Как и большинство произведений древнегреческой литературы, «Рес» и «Прометей прикованный» дошли до нас в благодаря тому, что их копии сохранили византийцы.

Аргументы скептиков сводились к тому, что в остальных пьесах Эсхил демонстрирует почтение к Зевсу, а в «Прометее» тот выступает как жестокий тиран и самодур.

При этом в «Троянках» 7398 слов, а в «Ресе» — 5628.

В пару объединяются сначала тексты А и В, расстояния между которыми наименьшие.

«Рес» выделен синим цветом, «Прометей прикованный» красным ПоделитьсяЗдесь кажется, что подозрения скептиков имеют под собой основания: и «Рес», и «Прометей прикованный» выбиваются из рядов других текстов.

Как известно, на днях Грузию окончательно переименовали в литовском языке — она больше не Gruzija, а Sakartvelos.

По-видимому, новое название приживётся не сразу — в литовской Википедии, например, и статью Gruzija, и все грузинские категории пока не переименовали.

Интересно, что это не первая попытка переименовать литовскую Грузию.

Ещё в 2009 году представители закавказской республики обращались к балтийским коллегам с просьбой исправить название страны в литовских словарях на Georgija.

Госкомиссия по литовскому языку приняла решение о переименовании два года назад с объявлением переходного периода, который и закончился в начале января.

Вполне, возможно, что не только на русском.

Каждый из языков России несёт в себе часть культурной идентичности всей страны.

Понимая это, издательский дом «ПостНаука» вместе с ведущими учёными запускает проект «Языки России» — большую мультимедийную «энциклопедию» о языках, на которых говорят сегодня или говорили последние столетия жители России.

А в коми мягкие согласные — ещё мягче, чем в русском.

Уже готова интерактивная карта языков России, которая будет пополняться по мере выхода глав энциклопедии.

Чтобы правильно интерпретировать научный текст без изменения его смысла, нужно знать язык на высокопрофессиональном уровне.

Поэтому к переводу текстов, посвященных различными сферами науки, необходимо привлекать людей, имеющих смежную квалификацию в определенном направлении.

Они знают, как правильно оформлять квалификационные научные работы переводят стандартные сокращения, не допускают отклонения от формулировок либо определенного применения терминологии.

Услуга поможет, чтобы:Опубликоваться в сборнике материалов международной конференцииОпубликоваться в журнале, индексируемом в WoS (SCI, SCIE, SSCI, A&HCI, ESCI)Опубликоваться в журнале ВАК или индексируемом в RSCIОпубликоваться в журнале,…

Среди всех языков мира самым популярным и широко распространённым является английский — именно по этой причине желающих записаться на языковые курсы по этому языку больше всего.

Но чтобы изучить английский, вовсе не обязательно тратиться на дорогие языковые школы и репетиторов — иногда достаточно обзавестись парой хороших обучающих книг.

Регулярные практики аудирования и устной речиСамым эффективным в изучении английского языка можно назвать комплексный подход, сочетающий в себе теорию и практику в правильных сбалансированных пропорциях.

Можно использовать для этого как англоязычные не дублированные фильмы и музыку, так и специальные обучающие материалы.

Устную речь можно оттачивать не толь…

Команда ученых из Южной Кореи и США разработала новый метод работы с болезнями мозга и психическими расстройствами.

Устройство, которое используется для лечения, имплантируется в мозг и контролируется при помощи смартфона.

По словам исследователей, изобретение является первым беспроводным устройством, способным передавать лекарства и цветовое излучение в мозг.

При применении беспроводных технологий довольно сложно сделать так, чтобы лекарства не испарялись и не заканчивались долгое время.

По мнению экспертов, с помощью этого устройства можно будет быстрее выявлять нарушения в работе мозга и эмоциональные расстройства.

Собрав вместе множество разрозненных данных из письменных источников за долгий промежуток времени, австрийские исследователи представили их в виде графов и таблиц.

Это не только удобная форма представления данных, но и приведение их к той форме, в которой к ним можно будет применить вычисления.

В науках, связанных с математикой и анализом данных, отношение к терминологии гораздо строже, ведь в их случае определение — это формула.

Подобная динамика наблюдалась не только на территории Византийской Империи, но и, например, в Китае как с природными изменениями, так и с масштабными эпидемиями.

Это прекрасно дополняют данные анализа естественных факторов и их влияния на общественную систему.

Legal Tech — это отраслевой способ цифровой трансформации, он помогает использовать программное обеспечение и технологии для упрощения профессиональной деятельности юристов.

Legal Tech в миреСШАНаиболее развит рынок Legal Tech в США.

КитайНаряду c США лидером в Legal Tech является Китай.

РоссияВ России к Legal Tech можно отнести сервисы «Консультант плюс» и «Гарант».

Социально-гуманитарный факультет НИУ ВШЭ — Пермь активно обучает студентов использованию Legal Tech в юридической сфере.

Постановка задачи происходит на естественном языке: нарисовать зеленые часы в виде пятиугольника или куб из дикобраза.

В некоторых случаях модель интерпретирует текст неправильно, например, «рисует» белый куб с изображением дикобраза.

Текстовое описание: пятиугольные зеленые часы; зеленые часы в форме пятиугольникаТекстовое описание: куб, сделанный из дикобраза; куб с текстурой дикобразаМодель способна выполнять непростые задачи.

Текстовое описание: фотография бюста ГомераНейросеть оказалась способна комбинировать образы для рисования несуществующих объектов и антропоморфных животных и предметов.

Использование словосочетания «профессиональное высокое качество» часто улучшает качество изобра…

Внешность и голос актера воссоздаются с помощью CGI (computer-generated imagery) и Face2Face (захват лица и создание RGB видео в реальном времени).

Один из этапов сборки «цифрового клона»Для того чтобы «собрать» копию индивида, необходима информация о его внешности, поведении и отношениях.

За несколько дней «обращение» Оливера и его семьи набрало 2 млн.

Видео с Хоакином Оливером и его родителямиПомимо виртуальности, голограмм и ботов, Death Tech связана с робототехникой.

Настоятель храма священномученика Климента Леонид Калинин утверждает, что цифровое бессмертие — «вмешательство в божий промысел и его волю».

Винцетий Лютославский и появление стилометрииВ конце XIX веке начинаются активные эксперименты как в способах определения авторства, так и в датировке текстов.

И хотя с точки зрения авторства исследования не были успешными, они заложили идею того, что в тексте нужно искать частотные атомарные факты.

Вероятно, он бы и не дошел до результата, потому как ему необходимо было посчитать частоту не для 3-х, а примерно для 100 служебных слов.

Портрет Джеймса Мэдисона, Джон Вандерлин, 1816 (wikipedia.org)В ходе эксперимента статистики обнаружили, что целый ряд служебных слов употребляется и в 12 спорных памфлетах, и в статьях Джеймса Мэдисона.

Большинство текстов в мире имеют конкретное авторство, и…

Почему впечатляет и почему она такая крутая и как она работает, насколько ты это понимаешь, и есть ли это какой-то путь вперед?

Давид Дале: Ну у неё точно должен быть антропоморфный интерфейс, потому что это то, к чему мы привыкли.

Это очень полезно, и кажется, что это не очень сложно, но пока что я бы не видел, что такое сделали.

Давайте скажу про третью, потому что это не совсем про искусственный интеллект, это даже просто про формальные методы.

Потому что я не верю, что эти искусственные интеллекты смогут заменить людей вполне, и я просто не знаю, что может произойти, если неполноценный человек заменит полноценного.

Все ошибки участника затем анализируются, и на их основе делается вывод, есть ли у человека подсознательная ассоциация темнокожего человека с опасностью.

Роботы на них были не черными и белыми, а скорее телесных цветов — бежевыми и коричневыми, и антропоморфными, хоть и стилизованными.

Также выяснилось, что люди быстрее «выстреливают» в вооруженного темнокожего (и человека, и робота), чем в вооруженного белого, и быстрее «пропускают» безоружного белого, чем безоружного темнокожего.

Разница между реакцией на людей и роботов тоже была — участники эксперимента быстрее реагировали на человека (как с оружием, так и без).

Значит ли это, что роботов нужно производить только белыми, чтобы на них не…

Каждый ксенобот составляет менее 1 мм в длину и состоит из 500-1000 клеток.

Организмы могут двигаться вперед и по кругу, объединяться для совместных действий и передвигать небольшие предметы.

Для создания ксеноботов суперкомпьютер протестировал тысячи моделей живых организмов, чтобы понять, какие из них смогут выполнять полезные задачи.

Изобретение этих роботов может ускорить прогресс в медицине и экологии.

В медицине ксеноботов собираются использовать для лечения рака, восстановления тканей и введения лекарств.

Модели компьютерного зрения, которые при тестировании точны в 97% случаев, не справляются с распознаванием объектов, когда их начинают применять в жизни.

Создатели ObjectNet решили устранить этот перекос, поэтому в датасет вошли фотографии, сделанные фрилансерами, на которых объекты сняты с неожиданного ракурса или в беспорядочно захламленных комнатах.

Когда ведущие модели компьютерного зрения протестировали на ObjectNet, их точность упала до 50-55%.

Таким образом, цель разработчиков датасета ObjectNet — побудить исследователей на создание новых, революционных технологий и алгоритмов компьютерного зрения, которые смогут с высокой точностью распознавать объекты в любой обстановке и с любой с…

«Ты хотел получше узнать о жизни в Париже?

И хотя на самом деле жизнь студента в XIII-XV вв.

часто была совсем не такой радужной, тысячи молодых людей со всей Европы стремились в один из знаменитых университетов.

Но что же ждало новоиспеченного студента?

Начать тест

Соблюсти все эти условия получается крайне редко, однако, несмотря на это, можно получить весомые результаты.

cyning, kyning, cyninge и cyningas при таком подходе — это разные слова, а не разные варианты/формы одного и того же слова).

Аналогичный анализ «Беовульфа» был проведен и для редакции Ф. Клебера, результат оказался сходным.

А что «Андрей»?

Однако стихи, подписанные Кюневульфом, похожи друг на друга (хотя «Христос II» демонстрирует меньшую связь с другими произведениями) и на «Андрея».

Meena — комплексная нейронная диалоговая модель, которая разумно реагирует на контекст разговора и пытается минимизировать перплексию (perplexity) — неопределенность в прогнозировании следующего слова.

Meena отличается от других моделей тем, что имеет 2,6 миллиардов параметров и была обучена на 341 гб текста из социальных сетей.

Как показано на рисунке ниже, чем меньше недоумение, тем лучше оценка SSA для модели с сильным коэффициентом корреляции.

Google пытается упростить нейронные диалоговые модели с помощью улучшения алгоритмов, архитектуры сетей и вычислений.

Программисты хоть и сосредоточились на осмысленности ответов бота, но считают, что «личность» модели и соответствие её ответов фа…

Наличие подобного объема материалов в свободном доступе позволяет заняться переосмыслением работы искусствоведов с точки зрения автоматизации этого процесса и генерации дополнительных метаданных (что мы и сделали).

Сама по себе задача весьма похожа на одну из принадлежащих домену сверточных нейронных сетей, что делает её в первом приближении весьма простой.

Дело в том, что использование информации о стиле для определения временного отрезка гарантированно работает только для эпохи премодерна, которой характерно последовательное совершенствование техник изобразительного искусства.

Confusion matrixПерспективы и заключениеНаш небольшой эксперимент показал, что задача определения возраста картин…

Но на этом список задач NLP в медицине не заканчивается.

Схема задач NLP в CDM.

ИсточникВыиграть от применения достижений компьютерной лингвистики могут не только врачи и пациенты, но и администрация медучреждений и исследователи в области медицины.

ИсточникКакое будущее у NLP в медицине?

Однако в них технологии NLP постоянно развиваются, и в итоге, как показывает опыт с COVID-19, возможность использования искусственного интеллекта в критических ситуациях спасает жизни тысяч людей.

Мы выбрали 15 деталей с картин из фламандских и брюссельских коллекций, к которым стоит присмо­треться повнимательнее.

Благодаря присутствующим в пространстве картин рельефам и витражам два главных события священной истории существуют в контексте: мы видим, что им предшествовало и что произошло после.

Видеоэкскурсия по госпиталю Святого Иоанна в Брюгге Иоанн Богослов и Иоанн Креститель, всадники апокалипсиса и трагическая история святой Урсулы9.

Как показал в 2005 году искусствовед Рон Спронк, «Распятие» Прово­ста когда-то было частью триптиха, стоявшего на алтаре в Иерусалимской часовне в Брюгге.

По аналогии с Марфой, победитель­ницей дракона, несущей ведерко и кропило, стали изображать и …

Антропология12 слов, помогающих понять валлийскую культуруВ чем разница между уэльским и валлийским?

К спирантам относятся [ф] и [в], [c] и [з], а также межзубные [ð] и [θ], которые передает английское сочетание th.).

1911 год The Museum of Modern ArtВ валлийском, как и в других современных кельтских языках, при опреде­ленных грамматических условиях меняется начальная согласная слова.

11 слов, помогающих понять бретонскую культуру Задняя голова, длинный камень и зеленый цвет4.

Новое дыхание валлийская культура в провинции Чубут обрела в столетний юбилей путешествия «Мимозы», которое с размахом праздновалось и в Арген­тине, и в Уэльсе.

И в этой Гришиной реплике — «Нет, стук игральный костей, / По небу летящих…» — даже сильнее слышится тоска.

Для многих эта пора года и суток связана с особой тревожной свободой, граничащей одновременно со счастьем и с неприкаян­ностью.

Мы знаем, где и когда — у метро (так называется стихотворение) и в девять вечера (к этому времени она обещала прийти).

Ориги­нальные стихотворения из этой группы сильно отличаются и от переводов последнего времени, и от стихов, написанных в предыдущие десятилетия.

Я не хочу, да и не могу развивать эту мысль и доводить ее до конца.

ИсторияДепортация чеченцев и ингушей глазами свидетелей23 февраля 1944 года началось насильственное выселение почти полумиллиона чеченцев и ингушей в Казахстан и Киргизию.

Рассказываем через воспоминания жертв и официальные документыПодготовил Дмитрий Шабельников77 лет назад, 23 февраля 1944 года, началось насильственное выселение почти полумиллиона вайнахов (чеченцев и ингушей) из Чечено-Ингушской АССР и прилегающих территорий в Казахстан и Киргизию.

На улицах, кварталах и на каждом дворе находилась охрана, обеспечивая, таким образом, успех предстоящей операции.

Я сообщил о решении партии и правительства переселить всех чеченцев и ингушей в другие районы Советского Союза.

Затем в Грозном в…

Кислый, пряный или белковый: как в России менялись представления о вкусахКраткая история чая в РоссииЧто пили на Руси до чая, почему торговать им было опасно, а также за что военные в XIX веке любили пуэр

И для кого?»Документ рассказывает о том, как московская аристократия начинает отка­зываться от обычаев, введенных еще в середине XVIII века.

Аристократия и в Москве, и в Петербурге была обязана держать двери открытыми и принимать всех, кто захочет прийти на обед.

Так проис­ходило и во Франции, и в других странах.

Лабардан — это треска, но та, что в это время привозилась из Голландии.

Были блюда, которые возникали как в крестьянских, так и в дворянских домах.

Краткая история чая в РоссииСегодня чай — второй по популярности напиток в мире, уступающий только воде.

Историк чая Иван Соколов рассказывает, что пили на Руси до прихода чая, как он появился в России и в итоге занял важнейшее место в русской культуреОглавление Оглавление Напитки дочайной эпохи Появление чая в России Кто пил чай Где и как пили чай С чем пили чай Какой был чай Напитки дочайной эпохи 1 / 4 Сбитенщик.

Появление чая в России 1 / 5 Сбор и обработка чая в Китае.

1895 год Из коллекции автора 2 / 5 Приготовление чая в Китае и отправка его в Россию.

1889 год Из коллекции автора В Россию чай попал из Китая, который долгое время оставался монополистом в поставках чая на мировые рынки…

Заехал домой сменить платье и в половине первого отпра­вился обедать в лучший русский трактир — Пастухова, — чтобы составить представление о национальных привычках.

Моя справедливая критика слегка обидела автора, и он стал дока­зывать, что капустка „самый раз“ и что пресная капуста к пище непригодна.

Сходную траекторию демонстрируют кислые вкусы и в русской кухне — правда, она оказывается несколько менее «кислой», чем современные ей французская или польская.

Тем не менее основная разница между боярской, мещан­ской и крестьянской кухней заключалась скорее в разнообразии сырья, а не в соотно­шении свежего и заготовлен­ного.

В весне ясти менши, а лето того менши ясти; а в осени­нах акы в весне…

Иоганн Адольф Хассе, один из знаменитых композиторов того времени, даже опасался: «Только бы отец не слишком избаловал его и не испортил фимиамом преувеличенной похвалы» Г. Аберт.

В. А. Моцарт.

Банкетный стол в честь Моцарта в доме Шиканедера.

Ведь если я уже уеду, то, ожидая получить письмо, получу одно дерьмо» Моцарт — Марии Анне Текле Моцарт в Аугсбург.

Начало слухам было положено сразу после смерти Моцарта и не без участия его вдовы: якобы покойный композитор сам что-то такое предполагал.

АнтропологияТри песни о любвиПесня о любви к королеве Елизавете, написанная в Тауэре, японская энка о спящем под ресницами прошлом, а также разговор еврейских мамы и дочки о гуляниях допоздна и ответственности.

В День святого Валентина слушаем песни о любви.

Это песня о разлуке, о слезах, об одиночестве, о долгих одиноких ночах и при этом не о любви женщины к мужчине, а о любви к людям вообще.

Она о любви, и, скорее всего, о любви несчастной.

Эти и еще две песни о любви — черкесскую и византийскую — вы можете послушать в приложении «Радио Arzamas».

История, АнтропологияЧтение на 15 минут: «Чахотка: другая история немецкого общества»Почему в XIX веке все хотели выглядеть так, как будто они болеют туберкулезом?

— Я не температурю, кашляю мало, не чувствую никаких болей.

«Настанет день, когда имя мое прогремит по всей земле», — писала она в 15 лет См.

В парижском обществе она была выдающимся явлением, с ее элегантностью, ее прическами, с ее упрямством и изысканными туалетами, подобранными специально на публику.

