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 » Pointing Out Directions in Murrinhpatha.
“Pointing Out Directions in Murrinhpatha,” by Joe Blythe, Kinngirri Carmelita Mardigan, Mawurt Ernest Perdjert, and Hywel Stoakes (Open Linguistics 2.1: 132–159), is very cool; here’s the abstract: Rather than using abstract directionals, speakers of the Australian Aboriginal language Murrinhpatha make reference to locations of interest using named landmarks, demonstratives and pointing. Building on a culturally prescribed avoidance for certain placenames, … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Suspending disbelief
One of the things we talked about in the French conversation group this week was suspending disbelief, which is accepter les invraisemblances in French. That is “accepting the improbabilities”. Another way to say this in French is suspension d’incrédulité. The word invraisemblance also means unlikeliness or inverisimilitude. Related words include invraisemblable (unlikely, incredible, implausible, improbable) and invraisemblablement (implausible, unlikely). Its … [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Dope
'Dope' has had many senses other than the drug one. [Link]
Language Log » Seven nouns
"Pilot Fish Project English Channel crossing bid begins", BBC 8/5/2016. Turns out this is two French guys aiming to cross the channel in a home-made pedal-powered submarine: Two men attempting to cross the English Channel in a pedal-powered submarine have begun their journey. French engineers Antoine Delafargue, 33, and Michael de Lagarde, 36, plan to travel 135 nautical miles (250km) … [Link]
languagehat.com » Fun Facts About the IPA.
Arika Okrent presents 11 Fun Facts About the International Phonetic Alphabet; OK, most of them will not surprise anyone who knows anything about the IPA, but I for one didn’t know about the IPA typewriters (“Models publicized in a 1912 supplement to Le Maître Phonétique would cost $1600 and $3200 today”) or the fact that until 1971 articles in the … [Link]
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