academic linguists. But David Peterson, the inventor of Dothraki and Valyrian, … [Link]
the world in words » How to apologize for the Cultural Revolution without blaming the Communist Party
It’s been 25 years since Chinese forces opened fire on students encamped in Tiananmen Square. But that’s recent history. Too recent for anyone to start apologizing for their conduct. Not so the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution is far enough in the past (1966-76) for people to now start taking blame for some of its bloodiest moments. Of course, many … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » frignorant
Use instead of the two words Fucking Ignorant. To describe an act, person, situation, etc… Anything that the user of the word finds objectionable, rude, offensive, lame or otherwise. That was so frignorant!!! You are so frignorant for doing that!! fucking friggin ignorant
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Language Log » The case of the persevering pedestrian
Calvin Men, "Police investigate Santa Cruz pedestrian's death", Santa Cruz Sentinel 4/4/2014: A 49-year-old Santa Cruz man died late Thursday night while crossing Mission Street after being struck by a car. G.A., who sent me the link, added "Pretty plucky of him to cross the street after he had been hit, I thought". The Stanford parser similarly embeds "after being … [Link]
languagehat.com » The Cranes of Ibycus.
One of the benefits of reading nineteenth-century literature is that I keep running across cultural tropes that were then common but that have fallen into comparative desuetude since. (By “comparative desuetude,” I mean that although some of my readers are doubtless familiar with them, I myself am not.) One such is the cranes of Ibycus. About halfway through Poor Folk … [Link]
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