Французские, русские и немецкие журналы по искусству перепечатывали репродукции ее картин и упоминали ее в статьях.

История10 вопросов о Смутном времениПериод между 1605 и 1612 годом называют Смутным временем.

Неслу­чайно русские сочинения зачастую начинают повествование о Смутном вре­мени именно со смерти Ивана Грозного, хотя он умер гораздо раньше, в 1584 году.

Одновременно начали распространяться слухи о том, что на самом деле царевич остался жив и скрылся.

На фоне деспотичного Грозного и его беспомощного в делах правления сына Федора современникам Годунов казался эффективным государственным дея­телем, который успешно справляется и с внешней, и с внутренней политикой.

Лжедмитрий I. Гравюра XVII–XVIII веков Österreichische NationalbibliothekИзвестно о трех людях, присвоивших себе имя погибшего царевича…

Кроме того, в Израиле часто можно услышать, что в Иерусалим поднимаются, а из него спускаются.

Это связано и с географическим положением города, и с его сакральностью.

13 слов на идише, помогающих понять еврейскую культуру Почему цимес можно съесть и как инженеры связаны с талмудистами6.

Rega — слово-жест, без которого невозможно представить себе как современный иврит, так и его носителей.

Брак (в том числе однополый), признающийся легальным в стране его заключения, признается и в Израиле.

Говорят, по ней снят фильм, но я его не видел — есть экранизации, которые я не хочу смотреть.

Гениальность Достоевского в понимании происходящего просто поражает: это и есть человек, это и есть мы, это и есть ты — такой, которого сам знать не хо­чешь.

Невероятная нежность, тон­кость, ранимость подростка в мире, в котором нет нежности, нет тонкости, нет ранимости, но в нем надо существовать.

Эти характеры, эта жестокость, это упорство, это непрощение, это молчаливое совершение каких-то невероят­ных вещей — ну просто бог знает, как это написано.

Если Анна Каренина про жизнь и она реальная, то Маргарита, конечно, идеаль­ный образ — и красавица, и сексуальна, и умна, и сильна.

Ребусы в русской печатиСудя по всему, в русской массовой печати ребусы впервые стали выходить в журнале «Иллюстрация», основанном в 1845 году литератором Нестором Кукольником.

Загадки, повторявшие структуру ребусов из L’Illustration, выходили на последней полосе, в следующем номере публиковалась отгадка.

В 1858 году ребусы из журнала «Иллюстрация» выходят отдельным изданием в книге «Иллюстрированный Сфинкс, или Собрание разнообразных русских загадок в картинках, исполненных на дереве».

1882.. Постепенно регулярность публикаций ребусов снижается, и к 1885 году ребусы из журнала исчезают.

Концепция ребусов Клодта нашла отклик у многих художников как в журнале «Ребус», так и в других изданиях …

My grandfather Ziauddin Shakeb, who has died aged 87 of pulmonary oedema, was a historian of Indo-Persian relations and a world-renowned expert on Persian and Arabic manuscripts, working as a consultant at Christie’s auction house in London for 30 years.

He was born in India and moved to the UK in 1980 to take up a post at Soas University of London.

He worked for Christie’s from 1981 till 2015, as a consultant in the department of Indian and Islamic Manuscripts and Miniatures.

Born Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed, in Hyderabad, he was the son of Mohammed Musheeruddin Ahmed, an Islamic scholar and head teacher, and Obaida Khanum, a housewife.

Ziauddin Shakeb with his wife, Farhat, after their marria…

After spending a third of his placement in France stuck in lockdown, modern languages student Elliot Bellman was worried his conversation skills might suffer.

“I was definitely nervous starting out, because I don’t really have too much experience talking with older people,” said Bellman.

And we talk a lot about sports, because she used to love to do swimming.

“It has become a family connection now and I think we provide a lot for each other to be honest,” she said.

“The restrictions have been a lot tighter over there and I think it’s so important for people to have somebody else to talk to.”

It was Till Lindemann’s voice that first drew me to Rammstein, the German industrial metal band that dominated my teen years.

Unlikely as it might seem, it was also my obsession with Rammstein that made me into a keen European.

Like many metalhead teens of the 00s, I was an absolute sucker for Rammstein’s swagger and controversy-courting edginess.

So I fed my obsession by translating unspeakably disgusting metal lyrics in my school jotters and developing a love of the language.

I first learned from my obsession with Rammstein that a language is a way into a culture and a way of thinking.

“I don’t think anybody was fully aware of the extent of the entanglement of the UK with the EU.

As of 1 January 2021, students arriving in EU countries must submit large amounts of paperwork to obtain visas for their stay, with requirements differing by country.

“Most EU countries weren’t in a position to confirm what their own arrangements were because we hadn’t confirmed them on our side, so this has created extra bureaucracy, and it’s been frustrating.

Some students who remained in EU countries over Christmas to avoid Brexit complications have been told they must return to the UK to apply for their visas.

This has been further complicated by some EU countries introducing travel bans on n…

It is a little-known fact that Birmingham is home to the largest Shakespeare collection in any public library in the world.

Created in 1864 to celebrate the playwright’s 300th birthday, it was the world’s first great Shakespeare collection and once held such standing that the Soviet government deposited 300 items in the collection during the depths of the cold war.

But in recent years the Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library has become a neglected asset, according to Professor Ewan Fernie, chair of Shakespeare Studies at Birmingham University and director of the Everything to Everybody project, which is striving to bring the archive into the heart of 21st-century life.

“Even if we don’t …

An online language course created five years ago following a letter published in the Guardian is to be used to help reach a government target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.

Duolingo launched its Welsh language course in January 2016 and so far more than 1.5 million people around the world have been taught through it.

Now Duolingo and the National Centre for Learning Welsh have announced they will work together to help the Welsh government reach its 1 million target.

The Duolingo Welsh course was launched after a language tutor, Richard Morse, and a Welsh learner, Kathy Dobbin, wrote to the Guardian suggesting the idea.

Morse gathered a team of Welsh speakers and created the course, wh…

Perhaps they felt that it lent them a sense of individuality in a student body that was 90% Bengali.

I took the opposite view and held my ability to speak Bengali close like an amulet, a secret cipher that unlocked another world.

When my father died in 2007, my mother became the only person with whom I ever spoke it.

When speaking with my mother, I used words I knew she would understand such as “bread” or “hospital”, but increasingly I was reaching for phrases I knew would confuse her, “publish”, “postage” or “argument”.

In this strange and isolating year, language gave me more than knowledge of myself, it gave me an understanding of my mother.

My friend and colleague Roy Wisbey, one of the leading figures in British German studies, has died aged 91.

It is all the more remarkable that Roy recognised the medium’s potential and made Cambridge a world leader in digital humanities.

Equally important was his transformation of the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) into a financially well-endowed and high-powered force with national reach.

Roy taught 16th- and 20th-century German literature at Durham and medieval German literature at Cambridge, before being appointed head of the department of German at King’s College London (1971-94).

His services to German studies were recognised by awards from the Federal German Republic in…

The second lockdown will be different, she has promised herself.

Drawing, DIY, second languages … the creativity generated by the second lockdown covers multiple bases.

We knew this second lockdown was coming, so I had time to plan it, learning from the first one.

It’s reawakened something childlike in me that I haven’t felt in years.”The second lockdown is a chance for others to build on what they created during the first lockdown.

“We expect a second increase in domain registrations of creative businesses run by individuals, specifically those targeted at customers’ hobbies, during a second lockdown,” he added.

The bilingual program has won Footscray primary school accolades and, according to supporters, has helped social cohesion, language and culture thrive in a part of Melbourne synonymous with waves of Vietnamese migration to Australia.

Citing a shortage of Vietnamese teachers and a desire to adopt a Latin-based language that is easier for students, the school has decided that the bilingual program will soon switch to Italian.

Supporters say Footscray’s Vietnamese program is the only one of its kind in Australia.

This time, a report was commissioned from researchers at the University of Melbourne and it recommended the Vietnamese bilingual program be discontinued.

“Some of the Vietnamese paren…

As the long-term editor of an English dictionary, I have arrived at the trouble with pedants: they cry foul too often.

Maybe a language community that is always looking for patterns, lines “irregardless” up with “irrespective” and finds that convincing.

So pedants need to be more conscious of their place in the language community.

That is to say, they are not necessarily at the centre of language change, and they cannot claim the right to be the sole arbiter of what is good and bad.

• Susan Butler AO was the founding editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, Australia’s national dictionary, editing it from 1981 until 2017.

The dictionary she has edited is undoubtedly great – the New Shorter Oxford Dictionary; all 3,800 pages of it in two large volumes.

It is called the New Shorter only because it is based, though not entirely, on the 21-volume Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which at £1,650 is beyond most people’s means.

She read English at Edinburgh, and then went to Oxford to do a thesis on early Middle English lives of saints.

Does she feel herself to be in a line of Oxford dictionary makers?

She is also glad to be the first survivor of a great Oxford dictionary.

Poor John Crace, not able to use rat runs get to get his garden rubbish to the tip (Digested week, 28 August).

Paul WinnackWandsworth, London• 10 of the Best Meals in Movies in the weekend guide (28 August) and no mention of Babette’s Feast?

This superb 1987 Danish film must surely rank as one of the 10 best, if not the very best.

I look forward to reading Wikipedia in Pictish (Shock an aw: US teenager wrote huge slice of Scots Wikipedia, 26 August).

Can someone explain to me what a Lee Twatwater is (Marina Hyde, 28 August)?

Merriam-Webster has weighed in on the debate over the word “irregardless”, confirming that it is a proper, dictionary-verified word.

Caitlin Curran, production editor“Is irregardless even a word?” is a question many have asked and yet somehow there is still disagreement.

But clearly anyone who uses the word irregardless is an idiot.

Poppy Noor, features writerIrregardless of what Merriam-Webster says, I am wondering, what could the word irregardless possibly convey that the word regardless does not?

Having said all of that, I just can’t abide the word irregardless, I’m sorry.

Kate Forbes, the Scottish finance secretary, and Alasdair Allan, a former minister, said Gaelic had to be given precedence or parity in all areas of public life and the economy across Gaelic areas of the Highlands and islands.

These are mainly elderly Gaels living in the Western Isles.

Allan, the MSP for the Western Isles, said greater effort was needed by Gaelic speakers to reverse decades of subtle or overt pressure to prioritise English in their daily lives, including within Gaelic-speaking families.

Gaelic revival campaigners said Western Isles council had become much more active in protecting the language.

However, its Gaelic committee, formed in February to lead on that work, had not …

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The gulf between our solitary thoughts and the words that would convey them to others constantly confronts us all.

And Nietzsche’s writings are filled with laments about the inadequacy of language to render his most cherished ideas entirely in words.

The cases in which we use language to construct thoughts might be immune to the paradox of articulation, since they don’t involve discovery of what we were thinking.

Though obviously unsatisfactory as a response to the original problem it was intended to solve, this solution provides a clue to the paradox of articulation.

Whether or not one accepts this solution, the paradox gives us a tool to investigate the process of articulation in a system…

I’m suffering through the heat on the trail of a metaphor, searching for a link in the global gold supply chain.

This journey is almost invariably described as a ‘supply chain’ – a metaphor that’s become so successful that we often forget it’s there.

But when he pitched I2M to his clients, he noticed how their ‘eyes glazed over’ until he hit upon the more vivid image of a ‘chain of supply’ or ‘supply chain’.

The success of the supply chain metaphor is now holding us back, limiting our capacity to solve the problems plaguing the global economic system.

Here the supply chain metaphor does more than just explanatory work – it also shapes our moral response to such tragedies.

Today, Arabic and Hebrew texts contain the same punctuation marks as those of Western languages, although writers rarely use the full range.

In 1900, Aḥmad Zakī wrote the first Arabic novel with Western punctuation marks, facilitated by a glossary and foreword, praising their usefulness in the preservation of Arabic.

The exclamation and the question mark joined their ranks, attesting to a need for emotional emphasis and clarification of intonation.

The semicolon wasn’t the only punctuation mark making history: in 1905, Moscow printers demanded to be paid for setting not only letters but also punctuation marks, which required the same action and the same amount of time as the alphabet.

A mir…

This is one of the first prototypes of brain-to-brain interfaces in humans.

The real challenge for brain-to-brain interfaces is not to achieve some interlinking of brains.

But isn’t asking for clarification exactly the kind of annoyance that brain-to-brain interfaces could help us get rid of?

It is likely, then, that there will be some language-like system for communication and coordination even in the substrate of brain-to-brain interfaces.

In seeking to bypass language, current conceptions of brain-to-brain interfaces seem to be on their way to replicating the fate of the Belcerebon people.

Over this long and colourful history, one idea has proven particularly resilient: the notion that language began as gesture.

In the 20th century, scholars held on to these intuitive arguments for gestural theories, while also introducing new sources of evidence.

Another couple carried out a similar home-rearing experiment with a different chimpanzee, Washoe, but used manual signs borrowed from American Sign Language instead of English words.

It’s that, compared with the mouth, the hands seem to be better soil for the seeds of language.

She reasons that if language had first built a home in the hands, it would have had no compelling reason to leave.

Gibberish – language that cannot be understood – is not quite the same as nonsense.

Gibberish, on the other hand, makes indecipherable words out of the sounds and letters of language.

Yet while they evade familiar spellings, they lean on our intuitive knowledge of how the English language works.

The language of Utopia is an esoteric gibberish, but there are more everyday examples of unintelligible language.

Babies chatter gibberish to us, and we talk back to them as if they had said something utterly astoundingIn the following centuries, English gibberish grows relatively dormant.

The English word “cozy” is most often used in translation, however; “cozy” is but a shadow of what a koselig life could be.

This is all well and good, but how are non-Norwegians to understand it means, much less borrow these concepts of koselig living for their own lives?

In a similar way, cottagecore longs for an idealized domestic home life, of enjoyments in household crafts such as baking and a return to the natural world, but with the freedoms of modern society.

Cottagecore, then, is a surprisingly apt juxtaposition of the grimy, gritty authenticity of punk rock with a stylized idea of rural life, sometimes equally wild and grim in nature.

Cottagecore gives its fans a way to celebrate t…

A young woman, whose name was Breonna Taylor, was killed, as an early local news report described, “inside a home […] in the middle of an officer-involved shooting.

Many have pointed out how unbalanced and troubling this kind of manipulative indirect language can be.

In the phrase “officer-involved shooting,” language itself aggressively suppresses law enforcement’s own aggressive actions.

And likewise, in the phrase “officer-involved shooting,” language itself aggressively suppresses the police force’s own aggressive actions.

This was 53 percent higher than what people thought he should be fined when the reports used more indirect language.

Why is it that some of them can never accept that Taylor Swift might have something worthy to say?

Taylor Swift isn’t alone in being accused of faking an accent.

“Music can not be true or false, it can only refer to conventions of truth or falsity.”This is a complicating factor particularly when it comes to country music.

The worth of wordsIn “The Last Great American Dynasty,” Swift pens the story of someone she never knew: the eccentric, wealthy Rebekah Harkness of Rhode Island.

As Swift inserts herself into the narrative’s end, it transpires that Harkness owned the house that Swift later bought.

The remarkable thing about internet memes is that without constant mutation through wordplay, they become, ahem, meme-ingless.

Somehow, through allusion, the meme can convey far more complex emotional information than its simple linguistic structure might suggest.

Internet memes are popularly image macros—often originating from weird or amusing snippets of pop culture, with accompanying humorous text or catchphrases riffing on the theme of the meme.

The original source meme has to have had something notable about it for it to have become popular in the first place.

As variations on the meme become more popular, the relevant phrasal structure is used and reused, without the images.

Countries can take many steps that could act as apologies for historical wrongs—so is an official apology ever needed?

Before Obama, Bill Clinton reportedly did not offer an official apology due to the objections of the white majority.

This can be even more involved when it comes to official apologies, which can have a ceremonial aspect of performance to convey the gravity of the matter.

Perhaps the spectrum over which apologies range, from inconsequential politeness to deep remorse expressed formally, drives some members of the public to distrust official apologies as insincere or unnecessary, while others demand them to redress wrongs.

Apologies that look and sound and speak clearly like …

So how does a phrase that doesn’t actually mean what it says still manage to be so usefully informative?

Arbiters of linguistic style often assume that idioms are a kind of “exhausted speech” that once meant something but has become a set of lazy linguistic shortcuts to predigested ideas.

With language full of idioms, should well-worn expressions like “kick the bucket” kick the bucket in favor of more direct ways of speaking?

On the other hand, older idioms, such as getting “the short end of the stick,” are even more frozen in place.

We might wonder what all the fuss is about a stick, much less the short (or shitty) end of it.

hypæthralThe open sky is my anodyne,the aether is my ether.

In my box of clouds and leavesand on my ground-grass bed,I lie for staring stars to see,no ceiling concealing me.

From the blue of birds and planes,the hole of fire pours heatin my box of clouds and leavesfor colder days to come.

And in the diamond times,when soft is hard and dry is wet,the human heat steams offin my box of clouds and leavesme spent and shivering.

I turn, and turn, and turn, and turn,but never see me inthe mirror of eternity,the stern and sheltering sky,the mothering and murderinganaesthetizing heaven.

You don’t have a funicular railway with just one car; that would require too much energy to pull it up, and too much braking as it was lowered down.

Funicular railways have been popular in the less flat parts of Europe for about a century and a half.

The first funicular I ever met, as far as I can recall, was between Territet and Glion, near Montreux, in Switzerland.

There’s a cute little funicular called the Angel’s Flight that runs up short a hill from one block to another.

It’s a love song (a bit fraught, as they maybe) featuring a funicular railway that ran up Vesuvius.

It is thester out, ever more thesterly; thesterness descends from the thester dome and all thesters until today is thesterday.

And thester way I like it.

Thester is not a word we use much anymore; it has slipped into itself over the centuries.

But dark starts with a stab on the tip of the tongue and curls through the hollow mouth to finish with a hard stop at the back, while thester starts soft, stops in the middle with a hiss and tap, and then fades away, like a night cat finding your foot and retreating.

Thester and dark may, strictly speaking, denote the same thing, but they’re painted by different artists.

Rather, one that is from too much time on my fesses – but keeps me even more on my fesses.

Basically, fessitude results from being bummed out, perhaps from being on your bum but definitely with the result of being even more on your bum.

In the long run, I need to go for a long run; in the short run, I could stand – or rather not stand still for – a short run.

