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

At Language Log, there was much contention over Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year, squeezed middle. Geoffrey Pullum thought the WOTY should be a word and not a phrase, while Ben Zimmer thought the WOTY need not be a word. Mark Liberman was also puzzled by the OED’s choice, but basically agreed with Mr. Zimmer, and also suggested a separate phrase of the year.

Eric Baković considered Michelle Bachmann’s lack of a gaffe and the importance of context; while Mr. Pullum took on the politics of prescriptivism, and Mr. Liberman talked peever politics. Meanwhile, Arnold Zwicky rounded up Language Log’s peever posts.

Over at the Boston Globe, Mark Peters wrote about why “personhood” is powerful; The New York Times discussed the lexicon of Occupy Wall Street; and BBC Magazine wondered about wealth words and who exactly count as “the rich.” The Macmillan Dictionary blog finished up Class English month with posts from Dan Clayton on the language of the “common people”; John Wells on the rise of the “r-ful” class; and a roundup from Laine Redpath Cole of words loaded with the most class content. At Johnson there were posts about legislative acronyms; that “vile Americanism,” the word likely; and untranslatability and forced distinctions.

In words of the week, Erin McKean spotted appumentary (“an app with the same sort of material you’d find in a documentary film”); BYOD (“bring your own device”); holothurian (another word for sea cucumber); and postprandial somnolence, “after dinner sleepiness.” Fritinancy noticed sharrow, “a road marking indicating that the road is to be shared by cars and bicycles”; caramel, of which there is disagreement about both etymology and pronunciation; and the loneliest wine in the world, which would actually go perfectly with this very lonely cookbook (but perhaps not this one of terrible banana recipes).

Stan Carey explored how the Klingon language was invented; hybrid etymology; and strange usage of the word too. The Virtual Linguist noted that Brits are saying thank you less (though are no less polite), and examined another word of the year. Sesquiotica explained haplology, “removing one of two sequential identical or similar sounds or syllables,” and celebrated his 1000th post with a discussion about milli. Superlinguo had a case of the hiccoughs but could still appreciate President Obama’s attempt at Australian lingo.

The Dialect Blog explored the changing dialect of hip-hop; the different meanings of geezer; noun phrases and stress; and how people think they make sounds. The Word Spy spotted drunkorexia, “eating less to offset the calories consumed while drinking alcohol”; diabulimia, “an eating disorder in which a diabetic person attempts to lose weight by regularly omitting insulin injections”; smartphoneography, “photography using a smartphone’s built-in camera”; and mailstrom, “an overwhelming amount of email; an email deluge.”

Smithsonian Magazine took a look at the science behind sarcasm, while the Richard Dawkins Foundation explored language and evolution. The Library as Incubator Project seeks to connect artists and libraries, while the British Library has made 300 years of newspaper archives available online. Meanwhile, X-Men writer Chris Claremont donated his archives to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the library phantom of Edinburgh, Scotland has returned, leaving behind exquisite paper sculptures.

In author news, Wednesday marked Mark Twain’s 176th birthday. The Morgan Library celebrated with an online exhibition; Flavorwire reminded us of a lovely love note from Twain to his wife; and Mental Floss listed 10 quotes Twain didn’t really say. Google honored the author with a doodle depicting a scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, while we offered a list that was more Huck Finnian.

We were excited to see Maragret Atwood’s own illustrations for her latest book, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, as well as Madeleine L’Engle’s first story, written when she was 15 and included in the collection, First Words: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors. Slate gave us a brief history of invented languages in music, while The NY Times mused on traffic warnings in haiku. The Independent imagined food writing in different authors’ voices; McSweney’s translated one sentence into multiple literary genres; and BlogHer Offered these 17 gifts for grammar geeks.

Our favorite new website is That Is Priceless, which pairs classic art with hilarious captions. Meanwhile, our friends over at Bab.La are searching for the most beautiful English word. Help them out!

That’s it for this installment! Keep up with our blog by subscribing to the blog feed or follow us on Twitter.

