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 » X is the Y of Z: Infectious Death Cult Edition
The MedPage Today Tweet of the Week: This is the Katrina of ISIS analogies pic.twitter.com/WxxzkGYR4Z — Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) October 6, 2014 Some LLOG background: "X as the Y of Z", 7/28/2006 "X as the Y of Z, again", 3/25/2008 "Obama is the Y of Z", 11/5/2008 "X is the Y of Z: pop music edition", 4/4/2009 This suggests a … [Link]
Language Log » The magical fecundity of the Japanese verb suru ("to do") and verb ending -ru
The Agency for Cultural Affairs' annual survey on Japanese usage is out. This year's results as reported in the media: % of people who use chin suru チンする ("to 'nuke' something in the microwave") = 90.4% ("chin" is the sound your microwave makes to let you know your food is ready) cf. "Microwave display" saboru サボる ("to slack off", esp. … [Link]
Language Log » Overtone singing
Anna-Maria Hefele: In the first "scale" that she sings, the fundamental frequency is about 273 Hz (which is a bit flatter than C#4), and as the spectrogram below shows, the "scale" then picks out the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th harmonics (confusingly, these are the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th overtones, since the fundamental … [Link]
Language Log » A black-belt crash blossom
Posted by Alex Bledsoe on Twitter: Copy editors…I miss them. pic.twitter.com/oTpDhpi6Wf — AlexBledsoe (@AlexBledsoe) October 9, 2014 The photo of the news article showed up on Imgur/Reddit a few days ago with the subject line, "That tumour has skills." But the article itself dates back to Dec. 27, 2013, when it appeared in the Daily Express. On the newspaper's website, … [Link]
languagehat.com » Ring-singing Tsvetaeva.
Via wood s lot, where Tsvetaeva is featured in yesterday’s post, I discovered this superb version of an untitled 1914 poem of hers, translated from the Russian by Ekaterina Rogalsky: I do not think, or argue, or complain. Or sleep. I long for neither sun, nor moon, nor sea. Nor ship. I do not feel the heat amidst these walls, … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Novi Sad
There are various polyglot activities scheduled for this afternoon and evening, and talks and lectures start tomorrow, so I have this morning free. I plan to do a bit of work on Omniglot, and will try to meet up with other people who are here for the conference. Unlike in Berlin, where most people stayed in a large hostel and … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » so there's that
A phrase said after describing something strange, awkward, ironic, hilarious, crazy, or otherwise profound. Person A: "How was your day?" Person B: "Well, today at Walmart a naked lady in her 90's shuffled into the store. She had to be wrapped in a bathrobe from aisle 18 and escorted to the hospital…So there's that."
[Link]
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
You must log in to post a comment.