Laxitude and lentitude lead to lassitude and fessitude.

Where does this word fessitude – and its adjectival sibling, fessive – come from?

It was a text to the group from Maury: “Sorry, can’t make, got stomachache”“Stomachache!” Elisa said.

“Like Jordache.”Jess, who was in the same frame as Arlene, glanced at her, then looked back the rest of us.

“It’s the kind of word that gives English learners a headache,” Elisa said, circling back to the topic.

It’s the difference between elderberries and Virginia creeper.”“Your mother smells of elderberries,” said Jess, who was getting so silly she had slipped into Monty Python references.

“If you want to eat elderberries, you have to cook them, or you get a stomachache,” I said.

“I enjoyed myself very much the last time I was in Ireland.”“I didn’t think you’d ever been!” Éamon said.

“Perhaps we should taste a word from here.”“There’s nothing quite like a taste of Ireland,” Éamon said.

“Oh, here’s a good word, I think.”“They’re Irish, they’re all good,” Éamon said.

“Slouster.”“I think I’ve not heard it,” he said.

“Isn’t that the most Irish word I’ve ever heard,” he said.

Well, sure, berrum, I suppose, as in “Whayya doon immy berrum?” But I mean something simultaneously more and less fancy: dorter, as in “Gwan gi outa my dorter.” It’s more fancy because it’s Latin-derived, and less fancy because, well, a dormitory is less fancy than a bedroom.

Anyway, berrum isn’t officially a word and no one would understand it without context (or perhaps even with context).

But dorter is a word, and it’s been an English word longer than dormitory has.

It went into Old French and became dortoir, also spelled dortour, which is also another way we can spell our English word dorter.

So dorter became associated with monasteries – ironically, because no Englishman would ever sen…

—“The Bungalows,” John AshberyA bungalow isn’t, or is, a house for wealthy people.

—“The House on Moscow Street,” Marilyn NelsonWhat, exactly, a bungalow is defined as depends on where you are.

In theory that includes big ranch-style houses, but everyone knows the difference between a sprawling ranch house and a boxy bungalow.

In Ireland, if you pass a house in the countryside, it’s probably a bungalow and quite likely one storey.

The Hindi word for Bengal is Baṅglā, and the Gujarati word is Baṅglo; from these we got bungalow.

It’s a blizzard.

The defining feature of a blizzard, for most of us these days, is snow.

But why this word blizzard?

It was in the wicked winter of 1881 that its use for hard winter weather was introduced to the broader American readership, as the New York Nation noted: “The hard weather has called into use a word which promises to become a national Americanism, namely ‘blizzard’.

He said, ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’ He went out into the blizzard and we have not seen him since.”And it is, really, that condition that I have always thought of with the word blizzard.

“It’s eyey!

“These are all in Unicode,” Jess said.

“Eye eye, sir,” Jess said.

“Mногоꙮчитїи?”“No, the one that sounded like you found an eyeball on your chair.”“Oh – eyey!

A great word, not used often enough, and usually applied to potatoes and cheese.”“And Zoom screens,” Daryl said.

A dog off leash darts from the boardwalk onto the strand, whereupon a half hundred wings lift fitfully off the soft shore and, feathers flapping frenetically aloft, a flock of waterfowl fly far from the bounding hound.

Your companion, jolted from reverie, says “Whut?”You have just heard a whutter.

A simple flipping and flapping of feathers is a flutter, but when the source is something larger – a big bird, or a bunch of birds (a big bunch of birds or a bunch of big birds or a big bunch of big birds) – the word for it is whutter.

Who knows when this word was first heard, but the Oxford English Dictionary has an 1831 quote from John Wilson in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine: “A sound like the …

Of course, that could still mean talking bad about someone – you know, vilipending them, as the kids say, or, yes, talking shit, as professors say (well, the ones I know, anyway).

And back in the 1600s, that’s what cacology meant.

But that sense has fallen into desuetude, and now, when this word is used, it’s used to mean ‘talking badly’.

But I do think they need to be seen as cacology, or else they lose their charge.

After all, talking shit is less effective if the shit is just… caca.

(To be fair, the singer of the song in question was actually able to sing well when he chose to, which at key moments he did not.)

Like, hey, I just mutated this word, isn’t it so awful you have to love it and buy it.

But there was no doubt that the song was about someone who embodied this value, because they sang it over and over again: “You are a hebicentric!

You are a hebicentric!

But I still think hebicentric is a good word for that hiply tragic, tragically hip style…Anyway, here, if you don’t know the song.

Pytheas called the place Θούλη, which would transliterate into English as Thoúlē, but it passed to us by way of Latin to be Thule.

I knew Thule was in Greenland long before I heard of its mythical connections.

In 1912 Rasmussen set off from Thule to transit the ice cap at the north end of Greenland; he succeeded, and then came back around to Thule again.

Thule Air Base (said the Danish way, with a “t”) is still there.

This town, which was once called New Thule, then just Thule, is now known as Qaanaaq.

When the pandemic arrived, we all expected shortages: toilet paper, medicine, paper towels, fresh vegetables, toilet paper, imported electronics, coffee, toilet paper, oil, voyages, fun, and toilet paper, among other things.

What, in fact, many of us do do is try to avoid shortages of items by buying on line and having them delivered, resulting in a longage of mileage for people in the haulage and porterage business and a longage of packages in the lobbies of buildings – and a longage of some kinds of items in our homes.

In short, many people have a longage of work hours, and many have a longage of leisure time and leisure devices and the various baggage of adultage; many – especially those…

As the tipping point is not the vase’s natural state, we assume something has caused the unbalance e.g.

We also realise that there will be consequences when this tipping point is reached, and we expect these will be negative.

It was most often applied to an individual, reaching a personal tipping point and joining a wider group or process in society.

From this study they tracked the changing use and meanings of tipping point in both the media and science.

This suggests that the tipping point metaphor in the media had become more flexible, again incorporating the conventional expression of a drastic change.

In the fifth chapter of her pop linguistics book Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch explores how emoji became popular as a way of replicating gestures in online communication.

However, many popular emoji use hand and facial gestures, which, McCulloch says, inspired her to begin treating them as gesture.

These gestures don’t have specific names but can be described.

The example McCulloch uses is the range of emojis possible in a ‘Happy Birthday’ message, perhaps a combination of the following 🎂🍰🎁🎊🎉🎈🥳.

We can even repeat emoji which don’t have a literal gesture attached, because, as a whole, emoji can be repeated.

Why is it so much scarier to receive a text saying “ok.” than “ok”?

In online messaging, we tend to use line or message breaks, rather than full stops, to convey the end of an utterance.

One that has is the sarcasm tilde (~), which McCulloch argues derives from the mid-2000s days of MySpace ‘sparkle punctuation’, where users used punctuation marks for aesthetic purposes.

McCulloch calls this lack of punctuation ‘minimalist typography’ and discusses how this is used to convey tone of voice, particularly in the current era of smartphones.

These are just some of the ways in which we reflect our tone in typed speech, from caps lock, to passive aggressive punctuation.

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 53: Listen to the imperatives episode!

Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 53 show notes page.

But first, we’re going to do a Lingthusiasm liveshow – a virtual liveshow in late April brought to you on an internet near you for everybody who’s a patron of Lingthusiasm, which there is still time to become.

Gretchen: The Lingthusiasm liveshow is also part of LingFest, which is a bunch of other fun linguistics events that are happening in late April.

That’s “comm” with two Ms.Lauren: Our most recent Patreon bonus episode was an Ask Us Anything episode in celebration of our 100th overall episode.

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a technology.

Even though this is Episode 52, we have almost a hundred episodes of Lingthusiasm.

Gretchen: If you want to listen to those and have more Lingthusiasm in your earballs, you can go to patron.com/lingthusiasm.

If there’re other podcasts that you like that you wish would do a linguistics episode and interview one of us, you should tell them that!

Tag us both or something on social media or tell your favourite podcasts that they could do a linguistics episode because we’d be happy to do that.

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a technology.

Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 52 show notes page.

Even though this is Episode 52, we have almost a hundred episodes of Lingthusiasm.

If there’re other podcasts that you like that you wish would do a linguistics episode and interview one of us, you should tell them that!

Tag us both or something on social media or tell your favourite podcasts that they could do a linguistics episode because we’d be happy to do that.

Hyperlinks are a ubiquitous feature of the internet, but unlike other elements of internet language use, there hasn’t been a lot of published work that considers the linguistics of hyperlinks.

Hyperlinks anchor to written text, and interact with it in ways that are interesting both syntactically and semantically.

From time to time I’ve talked about the linguistics of hyperlinks on this blog, twitter and even Lingthusiasm.

There are slightly different ways hyperlinks work on sites like Wikipedia, but it’s a fundamentally similar mechanic.

I’m going to discuss the linguistic features of hyperlinks by looking at their evidential function, the pragmatics of hyperlink use, and the syntactic rela…

The Zoom-birthday-party-slash-quiz-show is not terrible, and it is better than nothing—not to mention far better than hosting a Fun Party for Viral Particles in your friends’ respiratory tracts.

But this birthday-board-meeting simply doesn’t feel like a party.

But, internet help me, I was still determined to have an actual virtual party.

Which raises the question: If getting a bunch of people together on a video call doesn’t feel like a party, then what does?

Gather is part of an emerging genre of communication platform that’s halfway between Zoom breakout rooms and chatting during video games.

The Zoom-birthday-party-slash-quiz-show is not terrible, and it is better than nothing—not to mention far better than hosting a Fun Party for Viral Particles in your friends’ respiratory tracts.

But this birthday-board-meeting simply doesn’t feel like a party.

But, internet help me, I was still determined to have an actual virtual party.

Which raises the question: If getting a bunch of people together on a video call doesn’t feel like a party, then what does?

Gather is part of an emerging genre of communication platform that’s halfway between Zoom breakout rooms and chatting during video games.

The 16 episodes (and links to the accompanying Mutual Intelligibility post with additional resources):Mutual IntelligibilityLingthusiasm launched Mutual Intelligibility in March 2020 to help connect linguistics instructors to curated linguistics content as teaching rapidly moved online.

Mutual Intelligibility resources were also created to support each of the 16 Crash Course videos.

See more Mutual Intelligibility posts here.

Posts about doing linguistics communication:Posts about linguistics booksPosts about other things, including projects:Linguistics Job InterviewsThere are now over 50 interviews in this series.

The 2020 interviews:Other things around the internetThis is a very incomplet…

Crash CourseOne of my biggest projects for 2020 was working with Gretchen McCulloch to co-write the 16 scripts for Crash Course Linguistics, from Complexly and PBS.

The 16 episodes (and links to the accompanying Mutual Intelligibility post with additional resources):Mutual IntelligibilityLingthusiasm launched Mutual Intelligibility in March 2020 to help connect linguistics instructors to curated linguistics content as teaching rapidly moved online.

Mutual Intelligibility resources were also created to support each of the 16 Crash Course videos.

See more Mutual Intelligibility posts here.

Posts about doing linguistics communication:Posts about linguistics booksPosts about other things, inclu…

Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a technologyThere’s no known human society without language, whether spoken or signed or both, but writing is a different story.

If you’re wondering why this is only episode 52, that’s because the other half of them exist as bonus episodes on Patreon.

This month’s bonus episode is outtake stories from Lingthusiasm interviews!

We’ve interviewed lots of great linguists on Lingthusiasm, and sometimes there’s a story or two that we just don’t have space for in the main episode, so here’s a bonus episode with our favourite outtakes!

Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] comGretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

And I’ll give you two examples sentences to think about, and then we’ll talk through them, Lizzie Bennet-themed.

So: “Lizzie thinks that Darcy’s brother is delightful” versus “Lizzie said that Darcy’s brother is delightful.”Gretchen: So I think to the first one I have to go, “Hey, wait a minute!

But if Lizzie thinks that Darcy’s brother is delightful –Gretchen: Maybe she just thinks Bingley’s actually his brother, or something.

Gretchen: Yeah, ‘cause I think if I say, “Lizzie knows that Darcy’s brother is delightful,” that implies that I, the speaker who’s saying the sentence –Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: And then I was like, “Wait, wait, this is what you’re trying to do.”Lauren: This is the poi…

The 16 episodes (and links to the accompanying Mutual Intelligibility post with additional resources):Mutual IntelligibilityLingthusiasm launched Mutual Intelligibility in March 2020 to help connect linguistics instructors to curated linguistics content as teaching rapidly moved online.

Mutual Intelligibility resources were also created to support each of the 16 Crash Course videos.

See more Mutual Intelligibility posts here.

Top Superlinguo posts in 2020It was only a few years ago that these annual blog posts would just list a bunch of things I’ve written on Superlinguo.

The 2020 interviews:Other things around the internetThis is a very incomplete list of miscellaneous internet things.

The Zoom-birthday-party-slash-quiz-show is not terrible, and it is better than nothing—not to mention far better than hosting a Fun Party for Viral Particles in your friends’ respiratory tracts.

But this birthday-board-meeting simply doesn’t feel like a party.

But, internet help me, I was still determined to have an actual virtual party.

Which raises the question: If getting a bunch of people together on a video call doesn’t feel like a party, then what does?

Gather is part of an emerging genre of communication platform that’s halfway between Zoom breakout rooms and chatting during video games.

The Zoom-birthday-party-slash-quiz-show is not terrible, and it is better than nothing—not to mention far better than hosting a Fun Party for Viral Particles in your friends’ respiratory tracts.

But this birthday-board-meeting simply doesn’t feel like a party.

But, internet help me, I was still determined to have an actual virtual party.

Which raises the question: If getting a bunch of people together on a video call doesn’t feel like a party, then what does?

Gather is part of an emerging genre of communication platform that’s halfway between Zoom breakout rooms and chatting during video games.

Mallory Manley is doing the important work of managing data across multiple languages in the field of genealogy.

I appreciate Mallory’s honesty about the challenges of stepping sideways out of linguistics, and sharing that experience with us in this interview.

How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

So even though I don’t use my linguistics training as much as I hoped I would in a career, it has helped me succeed in this role.

Related interviews:Recent interviews:Check out the full Linguist Jobs Interview List and the Linguist Jobs tag for even more interviews

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[…]Formed in 1963, when its members were still teenagers, the Wailers were among the biggest stars of ska, the upbeat Jamaican style that borrowed from American R&B.

And I think the first time I saw them was in Boston in 1967.

My roommate was an early fan of Donovan, and got us tickets to a show on his U.S. tour.

The opening act was described on the tickets and on the marquee as "The Whalers".

But who else would it have been?

« previous post |Ivano Caponigro has created a page memorializing Richard Montague on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

Over the last nine years, I have worked on an intellectual and personal biography of Richard Montague.

The tentative title is Richard Montague: The simplicity of language, the complexity of life.

It was back then that I first asked myself and others the question “Who was Richard Montague?” and failed to find anything close to a satisfactory answer.

(D. Kalish & R. Montague, Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning, 1964)Just a few years later, Montague had completely changed his view:There is philosophic interest in attempting to analyze ordinary English.

In the modern version of the originating language, the new meaning usually displaces the old meaning.

An alternative etymology would have Hindi gāṛī गाड़ी ("cart; wagon; car; truck; bus; carriage; train; rail car") arising from within Indic: from Sauraseni Prakrit (gaḍḍa), (gaḍḍī), from Ashokan Prakrit *- (*gāḍḍa-).

A further interesting twist on the etymological fortunes of Hindi gāṛī is that the present-day word for bicycle in Kuwaiti dialect is garī, which clearly resembles the Hindi word for "cart; wagon".

*Further notes on English "gharry"Hindi गाड़ी gāṛi: a wheeled cart, carriage; a car, truck, bus.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed.

« previous post |I came upon this curious word by chance in the following article:"Know your English — What is the meaning of ‘ultracrepidarian’?

An ultracrepidarian is someone who is in the habit of giving advice on matters he himself knows nothing about — like a politician!

*My ultracrepidarian uncle will be spending two weeks with us.

The English essayist William Hazlitt is the first to have used in print a disparaging adjective "Ultra-Crepidarian", as he wrote a ferocious letter to William Gifford, the editor of The Quarterly Review: "You have been well called an Ultra-Crepidarian critic".

The super- in the Latin word supercilium means "above," and cilium was the Latin word for "eyelid."

« previous post |In case you missed it — Radio Garden:Radio Garden invites you to tune into thousands of live radio stations across the globe.

By bringing distant voices close, radio connects people and places.

Radio makers and listeners have imagined both connecting with distant cultures, as well as re-connecting with people from ‘home’ from thousands of miles away.

Radio Garden is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Our dedicated team is hard at work tending to the garden on a daily basis.

And perhaps because Koreans agree that “Morning Calm” sounds mystical and romantic, it’s been picked up lately—often for commercial purposes—in South Korea, too.

‘Morning Calm’ is a mistranslation of an ancient name for Korea, a name known only from ancient Chinese records.

Besides, the two characters they used can't mean ‘Morning Calm’ anyway!

AfterwordThe whole business is just another instance of how the old mythology about Chinese characters invariably leads people down the garden path!

Even so, no matter how bogus it may be, Koreans obsess over that 'morning calm' nonsense.

« previous post |NEW: President Biden calls Texas and Mississippi decisions to end mask mandates “a big mistake" and criticizes what he views as “Neanderthal thinking” after CDC warned against complacency in the face of emerging coronavirus variants on Monday.

Forget it.’ It still matters.”Using Neanderthal to mean something like "unsophisticated", "primitive", "stupid" is … well, I won't call it "Neanderthal", but it's ignorant and out of date.

People have recently been using #DeepNostalgia to animate faces reconstructed from Neanderthal skulls:Done the same lol, and this woman, but I can't find where this reconstruction comes from ???

In fact, it's not really clear to me why we should cal…

Plowy McPlowFace won the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s inaugural “Name a Snowplow” contest with 65,292 votes.

The next-closest vote-getter was Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya, which garnered 29,457 votes.

Plowy McPlowFace will soon be plowing streets in the Metro District; Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya will make its home in District 4 in west-central Minnesota.

In contrast, Britain's Natural Environment Research Council decided to reject the popular vote for "Boaty McBoatface" as a name for its new polar research vessel, choosing instead RRS Sir David Attenborough.

There was some LLOG discussion of the general Xy McXface construction and its relatives at the time.

