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Gorgeous pictures of Russia by Simon Roberts.
Brian Kiteley, who teaches creative writing at Denver University and has written a writing manual called 3 AM Epiphany, has some fascinating notes about the way English speakers relate to the logic and culture manifested in the very syntax and style of foreign languages. Here’s an example:
If conceptual concreteness may be measured by the density […]
The state legislature of Arkansas is working on a law to specify the spelling of the possessive case of Arkansas–Arkansas’s, not Arkansas’. This reminds me of Massachusetts passing a law to call all Massachusettsians residents Bay Staters.Middle-school spellers everywhere rejoice.
When I worked in business, I had a client who picked a new name after a merger. The name meant something rather obscene in Portuguese, but, despite relying on Brazilian revenues, the company had already invested too much money in the new brand name by the time the snafu was discovered to turn back. Luckily, […]
23D. Seven letters. Tight-bodiced dresses
“Dirndls,” Mrs. Cohen and Shortz? Really?
One of the most common ways to tease an Eastern European in America is to mention the number of consonants languages like Polish and Ukrainian string in a row. “How do you pronounce those names, anyway?” I’ll tell you how: say “dirndls” twenty times, then try […]
Today, I’ve unearthed this new journal of works in translation being published at BU. It’s currently composed largely of student work but seems to aspire towards increasing in professionalism. In any case, all of its “Issue 0″ is on-line in its 142-page glory of short essaylets on literatures and translations for your skimming pleasure.
Of particular […]
Rhetoric has returned to Russian news. Or perhaps it has never left. In any case, here’s Lyudmila Butuzova writing an article for Moscow News1 about a survey on attitudes of people in rural Russia:
“Needless to say, dreams and reality are different things,” Project Director Svetlana Krechetova says. “But this distinct ‘joie de vivre’ group, which […]
Max Weinreich: “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.”
Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning what gives every indication of being pencil-like tools from short, thin sticks and then using them in a manner suggesting to researchers that the chimps are in the early stages of acquiring the skill of writing — the first routine production of writing […]
I was looking up the construction of izbas [pdf with pictures], the rustic Russian loghouses, and came across this joke. Pardon the Russianness.
Русские умельцы 11 века могли построить избу, имея при себе только топор, или построить корабль без единого гвоздя. Древние традиции унаследовал автозавод Москвич.
Or, in English:
The Russian master craftsmen of the XI century could […]