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 » Word rage, discreet firearm edition
Oxford University Press has published the fourth edition of Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. The name "Fowler" has been retained as a source of prestige, but this is really the work of editor Jeremy Butterfield (as the third edition was the work of Robert Burchfield). Butterfield has already been getting some press attention for some of his more curmudgeonly … [Link]
Language Log » Another SOS for DARE
Two years ago I sent out an "SOS for DARE," that is, a plea for the indispensable Dictionary of American Regional English, which had run into funding troubles. Though DARE was granted a temporary reprieve, the latest news is more dire than ever. Marc Johnson laid out the situation in an article for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: The end may be near … [Link]
languagehat.com » Circumcellion II.
Back in 2007 I posted a tendentious and hilarious description of a North African group called the Circumcellions, which began: The Circumcellions were a Christian suicide cult of the fourth and fifth centuries. Their religious practice consisted of delivering random beatings to strangers along the road, with the purpose of goading the strangers into killing them. If that didn’t work, … [Link]
Omniglot blog » One Person One Language (OPOL)
This post is based largely on an article by Francois Grosjean: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo~ One popular way to raise bilingual children is for each parent to speak only their native language with their children. For example the father will speak English and the mother will speak Spanish, and the children will acquire both languages. At first the children might mix the languages, … [Link]
Language Log » Quantifier scope in the comics
Today's For Better or For Worse: 
It's not clear whether Annie means that she has only one maternity outfit, which she wears every day, or only one style/type of maternity outfit, of which what she's wearing is an instance. The second reading seems more plausible, and opens up a new range of answers to the question "How Many Readings Do … [Link]
Language Log » Creeping kanji
Ben Zimmer was recently in Pittsburgh, where he gave the keynote address at the American Copy Editors Society conference. He mentioned that one of the copy editors (Bill Walsh of the Washington Post) was confused by a sign for a new bar/lounge in Pittsburgh: Social Tea House? Social Plus House? Social Unpronounced Symbol House? Social Thouse? #ACES2015 pic.twitter.com/fyoYNI3Lz3 — Bill … [Link]
Language Log » Japlish t-shirt
Axel Schuessler's daughter is visiting Japan and saw in a store the shirt below: 
Axel wondered whether the wording on the shirt could be a mangled translation from Japanese. I think not. Japlish t-shirts are a thing unto themselves (images here). You're not really supposed to make sense of them. [Thanks to Cecilia Segawa Seigle, Nathan Hopson, and Miki Morita] … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Trying for a baby
A excuse usuallyused by young married couples so they can fuck a lot. Jack and Erin claim they are trying for a baby but I'm pretty sure they are using that as an excuse to fuck 24/7.
[Link]
languagehat.com » How English Ruined Indian Literature.
The novelist Aatish Taseer had an impassioned piece in the NY Times recently about the effect of India’s linguistic hierarchy on both the job prospects of Indians and the country’s literature; some excerpts: “English is not a language in India,” a friend once told me. “It is a class.” This friend, an aspiring Bollywood actor, knew firsthand what it meant … [Link]
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