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 » Two Japanese Questions.

Sunday 19 February 23:43:57 UTC 2017

1) In Jangfeldt’s Mayakovsky bio , he says “After his return from Berlin in May 1924, Mayakovsky met with the Japanese author Tamisi Naito, who was visiting Moscow.” (In the original: “Efter hemkomsten från Berlin i maj 1924 träffade Majakovskij den japanske författaren Tamisi Naito, som var på besök i Moskva.”) I can find no reference to such an author elsewhere, … [Link]

Language Log » Homophonous phrase of the week

Sunday 19 February 19:56:37 UTC 2017

Wondermark for 1/24/2017, In which a Run is made: [Link]

Language Log » Last night in Sweden

Sunday 19 February 13:16:25 UTC 2017

One of the most widely noted aspects of Donald Trump's campaign rally yesterday in Florida was his reference to a terrorist incident the night before in Sweden: Your browser does not support the audio element. You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden — Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden! They took … [Link]

Language Log » Marg bar ___

Sunday 19 February 11:09:54 UTC 2017

This is a guest post by Reza Mirsajadi, who previously published a version on Facebook. For much of my adult life, whenever I have had to defend the Iranian people to conservatives, they have fought back with the "Death to America" argument. This more or less amounts to "They [Iranians] want to kill us, they said so!" I am so … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » DeVos'd it

Sunday 19 February 8:30:00 UTC 2017

When you completely blow a job interview and still wind up getting the job. Hey man how did your job interview go? Dude I totally DeVos'd It but somehow they still offered me the job! [Link]

Omniglot blog » Language quiz

Sunday 19 February 7:30:55 UTC 2017

Language quiz image Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? [Link]

languagehat.com » Dictionaries Are Hot Again.

Sunday 19 February 2:16:19 UTC 2017

Katherine Rosman has a piece for the New York Times on the current popularity of dictionaries: At a time when many are questioning the definition of common words they thought they understood, after years of the English language being degraded by text messages and hashtags, dictionaries have made a surprising comeback in the United States. On dictionary apps and websites, … [Link]

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