John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

John Gordon Ross header image 3

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

Wordorigins.org » A Dialect Coach Critiques Actors’ Accents

Saturday 28 January 19:57:00 UTC 2017

The topic of actors’ accents has arisen from time to time on our discussion boards. In this sixteen-minute film from Wired magazine dialect coach Erik Singer examines some accents from big Hollywood productions. Yes, Kevin Costner’s English accent in Robin Hood is really that bad, but I was surprised at some of the accents Singer considered good, such as Renée … [Link]

Language Log » Chicken is down

Saturday 28 January 17:27:51 UTC 2017

From Li Wei on Facebook: This morning I have received this greeting countless times already: Jī nián dàjí 鸡年大吉 lit. "chicken year big auspicious / propitious", i.e., "may the / your year of the chicken be greatly auspicious!" As Li Wei's Facebook post suggests, Google Translate renders the greeting as "Chicken is down." (Google Translate even renders just "dàjí 大吉" … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Cold Wintry Wind

Saturday 28 January 14:12:36 UTC 2017

凩 (kogarashi) cold wintry wind I learnt an interesting Japanese word and kanji today – 凩 (こがらし / kogarashi), which means ‘cold wintry wind’ or ‘the cold wind that reminds us winter is coming’. It is also written 木枯し or 木枯, and is considered ‘untranslatable‘ by some. The character 凩 is a 国字 (こくじ / kokuji), that is one that was made in Japan rather … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » kakistocracy

Saturday 28 January 8:00:00 UTC 2017

n. Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled people. Since it takes the worst type of person to become a successful politician, all democracies will eventually become kakistocracies. [Link]

languagehat.com » Erik Singer on Actors’ Accents.

Saturday 28 January 5:54:17 UTC 2017

Angela Watercutter at Wired writes: Sometimes bad actors can do good accents. Sometimes great actors do terrible ones. In the video here, dialect coach Erik Singer analyzes the accents of 32 different actors to see who aces the accent test. Turns out, Idris Elba is one of greatest around. From his performance as Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to … [Link]

Archive

No Comments

0 responses so far ↓

  • There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.

You must log in to post a comment.