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ASTERIX EXPLICATUS.
Andrew Girardin's Asterix: Latin Jokes Explained provides a genuine public service:In the English versions of Asterix, the Latin jokes are not translated or explained. Very few Asterix fans know Latin. Some may know Veni Vidi Vici, or even Alea Iacta Est, but that's about it. Show More Summary
It depends on what "do not" means
Departing from Canadian stereotypes: "Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denies using crack cocaine", CBC News 5/24/2013 There has been a serious accusation from the Toronto Star that I use crack cocaine. I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict. As reader F.H. observes "I do not use crack cocaine" is not the same as "I have [...]
From the American Association for the Advancement (?) of Science (?)
The following is a guest post by Richard Sproat: Regular readers of Language Log will remember this piece discussing the various problems with a paper by Rajesh Rao and colleagues in their attempt to provide statistical evidence for the status of the Indus “script” as a writing system. They will also recall this piece on a similar [...]
HOO KAME, WHAA FIELD, AND THE SLITHERS.
I'm fond of strange and amusing place names (see, for instance, this post), and there's a magnificent crop of them at Dull Flag and Tongue of Gangsta: The Laugh-out-loud Place-names of Shetland and Orkney, a Strange Maps post by Frank...Show More Summary
Blend of the week
Sharknado is apparently an actual movie, about to be released, about tornados made of sharks.
The official synopsis:
When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. And when the high-speed winds form tornadoes in the desert, nature’s deadliest killer rules water, land, and air.
I can't think of any other -nado coinages, [...]
Indicrteurseus
At the top of hundreds of webpages belonging to the Shenzhen Energy Corporation, a large power company in Guangdong Province, China, we find the following four main headings: ===== sh?uyè ?? ("Home") x?nwén zh?ngx?n ???? ("News center") óuz?zh?...Show More Summary
Immigrants learning English
Just passed on by a member of Team Verb. We have mountains of evidence that immigrants to this country are doing everything they can to learn English, and here's yet more evidence for the point:
Border collie syntax?
Since I have been unabashedly contemptuous of previous stories about dogs learning to understand human languages (for example, in I hammer home the point that fetching named objects is not understanding language in this post, which Mark Liberman followed up here), I think it is incumbent on me to acknowledge further developments in the area. [...]
Sloppiness and its enemies
Paul Krugman ("The Sloppiness Syndrome", NYT 5/22/2013): So what is it with New Republic alumni? First Michael Kinsley, then Charles Lane, weigh in with defenses of austerity that aren’t just wrong, but painfully ill-informed. Kinsley not only makes a really bad analogy between current events and the 1970s, he seems not to know anything about what [...]
Portuguese for the perplexed
Inspired by a popular guide to Understanding the British, I've put together a few entries in a Foreigners' Guide to Understanding Brazilians. Portuguese speakers and Brazilianists are invited to add more in the comments. Hat tip to Brazil-based...Show More Summary
Theories of relativity
Q: Is a group of people a ”which” or a “who”? Here’s the sentence I have in mind: “It has only been studied in chronic alcoholics, which [or who] have reduced rates of muscle protein synthesis.” Please help! A: In modern English the relative pronoun “which” isn’t generally used in reference to people. This wasn’t... ? Read More: Theories of relativity
Apostroph'
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article by Barry Newman titled Theres a Question Mark Hanging Over the Apostrophes Future. My aunt sent me an email copy of the article as she knew I would enjoy it. And I did enjoy the article; however, my favorite part of the email was her subject line which read: Apostroph'. Show More Summary
WRIST-SLAPS.
Time to gripe about Things that Annoy Me in Periodicals! 1) Claire Messud's enthusiastic NY Times review of a Leskov collection says of the author: "he emerges as a literary missing link, a writer who brings the metafictional playfulness...Show More Summary
SWEDISH IS A FAKE.
I've been reading Osip Senkovsky's "The fantastic journeys of Baron Brambeus" all month (see here and here), and I have to admit that since that last enthusiastic report it's been something of a slog. The problem is that in the second...Show More Summary
Earth angles
Q: I love your blog, but I just want to point out an easily fixed typo in your posting about why English is a Germanic language. In the seventh paragraph of your answer, you refer to “the earth’s population.” The word “Earth” requires capitalization. A: We’re glad you like the blog, but this isn’t a... ? Read More: Earth angles
Squids in his (her, your) ink
From Gabe Wyner come photos of a menu in Arcos de la Frontera, whose English version is full of the delightful consequences of someone's earnest reliance on a bilingual dictionary. For example: In the Spanish version of the menu, that one of course is Calamares en su tinta. Lexicographical parentheses come up again in the various dishes characterized [...]
#TEDLesson – Jay Walker: The world’s English learning mania
Talk Summary:
Is learning English so important? Why? How come the Chinese are obsessed with improving their English? What opportunities does it bring? Jay Walker discusses.
To view the official TED transcript of Jay Walker’s speech please click here.
Lesson Material:
‘Let’s talk about manias.’
1. “Mania” is a noun. Show More Summary
LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF TEENAGE SOUNDS.
James Harbeck (of the word blog Sesquiotica, where you can read about such things as escovitch fish, whose name turns out to be a Jamaican variant on Spanish escabeche) has a delightful piece at The Week, A linguistic dissection of 7...Show More Summary
Ben Yagoda, Evan Davies and me
I'm afraid to say that this is more of me not getting around to blogging. So many things on the list, but my day job has been taking over my nights. But several people have asked to hear the interview with me and Ben Yagoda from Radio 4's Today Programme (AmE program, of course), aired earlier today. Show More Summary
Whence, Hence, Thence
Tim from Old Mission called in to ask about the words whence and hence. There was a followup call from David in Traverse City to add thence to the pile. We might as well throw in whither, too. Whence : from what place ? One 13 th century Middle English form was whannes. Show More Summary
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