This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

Monday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and in celebration Erin McKean explored the origins of pirate lore, while The Book Bench remembered when pirates were pyrates, and took a look at some modern-day pirates, some dangerous, some less so.

Monday was also the ASCII-based emoticon’s birthday (though that wasn’t the first time typographical symbols were used to convey emotions), while Thursday was the birthdays of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

For Banned Books Week, which begins on September 24, The New York Times reported on a Mark Twain book that has finally been unbanned after 105 years. In other language news, Britishisms have invaded American English; the Romany Gypsy dialect made an appearance in a Kent court case; and escaped pet birds are teaching their wild brethren English.

At Johnson was a post about transgendered pronouns. Robert Lane Greene detailed the rise of the word awesome, and explained the difference between Afghans, Afghanis, and Afghanistanis. Lynneguist took on the both of us, the two of us, and you and me both, while Dialect Blog pronounced marry, merry, and mary. Dialect Blog also posted about the Geordie accent, and accents at the Renaissance Faire.

Fritinancy questioned Netflix’s new service, Qwikster, and the phrase, forward-doing, while her word of the week was resistentialism, “the theory that inanimate objects demonstrate hostile behavior toward us” (I think my computer has a bad case of resistentialism).

At Language Log, Julie Sedivy wondered if grammar can win elections; Mark Liberman wondered about sugar “wight”, and the phrase, the most number of; and Victor Mair flushed out some Chinese bathroom hijinks. At the Macmillan Dictionary blog, David Crystal explored trademarks that have become generic, and Stan Carey discussed slang and innovation in language. Meanwhile, word worlds collided with Mr. Carey’s review of Mr. Crystal’s book, Evolving English, “an illustrated history of the language.”

Word Spy spotted gazundering, “as a house buyer, reducing a previously agreed-on price for a house just prior to signing the contract,” and pity friend, “on a social networking site, a person whose friend request you accept out of pity” (not to be confused with this NSFW word).

Grammar Girl explained bow up, a Southern phrase meaning “to assert oneself, stand up to,” while Pop vs Soda mapped the generic names for the bubbly stuff by region. The Virtual Linguist told us there are 800 languages in New York; was galvanized; and pinned the origin of pin money on haberdashers and hatters. She also considered the drawing room and parlour; listed the top ten telewords of 2011; and sailed along with some naval slang and Rick Jolly’s book, Jackspeak: A Guide to British Naval Slang and Usage.

Other language guides that caught our eye this week were The Septic’s Companion, “a British slang dictionary with audio pronunciations”; The Jargon File, also known as The Hacker’s Dictionary; and McSweeney’s proposed additions to the internet lexicon.

In author news, a posthumous book of poems by Shel Silverstein is coming out this month. NPR had a story about Silverstein; Ben Zimmer had fun with the book’s title, Every Thing On It; and The New York Times took a look at children’s authors who broke the rules, including Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, and Dr. Seuss.

Here’s a letter from T.S. Eliot to Virginia Woolf; a literary tour of the stories of H.G. Wells; and what Shakespeare really meant. Here are five strange things named after writers, and the last words of 25 writers who are deceased. Unlikely Words showed us why the Oxford Comma is important (work those pasties, Stalin!), Moleskine introduced a new line of Star Wars notebooks, and we learned how to create placeholder text Samuel L. Jackson-style (NSFW, as things Samuel L. Jackson tend to be).

That’s it for this week. See you next Friday!

This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

It’s that time again folks! Every Friday we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs, and the latest in word news and culture.

It was Fashion Week in New York City this week, and Barnes & Noble Review had several fashion book recommendations, while Entertainment Weekly showed us a dress made of crime novel covers. In addition, Lynneguist talked shoes; the Virtual Linguist examined hauling, in which on YouTube “young people (almost always young women) describe and show their ‘haul’, or latest purchases”; while Fritinancy’s word of the week was ruche, which comes from the French word for beehive, and cringe of the week was Earth shoes.

