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

Omniglot blog » Giggling wrigglers

Tuesday 10 January 17:29:46 UTC 2017

I learnt a nice new German word today – kichern [ˈkɪçɐn], which means to giggle or snicker. Related expressions include: – ein Kicheranfall = a fit of the giggles – Wir haben uns darüber gekringelt = We had a good giggle about it – anfangen herumzukichern = to get the giggles This also got me thinking about which words rhyme … [Link]

languagehat.com » That Two-Fisted-Man-Tobacco, Prince Albert.

Tuesday 10 January 15:04:35 UTC 2017

Mark Liberman at the Log investigates the phrase “up/out the wazoo” and its eggcorn up/out to wazoo; that’s an interesting phenomenon, but what I want to make sure gets the widest possible attention is the splendiferous 1919 tobacco ad he turned up (via OCR error) in his search. It begins “Say, you’ll have a streak of smokeluck that’ll put pep-in-your-smokemotor, … [Link]

Language Log » The Road to Wazoo

Tuesday 10 January 14:10:29 UTC 2017

The OED has wazoo, n., glossed as "The buttocks; the anus", noting that it is used "Freq. as a (euphemistic) substitute for ass in fig. phrases, as pain in the wazoo, etc.", giving special notice to the expression up (also out) the wazoo, glossed as "in great quantities, in abundance, to excess. Wiktionary has the gloss "(vulgar, slang) the anus; … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » etm.

Tuesday 10 January 11:40:45 UTC 2017

Latin abbreviation for the literal translation of "and shit", specifically, "et merda". Just like "etc." (and so forth), "i.e." (that is), and "e.g." (for example), "etm." can be used to abbreviate "and shit". At the farmer's market I got tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, etm.I was just taking care of bills etm. before he came over. [Link]

languagehat.com » How the World’s Languages Name the Rainbow.

Tuesday 10 January 1:45:39 UTC 2017

Claire Bowern writes in The Conversation about her research into color terms: My colleague Hannah Haynie and I were interested in how color terms might change over time, and in particular, in how color terms might change as a system. That is, do the words change independently, or does change in one word trigger a change in others? In our … [Link]

Language Log » Cantonese teachers influenced by Mandarin

Tuesday 10 January 1:09:50 UTC 2017

[This is a guest post by Silas S. Brown] It seems a few native Cantonese speakers employed in the production of Cantonese language courses are quite happy to read out Mandarin vocabulary with Cantonese pronunciation, rather than the actual native Cantonese versions of the words, and I can't help wondering why. Recent example of many: cantoneseclass101.com – for example their … [Link]

Archive