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 » She calls herself Angelababy
That's what practically everybody else calls her too. There's a great article by Qian Jinghua in Sixth Tone (Fresh voices from today's China) titled "Call Me Angelababy, Maybe: Ban on foreign names in Chinese-language press reveals fear of cultural fragility." (6/30/16) It's about a phenomenally popular 27-year-old actress, model, and singer whose Chinese name is 楊穎, which is read as … [Link]
Language Log » McCrum's 100 best ways to ruin the 4th of July
The many Americans in the University of Edinburgh's community of language and information scientists had to celebrate the glorious 4th on the 3rd this year, because the 4th is an ordinary working Monday. I attended a Sunday-afternoon gathering kindly hosted by the Head of the School of Informatics, Johanna Moore. We barbecued steadfastly in the drizzle despite classic Scottish indecisive … [Link]
Language Log » Spelling with Chinese character(istic)s, pt. 4
The last installment of this series, "Spelling with Chinese character(istic)s, pt. 3" (6/30/16), contains links to many other Language Log posts relevant to this subject. It is often difficult to fathom which English word is intended when it is transcribed in Chinese characters. John Kieschnick called my attention to an especially challenging one: ěrlílìjǐng 爾釐利景. Before going on to the … [Link]
Omniglot blog » It’s a gas!
In Hiberno-English people might describe something fun and enjoyable as a gas. For example, “That’s gas”, “A gas laugh”, “Come on, it’ll be gas”, “He’s a gas character”, “Your man is gas” [source]. Last week an Irish friend told me that this expression comes from laughing gas (nitrous oxide), which was used at parties to induce hilarity and euphoria in … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » curve
one ya self, leave, bounce, or just plain and simple telling someone to get out of your face and go somewhere. i'm tired of ya cats talkin junk, ya need to curve.
[Link]
Language Log » Ex-physicist takes on Heavy Metal NLP
"Heavy Metal and Natural Language Processing – Part 1", Degenerate State 4/20/2016: Natural language is ubiquitous. It is all around us, and the rate at which it is produced in written, stored form is only increasing. It is also quite unlike any sort of data I have worked with before. Natural language is made up of sequences of discrete characters … [Link]
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