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 » More on "Daesh"
We've had a recent post on the pronunciation of this lightning rod of a word. "Pronouncing 'Daesh' " (11/15/15) From a colleague: Guthrie's article* states: "And the vowel which begins the word 'islaamiyya' becomes an 'a' sound when differently positioned in a word, hence the acronym being pronounced 'da’ish' when written in Arabic, and the 'a' coming over into our … [Link]
languagehat.com » A Year in Reading 2015.
Once again it’s time for the Year in Reading feature at The Millions, in which people write about books they’ve read and enjoyed during the previous year; my contribution is up, featuring my recommendations of Peter Brown’s Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350–550 AD 
Language Log » New frontiers in bullshitology
Gordon Pennycook, James Allan Cheyne, Nathaniel Barr, Derek J. Koehler, & Jonathan A. Fugelsang, "On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit", Judgment and Decision Making 2015: Although bullshit is common in everyday life and has attracted attention from philosophers, its reception (critical or ingenuous) has not, to our knowledge, been subject to empirical investigation. Here we focus on pseudo-profound … [Link]
Omniglot blog » A Guide to Paisa Spanish
This is guest post written by Connor Grooms, who learned Spanish to a B1 conversational level in a month and made the film, “Spanish in a Month: A Documentary About Language Learning” about it. A few months ago, I learned Spanish to a B1 conversational level in a month while living in Medellín, Colombia. If you want to see the … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » fascism, fascist
The term for a right-wing political ideologue arises in post-World War One Italy, but its etymological roots go back to the Roman Empire. Fascis (pl. fasces) is Latin for a bundle of rods, especially one bound with an axe, and carried before a Roman magistrate as a symbol of power and authority. English use of the word dates to the … [Link]
Language Log » Treasure Language
Steven Bird writes: After researching some alternatives, I'm trying to get "treasure language" adopted as a way of talking about disappearing or threatened or dying languages. I'm creating a new kind of storytelling event that brings immigrant/diaspora and indigenous communities together. The first event is scheduled in less than two weeks in Oakland, and features storytelling and word games in … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » The weird part of Youtube
The YouTube jungle. A desolate zone littered with video uploads generally taken down within two weeks due to strange and/or NSFW content. The users have unintelligible names and post videos that make no sense. bob: So I was watching anime on YouTube and somehow found this girl wearing a skunk mask and ripping farts on a dude's face. joe: oh … [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.