As Juha added in a note, "The English translation offered by the museum is, of course, curious."

Born in Baoping Village, Zigui County (in current Hubei Province) in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–8 AD), she was sent by Emperor Yuan [VHM: r. 48-33 BC] to marry Chanyu* Huhanye of the Xiongnu Empire in order to establish friendly relations with the Han dynasty through marriage.

In the most prevalent version of the "Four Beauties" legend, it is said that Wang Zhaojun left her hometown on horseback on a bright autumn morning and began a journey northward.

(source)*People (Chinese and others) pronounce 單于 both as shanyu and as chanyu, but most critical Western scholars pronounce it as chányú.

(…

« previous post |John Atkinsons' Wrong Hands 10/2/2020:They could also offer a calming link to "Does it matter if it dangles?"

(11/20/2010), or some of Geoff Pullum's other classic discussions of the problem.

I've somehow managed to miss John Atkinsons' site until now — if it's also new to you, you're in for some fun.

One of my other favorites:And the most recent one:The process of blending titles or idioms is a common source of amusement — does it have a name?

I don't think I know one, but perhaps a commenter can help us.

Side note this speech is boring.

We can’t win the presidency with this boring, low energy, stream of conscience, weak, has been, choke artist.

"Stream of conscience" has been self-consciously used as the title for a podcast as well as for a thriller and a Twitch fund-raising group, among other things.

"Steam of consciousness" has been self-consciously used for a radio program, a steam-powered kinetic skull sculpture, the title of a book review in Science Magazine, and so on.

Of course there are plenty of unwitting exemplars of both phrases Out There.

The mechanisms that Bob suggests make physical sense, though where in his mouth the performer generates the whistle is not clear.

The amount of air flowing and the size of the constriction together help determine whether a whistle will actually sound.

Any whistle produced by this type of geometry is referred to as a hole tone.

The oscillations of the air in the wake of the cylinder apply forces in alternate directions to the cylinder.

Although the Italian papers (and the YouTube posting) carry on about "polyphonic" whistling, in fact there's nothing polyphonic about the recording in question.

A fully automated approach that scored transcripts generated by automatic speech recognition produced comparable and accurate scores (R = 0.82), with very high correlation to scores derived from human transcripts (R = 0.99).

Equity — performance is highly variable on different speakers of different dialects/varieties, different ages and backgrounds, different vocal characteristics, different recoding contexts, etc.

In the first place, they compared the results with ASR transcripts to those with human transcripts, which is the right thing to do.

And for the results of rapidly-evolving automatic speech-to-text algorithms, the effects will be different for different versions of different APIs …

With more than 80 million speakers globally, Cantonese remains a vital and useful language.

In the United States alone, Census Bureau data shows that there are nearly as many self-reported Cantonese speakers (459,000) as Mandarin speakers (487,000) among those who specify a variety of Chinese.

…Stanford and Penn have traditionally had two of the strongest Cantonese programs in the country.

I'm very proud that Cantonese continues to thrive at Penn, but am puzzled why wealthy Stanford is gutting their program to save a small amount of money.

I should also note that — among other East Asian languages — Penn has had a Taiwanese language program that has flourished under the tutelage of Grace Wu…

« previous post |At our most recent Penn Phonetic Lab meeting, we heard a (virtual) talk by Marc Garellek on the topic "Reconsidering voicing during glottal sounds".

For example, the phrase "articulate Tory" occurred four times during the 60 seconds or so of transcript I saved, and these were not references to Yorick Wilks.

Rather, Marc's subject naturally involved the word articulatory, and each time he used that word, Zoom transcribed it as "articulate Tory".

So when he said (what I believe was)For many languages, we really need to only assume two articulatory gestures here, aspiration and glottalization.

… Zoom transcribed:For many languages, we really need to only assume to articulate T…

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

Also, my posts should be taken as conversation-starters; there is no expectation of "staying on topic," and some of the best threads have gone in entirely unexpected directions.

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

“Far too many of them are entering spoken and written Greek.

“I included them in the Lexicon,” he says of his magisterial 2,500-page dictionary of modern Greek language.

“But where possible, I also insisted that if they could be replaced by Greek words they should.

The emergence of “Greenglish” – Greek written with English letters – as an unofficial e-language since the arrival of the internet has also sparked alarm.

At Patakis, one of the country’s most established publishers, inclusion of foreign words in any work is carefully monitored.

byBen Brumfield writes at From the Page about a problem dear to this editor’s heart:When we transcribe handwritten text, we make mistakes.

We misread words with difficult letters; we accidentally modernize a word with archaic spelling; we skip a line.

Over centuries, they’ve created an extensive literature analyzing scribal errors, classifying them and identifying probable causes.

Scribes were most likely to make these errors when working with unfamiliar kinds of texts or when they were sleepy, but errors also occurred when the original was damaged or the style of handwriting was unfamiliar.

Also, RusTRANS is “actively seeking essays for a new, Open Access volume which is aimed at stimulati…

The driver Volodya Teleskopov is bringing empty barrels (the “surplussed barrelware” of the story’s title) to Koryazhsk, the regional center.

The barrelware becomes a magical being, leading the unlikely traveling companions to the magic kingdom; in his letter to his girlfriend, Volodya Teleskopov writes: “Simka, you want the truth?

I don’t know when we’ll see each other again, because we go not where we want to go but where our dear barrelware wants us to go.

), and all sorts of Soviet realia that I had to have explained to me by Yuri Shcheglov’s «Затоваренная бочкотара» Василия Аксенова: Комментарий.

But the main thing is that they’re both superb modernist works that will repay your invest…

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

Also, my posts should be taken as conversation-starters; there is no expectation of "staying on topic," and some of the best threads have gone in entirely unexpected directions.

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

Now I learn, from Geoffrey O’Brien’s NYRB review of poem, opera, and (recent) movie, that Hugh MacDiarmid was one of the original translators!

Of “Aniara,” the name of the spaceship and the most haunting coinage of all, Martinson said, “The name Aniara doesn’t signify anything.

aniara) in ancient Greek means sorrowful.

Thus, Aniara = the ship of sorrow.

When sung by a chorus in Blomdahl’s opera, “Aniara” becomes a wail of lamentation.

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

Also, my posts should be taken as conversation-starters; there is no expectation of "staying on topic," and some of the best threads have gone in entirely unexpected directions.

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

Also, my posts should be taken as conversation-starters; there is no expectation of "staying on topic," and some of the best threads have gone in entirely unexpected directions.

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

The English Language & Usage Stack Exchange had a very interesting thread on the topic Why did Jitney become slang for nickel?.

The most thorough response was from David L. Gold:It may be possible to antedate the word (which has been spelled jetney, gitney, and jitney) to the 1870s:“Does jitney mean a nickel, or a ride, or a method of transportation, or a state of mind?

A further proof that a jitney is not necessarily a nickel is that in early times no coin of less value than a quarter circulated on the coast.

A jitney is a small coin, such as the great American public are now paying for trackless transportation.

We have just received word that a Canadian board of councilmen have decided th…

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

Also, my posts should be taken as conversation-starters; there is no expectation of "staying on topic," and some of the best threads have gone in entirely unexpected directions.

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

Его привычно поразило, как разросся сад и как сам участок будто уменьшился, и дача, заслоненная зеленью, не показалась ему такой громоздкой, как в прошлом году.

Если у родителей жены был как бы загородный дом, то у его отца была как бы машина.

Таким образом, наступало как бы равновесие.

И торчащие ребра дома, и шлак под ногами, и паутина повсюду, и кучки запыленного мусора — все это казалось единственным решением.

Now, going back to Sokolov, I see what he got from Bitov, and I’m looking forward to rereading Aksyonov with Sokolov in mind.

The brand names, or trade names (Advil, for example) are selected for marketing purposes and go through a vetting process with the FDA.

A sample:Many of the oldest drugs were named by shortening the systematic chemical name for the compound.

For example, in the name imatinib, the -tinib stem refers to the drug’s action as a tyrosine kinase (TYK) inhibitor.

This means comparing drug names against lists of names for existing drugs.

The USAN Program carefully screens prefixes using searches of databases of existing drug names and Phonetic and Orthographic Computer Analysis (POCA) software.

unthanc.” And the OED has an entry (from 1926) for unthank:Etymology: Old English unþanc (masculine) (< un- un- prefix¹ 6 + þanc thank n.), = Old Frisian unthonk (West Frisian ontank, North Frisian untoonk), Middle Dutch ondanc (Dutch ondank), Middle Low German undank, Old High German undanch, unthank (Middle High German undanc, German undank) ingratitude, displeasure, etc.

In the phrase to have unthank.

Songs (Camden) 327 But unthank have the bishop that lat hit so go.

The genitive is similarly used in Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Old High German, etc.

(1810) 241 Þe Walsch com þam ageyn, did our men alle arere, Þat turnyng þer vnthank, as heuy was þe charge, Vnder þam alle sank.

I spent a week and a half reading Sasha Sokolov’s first novel, Школа для дураков (1976), translated (not very well) by Carl Proffer the following year as A School for Fools — I personally think it should be just plain School for Fools, but the articulated title has established itself.

But Sokolov puts the familiar elements of doubling, madness, and sexual obsession together in a way that is entirely his own.

99-140):To summarize briefly, Škola is a linguistically self-conscious, complex, metafictional text that takes the form of a disjointed pseudo memoir.

Words in Škola are important in themselves, as in verse, for their sound quality, rhythm, and even for their visual appearance.

To creat…

A few years ago I shared six videos about language, so posting seven this time may set a perilous precedent.

(I’ve also blogged a bunch of others, before and since, if you want still more audiovisual diversion.)

Below, there are two short, three medium, and two long videos, in that order.

See what grabs your fancy.

A wild one to begin: Why Werner Herzog refuses to speak French:A lightning-quick accent tour of the UK (and Dublin) by dialect coach Andrew Jack:A more detailed accent tour of the US by dialect coach Erik Singer and an array of linguists:On the importance of legitimizing Black English, by linguist Anansa Benbow, who featured in my recent post about six new language podcasts:T’nor…

In a recent conversation, I heard the word awkness in reference to a socially awkward situation.

After all, its cousin awks ‘awkward’ has been around a while; I’ve even used it myself.

The purists preferred what they deemed to be more native English words: outborn for foreign, foresayer for prophet, awkness for perversity.

Middle English awk (‘probably a borrowing from early Scandinavian’, says the OED) led to Early Modern English awkness, and like awky and awkly they are labelled obsolete.

What awk word will you be using – or inventing – today?

We know this because they write *mitigate against.

Usually the writer means militate against, but not necessarily.

It’s up to writers and editors to know the difference and militate against the error.

Are you incentivized to use this word?

plays devil’s advocate for a much-maligned word, reviewing the usage commentary on it and showing why it’s likely to stick around:

Last month I mentioned my new essay on Irish English dialect, ‘Wasn’t It Herself Told Me?’, commissioned for the winter 2020 edition of the literary magazine The Stinging Fly.

Because the new Stinging Fly is a Galway special, the essay looks in particular at the Galway dialect, though this does not differ hugely from Irish English more broadly.

Similarly there is merit to the idea of Irish English as a dialect.

From the early 17th century ‘many Irish speakers began to communicate with English speakers by grafting English words and structures onto the stem of their Celtic language’, Loreto Todd writes in Green English.

In this way there emerged ‘a form of English that reflected Irish influen…

Here, in alphabetical order, are a handful of good language podcasts that entered the scene in 2019–2020.

The Black Language Podcast, by Black millennial Anansa Benbow, explores Black people’s language (mostly English) in terms of its politics, pragmatics, grammar, and style, demonstrating its beauty and complexity.

(20–30 min)The Language Revolution, by British linguist Cate Hamilton, focuses on language education, particularly learning new languages (at any age): how it happens, why it’s good for you, how languages are taught, and so on.

It comprises broad and informed discussion and interviews on topics such as language education, language attitudes, and linguistics in the news.

(15–30 m…

I have an essay on Irish English dialect in the latest Stinging Fly (winter 2020–21).

The Stinging Fly is an Irish literary magazine on the go since 1997 and a book publisher since 2005.

My essay looks at Galway dialect, though its features are not that different (or different mainly in degree) from southern Irish English in general.

Irish English is a complicated mosaic of influences, not all of them obvious.

‘“Wasn’t It Herself Told Me?” Irish English Dialect in Galway’ is the title.

It’s been a while since I made a book spine poem (aka bookmash).

**Thanks to the authors: Tim Robinson, David George Haskell, Edna O’Brien, Kazuo Ishiguro, Heather Greer, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Deirdre Madden; and to Nina Katchadourian.

Edna O’Brien and Deirdre Madden have both featured a few times on Sentence first, including in previous bookmashes.

Heather Greer’s book, a beautifully illustrated guide to the moths and butterflies of Connemara, is one I did some editing on, years ago.

Have you made a book spine poem yet?

Alphabetical order is not the uniform ideal it may superficially seem to be.

This comment comes from a new book, A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order by Judith Flanders.

Robert Boyle tried myriad techniques: colour-coding, numerals, mnemonic verses, lettered boxes – but not, oddly, alphabetical order.

The prevalence of alphabetical order has begotten a strange invisibility, making A Place For Everything an enlightening and richly enjoyable read.

While exploring how alphabetical order rose to near-ubiquity in the West, it also offers a broad and entertaining history of adjacent tools and ideas.

Oochy woochy coochy coo.

Oochy woochy coochy coo.

SPOCK: Oochy woochy coochy coo, Captain?

Oochy coochy coochy coo.

Oochy woochy coochy coo.

Phrases that use peak include off-peak, peak oil, and peak time.

This meaning explains why people sometimes write the eggcorn peak one’s interest instead of pique one’s interest – they may picture that interest peaking.

To remember when to use the spelling peak, think of how the capital letter A is like a mountain.

Picture the spelling as peAk, if that helps.

Policing grammar on the radio looks at an example of usage-peeving, wherein a journalist who spoke on Irish radio was criticised by one listener for her grammar:

This headline appeared on the front page of the Guardian website last weekend and came to my attention via Mercedes Durham on Twitter:Vaccine trials halted after patient fell ill restartIt’s quite the syntactic rug-pull.

The story itself has a far more intelligible headline: ‘Oxford University resumes Covid-19 vaccine trials’.

Cached versions on the Wayback Machine suggest that that’s also how it was originally published – the confusing headline appears only on main pages.

If spatial limits or convention prevented the inclusion of that were, the relative clause could have been favourably set off with commas:Vaccine trials, halted after patient fell ill, restartOr, even less conventionally a…

One day the boy, Willie, is home from school for lunch and sees his exercise book still untouched.

Willie thought in his head, in English, “He is not only a fraud, but a coward.” The sentence didn’t sound right; there was a break in the logic somewhere.

I’m curious about what ‘didn’t sound right’ to Willie in the first formulation of the line.

Are they odd in combination, or would either alone sound odd too?

These questions are pretty much moot, since we don’t know exactly what Willie, or Naipaul, thinks about not only .

A fresh batch of linguistic items for your listening, viewing, and reading (lots of reading) pleasure.

There are a few new language podcasts on the scene, but I’ll save those for a separate post.

A brief history of strange English street names.

Using the Irish language on a headstone in England.

A brief history of word games.

Alfred Hitchcock’s comedy-thriller The Trouble with Harry (1955), amidst all its talk of murder and romance, has a fun little exchange of sociolinguistic interest between John Forsythe (‘Sam Marlowe’) and Edmund Gwenn (‘Capt.

Those who correct others’ speech uninvited often do so in a rude and judgemental way.

Marlowe corrects Wiles gently and off-handedly, as though automatically correcting a child.

The script for The Trouble with Harry was written by John Michael Hayes.

I don’t know if the same exchange appears in the source novel by Jack Trevor Story, but Hitchcock obviously liked it.

I’ve been greatly enjoying videos by Geoff Lindsey, an accent coach from the UK who also gives courses at University College London.

His YouTube channel has about 20 videos to date, mostly around 5 or 10 minutes long, on a wide range of topics to do with pronunciation and phonetics.

‘Most folks are amazed when they see the inner life of speech,’ Lindsey says in a fascinating, Stranger Things–themed primer on the human vocal organs that provides a snapshot of what happens anatomically when we speak:Here he reveals what superhero names can tell us about stress patterns in English compounds – why, for example, we say Super man but Invisible Woman :Lindsey’s older videos are shorter and more ex…

It took a famous World War II battle, and the gradual loosening of the censorious rules known as the Motion Picture Production Code, to bring nuts, nerts, and nuts to you into semi-respectability and finally to quaintness.

), he concluded with this passage:With regard to the use of the word “nuts” in pictures, please note:(1) The word “nuts” when used to characterize a person as crazy is acceptable.

In other words, the expressions, “You’re nuts”; “He’s nuts”; or “He’s a nut” may be used.

(2) The use of the word “nuts” as an exclamation should not be used, as in the case of “Aw, nuts”, or “Nuts to you”, etc.

“Aw, nuts!” (In other versions of the story McAuliffe said simply “Nuts!”) Not knowi…

When the old swears no longer shock, what’s an advertiser to do?

Just don’t call it a b**k.“The censored oath is throughout their site and is dynamic in places, changing from the asterisk version to the full word,” Karen wrote.

Here the asterisks add letters rather than replacing them.

There are rules for inserting asterisks into swears, although they’re fluid and often ignored.

Have you seen any advertisements that transform fair words into foul by means of asterisk-substitution?

And that can mean only one thing: it’s time to award the annual Strong Language honors for excellence in swearing.

The “Fuck 2020” sentiment was also eloquently expressed in song form.

First off, “F2020” by Avenue Beat (the sweet-voiced trio of Sami Bearden, Savana Santos, and Samantha Backoff), whose message “lowkey fuck 2020” went viral on Tiktok back in June.

And for those who prefer a more glam-metal take on the concept, there’s “Fuck 2020” by Steel Panther.

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) June 22, 2020Best Fucking Swearing in MusicWhile we’ve already had a few musical entries so far, there’s no contest when it comes to the most noteworthy swearing in song for 2020.

We’re pleased AF to let you know that “History of Swear Words,” will launch on Netflix January 5, 2021.

The series—six 20-minute episodes—will consider the etymologies, false etymologies, and usage of six classic swears: fuck, shit, dick, bitch, pussy, and damn.

We’re especially pleased that one of our Strong Language co-fuckers, lexicographer Kory Stamper, was one of the consultants for the show.

