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 » Vaina == jawn?
Philly has jawn — see Ben Zimmer on "The Etymology of Jawn", or listen to this story from WHYY: According to Philly native Mary Seaborough, who works at Cook-Wissahickon elementary, where my kids attend school, "It really can mean anything you want it to mean." Seaborough grew up in South Philly. She uses "jawn," and she helped me understand the … [Link]
Language Log » Mo River Spengler
Rachel Kronick has a knack for finding strange foreign equivalents for Chinese toponyms on Baidu, China's foremost online encyclopedia. See "The city of Mr. Andreessen, South Korea" (4/22/14). Now she has struck paydirt again with "Mo Ri River Spengler" for Mòrìgélè hé 莫日格勒河 in the Baidu encyclopedia. For Mòrìgélè hé 莫日格勒河 Google Translate has "Mo River Spengler", Baidu Fanyi has … [Link]
languagehat.com » Redux.
Back in 2007, a LH post began as follows: I have always pronounced the preposition pace (‘with due deference to’ or ‘despite,’ from the ablative of Latin pax) in the traditional anglicized way, PAY-see, and assumed that was the universally accepted pronunciation. Now I discover […] that the Church Latin version, PAH-chay, is equally acceptable (the OED gives it second … [Link]
Language Log » Prosody posts
In the context of the current political season, I've started taking a look at rhetorical styles, including the aspects of rhythm, pitch, and voice quality for which linguists generally use the cover term "prosody". Our enormously over-long list of topic categories didn't include "prosody", so I've added it — and in the process of labeling relevant posts, I made a … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Trump Brag
When someone brags about something but are clearly lying about it or give an example of how bad you are at the thing you're bragging about. Did you hear that Trump Brag: "I went to an ivy league school, I'm very highly educated. I know words I have the best words."
[Link]
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