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 » “White left” — a Chinese calque in English
I had never heard of “white left” until two or three days ago when I read this article by Chenchen Zheng in openDemocracy (5/11/17): “The curious rise of the ‘white left’ as a Chinese internet insult“. It’s an intelligent, thought-provoking piece, followed by a stimulating discussion among the commenters who come from many perspectives and venture into all sorts of … [Link]
languagehat.com » Levinas.
I don’t spend much time reading or thinking about philosophy, so when I occasionally run across the name of Emmanuel Levinas I mentally put it in the same “incomprehensible French thinker” bag as Derrida, Deleuze, et hoc genus omne. But when I hit William Rees’s TLS review of three books on Levinas, it suddenly occurred to me to wonder what … [Link]
Language Log » Machine learning
Today’s xkcd: slightly unfair, but funny: 
Mouseover title: “The pile gets soaked with data and starts to get mushy over time, so it’s technically recurrent.” The first slide of my brief presentation about “The past, present, and future of AI” at a Science Café event a couple of weeks ago: 
And just for fun: “Country list translation oddity“, 4/10/2017 “What … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Playing games
In English you play a game, but you don’t play a play. In Russian the words for to play and game come from the same root: играть (to play) and игра (game). To play a game is играть в игру. I already knew the verb играть, but didn’t know that the word for a game was similar, until today. игра́ть … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Trumped up
A severe fuck up. Yuuge even. Guy 1: Last night I got shitfaced, and when I woke up this morning, I was sleeping with my sister. Guy 2: That's trumped up. Your brother's going to be so pissed.
[Link]
Language Log » “Fli??ed me off”
I just asked @DarrellIssa abt the Comey news and he flicked me off — literally gave me the middle finger — and kept walking. Said nothing — Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) May 16, 2017 Sent in with the comment “Who the hell says ‘flicked off’ instead of ‘flipped off’??” This turns out to be a common question: “Would you say ‘She … [Link]
languagehat.com » Coffee & Donatus.
The blog Coffee & Donatus (“Early grammars and related matters of art and design”) had, alas, only five posts during its brief period of activity (early 2014 to early 2015), but the posts that are there are well worth checking out: An Englishman’s Armenian Grammar—Lord Byron at the Monastery of Saint Lazarus; A Learned Spider’s Epitaph; The Art of Grammar: … [Link]
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