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 » Aristotle on trolling
Rachel Barney, "[Aristotle], On Trolling", Journal of the American Philosophical Association 5/3/2016: That trolling is a shameful thing, and that no one of sense would accept to be called ‘troll’, all are agreed; but what trolling is, and how many its species are, and whether there is an excellence of the troll, is unclear. And indeed trolling is said in … [Link]
Language Log » Handcrafted
Today's Tank McNamara: 
This certainly seems to be true for lemonade — "handcrafted lemonade" doesn't occur in the Google Ngrams index. In the case of beer, homemade still beats handcrafted by a ratio of about 15 to 1, but at least handcrafted is on the scoreboard. [Link]
Language Log » The esthetics of handwriting
The following photograph of a page of Chinese characters comes from this BuzzFeed article: "21 Pieces Of Handwriting So Perfect They’re Borderline Erotic" (5/4/16) 
I took one look at the page and said to myself, "not 'perfect' or 'borderline erotic' at all; in fact, rather crude and clumsy". Not fully trusting my own judgement, however, I sent the page around … [Link]
Language Log » Scientific prescriptivism: Garner Pullumizes?
The publisher's blurb for the fourth edition of Garner's Modern English Usage introduces a new feature: With more than a thousand new entries and more than 2,300 word-frequency ratios, the magisterial fourth edition of this book — now renamed Garner's Modern English Usage (GMEU)-reflects usage lexicography at its finest. […] The judgments here are backed up not just by a … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? I don’t know what language this is. While waiting on Birmingham New Street station last Monday I saw a couple with a young daughter. They were talking this language and at first I thought based on its sounds and their appearance … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » on my mama
honest to god, I swear on my mother! Look joe, on my mama five o rolled up and we broke camp like a mother fucker!!
[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.