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 » Gogol’s Styles.
I’m finally getting around to reading one of those pdf files that have been cluttering up my Kindle, Robert A. Maguire’s “Translating Dead Souls” (Ulbandus Review 6, 2002: 13-35) (JSTOR); I have problems with some of his decisions, but I thoroughly approve of his main one, which is to try as far as possible to preserve Gogol’s repetitions and provide … [Link]
Language Log » You want fries with that?
Following up on "Freedom Fries", it's worth pointing out that some of the most spectacular examples of creaky voice and vocal fry on This American Life don't come from the young women on the program, but from the host, Ira Glass. Here's the first half-sentence of his opening from the segment on vocal fry: Your browser does not support the … [Link]
Language Log » Freedom Fries
On 1/23/2015, as part of a This American Life show on "What happens when the Internet turns on you?", Ira Glass took up an issue we've devoted a few posts to ("545: If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS — Act Two, Freedom Fries"). Recently, This American Life has been getting a lot of … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » assgut
When you're so fat you have a duplicate belly hanging over the back of your pants I gotta stop eating pizza three times a day, i'm getting an assgut
[Link]
languagehat.com » Trask on Mama and Papa.
Larry Trask is a longtime LH hero (search results), and I was delighted when Faldage at Wordorigins.org linked to his brilliant essay “Where do mama/papa words come from?” (pdf). A nugget I plucked out and shared in the Wordorigins.org thread: “As always, lookalikes are a waste of time, and words that genuinely share a common ancestry do not have to … [Link]
Language Log » Meredith Tamminga on NPR
Dave Heller, "Why an actor from Brooklyn can't talk like a Philadelphian", Newsworks Tonight (WHYY), 2/2/2015: 
You may have trouble describing it, but you sure know it when you hear it — the unmistakable Philly accent. Meredith Tamminga, assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania makes it her work to make sense of variations in language. She visited … [Link]
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