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 » Dead-end sentences

Sunday 23 November 23:37:09 UTC 2014

Tim Leonard sends in "one for your hard-to-parse-headlines file": Tim Worstall, "The EU's Very Bad Turn $26 Billion Into $390 Billion Investment Plan", Forbes 11/23/2014. Tim observes that it's "not really a garden path, since it hits a dead end less than half way in". Puzzled headline-parsers will get a clue from Mr. Worstall's opening: Herr Juncker, the head of … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Preemptive Ejaculation

Sunday 23 November 8:30:00 UTC 2014

1.) Similar to premature ejaculation, but occurring even sooner.2.) Jerking off to calm down before meeting up with a girl. 1.) Bob was so horny, he preemptively ejaculated at first base.2.) Preemptive ejaculation will keep you from doing something stupid on your first date with Brandy. [Link]

Omniglot blog » Language quiz

Sunday 23 November 5:23:47 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]

Language Log » Topolect writing

Sunday 23 November 5:22:18 UTC 2014

This is an interesting question raised by the Writing Chinese project at Leeds. Helen Wang mentioned it to me in the hope that I might be willing to share my thoughts. I'll do Helen one better and share this with many others, in hopes that they too may be willing to share their thoughts. I'd like to call to your … [Link]

Language Log » Official Chinglish, with a note on North Korean Juche

Sunday 23 November 1:59:54 UTC 2014

What would you think if you encountered terms like this? Two-oriented Society Three-zation / Threezation You might wonder if the people who dreamed them up were high on something when they produced these opaque, unidiomatic renderings. Yet such terms are official translations of Chinese expressions. As such, they have entered the stream of global English. The first item is the … [Link]

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