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
Omniglot blog » Language quiz
Here’s a song in multiple languages. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? 
Share [Link]
languagehat.com » The Seemly Intensity of the Curse.
Stan of Sentence first has an enjoyable post on the linguistic aspects of Luis Buñuel’s autobiography; the first quote, on finding a title for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, is well worth reading, but I want to pass along the second one. The scene is the Spanish Civil War; Buñuel has left Madrid for Geneva on official business, but … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » undermine, mine
To undermine something is to destroy it through some surreptitious means, to subvert it, and undermine is one of those words whose etymology is readily apparent by examining its constituent elements, under + mine, a reference to the military tactic of digging under the walls of a fortification in order to collapse them. But the word is first recorded in … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » mine
See undermine. [Link]
Language Log » Is the Urdu script on the verge of dying?
Hindi-Urdu, also referred to as Hindustani, is the classic case of a digraphia, so much so that there has been a long-standing controversy over whether they are one language or two. Their colloquial spoken forms are nearly identical, but when written down, the one in the Devanāgarī script, the other in the Nastaʿlīq script, they have a very different look … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Lowkey Shawty
A girl who can sit back and just chill. Not one of those chicks that is loud af and in your face. Lowkey shawtys are the best shawtys. If you ever meet one, keep her. They're rare nowadays. I met this girl yesterday. Shes a lowkey shawty. She was just so chill. I can tell shes a keeper.
… [Link]
languagehat.com » Balmont’s Ozymandias.
Via Anatoly’s parody, I discovered Konstantin Balmont‘s 1890s translation of what is probably Shelley‘s most famous poem, “Ozymandias“: Я встретил путника; он шёл из стран далёких И мне сказал: вдали, где вечность сторожит Пустыни тишину, среди песков глубоких Обломок статуи распавшейся лежит. Из полустёртых черт сквозит надменный пламень, Желанье заставлять весь мир себе служить; Ваятель опытный вложил в бездушный камень … [Link]
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