John Gordon Ross

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 » Um, there's timing information in Switchboard?

Sunday 5 October 11:59:14 UTC 2014

We start with a psycholinguistic controversy. On one side, there's Herbert Clark and Jean Fox Tree, "Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking", Cognition 2002. The proposal examined here is that speakers use uh and um to announce that they are initiating what they expect to be a minor (uh), or major (um), delay in speaking. Speakers can use these … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Language quiz

Sunday 5 October 9:53:27 UTC 2014

Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? Share [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » TS; CNR

Sunday 5 October 7:30:00 UTC 2014

Too Small; Could Not ReadUsed to denote the incredibly tiny text that appears in screen captures of message boards or Twitter posts. "This guy just sent me a copy of a conversation but it appears to have been through a shrink ray. TS; CNR" [Link]

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