The other experts include cognitive scientist and author of What the F Benjamin Bergen; linguist Anne Charity Hudley; professor of feminist studies Mireille Miller-Young; film critic Elvis Mitchell; and author of Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing Melissa Mohr.

And let’s hope for a second seas…

I was reminded of this while reading Janet Somerville’s new selection of Martha Gellhorn’s letters, Yours, for probably always (Firefly Books, 2019) and then Caroline Morehead’s Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life (Henry Holt and Company, 2003).

To my mind, Gellhorn is one of the best American writers of the twentieth century.

You might come away from the letter in question thinking that Gellhorn wouldn’t go so far as to actually say cunt or fuck.

Again, we lack a concordance of all the times Martha Gellhorn said fuck, but the published relics of her speech suggest that it happened a lot.

I suppose I can’t avoid mentioning here what I’ve resisted for the last few paragraphs, that Gellhorn wa…

Miami news anchor Frances Wang (@franceswangtv) posted a montage of Alex Trebek swearing like a salty seadog fishing herring in the Bay of Fundy.

I take a different lesson from it: nice people — even an icon of niceness like Alex Trebek — swear a lot.

It sounds wrong, I know, but I’m glad my mother died before Alex Trebek.

She’d have been disappointed in Alex Trebek, not to mention Frances Wang, and no less displeased with me, I’m sure, for posting this.

What is RIP, Alex Trebek?

Yes, 2020 has been a shitshow, but at Strong Language we still observe the niceties—or the naughtyties—of ritual and tradition.

Here are gifts that evoke the spirit of the season and the whole fucking year.

A Very Sweary Dictionary—hot off the presses from sweary editor Kia Thomas—covers the territory from abso-fucking-lutely to wankstain.

Green’s Dictionary of Slang, by our co-fucker Jonathon Green, celebrated 10 years in print this year.

Also available in “Stay the Fuck Home and Bake Something.”For the twat who fucks around with wordplayZero fox given T-shirt.

Sometimes the student’s intention is clear: “Hitler was a facetious dictator.” But I couldn’t figure out what was intended by the student who wrote:My grandmother, when she was alive, was quite the grammar ho.

The problem with this interpretation is that I can’t find any instance online of someone using ho to mean anything other than enthusiasm for sex, though there is a Pinterest board called Grammar Ho, which contains examples of “internet grammar”.

What might "grammar ho" refer to in this context?

She was a grammar ho.

My grandmother was a grammar ho (Gramajo) and my grandfather was a guava (Guevara).

According to @cinexina, the word would be merder, “definitely the best translation if the word ‘shit’ is absolutely required.

Literally shit show would be spettacolo di merda, but that’s not an idiom.

@forzaviola15 gave Viennese German: ein Schas (“literally means fart”).

Icelandic gives us skítasýning, according to @DisaBjarna (I looked it up: literally ‘shitshow’).

In Indonesian, per @irfanfq and @kalaMMaya, it would be acara sampah – which translates literally to ‘trash event’.

Nancy: Both SCHIIT and DOUCHEBAGS treat the profanity in their respective brand-name stories.

Go ape Schiit.” “And Schiit happens,” I agreed.” “If you don’t have our stuff, you’re up Schiit creek,” Lisa added.

What do you say, Anne—do Schiit and Douchebags pass the distinctiveness test?

Nancy: On the other hand, if you want to advertise Schiit or Douchebags on the public airwaves to an English-speaking audience, you’ll probably run into roadblocks.

But good luck getting NPR’s Scott Simon or “The View” ladies to talk about Schiit headphones or Douchebags backpacks.

Pull up a chair, my little dears, and I’m going to tell you a sad tale of fallen words, a story about how little dears – or should I say words for ‘little’ and for ‘dear’ – started out lovely and beloved and ended up scorned and scornful.

It also gave rise to Latin carus ‘dear’, which is the source of such words as French chéri(e) and English charity.

And it also gave rise to Proto-Slavic *kury and to Germanic *hōraz, *hōrǭ, and *hōrą.

The meaning of *kury foretells the sense of its descendants in all of the Slavic languages: ‘whore’.

This barely begins to address the thorny and twisted social attitudes towards sex work, of course – it’s just an insight into etymology and the effects of ide…

The book also features what appears to be the word’s antonym: the phrase ass up.

So what do slang experts have on unass and ass up?

GDoS also has two senses for ass up: ‘take drugs’, in US Black slang, and as part of the phrase ass up to, meaning ‘toady to, curry favour’, dating to at least 1970 per the Dictionary of American Regional English.

Wiktionary has unass ‘get out of (a vehicle or building)’, and there are some inevitable half-assed entries in Urban Dictionary.

But you can bet your arse I’ll find a way to use unass in conversation today.

On my blog about British words and expressions adopted in America, Not One-Off-Britishisms, I’ve written briefly a couple of times about “bollocks,” originally meaning testicles and since used in all sorts of colorful ways.

I imagine that the move to acceptability occurred following the 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

It’s this: American “bollix up” does not derive from “ballocks”=”testicles,” but rather from an older verb with a different etymology, “ball.” The OED‘s first definition: “Of a shoe (esp.

Also with the horse as subject.” The dictionary has citations, all but one American, dating from 1760.

The expression “balls-up,” mentioned previously, meaning a b…

Rather than see masks as an annoyance, why not regard them as an opportunity for self-expression?

(Hat tip: Jordie Welles)Here’s a highly specific sport mask for baseball fans who give zero fucks about rival pastimes.

Each of these perky designs—I’m a Ray of Fucking Sunshine, Fresh Out of Fucks, and Zero Fucks Given—will set you back $14.

used in place of an obscenity, especially in comic strips.” Logo-adorned swag includes pillows, mugs, T-shirts, notebooks, and, of course, reusable masks.

You can also buy the fabric by the yard for sewing your own masks, curtains, quilts—you name it.

Once upon a time, dear StrongLangers, we made a promise to keep you regularly updated with interesting sweary tidbits from the Wide World of Web.

It has been, we note with embarrassment, more than 30 months since we posted Sweary Links #25.

Not with 30 months of links: are you fucking kidding?

An excerpt:Scripts were sent to Ian Martin, a comedy writer from Lancashire tasked with making the swearing more creative.

pic.twitter.com/Yh3gB7B4A4 — Jesse Sheidlower (@jessesheidlower) May 12, 2020*[Dont forget to say “tennis.” Don’t forget to say “tennis.” Don’t forget to say “tennis”…] pic.twitter.com/X3Ia2CRqkA — David Hobby (@strobist) May 17, 2020*Question posed:Question answered:*How should w…

Right, Wrong, and RelativeA while ago at work, I ran into a common problem: trying to decide whether to stop editing out a usage I don’t like.

But this time, I kept thinking about what makes a usage right or wrong and how we as editors decide which rules to enforce and which ones to let slide.

Even if all the copy editors in the English-speaking world were to edit it out, it will likely continue to thrive in speech and unedited text.

Some usage dictionaries have relied on corpus data to find out what actual usage is, though finding out what usage is doesn’t tell us which usage is right.

It mostly doesn’t attempt to declare what’s right and wrong.

This “were” is a subjunctive form of the verb “be,” but one that’s found only in older writing that would now be considered mannered and formal.

The passage you’re asking about is from The Magician, a Maugham novel written in 1907 and set in fin-de-siècle Paris.

In A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry W. Fowler mentions the construction only briefly, and as something to avoid.

Here are some random examples from writings of the past:“It were lost sorrow to wail one that’s lost.” (Shakespeare, King Richard III, circa 1593.)

And check out our books about the English language and more.

Q: When did people start using “woah” instead of “whoa”? Is this just a misspelling or is there more to it? A: The usual spelling now is “whoa,” but several of the ten standard dictionaries we regularly consult accept “woah” as a variant or less common version. In fact, the word has been spelled all […]

The post Whoa! first appeared on Grammarphobia.

Q: I’m curious about the deep root of the word “grid.” Could it come from an old Egyptian language?

The reason I’m asking is that I saw grid-like hieroglyphs during a visit to the Ra-Mosa tomb at Luxor.

A: The English word “grid” is a short form of “gridiron,” which was originally a medieval instrument of torture.

The words “grid” and “gridiron,” as well as “crate,” “grate,” “griddle,” and “hurdle,” may ultimately come from the Proto-Indo-European root kert- (to turn, entwine), according to The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

Finally, the expression “off the grid” (not connected to an electrical grid or other utilities) showed up in the late 20th century, initially in t…

Q: Where does “welsh on a bet” come from?

A friend of mine says distrust of the Welsh by the English, but I’m skeptical.

A: The use of “welsh,” meaning to renege on a bet, is of uncertain origin, but it may indeed have originated as a slur against the Welsh, the people of Wales.

Four of the ten standard dictionaries we regularly consult consider the term offensive to one degree or another.

Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation.

When “mask up” was featured last summer as a “Word of the Day” on Macmillan’s blog, this explanation was given:“The phrasal verb mask up is formed from the verb ‘mask’ and the adverb ‘up.’ ” The blog continued: “Although mask up isn’t new, you may have seen it around quite a bit recently.

In English, the verb “mask” was derived from the noun, both of which first appeared in English in the early 1500s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Today the noun “mask” means a face covering, and that’s what it principally meant when it came into English in the early 1500s.

The OED, an etymological dictionary based on historical evidence, hasn’t yet caught up to the verb “mask” as found today—t…

It is the only way to give to a language copiousness and euphony.”And Jefferson wasn’t the only wordsmith in chief.

We can thank US presidents for coining or popularizing many of our most common words and phrases.

“commitment”: “If Mr Gouv’r Morris was employed in this business, it would be a commitment for his employment as Minister” (diary, Oct. 8, 1789).

for 500 Bushels of Wheat” (diary, Sept. 15, 1784).

Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation.

Would the singular possessive of maître d’ be maître d’s or maître d’’s?

And if there are several maître d’s, would the plural possessive be maître d’s’ or maybe maîtres d’s?

Singular: “maitre d’ ” … “maitre d’hotel”Plural: “maitre d’s” … “maitres d’hotel”Those are the recommended singulars and plurals given in all 10 of the standard American and British dictionaries we usually consult.

The Chicago Manual (section 7.24), gives the example “my daughter-in-law’s address.”Finally, these are the possessive forms we recommend for the plurals, and our reasons why:Plural possessive: “maitre d’s” … “maitres d’hotel’s”In the shorter noun, we see no reason to add another apostrophe to the plural (“ma…

In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen uses “repulsive” to mean off-putting while it’s now a real nose-wrinkler: “She had not spirits to notice her in more than a few repulsive looks.” Is this an isolated case?

A: Interestingly, “repulsive” had a positive medical sense when it first showed up in the early 15th century.

The term was borrowed into Middle English from two adjectives meaning able to repel: repulsif (Middle French) and repulsivus (medieval Latin).

The usual modern sense of the adjective “repulsive,” which the OED defines as “arousing intense distaste; disgusting, loathsome,” appeared in the early 1790s—two decades before Austen began publishing her novels.

Here are a few other ways in w…

Essentially, for a few hundred years “the which” competed with “which” as a relative pronoun and a relative adjective.

Some modern examples: “His firing was announced Thursday, which we all expected” (relative pronoun) … “His firing was announced Thursday, by which time he’d already left” (relative adjective).

Here the relative pronoun “the which” refers to the preceding sentence—that love is unreliable, prone to error, and so on.

At the time, “the which” was written a variety of ways: “Þe quilk,” þe whilk,” “Þe whiche,” etc.

And here’s the first citation for the relative adjective: “þe first law was cald ‘of kinde,’ þat es to say, kindly to do all þat him was bidden to.

The State Historical Society regards it as “a lost utopia.”]The Story of BuxtonBy Beverly ShifferBuxton officially is a ghost town.

In 1906, the Regal Coal Company, the Ackens Coal Company, and Mines #10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 of the Consolidation Coal Company were all located near the town of Buxton.

The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad alone used all of the coal hoisted from the mines of the Consolidation Coal Company to run its operation.

building was the Monroe Mercantile Store, which was owned by the coal company.

Among these were several appearances at the Iowa State Fair.

Q: Did floor-standers attending Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe refer to themselves as “plebes”?

A: We’ve seen no evidence that standees at the Globe were referred to as “plebes,” either by themselves or others.

And as far as we know, Shakespeare never used the word “plebes” in his plays or sonnets.

Shakespeare did use the shorter term “plebs” once in Titus Andronicus, a play set in the latter days of the Roman Empire.

Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation.

A: The “Collins” in that sentence is a thank-you note, an older British usage inspired by Jane Austen’s obsequious clergyman William Collins.

As he’s leaving, he pompously conveys his gratitude to his hosts and says he’ll soon be sending formal thanks in a letter.

William Collins’ letters have become proverbial.

‘A Collins,’ said Mr. Wilkins, who knew what was necessary in literature.

‘I prefer the name Collins for such a letter to either that of Board and Lodging or Bread and Butter.

Q: I read your write-up on the negative sense of “precipitous” with interest, since I’ve been wondering if “impending” has a similar negative meaning.

A: “Impending” isn’t quite as negative as “precipitous,” but it’s often used negatively, as in “impending doom.” Two of the ten standard dictionaries we regularly consult say “impending” is usually negative, and the other eight usually illustrate the use of the adjective with negative examples.

Both Longman and Macmillan say “impending” describes “an event or situation, especially an unpleasant one,” that will happen soon.

A third dictionary, Lexico, says it describes a forthcoming “event regarded as threatening or significant.”Merriam-Webste…

A: Both spellings, “ketchup” and “catsup,” have been around for hundreds of years, but “ketchup” is king.

Neither spelling can be considered more “correct,” however, since both originated as attempts to transliterate a Chinese word into the English alphabet.

The “k” spelling was first on the scene, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

It was first recorded in the 1680s and was originally written as “ketchup,” just as it is today.

Various “c” versions began appearing in the late 1690s, and the spelling “catsup” came along in the mid-1700s.

[…]Formed in 1963, when its members were still teenagers, the Wailers were among the biggest stars of ska, the upbeat Jamaican style that borrowed from American R&B.

And I think the first time I saw them was in Boston in 1967.

My roommate was an early fan of Donovan, and got us tickets to a show on his U.S. tour.

The opening act was described on the tickets and on the marquee as "The Whalers".

But who else would it have been?

« previous post |Ivano Caponigro has created a page memorializing Richard Montague on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

Over the last nine years, I have worked on an intellectual and personal biography of Richard Montague.

The tentative title is Richard Montague: The simplicity of language, the complexity of life.

It was back then that I first asked myself and others the question “Who was Richard Montague?” and failed to find anything close to a satisfactory answer.

(D. Kalish & R. Montague, Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning, 1964)Just a few years later, Montague had completely changed his view:There is philosophic interest in attempting to analyze ordinary English.

In the modern version of the originating language, the new meaning usually displaces the old meaning.

An alternative etymology would have Hindi gāṛī गाड़ी ("cart; wagon; car; truck; bus; carriage; train; rail car") arising from within Indic: from Sauraseni Prakrit (gaḍḍa), (gaḍḍī), from Ashokan Prakrit *- (*gāḍḍa-).

A further interesting twist on the etymological fortunes of Hindi gāṛī is that the present-day word for bicycle in Kuwaiti dialect is garī, which clearly resembles the Hindi word for "cart; wagon".

*Further notes on English "gharry"Hindi गाड़ी gāṛi: a wheeled cart, carriage; a car, truck, bus.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed.

« previous post |I came upon this curious word by chance in the following article:"Know your English — What is the meaning of ‘ultracrepidarian’?

An ultracrepidarian is someone who is in the habit of giving advice on matters he himself knows nothing about — like a politician!

*My ultracrepidarian uncle will be spending two weeks with us.

The English essayist William Hazlitt is the first to have used in print a disparaging adjective "Ultra-Crepidarian", as he wrote a ferocious letter to William Gifford, the editor of The Quarterly Review: "You have been well called an Ultra-Crepidarian critic".

The super- in the Latin word supercilium means "above," and cilium was the Latin word for "eyelid."

« previous post |In case you missed it — Radio Garden:Radio Garden invites you to tune into thousands of live radio stations across the globe.

By bringing distant voices close, radio connects people and places.

Radio makers and listeners have imagined both connecting with distant cultures, as well as re-connecting with people from ‘home’ from thousands of miles away.

Radio Garden is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Our dedicated team is hard at work tending to the garden on a daily basis.

And perhaps because Koreans agree that “Morning Calm” sounds mystical and romantic, it’s been picked up lately—often for commercial purposes—in South Korea, too.

‘Morning Calm’ is a mistranslation of an ancient name for Korea, a name known only from ancient Chinese records.

Besides, the two characters they used can't mean ‘Morning Calm’ anyway!

AfterwordThe whole business is just another instance of how the old mythology about Chinese characters invariably leads people down the garden path!

Even so, no matter how bogus it may be, Koreans obsess over that 'morning calm' nonsense.

« previous post |NEW: President Biden calls Texas and Mississippi decisions to end mask mandates “a big mistake" and criticizes what he views as “Neanderthal thinking” after CDC warned against complacency in the face of emerging coronavirus variants on Monday.

Forget it.’ It still matters.”Using Neanderthal to mean something like "unsophisticated", "primitive", "stupid" is … well, I won't call it "Neanderthal", but it's ignorant and out of date.

People have recently been using #DeepNostalgia to animate faces reconstructed from Neanderthal skulls:Done the same lol, and this woman, but I can't find where this reconstruction comes from ???

In fact, it's not really clear to me why we should cal…

Plowy McPlowFace won the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s inaugural “Name a Snowplow” contest with 65,292 votes.

The next-closest vote-getter was Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya, which garnered 29,457 votes.

Plowy McPlowFace will soon be plowing streets in the Metro District; Ope, Just Gonna Plow Right Past Ya will make its home in District 4 in west-central Minnesota.

In contrast, Britain's Natural Environment Research Council decided to reject the popular vote for "Boaty McBoatface" as a name for its new polar research vessel, choosing instead RRS Sir David Attenborough.

There was some LLOG discussion of the general Xy McXface construction and its relatives at the time.

As Juha added in a note, "The English translation offered by the museum is, of course, curious."

