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 » How many more Chinese characters are needed?
I was stunned when I read this op-ed piece in the NYT yesterday (10/24/16): "China's Digital Soft Power Play". In it, the author, Jing Tsu (a professor of Chinese literature and culture at Yale), writes: This month, the Chinese government plans to introduce codes for some 3,000 Chinese characters as part of a grand project, known as the China Font … [Link]
languagehat.com » Tolstoy’s Youth.
I’ve finally finished Tolstoy’s Юность [Youth]; it took me twice as long as it should have, because for a couple of weeks I only read one short chapter a day. This wasn’t just indolence — it usually takes me a while to get into a long work, but here I felt like I was slogging through molasses. There were some … [Link]
Language Log » I am much encouraged
At last, an animal communication story involving healthy skepticism rather than vacant-eyed credulity, and human sagacity rather than wondrous communicative brilliance by our furry, finned, or feathered friends. Read on to be reassured about the intelligence of your species. A court in Kuwait was faced with a women who called a parrot to the witness stand. Yes, a parrot. But … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Spaghetti car bananas
On a recent episode of Word of Mouth on BBC Radio 4, they discussed the interesting words children come up with. They might attempt say particular words but can’t quite manage all the sounds, or get them mixed up, sometimes with unintentionally funny results. They also get words mixed and muddled, or perhaps muddlixed. Can you guess the title of … [Link]
Language Log » Russian-accented Mandarin
This Mandarin news program was broadcast on July 13, 2016 by Èluósī bīnhǎi xīnwén 俄罗斯滨海新闻 ("Russian Coastal News"). This news anchor's Mandarin sounds really strange. Her tones wander off in unexpected directions, and she pronounces each syllable separately, without any sense of word separation or sentence intonation. It sounds to me as though she has a basic understanding of Mandarin … [Link]
Language Log » Phono-semantic rebranding
There's a new article on linguistic borrowing by Jane C. Hu in Quartz (10/23/16): "The genius and stupidity of corporate America are on display when companies rebrand for new countries". The article originally had a better title: "Phono-semantic matching is corporate America's best option when trying to rebrand for new countries". Even those who do not read Chinese may be … [Link]
languagehat.com » The OED’s Surf Consultant.
A nice squib by Nick Paumgarten from the New Yorker about Matt Warshaw, “the world’s leading surfing scholar”: Warshaw is the world’s leading surfing scholar, the Linnaeus of the lineup. Over the years, he has assembled a research library, in his home, of hundreds of books, thousands of periodicals, and some three hundred and fifty movies, and created a database: … [Link]
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