In ad words, Fritinancy pondered Maker’s-er and pom versus pompis. Robert Lane Greene at Johnson discussed language speed, while at the Macmillan Dictionary Blog, Stan Carey chronicled cyber- words, and Michael Rundell questioned preserving words that are obsolete.

Grammar Girl dissected the Pittsburghese needs washed, to which Ben Zimmer at Language Log gave his two cents. Also at Language Log Mark Liberman considered the apparent dog-carrying requirements on escalators and moving walkways in England, while Victor Mair tallied up the hurt feelings of the Chinese people.

Dialect Blog “sawr and conquered” the intrusive R, discussed more about non-rhotic and rhotic accents, shared some ambivalence about portraying a classic Russian character with a British accent; and questioned the supposed distinction between American Blue State and Red State accents.

Allan Metcalf at Lingua Franca gave us a lesson on lessen. Word Spy spotted paperphilia, “a deep appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of paper; a preference for reading items printed on paper rather than displayed on a screen”; smishing, “an attempt to fool a person into submitting personal, financial, or password data by sending a text message with a link to a scammer-controlled website”; and the butler lie, “a lie used to politely avoid or end an email, instant messaging, or telephone conversation” (eg, “’sorry, phone died last night”).  Superlingo lauded fomo and werdge, two awesome words they didn’t know.

The Virtual Linguist called out oi, mush!, Cockney slang for “an aggressive way of calling out to someone — like ‘hey, you!’’; gave us a taste of licorice allsorts; shined a light on the glittering generalities of propaganda language; and pointed out the jam that President Obama is apparently giving us today. Fully (sic) also got into the grammar and language of politics, while Freakonomics watched political party word patterns.

In author news, a one-sentence letter from JD Salinger may be worth $50,000 (or “$2,083.33 a word”), and the Society of Authors is holding a weekly tweetathon for the next several weeks to save the short story.

At The Atlantic Will Shortz told us how he edits The New York Times‘ crossword puzzles, while the World’s Strongest Librarian told us how languages are invented. The Huffington Post showed us America’s smallest library, while Gawker profiled an online newspaper they liked (yes, Gawker liked something!). Lifehacker passed on the International Classification of Diseases (“I’ve been W6132XA!”), and Discovery Magazine flew by with the news that hummingbirds sing with their tails.

Brain Pickings covered a brief history of robots and how they fall on the intelligence/creepiness/cuddly matrix (Thomas Edison’s talking doll seems more creepy than cuddly to us), and the Vancouver Sun showed us some weird and dumb signs from around the world.

Meanwhile, a German liquor manufacturer successfully patented trademarked ficken, the German word for the mother of all four-letter words, while some headlines got a similar four-letter, and hilarious, treatment. Finally, don’t forget to fill out your bracket for War of the Words.

That’s it from here. Oi, mush, we’ll see you next week!

This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

Welcome to our weekly Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

This week we were saddened to learn of the death of Michael S. Hart, the founder of the Gutenberg Project and the inventor of electronic books. Our condolences go out to his family and loved ones.

Ben Zimmer spoke with NPR about how 9/11 changed the American lexicon, while the debate continued about retiring the term Ground Zero.

For Labor Day week, Fritinancy had a fitting word of the week, touch labor, “production (hands-on) labor reasonably and consistently applied to a unit of work,” while PWxyz listed the five biggest slackers in literature. In back-to-school news, Columbia University now only wants 200-character application essays – that’s 200 characters, not words, which is little more than a tweet. Best hone your texting poetry skills, and be sure not to commit twagiarism or show bad twittiquette.

In politics, Salon gave us a history of American mud-slinging slurs (you snollygoster!), as well as a the dog-whistle dictionary, which has less to do with canines and more to do with conservative shibboleths.

Meanwhile, another whistle was blown, this time on dolphin language and the recent findings that dolphins actually don’t whistle but “use their nose to produce a different kind of tonal sound.” Word Spy gave us the buzz on beehacker, “a beekeeper who uses digital tools and technology to help monitor and manage a collection of hives,” and Mark Liberman at Language Log told us about vocal learning in wild parrotlets.