Born in Baoping Village, Zigui County (in current Hubei Province) in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–8 AD), she was sent by Emperor Yuan [VHM: r. 48-33 BC] to marry Chanyu* Huhanye of the Xiongnu Empire in order to establish friendly relations with the Han dynasty through marriage.

In the most prevalent version of the "Four Beauties" legend, it is said that Wang Zhaojun left her hometown on horseback on a bright autumn morning and began a journey northward.

(source)*People (Chinese and others) pronounce 單于 both as shanyu and as chanyu, but most critical Western scholars pronounce it as chányú.

(…

« previous post |John Atkinsons' Wrong Hands 10/2/2020:They could also offer a calming link to "Does it matter if it dangles?"

(11/20/2010), or some of Geoff Pullum's other classic discussions of the problem.

I've somehow managed to miss John Atkinsons' site until now — if it's also new to you, you're in for some fun.

One of my other favorites:And the most recent one:The process of blending titles or idioms is a common source of amusement — does it have a name?

I don't think I know one, but perhaps a commenter can help us.

Side note this speech is boring.

We can’t win the presidency with this boring, low energy, stream of conscience, weak, has been, choke artist.

"Stream of conscience" has been self-consciously used as the title for a podcast as well as for a thriller and a Twitch fund-raising group, among other things.

"Steam of consciousness" has been self-consciously used for a radio program, a steam-powered kinetic skull sculpture, the title of a book review in Science Magazine, and so on.

Of course there are plenty of unwitting exemplars of both phrases Out There.

The amount of air flowing and the size of the constriction together help determine whether a whistle will actually sound.

Any whistle produced by this type of geometry is referred to as a hole tone.

A tone known as Aeolian occurs when air flows past a cylinder, again for the right combination of flow velocity and cylinder diameter.

The oscillations of the air in the wake of the cylinder apply forces in alternate directions to the cylinder.

Although the Italian papers (and the YouTube posting) carry on about "polyphonic" whistling, in fact there's nothing polyphonic about the recording in question.

A fully automated approach that scored transcripts generated by automatic speech recognition produced comparable and accurate scores (R = 0.82), with very high correlation to scores derived from human transcripts (R = 0.99).

Equity — performance is highly variable on different speakers of different dialects/varieties, different ages and backgrounds, different vocal characteristics, different recoding contexts, etc.

In the first place, they compared the results with ASR transcripts to those with human transcripts, which is the right thing to do.

And for the results of rapidly-evolving automatic speech-to-text algorithms, the effects will be different for different versions of different APIs …

With more than 80 million speakers globally, Cantonese remains a vital and useful language.

In the United States alone, Census Bureau data shows that there are nearly as many self-reported Cantonese speakers (459,000) as Mandarin speakers (487,000) among those who specify a variety of Chinese.

…Stanford and Penn have traditionally had two of the strongest Cantonese programs in the country.

I'm very proud that Cantonese continues to thrive at Penn, but am puzzled why wealthy Stanford is gutting their program to save a small amount of money.

I should also note that — among other East Asian languages — Penn has had a Taiwanese language program that has flourished under the tutelage of Grace Wu…

« previous post |At our most recent Penn Phonetic Lab meeting, we heard a (virtual) talk by Marc Garellek on the topic "Reconsidering voicing during glottal sounds".

For example, the phrase "articulate Tory" occurred four times during the 60 seconds or so of transcript I saved, and these were not references to Yorick Wilks.

Rather, Marc's subject naturally involved the word articulatory, and each time he used that word, Zoom transcribed it as "articulate Tory".

So when he said (what I believe was)For many languages, we really need to only assume two articulatory gestures here, aspiration and glottalization.

… Zoom transcribed:For many languages, we really need to only assume to articulate T…

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​ https://preview.redd.it/wacmnaczepl61.png?width=1412&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d10a75c17c113f3f8b55431070f9669f8b5d1f0 submitted by /u/that_orange_hat [link] [comments]

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I have never been a fan of this verb. It is awkward to spell, and it sounds even dumber when you actually say it. I wanna suggest making a small adjustment and to convey the meaning of "putting a desired outcome at risk" use the verb "leopardize" instead. It is barely two letters away in the alphabet, has essentially the same morphology and if you think about it, introducing a leopard into any situation rarely adds to the stability and predictability of said situation. Example: "Mike really leopardized the merger when he talked about those sales figures." An added extra seems to be the fact that when you type the word "leopardize", Reddit offers this neat little emoticon: 🐆 submitted by /u/…

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Transcript Lingthusiasm Episode 53: Listen to the imperatives episode!

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 53: Listen to the imperatives episode!

That’s “comm” with two Ms.Lauren: Our most recent Patreon bonus episode was an Ask Us Anything episode in celebration of our 100th overall episode.

Grow!” That’s one of the things that’s really interesting about a part in Ella Enchanted.

It’s useful to have language that’s accessible to tell them how to not do that.

Lingthusiasm Episode 53: Listen to the imperatives episode!

In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about the range of things that imperatives do in various languages.

It’s on April 24, 2021 and you can get access to it by becoming a patron of Lingthusiasm at any level.

This month’s bonus episode is a Q&A with us, your hosts!

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

Gretchen: There was a special reason why it was schwa that was so easily lost at the end of all of these words like “fine” and “home” and “hide.” That’s because schwa is what’s known as a “reduced vowel.” It’s physically produced for a shorter amount of time than a full vowel like /ɑɪ/ or /i/ or even /ɪ/.

Lauren: It’s what allows us to just sneak it in really quickly in syllables that we’re not really focusing on.

Gretchen: If we produce some syllables faster or quieter than other ones, those faster or quieter symbols tend to also have schwas.

Lauren: This is why schwa crops up in all of these words regardless of what vowel they’re spelt with.

I’m pretty sure Lauren who really struggled to …

Bonus 48: Q&A about naming dogs, modifying English, linguistics research, and moreWhat do you think is the best food to name a dog after?

If you had to remove a phoneme from English, which do you think would have the most interesting results?

If you haven’t joined the Discord yet, here are instructions for linking your Patreon and Discord accounts.

52 main episodes + 48 bonus episodes = 100 Lingthusiasm episodes total.

Listen to the Lingthusiasm AMA episode and get access to 47 more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.

Transcript Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a technologyThis is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a technology.

You can see this in the writing system because the writing system represents consonants and vowels separately.

Lauren: The Devanagari writing system is inherently focused on the syllable, which is a very different approach to reading.

But people do tend, across the evolution of sound-based writing systems, to have /u/ that has a more rounded, bigger sound has properties in the writing system that re-occur.

It is still interesting looking at some of the signed language writing systems.

Lingthusiasm Episode 52: Writing is a technologyThere’s no known human society without language, whether spoken or signed or both, but writing is a different story.

If you’re wondering why this is only episode 52, that’s because the other half of them exist as bonus episodes on Patreon.

This month’s bonus episode is outtake stories from Lingthusiasm interviews!

We’ve interviewed lots of great linguists on Lingthusiasm, and sometimes there’s a story or two that we just don’t have space for in the main episode, so here’s a bonus episode with our favourite outtakes!

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

And I’ll give you two examples sentences to think about, and then we’ll talk through them, Lizzie Bennet-themed.

So: “Lizzie thinks that Darcy’s brother is delightful” versus “Lizzie said that Darcy’s brother is delightful.”Gretchen: So I think to the first one I have to go, “Hey, wait a minute!

But if Lizzie thinks that Darcy’s brother is delightful –Gretchen: Maybe she just thinks Bingley’s actually his brother, or something.

Gretchen: Yeah, ‘cause I think if I say, “Lizzie knows that Darcy’s brother is delightful,” that implies that I, the speaker who’s saying the sentence –Lauren: Yeah.

Gretchen: And then I was like, “Wait, wait, this is what you’re trying to do.”Lauren: This is the poi…

Bonus 47: Deleted scenes - outtake stories from Lingthusiasm interviewsWe’ve interviewed lots of great linguists on Lingthusiasm, and sometimes there’s a story or two that we just don’t have space for in the main episode, so here’s a bonus episode with our favourite outtakes!

Think of it as a special bonus edition DVD of the past few years of Lingthusiasm with director’s commentary and deleted scenes.

Featuring: Suzy Styles on Space Babies and where the names kiki and bouba came from, Ake Nicholas on the Hawaiian language version of Moana, Kirby Conrod on how people use systems of grammatical gender, and Shivonne Gates on reading Homegirls by Norma Mendoza Denton – plus Lauren and Gretchen …

Gretchen: Oh, it’s a good story, any story with a cat is a good story.

Gretchen: But if I say, “I was walking home last night and I saw the cat…”Lauren: Oh my god, your cat got out and then you saw it!

Gretchen: So maybe that’s my cat, but maybe that’s just, like, The Cat of Doom.

Gretchen: Or, like, “I was walking last night and I saw that cat.”Lauren: Aw, has it been scratching up all of your plants again?

Gretchen: And I don’t even think I want them all to sit in my lap, because I think I’d be crushed.

Transcript Lingthusiasm Episode 51: Small talk, big dealThis is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 51: Small talk, big deal.

So, I feel like I’ve entered a different world when I manage to have small talk about sport.

Lauren: I always find it interesting how small groups of people have their own expectations about what topics of small talk are appropriate.

But it was really relieving when I started reading some anthropological literature on small talk in Western countries and small talk and genre appropriateness in Nepal and just like, “Ah, this has a name.

Lauren: A small talk experience can just be that moment of small talk, and you have a nice chance to interact with each other.

Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic with Emily about the process of making dictionaries, based on your patron questions.

Get all your lexicography questions answers, as well as access to 45 other bonus episodes by becoming a Patron!

Become a Patron and get access to the Crash Course channel in the Lingthusiasm Discord to chat about each episode!

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne.

Someone has made a delightful sporcle quiz of Lingthusiasm episode titles!

Can you do better than the Lingthusiasm team, who got 87%, 76%, and 36%?

(We won’t say who was which!)

AboutA podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne.

A lively, deep, language-y conversation with real linguists!

"Joyously nerdy" –Buzzfeed.

New episodes (free!)

the third Thursday of the month.

Bonus 46: Q&A with lexicographer Emily Brewster of Merriam-WebsterHow do lexicographers make the decision to add new words or meanings to their dictionaries?

In this bonus episode of Lingthusiasm, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about the process of making dictionaries, posing your patron questions to lexicographer Emily Brewster of Merriam-Webster.

This is our first bonus episode where we’ve done a Q&A from patrons with a guest – let us know what you think!

We also have a Crash Course channel in the Lingthusiasm Discord to chat about each episode!

Listen to the lexicography bonus episode and get access to 45 more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.

Hear her podcast Mija on the pod apps and via ochentastudio.com/mija-podcast, in English, Spanish, French, Mandarin and, soon, Arabic.

Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and hear more of his composition on the new science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.

If you'd like to sponsor the Allusionist this year, contact Amanda McLoughlin via multitude.productions/contact.

Go to Brooklinen.com and use promo code allusionist to get $25 off when you spend $100 or more, PLUS free shipping.

Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist.

St Valentine's name may nowadays be all over the romance-related merch for 14 February, but he was also the patron saint of beekeepers, epilepsy and plagues.

All the information in this episode is real, even though it sounds like it's not.

FURTHER INFORMATION:More listening matter related to this: WLTM parts 1 and 2 about dating profiles; and the Sanctuary episode is saints-related.

Also, some of my finest work is reading Monday Pounds Me In The Butt on Chuck Tingle’s podcast.

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:rhyton

Read Laura Beaudin ’s MA thesis about fauxpologies at fauxpolo.gy , there’s so much interesting detail in it.

Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and hear more of his composition on the new science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.

If you'd like to sponsor the Allusionist this year, email info (at) multitude (dot) productions.

This episode is sponsored by:• Skillshare, the online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people.

Go to Brooklinen.com and use promo code allusionist to get $25 off when you spend $100 or more, PLUS free shipping.

- HZThis month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• BetterHelp online licensed professional counselling.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

Go to squarespace.com/allusion for a free trial, and use the code ALLUSION to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Allusionist listeners get a 30-day free trial at acorn.tv if you use the code allusionist.

Jim Glaub and Dylan Parker didn’t think too much of it when, every year, a few letters for Santa were delivered to their New York apartment addressed to Santa.

But then one year, 400 letters arrived.

And they decided they had to answer them.

Hear them on Spotify, where there’ll soon also be an Allusionist one about the future of language.

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• BetterHelp online licensed professional counselling.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

Allusionist listeners get a 30-day free trial at acorn.tv if you use the code allusionist.

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• BetterHelp online licensed professional counselling.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

Go to squarespace.com/allusion for a free trial, and use the code ALLUSION to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Allusionist listeners get a 30-day free trial at acorn.tv if you use the code allusionist.

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• BetterHelp online licensed professional counselling.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

Go to squarespace.com/allusion for a free trial, and use the code ALLUSION to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Allusionist listeners get a 30-day free trial at acorn.tv if you use the code allusionist.

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• BetterHelp online licensed professional counselling.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

For 10% off your first air purifier order, visit molekule.com and at checkout enter the code allusionist10.

Go to squarespace.com/allusion for a free trial, and use the code ALLUSION to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

The Allusionist is the best work I’ve ever done.

Here is my Twitter statement from when I found out about it all, and another a few days later in support of the PRX staff.

Bear in mind that I don’t work at PRX and therefore have limited insight into what has happened and is happening there.

I have, however, been part of Radiotopia, a network with a mostly white line-up.

The relevant part for you is if you have donated to Radiotopia to support this show, your largesse will no longer reach me.

CREDITS:Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZThis month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• BetterHelp online licensed professional counselling.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

For 10% off your first air purifier order, visit molekule.com and at checkout enter the code allusionist10.

Go to squarespace.com/allusion for a free trial, and use the code ALLUSION to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

The word for ‘ghostwriter’ in French is a racist slur. How did THAT come about? And what word could French-speakers say instead?

So maybe I can dismiss these signs of respect because I haven't had to demand respect as a human being.

Oh, that's sweeet; but I'm going to name it after the town in England where my nanny's from, because I'm homesick.

And I still hear a lot of people who cannot remember what you're supposed to call a male flight attendant.

And I've been trying to see if there any particular patterns in the ways that gendered language is gender things.

Could it be that I only don't like it when there's the implication of some kind of social change attached?

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

Allusionist listeners get 10% off the original base game Catan at catanshop.com/allusionist by using the promo code ALLUSIONIST at checkout.

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Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and hear more of his composition on the new science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.

Allusionist listeners get 10% off the original base game Catan at catanshop.com/allusionist by using the promo code ALLUSIONIST at checkout.

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Go to squarespace.com/allusion for a free trial, and use the code ALLUSION to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

The Allusionist is part of the podcast collective Radiotopia from PRX.

You can now listen to all Talk the Talk episodes by copying and pasting this URL into your pod listener thing.

http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xml

Although I only need naming languages at this stage, I wanted to keep things open to expand these languages in the future.

I also really want to establish language families that I can branch off of when I need to.

I used to wonder how many sound changes I should give for a particular period of time, but frankly, I’ve found the best answer is just whatever I feel like.

From that, I generate three thousand roots in Lexifer, William Annis’s word generator, then I start working on sound changes.

When I work on the sound changes, I have some ideas about where I want to end up, but not anything super firm.

An alternative that a lot of people bring up is simply using real world languages to represent languages in your world.

I’d say there is one exception where using a real world language works, and it is when the actual real world culture has a connection to your fictional creatures.

In order to make a good conlang, you really need to ask yourself a lot of questions about the world?

So here comes the big question: Once you’ve decided you need a conlang, how are you going to get one?

Rolling up a conlang can take months, and rolling up a good conlang requires time, skill, and motivation.

George uses some research into the etymology of coronavirus to launch into a way to build a story around the etymology of a word.

In the last episode of Conlangery, I repeated a commonly stated etymology of coronavirus, stating that it was named for its “crown-like spikes”.

I noticed their etymology didn’t match the one that I had heard on the news and repeated on the show.

When coming up with words, I often actually do a little research on the actual object I’m naming.

Did the speakers know about this concept thousands of years ago, or is it something they just recently encountered?

George and Joey Windsor use the various names of COVID-19 as a jumping off point to talk about naming diseases.

Note that this episode was recorded in May, and quite a lot has changed in the intervening time.

Top of Show Greeting: ChátsuSpecial mentions (from top of show note): A list of BLM charities, When We Stay In, Corley English (YouTube, Bilibili, website)LInks and Resources:

Новогодние праздники пройдут отлично https://youtu.be/XByiHpUvrj0

Через пару часов начнется виртуальный бранч Политехнического музея. Отличная возможность не только послушать известных ученых, но и задать им вопросы. Вас ждут:▫️Лингвист Борис Иомдин — расскажет, что слова, обозначающие «ночь» в разных культурах, говорят о происхождении языков.▫️Физик Валериан Юров — обсудит, почему наблюдаемая Вселенная такая темная и какой она была раньше.▫️Врач и научный журналист Анна Хоружая — ответит на вопросы о сне.Начало в 14:00. Не забудьте зарегистрироваться: polytech.timepad.ru/event/1505923/

Про любимые лингвистические блоги и комиксы я уже писала, теперь настало время аудиоразвлечений. Набор ограничен знанием только трех с половиной языков, но если вы знаете классные подкасты про любые языки, то пишите в личных сообщениях! Поехали:1. В подкасте Розенталь и Гильденстерн ведущие обсуждают проблемы школьных правил по русскому языку, придумывают леденящие душу тесты на сдвоенную «н» и рассказывают, что именно говорить людям, которые считают, что слово «демократия» произошло от «демонов».2. Понаехали и остались — подкаст про иностранцев, которые решили остаться в России и выучить язык. Кроме удивительных историй можно насладиться разнообразием акцентов, которые нечасто услышишь даж…

Российские прокатчики продолжают добивать хорошие фильмы

🔢 Вдогонку к статье о римских цифрах.В 1768 году в Риме вышла небольшая, но очень красивая книга, что-то вроде справочника по каллиграфии. Книга маленькая, всего 20 страниц, зато название ого-го:The Writing Pen: a new book containing several alphabets and various moral judgements as well as descriptive formulae, bills of exchange, maritime policies, waybills, and other trade writings in the current style, with a final table of Roman numeralsВ ней собраны образцы написания того, что имело значение в то время. Вот как это выглядело.Нас интересует последняя страница, на ней приведены римские цифры. Посмотрите, какие увлекательные штуки происходят с ними, начиная с тысячи (M).Использование надс…

Урок 5. ВремяУ нас три времени: прошлое, настоящее, будущее. Прошлое тревожит, настоящее пугает, будущее ужасает.Диалог 5. Родные– Где ты был?– Нигде.– Как себя чувствуешь?– Нормально.– Кашу будешь?– Можно.Упражнение 5. СкукаОдолевая скуку, опишите, как провели день. Просклоняйте по временам. Например: с утра сидел, тупил в экран, с утра сижу, туплю в экран, так до вечера и просижу.Урок 6. ПадежЗвательный падеж отменили: некого звать. Осталось шесть: именительный, родительный, дательный, винительный, творительный, предложный. Чтобы запомнить, возьмите слова на те же буквы: Иисуса распяли, дали вина, толпа пьяна.Диалог 6. Преступники– Ты доиграешься, посадят.– Кого?– Ты зачем это сделал?– Чт…

Грустный русский для начинающих, Евгений БабушкинУрок 1. ЗвукиГлавная наша буква – Ы. Звук у неё – будто ударили спящего. Уведите язык в гортань, растяните губы, очистите сердце, чтобы просто пусто бегало по кругу. Попробуйте: ы-ы-ы.Диалог 1. Мытари– Как вы, мытари?– Вырвали зубы, промыли раны, смотрим больные сны.– Молодцы!Упражнение 1. ПечальПовторяйте с печалью:быть ныть быть нытьбыть ныть быть нытьУрок 2. УдарениеСначала нас бьют родители, потом мы детей, потом нас дети. Для облегчения души мы бьём слова. Все они у нас в следах от ударов.Диалог 2. Мстители– На, тварь.– Получай, сука.– Ты просто вымещаешь на мне все эти штуки из детства.– Да.Упражнение 2. СтыдС лёгким стыдом откройте сло…

Через полчаса буду вещать на радио "Маяк" о планетах, звездах и их названиях. Совершенно не понимаю, выживу ли без кнопки "отредактировать" и за что вам это всё.

