John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

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Language Stuff

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

Urban Word of the Day » drunchies

Monday 6 October 7:13:32 UTC 2014

a state of hunger preceded by the intake of alcoholic beverages After consuming a few beers at the party, I came down with a bad case of the drunchies and had to stop at the hot dog stand before heading home. [Link]

Language Log » Mutual unintelligibility among Sinitic lects

Monday 6 October 3:43:30 UTC 2014

By chance, I came across this most revealing section of a perceptive book by Linda Jakobson entitled A Million Truths: A Decade in China (pp. 175-177), which shows how people from different parts of China often don't really understand each other. That includes people who are supposedly speaking different varieties of Mandarin. I know this from my own experience travelling … [Link]

languagehat.com » The Brummie Black Hole.

Monday 6 October 0:08:07 UTC 2014

Lucy Townsend of BBC News describes a situation I had not been aware of: The accent frequently comes bottom in polls of people’s favourites. It is rarely heard on television or in films unless they are comedies. It is also rarely pronounced correctly – the rounded vowel sounds and the hard “ing” are often emphasised like a caricature. Phrases like … [Link]

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