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

languagehat.com » Read Receipts.

Saturday 5 November 22:42:15 UTC 2016

Adrienne LaFrance has a post for the Atlantic that focuses on the term “read” in “read receipts” (a phrase I had been unfamiliar with; it means “the little notification that pops up for the sender of a text message once the recipient of that message has opened [and ostensibly read] the text”): How do you pronounce the term? Do you … [Link]

Language Log » A Chinese primer for English (1860)

Saturday 5 November 19:05:40 UTC 2016

During the last few days, there has been a flurry of excitement over the circulation of photographs and information concerning an old Chinese textbook for learning English. Here are a couple of pages from the book (click to embiggen): Articles about the textbook with photographs of pages from it appeared in the South China Morning Post and in People's Daily. … [Link]

Language Log » Chinese typewriter redux

Saturday 5 November 19:05:27 UTC 2016

We have looked at the Chinese typewriter again and again: "Chinese Typewriter" (6/30/09) "Chinese typewriter, part 2" (4/17/11) "Chinese character inputting" (10/17/15) By now we are thoroughly familiar with this unwieldy contraption. Given that it has long since been consigned to the museum, where it properly belongs, it is strange that some folks continue to tout it as the wave … [Link]

Language Log » Carl Kasell: diabolus in musica?

Saturday 5 November 16:11:12 UTC 2016

Inspired by "Trumpchant in B flat", Joel Roston sent me a link to his 1/22/2014 post "How's Carl this time?", where he proposes that As the excitement builds over the course of each hour-long Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! episode, Carl Kasell’s exclamation of the last two syllables of the word “Chicago,” commensurately, rises in pitch. This is an example of … [Link]

Language Log » Bilingual paronomasia in Literary Sinitic and Korean

Saturday 5 November 15:43:29 UTC 2016

The United States of America and Great Britain / United Kingdom are not the only countries in the midst of political crises. South Korea has a nasty one of its own involving the undue influence of a shamaness over their President. "Tens of Thousands Call on South Korea's President to Quit" (ABC News, 11/5/16) The scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye's … [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Fizgig

Saturday 5 November 9:30:00 UTC 2016

A 'fizgig' was once a firework, but also many other things. [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Spin a yarn

Saturday 5 November 9:30:00 UTC 2016

Why should 'spinning a yarn' refer to telling a tall tale? [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Chalazion

Saturday 5 November 9:30:00 UTC 2016

'Chalazion' is a medical term for a common mild afflicton. [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » New online: What am I? Chopped liver?

Saturday 5 November 9:30:00 UTC 2016

Investigating the origin of the US expression 'what am I, chopped liver?' [Link]

World Wide Words: Updates » Updated online: Happy as a sandboy

Saturday 5 November 9:30:00 UTC 2016

How did 'Happy as a sandboy' originate? [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » manther

Saturday 5 November 9:00:00 UTC 2016

A male cougar. Single, usually divorced, and at a minimum 10 years older than a cougar. He did not care if the youth laughed at his ragtop corvette that even at this age he could not afford, for he was manther. [Link]

languagehat.com » An Ill Wind.

Saturday 5 November 0:21:20 UTC 2016

Geoff Pullum has been investigating the origins of the witticism that the oboe is “an ill wind that nobody blows good”; having chuckled at it repeatedly myself over the years (in an earlier post Geoff calls it “one of the funniest quotations I’ve ever studied”), I was extremely interested in his findings. He enlisted the great Fred Shapiro, compiler of … [Link]

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