Because of the scandal surrounding the illicit, involuntary relationship between female tennis star, Peng Shuai 彭帅, and top CCP official, Zhang Gaoli 张高丽, which became a hot button issue around the world beginning about a month ago, the Chinese government went into overdrive to censor all trace of it from the internet (see here). The […]
When I first mentioned this remarkable video on Language Log nine years ago, it was buried in this post, "The Westernization of Chinese" (9/6/12), under "this phenomenal video". I always regretted that I didn't make it more accessible (didn't know how to post YouTubes directly back then), so now here is Miss Lin in all […]
My first acquaintance with the word "karaoke" was back in the 1980s, when I was visiting my brother Denis, who was then a translator for Foreign Languages Press in Beijing. He lived in the old Russian-built Friendship Hotel, a very spartan place compared to today's luxury accommodations in big Chinese cities. There wasn't much unusual, […]
Phil H wrote these comments to "Uncommon words of anguish" (7/18/21): The anguish is very real. My wife had a character in her name that most computers will not reproduce ([石羡]), despite it being relatively common in names in our part of the world, and has been refused bank accounts, credit cards, and a mortgage […]
With notes on 兑, 說 / 説, 悦, 銳, 脱. From Stephen Tschudi: A colleague was watching a tuōkǒu xiù 脱口秀 ("talk show") online today, and was shocked when a well-known actress did not pronounce "duìxiàn 兑现" (vb. "cash [a check]; fulfill / honor [a promise / commitment]") correctly. She was even more shocked when, in the […]
From John pitchford's Twitter feed (@Johnnypapa64): World’s worst superhero. pic.twitter.com/gkjElEVW6n — John pitchford🌹 (@Johnnypapa64) August 1, 2020
In the Dumbing of Age strip from a few days ago, Amber has been traumatized by the violence associated with a kidnapping, which has left one of her friends in a coma:
From a Taiwanese website Dūnmù jiànduì fángyì chūbāo! Mǎ Yīngjiǔ cue Cài Yīngwén dàoqiàn wǎng bào 1450 xiǎngfǎ 敦睦艦隊防疫出包！馬英九cue蔡英文道歉 網曝1450想法 For someone who is not intimately acquainted with the political and linguistic scenes in Taiwan, it is hard to make sense of this headline. Here are the easy parts: jiànduì 艦隊 ("fleet") fángyì 防疫 ("epidemic […]
A rare find of linguistic news in a blog concerning the Supreme Court: "Relist Watch: Kalsarikännit edition", John Elwood, SCOTUSblog SCOTUSblog is about the work of the Supreme Court of the United States. The author must have a streak of the linguist in him, for he chose to begin today's post with three paragraphs about […]
Everyone is talking about the importance of more extensive COVID-19 testing in determining who is infected, and (eventually) who has been infected. But nearly all the discussion that I've heard and read has been based on the assumption that the relevant tests are accurate. And this assumption is false — the available tests for this […]