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 » Why Stalin Called Andrei Platonov “Scum”.

Sunday 11 October 22:43:52 UTC 2015

A nice little piece on the great and still underappreciated writer Andrei Platonov (see here and here for LH discussions of his novels) by Alice E.M. Underwood; it starts with quotes like “People see with the eyes of their heads; beards grow from exhaustion; fowl can be pro-Kulak; the body of a chicken is made dead for morning breakfast; and … [Link]

Language Log » The swazzle: a simple device for voice modulation

Sunday 11 October 18:04:08 UTC 2015

Until two days ago, I had never heard of this word — even though I knew about Punch and Judy shows. From Wikipedia: A swazzle is a device made of two strips of metal bound around a cotton tape reed. The device is used to produce the distinctive harsh, rasping voice of Punch and is held in the mouth by … [Link]

Language Log » Linguistic joke of the week

Sunday 11 October 12:47:26 UTC 2015

The first two panels of today's SMBC: The third panel: The aftercomic: The mouseover text: "10 points to anyone who tries this". I'm not sure that there's a good term for this specific type of pun. Another example, in the form of a riddle: Q: Why is milk fast? A: Because it's usually pasteurized before you even see it. [Link]

Language Log » Denying that the earth is not flat

Sunday 11 October 11:44:47 UTC 2015

M.S. wrote to contribute an item for our misnegation collection — Liel Leibovitz, "‘The New York Times’ Goes Truther on the Temple Mount", Tablet 10/9/2015 [emphasis added]: And so, because the paper of record won’t put it clearly, permit me the pleasure: Denying that a Jewish temple stood on the Temple Mount is not a form of historical argument. It … [Link]

Language Log » "He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to do so"

Sunday 11 October 11:12:00 UTC 2015

Dan Lamothe, "U.S. Navy to China: We’ll sail our ships near your man-made islands whenever we want", WaPo 10/8/2015 [emphasis added]: U.S. officials could soon send a Navy ship steaming by a chain of man-made islands that China has built in the South China Sea, Pentagon officials said, potentially exacerbating tensions in an area in which Beijing is expanding its … [Link]

Language Log » "Vocalization Dictionary" of Mongolian herders

Sunday 11 October 9:53:39 UTC 2015

From Natasha Fijn, Living With The Herds: Human-Animal Coexistence in Mongolia, 2011: Living with Herds: Vocalisation Dictionary from Natasha Fijn on Vimeo. [Link]

Omniglot blog » Polyglot Conference, New York

Sunday 11 October 2:02:19 UTC 2015

This weekend I am in New York for the 2015 Polyglot Conference. I arrived yesterday afternoon after an uneventful flight from Manchester. It took a couple of hours to get out of the airport, and another hour or so to Manhattan. Last night I met up with some other polyglots near the Statan Island ferry terminal – we were planning … [Link]

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