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 » Frank’s Compulsive Guide to Country Addresses.
Frank’s Compulsive Guide to Country Addresses isn’t directly language-related, but of course different countries have different languages and writing systems, and this maniacally detailed guide to addressing international mail deals with them, quoting recommendations like “Addresses in Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Japanese, or Chinese characters must bear an interline translation in English of the names of the post office … [Link]
Language Log » Sino-Japanese
I recall that, as a graduate student in Sinology, one of the most troublesome tasks was figuring out how to romanize the names of Japanese authors, the titles of their works, place names, technical terms, and so forth. Overall, Japanese Sinological (not to mention Indological and other fields) scholarship is outstanding, so we have to consult it, and when we … [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Yarely
'Yarely', promptly or quickly, has long vanished from the language. [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Upset the apple cart
Why is the ruin of some plan said to have 'upset the apple cart'? [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Snooter
'Snooter' was a favourite word of PG Wodehouse but what does it mean? [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Fard
To 'fard' the face was once to paint it, to apply cosmetics. [Link]
Language Log » Post Office nerdview (capped)
table { border-collapse: collapse; } table, th, td { padding: 8px; border: 1px solid black; } Postal orders are a way for people in Britain to send money by post without having a checking account, but there is a fee, dependent on the face value of the order. For a postal order with a face value of more than £100 … [Link]
Language Log » Corpus-based judicial opinions
Gordon Smith, "Michigan Supreme Court Embraces Corpus Linguistics", The Conglomerate 6/28/2016: In the case of People v. Harris, the Michigan Supreme Court became the first state supreme court in the United States to embrace corpus linguistics. (I have written here about Justice Thomas Lee's concurrence in the Utah Supreme Court's Rasabout case, which is cited in this Michigan opinion.) The … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Canucklehead
A Canadian of limited intelligence. That Canucklehead lit a cigarette while at the gas pump.
[Link]
Language Log » Hillary's "sigh"
Eric Garland of The Hill shares a video of Hillary Clinton at a June 22 campaign appearance in North Carolina, and it provides ammunition those who would like to portray her as a soulless automaton vainly trying to seem like an authentic human being. In Garland's item for The Hill, he took Clinton to task for "reading 'sigh' off the … [Link]
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