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 » Toilet Revolution!!

Sunday 26 November 21:39:45 UTC 2017

Wunderbar! China had a toilet reform movement already a decade or two ago. I remember reading a whole, serious book about how to improve toilet construction and behavior. In fact, I bought a copy and studied it assiduously, but can't put my hands on the volume at this moment. Apparently the toilet improvement campaign is still going on. In this … [Link]

Language Log » Recording-stable acoustic proxy measures

Sunday 26 November 13:54:44 UTC 2017

Behind yesterday's post about possible cultural differences in conversational loudness ("Ask Language Log: Loud Americans?" 11/25/2017), there's a set of serious issues in an area that's too frequently ignored: the philosophy of phonetics. [This is an unusually wonkish post on an eccentric topic — you have been warned.] If the question had been about pitch stereotypes — one unsupported generalization … [Link]