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 » Oops
Just a minor anatomical error in @USC's full-page NYT ad… via @mike_yassa pic.twitter.com/0IxFBzPuFN — Mo Costandi (@mocost) April 1, 2015 [Link]
Language Log » "Farcical names"
Chinese have long been giving themselves some rather unusual English names. V. K. Wellington Koo (famous diplomat [1888-1985]), AKA Koo Vi Kyuin, Ku Wei-chün, Gu Weijun Cream (female author in Hong Kong) Aplomb (male currently in Buffalo, New York) IcyFire (female in Taiwan) Achilles Fang (a teacher of mine) Apollo Wu (a language learning software developer) Every year when I … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Mardy
The word mardy came up in conversation last night, and the friends who mentioned it, who are from Yorkshire and Lancashire, said that it could mean annoying or weak. As I hadn’t heard it before, I thought I’d find out more about it. According to Wiktionary means sulky or whinning, e.g. ‘She’s being a mardy girl’, or non-co-operative, bad tempered … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Fæhða Gemyndig: Hostile Acts vs. Enmity
This article of mine was published in the journal Neophilologus in March 2015 (online; print publication date is TBA). It’s behind a paywall, but the copyright conditions allow me to make an earlier draft available, which can be downloaded here. The topic is pretty esoteric and will probably not be of interest to most of you, but if you’re so … [Link]
Language Log » Cavemen and postmen and explanation
For those who were interested in Mark's post on the curious question of when the -man suffix gets a reduced vowel (woman, fireman, madman, milkman, gunman, batman, Batman, caveman, postman, weatherman, etc.), and especially for those who commented on it, Ben Yagoda has now written insightfully on the topic over at Lingua Franca. I think what interests me most about … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Memeophobia
A distinct, 21st century fear that a photograph or video posted on a social network medium will go viral and you will forever be immortalized in internet infamy. Anthony, don't post that picture, you know I have memeophobia! I'm afraid to become a meme!
[Link]
languagehat.com » Snooker.
I read Sam Knight’s article about “Ronnie O’Sullivan, snooker’s greatest player” despite knowing nothing about snooker because (as often happens with the New Yorker) it was so well written it hooked me. (There’s also a great video to accompany it.) When I recommended it to my wife, I said it was about /ˈsnuːkər/, with long oo as in moot, and … [Link]
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