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

In the world of politics, Rick Perry said “oops,” and Slate told us where oops comes from. Mark Liberman at Language Log took issue with Perry’s latest campaign ad and his lack of a verb, as well as speech-based lie detection “software” that supposedly proves Herman Cain is innocent of sexual harrassment. Meanwhile Robert Lane Greene at Johnson discussed Newt Gingrich and language, and Spanish in America.

In dictionary news, Ben Zimmer discussed the latest edition of the American Heritage dictionary, while the Scottish Language Dictionary charity is putting together the Concise Scots Dictionary. Erin McKean reviewed books that promise to help you talk better, and spotted in the Wall Street Journal week in words tobashi, solomo, and bronies, as well as Likeonomics, handwiches, and dead doubles.

At Language Log, Mark Liberman wrote about kids yesterday (and made us feel Principal Vernon old) and wondered if Lincoln could have furled his brow. Geoffrey Pullum objected to another’s objections about the passive voice, and kicked himself over tiramisu. Ben Zimmer considered Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow, while Mr. Pullum at Lingua Franca poked another hole in the many-Eskimo-words-for-snow argument.

Also at Lingua Franca, Ben Yagoda advocated going with the shorter word, and examined the overuse of right (I know, right?). Carol Saller wondered if all lawyers are not liars, while Allan Metcalf discussed the word guy.

At Macmillan Dictionary Blog, Ben Trawick-Smith considered the fall of the r-less class, while Stan Carey discussed Received Pronunciation and Dortspeak and questioned the “ideal” form of English. On his own blog, Mr. Carey let us know about the very cool Spaceage Portal of Sentence Discovery, “a database in which we the English-loving citizens of Internet can store countless examples of all the interesting language patterns and elements we are able to categorize.”

John McIntyre shook his head over usage literalists, while Motivated Grammar asserted that descriptivism doesn’t mean “anything goes.” Lynneguist gathered a month’s worth of American and British English untranslatables; and Johnson presented its results from its British and American English survey. The Virtual Linguist wrote about the experiences of Monica Baldwin, who spent 27 years in a closed convent and “could not understand much of the English being spoken around her when she finally rejoined the outside world”; brand names of Western products in China (“Hey, you dinged my Precious Horse!); and a study that showed that lower-pitched voices attract more votes.

Fritinancy’s words of the week were murmuration, a flock of starlings (her post includes a truly amazing video), and Semmelweis reflex, “the tendency to reject new evidence because it contradicts established norms or practices.” Fritinancy also wrote about tech jargon of yore, merry as a Starbucks verb, and this Mr. Tea set, which we have added to our Christmas list. In tooting our own horn news, Fritinancy gave a shout-out to our new series, Word Soup, in her November linkfest (thanks!).

Sequiotica posted about swizzle, umpteen, plouk, and mondegreens. Dialect Blog explored Multicultural London English; Chicano English; dialect work in the old days; and when Twitter words are spoken. The Word Spy spotted, among other words, war texting, “using text messages to break into a remote system such as an automobile or a GPS tracking device”; no planer, “a conspiracy theorist who believes that no planes were involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001”; and two-pizza team, “in a business environment, a team of employees that is not too large (and so can be fed with at most two pizzas).”

Speaking of food, we learned where the hot dog and hamburger got their names; all about It’s-It ice cream; and the history of macarons, macaroons, and macaroni. We were grateful for this list of non-errors, and chuckled over this punctuation cartoon from the Grammar Monkeys and this list of seven bar jokes involving grammar and punctuation. We pondered the language of the future, and what gets lost in translation. We learned that “only one veteran Navajo code talker remains of the original 29 Navajo Marines,” and that immigrant entrepreneurs often don’t need English to succeed. We wondered if comedy foreign accents are ever a good idea (depends on the accent).

