Dave Heller, "Why an actor from Brooklyn can't talk like a Philadelphian", Newsworks Tonight (WHYY), 2/2/2015: [Audio clip: view full post to listen] You may have trouble describing it, but you sure know it when you hear it — the unmistakable Philly accent. Meredith Tamminga, assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania makes […]
Tim Leonard sent in this photograph of a sign for a Korean restaurant:
In his novel Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon seems to be advocating a small, specific piece of English spelling reform, exemplified in these quotations: “Center of the cop universe for sure,” Doc nodding sympathetically, “but we can’t all be Bigfoot Bjornsen can we— ups I mean who’d want to be him anyway?” hoping this wasn’t pushing things, given Pat’s mental […]
This is another one of those posts that I wanted to write long ago (actually almost a year ago), but it got lost in the shuffle until now, when I found it going through my old drafts. It was prompted by an article that Christine Gross-Loh wrote for The Atlantic (October 8, 2013) titled "Why […]
David Shariatmadari, "That eggcorn moment: If you’ve been signalled out by friends for saying ‘when all is set and done’, you’re not alone – linguists even have a word for it", The Guardian 9/16/2014: Learning your mother tongue might seem effortless, but doesn’t always go without a hitch. In particular, you may hear certain sets […]
Kyle Massey, "‘Burly,’ a Word With a Racially Charged History", NYT 8/25/2014: As protests raged after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., two articles in The Times on Aug. 16 referred to both Mr. Brown and the state police captain overseeing security in the case as “burly.” Both Mr. Brown and the […]
Tank McNamara for 7/31/2014 explores the protean semantics of English complex nominals:
In "Dead and alive: metaphors for (dis)obeying the law " (7/27/14), we discussed the food scandal that has rocked China in recent days. Abe Sauer had earlier made this post to the brandchannel: "China's Latest Meat Scandal Could Deal a Death Blow to Brands Like KFC " (7/23/14). In it, Abe remarked, "Taking a note […]
The typhoon that struck Okinawa a few days ago and is now passing by Tokyo is called Neoguri. It gets it name from a Korean word meaning "raccoon dog". The Japanese refer to it as Taifū 8-gō Neoguri 台風８号ネオグ リ ("Typhoon No. 8 Neoguri"), but most often without the "Neoguri" (see below for discussion of […]
Peter Mucha, "Lottery legend Joan Ginther bet flabbering sums on scratch-offs", philly.com 7/6/2014: For years, people who dream of beating the lottery have puzzled over the amazing case of Joan Ginther, who made headlines around the world by scratching off “10MILL” on a $50 instant ticket in June 2010 to win her fourth multimillion-dollar prize. […]
This is another one of those posts that I started writing long ago (in this case back in January of 2012), but then set aside for one reason or another. However, such drafts and research notes usually reemerge on my radar screen sooner or later, especially if they are of compelling interest and potential significance. […]
From June 13 until the 18th, I was at a conference on Buddhist culture and society held at the University of Macao. There were about thirty participants, all except me from East Asia, and the East Asians were about evenly divided among scholars from Taiwan, China, Macao, and Hong Kong, plus one each from Japan […]
Ken Belson, "U.S. Patent Office Cancels Redskins Trademark Registration", NYT 6/18/2014: The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, canceled the trademark registration of the name Redskins for use in connection with a professional football team, saying that “a substantial composite of Native Americans found the term Redskins […]