Language Stuff

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

Omniglot blog » AreSpacesBetweenWordsImportant?

Friday 12 February 23:41:43 UTC 2016

Did you know that the practice of putting spaces between words was started by Irish monks writing in Latin? This is what I discovered from an episode of the Allusionist – apparently when Christianity arrived in Ireland in the 6th century and people started writing in Latin, they put spaces between the words to make texts easier to read. Before … [Link]

languagehat.com » From Miles Loricatus to Miles Gloriosus.

Friday 12 February 20:18:52 UTC 2016

I’ve finally gotten around to reading Robert Bartlett’s The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350 , which I bought two decades ago, and have just run across an interesting passage on the history of the miles (horseman/knight): Heavy cavalry retained its importance throughout the period discussed here, 950-1350. Not all such horsemen were knights. Indeed, one of the … [Link]

Language Log » The gravitational internet

Friday 12 February 15:08:47 UTC 2016

Today's xkcd: [Link]

Language Log » Poetic sound and silence

Friday 12 February 14:36:57 UTC 2016

Following up on "Political sound and silence", 2/8/2016, here's a level plot of speech segment durations and immediately-following silence segment durations from William Carlos Williams' poetry reading at the Library of Congress in May of 1945: For comparison, here's the same thing for a year's worth of weekly radio addresses from Barack Obama (2010) and from George W. Bush (2008): … [Link]