-
Jan 20, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Samantha Pearson |Victor Mair
« previous post |
Poor cattle, they suffer for / from their gallstones in more ways than one. If you want to know why, read the previous Language Log posts on bezoars, for which see "Selected readings" below.
-
Jan 14, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post |
[This is a guest post by Christopher Paris (website).]
I just wanted to thank you for your 2009 essay on the misinterpretation of “wēijī” as meaning both opportunity and crisis.
-
Jan 13, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post |
Xu Wenkan is well known to readers of Language Log, both because he was memorialized in an obituary here — "Xu Wenkan (1943-2023)" (1/10/23) — and because he was cited in many posts on IE languages (especially Tocharian), Sinitic lexicography / lexicology, and the Sinographic writing system. Today he was featured in a Chinese newspaper article, one year after his passing, and that reminded me of another important aspect of his language skills and activities.
-
Jan 13, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post |
I sent the above photograph of a body lotion (bodirōshon ボディローション) bottle to Nathan Hopson and asked him why it has so many katakana words, also why they have to give a phonological gloss for yuzu, which should be a fairly common word in Japanese (even I know it!). He replied:Two things to say here. First, the 柚 character is glossed here because it's not one of the "regular-use" kanji (常用漢字 jōyō kanji).
-
Jan 13, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
-
Jan 13, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post |
[This is a guest post by Penglin Wang]
Identification of the Xiongnu word ninghu (寧胡) as meaning ‘six’ in the phrase ninghu yanshi ‘the sixth consort’ (Wang 2024) and its connection with Jurchen ninggu (寧谷) and Manchu ninggun ‘six’ has opened up the possibility for thinking about the Xiongnu official title danghu (當戶) in relation to Jurchen tanggu (倘古) and Manchu tanggū ‘hundred’.
-
Jan 13, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post |
I encouraged Nathan Hopson to see the last sentence of the second comment here, "Ramen Lo Mein lou1 min6" (1/9/25), which reads: "We need Nathan Hopson / other Japanese lexicologists…".
Nathan replied with this guest post:
Ha! That's very flattering.
-
Jan 12, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post |
"Oxford English Dictionary adds seven new Korean words including ‘dalgona’ and ‘tteokbokki’: This is the first time since September 2021 that the dictionary has added new Korean words"Shahana Yasmin, The Independent (1/7/25)
Korean has accepted many English words into its vocabulary, including "hotdog" (except in the north, where it is forbidden).
-
Jan 11, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post |
Kim Jong-un’s bizarre new ban for North Koreans:The hermit kingdom has outlawed popular items in recent months as part of a massive crackdown on Western cultural influences. Heath Parkes-Hupton, news.com.au (1/6/25)
"Weird", as some attendees at the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year vote last evening might have said.
The hermit kingdom has outlawed popular items in recent months as part of a massive crackdown on Western cultural influences.
-
Jan 10, 2025 | 
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu | Victor Mair
« previous post | In my latest (of many) posts on that redoubtable sinograph, biáng ("Annals of Biang, Vienna edition" [1/3/25]), I posed this question: "How do we know that this character is to be pronounced in the second tone?" Chris Button sensibly queried in reply: "So, something aside from the syllable being a phonotactic violation?" Later, he elaborated, "Even if biang (regardless of tone) were allowed in 'standard' Mandarin, the second tone would not be allowed in any case. So we have...
