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

Language Log » Roman letter shapes in Japanese

Saturday 1 August 23:13:17 UTC 2015

[A guest post by Nathan Hopson] Recently, I encountered two examples of the intriguing use of roman letters in Japanese to describe various shapes and parts of the nether regions of human anatomy. The first was in a Japan Times article on military terminology and slang in Japanese, which was an interesting read in its own right. The passage that … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Now, is it you that’s in it?

Saturday 1 August 18:42:43 UTC 2015

An interesting Hiberno-English expression I heard today is “Is it you that’s in it?”, which is a direct translation of the Irish “tusa atá ann?“, and is used as a greeting meaning something like, “Hello, how are you?”. Another Hiberno-English expression that came up in conversation this morning was “Don’t talk to me (about that)”, which is used when agreeing … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Publishing By the Numbers

Saturday 1 August 17:23:00 UTC 2015

Fivethirtyeight.com, Nate Silver’s website on polling, data, and statistics, has a podcast called What’s the Point? that recently delved into the use of data by book publishers. It’s a neat discussion about the industry and how publishers make decisions about whether or not to publish a book and how to market it if they do. [Link]

Language Log » Thing explainer

Saturday 1 August 13:25:23 UTC 2015

The xkcd site is promoting Randall Munroe's forthcoming book Thing Explainer, in which things are explained in the style of his comic "Up Goer Five", "using only the ten hundred words people use the most often". At the time that "Up Goer Five" came out, Theo Sanderson created the Up Goer Five Text Editor, which checks words as you type … [Link]

languagehat.com » Shvitzer.

Saturday 1 August 12:46:20 UTC 2015

Kobi wrote me with the following interesting question: In Hebrew people use the word שויצר to describe a person who boasts. I found the word in Raphael’s dictionary but I have no idea if it’s a credible source. shvits verb, participle ge…t, sweat, perspire adjectival form with -ik, adverbial complementdurkh shvitser noun, plural in -s, gender m, braggart I wonder … [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: True blue

Saturday 1 August 8:00:00 UTC 2015

What's the origin of the Australian term 'true blue'? [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Charon

Saturday 1 August 8:00:00 UTC 2015

How do you say the name of 'Charon', a moon of Pluto? [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Latrinalia

Saturday 1 August 8:00:00 UTC 2015

'Latrinalia' is a posh word for writings on lavatory walls. [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Nakation

Saturday 1 August 8:00:00 UTC 2015

What's a 'nakation' and who invented it? [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Hands off?

Saturday 1 August 8:00:00 UTC 2015

Can 'manually' mean operated by the feet? [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » shirt cocking

Saturday 1 August 7:00:00 UTC 2015

Men who go about their day with a shirt on, but no pants or underwear. "Cocking" can be used with other terms. Example: Cowl Cocking, when a man wears only a super heros cowl, much like Batmans cowl, but no pants or underwear. Look at that dude, he's totally shirt cocking. [Link]

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