John Gordon Ross

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 » Humor among the Finns

Sunday 10 July 18:54:58 UTC 2016

According to The Economist (July 9, 2016, "Just visiting" [p.30 in UK edition]), a joke was "making the rounds" in Finland back in 2008 when Russia invaded part of Georgia (and Finns aren't laughing at it quite so much since the Ukraine conflict flared up): Vladimir Putin lands at Helsinki airport and proceeds to passport control. "Name?" asks the border … [Link]

Language Log » Spelling bees in the 1940s

Sunday 10 July 18:42:36 UTC 2016

[This is a guest post by Frank Southworth. Since Frank is a linguist who specializes on South Asia, it has particular resonance with our long running series of posts on Indian dominance in more recent spelling bees.] In the spring of 1941, when I was in sixth grade, I was the spelling champion of Public School #30 in Buffalo, NY … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Language quiz

Sunday 10 July 9:51:38 UTC 2016

Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? [Link]

Language Log » Translation variation

Sunday 10 July 9:29:45 UTC 2016

For the past week, I've been in Paris attending JEP-TALN-RECITAL 2016 ("31ème Journées d’Études sur la Parole — 23ème Conférence sur le Traitement Automatique des Langues Naturelles — 18ème Rencontre des Étudiants Chercheurs en Informatique pour le Traitement Automatique des Langues). This event certainly takes the prize for the longest acronym of any conference I've ever attended. Attending a francophone … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » fucking hell mate

Sunday 10 July 7:27:12 UTC 2016

Used frequently by the people native to the United Kingdom, this is an exclamation that shows feelings of frustration or anger. "Fucking hell mate, we have been trying for 2 hours and you still can't get this dildo in my ass." [Link]

languagehat.com » Tsessebe/Sassaby.

Sunday 10 July 0:54:40 UTC 2016

This is another of those posts sparked by my noticing an unfamiliar word and spending too much time trying to figure it out. There’s an African antelope (Damaliscus lunatus lunatus) called either tsessebe or sassaby; Wikipedia and AHD have it under the former, the OED under the latter. The duality goes way back; Richard Lydekker’s The Game Animals of Africa … [Link]

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