John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

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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

languagehat.com » No Pushkin without Yat.

Tuesday 31 May 21:45:11 UTC 2016

I’ve finally started reading The Look of Russian Literature: Avant-Garde Visual Experiments, 1900-1930 by Gerald Janecek, which Noetica gave me a few years ago, and I’ve come across an instance of mass peevery that made me wriggle with delight. Janecek is discussing the history of orthographic reform in Russia in the period leading up to the October Revolution (the Bolsheviks … [Link]

Language Log » What other people might put it

Tuesday 31 May 16:29:50 UTC 2016

Comedian Doug Stanhope is unable to sleep at night over the way his friend Johnny Depp is being pilloried as a wife-abuser by Amber Heard (she says he hit her in the face with a cell phone); so he did the obvious thing any friend would do: he submitted an expletive-laced article about his angst over the situation to The … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » emoji

Tuesday 31 May 13:54:00 UTC 2016

Emoji are pictograms used in electronic communications. An emoji is a digital icon used to express an emotion or idea, a twenty-first century updating of the old ascii emoticons like the winking face, ;-), used to mark a joke or sarcasm. [Link]

Language Log » Unnecessariat

Tuesday 31 May 10:10:07 UTC 2016

Anne Amnesia, "Unnecessariat", More Crows than Eagles, 5/10/2016: In 2011, economist Guy Standing coined the term “precariat” to refer to workers whose jobs were insecure, underpaid, and mobile, who had to engage in substantial “work for labor” to remain employed, whose survival could, at any time, be compromised by employers (who, for instance held their visas) and who therefore could … [Link]

Omniglot blog » In the Land of the Eagles

Tuesday 31 May 10:05:01 UTC 2016

Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa Yesterday I climbed Snowdon with other members of the Bangor Ukulele Society. We set off from Pen-y-Pass (The head/top of the pass) and took the Miner’s Track to the top, then went down the Llanberis Path. On the way up and the way down we stopped a number of times to sing a few songs, and got a bit of … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Noice

Tuesday 31 May 7:00:00 UTC 2016

Legit Bomb af Hot Cheettos are pretty noice [Link]

Language Log » Nothing to fear but… what?

Tuesday 31 May 2:42:31 UTC 2016

In advance of tonight's Game 7 in the NBA Western Conference finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the New York Times recalls a similar Game 7 faced by the Chicago Bulls in 1998: That spring, the top-seeded Bulls were taken to a seventh game by the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. Between Games … [Link]

Language Log » June 4, 198brew

Tuesday 31 May 1:42:27 UTC 2016

A tweet from Cherie Chan: Man arrested for commemorating #June4th1989, accused of naming his alcohol BaJiuLiuSi (8964) https://t.co/U56ghlcjaj pic.twitter.com/CrnHAVrf10 — Cherie Chan 陳卓妍 (@cheriechancy) May 29, 2016 The label says: Bā jiǔ liù sì Zhōngguó Běijīng yǒng bù wàngjì yǒng bù fàngqì 27 nián jiàocáng 八酒六四 中国北京 永不忘记 永不放弃 27年窖藏 eight brew six four China, Beijing Never forget Never give … [Link]

languagehat.com » Zebra!

Tuesday 31 May 0:11:38 UTC 2016

I was thinking about using this Log post by Victor Mair for LH because of the video with its wonderful rapid-fire exchange in Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM), Wuhan topolect, and Dongbei (Northeastern) topolect and the explication of the various varieties used, but one of the insults involved (gè bānmǎ ‘this zebra’) prompted a second post which is even better, explaining … [Link]

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