We enjoyed these 20 Vonnegut-isms (well, except for the semi-colon remark), these 50 literary put-downs, and these six authors’ reading habits. We were delighted to learn that Neil Gaiman will be on The Simpsons this Sunday, and were a bit a creeped out by this Lego statue of Mark Twain. We were shocked to hear that Jane Austen might have been murdered, and were astounded that Salman Rushdie had to fight to use his own name on Facebook. We loved Salvador Dali’s 1969 drawings for Alice in Wonderland, as well as these vintage illustrations from Old French Fairy Tales.

Flavorwire gave us a brief history of time travel literature; this collection of rejected titles for classic books; and 10 famous literary characters and their real-life inspirations. They also offered 10 wonderful fake books by TV characters and a comprehensive rule book to pop culture’s fictional games (Calvinball, anyone?). Meanwhile, the PW blog told us about 6 fictional drugs with unintended consequences, Anglophenia offered up some money slang, and Time interviewed Michael Adams, the editor of Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages.

Finally, our favorite Tumblr of the week was The Books They Gave Me, reflections on books given by lovers.

That’s it for this week! Check in the week after next for the next Language Blog Roundup installment, and don’t forget to catch our new series on Wednesday, Word Soup.

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 Halloween, and while we at Wordnik treated it like any other day, Slate explained why ghosts say “Boo!” while Flavorwire gave us a lesson in American cryptozoology.

It’s November now, which means it’s National Novel Writing Month. Electric Literature made this NaNoWriMo mixed tape, while for Movember, the Telegraph offered this guide to terrific taches.

This month also marks the anniversary of Ms., “the delightful, one-size-fits-all female honorific that was invented 110 years ago this month.” Alex Beam of The Boston Globe wrote that the title was ignored for 70 years till Gloria Steinem launched Ms. Magazine in 1971.

In other important news, Kim Kardashian got divorced after 72 days of marriage. Salman Rushdie wrote a limerick about it, while Weird Al Yankovic made up a funny new word (“72 Days is now an official unit of time known as a Kardash”).

Rick Perry made up a word, too, but it was already a word. Then he got drunk (apparently), and Robert Lane Greene at Johnson questioned the claim that Perry is a “doer not a talker,” saying that “the American presidency is a talky one,” and the president must “use the bully pulpit effectively to rouse political support for his plans” and “handle the sceptical media in press conferences.”

Meanwhile Ralph “Voldemort” Fiennes blamed Twitter for the dumbing down of the English language. Alex Knapp at Forbes assured us that Twitter isn’t ruining English at all, and in fact “the 140 character restraint not only forces efficiency,” but “also lends itself to some really, really fun wordplay.” (Mark Liberman at Language Log gets a shout-out in Knapp’s piece too.) Ben Zimmer went as far as to say that “Twitterology” is a new science, and that Twitter is “a gold mine for scholars in fields like linguistics, sociology and psychology who are looking for real-time language data to analyze.” Take that, Noam Chomsky!

Mr. Zimmer also wrote about the changing meaning of ridiculous; interviewed playwright David Henry Hwang about his new play, Chinglish; and at Language Log, took a look at a crash blossom; another milestone in eggcorn history; and censorship of the word occupy in China. Meanwhile, Victor Mair explored Chinese characters in the iPhone dictionary app.

The Economist blog Johnson discussed the often welcome British invasion into American English, and some differences between British and American English. In last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Erin McKean spotted unidoor, craveability, hopium, and moneybomb. She also did some owling, planking, and catbearding.

The New York Times rounded up some typos, while Jan Freeman said that some misspellings are not that big of a deal (though this one probably is).  Fritinancy considered the lucky number eight in Chinese culture; what artisan actually means (Grub Street NY charted the word’s downfall); and Yiddish-accented reduplication (reduplication, re-schmuplication!). Her words of the week were kettling, “the corralling of demonstrators by police into a limited area, where they are contained as if in a kettle,” and claque, “a group of people hired to applaud at a performance.”