Mr. Liberman also axed the zombie rule of ending sentences with a preposition, and had fun with some amusing Amazon reviews for some ridiculously expensive cables. Victor Mair pointed out the economics of Chinese character usage, and Robert Lane Greene at Johnson discussed the lack of –ing in Chinese, which didn’t stop their “fall fashions” from “selling fast.”

In other fashion news, The Wall Street Journal showcased its collection of male fashion lingo (mankini, anyone?). As Erin McKean explained: “‘man’ is used to describe the masculine version of inherently feminine objects.” Erin’s Boston Globe column focused on an infamously unstylish font, while in a classic McSweeney’s piece said font defended itself (NSFW-ly). NPR interviewed Simon Garfield, author of Just My Type: A Book About Fonts; Brain Pickings offered ten essential books on typography; and a designer breathed life into liquid typeface.

At the Macmillan Dictionary blog, Dan Clayton picked a fight about whether or not there’s any difference between how men and women speak; Janet Gough explored gender-neutral words; and Stan Carey considered hopefully. Arnold Zwicky took us on a tour of –ollywoods, while Sesquiotica brought us on their venture/adventure/misadventure, and tested the nocebo effect.

John McIntyre at You Don’t Say discussed John McWhorter’s new book, What Language Is, while at The New York Times‘ Bloggingheads, Mr. McWhorter explained when to yo and when not to yo.

Dialect Blog posted about yod-dropping in American accents, as well as great minds who kept their wonderful regional accents, such as Arthur C. Clarke, who in this 1964 video at Open Culture, predicted the future and got much of it right. The NY Times profiled some other writers who predicted the future with eerie accuracy, while this week back in 1966, a TV show depicted a future in which one could “explore strange new worlds” and “seek out new life and civilizations” (just don’t wear a red shirt).

Grammarphobia explained the origin of the expression, what the dickens (think Shakespeare, not Charles Dickens); Mark Twain wrote his wife a lovely love note; and Gwendolyn Brooks, E. E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, and other poets will all be appearing on forever stamps next year.

Here are some awesome people reading, and here’s how to play the authors card game. Here are authors and books transformed into warriors, video games, and Legos. Here are Dr. Seuss’ stories transformed into cakes. Here’s something about imitating dead writers on Twitter, and writing like a live one on Yelp. Here’s a list of roller derby girl names, a field guide to social media avatars, and 12 songs with made-up words. Here’s some love for a new site, Word Love.

And here’s the end of our post. See you next week!

This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

It’s that time once again! Every Friday we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

First an earthquake, then a hurricane! Or perhaps a hurriquake, as Slate proposed in its piece on how often natural disasters coincide. Arnold Zwicky pondered catastrophic planning (planning that’s catastrophic, or planning for catastrophic events?). Sesquiotica pointed out the irony of a “violent tempest” being named after the Greek goddess of peace, while the Language Corner at Columbia Journalism Review played obscure word mad libs with hurricane and earthquake news. At the Language Log, Mark Liberman rounded up hurricane variants and origins, while Ben Zimmer – and K International – had fun with the mock Spanglish of @ElBloombito.

Mr. Zimmer also took a look at James W. Pennebaker’s The Secret Life of Pronouns, the Beatles and their pronouns, and the true etymology of the word nerd. At Language Log, Mark Liberman explored nerds, alpha and otherwise, as well as some iffy Latin; while Geoff Pullum questioned the existence of Jafaican, or fake Jamaican; Julie Sedivy authorized her dealer; and Victor Mair swam in a pwimming poot in China.

K International considered the challenges of singing Chinese opera as a non-native speaker, while The Virtual Linguist noted that bye-bye, or rather bai bai, has been added to the latest edition of the Xinghua Chinese dictionary. Other new additions include “xueli men, which translates as ‘diploma gate’ and is based on the model of Watergate,” and “refers to the practice of using fake college degrees to get a job,” fang nu, literally “house slave,” and meaning “a person whose only goal is to buy a house.”

