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

languagehat.com » On Learning German.

Wednesday 5 July 16:36:32 UTC 2017

John le Carré has a fine piece in the Guardian explaining his lifelong love for German: I began learning German at the age of 13, and I’m still trying to explain to myself why it was love at first sound. The answer must surely be: the excellence of my teacher. At an English public school not famed for its cultural … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » star-spangled, spangle

Wednesday 5 July 16:23:00 UTC 2017

We all know that Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner in 1814 after watching the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor: O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? But most of us don’t know what a spangle is, or that Key wasn’t the first … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » spangle

Wednesday 5 July 15:34:00 UTC 2017

See star-spangled. [Link]

Omniglot blog » How many Chinese characters/words do you need to know?

Wednesday 5 July 11:51:44 UTC 2017

One thing Chinese learners often ask about is how many characters they need to know in order to read Chinese. In a new article I was sent today, there’s some discussion about how many Chinese characters and words you need to know. I decided to check to details provided by the writer, and re-wrote this section based on what I … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » godshopped

Wednesday 5 July 8:00:00 UTC 2017

The manipulation of scientific data to provide evidence for intelligence design. Did you watch that beautiful episode about intelligent design?Yeah, as usual, the producers totally godshopped all the complex images of nature and left out rational explanations provided by evolution. [Link]

languagehat.com » Good on You.

Wednesday 5 July 1:01:59 UTC 2017

Lucy Ferriss reports for Lingua Franca on one of the imports that’s making inroads in the US: Ask a person of a certain age, and they will probably tell you that Good on you is Australian slang, pronounced and emphasized mostly as Good ON ya. In fact, apparently in some parts of Australia the expression can be neatly shortened to … [Link]

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