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

Omniglot blog » Suo Gân

Saturday 13 June 20:51:37 UTC 2015

We are learning the traditional Welsh lullaby Suo Gân [sɨɔ ɡɑːn] in one of the choirs I sing in at the moment. It’s a lovely song that was first written down in 1800, but was probably composed around before then. When I first saw the words Suo Gân I thought they might be Mandarin Chinese – I knew that gân … [Link]

languagehat.com » Gluckschmerz.

Saturday 13 June 20:32:35 UTC 2015

Yesterday’s WSJ has an enjoyable column by Ben Cohen describing a word, or quasi-word, or pseudo-word, that was new to me: There are few words in any language as fun to say as schadenfreude. Its etymology is easy to understand. Schadenfreude, the pleasure in someone else’s pain, comes from the German words for those exact emotions. But people can also … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Spite marriage

Saturday 13 June 8:28:33 UTC 2015

A marriage motivated primarily by a desire to hurt or get even with someone else. "She soon found out that her spite marriage to Bob was a big mistake. You see, Tom didn't care — in fact he congratulated them both with the utmost sincerity." [Link]

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