Вспоминается чья-то шутка «я вижу в зеркале красивую девушку, а общество видит во мне преподавателя». Или не шутка.

Открытка @bookninja — эмодзи для романов. Присутствуют двойники, дорогой читатель, розовеперстая (Эос?) и ворон. Потому что нельзя англоязычной литературе без ворона.

Как связаны Иисус, фокус-покус и айфоны, откуда Нолан взял ключевое слово «Довода» и как сочинить действенное заклинание? Лингвист Оксана Калмыкова — о логике магических языков от древних манускриптов до современного фэнтези. https://knife.media/language-of-magic/

Как связаны Иисус, фокус-покус и айфоны, откуда Нолан взял ключевое слово «Довода» и как сочинить действенное заклинание? Лингвист Оксана Калмыкова — о логике магических языков от древних манускриптов до современного фэнтези.https://knife.media/language-of-magic/

В комментариях справедливо уточнили, что речь не о шотландском гэльском, а о германском варианте (scots), который больше похож на английский, но явно не до степени смешения.

В комментариях справедливо уточнили, что речь не о шотландском гэльском, а о германском варианте (scots), который больше похож на английский, но явно не до степени смешения.

Пользователь Реддита выяснил, что почти все статьи Википедии, написанные на шотландском — языковая бессмыслица. Один и тот же человек на протяжении многих лет «переводил» английские статьи на шотландский, пользуясь единственным онлайн-словарем. Если слово не находилось, то его просто оставляли на английском. Самое веселое, что редактировал все это американец, в принципе не владеющий языком. В результате, шотландская Википедия выглядит так, как если бы Дэвид Теннант читал вслух ее английскую версию.

из инстаграма https://instagram.com/grkhv с канала @uvazhayu

https://mobile.twitter.com/max_1976/status/1367907305333866498

Под напором @ain92ru признаю, что «вот это вот все» было популярным разговорным выражением и до Светы:https://ljsear.ch/search?q=%22%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%82+%D1%8D%D1%82%D0%BE+%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%82+%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%B5%22&dateTo=1064865600&in_comments=1

Не поверила, загуглила и заодно выяснила, что выражение «это вам не жук лапкой потрогал» популяризировал музыкальный журналист Александр Горбачев в рецензии на альбом Сплина!twitter.com/cannibal_dynamo/status/1367449683652612103

Что я определенно поддерживаю в споре о феминитивах, так это аргумент о видимости женщин в профессии — чтобы никто потом не удивлялся, что Бонк на обложке учебника английского — это, оказывается, Наталья Александровна (правда, при этом не понимаю необходимости слова "авторка" рядом с однозначно женским именем и фотографией, но это ладно).К чему это я! Моя хорошая знакомая Лена, которая пишет книжные рецензии в @prochitalanapisala и рассказывает об искусстве в @art_stories, — теперь еще и куратор. Она организовала выставку «Невидимые женщины», для которой современные художницысоздали объекты, посвященные деятельницам искусства из прошлого. Там же можно будет послушать лекции об амазонках рус…

Мнемонические картинки, которые делают иностранцы, чтобы запомнить русские словаhttps://mobile.twitter.com/Cooleach/status/1359529670203625475

Пьяные танцы айтишников — алкоритмы.

https://mobile.twitter.com/neresident/status/1363440858209660929

Почти не встретила знакомых слов! https://arzamas.academy/materials/2227

https://mobile.twitter.com/Semenov/status/1362776744583921665

(на самом деле, конечно, есть) https://mobile.twitter.com/veritas_z/status/1362460858861912064

https://mobile.twitter.com/nvm_lj/status/1362712605928927236

от @notSimon

https://mobile.twitter.com/steppentiger/status/1362308341645606912

КОНСТРУКТИВНАЯ СЛОЖНОСТЬ ПРАВДЫОткроем словарь синонимов:«лгать» — «врать», «привирать», «сочинять», «заливать», «плести», «травить», «брехать» и др., а также эквивалентные слову фразеологизмы «отливать пули», «разводить турусы на колесах» и др.Откроем словарь антонимов.Здесь мы не найдем ни слова «лгать», ни слова «врать», потому что у них нет ни однословных антонимов, ни антонимичных фразеологизмов.‘Лгать’ и ‘не лгать’ не образуют в языке симметрии. Для обозначения вранья мы имеем множество легко приходящих на память глаголов, а для обозначения противоположного по смыслу действия приходится каждый раз конструировать сочетания «говорить правду», «изречь истину» и проч.«Правду говорить легк…

ПО ЗАМЫШЛЕНИЮ ПРЕДКОВВ «Слове о полку Игореве» рассказ начинается «по былинам сего времени, а не по замышлению Бояню», где «Бояню» — притяжательное прилагательное (то есть «замышлению Боянову»). Сейчас бы мы сказали: «по замышлению Бояна».Выражение значения принадлежности (в широком смысле) при помощи родительного падежа в прошлом было распространено слабее, чем сейчас, а употребление притяжательных прилагательных для выражения того же смысла, напротив, было более частотным. «О полку Игореве» сейчас выглядело бы как «о походе Игоря».При этом возможно было совмещение двух способов выражения принадлежности в отношении одного лица при одном определяемом. Так, «Русская правда» в древнейшем спис…

ОШИБКА ШЕРЛОКА ХОЛМСАВ рассказе «Тайна Боскомской долины» Шерлок Холмс расследует загадочное убийство некоего Чарльза Маккарти. Полиция подозревает сына покойного, Джеймса Маккарти; Шерлок Холмс считает, что убийца — его сосед Джон Тэрнер. И то и другое, конечно, чушь. Сегодня мы неопровержимо докажем вам, кто совершил преступление на самом деле.Перечислим основные свидетельства и улики. Перед своей смертью Чарльз Маккарти крепко поругался с сыном, так как тот отказывался делать предложение дочери Джона Тэрнера Алисе. Чарльз Маккарти настаивал на этом браке, чтобы породниться с богатым семейством, Джеймс Маккарти тоже хотел его, хоть и по другой причине — по причине своей любви к Алисе. Про…

ОВЕС В НАШИХ РУКАХВремя делает причудливые штуки — не только с нами, но и со словами. Возьмем хоть следующий отрывок из хрестоматийного произведения: «Вот уже и мостовая кончилась, и шлагбаум, и город назади, и ничего нет, и опять в дороге. И опять по обеим сторонам столбового пути пошли вновь писать версты, станционные смотрители, колодцы, обозы, серые деревни с самоварами, бабами и бойким бородатым хозяином, бегущим из постоялого двора с овсом в руке, пешеход в протертых лаптях, плетущийся за 800 верст, городишки, выстроенные живьем, с деревянными лавчонками, мучными бочками, лаптями, калачами и прочей мелюзгой, рябые шлагбаумы, чинимые мосты, поля неоглядные, и по ту сторону, и по другую…

БАКЕНБАРДЫ НА ЕЕ ТЕЛЕМы попросили школьников составить короткие предложения со словом «бакенбарда». Вот некоторые симпатичные варианты.У мужчины были длинные бакенбарды.Его бакенбарды создавали образ взрослого человека.У Пушкина была выраженная бакенбарда.Мужчинам очень идут бакенбарды средней длинны. Его бакенбарды отрастали быстрее всех.В гостиницу вошел человек с шикарными бакенбардами.У него выросла бакенбарда.А бакенбарды у щек были ярко-рыжего цвета.Бакенбарды болели. У моей подруги появились бакенбарды на лице от счастья. После того как прошел дождь, бакенбарды как будто стали выше и дышать стало легче.После бритья остается бакенбарда.У мужчины были отращены длинные бакенбарды.Мне не…

ЧТО ЛИНГВИСТ НАХОДИТ В ПАПКЕ «СПАМ»Добрый день!У меня для вас плохие новости.05.10.2020 — в этот день я взломал вашу операционную систему и получил полный доступ к вашей учетной записи.Когда вы выходили в интернет, мой троян был установлен на ваше устройство.После этого я сделал полную копию вашего диска (у меня есть вся ваша адресная книга, история просмотра сайтов, все файлы, номера телефонов и адреса всех ваших контактов).Я посмотрел сайты, которые вы регулярно посещаете, и был шокирован увиденным!!!Я понял, что вы регулярно посещаете сайт с текстом Велесовой книги, и, используя камеру вашего устройства, сделал скриншоты, где видно ваше сладострастное лицо, когда вы ее читаете.Я взломал …

ЧТО СЛОЖНЕЕ?Математик и лингвист Владимир Андреевич Успенский писал: «То, что вещи подразделяются не только на большие и маленькие, но ещё и на простые и сложные, было и есть ясно всем. Колмогоров был первым, кто предложил мерить сложность вещи числом и указал способ такого измерения: сложность вещи есть длина наиболее короткого её описания. Как и все гениальные формулировки, эта формулировка кажется очевидной — но лишь после, а никак не до её провозглашения. Разумеется, здесь требуются математические уточнения, которые мы опускаем».Собственно «колмогоровскую сложность» мы, конечно, трогать не будем, но ее популярная интерпретация В. А. Успенским побуждает нас попытаться сопоставить сложнос…

ПРЕЗИДЕНТ И ССИскали мы тут одну книгу, чтобы скачать пиратским образом. И случайная ссылка привела на некий форум со следующим диалогом:caffeine: Hey there, anyone has Dewell, Robert B. - The Semantics Of German Verb Prefixes, searched all the web couldn't find anywhere.yurikuzn: Here is the Dewell,RobertB.-TheSemanticsOfGermanVerbPrefixes.pdf, was searching for this myself for a long time, found only on this fileshare.caffeine: But it requires CC.yurikuzn: Yes, just fill it in, its trusted site.caffeine: Thanks, CC just to make sure you aren't bot.Aleria: Thanks guys, looked for this long time too.DarckWod: Oh man, that's great, thank, solid website, entered CC and just downloaded what I …

ЭТИМОЛОГИИ СКУЧНЫЕ И КРАСИВЫЕБУХОЙЭтимология скучнаяПредполагается связь слов «бухой», «буха́ть» с глаголом «бу́хать» в значении ‘колотить, стучать’, ‘ударять с силой’ с семантическим переходом ‘бить’ > ‘выпить’ (ср. «бахнуть», «жахнуть»). При этом возможно влияние изначально офенского, а затем и диалектного «бу́са́ть» ‘пить’, ‘пьянствовать’. Слово «бухой» ‘пьяный’ в таком случае трактуется как совсем молодое: лет ему сто пятьдесят от силы.Этимология красиваяПредложена Никитой Ильичом Толстым в начале 1970-х гг. Ученый обратил внимание на записанные в некоторых славянских ареалах выражения «пьян как земля», «пьян как мать»: белорус. диал. «пьяны як зямля», серб. «пиjан као земља», «пиjан као ма…

КОЛИЧЕСТВЕННО-КАЧЕСТВЕННАЯ ДВУСМЫСЛЕННОСТЬО слове «лихой» В. И. Даль пишет: «Слово двусмысленное как “благой”» — имея в виду совмещение в слове «лихой» противоположных значений. Эта двусмысленность, по-научному — энантиосемия, иногда плохо разрешаемая даже в контексте (ср. «лихие девяностые» — что это значит?), интересна прежде всего в историческом аспекте.Праславянское leiks- > liх-, продолжая индоевропейское ‘оставлять’ (рефлексы этого индоевропейского значения дошли до нас в латинских по происхождению «реликт», «реликвия»), очень рано, видимо, получило противоположные смыслы: ‘остающийся’ > ‘превышающий меру’ и ‘не достигающий меры’. (Глубоко архаичным в этом случае следует признать знач…

ИНТЕР И ИНТРАНаверняка вам в жизни не раз приходилось путать приставки «интер-» (означает расположение между структурами) и «интра-» (означает нахождение внутри, в пределах чего-либо). И лихорадочно вспоминать — в качестве мнемонической техники, — что кроме интернета есть еще какой-то не вполне понятный интранет.Почему их так сложно запомнить? Почему всегда требуется это внутреннее усилие, небольшое интеллектуальное напряжение?Нам кажется, что дело здесь (помимо, конечно, просто общего сходства) заключается в противоречии между значениями этих приставок и их кинетической инструментовкой. Приставка «интер-» оканчивается закрытым слогом и узким гласным, что символически сообщает ей идею замкн…

​​ЗАНИМАТЕЛЬНОЕ В ТЕРМИНОВЕДЕНИИВ теории графов термин «моральный граф» означает такую структуру, где все пары узлов-родителей (на схеме слева — узлы А и В), у которых есть общие узлы-дети (на схеме слева — узел С), соединены друг с другом ребрами, то есть символически обручены.А вот если вы попробуете найти в интернете термин-антоним и введете в строке поиска запрос «имморальный граф», то узнаете много интересного о маркизе де Саде.Задать вопрос @UchenyjBot

НЕ БЫЛ ДАНВ 1991 году в очерке для журнала «Огонёк» поэт Андрей Вознесенский трагически восклицал: «Неужели и языку нашему животворному суждено погибнуть, окаменеть, подобно латыни, хранящей слепок с живого некогда Рима? Гибель языка означает гибель сознания. Репрессированные "твердые знаки" и "яти" были двойниками убитых в подвалах». Подвалы, очевидно, имелись в виду лубянские. Там еще много интересного; про то, что буква i напоминала большевикам «застреленного человека с дырочкой в затылке» и проч. Рекомендуем.Поэт Вознесенский, кажется, немного увлекся, забрел не в ту степь (что вообще поэтам свойственно) и не додумал простую мысль: если от букв избавились так быстро, значит, они были си…

ГЛАВНОЕ — ВСЁ ОТРИЦАТЬИзменник. «Зачем, царь, сильных во Израиле истребил?..»Царь: «А сильных во Израиле мы не убивали, и не знаю я, кто это сильнейший во Израиле…»Изменник: «Зачем … воевод, дарованных тебе Богом для борьбы с врагами, различным казням предал?..»Царь: «Не предавали мы своих воевод различным смертям, а с Божьей помощью мы имеем у себя много воевод и помимо вас, изменников».Изменник: «Зачем святую кровь их воевод победоносную в церквах Божьих пролил, и кровью мученическою обагрил церковные пороги?..»Царь: «Крови же в церквах Божьих мы никакой не проливали. Победоносной же и святой крови в нынешнее время в нашей земле не видно, и нам о ней неведомо».Изменник: «Зачем … на доброх…

ЁРШИК ЦАХЕСПосле обескураживающих известий о том, что символом великодержавной власти в России теперь является не скипетр, но золотой ёршик для унитаза, мы подумали, как тесно переплелись в новейшей истории сюжеты двух гофмановских сказок: Klein Zaches genannt Zinnober и Der goldene Topf.В праздник Вознесения через Черные ворота в Дрездене стремительно идет молодой человек, студент по имени Ансельм. Случайно он опрокидывает огромную корзину с хворостом, которая стоит около уснувшей на обочине крестьянки Лизы. Лиза возвращалась из лесу, неся в той же корзине своего уродца сына по прозвищу крошка Цахес. У карлика отвратительная старческая мордочка, ножки-прутики и паучьи ручки.Посмотрев навер…

Забываю рассказать. Для телеграма есть языковой пакет на русском в дореформенной орфографии. Так что, если вы любите такое — пожалуйста: https://t.me/ciasteczka/35Ставится на удивление просто — переходом по ссылке. Там не всё до конца переведено — но ведь можно зайти на сайт телеграма и поучаствовать. Да и вообще, можно самим сделать перевод на любой язык, которого ещё нет в телеграме.

Группа исследователей Института Пушкина изучает, как меняются привычки современного человека, связанные с поиском и получением информации о языке, о языковых и речевых нормах, об актуальных для цифровой эпохи инструментов работы с текстом. Академический словарь или Гугл? Грамматический справочник или посты блогера с филологическим образованием?Просят пройти и распространить короткий опрос. Результатами обещают поделиться!https://form.typeform.com/to/iR6YOgGs

Пишут, что тюльпан — это на самом деле «тюрбан»: https://t.me/linguaturca/381

Новости эмодзи: Apple меняет у себя в эмодзи шприца (💉) цвет жидкости с красного на голубоватый. Потому что раньше был символ донорства крови, а теперь — вакцинации.https://blog.emojipedia.org/vaccine-emoji-comes-to-life/

А ещё что интересно в этом ролике — девушка в конце говорит (и на двери вешает надпись): 三克油 (sānkèyóu). Это никак не переводится, просто звучит как thank you по-английски.

