Language Log

[This is a guest post by Michael Broughton.]

I had an interesting Rorschach encounter with the oracle bone graph for woman a couple of years back. Oddly, this experience came in a rather roundabout way through an investigation into the character for interpretation, yi 譯. At the time, I was starting my Chinese translation business and wanted to come up with a meaningful logo for the business. I thought that an investigation into the character yi 譯 might help to inspire some ideas, and so I tried to do a little bit of digging into why it was written the way it was. Of note, the Liji (Book of Rites) has four characters for interpreting officials, as James Legge wrote in his elegant translation:

To make what was in their minds apprehended, and to communicate their likings and desires, (there were officers) – in the east, called transmitters (ji 寄); in the south, representationists (xiang 象); in the west, Di-dis (didi 狄鞮); and in the north, interpreters (yi 譯).

From Charles Belov:

YouTube music's algorithm suggested to me an album, 24 Hours in Soweto, in the amapiano genre that I love which mostly comes from the Zulu community in South Africa. I was struck by the album cover, which seems to have some random Chinese characters, some garbled. Wondering if it's AI art. Can you make any sense of it?

From Tim Leonard:

I wonder if any English proficiency tests include deciphering things like this.

From François Lang:

The storm that Mother Nature visited upon the Washington DC area was unusually difficult because several inches of snow were followed by several more inches of sleet. This combination resulted in a top layer of solid ice which has been dubbed "snowcrete".

The same storm hit us in Philadelphia, so I know exactly what "snowcrete" is like.

Frustrated by city response, D.C. residents step up to help clear ‘snowcrete’:
As mounds of stubborn snow remained on some residential streets and other areas, many Washingtonians found their own ways of digging out, whether through charity, camaraderieor commerce.
WP (January 31, 2026)
By Brittany Shammas, Michael Laris and Ruby Mellen

New guideline issued to promote Chinese language:
7 main tasks set to highlight ‘never-changing gene’
By Li Yuche, Global Times (1/19/2026)

If you're wondering what brought this on, I think it's AI and LLMs, which are featured in the rest of the article, especially as they relate to oracle bones and traditional Chinese writing.

It will also help to understand the aim of the article if you know something about the nature of the journal in which it appears, for which see below.

Japan might finally switch to romaji system you already use

Japan Today (June 30, 2025)

I've read many articles of this sort, but I cite this one because it is fairly recent and is from a reputable newspaper.

If you’ve spent any time learning Japanese or just getting around Japan, you’ve probably come across romaji — the Roman alphabet version of Japanese. It shows up on signs, maps, train stations and in most textbooks for foreign learners. But not all romaji is the same. Depending on where you look, you might see shi spelled as shi, si or even something else.