The following post is from an old, now defunct, blog, but the description of little Eunice learning three languages at once (none of which was her natal tongue spoken at home) and other discussions of Chinese are unusual in their detail and sensitivity, so worthy of sharing with Language Log readers: "Primary learning in a […]
We've already had a taste of the crass, crude contumely that the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) typically spews forth against the perceived enemies of the North Korean state: "Dotard" (9/22/17) "Of dotards and DOLtards" (10/4/17) KCNA hits a new low with their latest denunciation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe: "North Korea promises […]
Josh Horwitz has a provocative article in Quartz (9/27/17): "SAY MORE WITH LESS: In Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, 140 characters for Twitter is plenty, thank you" The thinking here is muddled and the analysis is misplaced. There's a huge difference between "characters" in English and in Chinese. We also have to keep in mind the […]
Bob Mankoff gave a talk here in Madison not long ago. You may recognize Mankoff as the cartoon editor for many years at the New Yorker magazine, who is now at Esquire. Mankoff’s job involved scanning about a thousand cartoons a week to find 15 or so to publish per issue. He did this for […]
Philadelphia, this jawn's for you. https://t.co/e9Ux87wkA4 — Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 4, 2017 See Ben Zimmer's jawn etymology interview, and also "Vaina == Jawn?", 8/12/2016.
Jeffrey Lewis, "Donald Trump Threatened North Korea After Completely Imaginary Negotiations", Foreign Policy 10/3/2017: Over the weekend, a story emerged that the United States was in some sort of talks with North Korea, followed in quick succession by a series of tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump rejecting any sort of diplomatic engagement with North […]
Reading Remy Tumin's article today discussing Stephen Colbert's guest appearance in Michael Moore's Broadway play ("Stephen Colbert Uses Profanity to Describe President Trump’s ‘Soul’", NYT 10/5/2017), I was struck by this passage: “Trump keeps summoning monsters of abstraction — things that aren’t real — they’re extensions of the ordinary, fears that you have that he […]
That's a word that was completely unknown to me until I received this note from my sister, Heidi: Glamping is big and getting bigger all of the time. Especially as the boomers retire daily. There are even 3 sites in PA and four in Ohio… and 9 in Texas. And it is related to the […]
Yesterday (10/4/2017) Theresa May gave a speech at the Conservative Party conference in which a remarkable number of things went wrong: she suffered an extended coughing fit, the comedian Simon Brodkin handed her a fake dismissal form ("P45") signed by Boris Johnson, and two letters fell off her background slogan "BUILDING A COUNTRY THAT WORKS […]
[A guest post by Jichang Lulu.] After all the brouhaha over Kim Jong Un's 'dotard' philippic, I was reminded of some other Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) invective: those sexist insults against Park Geun-hye, the racist insults against Obama, and specifically those aimed at Michael Kirby, the Australian judge who led a UN inquiry on […]
According to HuffPost UK, although figures from the Office of National Statistics indicate that the LGB percentage of the population rose last year by a statistically significant amount, "the majority of the UK population still identifies as heterosexual or straight." Phew! So the straights (unlike the current Conservative-led government) held on to their majority. Good. […]
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Yep, just like that. This expression is very common on the Chinese internet, messaging, chatting, etc. now, but — for those of us who are not in the know — what does it mean? I'll just give one hint: nǐ 你 means "you".
Yesterday, The New Yorker posted an article on its website: "The Error in Baseball and the Moral Dimension to American Life," by Stephen Marche. As originally published, the article contained this paragraph (emphasis mine): In practice, “ordinary effort” describes, as Bill James wrote, what should have happened. What should have happened in a piece of […]