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 » 7,530,000 mainlanders petition Taiwan actress to change her name
From David Moser: 7.5 mil. #China netizens don't recognize character in Taiwanese actress' name, signed petition to make her change it pic.twitter.com/3KodhcHG2i — Chris Derps (@ChrisDerps) May 11, 2015 As can easily be seen from the prohibition sign (no symbol) in the photograph on this Tweet, the offending character is supposedly 甯. If it were only a matter of asking … [Link]
Language Log » QQ chicken frame / skeleton / bones / whatever
David Rowe took this photo of a sign on a market stall in Sydney Chinatown: 
These "Sweet & Chilli Chicken Frames" were being sold in a cumin lamb stall, but David reports that they didn't seem popular — he only saw lamb being cooked. With a name like "Sweet & Chilli Chicken Frames", I don't think that many English speaking … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Book Review: The Language Myth
Vyvyan Evans’s The Language Myth is something of a polemic. In the book Evans, a professor of linguistics at Bangor University in the UK, takes on the dominant paradigm of twentieth century linguistics, the universal grammar of Noam Chomsky, especially as popularized by Steven Pinker in books like The Language Instinct. Evans’s book is, to say the least, controversial, and … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Quatschen
I came across an interesting German word today – quatschen – which means to gab; to piffle; to talk rubbish; to chew the fat; to shoot the breeze; to blab; to yak; to squelch; to squidge [source]. It appears in a blog post in the sentence: Aber da fragt auf dem Gathering auch niemand mehr, ob Esperanto ok ist, da … [Link]
Language Log » Presidential roleplayers
Today's SMBC: 
And the aftercomic: 
[Link]
Language Log » Passive problem
We've been highly skeptical, in general, of usage mavens' often-mistaken disdain for what they call "passive voice". The objects of their animus are often not grammatically passive at all, but merely vague about agency — or sometimes just weakly phrased in some not-very-clear way. But Jerry Friedman points out a case where vagueness about agency poses real-world problems — and … [Link]
Language Log » Slut shames students
Jen Chung, "CT High School Slut Shames Students Over "Inappropriate" Prom Dresses", Gothamist 5/12/2015: Female students at a Connecticut High School are furious that dresses bought for this weekend's prom are being banned because they have exposed shoulders, backs, sides and legs. One mother—whose daughter had two dresses rejected—said, "They've suggested the girls wear T-shirts under their dresses. My daughter … [Link]
languagehat.com » Hebrew Slang.
Fred Skolnik (editor in chief of the Encyclopaedia Judaica) has a great piece in the Ilanot Review about Hebrew slang. There are also some absurd generalizations sprinkled here and there (British English is “calcified and effete,” journalists “speak and write in platitudes”), but ignore them and enjoy the lively descriptions of Hebrew and its slang. A couple of excerpts: Also … [Link]
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