John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

John Gordon Ross header image 3

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

Language Log » That false and senseless Way of Speaking

Friday 1 July 21:09:16 UTC 2016

Some eloquent 17th-century Quaker peeving, from The history of the life of Thomas Ellwood: Or, an account of his birth, education, &c. with divers observations on his life and manners when a youth: … Also several other remarkable passages and occurrences. Written by his own hand. To which is added, a supplement by J. W., 1714: Again, The Corrupt and … [Link]

Language Log » Sayable and now writable

Friday 1 July 16:30:54 UTC 2016

In a comment to "Pinyin literature contest" (6/30/16), DG asked an excellent, reasonable question: I am not a Chinese speaker, so I am wondering if the requirement that it's not originally written in Chinese characters is a sort of honor code, or is there some way to tell from the pinyin submission? A composition in Pinyin is apt to be … [Link]

languagehat.com » Maltese Sums Up the Mediterranean.

Friday 1 July 15:37:37 UTC 2016

Bryant Rousseau has a NY Times piece on the history of Maltese: Maltese is very much a living language. More than 90 percent of the nation’s 425,000 citizens speak it at home. Authors writing in Maltese won the European Prize for Literature in 2011 and 2014. Over the centuries, other languages and dialects have been layered on top of Maltese’s … [Link]

Omniglot blog » The Right To Read, The Right To Write

Friday 1 July 15:17:39 UTC 2016

Today we have a guest post by Tim Brookes of the Endangered Alphabets Project An text in Hmong in the Pahawh Hmong script carved into a wooden block As those of us in the United States head into the long weekend that celebrates the country’s independence from colonial authority (yes, as a Brit I have to accept my birth country’s history!), the Endangered Alphabets’ Mother Tongue initiative is especially significant. Take a look at … [Link]

Language Log » Lapsus linguae

Friday 1 July 14:14:29 UTC 2016

Yesterday I gave a lecture on the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age "mummies" (they're really desiccated corpses, but "mummies" sounds cuter) of Eastern Central Asia before an audience of about twenty-five at the Franklin Inn Club in Philadelphia. I was talking about a Swedish archeologist named Folke Bergman (1902-1946), who worked with the great Swedish explorer, Sven Hedin (1865-1952). … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Asshole Chair

Friday 1 July 7:30:00 UTC 2016

The chairs located throughout a store where the unfortunate male who gets roped into shopping with a female companion ends up sitting. The hapless male usually ends up waiting for hours, and often while an important sporting event is on. Yvonne: I'll be in the bra section. Rachel: I'll be in the shoe department. L: I'll be in the asshole … [Link]

Language Log » Private probably

Friday 1 July 5:07:52 UTC 2016

The following two images come from Graham and Kathleen's video diary of a trip to the Daitoku-ji temple complex in Kyoto. The two images occur at 8:21 and 8:29 in the video. Kutsu no machigai ni go-chuui kudasai!! 靴の間違いにご注意下さい‼︎ "Be careful not to take the wrong shoes" Kasa wa kasatate ni irete kudasai. *Innai shiyoo kinshi 傘は傘立てにいれてください。 *院内使用禁止 "Please put … [Link]

Language Log » Spelling with Chinese character(istic)s, pt. 3

Friday 1 July 4:51:46 UTC 2016

Hangzhou is handing out “crash course” manuals for residents to chat with international visitors at the G20 Summit in September, complete with Chinese character transcriptions of such beginner’s phrases as “Hangzhou, a paradise on Earth” and “orioles singing in the willows”: Source To give an idea of how this "spelling with Chinese characters" works, here are the first and fifth … [Link]

languagehat.com » On Categorization.

Friday 1 July 0:24:51 UTC 2016

I confess myself somewhat thrown for a loop by Randy J. LaPolla’s short paper “On categorization: Stick to the facts of the languages” (to appear in Linguistic Typology); he says sensible things about labeling linguistic categories based on resemblances, then continues thus: My own view (LaPolla 1997, 2003, 2015, 2016), developed from my experiences with languages and communication over many … [Link]

Archive

No Comments

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.