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 » Resistance to Changes in Grammar Is Futile!
Nicola Davis writes in the Guardian about “Detecting evolutionary forces in language change,” by Mitchell G. Newberry, Christopher A. Ahern, Robin Clark & Joshua B. Plotkin (Nature 551: 223–226): The authors of the study say that the work adds to our understanding of how language changes over centuries. “Whether it is by random chance or selection, one of the things … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Troupers and Troopers
One of the songs we sang last night in the ukulele group was Abba’s Super Trouper. One member of the group wondered whether trouper was spelled correctly, thinking that it should be trooper. We discovered that they are in fact two different words: Trouper = a member of a theatrical company (a troupe); a veteran performer; a reliable, hard-working and … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » blind cite
A citation to some authority where it is clear the author has either not read, or fails to comprehend on a basic level, the cited authority. Jeff regularly cites to articles that directly contradict his premise. One could say his blind cite is 20/20.
[Link]
Language Log » Arabella Kushner, young ambassador of good will
New China TV, published on Nov 8, 2017: Exclusive: Donald Trump's granddaughter Arabella Kushner singing in Mandarin and reciting a part of the Three-Character Classic and ancient Chinese poems. Trump is on a three-day state visit to China. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan welcomed their U.S. counterparts with an afternoon tea at the Palace Museum on … [Link]
languagehat.com » Tolstoy’s Cossacks.
I just finished Tolstoy’s Казаки [The Cossacks]; as with Dostoevsky’s Скверный анекдот [A Nasty Story] (see this post), the plot is easy to summarize: the spoiled, self-absorbed young aristocrat Dmitry Olenin goes to the Caucasus as an officer and falls in love with the Cossack girl Maryana, who has been promised to the Cossack Lukashka, and it doesn’t go well … [Link]
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