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 » So Happy He Gurns.

Sunday 12 June 18:30:27 UTC 2016

I’m reading Kevin Barry’s novel Beatlebone , which jamessal gave me for Christmas, and enjoying it greatly — it’s one of those books whose language is so lively and irrepressible you want to read whole chunks aloud (which I do, to my wife, the cats, or failing an audience myself). It’s about John Lennon (though he is referred to only as … [Link]

Language Log » Live striped bass

Sunday 12 June 15:11:00 UTC 2016

Nathan Hopson spotted these signs in Pittsburgh: The other translations, though minimal, are not wrong, but the third one from the left picked the incorrect meaning for "bass" in Chinese: dīyīn 低音 ("low [register male singing] voice; bass") The fish would be: lú 鱸 or lúyú 鱸魚 ("bass; common perch") More specifically: yínhuā lúyú 銀花鱸魚 ("striped bass"; Morone saxatilis) It's … [Link]

Language Log » Chinese, Japanese, and Russian signs at Klagenfurt Botanical Gardens

Sunday 12 June 15:04:59 UTC 2016

Blake Shedd sent along a series of forty pictures of plant identification signs from the botanical garden in the small southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. He was rather impressed that the botanical garden staff went to the trouble of including non-Latin / non-German names for the plants. And I was impressed at the remarkable documentation Blake provided by … [Link]

Language Log » "SHAM POO" and "SHOWER POO"

Sunday 12 June 14:48:57 UTC 2016

From Mark Seidenberg (though I think that I may originally have sent it to him years ago): There are Xiangyun hotels in several Chinese cities. I can recall them in Nanning (Guangxi) and Shanghai. Xiángyún dà jiǔdiàn 翔雲大酒店 ("Xiangyun [Soaring Clouds] Hotel") xǐfǎ yè 洗发液 ("shampoo") línyù yè 淋浴液 ("shower gel") Chinese synonyms for the latter term include mùyù lù … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Blue Letter Bible

Sunday 12 June 14:36:00 UTC 2016

A website for exploring the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible. [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Diccionario Etimológico

Sunday 12 June 14:30:00 UTC 2016

A Spanish etymological dictionary. [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Deutsches Wörterbuch (Grimm)

Sunday 12 June 14:27:00 UTC 2016

Grimm’s dictionary of German (1854–1961) is available online through the University of Trier. [Link]

Wordorigins.org » American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots

Sunday 12 June 13:49:00 UTC 2016

The Indo-European roots appendix to the American Heritage Dictionary is available as a separate volume. A solid, yet inexpensive resource if you want to trace an etymology to the earliest possible source. [Link]

Wordorigins.org » A Way With Words

Sunday 12 June 13:48:59 UTC 2016

Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette host this weekly public radio show and podcast on language. [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Corpus.BYU.Edu

Sunday 12 June 13:48:58 UTC 2016

Brigham Young University hosts a number of searchable corpora of English usage. The site is an invaluable resource for determining how words and phrases are used in different genres and registers, regions, and dates. Corpora on the site include: Newspapers on the Web (NOW) Corpus, 2.8 billion words, 2010–present Global Web-Based English, 1.9 billion words, 2012–13 Wikipedia Corpus, 1.9 billion … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Urban Dictionary

Sunday 12 June 13:48:57 UTC 2016

An online compendium of slang. Urban Dictionary is crowd sourced with no apparent editorial supervision. Therefore, it cannot be taken as accurate or authoritative, but when used with care it can be a valuable source for information on recent slang that has yet to be recognized by more traditional references. [Link]

Language Log » Recursive epitomology

Sunday 12 June 12:13:42 UTC 2016

Today's SMBC: Click to embiggen Mouseover title: "Life rule: Never do anything you've done more than 3 times already." On the contrary, it seems to me. Beyond the status of a mere generic cliché, we can all aspire to become the type specimen of something important: the archtype or personification of a significant class of complaints. Consider this passage from John McIntyre's fine … [Link]