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 » Chinese-Yiddish Song.
Talya Zax writes in the Forward about someone as intriguing as the Russian who learned Scottish Gaelic for Lermontov’s sake: While writing her Ph.D. dissertation on Jewish Exile in Shanghai resulting from the Shoah, Yang Meng decided she needed to learn both Yiddish and Hebrew for the sake of her research. A Chinese national already fluent in English and German, … [Link]
Language Log » The misery of existence
Sign on the front of an audiovisual equipment supplier in Pudong, Shanghai: 
(Source of photograph) Lóngshèng xīng dìdài 隆盛星地带. I think that their English name is Longshengxing Zone. Since lóngshèng xīng 隆盛星 means something like "star of prosperity / grandeur / magnificence" and dìdài 地带 does indeed mean "zone", the Chinese name of the store has nothing to do with … [Link]
Language Log » English in Chinese: over了, out了, 太low了, 太out了
Note from Gábor Ugray: I just came across a hugely exciting conversation on Twitter, about English words mixed in with Chinese / adopted into Chinese speech – as seen in the subject line. There’s no easy way to extract conversations from Twitter, but it’s all in Liz Carter's feed today: https://twitter.com/withoutdoing The character that occurs four times in the title … [Link]
Language Log » "Hastily diagrams sentence"
Thoreau, "I don’t cry for yesterday; there’s an ordinary world", Unqualified Offerings 10/22/2015: Ah! Clinton vs. Bush with an insane billionaire in the mix and the latest Whitewater/Vince Foster sequels already brewing! It’s 1992 all over again. Except this time I’m not single and trying to work up the courage to ask a girl out. Things are much better for … [Link]
Language Log » "Often more [difficulty] than in this chosen pair"
We've often complained about the ignorant aftermath of E.B. White's ignorant 1959 incitement to which-hunting, which launched the idea that restrictive (or integrated, or defining) relative clauses in English should always and only be introduced by that, while non-restrictive (or supplementary, or non-defining) relative clauses should be introduced by which. (See "Reddit blewit" 12/24/2012 for details and additional links. Note … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? [Link]
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
You must log in to post a comment.