It’s Subcultural English Month at Macmillan Dictionary blog, and they celebrated with posts on theatre speak; the language of rap; musical subcultures; and a roundup of the weirdest subcultural English words. Meanwhile, Stan Carey was caught in a webinar, and was impacted by the word impact.

The Virtual Linguist wondered if language influences one’s financial behavior; explored the language of girl gangs; discussed Samhain, “a less common word for the Feast of All Hallows”; and spotted gazelle, a small company that is “exceptionally fast-growing over a number of years.”

Dialect Blog examined accents of the Pacific northwest; the Mississippi accent of 1893; the Irish “strut”; and questioned if Southerners really do speak more slowly. K International let us know about a Braille keyboard for touchscreens; a sanitation worker who won a grant to study Gaelic in Ireland; that a second language may delay Alzheimer’s disease; and that if you’re a Siri-user with a Scottish accent, you’re shite out of luck.

In punctuation land, Henry Hitchings wrote about the future of punctuation, and Buzzfeed listed 13 punctuation marks you never knew existed. Meanwhile, Mighty Red Pen gave us some lesser-known editing and proofreading marks.

Like Shakespeare? Learn to insult like him. While you’re at it, clear up 12 misunderstood and misquoted Shakespearean expressions.

In book news, The Phantom Tollbooth turned 50;  St. Mark’s bookshop in New York City was saved by a rent reduction; and language expert Mark Forsyth gave us The Dictionary of Odd Phrases. The Guardian presented The Hobbit as JRR Tolkien imagined it, and wondered if reading on the loo is unhealthy. Slate revealed how gruesome the original Pinocchio was, while Full Stop sorted the American presidents into Hogwarts houses. In non-book news, Flavorwire rounded up the most ridiculous Ikea product names and what they mean.

That’s it for this week! Don’t forget, next Wednesday will be the bi-weekly installment of our new series, Word Soup, in which we bring you the strange, obscure, unbelievable (and sometimes NSFW) words from TV. If you see a word you think is Word Soup worthy, let us know on Twitter with the tag #wordsoup.

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

Some famous authors occupied Wall Street, including Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Russell Banks, Donna Tartt, and Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth, Misconceptions) who was arrested. Lemony Snicket offered 13 OWS observations, and Ben Zimmer told us about the words behind the movement.

At Language Log, Ben Zimmer debunked the “Eskimo words for snow” myth; and Julie Sedivy was lukewarm about warm soda. Mark Liberman compared data on snuck versus sneaked, and delved into the Dire, Ne pas dire (“Say, Don’t Say”) feature of the Académie française website.

The Virtual Linguist took a look at another list of banned words in John Rentoul’s The Banned List: A Manifesto Against Jargon and Cliché. Erin McKean explored some totes presh clipped words, and spotted this week in words preboggin, hagparazzi, bushmeat, and more. Mental Floss gave is 14 more wonderful words with no English equivalent. Check out the first 15.

At Macmillan Dictionary blog, Stan Carey carried off some thieves’ cant, or old jargon of the underworld, while Dan Clayton told us about street slang. The Atlantic reported on some new job slang (we definitely have a touch of hurry sickness); BBC America rounded up five mild American English words that the British may find rude; and Clay Interactive showed us the Periodic Table of Swearing (NSFW of course).

Jan Freeman advocated for advocated for, while Fritinancy’s word of the week was failover, “the capability of switching to a redundant or standby computer server,” something 35 million Blackberry customers experienced last week. Sesquiotica visited the word hussy. The Dialect Blog explored foreign accents, and “why some L2 (second language) speakers have such ‘strong’ accents, while others sound nearly like natives.” K International told us about the Irish translation of Angela’s Ashes.

In author news, Lauren Myracle spoke with Vanity Fair about the National Book Award debacle (“What’s this Shine/Chime business?”), while Colson Whitehead spoke with The Atlantic about zombies and his new book, Zone One. In language news, the British Library was criticized for including an Amazon link in its catalog, while Discover Magazine told us that language may have left us a fossil record, “not in buried bones, but in our DNA.” Meanwhile, at the World Scrabble Championship, a player demanded a strip search when the letter G went missing.

