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

languagehat.com » Footling Foosball.

Monday 14 September 22:16:18 UTC 2015

I just discovered that two words, neither of which is part of my active vocabulary, have alternate pronunciations on which dictionaries disagree. Merriam-Webster says footling ‘inept; trivial’ is either ˈfü-təl-iŋ (three syllables, as would be expected for the participle of the verb footle) or ˈfüt-liŋ (two syllables, rhymes with BOOT-ling), while American Heritage gives only the latter. Meanwhile, AHD says … [Link]

Language Log » Raw "cyber" information

Monday 14 September 12:29:33 UTC 2015

A recent xkcd: Mouseover title: "We had gathered that raw information, but had yet to put it all together." Hate to spoil the joke, but Google Scholar finds 452 publications on cyberintelligence since 2014; 8,330 publications on cybersecurity in the same period; and 30,200 publications using the bare lexeme cyber. Google Books ngrams won't track past 2008, and suggests a … [Link]

Language Log » New discovery in English historical lexicography

Monday 14 September 10:51:26 UTC 2015

A retired lecturer in medieval history, Dr Paul Booth, has discovered a reference in a 1310 court record to a man named Roger Fuckebythenavele, and he believes it really does mean that the man was known as Roger Fuck-By-The-Navel, the surname (possibly a nickname given by enemies) actually meaning "fuck via the belly button", so this may be the earliest … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » SFW

Monday 14 September 7:30:00 UTC 2015

So Fucking What I got a 10 cent raise #SFW. [Link]

Language Log » Chinese Japanese

Monday 14 September 0:04:10 UTC 2015

From a Japanese colleague: "Now the Japanese too can appreciate the linguistic ingenuity of the Chinese!" As he suggested, on the model of "Chinglish", we'll tentatively refer to this hybrid language as "Chapanese" until someone comes up with a better name for it. This odd article collects twenty photographs illustrating different products and dishes designated and described with Chapanese wording: … [Link]

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