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 language of sexual minorities
Nathan Hopson writes from a conference at Nagoya, Japan: One of the discussants just mentioned that the words tóngqī 同妻・ tóngfū 同夫 are recently being used in China to refer respectively to a "wife with a homosexual husband" and a "husband with a homosexual wife". Since these are neologisms, there are no established English translations for either of the terms. … [Link]
languagehat.com » Grammelot.
Over a decade ago, Mark Liberman posted at the Log about a garbled account of a “magical sounding gibberish language”; I won’t confuse you with the details, which turned out to be irrelevant, but the upshot was that the actual term was grammelot, which seems to have been invented by Dario Fo. A followup post has more details, and makes … [Link]
Omniglot blog » The Power of Procrastination
Are you a procrastinator? Do you find yourself doing all sorts of things to avoid doing something you have to do? For example, when you should be revising for an exam you keep finding other things to do which you convince yourself are essential and have to be done right now, such as cleaning, putting your books/CDs/DVDs into alphabetical order, … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Origin Unknown: Profile of Anatoly Liberman
Lapham’s Quarterly has a nice profile of etymologist Anatoly Liberman. I don’t have much to say about the piece, except to highlight a couple of quotes. On why he pursues etymologies: “Love is the wrong word,” he says. “Etymology is not a child or a woman. So there is nothing to love it for. It’s the excitement of discovery. Whether … [Link]
Language Log » Women's words
In Wired (2/1/16), Liz Stinson has an article titled "This Little Red Book Confronts Sexism in the Chinese Language" (the text is accompanied by a total of 8 slides). It begins: Activism can take many forms. In the case of Women’s Words, it takes the form of a little red dictionary. The tiny book is the work of Karmen Hui, … [Link]
Language Log » Pygmalion updated
Peter Serafinowicz has updated George Bernard Shaw's dictum that "It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him", by re-voicing Donald Trump to demonstrate that emotional reactions to British accents are easily evoked in Americans as well. There's "Sophisticated Trump", posted on YouTube 12/17/2015: And there's Cockney "Donald Thump", posted … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » yuge
A variation of the word HUGE commonly used by Donald Trump. Hey Don, are you building that tower across 5th Avenue? Donald Trump: Yes, it's going to be YUGE!!
[Link]
Language Log » Madame Curry
Mark Swofford called my attention to this Taipei restaurant, noting the risqué pun in its name: gālí niáng 咖哩娘 (lit., "curry mom"). The restaurant also has the Frenchified Western name "cari de madame". It could conceivably be a pun for jiālǐ niàng 家裡釀 ("home brew"), but I suspect that Mark had something else in mind. Well, the proprietors tell part … [Link]
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