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 » "The people that stayed back the facts"
This is a reality check on the current state of automatic speech recognition (ASR) algorithms. I took the 186-word passage by Scottie Nell Hughes discussed in yesterday's post, and submitted it to two different Big-Company ASR interfaces, with amusing results. I'll be interested to see whether other systems can do better. This is the audio, with my transcription: Your browser … [Link]
Wordorigins.org » Internet Quotes: Molly Ivins on Flag Burning
“I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.” This quotation, attributed to the late, great journalist Molly Ivins, has been making the rounds of the internet lately, in the wake of Donald Trump’s tweet about outlawing the … [Link]
Language Log » "Bad" borrowings in North Korean
Last week, the Daily NK (from Seoul) published an article by Kang Mi Jin about "Loanwords frequently appearing in the Rodong Sinmun" (11/25/16), South Korean original here. Rodong Sinmun is the official newspaper of the North Korean Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. A source in Ryanggang Province told Daily NK on November 21 that the authorities have … [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Not my pigeon
The unfashionable idiom 'not my pigeon' puzzles a reader. [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Subnivean
The unusual word 'subnivean' is all about snow. [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » New online: Black as Newgate knocker
An old expression 'black as Newgate knocker' recalls an awful period in British penal history. [Link]
World Wide Words: Updates » Updated online: Boxing Day
What is the origin of 'Boxing Day' for 26 December? [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » nuclear cumsplosion
When you ejaculate so hard it destroys everything in a two mile radius. "Dude, I had such good sex last night I made a nuclear cumsplosion." [Link]
Language Log » Theorists of post-modern politics
I was surprised to learn that Scottie Nell Hughes has a broadcast communications/political science degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin, rather than a degree in literary theory from Florida International University. This makes her ideas about the relationship of texts to states of affairs all the more remarkable, since she has apparently developed them independently of Stanley Fish, … [Link]
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