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

Urban Word of the Day » Bachelor name

Tuesday 15 August 7:00:00 UTC 2017

Equivalent to Fem. "Maiden Name " When a man changes his name to match that of his partner, his former surname is his "Bachelor Name " When filling out this form, your Bachelor Name goes on line two. [Link]

Language Log » Bad Chinese

Tuesday 15 August 3:19:02 UTC 2017

Sign south of the demolished Pfeiffer Bridge on Highway 1 in Monterey County (photograph taken on August 12, 2017 by Richard Masoner while on a Big Sur bike trip, via Flickr): This is not Chinglish. It is the opposite of Chinglish: English poorly translated into Chinese. The sign says: Zhǔdòng gōnglù bùyào zǒu zài zhōngjiān de lùxiàn bǎochí bái xiàn … [Link]

languagehat.com » Jungaria.

Tuesday 15 August 0:23:51 UTC 2017

I’m now about halfway through Perdue’s China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (see this post) and have just gotten to the central event, the extermination by the Qing Empire of the Western Mongol nation he calls the Zunghars in the 1750s: “The [Qianlong] emperor deliberately targeted young and able men in order to destroy the Zunghars as … [Link]

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