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

languagehat.com » American Colonial English.

Saturday 11 April 21:26:03 UTC 2015

A reader writes: “I am writing a story which takes place in colonial America. Do you know of any resources for someone interested in the dialect and grammar of American Colonial English?” My answer: “I don’t, but it’s an interesting question, and I’ll post it.” So, anybody know? [Link]

languagehat.com » Porthmeor and MAGA.

Saturday 11 April 14:20:41 UTC 2015

Mark Woods is featuring Ben Nicholson’s painting Porthmeor Beach at wood s lot, and I wondered how to pronounce Porthmeor. I couldn’t find anything in a brief Google search, and was about to give up when I clicked on this page (the ‘Cornwall and Cornish’ category at John Maidment’s Blog, which seems to have a good deal of language-related material), … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Two wheels left here will be removed

Saturday 11 April 14:05:15 UTC 2015

If you’ve ever wonder how you would tell people not to park their bicycles in Latin and Ancient Greek, as I’m sure you have, the sign in the photo shows you. The Latin, Duae rotae hic relictae perimentur, apparently means “two wheels [cycles] left/abandoned here will be removed”. The Greek, Εηθαδε αηφθεητες δυοκυκλοι διαφθαρνσονται, apparently means “Two wheels taken here … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Accidental Incest

Saturday 11 April 9:41:19 UTC 2015

Having a realistic wet dream to wake up to hearing your parents having sex in the other room. "Mike, I had an accidental incest the other night!" "Roll Tide" [Link]

Language Log » Farsi shekar ast

Saturday 11 April 3:56:55 UTC 2015

This is a quiz. It's a short, pop quiz, but the post is going to be very long. 1. In what language is the title of this post written? 2. What does the title mean? Let me say that I have never formally studied this language, but I took one look at the sentence and I knew immediately what it … [Link]

Language Log » Pre-natal wifi

Saturday 11 April 3:38:31 UTC 2015

From Gordon Old: The Japanese and the Chinese are simple and straightforward: yūsen seki 優先席 ("priority seat") yōuxiān zuòwèi 优先坐位 ("priority seat") The Korean is a bit more complicated. 노약자석(老弱者席 RR no-yak-ja-seok; MR no-yak-cha-sŏk ) ("seats for those who are elderly and weak") Some colleagues would prefer this wording: 노약자좌석 RR no-yak-ja-jwa-seok; MR no-yak-cha-chwa-sŏk Cf. 자석 RR ja-seok; MR cha-sŏk … [Link]

Language Log » Jackie Chan Campus Station

Saturday 11 April 3:26:10 UTC 2015

As Language Log readers are well aware, Jackie Chan recently became super famous for the amazing bounciness of his hair and the mystical syllable he proclaimed in self-admiration: "Duang " (3/1/15) and "More on 'duang'" (3/19). Now we find that he has a bus stop named after him: Computerized translation fail at Sichuan Normal University campus bus stop pic.twitter.com/NA1Q5iI0Qr — … [Link]

languagehat.com » France Gives In to the Hashtag.

Saturday 11 April 0:39:01 UTC 2015

William Alexander in the NY Times has fun with “the stunning announcement that France is giving up the fight to keep English words out of the French language”: This sudden reversal of four centuries of French linguistic policy was issued by the minister of culture, Fleur Pellerin, who declared that France’s resistance to the incursion of English words was harming … [Link]

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