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

Urban Word of the Day » No pun intended

Saturday 27 June 7:30:00 UTC 2015

Pun intended. (and now acknowledged) Jack: "At least the farmer made it back to his roots. No pun intended."Jill: "There's no chance that pun was unintentional."Jack: "Yeah, I know. I just instantly feel like an annoying asshole."Jill: "Good, you should." [Link]

Language Log » Civilized language

Saturday 27 June 3:25:32 UTC 2015

Sign at a bus station in Inner Mongolia: It says: yòng wénmíngyǔ 用文明语 ("use civilized language") jiǎng pǔtōnghuà 讲普通话 ("speak Putonghua [Modern Standard Mandarin — MSM]") If you look that up on the internet, you will find that most of the references fall under the categories of biāoyǔ 标语 ("slogans") and xuānchuán 宣传 ("propaganda") — of which there are aplenty. … [Link]

languagehat.com » Talking in the Real World.

Saturday 27 June 0:36:45 UTC 2015

Lane Greene of The Economist has another good “Johnson” column; this time he’s focusing on the importance of register: I began learning Portuguese from an old secondhand book that taught forms like comê-lo-ia, which I dutifully studied, grumbling “who on Earth says this?” If only someone had answered “nobody”. When I finally talked to Brazilians, their Portuguese resembled my textbook … [Link]

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