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

languagehat.com » Thousands of Years Ago.

Wednesday 6 April 18:42:49 UTC 2016

Trying to finish last week’s New Yorker before the new one arrives, I began “The End of Ice: Exploring a Himalayan glacier” by the estimable Dexter Filkins and was pulled up short before I finished the first paragraph: The journey to the Chhota Shigri Glacier, in the Himalayan peaks of northern India, begins thousands of feet below, in New Delhi—a … [Link]

Language Log » Sad jelly noodles

Wednesday 6 April 16:37:18 UTC 2016

Name of a restaurant in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan: shāngxīn suānlà fěn 傷心酸辣粉 In English, the restaurant calls itself "Sad Super Hot Noodles". Setting aside the shāngxīn 傷心, which comes across in the Chinglish translation as "sad", for the moment, let's look at the other parts of the restaurant name: suānlà 酸辣 (lit., "sour spicy") — I suspect that a … [Link]

Language Log » Jerman, Perancis, Jepang, …

Wednesday 6 April 11:42:04 UTC 2016

I recently got a "Call for Papers" from an international organization whose next annual meeting will be held in Indonesia, and it's clear that part of the production of the flier was in the hands of an Indonesian person, because the affiliations of members of various listed committees included these: Bielefeld University, Jerman I2R, Singapura LIMSI-CNRS, Perancis Trinity College Dublin, … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » anal twitch

Wednesday 6 April 7:00:00 UTC 2016

1:The involuntary spasming of muscles around the anus. 2: a person so annoying and obnoxious that they can only be referred to as an " anal twitch". " that guy over there is such an anal twitch!" [Link]

languagehat.com » Espagnolette.

Wednesday 6 April 0:19:11 UTC 2016

I recently read Marcel Möring’s novel In Babylon (translated by Stacey Knecht), and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys tangled family tales with supernatural/mystical elements but doesn’t worry overmuch about prosaic answers or how it all hangs together. My wife and I both felt let down, after initial enjoyment of the growing mystery and complexity, by how it … [Link]

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