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

languagehat.com » Grand Hotels.

Friday 9 September 19:07:41 UTC 2016

One of the incidental pleasures of reading books like John Horne Burns’s The Gallery , in which people bounce around between cities, is discovering another example of the Grand Historic Hotel, one of my favorite phenomena. To honor the occasion, I’ve compiled a list of them, the sort of place movie stars, counts, and foreign correspondents were likely to be found … [Link]

Language Log » Does the new iPhone 7 slogan mean "precisely penis" in Chinese?

Friday 9 September 18:53:32 UTC 2016

No. Let me explain why. When the iPhone 7 was launched in America, the slogan was simply "This is 7." No problem. Straightforward. Crisp, clear, and memorable. In the Sinosphere, marketers came up with three different versions: China 7, zài cǐ. 7，在此。("7, is here".) Taiwan jiùshì 7. 就是 7。("is precisely 7".) Hong Kong zhè, jiùshì iPhone 7. 這，就是iPhone 7。("this is … [Link]

Language Log » Mad

Friday 9 September 13:18:44 UTC 2016

I'm in San Francisco for InterSpeech 2016, where I'm involved in four papers over three days, so blogging will probably be a bit light. But I have a few minutes before the morning starts, so let me continue the discussion of Gabriel Roth's feelings ("Paper cut to the heart", 9/8/2016) by quoting from Bill S's comment: Some of the context … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » hippie christmas

Friday 9 September 9:30:00 UTC 2016

the morning after hippies or member of the 60's counter culture have made tie dyed t shirts, candles, or prayer flags Our neighbors were sharing another hippie christmas on their drive way with 20 of their closest friends unwrapping tie dyed tshirts and prayer flags to dry in the sun. [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Tooth sweater

Friday 9 September 6:36:32 UTC 2016

When you go for a day or so without brushing your teeth, and the texture in your mouth feels like your teeth are wearing fuzzy little sweaters. "Does anyone have gum? I forgot to brush my teeth this morning, and it feels disgusting." "Oh, you've got tooth sweaters?" [Link]

languagehat.com » DARE Is Fleeching You.

Friday 9 September 0:50:51 UTC 2016

Alison Flood reports on a clever initiative: It’s not quite as vital as the battles to save the likes of the Amur leopard and giant panda from extinction, but a campaign to preserve a host of endangered regional American words and phrases has been launched, looking to save the likes of “wamus” to “sonsy”, and “spouty” to “bonnyclabber”. The list … [Link]

Language Log » Italy is a dollop

Friday 9 September 0:42:22 UTC 2016

When I wrote the following post, I had an intuition that Yīdàlì 一大粒 ("one big grain / granule / particle / tablet / pellet / kernel / bead / seed"), aside from being a pun for "Italy", meant "one big scoop", and I said as much in the last sentence of the post. "Italy is one big grain" (9/6/16) Now, … [Link]

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