In other dictionary news, you can now add your own obscure sorrow to The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (I think I have adomania), and apparently police are now consulting Urban Dictionary “to crack the ever-evolving slanguage of the streets.” Meanwhile, the Dictionary Society of North America wrapped up the “annual fuss” over new words (with a shout-out to Erin McKean, thanks!), and John McIntyre at You Don’t Say espoused on the unnecessary brouhaha over the addition of words such as bromance.

Mr. McIntyre also wrote about the persistence of grammar superstitions and prescriptivism and moralism, while the MacMillan Dictionary blog wrapped up Gender English month with a guest post from Aneta Naumoska who questioned the creation of completely gender-free English. Stan Carey discussed the once scandalous word bloody, and on his own blog told us the difference between discreet and discrete.

Grammarphobia explained the origins of the ethnic slur, wop, and the case of the disappearing dots in many acronyms and abbreviations. Slate discussed the secrets of twin speak, or cryptophasia, while Dialect Blog mused about another mystery, the American pronunciation of the word father, and if English dialects will become languages.

Fritinancy sniffed some Britishness in I Fancy You, a new perfume from Texas-born Jessica Simpson, and took a look at some names in advertising, such as zabster zalad; Soylent Green crackers; and Ben, Benjamin Moore paints’ rebranding effort to gain nickname status with customers (others: Radio Shack = The Shack; Pizza Hut = The Hut, which makes this writer think of a certain intergalactic crime lord). Arnold Zwicky drank in some pepsifications; talked about the term confirmed bachelor, and gave some examples of grammatical egotism.

Last week Sesquiotica wrote about fail; this week, it’s win. The Virtual Linguist pondered the origins of chagrin; luvvies and boffins; satin gazar and other fabrics; and, just in time for school, the term 101 (hey, another word without letters!).

PWxyw, the blog of Publishers Weekly, tested our literature IQ, listed some terrible fictional diseases, and some very cool literary graveyards. The Paris Review went southern gothic with a story about Kathryn Tucker Windham, “an Alabama folklorist who spent much of her life collecting and patiently preserving Southern superstitions, recipes, and, most of all, ghost stories,” while Book Bench paid a visit to the great Larry McMurty.

In movie(ish) news, available soon will be these cinema subtitle glasses for the hearing impaired, and a rock opera version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Open now is director David Lynch’s Paris nightclub, Silencio, inspired by the eerie Club Silencio in Lynch’s even eerier film, Mulholland Drive.

A few new books that caught our eye this week were Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc; The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010; and Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular & The New Land, which is “rich in lore and folkways,” and traces “the influence of Yiddish from medieval Europe to New York’s Lower East Side.”

Have some spare cheddar? Get this amazing kitchen table from The New York Times, or this print on the grand taxonomy of rap names, or how about some corrected Old Navy T-shirts? If you’re trying to save some dough, these fun Cuban expressions and kawaii Japanese emoticons are free. While you’re at it, check out these gorgeous lacy paper cuts from Japanese paper artist Aoyama Hina; the Noun Project, which “organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language”; and the David Foster Wallace Audio Project.

Here’s hoping everyone has a peaceful weekend, free from earthquakes, hurricanes, and especially hurriquakes.

This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

Welcome to our weekly Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news.

In non-word news, things were shaken up quite a bit this week with earthquakes in Colorado, Virginia, California, and Peru. Slate rounded up some jokes from news and media outlets, while xkcd gave its take on seismic waves and Twitter. Meanwhile, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo documented animals’ reactions prior to and during the quake (the red ruffed lemurs: hyper-aware, the giant pandas: not so much).

In other, if not earth-shattering but still saddening news, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple. You can read his resignation letter here. We at Wordnik wish Steve all the best.

In endangered languages, the Collins Dictionary is compiling a list of nearly-extinct words, while some argue that old words never become extinct. Mexconnect wondered if the Aztecs’ Nahuatl literature was actually a Spanish invention, and a group of New Yorkers are striving to preserve Nahuatl by teaching it to others.

K International pointed out that there is majority support for the preservation of Gaelic in Scotland, and Miller-McCune argued that rescuing endangered languages is also about saving ideas. Meanwhile, in Slate, one writer recounted his summer speaking a dead language, while another wondered why some slang terms stick and some don’t.

