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 » Here’s a nice whatabout
In the comments on an article I read today in the Guardian – Why North Koreans are developing an appetite for foreign languages – I noticed an interesting turn of phrase: Here’s a nice Whatabout. I suggest Brits suddenly get keen on learning foreign languages. Start with Arabic and Russian. Oh yes, and brush up on French too…. I hadn’t … [Link]
Language Log » Pun of the week
The pun goes back at least to 1986 and probably beyond. [See below for antedating to 1940…] I'm not sure who first applied it to Mr. Trump's campaign, or who created the logo. From the Wellsboro Agitator, 10/9/1940: 
[Link]
Language Log » Inuit dialect names
Helen DeWitt's wonderful novel The Last Samurai has unfortunately gone out of print, so I was happy to learn from her yesterday that a new edition is planned. What follows is an epistolary post, consisting of her note to me, her letter to Kenn Harper, and his response to her. From Helen to me: I have been trying to comb … [Link]
Language Log » Autoreplace
Today's Questionable Content: 
What auto-replace — in a messaging app or your mind — do you need to turn off or turn on? [Link]
Language Log » The big squat
The following photograph has been in my draft folder for about five years: 
I forget who sent the photograph to me, but it came with this note: The attached, from a bar in the Houhai area in Beijing, is an interesting Engrish sign where I think the English, though a mess, is better than the Chinese, since the Chinese left … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Alphabet
The act of using the alphabet to bring a woman considerable pleasure during cunnilingus. Trace all the letters of the alphabet when going down on a woman, the method known wide and far by many, to give her the best oral sex of her life.
[Link]
languagehat.com » The Bell Miner.
Greg Pringle, known around these parts as Bathrobe, has put together a wonderful Spicks and Specks post, The Bell Miner: How orthography and ornithology catalysed a new folk etymology, that begins: The Bell Miner (Manorina melanophrys) is an Australian bird belonging to the honeyeaters (Meliphagidae). It lives in temperate rainforests of southeastern Australia, preferred habitats being woodlands with dense shrubby … [Link]
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