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 » Masonic Script.

Thursday 4 May 16:28:11 UTC 2017

Victor Mair has a Log post about an intriguing puzzle: Michael Carasik, on behalf of NAPH (National Association of Professors of Hebrew), has forwarded to me a letter that was written to O. P. Schaub in the 1920s. Can anyone identify the script and/or translate it for him? I urge you to visit the link and see if you can … [Link]

Omniglot blog » A Polyglot’s Guide to Place Names of Canada & the United States

Thursday 4 May 9:53:04 UTC 2017

Today we have a guest post by Amit Raj Wherever you find yourself in the States or Canada, you are likely to find most voices around you are speaking in English, French, Spanish, or another modern European language. But dotted among the vocabulary of the typical American will be a number of words that we all profess to understand, without … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » adult

Thursday 4 May 7:00:00 UTC 2017

A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle. [Link]

Language Log » Bill Gates speaks Mandarin

Thursday 4 May 3:00:10 UTC 2017

Here’s Bǐ’ěr·Gàicí 比尔·盖茨 welcoming visitors to his new blog on the Chinese social network WeChat: This is what Mr. Gates says: Nǐ hǎo, huānyíng lái wǒ de Wéixìn gōngzhònghào 你好,欢迎来我的微信公众号 “Hello, welcome to my WeChat account”. What’s amazing about Mr. Gates’ performance is that he delivers it with such aplomb. There’s much to like about his delivery. His tones are … [Link]

Language Log » Salty pig’s hand

Thursday 4 May 2:48:00 UTC 2017

Tony Lin, “End of the Line for Subway Ad Against Sexual Harassment: One year later, Guangzhou feminist group still hasn’t succeeded in putting up anti-harassment billboards” (Sixth Tone, 4/28/17) is about a group of Chinese women who have — unsuccessfully so far — tried to place a series of public service notices in the Guangzhou subway, alerting passengers to the … [Link]

Language Log » Unknown language #8

Thursday 4 May 2:43:22 UTC 2017

Michael Carasik, on behalf of NAPH (National Association of Professors of Hebrew), has forwarded to me a letter that was written to Oscar P. Schaub in the 1920s. Can anyone identify the script and/or translate it for him? All those dots seem quite distinctive and should be helpful in making a decipherment. [Link]

Language Log » Written public cursing in Hong Kong

Thursday 4 May 2:31:22 UTC 2017

Spotted by Howard Goldblatt in Shatin: This is not very understandable to someone who only knows Mandarin / Zhongwen. Bob Bauer kindly transcribed the text, provided Romanizations, and tentative English translations: 鄺彩蓮! kwong3 coi2 lin4 Kwong Coi Lin 妳隻夠野好乜臭, nei5 zek3 gau2 je5 hou2 mat1 cau3 Your dog stuff (= cunt?) is quite smelly 屈老病傷殘四萬九, wat1 lou5 beng6 soeng1 caan4 … [Link]

languagehat.com » Buddies and Bros.

Thursday 4 May 2:09:27 UTC 2017

Katherine Connor Martin at OUPblog takes a look at the many offshoots of the word brother; this paragraph gives a brief summary: The word brother has generated a whole passel of such derivations. The OED now records at least ten distinct words based wholly or in part on regional or colloquial pronunciations of brother: bra (often spelled brah in the … [Link]

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