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

Language Log » "It depends on where you are in the spectrum"

Tuesday 2 December 22:56:01 UTC 2014

Martin Heymann writes (Tue, 2 Dec 2014 22:26:55 +1100): Tonight, I was watching the Australian federal Minister of Education interviewed on TV. He was discussing a senator called Dio Wang (see also here), and got in a bit of a scrap with the interviewer about how to pronounce the surname. According to the Minister, "it depends on where you are … [Link]

Omniglot blog » You lucky sausage!

Tuesday 2 December 18:32:11 UTC 2014

According to a friend who lives in Manchester, a common expression there is “You lucky sausage!”, which is used when someone has some (unexpected) good luck. For example, if you won a prize in a competition, your friends might say, “You lucky sausage you!”. I hadn’t heard this expression before and neither has anybody else my friend asked from outside … [Link]

Language Log » Triumph of bilingual labelling

Tuesday 2 December 16:11:13 UTC 2014

I can tell I'm a little tired because this Candian bilingual label is completely hilarious. pic.twitter.com/u6248rtn0C — Jen (@NHLhistorygirl) December 2, 2014 [h/t Jonathan Lundell] [Link]

languagehat.com » Helen DeWitt on Design, Boredom, and Possibility.

Tuesday 2 December 16:02:49 UTC 2014

Mieke Chew interviews Helen DeWitt for BOMB: One of the things I’m very interested in is the work of Edward Tufte. He’s this genius of information design. He’s sold over a million copies, but he self-publishes. He talks about the use of the page, which is not just about putting down words on the page. It’s also about things like … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » blow your dick off

Tuesday 2 December 9:00:00 UTC 2014

Experiencing something so splendid that it's beyond mind blowing. Something so amazingly out of this world, it can only be expressed by comparing the subject to having your dick blown….off (in the best way) Have you tried Karen's tiramisu? It is so good, it'll blow your dick off! [Link]

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