Robert Lane Greene at Johnson explored the euphemism of a courtesy call; while at the Macmillan Dictionary blog, Michael Rundell posted part two of his piece on political correctness gone mad, and Stan Carey fought fire with “firefighter.” On his own blog, Mr. Carey discussed words with no letters, such as ♥, @, +1, and obscenicons.

At Language Log, Mark Liberman addressed why Americans don’t say “mate”; Geoff Nunberg gave Kathleen Parker at The Washington Post a dressing down for her implication that public swearing is all right as long as you have the right accent; and Victor Mair discussed the basketbrawl between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Bayi Rockets that was “mostly scrubbed from Chinese media.”

John McIntyre at You Don’t Day wrote about the ever-evolving standards of English grammar, and  what he’d say to you if you were in his copyediting class (in short, leave now or suck it up). Erin McKean parsed robo– versus – bot while Fritinancy cited a notable word of the week, Kinsey gaffe, “a truthful statement told accidentally, usually by a politician” (as opposed to McKean’s inversion?); had some fun with eye dialect and comparing cap’n, captn, and capt’n; and explored twocation, which has nothing do with a vacation for two but with Twitter and location.

From Open Culture, we learned more about forensic linguistics (first introduced to us by Ben Zimmer last month). Book Bench, The New Yorker’s blog, discussed linguistic anachronisms in period dramas such as The Hour, Mad Men, and Deadwood, while The Huffington Post offered up several non-British actors doing “bad” British accents, including Anne Hathaway, also discussed at The Dialect Blog.

In addition, The Dialect Blog considered the Pacific-Northwest accent; the Falkland Islands accent; and what may be a very controversial topic. The Virtual Linguist tangled with tiger kidnapping, so-called because of “the predatory stalking that goes on before the actual crime is committed,” and torches of freedom (cigarettes to you and me).

Sesquiotica took a look at reticent versus reluctant; ajar; it is I versus it’s me; epic; and fail. Arnold Zwicky offered these quickies on Satanic fast food, bromance, and a dreamanteau. The Australians weighed in on irritating Americanisms; the Grammar Monkeys pointed out an unfortunate mistake on some Old Navy tees; and we learned that the 12th edition of the Chambers Dictionary will include “a new miscellany of linguaphile-pleasing lists,” such as one on insults (for additional insulting lists, try this one, this one, this one, or this one).

In things David-Foster-Wallace-related, we have an excellent essay from Maud Newton on his linguistic legacy, and from the Decemberists, an Infinite Jest-inspired song and video.

Like music? Here are some books you can dance to, and books with sound effects and soundtracks. Libraries more your thing? Then check out or this mini bookmobile, or these enviable home libraries of celebrities. Or perhaps it’s famous people’s letters you covet. Then these letters of note are right up your alley.

Or maybe you just want to know how alphabets came to be. Well then watch this video from “Dr James Clackson, senior lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge” who “explains about some of the people and places where writing was born.” While you’re at it, take a peek at this delightful “noisy alphabet” postcard.

That’s a wrap! Till next week, we’ll be on twocation – that is, we’ll tweeting from our desks.

This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

It’s that time again, folks, in which we bring the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news.

At Language Log, Mark Liberman questioned the recent use of flash mob to mean “impromptu gangs of teens who converge suddenly to rob stores or attack passers-by,” instead of its original reference to “groups of hipsters who (used to?) use social media to arrange impromptu public gatherings with frivolous goals.” Geoffrey K. Pullum railed against historian David Starkey’s assertion that Jamaican patois as a language is “wholly false” and “has been intruded in England, and that is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country.” Pullum said it best: “What a moron.”

In another response to Starkey’s “amazingly ignorant ravings,” Arnold Zwicky brought us a letter from Peter Trudgill, Honorary Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, who pointed out that Mr. Starkey himself:

used a form of language which was distressingly alien. I estimate that at least 40%, and quite possibly more, of his vocabulary consisted of utterly foreign words forced on us by a wholly other culture – words which were intruded in England from the language of Norman French immigrants to our country, such as “language” and “false”.