Как вы догадываетесь, в английском языке нет слова «маркетолог». Но вдруг вам надо перевести это слово с русского на английский — что тогда делать? (увольняться поскорее)В английском есть слово marketeer. Есть ещё marketer, но это слишком просто и к тому же может означать человека, который действительно торгует на базаре.

Вы могли видеть политические шуточки с этой картинкой. Они забавны, но долг требует рассказать правду.По-китайски написано вот что: «Система выдачи разрешений на работу иностранцам сломалась, пожалуйста, ожидайте терпеливо» (外国人来华工作许可系统故障，清耐心等待).Почти то же самое написано и по-английски, но двусмысленно.

Срочно ворвусь в ваши ленты с неожиданным открытием. Знаете, как будет по-польски (в разговорном языке) пластиковая штуковина, на которой дети съезжают со снежной горки, так называемый "поджопник"? DUPOLOT это будет! Дуполёт. "Жополёт", если дословно. #popolsku_słówka

Никто не пользуется абстрактным символом валюты (¤), и вот рекламщики в Microsoft нашли ему новое применение — он похож на руль бронированной двери сейфа

Эмодзипедия сообщает об очередном всплеске написания слова «импичмент» через эмодзи — IM🍑MENT.Во-первых, это красиво. Эмодзи персика (🍑) часто используется как эуфемизм ягодиц, для которых отдельного эмодзи нет (само слово «ягодицы», кстати, тоже когда-то было эуфемизмом).Во-вторых, слово impeachment не выглядит очевидным — какой у него корень? почему оно такое? Даже носителям непонятно. Наверняка большинство людей не видит в нём ничего кроме «воперсиковления». Ну и почему бы тогда не использовать символ персика в корне слова?Слово impeachment пришло в английский из французского, сильно изменившись по пути. А так оно восходит к латинскому impedicare — «заключать в кандалы» (мы видим в нём к…

Семь лет назад почти писал о литовском названии Грузии — Gruzija: http://www.slovomania.ru/dnevnik/2011/06/29/call-us-georgia. Но теперь сообщают, что литовцы передумали, и собираются принять новое название. И это будет не Джорджия и не Георгия, а… ну, пока…

Новости феминитивов в китайском: https://twitter.com/makseest_ru/status/1347194301940330496?s=21Извините, если слишком сложно.

Станция метро «Площадь Ленина» в Петербурге в проекте (в 1940 году) носила название «Финляндский Вокзал». Потому что она расположена как раз у Финляндского вокзала. Площадь Ленина — один из самых скучных топонимов в СССР. Потому что площадь с таким названием…

Станция метро «Площадь Ленина» в Петербурге в проекте (в 1940 году) носила название «Финляндский Вокзал». Потому что она расположена как раз у Финляндского вокзала.Площадь Ленина — один из самых скучных топонимов в СССР. Потому что площадь с таким названием была чуть ли не в каждом городе. Интересно, что после независимости во многих республиках эти площади переименовали довольно однотипно в площади Свободы, Независимости или Республики (а в Минске успели даже вернуться от Независимости обратно к Ленину). И вообще, «имени Ленина» не значило почти ничего, сейчас это смело можно убрать (писал про станцию «Библиотека имени Ленина»).Я понимаю, что площадь Ленина в Петербурге — одно из тех редки…

Н. Н. Миклухо-Маклай в своих дневниках пишет, что на языке папуасов (язык бонгу) «хорошо» будет «ауе».Впрочем, позже выяснилось, что это недоразумение, а слово означает скорее «приготовленный», потому что Маклай выяснял «хорошо-плохо» при помощи разных на вкус вещей:К тому же у диких племен вообще есть обыкновение повторять ваши слова. Вы говорите, указывая на хороший предмет: «Казь»; туземец вторит вам: «Казь», и вы думаете, что он понял вас, а папуасы думают, что вы говорите на своем языке, и стараются запомнить, что вы такую-то вещь называете «казь». Узнанное теперь, кажется, окончательно настоящее значение слова «хорошо» – «aye» – я приобрел окольными путями, на что употребил ровно 10 д…

Помочь в нелёгком деле выбора «что послушать» призван «Радио-сад» (Radio Garden) — сайт с глобусом, на котором можно обозначить интересующий вас регион и выбрать радиостанцию.Проект имеет кураторов, которые отбирают хорошие.Радиостанции, естественно, играют преимущественно музыку, но небольшим перебором можно найти и говорильные передачи.http://radio.garden/settings/introduction

Когда маленькие дети начнают учить язык, они сначала вырабатывают то, что по-английски называется proto-lexicon, эдаким «дословарём». Они не понимают смысл (семантику) лексических единиц, но могут разделять поток речи на слова, и отличают слова этого языка от слов других языков.Взрослые же обычно начинают учить язык «с нуля», когда им дают слова сразу с переводом.В Новой Зеландии ситуация несколько иная: большинство населения там англоязычны, они не говорят на маори и не понимают его, но при этом постоянно слышат слова и фразы на маори в школе, во время разнообразных мероприятий и в других ситуациях; около половины топонимов — маорийские. В конце 2020 года в Nature было опубликовано первое …

Стихотворение «Ироха», сочинённое в 11 столетии, содержит целый небольшой экскурс в японский язык. Прежде всего, «Ироха» — это такое «съешь ещё этих мягких французских булок»: в ней содержатся все символы хираганы по одному разу:И ро ха ни хо хэ тоいろはにほへとти ри ну ру воちりぬるをва ка ё та рэ соわかよたれそцу нэ на ра муつねならむу ви но о ку я маうゐのおくやまкэ фу ко э тэけふこえてа са ки ю мэ ми сиあさきゆめみしвэ хи мо сэ суゑひもせすЭта особенность позволяет использовать «Ироху» для нумерации: помимо нумерации знаками из таблицы «годзюон» (а-и-у-э-о-ка-ки-ку-кэ-ко-са…) в японском есть и нумерация по порядку символов в стихотворении «Ироха»: и) молокоро) хлебха) яйцани) маслоВплоть до Второй мировой «Ироха» была основным спосо…

Наглядная иллюстрация того, как английское произношение постепенно изменялось: археолог Саймон создал видео, в котором начитал отрывки из литературы с лондонским произношением с 14 века и до наших дней. Текст отрывков можно увидеть, включив субтитры. Обратите внимание на то, что литература анахронична и сами отрывки не отражают эволюцию английского.https://youtu.be/3lXv3Tt4x20?t=83

Мы знаем Австралию под её нынешним именем, но в 18—19 веках выпускались карты, на которых Австралию называли Улимароа. Это слово имеет извилистую историю.Сообщается, что оно происходит из языка маори и значит «большая красная земля», что невозможно: «красная» на маори будет «кура», а «земля» — фенуа. Скорее всего источником были слова «длинная рука», римароа. Маорийский «р» похож на японский (и русский, если его не тянуть), но совершенно не похож на датские и английские произношения «р», поэтому первые путешественники его частенько записывали буквой L. Со стороны новозеландских берегов побережье крупнейшего острова Новой Каледонии действительно выглядит как длинная рука, а Австралия видимо …

The Guardian попросила описать 2020 год одним словом и по результатам сделала инфографику

Близкий к английскому, но отдельный от него язык скотс в процессе развития получил несколько фонетических инноваций. К примеру, звук «л» в конце слогов с гласными «а» и «у» превратился в гласный (то, есть, английские wall и full читаются там уаа и фуу). Звуки «в» и «ф» в положении между гласными исчезли (слову devil соответствует deil, а слову over — oer). Звук θ в конце слов вообще исчез, и английскому with в скотсе соответствует wi.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYwcjJ7EapsПри этом нужно помнить, что скотс не развился из английского, у них только общий предок, и эти соответствия не означают, что английские слова не развивались с тех пор! Они развивались и ещё как, к примеру, там колоссал…

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Всем, кто изучает русский как иностранный, известно, что там совершенно безумные глаголы движения. Как правильно: «ты ходила в магазин?», «ты сходила в магазин?», «ты пошла в магазин?» или «ты шла в магазин?» В японском языке у глаголов движения тоже есть занятные особенности: они делятся на «идти от ментального якоря» или «идти к ментальному якорю». Смысл фразы «мы приехали в Индию» можно выразить двумя способами:

1. インドに行った индо ни итта — если мы сейчас не в Индии

2. インドに来た индо ни кита — если мы сейчас там Из глагола 来る куру («приезжать, возвращаться») и места назначения можно также делать существительные:

来日 райнити — приехать в Японию

Слово «райнити» мож…

https://i.imgur.com/nc51lzZ.pngВсем, кто изучает русский как иностранный, известно, что там совершенно безумные глаголы движения. Как правильно: «ты ходила в магазин?», «ты сходила в магазин?», «ты пошла в магазин?» или «ты шла в магазин?» В японском языке у глаголов движения тоже есть занятные особенности: они делятся на «идти от ментального якоря» или «идти к ментальному якорю». Смысл фразы «мы приехали в Индию» можно выразить двумя способами:1. インドに行った индо ни итта — если мы сейчас не в Индии2. インドに来た индо ни кита — если мы сейчас тамИз глагола 来る куру («приезжать, возвращаться») и места назначения можно также делать существительные:来日 райнити — приехать в ЯпониюСлово «райнити» может исп…

Друзья, тут книжка хорошая собирается появиться на свет: "Сарматия" Марии Мартысевич, да еще и в виде русско-белорусской билингвы. Вот что пишет переводчик этой поэмы, Геннадий Каневский:"Это уже четвертая (альтернативно-)историческая поэма Марыйки - и вот все четыре будут под одной обложкой, да еще в виде билингвы - спасибо книжной серии InВерсия екатеринбургского издательства "Кабинетный ученый".До "Сарматии" были "Зоя и конец света", "Дневник Барбары Радзивилл", "Дипмиссия (Амбассада)". Это поэмы особого рода. Марыйка пишет исторические мокьюментари, если можно так выразиться. И одновременно - стихотворные тексты магического реализма, к тому же - не без влияния польско-литовской барочной…

С одной стороны, тут серьезный День Учителя, а с другой - несерьёзный такой мем прислали, ну как вам не показать

"Над переводом «Ста стихотворений о водке и сигаретах» Мартина Светлицкого я работал в краковских рюмочных. Берясь за перевод стихотворения Богдана Задуры, где поэт описывает свой инфаркт, я симулировал сердечный приступ. Переводя «Измену» Зузанны Гинчанки, воображал себя женщиной" -https://culture.pl/ru/article/trudnosti-perevoda-kak-ya-perevodil-polskuyu-poeziyu-i-uchilsya-iskusstvu-byt-drugim

"Перевод, тем более современной, не канонизированной словесности — занятие странное, парадоксальное. Переводчик одержим тем, чего в его собственной литературе (а формируется и живет он ею, пластами ее истории и энергией минуты, словесной оптикой и речевой ухваткой, музыкой и смыслом материнского языка) нет, но что он, переводчик, тем не менее как-то предощущает и к чему со счастливой тоской тянется. Каким способом он может чувствовать то, чего вроде бы нет, какими средствами надеется это в своей родной литературе создать и передать тоже пока еще не сложившемуся, незримому читателю, — непонятно. Могут сказать, что на этой невидимой черте, на рубеже незнакомого и незаменимого, на грани между …

Столько лет жила и не знала, что у оленей бывает примерно четырехнедельный период в году, который называется... Собственно, потому, наверное, и не знала, что по-русски толком он никак не называется. То "гон", то "рёв". Из второго еще хоть как-то понятно, о чем речь, а из первого для обывателя ничего не ясно. А по-польски есть отличное слово "rykowisko" (ryk - рёв). К тому же, рифмуется со словом "widowisko" - "зрелище". Ну, теперь вы тоже знаете. И это rykowisko начинается как раз в эти дни. Говорят, очень захватывающее это явление, и много где в Польше можно на него посмотреть.У Лины Старостиной есть стихи как раз про rykowisko.* * *озёра дремлют в сытости туманнойлес изморозью выстелензем…

Столько лет жила и не знала, что у оленей бывает примерно четырехнедельный период в году, который называется... Собственно, потому, наверное, и не знала, что по-русски толком он никак не называется. То "гон", то "рёв". Из второго еще хоть как-то понятно, о чем речь, а из первого для обывателя ничего не ясно. А по-польски есть отличное слово "rykowisko" (ryk - рёв). К тому же, рифмуется со словом "widowisko" - "зрелище". Ну, теперь вы тоже знаете. И это rykowisko начинается как раз в эти дни. Говорят, очень захватывающее это явление, и много где в Польше можно на него посмотреть. У Лины Старостиной есть стихи как раз про rykowisko. * * * озёра дремлют в сытости туманной

лес изморозью выстеле…

Всем привет! Как некоторые из вас знают, в рабочее от свободы время я уже года 3 преподаю польский язык (русский как иностранный тоже, но всё меньше). С середины сентября готова взять еще несколько учеников. Я создала авторский курс из нескольких занятий по постановке прозношения (отзывы о курсе - в скриншотах по ссылке ниже), но и обычные, назовём их так, занятия, в том числе и с нуля, тоже предлагаю. Заниматься можно онлайн в любом удобном мессенджере с видеосвязью - FB, WhatsApp, Zoom. Мне очень интересны увлеченные и целеустремленные ученики, потому как и я тогда работаю веселее и продуктивнее 😊 Репост и рекомендации всячески приветствуются. А в качестве бонуса по ссылке на ютюб - перво…

Всем привет! Как некоторые из вас знают, в рабочее от свободы время я уже года 3 преподаю польский язык (русский как иностранный тоже, но всё меньше). С середины сентября готова взять еще несколько учеников. Я создала авторский курс из нескольких занятий по постановке прозношения (отзывы о курсе - в скриншотах по ссылке ниже), но и обычные, назовём их так, занятия, в том числе и с нуля, тоже предлагаю. Заниматься можно онлайн в любом удобном мессенджере с видеосвязью - FB, WhatsApp, Zoom. Мне очень интересны увлеченные и целеустремленные ученики, потому как и я тогда работаю веселее и продуктивнее 😊 Репост и рекомендации всячески приветствуются. А в качестве бонуса по ссылке на ютюб - перво…

Хотела вечерок попереводить не отрываясь, но тут увидела у Вики в канале "Много свиста от лингвиста" перепост лингвистического сонника из "Глазария языка", ну там, например: • Если вам приснился суффикс, ждите визита неприятного человека.

• Видеть во сне приставку означает пополнение в семье.

• Если женщина во сне увидела имперфект, значит скоро ее возлюбленный надоест ей.

• Если приснился Зализняк — встреча со стариком в казенном доме.

• Интонационная конструкция №4 — скандал в семье.

• Если вам приснилась фонема , будет спор со столичными жителями, затем совместная безобразная пьянка вплоть до потери человеческого облика.

• Видеть во сне страдательный залог — наступают трудные времена, во…

Хотела вечерок попереводить не отрываясь, но тут увидела у Вики в канале "Много свиста от лингвиста" перепост лингвистического сонника из "Глазария языка", ну там, например:• Если вам приснился суффикс, ждите визита неприятного человека.• Видеть во сне приставку означает пополнение в семье.• Если женщина во сне увидела имперфект, значит скоро ее возлюбленный надоест ей.• Если приснился Зализняк — встреча со стариком в казенном доме.• Интонационная конструкция №4 — скандал в семье.• Если вам приснилась фонема <ы>, будет спор со столичными жителями, затем совместная безобразная пьянка вплоть до потери человеческого облика.• Видеть во сне страдательный залог — наступают трудные времена, возмож…

((в день русского языка - о языках других; совпадение тем случайно!)) Если думать о языках как о людях, то вот что получается. На французский я смотрю как на симпатичного молодого человека (да, однозначно, это мальчик), с которым будто бы флиртую - не потому, что французский принято считать языком всяческих амуров, просто так получается. "Будешь, чертяга, моим", - говорю ему, и постоянно хочу понравиться своей речью (в разговорах с своей француженкой, например, на уроках раз в неделю; но понравиться хочу не учительнице, а самому языку, используя какие-нибудь красивые обороты; язык для языка, красота - для языка, подарок с волнением - придётся ли по вкусу?), так что мы с французским определе…

((в день русского языка - о языках других; совпадение тем случайно!))Если думать о языках как о людях, то вот что получается.На французский я смотрю как на симпатичного молодого человека (да, однозначно, это мальчик), с которым будто бы флиртую - не потому, что французский принято считать языком всяческих амуров, просто так получается. "Будешь, чертяга, моим", - говорю ему, и постоянно хочу понравиться своей речью (в разговорах с своей француженкой, например, на уроках раз в неделю; но понравиться хочу не учительнице, а самому языку, используя какие-нибудь красивые обороты; язык для языка, красота - для языка, подарок с волнением - придётся ли по вкусу?), так что мы с французским определенн…

Подборка из архива журнала "Практики и интерпретации" - ко Дню филолога:Сергей Зенкин о проблемах перевода (а еще - о “французских пробелах” в русской культуре, “эффекте Барта“ и воротничке кардигана): http://www.pi-journal.com/index.php/pii/article/view/38Георгий Хазагеров о риторике, грядущей "эре метонимии" и необходимости "быстрого недопонимания": http://www.pi-journal.com/index.php/pii/article/view/19Евгений Яблоков о параллельных мотивах, антидвойниках у Булгакова, протеичности героев Платонова и истоках «общества постправды». http://www.pi-journal.com/index.php/pii/article/view/75Борис Гаспаров о "шуме времени", своей музыкальной биографии, терапевтической силе незнакомого языка, вос…

Подборка из архива журнала "Практики и интерпретации" - ко Дню филолога: Сергей Зенкин о проблемах перевода (а еще - о “французских пробелах” в русской культуре, “эффекте Барта“ и воротничке кардигана): http://www.pi-journal.com/index.php/pii/article/view/38 Георгий Хазагеров о риторике, грядущей "эре метонимии" и необходимости "быстрого недопонимания": http://www.pi-journal.com/index.php/pii/article/view/19 Евгений Яблоков о параллельных мотивах, антидвойниках у Булгакова, протеичности героев Платонова и истоках «общества постправды». http://www.pi-journal.com/index.php/pii/article/view/75 Борис Гаспаров о "шуме времени", своей музыкальной биографии, терапевтической силе незнакомого языка,…