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 » Stress, emphasis, pause, and meaning in Mandarin

Wednesday 8 November 21:24:16 UTC 2017

In "Mandarin Janus sentences" (11/4/17), there arose the question of whether duōshǎo 多少 ("how many") and duō shǎo 多少 ("how few") are spoken differently. I'm very glad that, in the comments, Chris Button recognizes that Sinitic languages can have stress. (The same is doubtless true of other tonal languages). This is an aspect of Mandarin and the other Sinitic languages … [Link]

Omniglot blog » To write like a crow

Wednesday 8 November 17:59:54 UTC 2017

An example of my handwriting If your handwriting is difficult to read, you apparently write like a crow, at least you do in Swedish – skriva som en kråka. That’s one of things I discovered today when putting together a new page of Swedish idioms. If your spelling is poor, you spell like a crow – stava som en kråka. Why is this? Are crows … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Schrödinger's Text

Wednesday 8 November 8:00:00 UTC 2017

The philosophical thought exercise used by men and women, waiting for a text that states "If you turn your phone off the text is both received and not received untill you turn it back on and see". This thought exercise is exceptionally useful when you are waiting and obsessing over a text. Person 1 "hey aren't you waiting on a … [Link]

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