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 » Peevery unto Death.
I saw Nikita Mikhalkov’s 1994 movie «Утомлённые солнцем» (Burnt by the Sun; video) in a theater shortly after it came out; as I recall, I found it impressive but didn’t understand much of what was going on. Now that I’m reading about the Terror of the late 1930s, I thought I’d take a look at it online, and was struck … [Link]
Language Log » Orca emits speech-like sound; reporters go insane
Published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B you will find (provided you have the necessary institutional credentials or library membership) a paper entitled "Imitation of novel conspecific and human speech sounds in the killer whale (Orcinus orca), by José Z. Abramson, Maria Victoria Hernández-Lloreda, Lino García, Fernando Colmenares, Francisco Aboitiz, and Josep Call. The paper is about the … [Link]
Language Log » Opamacare
One of the most widely noted aspects of last night's SOTU address was the president's pronunciation of "Obamacare" as if it were spelled "Opamacare": Your browser does not support the audio element. Anyone can hear this emphatic voiceless plosive pronunciation of the /b/, but let's look at the numbers. Here's a spectrogram and waveform of the crucial word, pronounced in … [Link]
Language Log » "I don't think there isn't a darn thing I can do"
RichG sent in a link to Matt Pierce and David Montero, "Warrants in Las Vegas mass shooting reveal name of additional 'person of interest", LA Times 1/30/2018 [emphasis added]: Authorities were looking into an additional "person of interest" following the mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others, according to search warrants unsealed by … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » i'm so down
I'll do whatever. I'm ready to do whatever you suggest. Let's get together and do something. One person says, "sup" the other says, "I'm so down" … meaning, I'm ready to do whatever, or let's get together.
[Link]
languagehat.com » How Does Azerbaijani Sound to Turks?
An interesting Quora discussion: Bulent Cetin: Sometimes it sounds funny, due to the difference in vocabulary and emphasis. Though it can be understood. Modern Turkish, and the most used accent “Istanbul Accent” is highly corrupted since the Ottoman era with gazillions of Arabic and Persian words. As far as I know Azeri Turks use the Turkmen dialect of Oguz Turkish, … [Link]
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