John Gordon Ross

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 » The shawm and its eastern cousins

Monday 16 November 18:57:15 UTC 2015

I have long been intrigued by the Chinese instrument called suǒnà 嗩吶 (double-reeded horn). Because of the sound and shape of the name, and the fact that the characters used to write it both have mouth radicals, indicating that they are being used to convey pronunciation rather than meaning, I have always suspected that suǒnà 嗩吶 was the transcription of … [Link]

Language Log » WOTY 2015

Monday 16 November 18:40:19 UTC 2015

According to a press release sent out earlier today, Today Oxford Dictionaries announces the emoji , commonly known as “Face with Tears of Joy,” as its “Word” of the Year for 2015. They explain that This year Oxford University Press partnered with leading mobile technology business SwiftKey to explore frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » SFTME

Monday 16 November 8:00:00 UTC 2015

Sorry For The Mass Email SFTME everybody,Has anyone seen my red stapler? I left it somewhere in the office last Saturday.Thanks! Milton [Link]

Language Log » Cloud Conversations

Monday 16 November 3:27:34 UTC 2015

David Donnell writes: My initial thought was that there was a climate-related "cloud conversation" that the French were oppposing — Michele Kelemen, "Paris Attacks Cloud Conversation At Summit Of World Powers", NPR 11/15/2015. [Link]

languagehat.com » Bananals in Bristol.

Monday 16 November 1:59:46 UTC 2015

Back in 2009 I posted excerpts from the Wikipedia article on West Country dialects, including this: In the Bristol area, a terminal “a” (realised as [aw], c.f. Albert as “Awbert”, cinema as “cinemaw”) is often perceived to be followed by an intrusive “l”. Hence the old joke about the three Bristolian sisters Evil, Idle and Normal — i.e., Eva, Ida, … [Link]

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