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 » Calzado.

Friday 24 February 21:02:15 UTC 2017

Another tidbit from Goncharov’s Фрегат “Паллада” [The Frigate Pallada]: they’re in Manila and have finally found what is apparently the only inn/hotel in town, run by a Frenchman named Demien and his wife, and Demien recommends that after the siesta (when it’s too hot to go out and everything’s closed anyway) they take a look at the кальсадо [kal’sado], which … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » tall grey

Friday 24 February 8:00:00 UTC 2017

Extraterrestrial. A weird person. Someone who is being awkward or weird. Stop being such a tall grey.Try not to be a tall grey tonight and have fun.Eww he's being such a tall grey. [Link]

Language Log » Iron Crotch

Friday 24 February 3:46:00 UTC 2017

Here on Language Log, we have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the terminology related to kungfu: "Kung-fu (Gongfu) Tea" (7/20/11) See also Ben Zimmer's masterful article on Visual Thesaurus: "How 'Kung Fu' Entered the Popular Lexicon" (1/17/14) Now we have documentation for another type of kungfu that has hitherto eluded us: This #KungFu master in Central China's Henan … [Link]

Language Log » Wenzhounese in Italy

Friday 24 February 2:44:17 UTC 2017

Commonly referred to as "Devil's language" (èmó zhī yǔ 恶魔之语), because it is considered by outsiders to be extraordinarily difficult, Wenzhounese (Wēnzhōu huà 温州话), the language of the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province 230 air miles south of the Yangtze estuary, has been a topic of discussion on Language Log before: "Devilishly difficult 'dialect" (8/20/15) "Mutual unintelligibility among Sinitic … [Link]

languagehat.com » RhodoDOONdrons.

Friday 24 February 1:56:50 UTC 2017

“Rhododendron threat raised in Dáil” is a brief but piquant news story well summed up in the first sentence: “Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae has claimed that the spread of rhododendron in Killarney National Park is so bad that the army may have to be called in to sort it out.” I bring it here solely for the accompanying video clip, … [Link]

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