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 » Annals of singular their

Sunday 30 July 22:20:08 UTC 2017

"Officials: Flight in Vegas delayed by naked passenger", Washington Post (AP) 730/2017: Officials say a Spirit Airlines flight leaving Las Vegas was briefly delayed after a passenger removed all their clothes while boarding and approached a flight attendant. McCarran International Airport says police and medical responders took the passenger for observation. Police Lt. Carlos Hank said the passenger received treatment … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Difficult Irish

Sunday 30 July 14:05:35 UTC 2017

Following on from my last post, I decided to look at words for difficult, and related words, in Irish today. There are a number of different words for difficult in Irish: – deacair = hard, difficult; difficulty; hardship, distress; (used in Connacht) – doiligh = hard, difficult; hard to bear, distressing; hard to deal with; difficult, intractable (used in Ulster … [Link]

Language Log » "Paranoiac"

Sunday 30 July 13:52:07 UTC 2017

Heather Murphy ("Scaramucci Did Not Invent the Word 'Paranoiac'", NYT 7/28/2017) quotes some tweets in which paranoiac "faced charges of being not being real" [sic], and comes to its defense with a link to a very interesting paper about a use of the word (but in Russian!) in 1927 — J. Kesselring, "Vladimir Mikhailovic Bekhterev (1857–1927): Strange Circumstances Surrounding the … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Slave to the gram

Sunday 30 July 7:00:00 UTC 2017

When one is willing to go to extreme heights in order to obtain an instagram photo, possibly risking injury. She only ski-dived for the instagram , she's a slave to the gram [Link]