The New York Times’ word of the weekend was kvetchigarchy, “rule by spoiled brats.” iO9 listed 10 science fiction words you might have thought came from real science. The Daily gave us the history of the word cakewalk, which has origins in American slaves’ mocking their owners, and PWxyz informed us of the worst word in English (that’s nice).

Vintage & Anchor gave us the 10 oldest books known to man, while film director Spike Jonze brought book covers to life. Flavorwire put together this literary mixtape for Game of Thrones character, Tyrion Lannister, and Six Revisions presented this visual guide to the ampersand.

That’s it from here. Till next week, kthxbai!

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

First up, in Occupy Wall Street (OWS) news, The Millions compared OWS to Bartleby the scrivener. At Language Log, Victor Mair pointed out an OWS Chinese protest sign that doesn’t quite translate, while Mark Liberman discussed a left-wing “altar ego.”

Mr. Liberman also lucked out – twice – over an incorrectly used American English idiom. Arnold Zwicky put Strunk & White in cultural context; Geoff Pullum untangled some tangled idioms; and Ben Zimmer discussed so what if/that. In more translation problems, Victor Mair wondered about the dictionary “dick” section and the use of pinyin over Chinese characters, as well as the genius of cursive tattoo writing. Mr. Zwicky offered his own thoughts on cursive writing on his blog.

This week in words, Erin McKean spotted, among others, gelehallon, “Swedish raspberry gelatin bits dusted with sugar,” and co-working, shared workspaces “emphasizing open space and the ability to rent a single desk.” At Johnson, Robert Lane Greene explored Rick Perryisms, while at Macmillan Dictionary blog, Natalie Hunter asserted that Noah Webster would have loved LOLspeak, and Stan Carey discussed pragmatics, and on his own blog, an absoposilutely awesome infix.

Fritinancy’s word of the week was humble, as in Siri, Apple’s voice-control system for the new iPhone 4S, the “‘humble’ female personal secretary.’” At Lingua Franca, Allan Metcalf compared velcro and teflon writers (“Teflon writing is smooth, polished, gemlike” while Velcro writing “isn’t necessarily pretty to look at, but it gets hold of you and shakes you up”). Motivated Grammar wondered if simply speaking a language makes one an expert.

The Virtual Linguist considered salami slicing, “the practice of making relatively small cuts here and there”; the cowardly poltroon; the big bazooka approach; word uses and abuses in Stephen Fry’s Planet Word. Word Spy spotted the Ikea effect, “increased feelings of pride and appreciation for an object because it has been self-made or self-assembled.”

Dialect Blog explored the pronunciation aunt in a New England accent; why Americans don’t get dialect; and the vowel sound in yeah. K International posted about a new Iliad translation, and translation fail with Apple’s Siri, which apparently sounds a lot like the Japanese word for buttocks and “in Georgian. . .is a rather vulgar way of referring to one’s penis.”

In language news, the Académie Française website is seeking to ban certain English words and phrases, while The New York Times assured us that bilingual babies can sort out language just fine, and in fact are “more cognitively flexible.” Meanwhile playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) has a new play, Chinglish, which “explores the language barriers that a U.S. businessman tries to overcome as he looks to secure a lucrative contract in China for his sign-making firm”; and Margaret Atwood has a new book, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, of which a limited edition is being printed “made entirely of wheat straw, flax straw and recycled content.” Ms. Atwood talks to The Atlantic about science fiction, religion, and her love of Blade Runner.

Brain Pickings showed us an awesomely illustrated edition of Moby Dick, while Buzz Feed showed us awesome stacks of books found in offices. Art Info gave us a peek into the surprisingly smutty love letters of Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz, and Flavorwire did some literary matchmaking between fictional characters (Holden Caulfield and Esther Greenwood, emo couple of the year). Big Think gave us the Halloween portmanteau of the week, lycanthropography.

