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

Urban Word of the Day » Gladimir Putin

Saturday 15 July 8:00:00 UTC 2017

1. When Vladimir Putin smiles in a meme-worthy manner. (Name)2. Feeling glad or smug. (Slang)Antonym: Sadimir Putin Gladimir Putin memes were all over my feed after the election.When Dick found out his girlfriend wasn't pregnant, he was super Gladimir Putin. [Link]

Language Log » Dialect maps get surreal

Saturday 15 July 3:57:00 UTC 2017

Everybody seems to enjoy sharing dialect maps displaying the boundaries of different American regionalisms. So it was only a matter of time before this enticing form of data visualization got satirized. On Twitter, Josh Cagan takes it in an absurdist direction. these maps that have been going around showing various regionalisms have been really illuminating, like this one for "pie" … [Link]

languagehat.com » Graphing the Distribution of English Letters.

Saturday 15 July 3:38:27 UTC 2017

David Taylor at prooffreader.com (“data hacking and sundry curiosities”) posted back in 2014 a very nice graph titled “Distribution of English letters toward beginning, middle and end of words.” He adds: I’ve had many “oh, yeah” moments looking over the graphs. For example, words almost never begin with “x”, but it’s quite common as the second letter. There’s a little … [Link]

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