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 » Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources.
Sara Uckelman of Durham University commented on this 2008 thread about the Medieval Names Archive to say “Working with the Academy and for the MNA is directly responsible for my newest project, the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources,” and the site looked interesting enough I thought I’d give it its own post. The About page says: The Dictionary … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Depicting World Languages
A neat visualization of the twenty-three most popular languages, depicted proportionally by the number of speakers. The graphic was created by Alberto Lucas Lopéz for the South China Morning Post. Data like this is always a bit suspect, but this chart is based on the information at Ethnologue.com, which is generally pretty good. The biggest problem is that it represents … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Fosses and Sextons
At the French Conversation Group last night one of the people had an old French language textbook from the 1950s which contains lots of stories in French. One of them contains the word “Le Fossoyeur” in the title, which is translated as “The Sexton”. As this wasn’t a word I’d come across before, I thought I’d find out more about … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Food monitor
The person who nitpicks and judges everyone's food choices at the dinner table. Food Monitor: You can't eat those french fries, those have 1600 calories, they are bad for you. Similar to the hall monitor when you were at school.
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Language Log » Polysyllabic characters revisited
In "'Double Happiness': symbol of Confucianism as a religion" (6/8/15), we had a vigorous discussion over how to pronounce this character: 囍 ("double happiness"). Some participants and sources said that it should be pronounced the same as 喜 ("happy; joyful"), i.e., xǐ, while others held that it is pronounced with two syllables as shuāngxǐ. There may be a generation gap … [Link]
languagehat.com » Pronunciation Errors that Changed Modern English.
An Alternet piece by David Shariatmadari begins with this charming anecdote: Someone I know tells a story about a very senior academic giving a speech. Students shouldn’t worry too much, she says, if their plans “go oar-y” after graduation. Confused glances are exchanged across the hall. Slowly the penny drops: the professor has been pronouncing “awry” wrong all through her … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » what happened next
Click bait to get you to go to the story. He decapitated his entire family, including his grandparents, but what happened next will truly shock you.
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