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

Language Log » Dan Everett at TEDxPenn

Tuesday 28 March 22:17:54 UTC 2017

On Saturday, April 1, the TEDx series comes to the University of Pennsylvania, and the TEDxPenn website explains that the event's thematic phrase "Rise and Run" is intentionally polysemic—the coexistence of many possible meanings for a word or phrase. On the one hand, rise and run is a reference to the mathematical description of slopes, positive growth, upward trends. On … [Link]

Language Log » Haba: mysterious Mandarin morpheme for "pug"

Tuesday 28 March 15:25:50 UTC 2017

There's a town called Hǎbātún 奤夿屯 (where tún 屯 means "village, hamlet; camp; station") in Chāngpíng qū 昌平区 ("Changping District") of Beijing. The name sounds odd and the first two characters are unusual. It is said to date back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) when it was a Mongol military encampment. Southerners supposedly referred to the Mongols as "hǎbā". I've … [Link]

Omniglot blog » National Motto(e)s

Tuesday 28 March 11:54:10 UTC 2017

Navis volitans mihi anguillis plena est Created with The Keep Calm-O-Matic Do you know your country’s national motto? Not all countries have them. Many are in Latin and other ancient languages, and most are a bit bland and include things like freedom, liberty, unity, strength, work, progress, God, etc. Here are some more interesting ones: – Isle of Man (Latin): Quocunque Ieceris Stabit (Whithersoever you throw … [Link]