John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

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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

Wordorigins.org » 10K Twitter Followers

Saturday 23 July 16:18:00 UTC 2016

Wordorigins.org now has over 10,000 followers on Twitter. (We actually broke that barrier some time ago, but I’m in the midst of moving to Texas, so I’ve been slow in conveying the news.) The site’s Twitter handle is @wordorigins. I generally post when I’ve added an article to the site, an entry to the Big List, or when a new … [Link]

Language Log » The Egalitarian Appreciation of Strine in Microcosm

Saturday 23 July 16:17:32 UTC 2016

[This is a guest post by Matthew Robertson] The 'Today' Interview With Oporto Robbery Heroes In the United States, regional accents often carry with them negative stereotypes about class, status, intelligence, and more, making Southern versus Northern accents markers of division. In Australia, it's largely the opposite. Regional vernacular and a broad accent (known as "Strine") is instead a unifier. … [Link]

languagehat.com » New Phonetic Character.

Saturday 23 July 13:32:53 UTC 2016

As an inveterate lover of all things bereft of past, future, and use, I was thrilled to discover the “New Phonetic Character for writing Shanghai dialect” invented by Protestant missionaries in the 1850s; a few books were published in it, heroically catalogued by David Helliwell in this 2012 Serica post, and it was then consigned to the dustbin of history, … [Link]

Language Log » Indistinguishable misnegation

Saturday 23 July 11:30:05 UTC 2016

David Frum, "Donald Trump's Bad Bet on Anger", The Atlantic 7/21/2016 [emphasis added]: Donald Trump’s supporters yearn for the country as it was and fear the country as it is. Tonight’s powerfully dystopian Trump nomination acceptance address will touch them at their deepest emotional core. It will ignite a passionate spasm of assent from those many, many Americans—mostly but not … [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Lord love a duck

Saturday 23 July 8:30:00 UTC 2016

The old London expression 'Lord love a duck' puzzles everyone who has looked into its history. [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » IntroSexual

Saturday 23 July 7:06:56 UTC 2016

The act of loving oneself; being sexually attracted to yourself. Kanye is introsexual [Link]

languagehat.com » Marrin Gamu.

Saturday 23 July 0:09:30 UTC 2016

Another promising initiative to help preserve languages, One Children’s Song, Translated Into Australia’s Many Local Languages: Languages and cultures may differ, but the joyful sound of children singing is universal. A song called “Marrin Gamu,” created for primary school children and teachers to promote the diversity and beauty of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, is proving just that. … [Link]

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