Pwned!

Language Log also asked that you please wait outside the “rice-flour noodle,” and examined political speech fillers; teaching animals sign language; and unpermitted permitted loads. In addition, they questioned Kim Kardashian’s intellectual property.

At Macmillan Dictionary blog, Stan Carey wrote about finding the “riot” words, while Michael Rundell posted part one of his piece on political correctness. Stan Carey also wrote about fashionable ambiguity (how indecent!), and Fritinancy noted another fashionable trend, “adverbish domains.”

Fritinancy’s word of the week was skive, “to split or cut (leather, rubber, etc.); to shave or pare (hides)”; our own Erin McKean noted fear gauge, prayer-palooza, super-committee, and ack-soy (What did the meat eater say when he wrongly ordered the vegatarian dish? “Ack! Soy!”) in The Wall Street Journal; and Lynneguist explored some spunky American-English and British-English differences.

The Virtual Linguist dissected favour versus favours and words from Pygmalion that were once considered scandalous. The Dialect Blog spoke about the Anglo-Indian dialect, while K International wondered how far one would go to learn another language.

How Stuff Works brought us rap in 30 different languages. In Australia, the New South Wales State Library (we love that their logo is an interrobang) is looking to revive lost indigenous languages, while writer Tim Brookes has kickstarted the Endangered Alphabets Project, which seeks to capture several endangered and disappearing languages through “an exhibition of fourteen carvings and a book.”

Meanwhile, psychologist James Pennebaker spoke to Scientific American about the secret language of pronouns; Science Blog assured us that playing word games is good for the brain; and Headbloom Blog took the temperature of heated language.

In grammar news, writer and copy editor Mark Allen has archived his tweeted language tips; and Guardian Style let us know that yesterday was International Apostrophe Day, to which Stan Carey offered up some classic posts, and The Oatmeal told us how to properly use the apostrophe (now where’d I put my bacon hat?).

Our favorite newly-discovered blog of the week is Quote Investigator, “dedicated to the investigation and tracing of quotations.” Speaking of quotes, there’s a new book about New York City-inspired quotations. Speaking of New York City, there’s a scratch ‘n sniff book on New York City smells. (Since it’s a children’s book, we’re guessing “urine-stained subway” won’t be included.)  Speaking of children’s books (last one, we promise), Random House will be publishing several “lost” Dr. Seuss stories, originally printed in Redbook in 1950 and 1951.

Utne showed us this seven-story tower of books in Buenos Aires, which has been designated the 2011 book capital of the world. From Letterology we learned about these alphabetical wonders, while Slate told us about people who became nouns. The New Yorker’s blog, Book Bench, told us about the Pronunciation Book channel and how to (incorrectly) pronounce Ralph Fiennes (how about we just call him You Know Who?). Neil Gaiman spoke at the Edinburgh Book Festival about his new books, Dr. Who, his fans, libraries, and “his character Death.” Salon reported on New York Times book reviewer Michiko Kakutani and a word she really likes.

On a bittersweet note, we bid farewell to Jan Freeman’s language column at The Boston Globe, but are really glad she still has a blog.

Finally, Grammar Monkeys reminds us that “any word can mean anything.”

And to that we say, till next week, chumble spuzz!

This Week’s Language Blog Roundup

It’s time again for our weekly Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news.

In news about the UK riots, Jon Henley at The Guardian pondered the riots and language (“rioter, protester, or scum?”); The Virtual Linguist wondered about the terms wreaked havoc and wrought havoc, and the use of wanton in the news (“wanton damage, wanton violence, wanton criminality, wanton destruction”); and Geoffrey K. Pullum at Language Log was appalled at the occasional chaos and difficulty of the English language.

Next, a final word on “irritating” Americanisms from Dennis Baron at the Oxford University Press blog. Professor Baron confirmed that many of the “Americanisms” that Matthew Engel and others find so irritating are in fact not American at all, and noted that anti-Americanism sentiment has existed throughout history, such as in 1781 when John Witherspoon, “a Scot who relocated to New Jersey and became the first president of Princeton,” also complained about several Americanisms that were, guess what, not American either.