Finally, we were saddened to hear of the passing of Dennis Ritchie, often called the father of the C programming language. “In addition to being the creator of C,” says CNET, “Ritchie co-authored ‘The C Programming Language,’ commonly referred to as K&R (after the authors, Brian Kernighan and Ritchie) and widely considered the definitive work on C.” Condolences to his family and loved ones.

Welcome to our weekly language blog roundup, in which we give the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

We were saddened this week by the passing of Steve Jobs. The Onion paid tribute in their own way, while xkcd suggested this subtle memorial.

Back in language news, Ben Zimmer discussed the new language of Facebook, while Erin McKean explored when words leave the dictionary. This week in words at The Wall Street Journal, Erin spotted stingray, a cell phone tracking device, and stall speed, “the speed below which an airplane can’t create enough lift to stay aloft,” among others. Humanities Magazine profiled the Dictionary of Regional American English (DARE), the fifth and final edition of which will be published in March 2012. [Disclosure: Erin is on the Board of Advisors for DARE.]

There was controversy in politics this week over the name of a certain hunting camp. Robert Lane Greene at Johnson wrote about The New York Times’ handling of it while The Daily Show tackled “the amazing racism” and other troubling geographical names.

At Language Log, Mark Liberman took a look at others’ takes on Rick Perry’s “talking Texan.” Mr. Liberman also posted about elephants’ alarm call for bees; putting the X in the AXB; and someone and me versus me and someone. Victor Mair learned about fake foreigners in Chinese.

Over at Lingua Franca, Geoffrey Pullum assured us that using the passive voice is perfectly fine in some circumstances, and even preferred, with which John McIntyre at You Don’t Say wholeheartedly agrees. This week Mr. McIntyre also wrote about the language assertionist, who goes beyond prescriptivism and “will not be persuaded by evidence; neither will he be persuaded by the arguments of authorities who contradict what he asserts.”

At Macmillan Dictionary blog, Stan Carey dissected why people hate the word blog. At Separated By a Common Language, Lynneguist offered up an untranslatable British English word, punter. Fritinancy’s Prohibition-esque word of the week was scofflaw, “a person who habitually violates or flouts the law”; asked if the phrase reach out made us retch (it does); and critiqued a New Yorker piece on brand names.

The Virtual Linguist mused on the origins of Indian summer and Greenwich Mean Time. Sesquiotica had a quick dip with a dabchick, a kind of grebe and also “a nickname for residents of Aldbourne, Wiltshire, England.” The Word Spy spotted underdecided, “unenthusiastic or unsure about a decision, particularly when choosing a candidate in an election”; dejab, “to stop wearing a hijab”; and quiet car, “a train or subway car where riders cannot have cellphone conversations or use noisy devices” (someone should have informed this lady of the definition).

Also from the Word Spy, aka Paul McFedries, is a piece on the language of online life. Are you a pancake person, someone who reads broadly but without depth? Ever encounter a nontroversy, “a false or nonexistent controversy”? And what would you if met your Googleganger, “the online equivalent of your doppelgänger”?

Motivated Grammar considered David Foster Wallace and misplaced modifiers. The Dialect Blog explored the use of son in African American English; American ash; and the rise of be like.” K International took a look at a man who dealt with his dyslexia by learning Klingon.

Down at Occupy Wall Street, protesters have set up a library. Flavorwire offered up this literary baby name dictionary; 10 children’s books that are also great for adults; and South Korean photographer Chan-Hyo Bae’s amazing fairy tale photos. The Poetry Foundation ranked poets by beard weight, and the Rumpus let us know that martial arts star Bruce Lee also wrote poetry. Biblioklept gave us this fictional map of L.A., and Arnold Zwicky made us laugh with this comma, comma, comma, comma chameleon.

That’s it for this week!

It’s that time again! Sit back with your beverage of choice and catch up on the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

This week was Banned Books Week, which celebrates the freedom to read. The Huffington Post offered an infographic on the American Library Association’s 10 “most challenged” books of 2010. The University of Pennsylvania is providing an online exhibit of “books that have been the objects of censorship or censorship attempts,” from Ulysses to Little Red Riding Hood, while Laura Miller at Salon suggested that there are some books that deserve to be banned.

