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

languagehat.com » Ingressive Speech.

Thursday 20 November 19:43:57 UTC 2014

A correspondent writes: “I use an ingressive sound when I say ja in Norwegian. I don’t have a sense of how common this is across the spectrum of languages, but it is absent in the other ones I speak.” He included a link to this The Local piece about the phenomenon in Swedish: Northern Swedes have the unique ability to … [Link]

Language Log » Lexical bling: Vocabulary display and social status

Thursday 20 November 17:27:32 UTC 2014

A visitor from another galaxy, or perhaps just from another century, would notice that civilized people these days are obsessed with the rate of vocabulary display as a symbol of social status. The latest symptom of this obsession is Matt Daniels, "The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop", May 2014: Literary elites love to rep Shakespeare’s vocabulary: across his entire corpus, … [Link]

Language Log » Gotta catch 'em all

Thursday 20 November 16:43:46 UTC 2014

Don Seiffert, "Is it a drug, or is it a Pokemon?", bioflash 11/18/2014: It was while trying to straighten up my 10-year-old son's room that I hit upon the answer to the age-old question of where do they come up with the names of new drugs. The answer: It's got to be the same people who come up with the … [Link]

Language Log » Don't even know the rules of their own language

Thursday 20 November 12:21:10 UTC 2014

Bob Ladd points out that a commenter ("RobbieLePop") on a Guardian article about Prince Charles (the opinionated prince who is destined to inherit the throne under Britain's hereditary monarchical and theocratic system of government) said this: The moment the Monarchy, with he at its head, begins a campaign of public influence is the moment the Monarchy should be disbanded. With … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Lumbersexual

Thursday 20 November 8:09:52 UTC 2014

A Metro-sexual who has the need to hold on to some outdoor based rugged-ness, thus opting to keep a finely trimmed beard. George Michael is a total lumbersexual. Yeah man, so is Don Johnson. [Link]

Language Log » A tiny, delicate thesaurus

Thursday 20 November 1:50:10 UTC 2014

The latest Frazz: [Link]

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