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 » For Pasternak, the Word Does Not Exist.
I’m reading Dmitry Bykov’s biography of Pasternak in conjunction with the poetry, and it’s a wonderful book — Bykov himself is a poet and novelist, so he understands the work from the inside. This longish passage comparing Pasternak to his great contemporaries is so enlightening I thought I’d translate it here (Russian below the cut); he’s just quoted «Осень» [Autumn]: … [Link]
Language Log » Missing G's
Michael Cannings sent in this photograph of a package of shelf mushrooms aka bracket fungi used in Chinese traditional medicine: 
jīngxuǎn yěshēng língzhī piàn 精選野生靈芝片 ("selected wild Ganoderma slices") There's nothing much to add except to observe that: 1. all the G's on the package have been turned into C's 2. aside from separating LINC and ZHI, they got the … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » blew up the bathroom
When lower gastrointestinal distress is relieved in the bathroom, and the resulting semi- to fully- liquefied remains and flatulence leaves a lingering odor long after the person has left the bathroom I don't know what he ate, but man, he blew up the bathroom! You won't want to go in there for a while.
[Link]
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