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

Language Log » “I think it’s a very mean life”

Wednesday 7 June 22:08:31 UTC 2017

Rona Barrett interviews Donald Trump in 1980: This is one of 55 interviews with Donald Trump, between 1980 and 2017, that I’ve found on youtube or vimeo. I’m planning to look at the evolution of his rhetoric — both content and performance — over the years. This is the first installment. Your browser does not support the audio element. Rona … [Link]

languagehat.com » A Gift for Words.

Wednesday 7 June 16:55:38 UTC 2017

The indefatigable John Cowan sent me this link about a remarkable man: Linguist Ken Hale had a preternatural ability to learn new languages. “It was as if the linguistic faculty which normally shuts off in human beings at the age of 12 just never shut off in him,” said his MIT colleague Samuel Jay Keyser. “It’s more like a musical … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Class Woody

Wednesday 7 June 7:00:00 UTC 2017

A boner that you get in class when you are thinking of hot girls instead of listening to the teacher. These boners help to make class go faster but, can be dangerous if you are asked a question related to the subject and your boner is not hidden. "Hey bro did you hear what she said about the protons and … [Link]

languagehat.com » Nsibidi and Bamum.

Wednesday 7 June 0:21:09 UTC 2017

I’ve found references to a couple of African scripts that I thought were interesting enough to post; I’ll link to the Wikipedia articles and quote the first bit of each: Nsibidi (also known as nsibiri, nchibiddi or nchibiddy) is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria that is apparently an ideographic script, though there have been … [Link]

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