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!

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!