Meanwhile, over at The New York Times, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg remembered when a dictionary could outrage. Johnson told y’all about southern American English and a “saguely vinister” propostion. Robert Lane Greene questioned standard English fluency, admitted general confusion about UN General Assembly week in New York, and examined “shackle-ly.”

OUP Blog continued the nerd conversation with a post about who exactly is a nerd, while Sesquiotica parsed the difference between nerd and geek. At the Boston Globe Ben Zimmer wrote about the art of the self-deprecating hashtag on Twitter, and on Language Log examined the elusive triple “is.” Victor Mair considered some suggestive tofu; Mark Liberman dissected a misleading headline, what English majors know about adverbs, and eye dialect in transcription; and Geoff Pullum was disappointed by poor phonetics.

Macmillan Dictionary blog continued their discussion of online English with a post about exclamation points and online writing and a roundup of favorite online English words. In addition Stan Carey wrote about foolish consistency in grammar, and on his own blog, reviewed Stephen Fry’s documentary about language, Planet Babel.

John McIntyre at You Don’t Say wrote about commas and semicolons, and assured us there’s nothing wrong with lowercase, dude. Fritinancy wondered if creative spelling makes a brand name more protectable; made us laugh about gender pronouns and animals; and marveled over diacritic-packed fruit. Swagger was Fritinancy’s word of the week (we like it too!), while swag and schwag also made the cut.

The Virtual Linguist discussed Romansh Grischun, “one of the four official languages of Switzerland” but “spoken by less than 1% of the population”; Pitmatic, “the old language of the Durham miners,” a mixture of Durham dialect and technical and mining-related vocabulary; baloney; and how to spell and pronounce the verb form of mouth.

Sesquiotica conversed about the many meanings of the word crisp, while Word Spy noticed lipdub, “a video that features one or more people lip-synching to a song, which is later dubbed over the edited footage,” and narb (narrative + bit), “an item of personal information posted online, particularly as it contributes, often unwittingly, to a personal narrative that individual is creating online.”

Literal Minded wrote about false ranges and falling satellites. Dialect Blog expressed dislike over the terms boyfriend and girlfriend (and got married, congratulations!), and examined the Amish dialect. K International buzzed about the language of honeybees; a study that showed language change may be driven by men; and a new app that translates menus.

In other news, the Dead Sea Scrolls are now available online; a man has been jailed for the theft of  “£36,000 of manuscripts by famous figures including Sir Winston Churchill, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and TS Eliot”; and io9 shared a story from ScienceNOW about why the perfect language needs to be both orderly and random.

Here are five authors famous for other things, and here is an exhibit at the Morgan Library on another very famous author. Here’s the biblioburro, donkey as traveling library, and 12 more very cool libraries from around the world. Check out these hot male librarians posing in a calendar for a good cause, and another librarian with an awesome job.

Here’s a corn maze of Noah Webster, and the world dictionary of trees. Madame Bovary is taken to a whole new level in a picture book with collages from Japanese artist Takahiro Kimura. Over a hundred years’ of Brothers Grimm illustrations are being brought together in a new translation. Flavorwire offered some twisted fairy tales for the modern reader, and Neil Patrick Harris, Anjelica Huston, and other celebrities read from a new Dr. Seuss Collection.

The Atlantic gave us a visual history of literary references on The Simpsons; Boing Boing tells us a few million virtual monkeys have randomly created Shakespeare; and Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London announced details “of a festival that will see all 37 of William Shakespeare’s plays performed in 37 languages, from Urdu to Swahili, over six weeks in 2012.” The Guardian listed the ten best books that are based on songs, and NPR sang us a song about becoming a noun.

That’s it for this week! Remember, you can keep up with our blog by subscribing to the feed, following us on Twitter, or friending us on Facebook.