John Gordon Ross

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 » Coral reef, dead or alive

Sunday 4 June 19:56:47 UTC 2017

June Teufel Dreyer noticed that the People’s Daily and other official outlets refer to Okinotori as a jiāo 礁, reef, which fits her understanding of the geology involved. The Japanese, hoping for a larger Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), say it is an island. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) definition is that a rock incapable … [Link]

Language Log » Another misunderestimation

Sunday 4 June 12:03:27 UTC 2017

Devin Henry, “Globe heaps scorn on Trump for Paris exit“, The Hill 6/3/2017: “I really think that is the major consequence of today: it’s not about the Paris agreement,” said Christiana Figueres, the former head of the United Nation’s climate change mission. “I think the real problem today and the real sadness is the absolute death blow to the international … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Language quiz

Sunday 4 June 7:53:55 UTC 2017

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

Urban Word of the Day » emptiful

Sunday 4 June 7:00:00 UTC 2017

(adjective)Fully, or completely empty. Larry: "Woah, this parking lot is emptiful!" Dave: "I wish I brought my rollerblades!""Bob drank all the beers and left the cooler emptiful."Pierce: "Perhaps Diane's head is as emptiful as we thought after all."Farood: "So, is your glass half full, or half empty?" Jonah: *drinks up* "Well, now it's emptiful". Farood: *poker face* [Link]

languagehat.com » Dostoevsky’s Stepanchikovo.

Sunday 4 June 0:53:51 UTC 2017

I would guess that among English-speaking readers, Selo Stepanchikovo i ego obitateli [translated as The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants ] is the least-known of Dostoevsky’s novels — certainly far less known than his works of the 1860s, but also less so than his early novellas, Poor Folk and The Double and so on. (It seems to be well known … [Link]

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