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 » Uyghur läghmän and Mandarin lāmiàn.
Victor Mair has a post at the Log involving exactly the kind of detailed historical-linguistic analysis I like, about the apparent but hard-to-parse relationship between the Uyghur and Mandarin terms for pulled noodles, läghmän and lāmiàn respectively; as several commenters point out, läghmän can’t be of Turkic origin because Turkic words don’t start with l, but where is it from? … [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Nail
Why does 'nail' mean both a metal fixing device and the horny end to a finger or toe? [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Epilimnion
The splendid and poetic-sounding pair 'epilimnion' and 'hypolimnion' are layers of water in lakes. [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » Updated online: Mash note and masher
Is a 'mash note' just a simple love letter? And what's a 'masher'? [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Registered Text Offender
Someone who is known for sending back to back texts without a response in between. "My phone won't stop going off." "Everyone knows Blake is a registered text offender. He sends 500 texts at a time.""Hey""Wha~ Up" "What are you doing""You must be at work""hey"
[Link]
languagehat.com » HUGE Database.
Robin Straaijer writes at Slate about the Hyper Usage Guide of English or HUGE database, based out of Leiden University, that includes “more than 75 usage guides and 123 usage problems in the English language, spanning a period of nearly 250 years.” He goes into some detail about the history of “hopefully” peevery (“It seems to have begun in Wilson … [Link]
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