In more British and American differences, Laura Wattenberg at The Baby Name Wizard compared British and American baby names in two parts while The Oatmeal gave a hilarious – and off-color – interpretation on the difference between British and American accents.

Meanwhile, Johnson, The Economist’s language blog, featured Indian-English and the Samosapedia, “the definitive guide to South Asian lingo” (for even more on Samosapedia, check out the Q&A with the founders on CNN). Johnson also took a look at a possible eggcorn and the ordering of adjectives.

In technology news, TAUS asserted that corpus linguistics is the future; K International wondered if tweets are the new haiku; and Fritinancy took note of a word of the week, nymwars:

The controversy over Google Plus’s mandatory real-names-only policy. The word, sometimes spelled nym wars—nym is cropped from pseudonym—was coined in late July and gained currency as a Twitter hashtag.

In the realm of digital storytelling, Aleks Krotoski at The Guardian wrote about how technology can enhance storytelling, while the publisher Melville House announced this week that it will be publishing HybridBooks, “an innovative publishing program that gives print books the features of enhanced eBooks,” such as a Quick Response or QR code at which users can aim their phones for supplemental material.

NPR had an interview with linguist John McWhorter, whose book, What Language Is (And What It Isn’t and What It Could Be), is now available (and which Erin McKean liked).  The Macmillan Dictionary blog explored gender differences in language, with a post from Michael Rundell on the effects of gender on the evolution of definitions, and from Stan Carey on “gender-skewed words” on Twitter. On his blog, Mr. Carey went into more detail about Tweetolife, a web demo that’s “the result of a study that was carried at the Language, Interaction and Computation Laboratory at the University of Trento in Italy.”

At Language Log, Geoffrey K. Pullum tried to be nice about commas; Victor Mair discovered a troubling translation; Mark Liberman examined the problem of using too many “negatives in one proposition”; and Eric Baković discussed British actors playing Americans on The Wire and elsewhere.

This inspired a post on the Dialect Blog about The Wire and its impressive dialect work, with each episode demonstrating “unique blend of African American Vernacular English, Baltimorese and various professional jargons,” and how the “lingo of police, drug dealers, union men, and politicians” was used as “highly codified forms of language. . .to sugarcoat cruelty and violence.”

Dialect Blog also looked at accents on another popular show, Mad Men, questioning if Americans ever speak so “properly”, while The Atlantic wondered when Americans stopped speaking “a particular kind of lah-dee-dah American diction” popular in “old movies and newsreels from the 1930s and 1940s.”

Dialect Blog also posted on Scouse, “the native accent of Liverpool,” while  the Virtual Linguist noted that the “official match ball for next year’s Olympics will be nicknamed ‘The Albert‘,” which is Cockney rhyming slang for ball. K International reported on the resurrection of Tunica, a Native American language from the Mississippi River Valley, and on ancient Greek translation.

Grammarphobia compared home invasion and burglary; Grammar Monkeys roamed through some false ranges; Language Hat enjoyed railroad terminology; and Oxford Dictionaries scared up an extensive list of phobias. Sesquiotic wrote about perfectly cromulent words; arks of many types; and some awesome fantastic bobotie.

Speaking of awesome fantastic food, how about some computational cashews, ranking red bell peppers, or algorithmic almonds?  Or perhaps a scanwich and scandybar, followed by fried scholar and fungus gnat turnovers?  Or maybe we could meet at the bustaurant and have some moffles and cherpumples, and share a bottle of ass-y wine (or maybe not). Drink too much wine and you might need one of these drunkonyms from The Chicago Tribune.

Last week we looked at 12 authors’ favorite snacks and 12 authors’ weird deaths – how about 11 authors’ day jobs? Meanwhile in the UK, graffiti grammar is being corrected by a mystery superhero (Captain Prescriptivist?).

Finally, National Geographic affirmed that we change personalities when we switch languages, and that there’s fun and adventure to be had in finding a third-party tongue, “a common language that’s non-native to both speakers,” when traveling.

That’s it from here. Till next week, happy oyster pirating!