Linguistic Link

In my readings on planetary namings and un-namings I stumbled on Language Logs. The authors are a collection of linguists from Penn (I think they are from Penn), and the topics are a mix of light and more serious. It’s fun to just rummage through.

A couple I liked from their front page today include a Dilbert-connected stereotypes post, some alleged fiction masquerading as fact at the New Yorker, Gabby Guys: the Effect Size (read it to find out), and a whole bunch of “talk like a pirate” posts, including an embedded youtube video and a photo of some interesting pirate technology.

One of my favorite writers on linguistics (primarily a researcher, but the research is often too technical for me) is William Labov.  He is definitely at Penn, and his stuff is worth talking about.  Not now though. But if you are up to it, poke through his homepage a bit. Dialects of American English.  Great stuff.