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
Language Log » Headbanging and hairfloating
Ariyan Islamian et al., "Chronic subdural haematoma secondary to headbanging", The Lancet 5-11 July 2014: A 50-year-old man presented to our neurosurgical department in January, 2013, with a 2 week history of constant worsening headache affecting the whole head. He had no history of head trauma, but reported headbanging at a Motörhead concert 4 weeks previously. His medical history was … [Link]
languagehat.com » Spiflicated!
Jonathon Green, slang lexicographer extraordinaire, has a BBC News piece called “Mullered and 61 other words for beaten at sport” that makes enjoyable reading; I particularly like some of the ones that have fallen by the wayside, such as “shend (to humiliate, put to shame by superiority and linked to the German schande, shame), overwin (the aggressive antithesis of the … [Link]
Language Log » Emotional contagion
As usual, xkcd nails it: 
Mouseover title: "I mean, it's not like we could just demand to see the code that's governing our lives. What right do we have to poke around in Facebook's private affairs like that?" Here's the paper that caused all the fuss: Adam Kramer et al., "Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks", PNAS … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » If We Won
This ad for Newcastle Brown Ale plays off the differences between American and British swearing. The analysis is, as you might expect from a beer commercial, anything but deep, but it makes you think about how Americans might talk if the British had won the war for independence. (Actually, probably not all that differently. After all, Canadians, Australians, and New … [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Skeleton in the closet
Who first had a 'skeleton in the closet'? [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Gyre
'Gyre' is familiar to many from the Jabberwocky poem of Lewis Carroll. [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » someoneelsie
the result of your mum trying to take a selfie and not knowing which way to hold the phone. Stop sending a someoneelsie I have no idea who that person is.
[Link]
Language Log » Writ in water
In a Beijing park last week: 
According to this story, Chinese water calligraphy is often seen as the quintessential old man's hobby. Every morning, elderly men gather in Beijing's parks to practice this ancient art on the ground with giant brushes dipped in water, writing fluid lines of ancient characters that disappear one by one as they dry. And indeed, … [Link]
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