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 » "Purple mist coming from the east" cake
Here is an interesting picture that Francois Dube took today in a cakeshop in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui (Muslim) Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China: 
Francois comments: As usual in China, the menu introduces each cake with its name in Mandarin and in English (with plenty of mistranslations). But one cake was different: its very poetic name (紫气东来) … [Link]
Language Log » Marriage O'Quality
Tweeted by Graeme Orr: Marriage O'Quality. Comhghairdeas Éire! #marriageeqaulity — Graeme Orr (@Graeme_Orr) May 23, 2015 Clicking on "View Translation", Graeme was fascinated to learn that his combination of neologism and Gaelic is actually… Romanian! 
[Link]
Language Log » OK Google
A couple of days ago, I gave a talk at the Centre Cournot on the topic "Why Human Language Technology (almost) works" ("Pourquoi les technologies de la langue et du discours marchent enfin (ou presque)"), and for the introduction, I tried giving Google Now a few questions and instructions on my Android phone. In case you're not familiar with this … [Link]
Language Log » Qishan smell of urine yellow croaker
Tom Hancock sent in this photograph of a poster seen yesterday outside a Shaanxi restaurant just inside Beijing's third ring road: 
Here's the name of the dish they are advertising: Qíshān sàozi huángyú 岐山臊子黄鱼 I won't attempt to translate it at one fell swoop. It will be more prudent to work at it two characters at a time: the first … [Link]
languagehat.com » Tooth.
I had one yanked today, so I thought I’d post about the Indo-European forms, which mostly all come from the same root and which beautifully illustrate all sorts of sound changes; this is the sort of thing that got me interested in historical linguistics. The Germanic forms — Old English tóþ, Old Saxon tand, Low German tan, Dutch tand, Old … [Link]
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