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 » By the each
From John Brewer: I was in a grocery store this morning when I was taken aback by a sign (professionally produced, not handwritten) saying that the FRESH CUT FRUIT was FRESH CUT DAILY! and SOLD BY THE EACH! I had a strong WTF reaction, because it seemed very syntactically ill-formed and I couldn’t recall ever seeing it before. But googling … [Link]
languagehat.com » Volvelle.
Peggy Kalb’s Yale Alumni Magazine piece “Going around in circles” not only has beautiful illustrations of “those little paper wheels that help organize information,” it taught me the word for them, a very nice word I didn’t know: volvelle. OED (entry from 1920): Etymology: < medieval Latin volvella or volvellum, apparently < volvĕre to turn. Obs. exc. Hist. An old device consisting of one or more movable circles surrounded by other graduated or figured circles, serving to ascertain the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the state of the tides, etc. 14.. MS. Ashmole 191 f. 199, The Rewle of the Voluelle. Now folowiþ here þe voluelle that sum men clepen a lunarie. c1440 Astron. Cal. (Ashm. 391) Now folowiþ þe thrid table þt is cleepid a voluelle or a lunary. 1501 in C. L. Kingsford Chron. London (1905) 239 A Costlew pagent wt a volvell by the which the xii signes moved aboute the Zodiak..and ouer that voluell Sat, in a stage or pynnacle, Raphaell the Arch angell. [...] 1843 A. Dyce in J. Skelton Poet. Wks. II. 336 A curious description of the volvell, with directions for its use. 1865 Athenæum 18 Feb. 233/2 One volvelle and an accompanying table do the work quickly enough. 1884 Manch. Examiner 16 Sept. 6/2 A curious Kalender, with an astronomical volvelle of which the stylus had been preserved. I vaguely remember having a verb-table one for… French?… when I was in college forty-odd years ago. > [Link]
Language Log » Girl talk
“Girl Talk: What’s more annoying — vocal fry or the way we criticize how women speak?", by Sophie Goldstein, in The Nib ("Political cartoons, comics journalism, humor and non-fiction"). Also see xkcd on "How it works". Unfortunately, several of the associated audio clips seem to be missing (e.g. here and here), and some others load for me but then don't produce … [Link]
Omniglot blog » The historical present
The year is 1066 and William, Duke of Normandy, invades England to claim the throne he believes to be rightly his. Meanwhile King Harold Godwinson rushes to Hastings to do battle with William after defeating the Norwegian army of Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge. This is an example of the historical or historic present, which involves using the present tense … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » feeling you
Crushing on one person. Listen, I've been feeling you since we met.
[Link]
Language Log » To all aspiring pet phoneticians out there
Jeroen van de Weijer sent in the following photograph of a veterinary hospital in Shanghai: 
The sign says: xīnyuàn chǒngwù yīyuàn 心愿宠物医院 wish / aspiration / cherished desire pet hospital It is expected that your pet will breathe much better after treatment here. [Link]
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